text stringlengths 0 127k | title stringlengths 0 777 | hyperpartisan bool 2 classes | url stringlengths 26 278 | published_at stringlengths 0 10 | bias int64 0 4 |
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<p><a href="http://path.upmc.edu/divisions/pulmpath/bron02.htm" type="external">Bronchiolitis obliterans</a>, a rare, life-threatening lung disease, has been <a href="http://health.msn.com/healthnews/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100161625" type="external">found</a>in eight in eight individuals who worked in California food-flavoring plants between 2003 and 2007. Contracting this disease was apparently the result of inhaling <a href="http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_231710.html" type="external">diacetyl</a>, which is also linked to the occurrence of bronchiolitis obliterans in people who work in the <a href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/347/5/330" type="external">microwave popcorn industry</a>.</p>
<p>And the latest issue of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/" type="external">Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report</a> indicates that women who work in battery manufacturing plants have elevated lead levels.</p>
<p>“Bronchiolitis obliterans is a severe lung disease that can be prevented with appropriate measures, such as engineering controls, work practices, medical surveillance, and a respiratory protection program,” according to report co-author Dr. Rachael Bailey, an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.</p>
<p>There are no regulations governing U.S. food flavoring plants.</p>
<p /> | Rare Lung Disease Found In Food-Flavoring Plant Employees | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/04/rare-lung-disease-found-food-flavoring-plant-employees/ | 2007-04-27 | 4 |
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<p>UNM on Friday announced a partnership with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, which will provide the school's athletic department with manpower focusing on improving season-ticket renewal, single-game ticket revenue and group-ticketing sales.</p>
<p>So what, specifically, will the new partnership mean to Lobo fans?</p>
<p>"Hopefully they'll see more fans to the left of them and to the right of them at games," said Brad Hutchins, associate athletic director for marketing and revenue generation.</p>
<p>More specifically, the extra manpower, which will actually be a part of the department's marketing revenue staff based in Albuquerque, will assist in customer service, pound the pavement soliciting group ticket sales to local businesses and work the phones encouraging fans to purchase new or renewed season tickets.</p>
<p>UNM is already in partnership with Learfield for multimedia rights and trademark licensing, and now will have a staff working at UNM led by Joe Gehling, who has in the past managed ticketing business development for the Pittsburgh Pirates. While the specific cut Learfield will get from ticket sales they are responsible for in the future was not known by Hutchins on Friday afternoon, he made it clear the university expects to see revenue growth from the arrangement.</p>
<p>"We still receive 100 percent of the Lobo Club donations (required for season ticket purchases) for all the season tickets sold," Hutchins said. "It's a benefit for everyone here."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While men's basketball generated more than $4.5 million in ticket revenue this past season, football was at about $1.6 million and women's basketball was at $378,369.</p>
<p>Men's basketball has sold tickets in the Pit at about 98 or 99 percent capacity in recent years. While Hutchins says UNM won't ignore its current season-ticket base there, "right now there are other areas we see as having more room for growth potential."</p>
<p>He added: "One thing that made our attendance really good in the heyday of Lobo football was group ticket sales."</p>
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<p /> | UNM partners with Learfield | false | https://abqjournal.com/393776/unm-partners-with-learfield.html | 2 | |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Jihad.jpg" type="external" />F-16 NEW YORK - About 200 Americans under contract with the Department of Defense at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq are trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad, according to WND sources. The sources, private contractors who have [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/200-u-s-contractors-surrounded-by-jihadists-in-iraq/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.wnd.com</a></p>
<p /> | 200 U.S. contractors surrounded by jihadists in Iraq | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/200-u-s-contractors-surrounded-by-jihadists-in-iraq/ | 0 | |
<p>Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the rally in markets over the last several years has made it harder to find bargains, but that stocks remain his choice over bonds.</p>
<p>When asked why cash has been piling up at Berkshire, <a href="https://youtu.be/qVGeqrwrS88" type="external">he told Bloomberg Television’s David Westin</a>, “It tells us stocks aren’t as cheap as they’ve been most of the time.” Buying shares after the 2008 financial crisis, Buffett said, was like “shooting fish in a barrel.”</p>
<p>In a separate interview Wednesday with CNBC, the Berkshire CEO said he continued buying stock in Apple Inc. this year, even as one of his deputies was selling. And he tamped down on speculation that Kraft Heinz Co. would pursue a takeover of Mondelez International Inc. Berkshire is the largest shareholder in Kraft Heinz and controls the company along with buyout firm 3G Capital.</p>
<p>Buffett, 87, built Berkshire into a sprawling conglomerate over the past five decades through shrewd stock picks and takeovers. The company’s dozens of subsidiaries now include insurers, manufacturers, retailers and a railroad. Its stock portfolio — which includes multibillion-dollar stakes in companies like Wells Fargo &amp; Co. and Coca Cola Co. — was valued at more than $135 billion at the end of June.</p>
<p>Stocks “have gotten less attractive as they’ve gone along,” Buffett told Westin. “They’re still very attractive compared to bonds” because interest rates are so low.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is in its second-longest bull market on record, having more than tripled since March 2009 in a rally that has added almost $19 trillion to share values. In 2017 alone the gauge has closed at record highs 30 times.</p>
<p>Even as valuations make it harder for Buffett to find new investments, some of his older ones are paying off. On Tuesday, Bank of America Corp. said that Berkshire had converted its preferred stake into common shares. The transaction locked in a paper gain of more than $11 billion on an investment that Buffett made six years ago, when the bank’s shares were tumbling amid probes tied to the housing meltdown.</p>
<p>“They were in significant trouble, but that’s like a great athlete being in the hospital for an accident,” he told Westin. The decision to convert the stake, he added, was “fairly automatic” since Bank of America’s common shares now pay a higher dividend than the preferred did.</p>
<p>In addition to Apple, Buffett has been finding some smaller investments this year. In June, he threw a lifeline to Home Capital Group Inc., an embattled Canadian home lender. Its shareholders are scheduled to vote on a second part of that transaction next month, which would increase Berkshire’s stake from almost 20 percent to 38 percent.</p>
<p>Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. said it opposed the additional share sale, because the dilution wasn’t worth the extra reputational and strategic benefit of having Berkshire as a larger holder. Glass Lewis &amp; Co., another proxy advisory firm, supports the transaction.</p>
<p>Buffett said the opposition from ISS wasn’t discouraging to him.</p>
<p>“We knew it’d be subject to the vote of the shareholders and if the shareholders vote it, we buy it, and if the shareholders don’t vote it we don’t buy it,” Buffett told Westin. “We knew that could go either way.”</p>
<p>Finding companies that Berkshire can take control of has been a bigger challenge lately for Buffett. Earlier this month, his bid to buy the majority of Oncor Electric Delivery Co., Texas’s largest power distributor, fell apart. That failed effort came six months after a Berkshire-backed deal to buy Unilever hit the skids.</p>
<p>The collapse of two high-profile pursuits in such a short time frame is a rarity for Buffett, who did his last major deal in 2015 when Berkshire agreed to buy aerospace-parts manufacturer Precision Castparts Corp. for more than $35 billion. While he’s made many offers that went nowhere, it’s less common for such misses to play out in public.</p>
<p>The deal drought has bigger implications for Berkshire. The company doesn’t pay a dividend and rarely buys back its own stock, so failing to consummate major transactions means cash piles up from its subsidiaries. At the end of June, Berkshire had just shy of $100 billion.</p>
<p>Buffett did the interviews in New York, where he’s dining Wednesday with the winner of an annual charity auction that raises money for Glide, a San Francisco non-profit. The top bidder, who chose to remain anonymous this year, paid $2.68 million to bring as many as seven friends to lunch with the billionaire at Smith &amp; Wollensky steakhouse.</p> | Buffett: Stocks Are 'Less Attractive,' Still Beat Bonds | false | https://newsline.com/buffett-stocks-are-less-attractive-still-beat-bonds/ | 2017-09-01 | 1 |
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<p>Image source: Interactive Brokers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The monthly update Interactive Brokers Group gives investors shows that it continued its steady account growth in the first quarter. And when the company reports first-quarter 2016 earnings on Tuesday, April 19, after the market closes, we'll get an idea of what that meant for earnings.</p>
<p>In the brokerage and market-making business, results can be volatile, so a long-term view is necessary, but here's what we know heading into next week.</p>
<p>Fundamental growth is strong Interactive Brokers' advantage is a strong online platform that's low cost for hedge funds and retail investors. That attraction has allowed the company to grow from 157,900 accounts at the end of 2010 to 344,600 at the end of Q1. Some of the other pertinent operating metrics reported in the first quarter are below:</p>
<p>Data source: <a href="https://investors.interactivebrokers.com/download/ir/2016-03-Monthly-Brokerage-Data.pdf" type="external">Interactive Brokers Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The challenge has been that new clients are trading less and therefore generate less revenue for the company. So, growth in revenue and net income since 2010 hasn't exactly kept up with client account growth. But that's part of the new efficiency of the brokerage business.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/IBKR/revenues_ttm" type="external">IBKR Revenue (TTM)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>While investors should look at revenue growth and revenue per account, a key for Interactive Brokers is bringing more people and more capital to the platform. Long term, that will help drive revenue from everything from trading fees to margin and short-selling revenue. Digging beyond the top-line numbers will be key when looking at Interactive Brokers.</p>
<p>The big unknown Even though the traditional brokerage business is in a steady growth pattern, the market-making business can be all over the map. The good news is that trading surprises have been few and far between so far in 2016.</p>
<p>In the first quarter, I would expect a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/21/customer-growth-drives-interactive-brokers-group-i.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">similar profile in trading as 2015 Opens a New Window.</a>, when volatility was fairly low and there were few potholes for traders to get caught in. A sideways market is perfect for the market-making business and that should be good for Interactive Brokers.</p>
<p>What to watch for in earnings The key to earnings growth in 2016, which analysts are expecting, will be new customers turning into revenue generators. Recently, falling revenue per customer has negated most of the account growth for the brokerage business. Turning that tide around would mean a boost in revenue and profitability.</p>
<p>The market-making business will also have to see solid profitability in an attractive market. If management can execute on those two things, the stock should be in good shape going forward.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/15/interactive-brokers-group-set-up-for-a-strong-2016.aspx" type="external">Interactive Brokers Group Set Up for a Strong 2016 Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Interactive Brokers. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Interactive Brokers Group Set Up for a Strong 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/15/interactive-brokers-group-set-up-for-strong-2016.html | 2016-04-18 | 0 |
<p>Nebraska regulators approved the Keystone XL pipeline route through the state, despite a oil leak last week that dumped 210,000 gallons of oil on arable farmland in South Dakota.</p>
<p>With three votes in favor and two against, the Nebraska Public Service Commission (NPSC) approved the pipeline route on Monday. The body was tasked with assessing whether the route was in the state’s best interests, but could not consider the risk of spills since the project already had an environmental permit.</p>
<p>The NPSC has been reviewing the proposed 275-mile route of TransCanada Corp’s crude oil pipeline since February.</p>
<p>Commissioner Crystal Rhoades, the body’s sole Democrat, voted against the pipeline in part because it was not following the originally proposed route.</p>
<p>“The route being approved here today is a different route, and not the focus of the intense study,” said Rhoades. She said the new route violated due process rights of at least 40 landowners, who would be affected by the change and “may not know that the pipeline is along this path, and may not have had an opportunity to make a case before this commission.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/410115-keystone-pipeline-leak-south-dakota/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The pipeline would run through fragile soil that has a high probability of landslides and crosses the main Ogallala Aquifer, Rhoades said.</p>
<p>Opposition to the line has been driven mainly by a group of around 90 landowners whose farms lie along the proposed route. They are worried spills could pollute water critical for grazing cattle, and that tax revenue will be short-lived and jobs will be temporary.</p>
<p>Just two day ago TransCanada’s existing Keystone system spilled 5,000 barrels in South Dakota and pipeline opponents said the spill highlighted the risks proposed by the proposed expansion.</p>
<p>“The spill only confirms all our fears, “ Jeanne Crummly, a rancher in Page, Nebraska told Reuters.</p>
<p>The proposed pipeline is an extension of the existing Keystone pipeline, which went into service in July 2010, and runs south through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, with spurs east into Missouri and Illinois. It would carry an estimated 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from northern Alberta, Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.</p>
<p>It could be months before construction begins because of promised lawsuits and uncertainty over the economic viability of the $8 &#160;billion project. TransCanada and its supporters have said the project would bring economic benefits and could be operated safely. The company said last week’s spill near Amherst, South Dakota, was contained and being cleaned up.</p>
<p>A 2014 state Department study predicted just 3,900 construction jobs and 35 permanent jobs. The project was rejected by President Obama in 2015, citing concerns about carbon pollution. President Donald Trump revived it in March, saying the pipeline would create 28,000 jobs and boost the US energy industry.</p> | Nebraska regulators approve Keystone XL pipeline | false | https://newsline.com/nebraska-regulators-approve-keystone-xl-pipeline/ | 2017-11-20 | 1 |
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<p>A recent <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/08/24/daily29.html" type="external">poll</a> reveals that most Americans don’t know what in health care reform’s name the public option is—less than 4 in 10 can accurately describe it.</p>
<p>Is this supposed to be surprising?</p>
<p>After all, the health care debate has been dominated much more by <a href="" type="internal">town hall hysteria</a> and <a href="" type="internal">death panel talk</a> than actual substance. For all the buzz about public option bickering—Pelosi v. McCain v. Obama v. Grassley!–politicians and the media have provided scant information about how exactly it would work or the impact it would have.</p>
<p>So…what is the public option?</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text" type="external">text of America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009</a> describes it as:</p>
<p>(a) Establishment- For years beginning with Y1, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this subtitle referred to as the `Secretary’) shall provide for the offering of an Exchange-participating health benefits plan (in this division referred to as the `public health insurance option’) that ensures choice, competition, and stability of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the United States in accordance with this subtitle. In designing the option, the Secretary’s primary responsibility is to create a low-cost plan without comprimising quality or access to care.</p>
<p>(b) Offering as an Exchange-participating Health Benefits Plan-</p>
<p>(1) EXCLUSIVE TO THE EXCHANGE- The public health insurance option shall only be made available through the Health Insurance Exchange.</p>
<p>(2) ENSURING A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD- Consistent with this subtitle, the public health insurance option shall comply with requirements that are applicable under this title to an Exchange-participating health benefits plan, including requirements related to benefits, benefit levels, provider networks, notices, consumer protections, and cost sharing.</p>
<p>(3) PROVISION OF BENEFIT LEVELS- The public health insurance option–</p>
<p>(A) shall offer basic, enhanced, and premium plans; and</p>
<p>(B) may offer premium-plus plans.</p>
<p>For more information, Time magazine did a handy, clear-cut <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1917492,00.html" type="external">breakdown</a> of the public option and co-ops, which Obama has flirted with including instead. CNN answered <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/09/news/economy/health_care_reform/index.htm" type="external">“What’s a public health plan anyway?”</a> And our very own Kevin&#160;Drum gives his take <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Happy learning.</p>
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<p /> | What the Heck’s a Public Option? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/what-hecks-public-option/ | 2009-08-26 | 4 |
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<p>After closing arguments Thursday in the week-long trial, jurors got the case around 1 p.m.</p>
<p>Prior to the trial, state District Judge Shannon Bacon <a href="" type="internal">made an unusual finding</a>: that the shooting was a violation of Ellis’ Fourth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution — that Lampiris-Tremba had, as a matter of law, used excessive force and that an objective officer making reasonable decisions wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.</p>
<p>While we wait for the jury’s verdict, I thought I would put together some odds, ends and context from the shooting, the lawsuit it spurred and the trial. I have covered this case from the day Ellis was shot — Jan. 13, 2010 — and there’s an awful lot to it.</p>
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<p>For starters, the jury now considering various elements of the case is far from the first review of the shooting.</p>
<p>In December 2010, top prosecutors from the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office presented the case to an “investigative grand jury,” which <a href="" type="internal">ruled that Lampiris-Tremba was justified under New Mexico law</a> when he shot Ellis. The grand jury heard evidence from a criminal investigation of the shooting conducted by APD with assistance from other law enforcement agencies. But <a href="" type="internal">as the Journal later learned and reported</a>, presentations of police shootings to “investigative grand juries” had, since the inception of the process in the 1980s, always ended in justified findings. That process <a href="" type="internal">has been put on ice</a> by District court judges.</p>
<p>Next up for the Ellis case: In April 2011, then-City Independent Review Officer William Deaton determined that the shooting was not justified. But the Police Oversight Commission, after hearing a presentation from Deaton, reversed the findings of the former state District Court judge and ruled that Lampiris-Tremba had been in the right when he shot Ellis once in the neck with his Springfield 1911 .45 caliber handgun following a nine-minute encounter with police. Police Chief Ray Schultz sided with the POC in determining that Lampiris-Tremba hadn’t violated APD policies or procedures. As a result, the detective, who had been with the department 14 years at the time of the shooting, wasn’t disciplined. (Read our coverage of the POC ruling <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
<p>The jury currently considering the case didn’t hear any testimony about the findings of the POC or the “investigative grand jury.” That’s because Judge Bacon, in ruling on a series of pretrial motions, kept attorneys for the Ellis family and for APD on a short leash in terms of introducing any testimony or evidence from events that transpired after the shooting.</p>
<p>Bacon’s philosophy appears to have been that anything that may have caused the shooting was fair game for the jury; anything that happened afterward was not.</p>
<p>One thread that Deputy City Attorney Kathy Levy agreed not to pursue — after a court motion from plaintiffs’ attorneys Joe and Shannon Kennedy and Frances Carpenter — was a belief at APD that Ellis had been a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a notorious white supremacist prison gang.</p>
<p>In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, APD Criminal Intelligence Unit Sgt. Ryan Buckner penned an “officer safety bulletin” that went to every APD officer. It warned that Ellis had been a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and that the gang planned to retaliate against police for his death.</p>
<p>As it turned out, Buckner had been relying on the word of a lone jailhouse informant. APD was never able to substantiate the claim of Ellis’ membership in the gang. Nevertheless, APD took steps: a protective detail was placed on Lampiris-Tremba’s home, and Buckner and others launched a massive investigation into an “active AB cell operating in Albuquerque” that included electronic surveillance, “disruptive drug buys” and other clandestine law enforcement tactics. (Read my story about the Aryan Brotherhood “threat,” which some claimed was highly dubious, and subsequent investigation <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
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<p>Although jurors never heard testimony about the alleged Aryan Brotherhood connections, they did hear about one of the passengers in Ellis’ car the day Lampiris-Tremba shot the 25-year-old veteran. In fact, Lampiris-Tremba testified that he recognized the passenger, Steve “Flash” Gordon. “I had dealt with him before,” Lampiris-Tremba testified earlier this week. (The information from the jailhouse informant included a tip that Gordon, like Ellis, had been an Aryan Brotherhood member.)</p>
<p>Gordon died in December 2010, according to online death records. The circumstances are unclear and may have happened outside New Mexico.</p>
<p>Another APD claim that Levy agreed long before the trial began to abandon was the department’s initial theory of the case: that Ellis had committed “suicide by cop.” (That phrase actually appeared <a href="" type="internal">in the headline on my print story</a> the day after the shooting.)</p>
<p>As much as they haven’t heard about the broader context of the case, jurors are considering a huge amount of testimony. The plaintiffs’ attorneys called 15 witnesses to the stand. (Levy called none.)</p>
<p>A significant amount of testimony has centered around APD’s hiring of Lampiris-Tremba and police officials decisions to keep him on the force after what the plaintiffs’ expert on police practices described as infractions he should have been fired for. That’s because one of the claims jurors are considering is whether the city was negligent in hiring, supervising and retaining Lampiris-Tremba.</p>
<p>Plaintiffs’ lawyers learned about Lampiris-Tremba’s attempts to join APD and the times he was disciplined after becoming a cop from his personnel file, which they subpoenaed during the discovery phase of the case. The plaintiffs’ team put what they had learned into an amended version of their complaint in the case, which was initially filed under a conditional seal.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Judge Bacon later granted the Journal’s motion to unseal the complaint</a>. (That action resulted in my Oct. 7, 2011 story, which you can read <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
<p>Although I have filed six Web stories and as many stories for the print editions of the paper, there’s plenty from the past nine days that has fallen to the cutting room floor. Here is some of what hasn’t seen publication:</p>
<p>Officer Byron “Trey” Economidy is one of the defendants in the case. He was the officer who pinned Ellis’ Corvette into a parking space in front of the 7-Eleven at Eubank and Constitution NE as part of an auto theft investigation. The plaintiffs’ claim the unusual traffic stop was a violation of Ellis’ Fourth Amendment rights.</p>
<p>According to the officer’s testimony: After answering “yeah” to a question from Economidy about whether he was “tweaking” — slang for being high on methamphetamine — Ellis handed over a knife. As the officer took the knife back to his patrol car, Ellis got out of the Corvette and held a gun to his own head. Economidy pulled his AR-15 from the trunk of his police car and sought cover behind a gas pump. (He testified in court that in hindsight, it wasn’t the best place to seek cover.)</p>
<p>Economidy described the next nine minutes as “one of the scariest times I’ve had as a law enforcement officer.”</p>
<p>Plaintiffs’ attorney Carpenter pressed him on that point: “Even scarier than the time you had to shoot someone?”</p>
<p>APD attorney Levy angrily objected to that line of questioning but, after an off-the-record conversation with the judge at the bench, Carpenter was allowed to continue. Without mentioning names or specifics, Economidy briefly described his Feb. 2011 fatal shooting of Jacob Mitschelen. (Economidy made headlines after reporters discovered he had listed his job description on Facebook as “ <a href="" type="internal">human waste disposal</a>.” Read more coverage of that shooting, which itself is the subject of civil litigation <a href="" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.)</p>
<p>In answering Carpenter’s question, Economidy said the Ellis and Mitschelen scenes “were two entirely different situations.”</p>
<p>The courtroom has been pretty full for most of the trial — with the notable exceptions of the hour-plus during which the plaintiffs’ forensic economist was testifying about how much Ellis’ life was worth in dollars ($6 million) and the two times testimony was given about the mental state of Kenneth Ellis IV. (Bacon closed the courtroom to all but the parties and court staff on those occasions to protect the 7-year-old boy’s privacy.)</p>
<p>In attendance at various times during the past week of testimony were: Police Chief Ray Schultz, who sat in for some of Lampiris-Tremba’s testimony (Schultz himself is not testifying in the case;) attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice (Lampiris-Tremba’s shooting of Ellis was the among the first in a string that, to a large extent, prompted a massive <a href="" type="internal">federal civil rights investigation of APD, as well as several federal criminal investigations</a>;) former APD officer John Doyle, <a href="" type="internal">who was fired in late 2011</a> after an incident in which he kicked a fleeing suspect in the head several times (the incident was caught on video;) several local civil rights attorneys; Lampiris-Tremba’s parents; Mike Gomez, whose <a href="" type="internal">son was killed by an APD officer in 2011</a> (Gomez has <a href="" type="internal">filed a lawsuit against APD</a>;)&#160; and members of Ellis’ family, including his father, who has become a vocal and ubiquitous APD critic in the three years since his son was killed.</p>
<p>Others testifying in the case:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Odds, ends and context from the Ellis trial | false | https://abqjournal.com/178675/odds-ends-and-context-from-the-ellis-trial.html | 2013-03-15 | 2 |
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<p>Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the very agency he is being nominated to lead.</p>
<p>He is the third of Trump appointees who have key philosophical differences with the missions of the agencies they have been tapped to run. Ben Carson, named to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has expressed a deep aversion to the social safety net programs and fair housing initiatives that have been central to that agency’s activities. Betsy DeVos, named Education secretary, has a passion for private school vouchers that critics say undercut the public school systems at the core of the government’s mission.</p>
<p>The news about the choice of Pruitt was confirmed by a transition official, who would not speak for attribution before the official announcement.</p>
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<p>Pruitt, who has written that the debate on climate change is “far from settled,” joined a coalition of state attorneys general in suing the agency’s Clean Power Plan, the principal Obama-era policy aimed at reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector. He also has sued, with fellow state attorneys general, over the EPA’s recently announced regulations seeking to curtail the emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from the oil and gas sector.</p>
<p>On his Linked In page, Pruitt boasts of being “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.”</p>
<p>After he was elected attorney general in 2010, Pruitt established a “Federalism Unit” to “more effectively combat unwarranted regulation and systematic overreach by federal agencies, boards and offices,” according to his online bio.</p>
<p>And he has gone on to challenge the administration not just over the environment but over a host of other areas. He joined other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit over Obama’s immigration policies. He has also sued the administration over the Affordable Care Act, saying the health care mandate on religious employers to provide coverage including contraception was unconstitutional. He has sued over the Dodd-Frank financial reform.</p>
<p>An ally of the energy industry, Pruitt, along with Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, came to the defense ExxonMobil when it fell under investigation by attorneys general from more liberal states seeking information about whether the oil giant failed to disclose material information about climate change.</p>
<p>“We do not doubt the sincerity of the beliefs of our fellow attorneys general about climate change and the role human activity plays in it,” they wrote at the conservative publication National Review. “But we call upon them to press those beliefs through debate, not through governmental intimidation of those who disagree with them.”</p>
<p>In an interview with The Washington Post in September, as a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court was preparing to hear arguments over the Clean Power Plan, Pruitt detailed why he has remained a leading opponent of the EPA’s efforts to curb carbon emissions by regulating power plants.</p>
<p>“What concerns the states is the process, the procedures, the authority that the EPA is exerting that we think is entirely inconsistent with its constitutional and statutory authority,” he said at the time.</p>
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<p>Agencies such as the EPA, he said, should not be trying to “pinch hit” for Congress.</p>
<p>“This is a unique approach by EPA, whether they want to acknowledge it or not,” he said of the provisions of the Clean Air Act that the agency had relied upon to write new regulations. “The overreach is the statutes do not permit [EPA officials] to act in the way they are. They tend to have this approach that the end justifies the means . . . They tend to justify it by saying this big issue, this is an important issue.”</p>
<p>But he added that’s where Congress should have authority, not EPA. “This is something from a constitutional and statutory perspective that causes great concern.”</p>
<p>Environmental groups reacted with alarm Wednesday at the nomination. And New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman vowed to “use the full power” of his office to wage a legal battle to “compel” enforcement of environmental laws under Trump.</p>
<p>“Scott Pruitt has a record of attacking the environmental protections that EPA is charged with enforcing. He has built his political career by trying to undermine EPA’s mission of environmental protection,” said Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Our country needs – and deserves – an EPA administrator who is guided by science, who respects America’s environmental laws, and who values protecting the health and safety of all Americans ahead of the lobbying agenda of special interests.”</p>
<p>Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that “over the past five years, Pruitt has used his position as Oklahoma’s top prosecutor to sue the EPA in a series of attempts to deny Americans the benefits of reducing mercury, arsenic, and other toxins from the air we breathe; cutting smog that can cause asthma attacks; and protecting our wetlands and streams.”</p>
<p>Pruitt has also fought to limit the scope of the federal government in regulating pollution of rivers under the Waters of the United States rule.</p>
<p>Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who has been active on environmental issues, said, “Scott Pruitt would have EPA stand for Every Polluter’s Ally.”</p>
<p>In 2014, the New York Times reported that a letter ostensibly written by Pruitt alleging that the agency overestimated air pollution from natural gas drilling was actually written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of the state’s largest oil and gas companies.</p>
<p>Industry representatives expressed satisfaction with the choice Wednesday. “The office he headed was present and accounted for in the battle to keep EPA faithful to its statutory authority and respectful of the role of the states in our system of cooperative federalism,” said Scott Segal, head of the policy group at the lobbying and legal firm Bracewell. “Given that we are almost two decades overdue for an overhaul of the Clean Air Act, there is interest on both sides of the aisle to look at that statute.”</p>
<p>David Rivkin, a constitutional litigator who represented Pruitt and Oklahoma in challenging the Clean Power Plan, said he believed Pruitt would be able to make sure the EPA lives up to its mission of protecting air and water while avoiding federal overreach.</p>
<p>“General Pruitt has been the leader among the AGs in defending federalism, the key feature of our constitutional architecture,” said Rivkin, a partner at Baker Hosteler, adding that he believed Pruitt would “ensure both environmental protection and constitutional fidelity.”</p>
<p>Pruitt’s outlook reflects his home state: Oklahoma ranked fifth in the nation in onshore crude oil output in 2014, has five oil refineries, and is home to the giant Cushing oil storage and trading hub, where the price for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate grade is set every day. Although oil and natural gas production sagged in the 1990s and early 2000s, the surge in horizontal fracturing, or fracking, has boosted output.</p>
<p>The state’s natural gas output accounts for 10 percent of the nation’s overall total. For the week ended Oct. 28, there were 73 drilling rigs in operation in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Pruitt has served as head of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a group that has relied heavily on funds from ultraconservative groups and the oil industry. The biggest contributors this year included the Judicial Crisis Network, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Legal Reform, Sheldon Adelson, oil conglomerate Koch Industries and Murray Energy, a leading coal mining company.</p>
<p>Pruitt, a Kentucky native who moved to Oklahoma to attend the University of Tulsa law school, has also been active in religious groups. He serves as deacon of the First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow. In 2012, Pruitt was named a trustee of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Before serving as attorney general, he was a member of the state legislature.</p>
<p>Dallas investor Doug Deason, a friend of Pruitt, said he expects the Oklahoma attorney general to immediately get to work rolling back the EPA’s “silly overreach” and to let states handle environmental oversight.</p>
<p>“Just like most Republican attorney generals, especially in energy-producing states, he has been really frustrated with the government and the EPA’s overreach into everything,” Deason said.</p>
<p>But Deason said liberals will be happily surprised by Pruitt’s “open-minded” attitude, adding that he is “willing to look at things.”</p>
<p>“He will bring a more balanced, logical look” at environmental regulation,” he said.</p>
<p>Pruitt’s selection was strongly supported by Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm.</p>
<p>The nomination suggests an extraordinarily tough road ahead for the Clean Power Plan, president Obama’s signature climate policy. However, the precise fate of the regulation most immediately turns on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which has not yet ruled in the lawsuit brought by Pruitt and his fellow attorneys general against the agency Pruitt is now named to lead.</p>
<p>“Some have suggested that Pruitt’s hands might be tied because he participated in litigation against the agency,” Segal said in an email. “This is a silly position. There is no conflict in representing your state on litigation dealing with rules of general applicability and then serving your nation as a federal official.”</p>
<p>Dismantling the regulation if it survives the courts would not be simple, because the agency has already finalized it – meaning that to undo and replace it would require a public notice and comment process. Environmental groups would likely sue the agency over such a move.</p>
<p>However, some of the Clean Power Plan’s objectives appear to have been already realized long before it came into effect. The United States is already burning less coal and more natural gas, meaning fewer carbon dioxide emissions.</p>
<p>In 2030, the EPA projected in its final Clean Power Plan rule, coal would be reduced to providing 27 percent of U.S. electricity, with natural gas at 33 percent. Yet this very year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas will provide 34 percent of U.S. electricity, and coal 30 percent.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Washington Post’s Matea Gold contributed to this article.</p>
<p>epa-1stld-writethru</p> | Trump to name Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general suing EPA, to head the EPA | false | https://abqjournal.com/904315/trump-names-scott-pruitt-oklahoma-attorney-general-suing-epa-on-climate-change-to-head-the-epa.html | 2016-12-07 | 2 |
<p>A black bear hunkers down near a pile of garbage in Sacramento last fall. Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee/ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>Last week, a rogue black bear made a <a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/01/10/rare-bear-caught-on-camera-sharing-lake-tahoe-slopes-with-skiers/" type="external">cameo appearance</a> for skiers at the Heavenly Mountain Resort near Lake Tahoe. The month before, a 260-pound male bear had to be put down by wildlife officials after breaking into several cars and a home in the same area. The spate of run-ins comes as <a href="" type="internal">California’s brutal drought</a> lingers on, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada at a fifth of its normal level, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Sierra-s-bears-wide-awake-during-warm-winter-5160394.php" type="external">leading</a> <a href="http://grist.org/list/climate-change-is-waking-up-the-bears-and-they-want-to-eat-us/" type="external">several</a> <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/14/6070895/awake-for-winter-tahoe-bears-not.html" type="external">news</a> <a href="http://www.weather.com/video/bears-stopping-their-slumber-43306?collid=/news/science/nature" type="external">outlets</a> to suggest that balmy conditions have led bears here to awaken prematurely from their annual winter slumber.</p>
<p>That’s a nice hypothesis, but according to the California Department Fish and Wildlife, there’s nothing to it. Five to 15 percent of the Tahoe area’s 300 black bears stay awake every winter, said CDFW biologist Jason Holley, and “we don’t have any evidence to support that there’s any more this winter.” In fact, Holley said, the last few months of 2013 saw fewer bear complaints than average.</p>
<p />
<p>So why all the hullabaloo? Holley’s guess is that the drought cut down supplies of the bears’ natural food sources—mainly grass, berries, and insects, although they’ll eat just about anything—forcing those that are normally awake anyway to wander further afield, i.e., onto your ski slope or into your backyard. Not that the bears mind much.</p>
<p>“They are very adaptive and very mobile, so they will usually be able to take care of their daily needs in a drought situation,” Holley said. “But then they’re coming down to the lake to drink a lot, coming down for food. If the drought persists, it greatly increases the odds of a negative interaction with people.”</p>
<p>What motivates some bears to stay awake while others hibernate is still somewhat of a mystery to scientists, according to Roger Baldwin, a wildlife specialist at the University of California-Davis who has conducted extensive research on bear behavior. When small mammals (a squirrel, say) hibernate, their heart rate and body temperature drop radically, toeing death’s doorstep without actually stepping over, and stay that way for several months. Black bears, on the other hand, are much less extreme: They crank down their metabolism, heart rate, and body temperature just enough to get seriously lazy, but are still with it enough to be “perfectly capable of taking a swipe at you if you crawl into the den with them,” Baldwin said, so rousting them is neither uncommon nor difficult.</p>
<p>Bears often scout out multiple den sites in advance of winter and move between them if one gets disturbed; in warm years, that could happen if snow melts into the den (“They’re not gonna sit there in a pool of water,” Baldwin said), or for any number of non-weather-related reasons. But generally, temperature has a much smaller influence on hibernation behavior than the availability of food; in a very lean summer, bears will build up smaller fat reserves and not be able to hibernate for as long. But they are such proficient omnivores, Holley said, that even a drought like this year’s probably isn’t enough to majorly disrupt their hibernation habits, unless it continues for several more years.</p>
<p>But drought does increase the risk that bears that do find their way to garbage cans, cars, and other food sources from people will, like Yogi, get too comfortable raiding peoples’ pic-i-nic baskets. That’s why it’s especially important to keep these things on lockdown, away from bears, Holley said.</p>
<p>“It’s everybody’s responsibility to help keep bears wild,” he said. More on how to do that <a href="http://www.dfg.ca.gov/keepmewild/bear.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | No, Climate Change Is Not Waking Bears From Hibernation | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/no-climate-change-not-waking-bears-hibernation/ | 2014-01-23 | 4 |
<p>There's something funny about the timing of Indian army chief V.K. Singh's revelations that he was offered a bribe to purchase the substandard vehicles of an unnamed truck maker for the Indian army in 2010.</p>
<p>It's odd that he didn't say anything at the time, of course -- though he wouldn't be the first whistleblower to wait until his career was on the skids to take action, <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/antony-and-manmohan-the-dishonesty-of-honest-men-256647.html" type="external">as Firstpost points out</a>. But why bring up bribery this week, when India is holding a <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/defexpo-2012-firms-flock-to-delhi-to-woo-worlds-top-arms-importer/articleshow/12424487.cms" type="external">massive convention for weapons suppliers</a>keen to make inroads with the world's largest arms importer?&#160;</p>
<p>I don't have an answer for you, but I will say this:</p>
<p>Though allegations of kickbacks are nothing new for India's defense sector, the new accusations, in the current climate of corruption-panic, will likely slow India's defense purchases considerably -- as experts like Stephen Cohen and Sunil Dasgupta have identified the fear of being accused of such shenanigans as one of the main reasons that India's procurement process is laboriously slow.</p>
<p>"The enormous amount of money at stake raises the specter of corruption," Cohen and Dasgupta write in Arming without Aiming: India's Military Modernization. "Can India devise a clean procurement system that gives political, military and bureaucratic leaders the confidence to make judgment calls in the selection of weapons?"</p>
<p>Apparently not. And that means many of the&#160;be 232 foreign firms and 60 official delegations in New Delhi this week for the four-day 'DefExpo-2012,' which begins on Thursday, should start lowering their expectations.</p> | BestOffense: Army chief's belated bribery revelations may slow future Indian arms purchases | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-27/bestoffense-army-chiefs-belated-bribery-revelations-may-slow-future-indian-arms | 2012-03-27 | 3 |
<p>Every hundred years on the tenth year of the century, Mexico seems to explode in social upheaval. In 1810, the war of liberation from the Spanish Crown unleashed a genocidal decade-long conflict. In 1910, the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Diaz triggered a fratricidal bloodbath. In recent months, dire expectations that 2010 would signal similar violence have been running high in this distant neighbor country, mired as it is in a grinding depression where 80% of Mexico’s 107,000,000 citizens subsist in and around the poverty line.</p>
<p>It is now the tenth of January 2010 and no new revolution has broken out – yet.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the New Year was welcomed in here with a blast of revolutionary fireworks: bank bombings in Mexico City, surrounding Mexico state, and San Luis Potosi in the distant north, blew out a dozen ATM machines. Walls were scorched and windows shattered by firebombs at three auto showrooms in the greater metropolitan area and the government palace in the Mexico City delegation (borough) of Milpa Alta (an explosive device failed to ignite in Ixtapalapa, the capital’s most conflictive demarcation.)</p>
<p>Incendiary attacks also struck a Telmex branch office, the Mexican phone monopoly owned by Carlos Slim, the richest tycoon in Latin America. A slaughterhouse and a police car were also firebombed. In Tijuana on the northern border, an anarchist group claimed to have machine-gunned three municipal police vehicles and a private security patrol car to welcome in 2010 in addition to “expropriations” at seven OXXO convenience stores during one of which a police officer (“placa”) was killed.</p>
<p>“It was either him or us,” lamented a communiqué from the purported perpetrators who signed off as “another anonymous anarchist action” in a document posted January 2nd on “Conspiracy of Fire”, a direct action electronic clearing house (www.conspira1970.wordpress.net)</p>
<p>The spate of bombings by anarchist cells was similar to a string of 15 such incidents in Mexico City and Guadalajara timed to coincide with Mexican Independence Day last September. A student activist at the National Autonomous University was jailed briefly by federal police for several of the fiery assaults in September and released.</p>
<p>Among the groupings that claimed responsibility for the actions that took place between December 31st and January 2nd were the Propaganda Of The Deed Brigade which posted a declaration of war on the Conspiracy of Fire page that read in part “with this document, we declare a war that will not end until all business people, the Bourgeois, militaries, governments, and all kinds of totalitarian power are exterminated.</p>
<p>“What has happened today is just a small demonstration that we have lost our fear and our hatred of the system has grown. They can no longer kill or jail us with impunity. We are not afraid. Un Ojo por Un Ojo! (‘An Eye for an Eye.'”)</p>
<p>The document and two other communiqués taking responsibility for the bombings made explicit reference to the exorbitant cost of government celebrations of both the centennial of the revolution and the bi-centennial of independence and noted that “although we do not believe in absolute dates, 2010 will be a year of struggle and a platform of preparation for what is to come…” – the 1910 uprising led by Francisco Madero was only the opening gong of a series of revolutions that finally fizzled out in 1919 with the assassination of the revolutionary martyr Emiliano Zapata.</p>
<p>Among the heroes lauded in the communiqués were historical anarchist leaders Praxides G. Guerrero and Ricardo Flores Magon, the Great Zapata, the Centaur of the North Francisco Villa, and Lucio Cabanas, the 1970s guerrillero leader of the Party of the Poor. Conspicuously absent from the list was Subcomandante Marcos who 16 years ago this January 1st gave voice to the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas in the very first hour of the North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>Other participants in the New Year’s Eve Molotov cocktail party were the Simon Radowisky Brigade, named for a little-known Ukrainian-Argentinean anarchist who died in Mexico in 1956 while at work in a toy factory he was trying to organize, and the “May 25th 1910 Committee of Adjudication” which takes its name from the date that Praxides G. Guerrero fell in Janos Chihuahua, the first anarchist to give up his life in the Mexican Revolution – the anarchist-led insurrection in Chihuahua preceded Madero’s revolution by six months.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Chiapas where mass psychosis that the Zapatistas would rise again January 1st has reigned for months, the Mayan rebels’ “caracoles” or public centers were shut down tight for the first time in 15 anniversary markings of that historic rebellion.</p>
<p>But the Zapatista Army of Liberation is hardly the only armed indigenous force for which rebellion in 2010 is an option. The Conspiracy of Fire page features an analysis of revolutionary prospects attributed to the TAGIN or National Indigenous Guerilla Triple Alliance that predicts “the calendar of conflict will spread throughout the country in the next 12 months “, claiming that 70 armed organizations have joined forces for concerted action in 2010. The article is illustrated by photos of armed guerilleros taken at a press conference held in Guerrero last summer by “Comandante Ramiro” (Omar Solis) of the ERPI (“Revolutionary Army of The Insurgent People”) – several months later, Ramiro’s body was recovered from a clandestine grave in the high sierra of that conflictive state.</p>
<p>While boasts of renewed revolution fly, President Felipe Calderon, now halfway through his calamitous six years in office, sought to put a happy face on the disasters his administration of Mexico has inflicted upon the country. Speaking from sunny Acapulco where the beaches were buckling under the weight of buxom bikini-clad tourists while the rest of the country shivered in the glacial cold, Calderon urged his compatriots to celebrate “this Year of the Patria (‘Fatherland’) with happiness, working together in each home. This year we will write pages of glory and live the flame of our values that make us proud to be Mexicans (sic).”</p>
<p>In what could only have been an effusion of irony, the beaming president wished his bankrupt constituents a “Prosperous New Year.” Many observers (this writer was not alone) wondered what country Calderon thought he was addressing.</p>
<p>The COPAMEX, Mexico’s most influential business federation, was significantly more guarded in greeting the New Year, warning Mexicans to avoid violence in celebrating the duel centennials.</p>
<p>Despite veiled threats from the business sector, Mexico’s working class is in an uproar. A New Year’s Day “zafarancho” (riot) outside a power generating sub-station in Mexico state between displaced members of the Mexican Electricity Workers Union (SME) trying to prevent scabs from taking their jobs, and heavily armed federal police left a dozen injured and the nearby pyramids of Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods, wreathed in tear gas fumes.</p>
<p>The confrontation marked the first violence in what has been largely a peaceful resistance movement ever since Calderon shut down the Luz y Fuerza power company last October putting 42,000 workers on the street, and suggests that an increasingly frustrated rank and file is prepared to raise the ante. On January 5th and again on the 6th, bands of SME workers stormed through the old quarter of Mexico City after the explosions of electrical transformers in the neighborhood brought out detachments of federal police. Sabotage is rumored.</p>
<p>It is not mere coincidence that both the confrontation at Teotihuacan and many of the anarchist “bombazos” took place in Mexico state, which is governed by Enrique Pena Nieto, the presidential front-runner in 2012. Pena Nieto is a luminary of the resurgent Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI) that ruled Mexico for seven decades until it was displaced from power in 2000 by Calderon’s rightist PAN party. The PRI won a landslide majority in the lower house of congress in 2009 mid-term elections and is expected to sweep all 12 governors’ races up for grabs in 2010.</p>
<p>In a remarkable reprise of the social unrest that detonated after runaway inflation excited hungry masses to rise up against the Diaz dictatorship 100 years ago, an abrupt jump in gasoline and diesel prices that kicked in on the final day of 2009 has set off a chain reaction of protests in Mexico City and the provinces.</p>
<p>On the first workday of 2010, 2000 truck drivers shut down key national highways for seven hours to protest the hikes – in Puebla, the drivers were joined by 500 electricistas from nearby Necaxa, the so-called “cradle” of Luz y Fuerza and the SME. The success of the blockade in Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz states has inspired truckers’ association director Edmundo Morales to call for a national strike. Participation of the SME at the barricades may well be a precursor of increased worker solidarity in the coming year.</p>
<p>In Tepic Nayarit, bus drivers protested the increase in fuel prices by parking their vehicles, paralyzing that provincial capital. Massive protests in Mexico City by independent unions and farmers’ organizations are expected later in the month.</p>
<p>The price surge viscerally wounds a popular economy that was grievously lacerated in 2009. The Calderon government’s annual daily minimum salary increase is less than 5% for 2010 and fails to match 6% inflation. The 2.60 peso a day “raise” does not even buy a ride on the Mexico City Metro that ferries millions of workers to their jobs each day. On New Year’s morning, the leftist Mexico City government of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard raised the heavily subsidized Metro ticket price from two to three pesos a ride. The back of the ticket now reminds riders that the real cost is nine pesos.</p>
<p>A survey of public markets reported by the left daily La Jornada calculates a 30% rise in the basic food basket in the first week of 2010, largely due to fuel and electricity rate increases – tortillas, the essential nourishment for 26,000,000 Mexicans living in extreme poverty leaped 10% a kilo throughout central Mexico.</p>
<p>Much like Obamaland, where the President crows about recovery in a jobless economy, Calderon pledged in a nationally-televised New Year’s message that 2010 will be a “year of recuperation” for Mexico although his predictions of 3% growth seems delusionally rosy – in 2009, the Gross National Product contracted 7% and growth was negative.</p>
<p>Unemployment, as measured by the government’s obfuscated system, is at a 15 year high of 6.8% – in the real world 6.8% translates to 40% of the work force not working, according to social economist Julio Boltvinik. 100,000 jobs are reportedly being lost each month (nearly 50,000 went down the tubes in October when Calderon fired the Luz y Fuerza workers.) But there is light at the end of the tunnel: according to the Wall Street Journal, a half million Mexican workers have found employment in the illicit drug industry.</p>
<p>The much-respected Economist Intelligence Unit’s yearly ratings of political instability take into account the socio-political dynamic in 165 countries. In 2010, Mexico places in the upper third of nations at risk of violent political upheaval. Whether this is an indicator of resurgent revolution here in 2010 is a story</p>
<p>To Be Continued</p>
<p>During the next three months, JOHN ROSS will travel the U.S. from sea to stinking sea with his new cult classic “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568584245/counterpunchmaga" type="external">El Monstruo – Dread &amp; Redemption in Mexico City</a>” which the New York Post (!) recently recommended as a “gritty, pulsating” read. For suggested venues (particularly in the Chicago and St. Louis areas) write <a href="mailto:johnross@igc.org" type="external">johnross@igc.org</a></p> | Mexico Welcomes 2010 With Bombs and Riots | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/11/mexico-welcomes-2010-with-bombs-and-riots/ | 2010-01-11 | 4 |
<p>Hurricane Irma, barreling towards the Caribbean and the southern United States, was upgraded to a powerful Category 4 storm on Monday as islands in its path braced themselves.</p>
<p>Hurricane advisories were issued for territories that dot the West Indies, including parts of the Leeward Islands, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in preparation for the intensifying storm that could pummel the area with life-threatening wind, storm surges and torrential rain by Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).</p>
<p>A Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale means sustained winds of 130-156 miles per hour (209-251 kph) with “catastrophic” outcomes, including uprooted trees and downed power lines, water and electricity outages, and significant property damage causing uninhabitable conditions, according to the Miami-based hurricane center.</p>
<p>Irma, now packing 130 mph (215 kph) winds, also threatens the U.S. East Coast and Florida, which on Monday evening declared a state of emergency. The hurricane center expects Irma to reach southern Florida on Saturday.</p>
<p>The NHC cautioned that it was still too early to forecast the storm’s exact path or what effects it might have on the continental United States, but warned of likely effects to hit some areas by later this week.</p>
<p>“There is an increasing chance of seeing some impacts from Irma in the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys later this week and this weekend. In addition, rough surf and dangerous marine conditions will begin to affect the southeastern U.S. coast by later this week,” the center said.</p>
<p>Irma will be the second powerful hurricane to thrash the United States and its territories in as many weeks.</p>
<p>Residents in Texas and Louisiana are still reeling from the catastrophic effects of the deadly Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25 and dumped several feet (meters) of rain, destroying thousands of homes and businesses.</p>
<p>Irma is forecast to strengthen over the next 48 hours and could “directly affect Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, and Cuba as a dangerous major hurricane later this week,” the NHC said.</p>
<p>In preparation for the storm, the economically struggling Puerto Rico government on Monday declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.</p>
<p>“Despite the economic challenges Puerto Rico is facing, the approved budget has $15 million for the emergency fund,” Governor Ricardo Rosselló said in a statement.</p>
<p>The island of about 3.4 million people has 456 emergency shelters prepared to house up to 62,100 people.</p>
<p>To help residents prepare for the storm, the Puerto Rican government activated a price freeze on basic necessities, including food and water, medicines, power generators and batteries.</p>
<p>American Airlines, which last week was among several U.S. airlines with operations affected by Hurricane Harvey, protectively canceled nine flights scheduled for service in Saint Maarten, Saint Kitts and Nevis Sept. 5-6.</p> | Florida Declares State of Emergency as Hurricane Irma Approaches | false | https://newsline.com/florida-declares-state-of-emergency-as-hurricane-irma-approaches/ | 2017-09-04 | 1 |
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<p>Gov. Susana Martinez, entering her final regular legislative session in office, will propose an increase in state spending on public schools, Medicaid and New Mexico’s judicial system in a budget plan to be released today.</p>
<p>In all, the two-term Republican governor’s budget proposal would boost state spending by roughly $250 million – or 4 percent – over current levels and would provide a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise for state workers. Teachers and corrections officers, among others, could see larger salary increases.</p>
<p>More from ABQJournal.com</p>
<p>It's a long list for a short session in Santa Fe… continue reading »</p>
<p>The governor’s plan would provide the largest spending infusion into state government in years. After two consecutive years of painful budget cuts, New Mexico’s revenue picture has brightened in recent months, driven by increased oil and natural gas drilling and economic growth in other areas.</p>
<p>“A big piece of our focus has been diversifying the economy and making sure our state finances are healthy,” Martinez told the Journal during a Thursday interview.</p>
<p>However, some lawmakers have questioned Martinez’s claim that the improving revenue outlook is due to a broad economic turnaround.</p>
<p>“It’s not really diversity; it’s the resurgence of oil and gas,” said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.</p>
<p>He also called a pay raise for state workers “needed,” citing chronically high vacancy rates among state corrections officers and in other agencies</p>
<p>At least some of the money for funding increases – an estimated $99 million – would come from eliminating various tax deductions, including making nonprofit hospitals pay the same tax rate as other hospitals.</p>
<p>While Martinez has adhered to a “no tax increase” stance since taking office in 2011, her administration has indicated it’s open to raising revenue by closing “loopholes” in an attempt to level the state’s playing field for businesses.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>However, it’s unclear exactly which provisions might end up in a tax code overhaul for the upcoming 30-day legislative session, or if such a package could gain approval in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.</p>
<p>Lawmakers paid an outside firm $400,000 last year to study the state’s tax system and build a computer model aimed at helping analyze potential changes to the tax code. But some top Democrats have said it makes sense to wait until 2019, when a new governor will be in office, before making sweeping changes to the tax code.</p>
<p>Popular ideas</p>
<p>Some of Martinez’s budget recommendations could find bipartisan support.</p>
<p>Such a list could include an additional $5 million for the cash-strapped Bernalillo County district attorney’s office, and more funding for public defenders and judicial offices to help retain employees.</p>
<p>“Since I’ve taken office, I’ve made public safety a priority, and I’m not going to stop,” Martinez said Thursday.</p>
<p>There also appears to be agreement between the Martinez administration and the Legislature on state worker pay raises, since a key legislative committee will recommend 1.5 percent pay raises for teachers and state employees for the budget year starting in July 2018, its chairwoman said last month,</p>
<p>The state’s roughly 17,000 rank-and-file state employees have not received pay raises since 2014 – although targeted salary increases have been approved more recently for State Police officers and corrections officers – as lawmakers have enacted spending cuts, drawn down the state’s cash reserves and used other cost-saving measures in response to several years of lower-than-expected revenue collections.</p>
<p>The average annual salary for a rank-and-file state employee was $45,324 as of this year, according to a recent State Personnel Office report. Nearly half of the workers make less than $40,000 per year.</p>
<p>Under Martinez’s plan, most state workers would receive a 1 percent pay hike, while teachers would see their salaries increased by 2 percent.</p>
<p>In addition, the governor will call for a new pay stipend for teachers who receive “exemplary” grades on their annual evaluations. Those stipends would amount to $5,000 per year for most of those teachers, and $10,000 for exemplary teachers in certain math and science fields.</p>
<p>Money in reserves</p>
<p>The governor’s spending plan – along with the Legislature’s – will serve as budget blueprints of sorts for the upcoming session, which starts Jan. 16.</p>
<p>While Martinez’s proposal would spend most available “new” money in the coming budget year, it would set some aside as a buffer. Specifically, the governor’s budget plan would leave the state with about 10 percent, or more than $600 million, in cash reserves, she said.</p>
<p>Some additional details of the governor’s budget plan:</p>
<p>n An increase of $38 million in state spending on Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program that currently covers more than 800,000 New Mexico adults and children.</p>
<p>n An appropriation of $12 million for a job-training incentive program, and making the program a recurring budget line item.</p>
<p>n A boost of $3.5 million in spending on the “New Mexico True” tourism campaign, which would be used to launch a marketing initiative in the San Francisco area.</p>
<p>n Earmarking an additional $25 million for child care assistance programs.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Governor proposes 4% rise in spending, ambitious agenda | false | https://abqjournal.com/1115072/governor-proposes-4-rise-in-spending-ambitious-agenda.html | 2 | |
<p />
<p>Global hacker collective Anonymous Operations together with Lulz Security on Thursday issued a statement to the FBI and other international authorities.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The release is a response to statements made by FBI Director Steve Chabinsky tied to the recent arrest of 14 individuals with suspected ties to the hacker group.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fox-Business-Technology/190436904308381" type="external">Keep up with the latest technology news on the FOX Business Technology Facebook page. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable," Chabinsky told NPR in a recent interview. [Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, its entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.</p>
<p>Anonymous did not mince words in its response. These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies, an unnamed Anonymous representative said in a statement. We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless tous as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing absolutely nothing you can possibly to do make us stop.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/21/anonymous-hackers-to-fbi-there-is-nothing-you-can-do-to-stop-us/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR: - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/20/photo-tour-sprint-headquarters/#utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBoyGeniusReport+%28BGR+%7C+Boy+Genius+Report%29" type="external">Photo tour: Sprint headquarters Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/20/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-to-launch-in-u-s-in-august/#utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBoyGeniusReport+%28BGR+%7C+Boy+Genius+Report%29" type="external">Samsung Galaxy S II to launch in U.S. in August Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/21/android-tablets-now-30-of-the-market-windows-tablets-outsold-playbook-in-q2/" type="external">Android tablets now 30% of the market, Windows tablets outsold PlayBook in Q2 Opens a New Window.</a></p> | ‘Anonymous’, 'Lulz' to FBI: Nothing You Can Do to Stop Us | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/07/21/anonymous-to-fbi-nothing-can-do-to-stop-us.html | 2016-03-07 | 0 |
<p>Buffalo deli owner and Muslim immigrant Ahmed Alshami, 37, is being held on $2 million bail for alleged food stamp fraud, WKBW <a href="http://www.wkbw.com/news/bail-set-at-2-million-for-store-owner-accused-of-food-stamp-fraud" type="external">reported</a>late last month. Alshami is charged with "criminal possession of public benefit cards, misuse of food stamps and criminal use of a public benefit card for defrauding the welfare system."</p>
<p>Upon leaving Alshami's arraignment, the deli owner's wife and daughter were caught on camera flipping the middle finger and screaming "F*ck America."</p>
<p>"Are you happy now?" asked the wife. "F*ck all of you guys. F*ck America, f*ck it!"</p>
<p>Per court documents, between October, 2014 and March of this year, Alshami bought EBT cards from food stamp recipients, for typically half their worth, and traded them in for cash while operating the IGA Express Mart in the City of Buffalo. Alshami would then turn around and buy store products with the food stamps, or tell those whom he had bought the food stamps off of to buy the goods at local stores with their EBT cards for him.</p>
<p>In total, the deli owner's purchases neared $4,000.</p>
<p>Buffalo council member Richard Fontana, who lives near the IGA Express Mart, says a lot of illegal activity has gone on around the store.</p>
<p>"He was essentially the worst store owner I've seen in my 20 years of city hall," said Fontana.</p>
<p>On top of welfare fraud, Alshami also allegedly robbed a rental property in the city on March 16 of this year. After "knowingly and unlawfully" entering the unoccupied property, he apparently stole kitchen cabinets, a hot water tank and baseboard heating units.</p>
<p>Alshami pleaded not guilty to all charges.</p>
<p>The alleged criminal faces the prospect of being deported, as he is not a U.S. citizen.</p> | WATCH: 'F*ck America,' Yells Family of Muslim Immigrant on $2 Million Bail for Food Stamp Fraud | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8942/watch-fck-america-yells-family-muslim-immigrant-2-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-09-07 | 0 |
<p>The music world has paid tribute to singer and former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed, who died on Sunday aged 71.</p>
<p>To many fans, Lou Reed represents the dark and dangerous side of the Lower East Side in New York. But in 1973, Lou Reed recorded an album that moved the doom and gloom to East and West Berlin.&#160; At the time of its recording, Lou Reed had never been to Germany.</p>
<p>The World's Patrick Cox talks to host Aaron Schachter about why and how the rocker used Berlin as a metaphor to tell his story.</p> | Lou Reed's Berlin | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-28/lou-reeds-berlin | 2013-10-28 | 3 |
<p>BELLEVUE, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday he was pleased with the software company's progress in finding a new chief executive and that the search committee had spoken to a number of candidates, but did not give a date by which he expected a new leader to replace the retiring Steve Ballmer.</p>
<p>Speaking at Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington, Gates paused briefly and choked up with emotion as he thanked Ballmer for his work at the company.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Gates then left the stage and sat in the front row of an audience of around 400 people, alongside other members of the board. That was a departure from previous years when he remained onstage and occasionally answered questions.</p>
<p>Microsoft has not shed much light on its CEO search, but sources close to the process have told Reuters the company has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to just a handful.</p>
<p>Those sources have said the candidates include Ford Motor Co chief Alan Mulally and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as well as former Skype CEO and internal candidate Tony Bates, now responsible for Microsoft's business development.</p>
<p>Microsoft remains highly profitable and last month beat Wall Street's quarterly profit and revenue forecasts.</p>
<p>But the company has come under criticism for missing some of the largest technology shifts in the past few years from Internet search to social networking, and Apple Inc and Google Inc are now at the vanguard of a mobile computing revolution that's eroding its core PC-based business.</p>
<p>(Corrects to show answered questions, not asked them in third paragraph)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Bill Rigb; , editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Bernard Orr)</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday he was pleased with the software company's progress in finding a new chief executive and that the search committee had spoken to a number of candidates, but did not give a date by which he expected a new leader to replace the retiring Steve Ballmer.</p>
<p>Speaking at Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington, Gates paused briefly and choked up with emotion as he thanked Ballmer for his work at the company.</p>
<p>Gates then left the stage and sat in the front row of an audience of around 400 people, alongside other members of the board. That was a departure from previous years when he remained onstage and occasionally answered questions.</p>
<p>Microsoft has not shed much light on its CEO search, but sources close to the process have told Reuters the company has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to just a handful.</p>
<p>Those sources have said the candidates include Ford Motor Co chief Alan Mulally and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as well as former Skype CEO and internal candidate Tony Bates, now responsible for Microsoft's business development.</p>
<p>Microsoft remains highly profitable and last month beat Wall Street's quarterly profit and revenue forecasts.</p>
<p>But the company has come under criticism for missing some of the largest technology shifts in the past few years from Internet search to social networking, and Apple Inc and Google Inc are now at the vanguard of a mobile computing revolution that's eroding its core PC-based business.</p>
<p>(Corrects to show answered questions, not asked them in third paragraph)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Bill Rigb; , editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Bernard Orr)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Microsoft's Gates says 'pleased with progress' of CEO search | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/19/microsoft-gates-says-pleased-with-progress-ceo-search.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ These South Carolina lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $343 million</p>
<p>Palmetto Cash 5</p>
<p>10-12-15-20-22, Power-Up: 3</p>
<p>(ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, twenty-two; Power, Up: three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-3-4</p>
<p>(six, three, four)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-6</p>
<p>(seven, six, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-5-2-2</p>
<p>(eight, five, two, two)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>4-2-4-8</p>
<p>(four, two, four, eight)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>28-36-41-51-58, Powerball: 24, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(twenty-eight, thirty-six, forty-one, fifty-one, fifty-eight; Powerball: twenty-four; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $384 million</p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ These South Carolina lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $343 million</p>
<p>Palmetto Cash 5</p>
<p>10-12-15-20-22, Power-Up: 3</p>
<p>(ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, twenty-two; Power, Up: three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-3-4</p>
<p>(six, three, four)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-6</p>
<p>(seven, six, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-5-2-2</p>
<p>(eight, five, two, two)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>4-2-4-8</p>
<p>(four, two, four, eight)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>28-36-41-51-58, Powerball: 24, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(twenty-eight, thirty-six, forty-one, fifty-one, fifty-eight; Powerball: twenty-four; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $384 million</p> | SC Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/c87cdb10a4fd41ad8fd6ccca2269ebd2 | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
<p>Chesapeake Energy swung to a second-quarter profit on a boost in in energy production and said it expects production to continue rising throughout the year.</p>
<p>Still, the natural gas company plans to cut four rigs by the end of the year as it continues to rein in expenses. Shares fell 17 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $4.62 in premarket trading.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Oklahoma City, company earned $470 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with a loss a year ago. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 18 cents per share.</p>
<p>The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 14 cents per share.</p>
<p>The natural gas company's revenue rose 41 percent to $2.28 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $1.28 billion, also topping Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.07 billion.</p>
<p>The revenue gains came from higher commodity prices for production and energy hedging.</p>
<p>Chesapeake Energy Corp. is operating 18 rigs and expects to cut that down to 14 rigs by the end of 2017. A lingering decline in energy prices has prompted Chesapeake and its peers to cut rigs and costs.</p>
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<p>The company's shares closed at $4.62. A year ago, they were trading at $4.90.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CHK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CHK</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Keywords: Chesapeake Energy, Earnings Report</p> | Chesapeake swings to 2Q profit, plans to cut 4 rigs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/03/chesapeake-beats-street-2q-forecasts.html | 2017-08-03 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>This is especially true if you’re Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Even worse than being associated with the infamous sexter this week is being FBI Director James Comey, the least-envied man in America.</p>
<p>Not long ago, Comey was beloved by Democrats and reviled by Republicans for his decision not to recommend charges against Clinton, despite her extreme carelessness with a few classified documents through the use of her private email server.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Today, he is vilified by Democrats and celebrated by Republicans for his disclosure to Congress that new emails possibly relevant to the agency’s investigation have been found, of all places, on Weiner’s laptop.</p>
<p>Politics, in other words, continues to happen.</p>
<p>Stepping back for the Republican long view, this isn’t just a case of a wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, possibly using her husband’s laptop to send emails to her boss. This is a case of potentially classified documents pertaining to the secretary of state’s business being found on the personal computer of an individual whose mental state is questionable. Even little-known Republican Vladimir Putin must be reaching for the Purell.</p>
<p>Oh, for the days of amateur burglars and profanity in the Oval.</p>
<p>No one seems to know what’s in the emails, but this is beside the point to Republican minds. Perhaps more troubling still is the fact that FBI investigators apparently have known about these emails for several weeks, but didn’t give Comey a full briefing until last week.</p>
<p>Despite being an inch away from Election Day, Comey decided to tell Congress about the “new” emails, probably in the interest of self-preservation.</p>
<p>If he had waited until after the election, and the emails contained information that might have helped put Trump in the White House, then Republicans likely would have dropped a dead chicken on Comey’s porch.</p>
<p>Yet, without knowing what’s in the emails, Comey has created enough suspicion to potentially hurt Clinton’s chances.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Complicating matters, Comey allegedly expressed concern about fingering Russia for trying to influence American politics because of the election.</p>
<p>But, he showed no such concern about the latest emails so close to Election Day. Double standard? Poor judgment?</p>
<p>Or, is it can’t win for losing?</p>
<p>Unlike the orangutan swinging from the chandelier and singing, “Winning, winning, winning!” Donald Trump is the happiest (alleged) crotch-grabber on the continent. Depending on the poll, he’s either ahead by a point, tied, consistently below Clinton or, if you average them all together, a mere four points behind the pantsuited lady in red.</p>
<p>Here he was only a few days shy of calling the election rigged and, voila (or however you say it in Russian), here comes another batch of email – and ypa! – on Weiner’s laptop to boot. Further gratifying was that Trump long ago aired concerns about Abedin sharing state secrets with her husband.</p>
<p>Whether the contents of those emails are of any importance remains to be seen, though apparently not until after the election.</p>
<p>And, lest Trumpsters spit their tobacco on my cute shoes, let the record show that Trump only said his celebrity entitled him to seize women’s nethers, but he obviously thought it was a fine thing to say.</p>
<p>Also, one cannot fail to note that in the minds of many millions, there are worse things.</p>
<p>One worse thing is the very idea of Weiner perusing his wife’s and Clinton’s correspondence, imaginably during a break from making a Snapchat of his own nethers.</p>
<p>Substantively, it may mean nothing, but Weiner offends diseases. Adultery is one thing. Having illicit thoughts, as Jimmy Carter once confessed to Playboy magazine, is almost adorable. But exposing yourself to women in the juvenile pursuit of virtual titillation crosses a line.</p>
<p>The subliminal effect of a Clinton-Weiner connection falls into the category of worst-case scenarios, not least because it triggers memories that lead inevitably to her own “connoiterer-in-chief.”</p>
<p>And to think, all Hillary ever wanted was to save women and children from men such as these.</p>
<p>Ironically, the man she replaced in the Senate, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was foreshadowing today’s rock bottom when he observed that America was defining deviancy down.</p>
<p>Though it would be unfair to lump Hillary Clinton with the rest of this bunch, it has never been truer that you are judged by the company you keep.</p>
<p>For her forbearance, as well as her lack of forthrightness, losing on Election Day 2016 could be Hillary’s ultimate Trump-up-Pence.</p>
<p>Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail to kparker@kparker.com.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Clinton-Weiner ties might be the worst-case scenario | false | https://abqjournal.com/880105/clintonweiner-ties-might-be-the-worstcase-scenario.html | 2 | |
<p>A CVS-Aetna combination could create a health colossus that would reach deeper into the average customer's life to manage care and cut costs, according to analysts who follow the companies.</p>
<p>Drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager CVS Health Corp. has agreed to buy the nation's third-largest insurer, Aetna Inc., a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Sunday. The deal would be worth about $69 billion.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Such a deal would combine a health insurer that covers around 22 million people with a company that runs 9,700 drugstores and more than 1,100 walk-in medical clinics. CVS also processes more than a billion prescriptions annually through CVS Caremark, its pharmacy benefits management business.</p>
<p>The marriage makes sense for several reasons, Wall Street analysts have said since the negotiations were first reported. Here are three key factors:</p>
<p>BETTER CARE MANAGEMENT</p>
<p>Pharmacy benefit managers — which run prescription drug plans for employers, government agencies and insurers — use their large purchasing power to negotiate prices. But they and insurers have long wanted to do more than just process claims and pay bills.</p>
<p>They believe the key to controlling health care costs is making sure people stay on their medicines, get care at the right locations and do whatever they can to avoid expensive hospital stays. The idea is to work with patients while they are healthy instead of waiting until they're sick.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>For example, Aetna could use the CVS network of clinics to help patients with diabetes keep tabs on their blood sugar and cholesterol levels. That could stave off more serious complications like a heart attack.</p>
<p>The combined company also could push the clinics and telemedicine as an alternative to expensive emergency rooms. Insurers have long fought to curb the use of ERs for anything that isn't life threatening. Retail clinics can cost a third of the price for an ER visit, Leerink analyst David Larsen said in a research note late Thursday to investors.</p>
<p>CVS could expand its clinics or create small urgent care centers — which can handle a wider array of ailments — in its stores, Mizuho Securities USA analyst Ann Hynes said in another note. Then it could steer people to them by waiving co-payments for those options and charge $500 if they went to an ER instead.</p>
<p>BULKING UP FOR AMAZON</p>
<p>Combining with Aetna would help CVS protect its stake in the pharmacy benefits management market in case online retail giant Amazon jumps into prescription drugs. It also would bring in more customers to its stores as Aetna patients fill prescriptions and possibly buy other items, too.</p>
<p>Pharmacy benefits managers and their investors have been sweating a possible Amazon entry into this market for weeks. Amazon has yet to announce any plans for such an expansion, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported recently that Amazon has been approved for wholesale pharmacy licenses in at least 12 states.</p>
<p>Amazon would represent a "massive threat" to CVS, Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said. She noted Amazon could take prescriptions away from CVS and is already competing with the drugstore chain over store merchandise it sells outside the pharmacies.</p>
<p>DECENT REGULATORY ODDS</p>
<p>Antitrust regulators have shown a disdain for big business combinations in the same sector.</p>
<p>They sued to stop Aetna's purchase of rival Humana Inc. and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem Inc.'s deal with Cigna Corp. Those multibillion-dollar acquisitions would have boiled the country's five biggest insurers down to three.</p>
<p>CVS also saw a plan by rival drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. to buy all of Rite Aid Corp. languish for a couple years before the companies agreed to a much smaller combination.</p>
<p>The businesses of CVS and Aetna have fewer overlapping parts than those other combinations that worried regulators. The companies both manage Medicare prescription drug coverage, and some of that business may have to be sold.</p> | 3 reasons why CVS would want to buy health insurer Aetna | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/27/3-reasons-why-cvs-would-want-to-buy-health-insurer-aetna.html | 2017-12-03 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>Shouts of joy and celebration filled the Bernalillo County clerk’s office Tuesday as 136 same-sex couples lined up to obtain marriage certificates a day after a judge ordered clerks to issue the licenses.</p>
<p>By noon, a dozen same-sex couples were taking vows of marriage in a mass ceremony on Civic Plaza as jubilant well-wishers cheered and voiced support for marriage equality.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the same-sex marriage movement continued to gain momentum across the state.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Clerks in San Miguel and Valencia counties said Tuesday they had ordered gender-neutral forms allowing them to follow the lead of the state’s three most populous counties in recognizing gay and lesbian marriages. And in Taos County, a district court judge signed an order directing the County Clerk’s Office to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples.</p>
<p>Bernalillo County was the third and most populous New Mexico county to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Doña Ana County began the practice Aug. 21 and Santa Fe County followed on Friday.</p>
<p>“Equality feels wonderful,” Ellen Grigsby, 55, said moments after exchanging vows on Civic Plaza with her partner of 25 years, Tracie Bartlett, 49. “This gives us the protection that other married couples have. This has been a long time coming.”</p>
<p>District Judge Alan Malott in Bernalillo County ruled Monday that New Mexico laws that appear to prohibit same-sex marriage are unconstitutional and cannot be enforced.</p>
<p>Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver began issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples Tuesday after county officials worked overnight to prepare gender-neutral forms .</p>
<p>Malott’s order resolved a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico against the Santa Fe and Bernalillo county clerks on behalf of six same-sex couples who had been denied marriage licences by those offices.</p>
<p>Neither Bernalillo County nor the New Mexico Attorney General’s office offered a defense to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>The influence of Malott’s order is being felt in counties that were not named as defendants in the lawsuit.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Valencia County Clerk Peggy Carabajal said her office would begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples at noon today. Carbajal said she made the decision in consultation with county attorneys after hearing about Malott’s ruling.</p>
<p>San Miguel County Clerk Melanie Rivera also said she would issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples who ask for them. She made the decision in consultation with county attorneys to head off possible lawsuits, she said.</p>
<p>Doña Ana County had issued 169 marriage licenses to same-gender couples as of late Tuesday, Chief Deputy Clerk Mario Jimenez III said. Also Tuesday, the Doña Ana County Commission approved a resolution supporting Clerk Lynn Ellins’ decision to issue the certificates, Jimenez said.</p>
<p>Santa Fe County has issued 182 marriage certificates to same sex partners since Friday.</p>
<p>In Albuquerque, a crowd of about 300 people erupted in cheers after Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge Jason Greenlee told the couples: “With the power finally vested in me by the State of New Mexico, I now pronounce you married.”</p>
<p>Many other couples exchanged vows in brief ceremonies held in offices at the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County building after obtaining marriage certificates.</p>
<p>“We are one now,” Betty Garcia, 24, said after exchanging vows with Desiree Padilla, 32, in a tearful ceremony at the Bernalillo County Probate Court office. “It’s the best day of my life. This is as happy as I’ve ever been.”</p>
<p>Sense of urgency</p>
<p>Some couples who obtained marriage licenses Tuesday expressed a sense of urgency because Republican legislators are publicly discussing plans for filing a lawsuit to end the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.</p>
<p>“We’re running scared,” said Danielle Morris, 38, of Los Lunas, who drove up with her partner, Jodi Romero, 42, early Tuesday to obtain a marriage certificate. “We wanted to do it before somebody took it away from us again.”</p>
<p>That urgency may have contributed to the numbers of gay and lesbian couples that thronged the Bernalillo County clerk office on Tuesday.</p>
<p>About two dozen couples lined the hallway when doors opened at 8 a.m. By noon, the clerk’s office had issued more than 70 marriage certificates.</p>
<p>First through the doors were Patricia Catlett, 61, and Karen Schmiege, 69, who arrived at the clerk’s office before 6 a.m. The couple drew cheers from the crowd when they displayed the first Bernalillo County marriage certificate issued to a same-sex couple.</p>
<p>“We wanted to be here right away so they wouldn’t change their minds,” Catlett said of their decision to arrive so early.</p>
<p>“We’ve been a monogamous couple for 25 years,” she said. “We pay our taxes. We do volunteer work. I don’t know what people are afraid of.”</p>
<p>Journal staff writer T.S. Last contributed to this report.</p> | Same-sex couples join in jubilation at mass wedding | false | https://abqjournal.com/254353/samesex-couples-join-in-jubilation-at-mass-wedding.html | 2013-08-28 | 2 |
<p>U.S. stocks rose after a recent spate of losses triggered by investors' re-evaluation of global central-bank policy.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 205 points, or 1.1%, to 18240. The S&amp;P 500 gained 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.5%.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Bond markets were choppy again Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was recently at 1.720%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 1.689% Wednesday. Yields rise as bond prices fall.</p>
<p>Stocks and bonds have whipsawed for several days, in response to growing worries that global monetary policy may be less easy than anticipated. European stocks had their longest losing streak since June, following the European Central Bank's silence last week on whether it would extend bond purchases beyond March. The S&amp;P 500 has fallen for five of the last six trading days.</p>
<p>"People are playing a waiting game," said Stephen Carl, head equity trader at Williams Capital Group. Investors are "keeping an eye on things with the election and the upcoming Fed meeting on the horizon."</p>
<p>Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network, agreed that many investors remain focused on central-bank policy.</p>
<p>"You're getting this common narrative from central banks that maybe they've done all they can do, and I think that's worrying markets, but, at the same time, stimulus continues," he said.</p>
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<p>Tech and energy shares led Thursday's broad rally in the U.S. stock market. Apple added 3.1% and was on track for its fourth straight session of gains.</p>
<p>Oil prices rose, lifting energy companies in the S&amp;P 500 by 1.8% after two days of losses. U.S. crude oil gained 1% to $44.04 a barrel.</p>
<p>Shares of Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber rose 5% after the company boosted its dividend and reaffirmed its 2016 guidance.</p>
<p>As in recent sessions, much of the focus remained on central banks.</p>
<p>The Bank of England left its key rate unchanged at the conclusion of its monetary-policy meeting Thursday, but suggested that it still expects to cut it again later this year if the U.K. economy weakens as officials project.</p>
<p>The British</p> | Tech Shares Lead U.S. Stocks Higher | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/15/tech-shares-lead-u-s-stocks-higher.html | 2016-09-15 | 0 |
<p>YANGON - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyi" type="external">Longyi</a>-clad onlookers lined the streets of Yangon on Monday, eager to catch a glimpse of the President of the United States as he arrived on a historic first visit to Myanmar. Many wore Obama T-shirts; others donned the peacock logo of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD.</p>
<p>Two stony-faced and silent men, flanked by a police officer, held a banner bearing the faces of Aung San Suu Kyi, Obama, and Myanmar President Thein Sein. Nearby, others jubilantly waved US flags and newspaper clippings.</p>
<p>One man identified himself as a member of Myanmar's famous '88 generation of student protesters, pointing proudly to his NLD pin. "I love Obama!" he said.&#160;</p>
<p>Few wished to be identified by name in the presence of so many uneasy-looking police officers, but one thing was clear about many of the onlookers: they liked Obama a lot, and they wanted to welcome him as best they could.</p>
<p>As the doors of Yangon University opened to admit onlookers, line upon line of people in rainbow-hued longyis arrived to hear the US president speak - on the heels of the appointment of Derek Mitchell, the first US Ambassador to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in 22 years.</p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/myanmar/121119/barack-obama-myanmar-burma-aung-san-suu-kyi-thein-sein-air-force-yangon" type="external">Barack Obama, on historic visit to Myanmar, pledges US support for Yangon's democratic efforts</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailycamera.com/nation-world-news/ci_22023923/obama-campus-speech-myanmar-touch-opposition-history" type="external">Obama's choice of Yangon University was a symbolic one,</a>some said: the central university was all but shuttered in the 1990s following student protests, but extensively restored for the President's visit. Now, the government may allow the school to re-open, bringing new life to the moldering grounds.</p>
<p>The president's stirring Convocation Hall speech stressed the practice of US-style democracy, and focused particularly on national reconciliation, a major sticking-point in diverse Myanmar.</p>
<p>"The Rohingya hold within themselves the same dignity you do, and I do," said the President, referring pointedly to ongoing Buddhist-on-Muslim clashes.</p>
<p>"Every human being within your borders is part of your nation's story, and you should embrace that," he added.</p>
<p>These themes seemed to hit home for the Myanmar audience, who fanned out onto the grounds after the speech's end.</p>
<p>Present for the speech was Dr. Tu Ja, an ethnically Kachin political leader hailing from Burma's northernmost state, where civil war has raged against Myanmar's central government for years.</p>
<p>The colorfully-dressed Tu Ja said he thought Obama's talk was "essential for our country, and a very important speech." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the political leader was most taken with Obama's stress on national reconciliation.</p>
<p>"Unless there is not peace, you cannot develop the country," he observed. "We need peace, peace and national reconciliation. We need to stop the civil war, and stop all the conflicts."</p>
<p>"We need to learn from the United States a lot," added Tu Ja.</p>
<p>Tu Ja's optimism was echoed by Kohtet Aung, a founder of the Myanmar Youth Union, a group dedicated to mobilizing young Myanmar activists.</p>
<p>"After listening, we know that we can have a better future," said Aung.</p>
<p>Even Yangon's hard-bitten taxi drivers got into the presidential act.</p>
<p>On the way back to town, this reporter's driver produced an American flag from the glovebox and waved it merrily at passersby.</p>
<p>They waved back.</p> | Yangon welcomes the historic arrival of President Obama (PHOTOS) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-19/yangon-welcomes-historic-arrival-president-obama-photos | 2012-11-19 | 3 |
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<p>AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A forklift and truck accident at a wrecker service in the Texas Panhandle has left one worker dead and another seriously hurt.</p>
<p>Amarillo police say the accident happened Tuesday afternoon at HD Wrecker service when a pickup truck being worked on fell on the victims. Police say a forklift had been used to lift the truck, which then fell from the industrial equipment.</p>
<p>The man was dead at the scene. The woman was trapped but used her cellphone to call for help.</p>
<p>Amarillo police say the woman has injuries that are life-threatening and she was taken to a hospital. Her name and further details on her condition were not immediately released.</p>
<p>The name of the man who died wasn’t immediately released.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Forklift accident in Amarillo leaves 1 dead | false | https://abqjournal.com/332912/forklift-accident-in-amarillo-leaves-1-dead.html | 2 | |
<p>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be persona non grata at the Vatican. When Rice swung through Italy in August, she gave notice ahead of time about her hopes to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, but the pontiff’s camp politely rebuffed her request, explaining that he was on holiday.</p>
<p>AFP via Breitbart.com:</p>
<p>Rice “made it known to the Vatican that she absolutely had to meet the pope” to boost her diplomatic “credit” ahead of a trip to the Middle East, the Corriere della Sera daily reported without citing its sources.</p>
<p>She was hoping to meet the pontiff at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo at the beginning of August, it said.</p>
<p />
<p>“The pope is on holiday,” was the official response, the paper said.</p>
<p>It said the reply “illustrated the divergence of view” between the Vatican and the White House about the “initiatives of the Bush administration in the Middle East.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070919165838.f0y81otc&amp;show_article=1" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Pope Disses Rice | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/pope-disses-rice/ | 2007-09-19 | 4 |
<p>Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter is suing multiple drug companies that are fueling the opioid epidemic.</p>
<p>President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency Thursday as federal agencies will now have access to more resources to combat the drug crisis and target companies that are fueling the epidemic.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic," Trump said at a White House ceremony.</p>
<p>Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter is suing multiple pharmaceutical companies for misrepresenting the risks of opioid painkillers.</p>
<p>“Those manufacturers have been systematically defrauding and misrepresenting the addictive qualities of opioids for the last two decades. They’ve spent millions of dollars to accomplish this,” Hunter told FOX Business’ Charles Payne in an exclusive interview.</p>
<p>The attorney general said he will hold both doctors and manufacturers responsible for understating the addictive risks of opioid painkillers and overstating the treatment benefits.</p>
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<p>“We’re confident that those manufacturers are responsible for billions of dollars in Oklahoma taxes going to healthcare, to corrections, to law enforcement, and we are going to hold them accountable,” he said.</p>
<p>Hunter said the state of Oklahoma is collaborating with the medical community to develop framework on how to stem the crisis.</p>
<p>“There are opportunities with e-prescriptions, so we are getting away from fraudulent paper prescriptions, getting a tougher prescription moderating program,” he said.</p> | Opioid drug makers sued by Oklahoma Attorney General | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/10/26/opioid-drug-makers-sued-by-oklahoma-attorney-general.html | 2017-10-26 | 0 |
<p>Richmond Castle has been standing since shortly after William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066.</p>
<p>Throughout its long history, the fortress in North Yorkshire has held a lot of prisoners. Surprisingly, it was still being used for this purpose as recently as 100 years ago, during World War I.</p>
<p>Conscientious objectors — people who refused to take part in the war on moral or religious grounds — were held in the castle's tiny cells.</p>
<p>And while they were there, they scratched messages of protest and pictures into its walls. A kind of World War I graffiti.</p>
<p>Since then, the castle walls have been crumbling away, threatening to erase those historical marks.</p>
<p>But now the structure is going to be saved, thanks to a grant of half a million dollars just approved to preserve the site.</p>
<p />
<p>English Heritage</p>
<p>“There are literally thousands of pieces of graffiti,” said Megan Leyland from English Heritage, the charity leading the project.</p>
<p>“There’s a real variety of things etched, scratched and drawn with blunt pencils onto the walls,” she said. “The graffiti ranges from beautiful, delicate portraits … to political slogans and religious sentiments.”</p>
<p />
<p>As well as featuring political messages, graffiti in the cell block features words taken from religious texts and hymns.</p>
<p>English Heritage</p>
<p>The identities of many of the graffiti artists remain unknown, but according to Leyland, some of the drawings were made by a group who came to be known as the "Richmond Sixteen."</p>
<p>Imprisoned in the castle for refusing to take part in the war effort, the group was then forcibly sent to France to carry out non-combat roles on the front.</p>
<p>When they continued to resist, they were sentenced to death by firing squad. But “in a dramatic scene, their sentences were reduced to 10 years of hard labor,” said Leyland. &#160;</p>
<p>“But they were willing to go all the way and face the ultimate deterrent. They would rather be killed than kill.”</p>
<p />
<p>Bert Brocklesby, one of the so-called Richmond Sixteen, drew this delicate sketch&#160;of his fiancée, Annie Wainwright.</p>
<p>English Heritage</p>
<p>According to Leyland, the Richmond Sixteen&#160;contributed to a changing public attitude toward&#160;pacifism.</p>
<p>She says that preserving their stories at the Richmond Castle is “crucial.”</p>
<p>English Heritage will now start work on protecting the site. The main task will be to reduce the levels of dampness in the castle walls, which has led to the lime-wash surfaces flaking.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the charity will be putting up an online catalogue of images.</p>
<p>“This record is so unique,” said Leyland.</p>
<p>“It’s so important to recognize these different stories and voices from the time.”</p>
<p />
<p>The cells of Richmond Castle, which have over 5,000 drawings on them, will now be preserved by English Heritage.&#160;</p>
<p>English Heritage&#160;</p> | This 100-year-old antiwar graffiti is going to be saved | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-05-17/100-year-old-antiwar-graffiti-going-be-saved | 2016-05-17 | 3 |
<p />
<p>On September 20, the Bush administration published a national security manifesto overturning the established order. Not because it commits the United States to global intervention: We’ve been there before. Not because it targets terrorism and rogue states: Nothing new there either. No, what’s new in this document is that it makes a long-building imperial tendency explicit and permanent. The policy paper, titled “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America” — call it the Bush doctrine — is a romantic justification for easy recourse to war whenever and wherever an American president chooses.</p>
<p>This document truly deserves the overused term “revolutionary,” but its release was eclipsed by the Iraq debate. Recall the moment. Bush, having just backed away from unilateralism long enough to deliver a speech to the United Nations, was now telling Congress to give him the power to go to war with Iraq whenever and however he liked. Congress, with selective reluctance, was skating sideways toward a qualified endorsement. The administration had fended off doubts from the likes of George Bush Sr.’s national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and retreated from its maximal designs (at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays), giving doubters, and politicians preoccupied with their reelection, reasons to overcome their doubts and sign on.</p>
<p>The Bush White House chose this moment to put down in black and white its grand strategy — to doctrinize, as it were, its impulse to act alone with the instruments of war. Hitching a ride on Al Qaeda’s indisputable threat, the doctrine generalizes.</p>
<p>It is limitless in time and space. It not only commits the United States to dominating the world from now into the distant future, but also advocates what it calls the preemptive use of force: “America will act against emerging threats before they are fully formed.”</p>
<p>The United States has many times sent armed forces to take over foreign countries for weeks, years, even decades. But the Bush doctrine is the first to elevate such wars of offense to the status of official policy, and to call “preemptive” (referring to imminent peril) what is actually preventive (referring to longer-term, hypothetical, avoidable peril). This semantic shift is crucial. When prevention of a remote possibility is called preemption, anything goes. CIA caution can be overridden, Al Qaeda connections fabricated, dangers exaggerated — and the United States will have a doctrine to substitute for international law.</p>
<p>The Bush manifesto displays bluster, romance, and illogic in equal measure. Premise: America is fundamentally righteous. “In keeping with our heritage and principles, we do not use our strength to press for unilateral advantage.” This will be news to much of the world, but never mind. An imperial strategy is justified because there is in the world but “a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise” — a model that, surprise, the United States embodies. (As for success without freedom or democracy or free enterprise, what about China? As for free enterprise and democracy of a sort without success, what about Argentina?) Conclusion: Whatever America does will be right — pursuing terrorists, preemptive war, free trade, whatever. Nuance be damned. For all the boilerplate about national differences, the doctrine’s key concern is clear: If all the world speaks American values (though sometimes in funny local accents), why shouldn’t everyone dance to our tune?</p>
<p>Look closer, and even the document’s core phrases lose their meaning. Just what is “a balance of power that favors freedom” — a term the authors use no fewer than four times? Perhaps the answer is implicit in the doctrine’s insistence that no rivals shall be permitted to exercise power the likes of America’s: “Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States.” Balance, indeed.</p>
<p>The doctrine goes beyond the preemption theme sounded by President Bush in a West Point speech last June. Read beneath its kitchen-sink rhetoric and you see, in black and white, Bush codifying the unilateral treaty-busting moves of his first months in office — his rejection of the Kyoto climate-change protocol, his cancellation of the ABM accord, his obstruction of the bioweapons treaty, and his flat withdrawal from participation in the International Criminal Court, to name only the most dramatic. Those go-it-alone exercises were not casual or tactical retreats from global cooperation. They were applications of a new policy that had not yet been spelled out. The September manifesto does spell it out: The United States rules.</p>
<p>The core of the National Security Strategy is unilateralist, but it pays tribute to consultations with allies and “good relations among the great powers.” It is militarist, though it nods in the direction of democracy and development. Make no mistake: There’s no big surge in development aid forthcoming. Nor, from an oil administration, any recognition that global warming inflicts irrevocable damage and that sustainable energy is a security issue — for us as well as the impoverished nations whose well-being the doctrine purports to care about. In Bush Country, there’s no downside to free trade, which it calls “a moral principle,” no corporations ravaging forests or pushing peasants off their land. The document does, however, pause to put in a good word for lower tax rates.</p>
<p>It would be easy to dismiss Bush’s manifesto on the grounds that it is a thumpingly cliché-ridden monstrosity, a heap of Washington pixels expended because Congress in 1986 mandated periodic reports on national security strategy. The document is meant not so much to be read as to be brandished. This is internationalism imperial-style — as in Rome, when Rome ruled. Its scope is breathtaking. There were large parts of the world that Rome couldn’t reach, but the Bush doctrine recognizes no limits.</p>
<p>The government of the United States will ask not so much as a by-your-leave. It will know when threats are emerging, partly formed, and it will not have to say how it knows, or be convincing about what it knows. The doctrine affirms all of the comforts and recognizes none of the dangers of empire. It ignores the costs of unbounded deployment and war. It acknowledges no danger that reckless swashbuckling helps recruit terrorists. It forgets that all empires fall — they cost too much, they incite too many enemies, they inspire contrary empires. The new imperialists think they are different. All empires do.</p>
<p>Robert Jervis, a professor of international politics at Columbia University and a leading foreign-affairs realist in the academy, calls the document’s rhetoric “incredibly ambitious and incredibly activist.” As a declaration of American strategy vis-à-vis the world, it is, Jervis believes, “the boldest public statement since 1947,” when containment became policy and the Truman Doctrine committed the United States to intervene against communist insurgencies around the world. Like the Bush doctrine, containment was open-ended; unlike the new doctrine, it was predicated on a network of alliances and multinational organizations, of which nato was the most formidable.</p>
<p>Bush now trades in alliances for ad hoc “coalitions.” He makes a pass at disguising unilateralism as “a distinctly American internationalism that reflects the union of our values and our national interests.” Interestingly, the doctrine retroactively downgrades the old threat, characterizing Soviet communism as “a generally status quo, risk-averse adversary.” (If only Ronald Reagan had grasped that before he committed the country to the massive deficits of the 1980s.) Bush and his allies want their challenge to surpass all previous challenges, their terrain to extend beyond all previous terrains. The whole world is their turf.</p>
<p>Now, some things are true even if George W. Bush says them. It is true and important that Al Qaeda and its brethren are uncontainable and undeterrable. American power does sometimes serve a larger good — as it would in the Middle East, were Bush wise enough to exert it on behalf of a two-state Israel/Palestine solution. But Al Qaeda is not the Bush doctrine’s principal target, nor does it have more than a few words to spare about the Middle East. Terrorism is the occasion for what is really a doctrinal update. The National Security Strategy proclaims the virtue of a power extension — call it regime extension — that its authors have sought for years.</p>
<p>During his campaign for the presidency, George W. Bush never so much as hinted at the grandiosity of the vision he has now loosed upon the world. But don’t think that it erupted out of the blue after the massacres of September 11. The emphasis on preemption is new, but on the whole, the National Security Strategy is the most recent version of a go-for-broke imperial outlook that has emerged over the last decade. The first version was drafted in 1992 by then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s then-subordinate Paul Wolfowitz; the leaked document was repudiated by then-President Bush. A successor manifesto was drawn up in 2000 over the names of Wolfowitz and others who soon thereafter landed high positions in the administration of George Bush II. Both documents emphasized pumping up American military power to such a high pitch that rivals would opt not to compete. Both emphasized far-flung bases and unilateralism. The new doctrine thus represents the triumph of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz group, who have sought to establish an American Millennium ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If Bush had doubts about regime extension before September 11, he surely does no longer. The moralism of a president with a mission has now fused with the parochialism of a man whose well of world knowledge is filled with oil. He will take the battle to the enemy, even if the enemy is far-flung, even if allies are frightened and skeptical, even if the political and economic costs of war are immense. (Since the economic costs will fall mainly on America’s poor and middle class and will have the effect of forestalling any progressive spending initiatives at home, they do not concern him unduly.) Americans know fear now, so fear is what he will mobilize. Americans want multilateralism, so he patches together ad hoc coalitions, even goes to the United Nations — once he has already decided on war.</p>
<p>The doctrine is so sweeping that it discredits what might have been, from another hand, more modest imperatives. There is surely (as the U.N. Charter insists) a case to be made for national self-defense as a last resort. There are organizations like Al Qaeda whose purposes can properly be called genocidal, and it is not clear how, in the years to come, they and their purposes are to be coped with. Critics of American bravado are obliged to address the question in earnest. It is mightily worth underscoring that, as the document says, “international obligations are to be taken seriously. They are not to be undertaken symbolically to rally support for an ideal without furthering its attainment.”</p>
<p>But the document undermines its own most defensible points because it exudes the spirit of take-it-or-leave-it. It carries out Bush’s impulse to rip-roar through obstacles after a bit of small-group communion. It has all the logic of the Republican Supreme Court majority in Bush v. Gore, the logic that put W in the White House, the logic that now leads the charmed circle of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rice to make enormous decisions behind closed doors without much consultation (except an occasional nod to Colin Powell). It has the bluster of an administration that presses the intelligence agencies to sign onto its view of how things must be, against their better judgment. This is the manifesto of a bully with a ferocious will who fumbles in search of reasons to explain why he does what he feels like doing.</p>
<p>If you thought the promulgation of such a manifesto would be big news, you would be mistaken. On release, the National Security Strategy was jabbed at by a few opposition politicians, picked apart in a handful of newspaper columns, and promptly sank from sight. On television, it hardly even happened. That Democrats paid attention to the Bush doctrine at all is to the credit of Al Gore, who in a September 23 speech in San Francisco said that it conveys “one of the most fateful decisions in our history: a decision to abandon what we have thought was America’s mission in the world.” He concluded that the new doctrine destroys “the goal of a world in which states consider themselves subject to law” in favor of “the notion that there is no law but the discretion of the president of the United States.” No major network deigned to take more than passing note of his speech. As a nation, we’re still in a trance. The leadership of the most powerful nation-state on earth proceeds to set out its grand strategy, its unified theory of everything, and its prime channels of information don’t see fit to let the populace in on the news that their government is hell-bent on empire and has said so in black and white.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Bush’s strategy is now in force. It confirms suspicions and stokes paranoia. In propounding that there are no more than two models for how a society lives in the world, and that those who despise the one must enlist behind the other, it indulges in the same drastic oversimplification that motivates the terrorists. Americans will have to contend with the consequences for generations. This is why the Bush doctrine is dangerous: It’s a gift to anti-Americans everywhere.</p>
<p /> | America’s Age of Empire: The Bush Doctrine | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/01/americas-age-empire-bush-doctrine/ | 2018-01-01 | 4 |
<p>A new history of the events behind Herman Melville’s 1855 novella “Benito Cereno” takes up the question of how slavery shaped the “psychic and imaginative” dimensions of contemporary capitalism, rather than merely the “social or financial” aspects.</p>
<p>The book is New York University history professor Greg Grandin’s “The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom and Deception in the New World.” In an interview published at Jacobin, Grandin sketches the contours of his thinking with Alex Gourevitch, an assistant professor of political science at Brown University and coeditor of The Current Moment:</p>
<p>Capitalism is, among other things, a massive process of ego formation, the creation of modern selves, the illusion of individual autonomy, the cultivation of distinction and preference, the idea that individuals had their own moral conscience, based on individual reason and virtue. The wealth created by slavery generalized these ideals, allowing more and more people, mostly men, to imagine themselves as autonomous and integral beings, with inherent rights and self-interests not subject to the jurisdiction of others. Slavery was central to this process not just for the wealth the system created but because slaves were physical and emotional examples of what free men were not.</p>
<p>But there is more. That process of individuation creates a schism between inner and outer, in which self-interest, self-cultivation, and personal moral authority drive a wedge between seeming and being. Hence you have the emergence of metaphysicians like Melville, Emerson, and of course Marx, along with others, trying to figure out the relationship between depth and surface.</p>
<p />
<p>What I try to do in the book is demonstrate the centrality of slavery to this process, the way “free trade in blacks” takes slavery’s foundational deception, its original deceit as captured in the con the West Africans were able to play on Amasa Delano, and acts as a force multiplier. Capitalism disperses that deception into every aspect of modern life.</p>
<p>Read more <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/capitalism-and-slavery-an-interview-with-greg-grandin/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Melville, Capitalism and Slavery | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/melville-capitalism-and-slavery/ | 2014-08-03 | 4 |
<p>Jeb Bush, who's currently tied for 6th place in the latest Quinnipiac University poll for Iowa, has just released an ad in New Hampshire throwing a few jabs in Trump's direction using his new secret weapon.</p>
<p>Mom.</p>
<p>That's right, the former First Lady, straight-talking Barbara Bush appears in Jeb's newest ad targeting the New Hampshire G.O.P. majority, who, according to the New York Times, are not fan's of Trump, saying things like, “I think he’s arrogant" and "I don’t like the way he represents us as a country.”</p>
<p>Jeb's ad with Barbara below...</p>
<p>Barbara says in the ad:</p>
<p>"Jeb had been a very good father, a wonderful son, a hard worker, his heart is big. When push comes to shove people are going to realize Jeb has real solutions rather than talking about how popular they are, how great they are. He's doing it because he sees a huge need and it's not being filled by anybody. Of all the people running he seems to be the one that could solve the problems. I think he will be a good president."</p>
<p>As a thank you, Jeb got a little ink...</p>
<p /> | Jeb! Desperation: You Won’t Believe Who Stars In His New Campaign Ad | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2839/jeb-desperation-you-wont-believe-who-stars-his-new-chase-stephens | 2016-01-22 | 0 |
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<p>TransCanada, the company that is petitioning the US government to build a <a href="" type="internal">massive pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands</a> down to refineries in Texas, may have hit a bit of a snag this week as the massive pipeline they already operate in the US dumped 21,000 gallons (500 barrels) of crude in North Dakota. The oil the pipeline was carrying, diluted bitumen, is fresh from the tar sands.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576313432899153672.html?mod=googlenews_wsj" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a>:</p>
<p>The spill occurred early Saturday morning, resulting from a valve failure at a pump station about 40 miles southwest of Milner, N.D. The spill was contained on TransCanada’s property, and two dozen workers have been able to clean up 300 barrels so far, company spokesman Terry Cunha said on Monday.</p>
<p>The pipeline in question stretches from Alberta, Canada into Oklahoma and Illinois, carrying 591,000 barrels of crude a day. It opened in June of last year, but as the <a href="http://michiganmessenger.com/48887/keystone-i-pipeline-has-12th-leak-in-first-year" type="external">Michigan Messenger points out</a>, this is already its 12th leak. Not a great start, to say the least. As Anthony Smith of the <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aswift/yet_another_leak_on_a_new_pipe.html" type="external">Natural Resources Defense Council writes</a>:</p>
<p>Considering that Keystone has been in operation for <a href="http://www.downstreamtoday.com/news/article.aspx?a_id=22938&amp;AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1" type="external">less than a year</a> and it was predicted to spill no more than <a href="http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110510/NEWS/105100315/Keystone-pipeline-ruptures-just-north-S-Dakota-border" type="external">once every seven years</a>, this is yet another troubling indicator that U.S. safety regulations intended for pipelines moving conventional oil may not be sufficient for pipelines moving diluted bitumen. And the Keystone pipeline is not going to get any stronger or safer than it is now, as many of the <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/energy/tarsandssafetyrisks.asp" type="external">risks associated</a> with hot, high pressure diluted bitumen pipelines—including internal corrosion, abrasion and stress corrosion cracking—only weaken pipelines over time.</p>
<p>But TransCanada’s spokesman insists this is not a big deal—the pipeline itself isn’t leaking, only its stations. “The system is working as it should,” Cunha told the WSJ. “We built the system to the best of our ability to ensure these things don’t happen, but when they do we respond immediately, and we were able to shut down the system within minutes.”</p>
<p>Of course, the company has every reason to downplay the problems. The State Department is <a href="" type="internal">currently deciding</a> whether to allow the company to build a 1,661-mile extension for the pipeline, a $12 billion project. The plan has drawn criticism from property owners, ranchers, farmers, environmentalists and some local politicians for the impact a potential spill could have on land and water resources in the region. I’m guessing the latest incident doesn’t help TransCanada’s case very much.</p>
<p /> | Will Latest Leak Kill TransCanada’s Pipe Dream? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/will-latest-leak-kill-transcanadas-pipe-dream/ | 2011-05-11 | 4 |
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<p>Pat Benatar and her husband, Neil Giraldo, will celebrate their 35th year in the music industry in 2014. The pair are planning on releasing new music.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Neil Giraldo has worked alongside Pat Benatar since he met her in 1979. Nearly 35 years later, the duo is still working hard and touring the world.</p>
<p>“We can really be tired before a show but as soon as we get on stage, something happens,” he says during a recent interview. “There’s a lot of energy that comes into play and we’re ready to perform.”</p>
<p>Giraldo and Benatar have a long history in the music industry. In 1979, when Giraldo met Benatar, he was finishing a record in Woodstock, N.Y., with Rick Derringer.</p>
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<p>“Rick had told me he wanted me to meet this new singer who had just been signed,” he says. “We got along really well from the start. She needed a band and I wanted to work with her after I heard her sing. It was a fresh start for both of us and we got to start it all together. We both were able to build an identity from scratch.”</p>
<p>Benatar is a Grammy Award-winning musician, as well as an author. She has written the book “Between a Heart and a Rock Place” and is working on a new novel.</p>
<p>Her hits – mostly from the ’80s – include “Love is a Battlefield,” “Heartbreaker,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Shadows of the Night” and “We Belong.”</p>
<p>The married duo are working on new material for an upcoming album.</p>
<p>“Patricia is ready for a new album and wants to get some new music out to the fans,” he says. “In 2014, we will be celebrating our 35th year in the industry and feel like it’s a perfect time to release something new.”</p>
<p>Giraldo says he has found some songs that were started years ago, but never finished. The pair has worked on them to try and see what comes out.</p>
<p>“As soon as I hear the original, it does take me back to the moment I was working on it,” he says. “I try to stay true to the original melody and feeling, but I’ve moved on in life and I don’t really feel like that anymore. It’s a nice way to see how far I’ve come as a musician.”</p>
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<p /> | Hit me with your best shot: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo bring hits from the ’80s | false | https://abqjournal.com/300864/albuquerque-rock-17.html | 2013-11-15 | 2 |
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<p>This image from video by KABC TV Los Angeles shows wreckage of what is believed to be SpaceShipTwo in Southern California\’s Mojave Desert on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014. A Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket exploded after taking off on a test flight, a witness said Friday. (AP Photo/KABC TV) emarks@abqjournal.com Fri Oct 31 13:29:42 -0600 2014 1414783782 FILENAME: 181239.jpg</p>
<p>The company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson would not say what happened other that it was working with authorities to determine the cause of the “accident.”</p>
<p>“During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo,” Virgin Galactic tweeted Friday.</p>
<p>Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the crash, told The Associated Press that SpaceShipTwo exploded after a plane designed to take it to a higher altitude released it and the craft ignited its rocket motor.</p>
<p>Brown said the wreckage fell in the desert north of Mojave Air and Space Port, where the test flight originated. The area is about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.</p>
<p>There is one fatality and one major injury, California Highway Patrol Officer Jesse Borne said. One person parachuted out, he said.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">A brief history of Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America</a></p>
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<p>SpaceShipTwo is typically flown by two pilots. Virgin Galactic confirms the loss of the spaceship.</p>
<p>SpaceShipTwo is the eight-passenger vehicle that Virgin Galactic is developing to send paying customers to space from Spaceport American in southern New Mexico. The flight on Friday took off in Mojave.</p>
<p>The company has&#160; been testing the rocket in the Mojave Desert,&#160; but this was its first powered-engine flight since January after having switched the fuel used from a rubber-based blend to a plastics-based one. The company modified the motor engine to accommodate the new fuel.</p>
<p>SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft by a specially designed jet and then released before igniting its rocket for a suborbital thrill ride into space and then a return to Earth as a glider.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Witness: SpaceShipTwo exploded in flight; one fatality reported | false | https://abqjournal.com/489330/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-crashes-in-mojave-two-pilots-on-board.html | 2014-10-31 | 2 |
<p>Since the <a href="" type="internal">Investigatory Powers Act</a> (2016) went into force last December, there have been a series of questions raised around individual privacy in the age of data retention and personal information breaches in the interest of “national security.”&#160; Along with the passing of this act was the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in December 2016 which ruled that the powers invested within the UK’s surveillance legislation were too wide and did not comply with EU law.</p>
<p>For the past year, the UK government has been unclear what it would do in response to this ruling until last moth.&#160; On 30 November, it was announced that the government would undertake a <a href="" type="internal">consultation</a> on “further safeguards” potentially transferring the mandate of the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) to a new independent body to authorise communications data requests.&#160; Under the direction of Security Minister, Ben Wallace, noted the importance of government access to communications data for the purposes of counter-terrorism and criminal investigations for serious matters such as paedophilia linking to its <a href="" type="internal">case studies</a> on this subject.&#160; Yet, in the same document, the government insisted that this judgment does not apply to the retention or acquisition of data for national security purposes since it maintains that “national security is outside of the scope of EU law.” This would potentially exempt MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.</p>
<p>Amber Rudd announced the changes to the new Investigatory Powers Act last week in response to the successful legal claim brought by Labour MP Tom Watson.&#160; Privacy has become a most essential principle in everyday life with the rising encroachment into our private lives, extremely common in the current <a href="" type="internal">surveillance economy</a>, cyber security and the privacy of personal information is more and more valued today than at any time throughout history.&#160; Today the Internet user faces security breeches on both sides of the equation. First, there is rampant online fraud which spans the range of everything from identity theft, illicit access to bank information, phishing websites which extract personal details from <a href="" type="internal">Google Doc links</a> online applications for <a href="http://personalloan.co" type="external">loans</a>, credit cards, and <a href="https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/phishing-applications-social-networking-websites" type="external">gaming platforms</a>, and has even permeated social media. Then on the other side, you have the IPA which proposes stealth government intervention into everyone’s private data, personal correspondence, and what amounts to one of the most extreme surveillance laws ever passed in a democracy.</p>
<p>In addressing the safeguards requested of the IPA, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-on-further-safeguards-on-investigatory-powers-launched" type="external">new provisions include</a>, but are not limited to, the following:</p>
<p>-the introduction of independent authorisation of communications data requests by a new body, known as the Office for Communications Data Authorisations, under the Investigatory Powers Commissioner Lord Justice Fulford; &#160;</p>
<p>-restricting the use of communications data to investigations into serious crime; &#160;</p>
<p>additional safeguards which must be taken into account before a Data Retention Notice can be given to a telecommunications or postal operator;</p>
<p>-clarification of the circumstances in which notification of those whose communications data has been accessed can occur;</p>
<p>-mandatory guidance on the protection of retained data in line with European data protection standards</p>
<p>This consultation, headed by Ben Wallace, will last seven weeks closing on 18 January 2018 and with the government proposal seeking to amend the IPA by secondary legislation made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972.</p>
<p>Under the proposals referenced in the government’s <a href="" type="internal">consultation document</a>, a surveillance watchdog called the Office for Communications Data Authorisations (OCDA) would be established.&#160; Under these plans, the police and other agencies will need the approval from this body before tapping phone and Internet records. Also, access to data would be limited to “serious crimes” punishable by prison sentences of at least six months (ie. crimes of terrorism, violence, privacy breaches, significant financial gain, or those which are committed by a government agency or company).&#160; The information requested by the authorities would be limited to: who made a communication, when, where, and through which medium (ie. mobile or computer, social media or SMS). These requests do not include the subject of the communication which&#160; must be authorised separately and is legally mandated by interception laws requiring ministerial authorisation.&#160; Short of content details, data under the proposed reforms will be procured through “retention notices” sent to third-party service providers.&#160; Restrictions may be imposed on the scope of applications, meaning that&#160; investigators would have to stipulate specific services and types of data set within a strict time frame.</p>
<p>In response to the proposed changes announced by Amber Rudd, <a href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org" type="external">Open Rights Group</a> and <a href="https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/" type="external">Liberty</a> maintain that these measures do not go far enough.&#160; <a href="" type="external">Tom Watson</a>, represented by Liberty in their 2016 legal challenge to the IPA, states:&#160; “The current legislation fails to protect people’s fundamental rights or respect the rule of law…I will be asking the court to go further, because today’s proposals from the Home Office are still flawed.” A major bone of contention is how the government frames “serious crime” as Martha Spurrier, Director of Liberty, calls these proposed changes a “cop-out” claiming the government “fails to propose the robust system of independent oversight that is so vital to protect our rights and ignores other critical changes demanded by the court.” Spurrier goes on to call this law, “window dressing for indiscriminate surveillance of the public.”</p>
<p>Definitions of terms like “serious crime” are purposefully vague such that the “Request Filter,” ostensibly a powerful tool for the police to investigate retained data from search engine requests, could be a potential tool of abuse which, according to <a href="" type="internal">Jim Killock</a>, Executive Director of Open Rights Group warns that this law “will remain an incredibly intrusive surveillance power,&#160;unparalleled in democratic countries.”</p>
<p>Now with the impending formation of the <a href="http://www.silicon.co.uk/security/government-limits-snoopers-charter-225575" type="external">Office for Communications Data Authorisations</a>, we are supposed to be relieved that the UK Government has finally accepted that the original draft of the IPA was inconsistent with EU law because law enforcement did not need to obtain independent permission to access communications data and because collecting communication metadata was no longer the preserve of those investigating serious crimes. The primary measures proposed by the government to keep up with EU law only superficially address the concerns raised by Liberty and Open Rights Group and they show a cynical disregard for certain classes of abuse.</p>
<p>For instance, one of the “concessions” the government has made is eliding any public scrutiny or media debate is that now it has proposed to scrap data collection related to taxes or the regulation of financial markets. The Conservative-led Government has already amassed a reputation for being in the pockets of <a href="" type="external">financial elites</a> to in include the fact that the Tories are <a href="" type="internal">bankrolled by hedge fund managers</a> with Labour making the claim in 2015 that 27 of the 59 wealthiest fund managers donated more than £19m to Tory coffers and they continue to <a href="https://www.marxist.com/rich-list-shows-tories-are-in-the-pockets-of-the-parasites.htm" type="external">pocket nest</a> for the wealthiest in the country today.&#160; There is clearly a political trap door established for Britain’s elite classes within even the latest <a href="" type="internal">Draft Code of Practice</a> from just a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>So while it looks like the British government has conceded to changes imposed the ECJ, they have actually sweetened the deal for the country’s elite classes while superficially setting out more rigorous limitations on data mining through the employment of vague terminology.&#160; In a country where the <a href="" type="internal">division of wealth</a> is going from bad to worse, the British people should be very worried about what the IPA means for their personal data and privacy. However, they should be equally concerned about how the IPA can be used to shield the wealthy from scrutiny and even help the elite bypass their responsibility to observe the law.</p> | UK Proposes New Surveillance Body | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/12/18/uk-proposes-new-surveillance-body/ | 2017-12-18 | 4 |
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<p>The real Gavin Green returned with a 4-under 68, matched by fellow senior Sam Saunders in the final round, and the Lobos came away with an impressive second-place finish at the John Burns Intercollegiate.</p>
<p>UNM shot a final-round 282 to finish the 16-team event (not including Hawaii’s “B” team) at 5-under <a href="callto:859%20%28295-283-281" type="external">859 (295-283-281</a>), eight strokes behind the winner and 25th-ranked California. The Bears shot a 9-under 279 for a three-day total 852.</p>
<p>Mountain West rival and No. 24 UNLV finished third at 5-over <a href="callto:869%20%28287-291-291" type="external">869 (287-291-291</a>), followed by Texas A&amp;M (288-293-291=872, +8) and No. 19 Virginia (291-301-285=877, +13).</p>
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<p>The Lobos were the only team in the field to have all five team members finish in the top 20 among the 92 competitors.</p>
<p>“Top 17, actually,” coach Glen Millican said. “This was definitely our best showing since we won the Tucker (Intercollegiate in September at the UNM Championship Course). The conditions out here made is so like it was three different golf courses, that that was a good experience as well.</p>
<p>“We spotted Cal 13 strokes in the first round, and that’s too many to give a team like that and expect to come back on them.”</p>
<p>Andrej Bevins was the only UNM golfer that could say he didn’t finish the way he wanted but that was due to the fact that he had the most on the line. The sophomore, who was tied for the lead after 36 holes, shot a 3-over-75 in the final round to finish in seventh place at 3-under 213.</p>
<p>“It was a new position for Andrej, and I told him no matter what happened today, he was going to a better golfer. He hit a rough patch in the middle of the round but he didn’t let things get away from him and now he has that experience under his belt. There’s no substitute for that.”</p>
<p>Green birdied his first three holes and finished with six birdies and two bogeys. He improved 28 spots from his second round and finished tied for 17th&#160;at 4-over.</p>
<p>“You could just see by the way Gavin came out today that he was going to have a good round,” Millican said. “He was not happy with the way he played and came out ready to play.</p>
<p>An eagle on Saunders’ seventh hole, the par-5 ninth, kick-started his round that included three birdies and a bogey. He moved up 15 spots from a tie for 27th&#160;to 12th&#160;outright at 1 over.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Senior Victor Perez shot a 1-over 73 on Friday and finished at 2-over 218 for a tie for 13th&#160;– his second consecutive 13th-place finish. True freshman Gustavo Morantes shot his second consecutive even-par 72 and finished at 3-over 219 for 16th&#160;place.</p>
<p>“Victor has put back-to-back good tournaments together,” Millican said. “Sam is starting to round back into form after missing some time over the break. Gustavo had a very good tournament for his second event.</p>
<p>Senior Sean Romero, competing as an individual, shot a 74-77-72=223 for a 7-over tie for 34th&#160;place.</p>
<p>The Lobos return to action on Feb. 28 when the team travels to Tucson, Ariz., for the National Invitational Tournament, and Millican said he’s glad the team has a chance to compete again so quickly after a strong showing.</p>
<p>“Absolutely, it’s great to go play again right away,” Millican said. “This was the first time where I felt all our guys showed what they can do, instead of us just telling them what they’re capable of. If we keep playing like this, we’re going to put ourselves in position to contend for a lot of events.”</p>
<p>John Burns Intercollegiate</p>
<p>Final Team Top 5:&#160;1. California (282-291-279= <a href="callto:852,%20-12%29.%202" type="external">852, -12). 2</a>. New Mexico (295-283-281= <a href="callto:859,%20-5%29.%203" type="external">859, -5). 3</a>. UNLV (287-291-290=868, +4). 4. Texas A&amp;M (288-293-291=872, +8). 5. Virginia291-301-285=877, +13)</p>
<p>Individual Top 7:&#160;Shotaro Ban, California (67-72-69=208, -8). 2. John Oda, UNLV (69-70-71=210, -6).&#160;T3. Kurt Kitayama, UNLV (70-71-71=212, -4). T3. Adria Arnaus, Texas A&amp;M (70-72-70=212, -4). T3 K.K. Limbhasut, California (72-73-67=212, -4). ).&#160;7. Andrej Bevins, New Mexico (70-68-75=213, -3).</p>
<p>Other Lobo Scorers</p>
<p>12. Sam Saunders 76-73-68=217, +1</p>
<p>T13. Victor Perez 75-70-73=218, +2</p>
<p>16. Gustavo Morantes 75-72-72=219, +3</p>
<p>17. Gavin Green 75-77-68=220, +4</p>
<p>T36 Sean Romero* 74-77-73=224, +8</p>
<p>* — Denotes competing as an individual.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Lobo men take 2nd at Hawaii golf tourney | false | https://abqjournal.com/544477/lobo-men-take-2nd-at-hawaii-golf-tourney.html | 2 | |
<p>On Monday, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) expressed concerns Judge Neil Gorsuch is insufficiently committed to protecting federal bureaucratic power from President Donald Trump and White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court, said Franken, must protect federal regulatory agencies' powers – drawn via extra-constitutional congressional delegation – from the Trump administration's <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bannons-goal-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/article/2615598" type="external">stated commitment</a> to "deconstruction of the administrative state."</p>
<p>Judges must defer to relevant regulatory expertise supposedly possessed by technocrats, said Franken.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, continued Franken, seemed insufficiently committed to empowering the federal bureaucracy's production and enforcement of its own regulations:</p>
<p>​"One of the ways in which your views are distinct from Justice Scalia’s is in the area of administrative law. Just this past August, you wrote an opinion in which you suggested that it may be time to reevaluate what is known as the Chevron doctrine. Now, in broad strokes, the Chevron doctrine provides that courts should be reluctant to overrule agency experts when they are carrying out this mission, like when the F.D.A. sets safety standards for prescription drugs. This principle, outlined by the Supreme Court, recognizes that our agencies employ individuals with great expertise in the laws that they are charged with enforcing, like biologists at the F.D.A., and that where those experts have issued rules in highly technical areas, judges should defer to their expertise."</p>
<p>Recalling Bannon's comments last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Franken criticized any pending attempt to restrict bureaucratic power. Such a move, he added, would lead to environmental damage and the lessening of business ethics across the nation. He also implied that Gorsuch's nomination was part of Trump's broader strategy to enrich corporate allies while endangering Americans via scaling back "the administrative state:"</p>
<p>"Now, administrative law can be an obscure and sometimes complicated area of the law, but for anyone who cares about clean air, or clean water, or about the safety of our food and of our medicines, it’s incredibly important, and [the Chevron doctrine] simply ensures that judges don’t discard an agency’s expertise without good reason. Justice Scalia recognized this to be true. But for those who subscribe to President Trump’s extreme view, [the Chevron doctrine] is the only thing standing between them and what the President’s chief strategist Steve Bannon called the ‘deconstruction of the administrative state,’ which is shorthand for gutting any environmental or consumer protection measure that gets in the way of corporate profit margins.</p>
<p>Speaking before a gathering of conservative activists last month, Mr. Bannon explained that the President’s appointees were selected to bring about that deconstruction, and I suspect that your nomination, given your views is part of that strategy."</p>
<p>Franken pushed Marxist class warfare rhetoric, describing Gorsuch as an ally of capitalists and enemy of contemporary manifestations of the proletariat:</p>
<p>"Decisions that continue to favor powerful corporate interests over the rights of average Americans. During your time on the 10th Circuit, you have sided with corporations over workers, corporations over consumers, and corporations over women’s health ... [You] espouse an ideology that has already infected the bench, an ideology that backs big business over individual Americans and refuses to see our country as the dynamic and diverse nation that my constituents wake up in every morning.</p>
<p>The role of a Supreme Court justice, concluded Franken, was the pursuit of consensus among his or her fellow jurists: "An ability to set aside rigid views in favor of identifying common ground and crafting strong consensus opinions." Capacity for and commitment toward faithful application of the Constitution were unmentioned as requirements for successful jurisprudence at the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Watch part of Franken's monologue during the Senate Judiciary Committee's first day of hearings on the nomination of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court:</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Franken To Gorsuch: Defend Bureaucracy From Trump/Bannon | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14611/franken-gorsuch-defend-bureaucracy-trumpbannon-robert-kraychik | 2017-03-20 | 0 |
<p>On March 15, Hollywood darling Angelina Jolie addressed a crowd at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland <a href="https://pagesix.com/2017/03/16/angelina-jolie-defends-un-decries-tide-of-nationalism/" type="external">honoring</a> Sergio Vieira de Mello, a U.N. envoy killed in Iraq in a 2003 bombing. During the event, Jolie defended the United Nations following Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's <a href="" type="internal">announcement</a> that the United States would leave the United Nations Human Rights Council if it did not reform. The White House also said it would consider <a href="" type="internal">cutting</a> billions of dollars in aid to the U.N.</p>
<p>Jolie, who is a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4317332/Angelina-Jolie-delivers-speech-Office-Geneva.html" type="external">special envoy</a> to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, called for a renewed commitment to the United Nations from the United States despite its imperfections. She also appealed to internationalism, stating that "if governments and leaders are not keeping that flame of internationalism alive today, then we as citizens must." She also said the following:</p>
<p>We have to recognize the damage we do when we undermine the U.N., or use it selectively, or not at all. There is not a single humanitarian appeal anywhere in the world that is funded by even by half of what is required.</p>
<p>While Jolie speaks highly of what the United Nations can do, international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney acknowledged that the United Nations <a href="" type="internal">failed</a> to act upon genocide at the hands of Islamic State. In addition, the United Nations <a href="" type="internal">failed</a> to implement a cease fire in Syria and its members have openly discussed <a href="" type="internal">boycotting Israel</a>, the only Jewish state and the only democratic nation in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Jolie joins countless other left-leaning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/27/donald-trump-existential-threat-united-nations" type="external">individuals</a> who take issue with Trump's decision to place the United Nations on the chopping block. However, the U.N. has considerable problems from its <a href="" type="internal">peacekeepers engaging in child sexual abuse</a> to allowing its schools to <a href="http://www.thetower.org/1955-un-report-confirms-hamas-stored-and-fired-weapons-from-un-schools/" type="external">store weapons</a> for terrorists waging war against sovereign nation-states.</p>
<p>Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p> | Angelina Jolie Defends U.N. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14494/angelina-jolie-defends-un-elliott-hamilton | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
<p>Welcome to Dateline Weekly, Dateline NBC’s brand-new newsletter.</p>
<p>Every Thursday morning, we’ll be sending out a digest of what’s coming up in the next week, and what happened in the week before.</p>
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<p /> | Welcome to Dateline Weekly! | false | http://nbcnews.com/dateline/welcome-dateline-weekly-n70256 | 2014-04-02 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html" type="external">About one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese.</a></p>
<p>So why is this a problem for Chris Christie?&#160; Because he is not in a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-30/requiem-for-a-governor-before-he-s-in-the-ring-michael-kinsley.html" type="external">liberally protected class</a>:</p>
<p>“Liberals, who embrace diversity of all other kinds — who demand quotas for transgender kindergarten teachers in public schools — these selfsame liberals have the unmitigated gall to encourage discrimination against a truly oppressed group: people of weight.”</p>
<p>Which leads to stuff <a href="http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/09/27/chris-christie-to-do-list/" type="external">like this</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>If he were a People of Anything Else, would we dare?</p> | If Chris Christie were a People of Anything Else | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/09/if-christ-christie-were-a-people-of-anything-else/ | 2011-09-30 | 0 |
<p>Here’s a quiz: Who is likely to blame for lying about whether the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans was caused by a video, well-known liar Hillary Clinton or the families of the Benghazi victims?</p>
<p>If you guessed the victims’ families, then you win the <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/02/in-new-hampshire-hillary-clinton-throws-benghazi-families-under-the-bus/" type="external">Hillary Clinton Most Outrageous Lie To Date Award.</a></p>
<p>The Conway Daily Sun’s Tom McLaughlin, interviewing the Liaress-in Chief, pointed out that Clinton had told an Egyptian diplomat the Benghazi attack was planned but then informed family members of the victims that the attack was triggered by a demonstration. He added that she further told ABC News Clinton hack George Stephanopoulos that she didn't tell the families the attack was caused by a demonstration about a film. McLaughlin asked pointedly, "Somebody is lying. Who is it?</p>
<p>Clinton answered, “Not me, that's all I can tell you.” McLaughlin responded that three family members victims claimed Clinton told them that the attack was the result of the video and/or that the filmmaker should be arrested.</p>
<p>Clinton: "I can't recite for you everything that was in a conversation where people were sobbing, where people were distraught, the president and the vice president, we were all making the rounds talking to people, listening to people. I was in a very difficult position because we have not yet said two of the four dead were CIA ... This was a part of the fog of war."</p>
<p>Sure, Clinton didn’t know the attack was terrorist-related. How about this?</p>
<p>Day of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Benghazi?src=hash" type="external">#Benghazi</a> attack, Sec Clinton told Libya President terrorists claimed responsibility. Did not mention video. <a href="https://t.co/SJF4neIomr" type="external">pic.twitter.com/SJF4neIomr</a></p>
<p>Or this:</p>
<p>What Secretary Clinton told Egypt's Prime Minister the day after the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Benghazi?src=hash" type="external">#Benghazi</a> attack: <a href="https://t.co/7J6OY7yUSF" type="external">https://t.co/7J6OY7yUSF</a> <a href="https://t.co/UJYU9ayz9f" type="external">pic.twitter.com/UJYU9ayz9f</a></p>
<p>Yet as Powerline <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/01/whos-lying-hillary-or-members-of-several-benghazi-victims-families.php" type="external">reported</a>: "Charles Woods, the father of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, says that Clinton blamed the video and even told him that she was going to have Nakoula arrested … Kate Quigley, the sister of Glen Doherty, says that Clinton told her the video was to blame … Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, also insists that Clinton said the attack was because of the video."</p>
<p>It’s bad enough that Hillary Clinton, her husband, and Barack Obama routinely lie while the media and the left look the other way. But for her to sacrifice the honor of the victims’ families after already sacrificing four Americans for the sake of her career is nothing short of malevolent.</p> | Hillary Calls Benghazi Victims’ Families Liars | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2316/hillary-calls-benghazi-victims-families-liars-hank-berrien | 2016-01-04 | 0 |
<p>LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a fire has destroyed a Lawrence motel but that the occupants evacuated safely.</p>
<p><a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2018/jan/15/firefighters-respond-fire-motel-near-6th-and-iowa/" type="external">The Lawrence Journal-World</a> reports that the fire started before noon Monday in the Americas Best Value Inn. The building, which has been a Super 8 motel in recent years, is located northwest of the intersection of Sixth and Iowa streets.</p>
<p>Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Division Chief and Fire Marshal James King says the fire started in the lowest level. After one firefighter fell through a floor inside the building while battling the blaze, the decision was made to battle the fire defensively, pouring water on it from the outside.</p>
<p>The firefighter who fell was quickly rescued, evaluated at the scene and returned to his crew uninjured. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately determined.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, <a href="http://www.ljworld.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.ljworld.com" type="external">http://www.ljworld.com</a></p>
<p>LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a fire has destroyed a Lawrence motel but that the occupants evacuated safely.</p>
<p><a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2018/jan/15/firefighters-respond-fire-motel-near-6th-and-iowa/" type="external">The Lawrence Journal-World</a> reports that the fire started before noon Monday in the Americas Best Value Inn. The building, which has been a Super 8 motel in recent years, is located northwest of the intersection of Sixth and Iowa streets.</p>
<p>Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Division Chief and Fire Marshal James King says the fire started in the lowest level. After one firefighter fell through a floor inside the building while battling the blaze, the decision was made to battle the fire defensively, pouring water on it from the outside.</p>
<p>The firefighter who fell was quickly rescued, evaluated at the scene and returned to his crew uninjured. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately determined.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, <a href="http://www.ljworld.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.ljworld.com" type="external">http://www.ljworld.com</a></p> | Lawrence motel partially collapses during blaze | false | https://apnews.com/18c6ad71cead431b83ba7275c184dca9 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Reno city councilwoman is accusing the owners of a strip club of using low-income residents as “political pawns” by threatening to raise the rent at an adjoining weekly motel if the city follows through with a plan to force existing strip clubs out of downtown.</p>
<p>The Reno Gazette-Journal <a href="http://tinyurl.com/y9kbu4ev" type="external">reports</a> dozens of tenants of the Ponderosa Motel pleaded with council members Wednesday to strike a deal with the clubs after the owner of the motel and neighboring White Orchid club threatened to double their rent.</p>
<p>Velma Shoal, who lives at the motel with her 15-year-old granddaughter, was among those who responded to the owner’s plea to put pressure on the council. She said the motel is the only thing that keeps them from becoming homeless.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Neoma Jardon says using the tenants as “political pawns” is a “disgusting tactic.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external">http://www.rgj.com</a></p>
<p>RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Reno city councilwoman is accusing the owners of a strip club of using low-income residents as “political pawns” by threatening to raise the rent at an adjoining weekly motel if the city follows through with a plan to force existing strip clubs out of downtown.</p>
<p>The Reno Gazette-Journal <a href="http://tinyurl.com/y9kbu4ev" type="external">reports</a> dozens of tenants of the Ponderosa Motel pleaded with council members Wednesday to strike a deal with the clubs after the owner of the motel and neighboring White Orchid club threatened to double their rent.</p>
<p>Velma Shoal, who lives at the motel with her 15-year-old granddaughter, was among those who responded to the owner’s plea to put pressure on the council. She said the motel is the only thing that keeps them from becoming homeless.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Neoma Jardon says using the tenants as “political pawns” is a “disgusting tactic.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rgj.com" type="external">http://www.rgj.com</a></p> | Controversy heats up over Reno strip club proposal | false | https://apnews.com/9236d398ffd84342b1c19261af466b37 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>More than 12,000 prisoners in California have endured five days of hunger-striking to end harsh punishment, redefine gang activity, improve food quality, increase access to health care and education services, and bring an end to solitary confinement, which they call “indefinite state-sanctioned torture.”</p>
<p>More than 1,000 inmates are missing classes and prison work programs in addition to forgoing meals in the third large-scale hunger strike in the past two years. The fast began at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border and has spread to two-thirds of the state’s 33 jails.</p>
<p>Correction officials have responded by threatening to search prisoners’ cells, conduct mental health evaluations and deny inmates access to visitors and mail.</p>
<p>Award-winning investigative journalist Shane Bauer was one of three American hikers imprisoned in Iran after being apprehended on the Iraqi border in 2009. He spent 26 months in Tehran’s Evin Prison, four of them in solitary confinement. He compared that experience to the treatment of prisoners in California in a Mother Jones <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer" type="external">article</a> last year titled “Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons.”</p>
<p />
<p>Bauer <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/12/a_hunger_strike_against_solitary_confinement" type="external">told</a> “Democracy Now!” on Friday: “While the solitary confinement is at the core of it, it’s kind of about a lot of other issues. It’s become a much more widespread hunger strike. Each prison has its own demands. There are demands you see for rise in wages, from 13 cents an hour to $1 an hour, demand for the return of educational classes, and really the demands for the return of a lot of services that have been cut in recent years.”</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>‘Democracy Now!’:</p> | Journalist Shane Bauer on Inhumane Prisons From California to Iran | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/journalist-shane-bauer-on-inhumane-prisons-from-california-to-iran/ | 2013-07-12 | 4 |
<p>Most politicos were watching President Obama’s speech today in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he hit on a his main theme of “moving forward.” Elsewhere, third party candidates like <a href="http://www.jillstein.org/" type="external">Jill Stein</a> and <a href="http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/" type="external">Gary Johnson</a> are looking forward to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/26/gary-johnson-and-jill-stein-will-debate-one-on-one/" type="external">debating in Washington D.C.</a> on October 30th, where they will focus on moving away from the two-party controlled political discussion.</p>
<p>A common sentiment after the final ‘mainstream’ Presidential debate was that it wasn’t much of a debate. &#160;The two candidates essentially agreed on all major issues, from intervention in Afghanistan, the need to protect Israel, and putting increased sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>Whether its ending the wars over seas or ending the drug war right here at home, many voters have turned to third party candidates for an alternative perspective on the issues.</p>
<p>Gary Johnson is perhaps the most popular “online candidate” since Ron Paul, and undoubtably draws many of the Congressman’s supporters. And with over <a href="https://www.facebook.com/govgaryjohnson" type="external">300,000 Facebook Likes</a>, over 1,000,000 <a href="https://plus.google.com/+GovGaryJohnson/posts" type="external">Google+ followers</a>, and as of today, over 100,000 <a href="https://twitter.com/GovGaryJohnson" type="external">Twitter</a> followers, Gary Johnson could be laying the groundwork to make a significant impact on the political conversation for a long-time to come.</p>
<p>Politics and technology are at an&#160;interesting&#160;cross-roads. The big number of reliable votes are still made by the folks sitting in a reclining chair with a remote control in their hand, but it won’t be long until those who grew up with Facbeook and Twitter start to really change the playing field.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GovGaryJohnson" type="external">Tweets by @GovGaryJohnson</a> //</p> | Gary Johnson Twitter Passes 100,000 Followers | false | https://ivn.us/2012/10/27/gary-johnson-twitter-passes-10000-followers-2/ | 2012-10-27 | 2 |
<p>BEIJING (AP) — China's plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a $14 billion pothole in Pakistan.</p>
<p>Pakistan's relations with Beijing are so close that officials call China their "Iron Brother." Despite that, plans for the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were thrown into turmoil in November when the chairman of Pakistan's water authority said Beijing wanted an ownership stake in the hydropower project. He rejected that as against Pakistani interests.</p>
<p>China issued a denial but the official withdrew the dam from among dozens of projects being jointly developed by the two countries.</p>
<p>From Pakistan to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under President Xi Jinping's signature "Belt and Road Initiative" are being canceled, renegotiated or delayed due to disputes about costs or complaints host countries get too little out of projects built by Chinese companies and financed by loans from Beijing that must be repaid.</p>
<p>In some places, Beijing is suffering a political backlash due to fears of domination by Asia's biggest economy.</p>
<p>"Pakistan is one of the countries that is in China's hip pocket, and for Pakistan to stand up and say, 'I'm not going to do this with you,' shows it's not as 'win-win' as China says it is," said Robert Koepp, an analyst in Hong Kong for the Economist Corporate Network, a research firm.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road," announced by Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or -financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. They range from oil drilling in Siberia to construction of ports in Southeast Asia, railways in Eastern Europe and power plants in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Other governments welcomed the initiative in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than $26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing. Nations including Japan have given or lent billions of dollars for development, but China's venture is bigger and the only source of money for many projects.</p>
<p>Governments from Washington to Moscow to New Delhi are uneasy Beijing is trying to use its "Belt and Road" to develop a China-centered political structure that will erode their influence.</p>
<p>China's significance to Pakistan as a source of financing increased following U.S. President Donald Trump's Jan. 5 decision to suspend security assistance to Islamabad in a dispute over whether it was doing enough to stop Afghan militants.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road" is a business venture, not aid. A Cabinet official, Ou Xiaoli, told The Associated Press in April that lending will be on commercial terms. Beijing wants to attract non-Chinese investors, though that has happened with only a handful of projects, he said.</p>
<p>Among projects that have been derailed or disrupted:</p>
<p>—Authorities in Nepal canceled plans in November for Chinese companies to build a $2.5 billion dam after they concluded contracts for the Budhi Gandaki Hydro Electric Project violated rules requiring multiple bidders.</p>
<p>—The European Union is looking into whether Hungary violated the trade bloc's rules by awarding contracts to Chinese builders of a high-speed railway to neighboring Serbia without competing bids.</p>
<p>—In Myanmar, plans for a Chinese oil company to build a $3 billion refinery were canceled in November due to financing difficulties, the newspaper Myanmar Times reported.</p>
<p>There is no official list of projects, but consulting firm BMI Research has compiled a database of $1.8 trillion of infrastructure investments announced across Asia, Africa and the Middle East that include Chinese money or other involvement.</p>
<p>Many are still in planning stages and some up to three decades in the future, according to Christian Zhang, a BMI analyst.</p>
<p>"It's probably too early to say at this point how much of the overall initiative will actually be implemented," said Zhang.</p>
<p>The U.S. and Japanese governments express interest in building contracts or other potential "Belt and Road" opportunities for their companies. But they also are trying to develop alternative initiatives.</p>
<p>In November, the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corp. signed an agreement with Japanese partners to offer "infrastructure investment alternatives in the Indo-Pacific region," according to a White House statement.</p>
<p>The following month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan can "cooperate greatly" with China.</p>
<p>The stumbles for one of the world's most ambitious infrastructure ventures could help temper concerns Beijing will increase its strategic influence.</p>
<p>"There is a big possibility that China is going to have a lot of disagreements and misunderstandings," said Kerry Brown, a specialist in Chinese politics at King's College London. "It's hard to think of a big, successful project the 'Belt and Road Initiative' has led to at the moment."</p>
<p>Even Pakistan, one of China's friendliest neighbors, has failed to agree on key projects.</p>
<p>The two governments are developing facilities with a total cost of $60 billion including power plants and railways to link China's far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.</p>
<p>A visit by a Chinese assistant foreign minister in November produced no agreement on railway projects in the southern city of Karachi valued at $10 billion and a $260 million airport for Gwadar.</p>
<p>The same month, the chairman of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority announced the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be withdrawn from joint development. The site is in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan's far north, part of the Kashmir region, which also is claimed by India.</p>
<p>"Chinese conditions for financing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were not doable and against our interests," the official, Muzammil Hussain, told legislators, according to Pakistani news reports.</p>
<p>The Chinese Cabinet agency overseeing "Belt and Road," the National Development and Reform Commission, denied in a written statement that it asked for an ownership stake. It said the two sides had held only preliminary talks about the project.</p>
<p>A Pakistani Cabinet official who spoke on condition he not be identified further said the Chinese side asked for clarification of the ownership status of the dam site because Gilgit-Baltistan has yet to be formally made part of a Pakistani province. The water authority didn't respond to requests to clarify its chairman's comments.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road" is interwoven with official efforts to export Chinese rail, hydropower and other technology and steel, aluminum and other industrial goods.</p>
<p>In Thailand, work on a $15 billion high-speed railway was suspended in 2016 following complaints too little business went to Thai companies.</p>
<p>After more talks over costs, technology sharing and land ownership, Thai leaders announced a new plan in July for a first line to be built from Bangkok to the country's northeast. Building contracts went to Thai companies while China will supply technology.</p>
<p>In Tanzania, the government has reopened negotiations with China and another investor, the government of the gulf nation of Oman, over ownership of a planned $11 billion port in the city of Bagamoyo. The Tanzanian government failed to raise $28 million for its contribution, leaving it unclear what share the government might get.</p>
<p>Tanzania wants to make sure its people get more than just taxes collected from the port, said the director of the Tanzania Ports Authority, Deusdedit Kakoko.</p>
<p>"Land is for Tanzanians, and as the government we're ensuring they get a share," Kakoko said in an interview.</p>
<p>Despite such setbacks, Chinese officials say most "Belt and Road" projects are moving ahead with few problems.</p>
<p>Work on pipelines to deliver oil and gas from Russia and Central Asia is making "steady progress," said a deputy commerce minister, Li Chenggang, at a Nov. 21 news conference.</p>
<p>"We have a lot of room for further cooperation," said Li.</p>
<p>The state-run China Development Bank announced in 2015 it had set aside $890 billion for more than 900 projects across 60 countries in gas, minerals, power, telecoms, infrastructure and farming. The Export-Import Bank of China said it would finance 1,000 projects in 49 countries.</p>
<p>Acting as banker gives Beijing leverage to require use of Chinese builders and technology. But it can lead to complaints host countries fail to negotiate hard enough.</p>
<p>In Sri Lanka, the government sold an 80 percent stake in a port in the southern city of Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company on Dec. 9 after falling behind in repaying $1.5 billion borrowed from Beijing to build it. That prompted complaints the deal was too favorable to Beijing.</p>
<p>"There is the perception of a Chinese incursion into their sovereignty by taking over the port," said BMI's Zhang.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Domasa from Dodoma, Tanzania. AP Writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — China's plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a $14 billion pothole in Pakistan.</p>
<p>Pakistan's relations with Beijing are so close that officials call China their "Iron Brother." Despite that, plans for the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were thrown into turmoil in November when the chairman of Pakistan's water authority said Beijing wanted an ownership stake in the hydropower project. He rejected that as against Pakistani interests.</p>
<p>China issued a denial but the official withdrew the dam from among dozens of projects being jointly developed by the two countries.</p>
<p>From Pakistan to Tanzania to Hungary, projects under President Xi Jinping's signature "Belt and Road Initiative" are being canceled, renegotiated or delayed due to disputes about costs or complaints host countries get too little out of projects built by Chinese companies and financed by loans from Beijing that must be repaid.</p>
<p>In some places, Beijing is suffering a political backlash due to fears of domination by Asia's biggest economy.</p>
<p>"Pakistan is one of the countries that is in China's hip pocket, and for Pakistan to stand up and say, 'I'm not going to do this with you,' shows it's not as 'win-win' as China says it is," said Robert Koepp, an analyst in Hong Kong for the Economist Corporate Network, a research firm.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road," announced by Xi in 2013, is a loosely defined umbrella for Chinese-built or -financed projects across 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and Europe. They range from oil drilling in Siberia to construction of ports in Southeast Asia, railways in Eastern Europe and power plants in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Other governments welcomed the initiative in a region the Asian Development Bank says needs more than $26 trillion of infrastructure investment by 2030 to keep economies growing. Nations including Japan have given or lent billions of dollars for development, but China's venture is bigger and the only source of money for many projects.</p>
<p>Governments from Washington to Moscow to New Delhi are uneasy Beijing is trying to use its "Belt and Road" to develop a China-centered political structure that will erode their influence.</p>
<p>China's significance to Pakistan as a source of financing increased following U.S. President Donald Trump's Jan. 5 decision to suspend security assistance to Islamabad in a dispute over whether it was doing enough to stop Afghan militants.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road" is a business venture, not aid. A Cabinet official, Ou Xiaoli, told The Associated Press in April that lending will be on commercial terms. Beijing wants to attract non-Chinese investors, though that has happened with only a handful of projects, he said.</p>
<p>Among projects that have been derailed or disrupted:</p>
<p>—Authorities in Nepal canceled plans in November for Chinese companies to build a $2.5 billion dam after they concluded contracts for the Budhi Gandaki Hydro Electric Project violated rules requiring multiple bidders.</p>
<p>—The European Union is looking into whether Hungary violated the trade bloc's rules by awarding contracts to Chinese builders of a high-speed railway to neighboring Serbia without competing bids.</p>
<p>—In Myanmar, plans for a Chinese oil company to build a $3 billion refinery were canceled in November due to financing difficulties, the newspaper Myanmar Times reported.</p>
<p>There is no official list of projects, but consulting firm BMI Research has compiled a database of $1.8 trillion of infrastructure investments announced across Asia, Africa and the Middle East that include Chinese money or other involvement.</p>
<p>Many are still in planning stages and some up to three decades in the future, according to Christian Zhang, a BMI analyst.</p>
<p>"It's probably too early to say at this point how much of the overall initiative will actually be implemented," said Zhang.</p>
<p>The U.S. and Japanese governments express interest in building contracts or other potential "Belt and Road" opportunities for their companies. But they also are trying to develop alternative initiatives.</p>
<p>In November, the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corp. signed an agreement with Japanese partners to offer "infrastructure investment alternatives in the Indo-Pacific region," according to a White House statement.</p>
<p>The following month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan can "cooperate greatly" with China.</p>
<p>The stumbles for one of the world's most ambitious infrastructure ventures could help temper concerns Beijing will increase its strategic influence.</p>
<p>"There is a big possibility that China is going to have a lot of disagreements and misunderstandings," said Kerry Brown, a specialist in Chinese politics at King's College London. "It's hard to think of a big, successful project the 'Belt and Road Initiative' has led to at the moment."</p>
<p>Even Pakistan, one of China's friendliest neighbors, has failed to agree on key projects.</p>
<p>The two governments are developing facilities with a total cost of $60 billion including power plants and railways to link China's far west with the Chinese-built port of Gwadar on the Indian Ocean.</p>
<p>A visit by a Chinese assistant foreign minister in November produced no agreement on railway projects in the southern city of Karachi valued at $10 billion and a $260 million airport for Gwadar.</p>
<p>The same month, the chairman of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority announced the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be withdrawn from joint development. The site is in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan's far north, part of the Kashmir region, which also is claimed by India.</p>
<p>"Chinese conditions for financing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were not doable and against our interests," the official, Muzammil Hussain, told legislators, according to Pakistani news reports.</p>
<p>The Chinese Cabinet agency overseeing "Belt and Road," the National Development and Reform Commission, denied in a written statement that it asked for an ownership stake. It said the two sides had held only preliminary talks about the project.</p>
<p>A Pakistani Cabinet official who spoke on condition he not be identified further said the Chinese side asked for clarification of the ownership status of the dam site because Gilgit-Baltistan has yet to be formally made part of a Pakistani province. The water authority didn't respond to requests to clarify its chairman's comments.</p>
<p>"Belt and Road" is interwoven with official efforts to export Chinese rail, hydropower and other technology and steel, aluminum and other industrial goods.</p>
<p>In Thailand, work on a $15 billion high-speed railway was suspended in 2016 following complaints too little business went to Thai companies.</p>
<p>After more talks over costs, technology sharing and land ownership, Thai leaders announced a new plan in July for a first line to be built from Bangkok to the country's northeast. Building contracts went to Thai companies while China will supply technology.</p>
<p>In Tanzania, the government has reopened negotiations with China and another investor, the government of the gulf nation of Oman, over ownership of a planned $11 billion port in the city of Bagamoyo. The Tanzanian government failed to raise $28 million for its contribution, leaving it unclear what share the government might get.</p>
<p>Tanzania wants to make sure its people get more than just taxes collected from the port, said the director of the Tanzania Ports Authority, Deusdedit Kakoko.</p>
<p>"Land is for Tanzanians, and as the government we're ensuring they get a share," Kakoko said in an interview.</p>
<p>Despite such setbacks, Chinese officials say most "Belt and Road" projects are moving ahead with few problems.</p>
<p>Work on pipelines to deliver oil and gas from Russia and Central Asia is making "steady progress," said a deputy commerce minister, Li Chenggang, at a Nov. 21 news conference.</p>
<p>"We have a lot of room for further cooperation," said Li.</p>
<p>The state-run China Development Bank announced in 2015 it had set aside $890 billion for more than 900 projects across 60 countries in gas, minerals, power, telecoms, infrastructure and farming. The Export-Import Bank of China said it would finance 1,000 projects in 49 countries.</p>
<p>Acting as banker gives Beijing leverage to require use of Chinese builders and technology. But it can lead to complaints host countries fail to negotiate hard enough.</p>
<p>In Sri Lanka, the government sold an 80 percent stake in a port in the southern city of Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned company on Dec. 9 after falling behind in repaying $1.5 billion borrowed from Beijing to build it. That prompted complaints the deal was too favorable to Beijing.</p>
<p>"There is the perception of a Chinese incursion into their sovereignty by taking over the port," said BMI's Zhang.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Domasa from Dodoma, Tanzania. AP Writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.</p> | China's modern Silk Road hits political, financial hurdles | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0956dd7edd7344cfa42a1be4f62b1c6c | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit "Oh Happy Day" and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p>
<p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p>
<p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p>
<p>Their first album, "Let Us Go into the House of the Lord," came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album's eight tracks, "Oh Happy Day," an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p>
<p>"Oh Happy Day," featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p>
<p>"I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time," Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. "We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p>
<p>"My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you'd call a good man," he said. "And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids."</p>
<p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for "Oh Happy Day."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite "Oh Happy Day" as inspiration for his hit "My Sweet Lord," and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p>
<p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs "Every Man Wants to Be Free" and "Wonderful!" In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p>
<p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit "Oh Happy Day" and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p>
<p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p>
<p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p>
<p>Their first album, "Let Us Go into the House of the Lord," came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album's eight tracks, "Oh Happy Day," an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p>
<p>"Oh Happy Day," featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p>
<p>"I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time," Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. "We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p>
<p>"My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you'd call a good man," he said. "And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids."</p>
<p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for "Oh Happy Day."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite "Oh Happy Day" as inspiration for his hit "My Sweet Lord," and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p>
<p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs "Every Man Wants to Be Free" and "Wonderful!" In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p>
<p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p> | Gospel star Edwin Hawkins, known for 'Oh Happy Day,' dies | false | https://apnews.com/amp/c21a210b3411497994d2f0bc4c9e72cb | 2018-01-15 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo users will be able to stream eight basketball games for free under a new deal with the NBA.</p>
<p>Verizon, which owns Yahoo, is hoping to use sports to build a digital ad business to rival Facebook and Google. The company now <a href="" type="internal">lets anyone watch</a> NFL games on a mobile Yahoo app; before games were limited to Verizon customers. Other major tech companies including Facebook and Amazon are also bidding for sports streaming rights.</p>
<p>Fans can choose the eight games they want once they sign in, but local and nationally televised games are blocked. It isn’t limited to Verizon wireless customers.</p>
<p>Verizon will also have a daily highlights show and may make other original sports programming. It will work with the NBA on fan fantasy experiences, including custom highlights.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo users will be able to stream eight basketball games for free under a new deal with the NBA.</p>
<p>Verizon, which owns Yahoo, is hoping to use sports to build a digital ad business to rival Facebook and Google. The company now <a href="" type="internal">lets anyone watch</a> NFL games on a mobile Yahoo app; before games were limited to Verizon customers. Other major tech companies including Facebook and Amazon are also bidding for sports streaming rights.</p>
<p>Fans can choose the eight games they want once they sign in, but local and nationally televised games are blocked. It isn’t limited to Verizon wireless customers.</p>
<p>Verizon will also have a daily highlights show and may make other original sports programming. It will work with the NBA on fan fantasy experiences, including custom highlights.</p> | Verizon pushes further into sports streaming with NBA deal | false | https://apnews.com/5dbc28559073418a833cdcecdade2f3d | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>"It would do little good to ask a delegation from the Tea Party and one from Occupy Wall Street to meet in a room and hammer out an entitlement reform package. The hammers would be used for different purposes."&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-is-obama-worsening-our-nations-polarization/2011/10/13/gIQA3cfViL_story.html" type="external">Michael Gerson for&#160;The Washington Post:&#160;Why is Obama Worsening Our Nation's Polarization</a></p>
<p>Patriocracy: a new movie featuring A-list politicos tackles the topic of our dysfunctional Congress. This move sounds like more of a tear-jerker than The Notebook:&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65860.html" type="external">Patrick Gavin for&#160;POLITICO:&#160;A biting look at D.C. in 'Patriocracy'</a></p>
<p>Disarm or else, say GOP senators to Reid. Tear down this wall, says No Labels to the warring partisans:&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/187561-gop-insists-on-reids-nuclear-disarmament" type="external">Alexander Bolton for&#160;The Hill:&#160;GOP insists on Reid's disarmament</a></p>
<p>46 percent of Americans call themselves independents; the candidate who speaks to&#160;the middle, not the extremes, will win in 2012:&#160; <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-without-independents-obama-has-no-chance-victory_595834.html" type="external">Jay Cost for&#160;The Weekly Standard:&#160;Morning Jay: Without Independents, Obama Has No Chance of Victory</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Daily Dose: Hammers for Different Purposes | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/daily-dose-hammers-for-different-purposes/ | 2011-10-14 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?attachment_id=12974" type="external" />The wildfires that are roaring through northern California are already “among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”, and by the time it is all said and done this could be the worst wildfire season in the history of the state.&#160; So far, fires have scorched more than 250 square miles, and more than 3,500 homes and businesses have already been destroyed.&#160; The official death toll has risen to 21, but that is expected to rise dramatically because over 600 missing persons reports have been filed with authorities.&#160; The worst damage has been done in Napa and Sonoma counties, and you can see some deeply troubling photos of the devastation&#160; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/10/apocalyptic-images-from-the-deadly-fires-in-northern-california.html" type="external">here</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/napa-winery-burned-in-fires-2017-10/#all-that-remains-of-the-patio-are-pillars-8" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this crisis is far from over.&#160; In fact, the National Weather Service has just issued a pair of&#160; <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/red-flag-warning-high-wind-gusts-forecast-for-wine-country-suffering-from-wildfires" type="external">“red flag warnings”</a>…</p>
<p>The weather forecast is not looking good for those living in wine country, and for those firefighters trying to get a handle on the 22 wildfires raging through Northern California, which broke out Sunday and are barely contained more than three days later.</p>
<p>The National Weather Service issued a&#160;red flag warning for the North and East bays starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday and midnight on Thursday respectively.</p>
<p>That means winds can gust from 20 mph to 50 mph in the higher elevation areas, fanning the flames down mountains and into the cities.</p>
<p>So as bad as things are at this moment, the truth is that they are going to get even worse over the next 24 hours.</p>
<p>And that is quite sobering to hear, because this is already one of&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/11/3-500-homes-businesses-destroyed-california-wine-country-blazes/753868001/" type="external">“the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”</a>…</p>
<p>The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said fire activity increased significantly, destroying more buildings and forcing&#160;more mandatory evacuations.&#160;The wind-whipped, fast moving cluster of blazes ranks among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history.</p>
<p>“This is a serious, critical, catastrophic event,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said. “It’s pure devastation, and it’s going to take a while to get out and comb through all this.”</p>
<p>Of course this crisis comes on the heels of&#160; <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/another-major-disaster-hits-the-u-s-a-massive-firestorm-is-burning-tens-of-thousands-of-acres-in-northern-california" type="external">several other major disasters</a>.&#160; In recent weeks our nation has had to deal with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the Las Vegas shooting, and many have pointed out that the U.S. has not seen a series of disastrous events such as this in a very long time.</p>
<p>It would be hard to overstate the devastation that we have witnessed in northern California so far.&#160; In some areas, it literally looks like&#160; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4969206/Californians-return-destruction-wildfires-kill-17.html" type="external">a war zone</a>…</p>
<p>‘It looks like a bombing run here,’&#160;said winemaker Joe Nielsen of Santa Rosa’s Donelan Family Wines, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle.&#160;‘Just chimneys and burnt-out cars and cooked trees.’</p>
<p>What would you do if your home burned to the ground?</p>
<p>Perhaps you could use the insurance money to rebuild eventually, but what would you do in the meanwhile?</p>
<p>Everywhere you go in northern California the smell of smoke fills the air.&#160; At this point it is so bad that even San Francisco is reporting&#160; <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/10/smoke-advisory-from-wildfires-extended-another-day-in-bay-area/" type="external">“the worst air quality ever recorded”</a>…</p>
<p>“We are reporting the worst air quality ever recorded for smoke in many parts of the Bay Area,” said Tom Flannigan, spokesman for the&#160;Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “This is similar to what you see in Beijing China in bad air days there.”</p>
<p>Soot readings in many areas have reached levels considered very unhealthy or hazardous, air quality regulators said.</p>
<p>And the economic damage that is being done by these fires is going to be felt for many, many years to come.</p>
<p>As the&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/10/11/napa-fires-rage-wineries-face-singed-grapes-displaced-workers-and-costs-rebuilding/751267001/" type="external">quote below</a>&#160;explains, California accounts for approximately 85 percent of the wine production in the United States, and Napa and Sonoma counties are the heart of the wine industry in the state…</p>
<p>Wine industry experts say that even if a winery’s vineyards remain standing, they face steep challenges as their employees struggle with burned or damaged homes. The region counts wine and tourism as top employers, and many workers who pick grapes or work in hotels may be compelled to relocate after losing everything.</p>
<p>Napa and Sonoma counties are home to around 900 wineries (of 4,600 statewide), with most boutique businesses making higher-end wines. The two counties represent 13% of the state’s output. And the state itself supplies 85% of the nation’s wine production, making it the fourth-largest producer of wines after Italy, France and Spain.</p>
<p>Expect the price of wine to go up substantially in the months ahead, and this is going to be a huge hit for one of the most economically prosperous areas of the state.&#160; Many of the facilities that have been destroyed will never be rebuilt, and needless to say the tourism industry in northern California will not be the same for a very long time.</p>
<p>But the true extent of the devastation will not be known until the crisis is over, and it looks like the worst chapters may still be ahead.&#160; USA Today&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/11/3-500-homes-businesses-destroyed-california-wine-country-blazes/753868001/" type="external">is reporting</a>&#160;that no rain is in the forecast, and strong winds are going to continue to push wildfires very rapidly across the region…</p>
<p>“No rainfall is forecast for ongoing fires in California,” the weather service said. “Strong winds behind the front will bring elevated-to-critical fire weather threats to active fires across northern California today into Thursday.”</p>
<p>Please pray for the people living in northern California.&#160; Normally, it is one of the most beautiful areas on the entire planet, but now it is literally being transformed into a complete and total nightmare.</p>
<p>For years, I have been writing about the alarming increase in the intensity of wildfires all over the country.&#160; One of the big reasons for this is the fact that the federal government is not properly managing the lands under their control, and so wildfires tend to burn more rapidly on federally-owned lands.&#160; It is time for the federal government to start turning over ownership of these lands to the states, and that is something that I plan to fight very hard to accomplish.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.michaelsnyderforcongress.com/" type="external">Michael Snyder</a>&#160;is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his&#160; <a href="https://www.michaelsnyderforcongress.com/contribute.html" type="external">official website</a>. His new book entitled&#160; <a href="http://amzn.to/2t5bx4A" type="external">“Living A Life That Really Matters”</a>&#160;is available in paperback and for the Kindle on&#160; <a href="http://amzn.to/2t5bx4A" type="external">Amazon.com</a>.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/red-flag-warning-these-california-wildfires-are-among-the-most-destructive-fire-events-in-us-history-and-they-are-about-to-get-even-worse" type="external">The Economic Collapse Blog</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Red Flag Warning: These California Wildfires Are ‘Among The Most Destructive Fire Events In US History’ And They Are About To Get Even Worse | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/12/red-flag-warning-these-california-wildfires-are-among-the-most-destructive-fire-events-in-us-history-and-they-are-about-to-get-even-worse/ | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
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<p>They wrapped their arms around the waists of people in front of them to prevent anyone from cutting in line in their desperation for one of just a few dozen slots granted daily with U.S. immigration authorities about a half-mile away.</p>
<p>Several thousand Haitians have traveled to Tijuana in recent months, overflowing migrant shelters and often sleeping outside next to their backpacks on sheets of cardboard, many after traveling 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) by foot, taxi and bus from Brazil through eight nations to the threshold of the United States. There have been so many that in August, Mexican authorities imposed a system of appointments in order to keep the Haitians away from the flow of other visitors at one of the world’s busiest border crossings.</p>
<p>Most of the Haitians appear unaware that the trip, and the desperate scramble at the border, has been in vain.</p>
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<p>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sept. 21 began putting Haitians in detention facilities before attempting to send them back to the homeland they fled, a departure from previous practice of freeing them on humanitarian parole. The U.S. softened its posture after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake but now treats them like people from other countries.</p>
<p>Many of the Haitians continuing to arrive in Tijuana have said they were unaware of the change, while those who knew about it said turning back was not an option. Brazil opened its doors to the Haitians after the earthquake devastated their impoverished country, but the South American country later developed its own economic problems, recently prompting many to seek work in the United States.</p>
<p>Antonio Juneiro, 40, is typical. He lived in Sao Paolo for four years until factory work dried up and he decided to join family in Miami. After spending $4,000 to reach Tijuana, the prospect of a job in the United States was worth the risk of getting deported to Haiti.</p>
<p>“When you have money, you have hope. You have health,” Juniero said at the Padre Chava migrant shelter in Tijuana, where he lived for a month while awaiting his appointment at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry.</p>
<p>The exodus from Brazil accelerated in May and has shown no sign of slowing. U.S. officials say about 5,000 Haitians showed up at San Ysidro from October 2015 through late last month, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana said at a recent congressional hearing that officials told her on a trip to Central America that 40,000 more were on their way. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said this week that an average of 300 Haitians and Africans were crossing Mexico’s southern border daily.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Nicaraguan authorities captured smugglers driving two trucks containing 98 migrants from Haiti and a variety of African nations. Authorities said they planned to return them to the border with Costa Rica where hundreds of others are stranded.</p>
<p>With hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Haitian men, women and young children regularly spending the night just outside the busiest United States border crossing, Mexican officials have moved to bring some order to the unruly scene by granting 20-day permits to stay in Mexico while also helping schedule their slots with the Americans on the other side.</p>
<p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection can only handle up to about 75 people a day at San Ysidro, and Tijuana authorities were unhappy about large crowds assembled on the Mexican side of the border crossing. So Mexican officials began distributing paper slips with dates to appear at San Ysidro but the documents were often copied. Now, three days a week, officials stamp dates to appear at San Ysidro on 20-day permits that Haitians receive to stay in Mexico.</p>
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<p>Mexico also extends the 20-day permits to smaller numbers of U.S.-bound immigrants from Ghana, Senegal and other African countries.</p>
<p>One morning last week, 50 people who had dates to enter the U.S. quietly lined up at the border crossing. A Mexican official emerged from his trailer to say there was room for five more and was mobbed by about 100 people looking to cross. The official led the group across a bridge to a U.S. inspector, who directed them through a turnstile to an area inside the U.S. border station for questioning.</p>
<p>Once inside the United States, the Haitians cannot be turned back to Mexico. With the previous earthquake-related protections now dropped, they are held in U.S. detention centers pending repatriation.</p>
<p>Mexico’s National Migration Institute in Tijuana on Monday made appointments in the coming weeks for 766 people to enter at San Ysidro, making it one of its busiest days since the influx began. All people in line got a date, with the last ones getting appointments for Nov. 10, stranding them in Tijuana for more than five weeks.</p>
<p>Padre Chava, one of 10 Tijuana shelters that house Haitians, turned away hundreds over the weekend, leading many to sleep outside on cardboard sheets. The shelter accommodated 271 people Saturday, about half of them women — some pregnant — and 34 children. Many slept on floors without mattresses. Shouting matches erupted.</p>
<p>“We are exhausted, completely exhausted,” said shelter administrator Margarita Andonaegui. “When we have more than 200 people, we lose control.”</p>
<p>Rosario Lozada, the city’s director of migrant affairs, was exasperated after the latest arrivals raised her estimate of Haitians stuck in Tijuana to 2,000, half of them in shelters and the rest in hotels or on the streets.</p>
<p>“We’ve been going nonstop for almost five months, 24 hours a day,” she said.</p>
<p>It’s early to say if the U.S. policy shift is deterring Haitians from coming, but challenges lie ahead.</p>
<p>Haiti took back just 433 deportees in the 2015 fiscal year — before the influx, the recent policy shift and damage inflicted this week by Hurricane Matthew — and it’s unclear how many the impoverished nation is willing or able to absorb. The United States has a limited number of beds at its immigration detention facilities to accommodate people while flights and travel documents are arranged.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it was monitoring the hurricane and “will assess its impact on current policies as appropriate.” The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was working with other governments on how to address the Haitian immigrants.</p>
<p>Wilfred Jean-Luis, who moved to Brazil in 2014 and left when construction work dried up, was optimistic that he would eventually join cousins in Miami after a grueling journey that included getting robbed in Nicaragua, a common experience among the Haitians.</p>
<p>“How is Haiti going to able to take us back as deportees?” he asked after a night on Tijuana’s streets. “They don’t have the capacity.”</p> | Haitians mass at US-Mexico border despite deportation policy | false | https://abqjournal.com/862455/haitians-mass-at-us-mexico-border-despite-deportation-policy.html | 2016-10-06 | 2 |
<p>When management upheaval, allegations of corporate espionage, and revelations of sexual harassment sent Uber into a public relations sinkhole, its long overshadowed rival Lyft shifted into overdrive.</p>
<p>The company seized the opportunity to recruit disillusioned drivers so it could be more responsive to passengers searching for a ride-hailing alternative to Uber. It upgraded its smartphone app, stepped up marketing efforts to attract more riders and expanded its U.S.-only service into 160 more cities for a total of about 350.</p>
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<p>On Thursday, Lyft made a big expansion move by announcing that it is adding statewide coverage to 32 states, bringing its total to 40.</p>
<p>The aggressive tactics cast the much smaller Lyft in a new light. After five years of being content in its role as the fun-loving, pink-mustached underdog of ride hailing, Lyft is proving to be a wily opportunist and a more imposing threat to Uber.</p>
<p>But a huge chasm still separates the foes in terms of financial resources, ridership and breadth of operations. While Lyft's rides are in the millions per year and only in the U.S., Uber makes 10 million trips per day worldwide and has carried more than 5 billion passengers in over 80 countries since 2009. Uber has raised nearly $14 billion in capital since its inception, compared with Lyft's $2.6 billion.</p>
<p>For its part, Uber is doing all it can to keep its lead. The company this week hired Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as its top executive. And while it concedes that this year's missteps have slowed its growth, it says ridership is still rising because customers value the service. It's in the midst of self-proclaimed "180 days of change" in an effort to alter a culture that fostered rapid growth but also encouraged bad behavior.</p>
<p>Yet the ground that Lyft has been gaining can't be ignored. By the time Uber's board ousted abrasive CEO Travis Kalanick in June, Lyft had more than doubled its ridership from the first six months of last year. At the end of June, it had passed 2016's full-year ride total of 162.5 million.</p>
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<p>To be sure, Lyft already was growing fast before Uber went into self-destruct mode. Lyft's share of the U.S. ride-hailing market in the past two years grew at double the rate of Uber, rising from 12 percent to just over 30 percent, according to Lyft's internal metrics.</p>
<p>Logan Green and John Zimmer, Lyft's low-key 33-year-old founders, insist they haven't done much except adhere to a belief that passengers should be treated like guests at a friendly hotel or even Disneyland. Both dress casually and blend into the headquarters' workforce. While the soft-spoken Green and more animated Zimmer are careful not to gloat, they concede that the turmoil at Uber is accelerating Lyft's growth.</p>
<p>"As we get service levels to parity and pickup times are equal, people prefer using Lyft," Green said in a recent interview at the company's airy offices in a block-long office complex near San Francisco Bay. "They like that we treat our drivers better. They like that we treat our customers better. And they like that we have a brand that sort of stands for taking care of people, where Uber has done a lot to build the opposite type of brand."</p>
<p>Nick Raef, 23, who works at Northwestern University near Chicago, considers price and brand image each time he chooses between Uber and Lyft. Service in Chicago, he says, is close to even between the two. But if Uber happens to be misbehaving on a particular day, he'll go with Lyft even if it's more expensive.</p>
<p>"I've told myself this controversy is worth a dollar or $2 depending on how bad the story was that day," he said.</p>
<p>In the Maryland suburbs of Washington, federal employee Whitlee Dean, 28, says she takes Lyft whenever she goes into the city, not so much because of Uber's behavior but because of Lyft's customer service.</p>
<p>"They seem to be really responsive to the issue when you contact them as opposed to Uber," she said, although she noted that while both companies are equally accessible within the metro area, Uber is faster outside of Washington, especially in smaller cities.</p>
<p>Internally, Uber has been making adjustments to treat its drivers and employees better. It recently matched Lyft by letting riders tip drivers on its app. It's also hired thousands of people to better distribute the workload and started serving its free dinners 90 minutes earlier at its San Francisco headquarters so workers don't stay as late.</p>
<p>"Tiny, tiny symbolism, but it matters to people," said Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer.</p>
<p>The company also recently fired 20 employees after a report by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder found rampant misbehavior and urged Uber to clean things up.</p>
<p>But problems for Uber continue to linger. Just this week, the company agreed to stop using its app to track people after their rides have ended in response to privacy concerns.</p>
<p>Lyft's growth probably has more to do with customer demand for service than a backlash against Uber, according to analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.</p>
<p>"It is so tempting to think Lyft is gaining because people are taking a stand against Uber, but convenience usually trumps morality," he said. And Uber is usually more convenient because its service still has more drivers than Lyft in most major U.S. cities, Dawson said.</p>
<p>Two drivers who work with both services in New York City, Karim Guernah and Syed Manzar, said in separate interviews that they noticed a change in passenger sentiment earlier this year when Uber's troubles came to light. But Guernah said most riders still decide which service to take based on how long it will take for a car to arrive and how much the fare will cost. And both men said Uber doesn't treat drivers much differently than Lyft.</p>
<p>"Lyft is trying to take advantage (of the situation), but both are really the same. There is no difference," Manzar said.</p>
<p>Green and Zimmer sidestepped a question about whether they'd ever catch Uber, but it's clearly on their minds. "We've always been the underdog in the race against Uber. We've taken a lot of ground. We still are," Green said, adding that Lyft will go international "in the not-to-distant future."</p>
<p>The company has grown beyond the days when pink mustaches adorned the grilles of cars to give off a friendly vibe. It now opts for a lighted logo in the windshield with a pink background. But it's stuck with huge bags of mustaches.</p>
<p>"We have warehouses with tens of thousands of them," Green said.</p>
<p>Zimmer said Lyft will continue to cultivate a congenial image along the lines of Disney. As he praised the principles of the "Happiest Place on Earth," it was impossible not to notice a picture on the wall behind him — a black-and-white drawing of Mickey Mouse swinging a blue Jedi light sabre.</p>
<p>Perhaps it's aimed at Uber.</p> | Lyft seizes opportunity as Uber tries to outrun troubles | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/31/lyft-seizes-opportunity-as-uber-tries-to-outrun-troubles.html | 2017-08-31 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />The partial government shutdown is now in its second week. Throughout the duration of the shutdown, national and local media have released myriad stories about the pain that different government workers — and those who rely on government — are experiencing.</p>
<p>Senate Democrats and President Obama have dug in: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDIQqQIwAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fswampland.time.com%2F2013%2F10%2F07%2Fno-negotiate-obama-enters-second-week-of-shutdown-standoff%2F&amp;ei=SPhSUqj0Fa3I4AP2voDgBg&amp;usg=AFQjCNHjjIvw17O2P0MF15rFgQSOIqlyxg&amp;sig2=Ufo3DYxEu-coHEFqHsaJrA&amp;bvm=bv.53537100,d.dmg" type="external">No negotiations until after a clean government funding bill and debt ceiling increase have been passed</a>. Republicans, trying to ease the pain of a shutdown and win an uphill political battle, have tried passing <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=newssearch&amp;cd=3&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDkQqQIoADAC&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fhouse%2F326429-cantor-house-gop-forging-ahead-with-piecemeal-bills&amp;ei=dPhSUuTVLMe64APD0IDYBg&amp;usg=AFQjCNEWcsAYyw3POTF-gLOz99zYW7Korw&amp;sig2=TlM0Xp9q91xToGnGDWxizg&amp;bvm=bv.53537100,d.dmg" type="external">piecemeal bills to fund popular or more critical parts of government</a>, like cancer research and national parks. Democrats balked at most of the bills, though the Senate approved a bill to pay the troops, and President Obama signed it into law.</p>
<p>As the stalemate continues, political prognosticators have taken to analyzing which side is “winning” the shutdown. Republicans and Democrats are <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=newssearch&amp;cd=3&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDkQqQIoADAC&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fhouse%2F326429-cantor-house-gop-forging-ahead-with-piecemeal-bills&amp;ei=dPhSUuTVLMe64APD0IDYBg&amp;usg=AFQjCNEWcsAYyw3POTF-gLOz99zYW7Korw&amp;sig2=TlM0Xp9q91xToGnGDWxizg&amp;bvm=bv.53537100,d.dmg" type="external">both spinning the issue as much as they can</a>, trying to end the impasse, but still win the political battle without seeming overtly political. Making the impasse more complex, winning the political battle — without seeming overly political — is critical to ending the shutdown, since neither side has the impetus to fold unless they face significant electoral repercussions. It’s created a vicious cycle.</p>
<p>It’s possible that Republicans will take the heat for tying Obamacare reforms to funding the government, since the opposition party was typically blamed in past shutdowns. Others, like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., think Democrats will look bad for <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=5&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CEMQtwIwBA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.realclearpolitics.com%2Fvideo%2F2013%2F10%2F03%2Frand_paul_mitch_mcconnell_caught_on_hot_mic_talking_shutdown_strategy_were_gonna_win_this.html&amp;ei=-wVTUtXnNovD4AOFuoHYAg&amp;usg=AFQjCNENo-Bl0TircPD2L1h7kTA084oVCA&amp;sig2=XVpoUvb8TeaTLPkB4acbBA&amp;bvm=bv.53537100,d.dmg" type="external">refusing to negotiate</a>.</p>
<p>Some have said that it brings both parties down, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/cnn-poll-congress-approval/index.html" type="external">which is largely true</a>. And many point out a fundamental truth in politics: Sometimes people just forget. The conventional wisdom, it seems, is that the current government will either stay in place after the 2014 election — with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans holding the House — or one of the chambers will turn on other events that occur closer to election day.</p>
<p>But a <a href="http://front.moveon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PPP_House_Survey.pdf" type="external">collection of polls</a> released by Democratic-affiliated Public Policy Polling Sunday added a twist to the analysis: Democrats, according to the MoveOn.org funded polls, were in striking distance of taking back the House.</p>
<p>In order for Democrats to take back the house, they would need 17 GOP-held seats to flip Democratic. The PPP data was from surveys taken in 24 districts where Republican incumbents are considered vulnerable. In 17 of the 24, the Republican was losing to a “generic Democrat.”</p>
<p>So where does California come into all of this?</p>
<p>Three of those vulnerable congressional seats are in the Golden State. Reps. Jeff Denhan, Gary Miller and David Valadao are all at least somewhat exposed. The data even showed Miller losing to a generic Democrat and Valadao and Denham with less than desired numbers. And although the House has 435 seats, those three are among the most critical. How they perform, and how the national and state Republican parties help them, will be critical to maintaining the House.</p>
<p>Now, there are some flaws with the poll, which likely overstates the chances that Democrats have of actually winning back the House (though they very well may gain a few seats). Nate Cohn, of the liberal The New Republic magazine, offers <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115036/house-elections-2014-democrats-poorly-positioned-blue-states" type="external">a reality check for hopeful Democrats</a>:</p>
<p>“Altogether, Democrats aren’t yet poised to mount serious challenges to a clear majority of the Republicans running on competitive turf, let alone actually win. So you should probably take this morning’s PPP poll with an additional grain of salt: it’s about how House Republicans would fare against a “generic” Democrat, not the mediocre one they’ll face in 2014. Perhaps the shutdown will trigger a wave of GOP retirements and Democratic recruits. But without both, Democrats will probably crest short of 218.”</p>
<p>Regardless, House watchers will likely keep a close eye on Miller, Denham and Valadao. Turns out, California elections might have national implications once again.</p> | Shutdown casts shadow over CA races for U.S. House | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/10/07/shutdown-casts-shadow-over-ca-races-for-u-s-house/ | 2018-10-20 | 3 |
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<p>U.S. single-family home prices rose in May, though the pace of gains cooled compared to the month before, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The S&amp;P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, shy of economists' forecast for a 1.5 percent increase. That marked a slower pace from April's 1.7 percent rise.</p>
<p>On a non-adjusted basis, prices rose 2.4 percent.</p>
<p>Compared to last May, prices also fell short of expectations, rising 12.2 percent from a year earlier. Still, it was the biggest annual gain since March 2006, matching a record set in April.</p>
<p>The report was unlikely to alter economists' views that the housing sector continues to recover, making it a bright spot for the economy.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>All 20 cities rose on a yearly basis, led by a 24.5 percent surge in San Francisco.</p> | Home Prices See Biggest Annual Jump in May Since '06 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/30/home-prices-see-biggest-jump-in-may-since-2006.html | 2016-01-25 | 0 |
<p>A young woman on Facebook depressed many people about the future this week when she blamed the approach of Hurricane Irma on President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The woman, named Breanna Danielle, believes the president engineered the hurricane to injure Hispanics.</p>
<p>“Did y’all realize 70% of Miami is Latino, Hispanic, or Cuban?? 44% of the Haitian population in the US resides in Miami,” she wrote to her followers. “Miami is like Houston in which it is FLOURISHING economically. Coincidence? Trump wants them off our land so what better way than to flood them out. Read between the lines people.”</p>
<p>The insanity of the suggestion that the president, or people in the government, had engineered a hurricane to target specific people had many on social media destroying the woman.</p>
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<p>People were stunned that it had more than 62,000 shares. But they figured it was shared to highlight the ridiculousness of the idea.</p>
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<p>Others took to mockery.</p>
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<p>Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast <a href="" type="internal">HERE</a></p> | Crazy! The theory that Trump created Hurricane Irma to eliminate Hispanics has been shared how many times? | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2017/09/06/crazy-theory-trump-created-hurricane-irma-eliminate-hispanics-shared-many-times-533362 | 2017-09-06 | 0 |
<p>Another Look at The Speech</p>
<p>A new translation of Bush’s victory address–courtesy of Secretary of Shizzolatin’ Snoop Dogg.</p>
<p>The prez chillin’ with his boyzz Ozzy and Snoop</p>
<p>Here is the president’s speech from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, <a href="" type="internal">restored to its original gangsta-ese.</a> I learned about <a href="http://asksnoop.com/" type="external">Snoop’s Shizzolator</a> from my colleague Brad Zellar, whose <a href="" type="internal">blog</a>is not war news-related but damn fine all the same.</p>
<p>The Battle for Iraq’s Oil: Backstory</p>
<p>A primer on what’s putting the US, Russia, and France at odds. A few days ago I said I’d be posting a links digest focusing on the roles and interests of the US and its two main Iraq war antagonists, Russia and France. <a href="" type="internal">Here it is,</a> but a word of advice: Do your eyes a favor and print it. It’s more than you’ll want at one sitting anyway.</p>
<p>Bremer: General Jay’s New Boss</p>
<p>Score one for Powell and the State Department–and so what?</p>
<p>At week’s close the Bush administration <a href="http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&amp;storyID=2675388" type="external">appointed a new overseer</a> to run the occupation of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. Bremer is a real prize–the Reagan administration’s one-time ambassador for counter-terrorism, a long-time associate of Henry Kissinger, and <a href="http://www.republicons.org/view_article.asp?RP_ARTICLE_ID=971" type="external">a hawk who is very tight with the Wolfowitz neo-cons.</a></p>
<p>In 1999 he was appointed Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism by Republican House leader Dennis Hastert. The Commission’s mandate was to review America’s counter-terrorism policies. In this capacity Bremer addressed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2000. He said “Iran is still the most egregious state-sponsor of terrorism, despite the election of a reformist president The Commission is concerned that recent American gestures toward Iran could be misinterpreted as a weakening of our resolve to counter Iranian terrorism.”</p>
<p>In this respect his views are identical to those of ultra-hawk Paul Wolfowitz who had classified Iran as the greatest threat to international proliferation in 1997.</p>
<p>Bremer’s antipathy toward Tehran is certainly not destined to mend fences with the religious Shiite majority in Iraq.</p>
<p>There’s your victory for “Powell moderates,” a class of folk who deserve harder scrutiny than they get. The Rumsfeld/Powell division within the Bush administration is not a struggle of light versus dark over the merit of foreign conquests–it’s a managerial-class squabble over how best to achieve those aims. The Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld faction wants to dispense with diplomacy and show the world that no one can hope to challenge the US militarily; the Powell faction wants to proceed more carefully and put the right political and legal gloss on things internationally.</p>
<p>Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George?</p>
<p>Not to mention all the other “secret” Iraqi documents found by the Telegraph.</p>
<p>Over the weekend I trolled around looking for more news about George Galloway, the anti-war British MP so sensationally accused of a business relationship with Saddam’s government in the UK press a couple of weeks ago. As you may recall (see BW’s <a href="" type="internal">4/22</a> and <a href="" type="internal">4/24</a>), those allegations were based on Iraqi intelligence documents that seem to have floated from the skies of Baghdad only to be “found” by reporters from the Telegraph and a number of papers.</p>
<p>All those secret intelligence reports seem to have dried up as quickly as they appeared, however. Perhaps they were made to self-destruct after a certain length of time, as in Mission: Impossible. Or maybe the trouble is that they’re coming to nothing. The best discussion of the “evidence” I’ve seen is right <a href="" type="internal">here at Counterpunch</a>, by Wayne Madsen, who writes: The problem with these documents is that they are being provided by the U.S. military to a few reporters working for a very suspect newspaper, London’s Daily Telegraph (affectionately known as the Daily Torygraph” by those who understand the paper’s right-wing slant).</p>
<p>The Guardian says <a href="" type="internal">British intelligence doubts the Galloway and Al-Qaeda “finds.”</a></p>
<p>There must be doubts about the documents’ authenticity. But even if they are genuine, intelligence services are notorious for hoarding tittle-tattle, exaggerating and distorting, not least to stress the importance of their own role in their bids for more funds. Heaven knows what we would find if the archives of MI5 and MI6–and the CIA and FBI–were plundered.</p>
<p>Yet, significantly, it is not ministers who are warning of the dangers of jumping to conclusions. It is the intelligence agencies themselves. “They do not take things further forward,” said an intelligence source about the Sunday Telegraph’s publication of Iraqi documents appearing to show that Baghdad was keen to meet an “al-Qaida envoy” in 1998.</p>
<p>And here is an <a href="http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=248194&amp;lang=e&amp;dir=news" type="external">interview with Galloway</a> from the Jordanian news site Al-Bawaba.</p>
<p>Contracts: Friends Helping Friends Help Themselves</p>
<p>The lede paragraph in <a href="" type="internal">this AP story</a> about changing USAID regulations for post-war rebuilding contracts says it all:</p>
<p>The agency awarding Iraq reconstruction contracts deleted its requirement for a security clearance after realizing it awarded a project to a company that lacked one, an internal report says.</p>
<p>UK Defense Chief: Let’s Wait on Next “Discretionary” War</p>
<p>Brit military needs post-coital cigarette and nap.</p>
<p>Sir Michael Boyce, who is about to retire as the UK’s top military commander, says that Tony Blair could not follow W into another war before the end of 2004 without “serious pain”: Admiral Boyce said that the Armed Forces could not handle another “discretionary” war, a conflict waged “by choice”, if it were launched in 2004. Speaking to defence journalists as part of his farewell, Admiral Boyce said that if the United Kingdom were threatened, every man and woman in the Services would fight to defend the country. However, a war in the style of the Iraqi campaign was not something that could be repeated again and again.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Read the rest.</a></p>
<p>Safqua: More About the “Secret Deal” for Baghdad</p>
<p>I’ve posted several items in the past couple of weeks about allegations that a secret arrangement between the US and elements of Saddam’s government led to the rapid fall of Baghdad, and now the world press is taking up the story in growing numbers. Back at the home page of <a href="" type="internal">Bush Wars</a> I have an item from last week that links to several of those stories.</p>
<p>Bush Dada</p>
<p>The Bush Wars site of the day.</p>
<p>The other day I asked for links to the best Bush flash animation and manipulated-sound files on the net, and reader Claude de Bogdan has sent along a gem–his own page of found-speech sound collages featuring Bush, Ashcroft, and others. Some of them are brilliant, and all are fun. Download ’em all!</p>
<p>They’re at <a href="http://www.happytimeworld.com/" type="external">happytime world.</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">This is a sampling from City Pages editor and Counterpunch contributor STEVE PERRY’s daily-updated</a> Bush Wars blog. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:sperry@citypages.com" type="external">sperry@citypages.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Bush’s Wars | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/05/03/bush-s-wars/ | 2003-05-03 | 4 |
<p><a href="https://2o16qp9prbv3jfk0qb3yon1a-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/infrastructure.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>At a summit in Beijing on Tuesday, China made global headlines by announcing that they would invest in a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan to connect the country to 65% of the world’s population.&#160; Calling it the&#160; <a href="https://qz.com/983460/obor-an-extremely-simple-guide-to-understanding-chinas-one-belt-one-road-forum-for-its-new-silk-road/" type="external">One Belt, One Road project</a>, the infrastructure plan would allow Chinese businesses to efficiently access markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.</p>
<p>As China gears up to begin work on its ambitious plan, America’s own crumbling infrastructure puts the nation at risk of being unable to compete in the 21st&#160;century economy. In fact,&#160; <a href="http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/" type="external">in its 2017 report</a>, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s infrastructure a D+, calling the US’s current investments in infrastructure systems, “woefully inadequate.” The implications of failing to update the nation’s antiquated transportation networks are severe and wide-ranging. &#160;For example, over-congested and outdated American airports risk losing the US $337 billion in GDP by 2025. And it’s not just run down airports that hamstring our country’s economic success. Deteriorating roads, bridges, ports, and inland waterways pose similar economic consequences.</p>
<p>China’s One Belt, One Road project should put pressure on U.S. lawmakers to craft an infrastructure plan that provides much needed improvements to America’s infrastructure systems. The good news is that support for this kind of legislation spans party lines: nearly 79% of respondents in&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/donald-trump-poll-spending-defense-infrastructure/" type="external">an</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/donald-trump-poll-spending-defense-infrastructure/" type="external">CNN/ORC poll</a>&#160;said&#160;they agreed with the increases in infrastructure spending in Trump’s most recent budget request.</p>
<p>If Congress needs help coming up (with) a bipartisan infrastructure proposal, we invite them to check out the ideas we have developed here at No Labels. For example, delays in regulatory approval for U.S. infrastructure projects costs our nation nearly $3.7 trillion. To tackle that problem, we think Congress should designate officials to streamline the outdated, redundant, and many times contradictory regulatory process for infrastructure projects. You can check out our other ideas to update America’s infrastructure&#160; <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p> | China showcases ambitious global infrastructure plan. US must follow suit. | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/china-showcases-ambitious-global-infrastructure-plan-us-must-follow-suit/ | 2017-05-17 | 2 |
<p>Long winters with lots of snowstorms are a perfect opportunity to cuddle up with some good books to keep you warm.</p>
<p>I checked in with the staff at <a href="http://www.gladdaybookshop.com/" type="external">Glad Day Bookshop</a>, the oldest LGBT bookstore in the world, about some of their favs and top sellers over the past month. With more and more offerings on the shelves from Black, Indigenous and Folks of color, I came up with a list of some of my pics for January’s favorite and top selling selections in <a href="https://www.patreon.com/gladday?ty=h" type="external">QLit</a> (Queer, Trans, 2 Spirit Literature)</p>
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<p>This book has been reviewed multiple times and made many a list and it’s easy to see why. ”A transformative memoir by a queer disabled woman of colour and abuse survivor. In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, carrying only two backpacks, caught a Greyhound bus in America and ran away to Canada.”</p>
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<p>I watched Grace Jones on stage at Afropunk topless rocking an entire park of people at 67 in 2015 and when she mentioned her upcoming biography, I couldn’t wait to find out what took her down this path. From her roots in Jamaica, to a career spanning decades, the book doesn’t disappoint, it is grand from beginning to end.</p>
<p>I’ve been a fan for at least a decade, Brown Girl In The Ring is one of the most important books I have read. Junior Díaz calls her one of ‘our most important writers’ and this current offering is nothing short of greatness. Falling in Love with Hominids presents more than a dozen years of Hopkinson’s new, uncollected fiction, much of which has been unavailable in print, mixing sci-fi and Afro-Caribbean folklore, her stories are vivid and varied.”</p>
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<p>Named Best Author in NOW Magazine’s 2015 Best of Toronto poll, Doctor tackles sex and her own inner prude in a book about a woman who works at an all inclusive resort in Mexico, from Hamilton, Ontario who explores swinging. In her <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/farzana-doctor-on-the-dark-side-of-vacationing-and-bill-richardson-on-the-funny-side-of-aging-1.3383121/farzana-doctor-on-swingers-spirituality-and-the-dark-side-of-resorts-1.3383126" type="external">interview</a> with the CBC she also talks the tension created in these environments by the disparities she noticed as a child visiting these resorts.</p>
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<p>A collection of 16 essays building on Indigenous knowledge systems and queer theory, this book is much needed. Indigenous Men and Masculinities highlights voices of Indigenous male writers, traditional knowledge keepers, ex-gang members, war veterans, fathers, youth, two-spirited people, and Indigenous men working to end violence against women. It offers a refreshing vision toward equitable societies that celebrate healthy and diverse masculinities.”</p>
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<p>Whether you have a long commute or just looking to stock up before the next east coast blizzard, any one of these books is a great addition to your collection.</p> | Feministing Reads: QLit Best Sellers | true | http://feministing.com/2016/01/29/feministing-reads-qlit-best-sellers/ | 4 | |
<p>Sleep apnea affects an estimated 18 million Americans and is not only disruptive because of loud snoring but is also a serious health condition. Mild sleep apnea may be corrected by weight loss and training the patient to sleep in positions other than on the back. In more serious cases, special devices or surgery may be necessary. Because of its invasiveness, surgery is usually a last resort. Unfortunately, the most often used devices, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, are noisy, cumbersome, and uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Now, there is a new option for those who suffer from sleep apnea that cannot be corrected with weight loss, sleep repositioning, or for those who cannot use CPAP machines. Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. received <a href="http://www.inspiresleep.com/pdf/FDA-Approval-Press-Release-final-20140501.pdf" type="external">approval</a> on Thursday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation (UAS) therapy to patients with moderate to severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). The therapy involves the implantation of a device that senses breathing patterns and stimulates muscles in the problem areas to constrict and keep the airway open.</p>
<p>“All of us at Inspire Medical Systems are committed to improving the health and quality of life for these individuals with OSA, and we are excited to make this innovative and much needed treatment available to patients and physicians,” said Tim Herbert, Inspire Medical Systems president and CEO.</p>
<p>Patients who suffer from OSA experience periodic relaxation of the tongue muscles and collapses of the airway, resulting in blocked respiration for anywhere from ten seconds to a minute while the sleeping person struggles to breathe. This results in interrupted sleep, next-day drowsiness, chronic oxygen deprivation, and more long-term cardiovascular effects such as high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.</p>
<p>“Patients with moderate to severe OSA who are not on effective treatment are at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, accidents and death,” said Meir Kryger at Yale School of Medicine. “There is a significant need for safe, effective and well-tolerated new treatments in the sleep medicine field.”</p>
<p /> | FDA approves ‘pacemaker’ for treating sleep apnea | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/05/02/fda-approves-pacemaker-for-treating-sleep-apnea/ | 2014-05-02 | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s permanent funds grew by $1.9 billion, or 14.26 percent and well above the target of 7.5 percent, in 2012, according to a report presented to the State Investment Council on Tuesday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Investments from the permanent funds earned about double what the council has been shooting for annually,” said SIC spokesman Charlie Wollmann. “If you look at performance by investment sector, the majority are outperforming their benchmarks. That’s something we haven’t seen in years.”</p>
<p>The SIC won’t know for a couple of weeks how last year’s fund performance compares with other funds nationwide. But Deputy State Investment Officer Vincent Smith told the council New Mexico is consistently performing in the top third quartile or better.</p>
<p>“In nine of the last 11 quarters, New Mexico has been at the top of the stack,” Smith said.</p>
<p>Improved returns reflect the success of reforms enacted by the SIC following pay-to-play scandals that rocked the council in previous years, Smith said.</p>
<p>The council fired more than a dozen underperforming investment managers in the past two years. It reallocated about $7 billion in assets to new managers hired through bidding processes. And it cut internal management of investments from about 40 percent of assets to less than 10 percent.</p>
<p>The state now has about $16.27 billion in its permanent funds. That includes about $11.45 billion in the Land Grant Fund, and $4 billion in the Severance Tax Fund. — This article appeared on page B1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Permanent Funds Post Big Gains | false | https://abqjournal.com/162513/permanent-funds-post-big-gains.html | 2 | |
<p>Today police in New York City allowed protesters from the Occupy Wall Street rallies to march onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Shortly after they arrested hundreds of protesters for blocking traffic on the bridge, even though they’d allowed them to enter it.</p>
<p>Here you can clearly see NYPD officers leading protesters onto the bridge:</p>
<p>The New York times published an article on their website, explaining the true nature of what had happened. 20 minutes later they had changed it, to make it seem like the police had no blame in this incident.</p>
<p>The man who edited the article has strong ties to the New York Police Department. You can read his bio here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/business/media/13askthetimes.html" type="external">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/business/media/13askthetimes.html</a></p>
<p>Below are screenshots of the same article, side by side. Clearly the New York Times would rather protect the police than report the truth.</p>
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<p>Image from https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=o.184749301592842&amp;type=1</p> | New York Times Blatantly Edits Article About Occupy Wall Street To Protect Police (IMAGE) | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2011/10/01/new-york-times-blatantly-edits-article-about-occupy-wall-street-to-protect-police-image/ | 2011-10-01 | 4 |
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<p>FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A Kayenta woman who attempted to cross the railroad tracks in Flagstaff while the gates were down and the lights flashing has died.</p>
<p>Flagstaff police say 19-year-old Silynthia Austin was killed Saturday morning.</p>
<p>Austin and a man had been standing on the railroad tracks as two trains were traveling opposite directions. As the westbound train passed, the two attempted to cross before the eastbound train reached the intersection.</p>
<p>Police say the man made it across the tracks but Austin did not.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Kayenta woman killed while trying to cross railroad tracks | false | https://abqjournal.com/728753/kayenta-woman-killed-while-trying-to-cross-railroad-tracks.html | 2 | |
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<p>Last week, the CEO of M&amp;T Bank addressed shareholders at the bank's annual meeting. But while Robert Wilmers touched on his bank's performance in 2015, he dedicated more time to talking about the decline of small business in America, what that means for job creation, and the role that lenders have played in the troubling trend.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Small businesses have long been a main driver of job creation. In the 1980s, entrepreneurs generated 58% of net new jobs, Wilmers observed. This figure, however, has since dropped. It fell to 49% in the 1990s, and is down to 31% today.</p>
<p>Data source: M&amp;T Bank. Chart by author.</p>
<p>You can get a sense for the magnitude of this decline by looking at the raw numbers. From 1994 through 1999, new businesses created an average of 4.5 million jobs a year. This fell to 3.9 million from the year 2000 to the financial crisis of 2008. And since the crisis, new businesses have created an average of only 2.8 million new jobs a year.</p>
<p>Lost somewhere in the ether are roughly 1.7 million new jobs that small businesses used to create each year but no longer do.</p>
<p>Many factors no doubt play into this decline, but the availability of credit ranks at the top. It's often said that credit is the lifeblood of an economy. But even more important for small businesses, credit is the spark that brings them to life.</p>
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<p>The problem is that getting loans has gotten harder for small businesses, which tend to fall between the cracks at the nation's biggest banks. Consumer loans such as mortgages and credit cards benefit from a standardized and streamlined origination process. Loans to big businesses offer economies of scale, which offset the individualized attention that's needed to analyze a business' creditworthiness. But loans to small business offer neither of these advantages.</p>
<p>M&amp;T Bank Chairman and CEO Robert Wilmers. Image source: M&amp;T Bank.</p>
<p>Banks have thus begun to step back from the market segment. According to Community Reinvestment Act data cited by Wilmers, loans for less than $1 million are 34.9% below their pre-crisis level. That equates to a $115 billion drop since 2007. As the M&amp;T Bank CEO went on to note:</p>
<p>The solution to this problem, many believe, lies in new lending models being explored by Fintech companies. Funding Circle serves as a case in point, offering business loans of up to $500,000. Its home page promises "fast, affordable business loans for the millions of American small businesses who the banks have left behind."</p>
<p>But the amount of capital provided by Fintech companies has thus far been a drop in the bucket compared to the decline in conventional bank lending. Funding Circle has lent a mere $2 billion to small businesses globally. And while Lending Club, the leader among this new breed, has extended $16 billion worth of credit since 2009, only a portion of that has gone to businesses, as opposed to consumers seeking to refinance existing loans or consolidate credit card debt.</p>
<p>Additionally, Fintech companies can't offer the same level of individualized attention and localized knowledge to borrowers that community and regional banks like M&amp;T Bank can. The significance of this isn't obvious now, but will be when the credit cycle takes a turn for the worse. Whereas community banks have a vested interest in supporting local borrowers, online lenders have little motivation to do the same.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, not all forms of financing are created equal," Wilmers said in his address to M&amp;T Bank shareholders.</p>
<p>The solution to the decline of small business is far from clear. However, to Wilmers' point, given the role that new companies play in job creation, it makes sense why the CEO of one of the top-performing banks over the past three decades believed it was worthwhile to discuss the topic at M&amp;T Bank's annual meeting.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/25/the-decline-of-small-business-explained-by-mt-bank.aspx" type="external">The Decline of Small Business, Explained by M&amp;T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/JohnMaxfield37/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">John Maxfield Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Decline of Small Business, Explained by M&T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/25/decline-small-business-explained-by-mt-bank-ceo-robert-wilmers.html | 2016-04-25 | 0 |
<p>Oil prices fell from a two-month high on Tuesday as investors once again began to doubt OPEC's ability to curtail production and make a dent in the global supply glut.</p>
<p>Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled down $1.01, or 2%, to $49.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, snapping a six-session winning streak that led prices above $50 a barrel for the first time since May 24. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 94 cents, or 1.8%, to $51.78 a barrel.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Signs of increasing production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have negated reassuring rhetoric by leading member Saudi Arabia, analysts said, which has announced plans to cap exports and enforce compliance in curtailing output.</p>
<p>The cartel, along with several other major oil-producing nations, agreed to cut production late last year and have extended the deal through March 2018. Still, prices have dropped in 2017 as market players become more doubtful of OPEC's influence on global crude stocks. Meanwhile, U.S. shale activity has ramped up in response, helping offset the cuts from OPEC.</p>
<p>A Reuters survey this week showed OPEC production climbing in July to the highest level since December 2016, as Libya increased supply and some members slipped in compliance with the deal.</p>
<p>"The realization that OPEC oil production is at its highest level this year is undercutting some of the recent strength," said John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital. "I think there's a lot of skepticism."</p>
<p>Cargo tracking data has also indicated that OPEC exports increased in July despite the production deal, according to Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.</p>
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<p>"You've got the market really hesitant at this point to make any decisive move above $50 a barrel," Mr. Fraser said.</p>
<p>Traders will be watching for storage data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, due at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Prices have rallied in recent weeks on signs of declining supply in the U.S. as stockpiles have fallen six out of the past seven weeks.</p>
<p>Recent gains have also prompted some traders to take profits ahead of the EIA data, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy-advisory firm Ritterbusch &amp; Associates.</p>
<p>Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect on average that crude stockpiles will decline by 3.1 million barrels in the week ended Friday.</p>
<p>The storage reports are "especially big right now," Mr. Fraser said. "If you want to point to a single justification of why prices have been able to claw their way back...those stock draws are really going to need to keep happening."</p>
<p>The closing of Europe's largest oil refinery also raised some speculation that a decline in consumption of crude from refiners could hurt oil demand. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the operator, said the facility may not reopen until later this month.</p>
<p>Neanda Salvaterra contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com</p>
<p>Oil prices fell from a two-month high on Tuesday as investors once again began to doubt OPEC's ability to curtail production and make a dent in the global supply glut.</p>
<p>Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled down $1.01, or 2%, to $49.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, snapping a six-session winning streak that led prices above $50 a barrel for the first time since May 24. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 94 cents, or 1.8%, to $51.78 a barrel.</p>
<p>Signs of increasing production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have negated reassuring rhetoric by leading member Saudi Arabia, analysts said, which has announced plans to cap exports and enforce compliance in curtailing output.</p>
<p>The cartel, along with several other major oil-producing nations, agreed to cut production late last year and have extended the deal through March 2018. Still, prices have dropped in 2017 as market players become more doubtful of OPEC's influence on global crude stocks. Meanwhile, U.S. shale activity has ramped up in response, helping offset the cuts from OPEC.</p>
<p>A Reuters survey this week showed OPEC production climbing in July to the highest level since December 2016, as Libya increased supply and some members slipped in compliance with the deal.</p>
<p>"The realization that OPEC oil production is at its highest level this year is undercutting some of the recent strength," said John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital. "I think there's a lot of skepticism."</p>
<p>Cargo tracking data has also indicated that OPEC exports increased in July despite the production deal, according to Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.</p>
<p>"You've got the market really hesitant at this point to make any decisive move above $50 a barrel," Mr. Fraser said.</p>
<p>Traders will be watching for storage data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, due at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Prices have rallied in recent weeks on signs of declining supply in the U.S. as stockpiles have fallen six out of the past seven weeks.</p>
<p>Recent gains have also prompted some traders to take profits ahead of the EIA data, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy-advisory firm Ritterbusch &amp; Associates.</p>
<p>Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect on average that crude stockpiles will decline by 3.1 million barrels in the week ended Friday.</p>
<p>The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said late Tuesday that its own data for the week showed a 1.8 million-barrel increase in crude supplies, a 4.8 million-barrel fall in gasoline stocks and a 1.2 million-barrel decrease in distillate inventories, according to a market participant.</p>
<p>The storage reports are "especially big right now," Mr. Fraser said. "If you want to point to a single justification of why prices have been able to claw their way back...those stock draws are really going to need to keep happening."</p>
<p>The closing of Europe's largest oil refinery also raised some speculation that a decline in consumption of crude from refiners could hurt oil demand. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the operator, said the facility may not reopen until later this month.</p>
<p>Neanda Salvaterra contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 01, 2017 17:15 ET (21:15 GMT)</p> | Oil Prices Fall as OPEC Doubts Emerge | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/01/oil-prices-fall-as-opec-doubts-emerge0.html | 2017-08-01 | 0 |
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<p>Santa Fe firefighters lead the 2013 Veterans Day parade down Washington Street toward the Plaza on Monday. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe wore its heart on its sleeve Monday with a Veterans Day commemoration emphasizing those wounded in combat.</p>
<p>“When you see that Purple Heart on a young man or young woman – or in our case, older young men and women – you know, for one thing, they’ve been in combat somewhere and, two, they were unfortunate enough to be wounded,” said Pete Comstock, state commander of the New Mexico Military Order of the Purple Heart.</p>
<p>“And their recovery sometimes is pretty darn tough,” he said.</p>
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<p>Comstock urged the community to remember and appreciate its veterans during the keynote speech at a ceremony held Monday morning at the Santa Fe Veterans Memorial on Galisteo Street. Comstock also served as grand marshal for the parade that preceded the ceremony.</p>
<p>Comstock spent four years in the Army and was injured in Vietnam after being shot at and hit by a hand grenade.</p>
<p>Ernest “Tap” Tapley of the 10th Mountain Division attends the Veterans Day ceremony at the Santa Fe Veterans Memorial on Monday. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>In many ways, Comstock said, the veterans of today’s wars remind him of the Vietnam veterans who arrived home with their own challenges nearly five decades ago.</p>
<p>“Our gratitude should be expressed not only one day a year but stand as an abiding commitment every day of the year,” he said.</p>
<p>Comstock was joined at the ceremony by more than a half-dozen Santa Fe-based Purple Heart recipients, others who served in the military and members of the community.</p>
<p>More than 5,000 veterans live in the Santa Fe area.</p>
<p>Santa Fe area resident David Roybal called the support he and his fellow veterans receive from the community on Veterans Day overwhelming. For Roybal, the ceremony and other gatherings are a time to meet up with friends and get to know people “you weren’t even sure were veterans.”</p>
<p>Roybal said he spent seven years in the military. While serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, he took shrapnel blasts to the neck, leg and arm. He was given a Purple Heart in 1967.</p>
<p>HM2 Rebecca Sanders of the U.S. Navy, front, and Purple Heart recipient Melvin Lewis salute during the posting of the colors Monday at the Santa Fe Veterans Memorial. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>“It’s important for us, the veterans, and also the people to recognize and remember their soldiers, their relatives, people that served, the people that didn’t make it back. It’s very important to remember,” Roybal said.</p>
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<p>Shad Longenette was another Vietnam War veteran who made the trek to the Veterans Memorial.</p>
<p>Longenette said he joined the military after flunking out of college as an architecture student. He ended up working as a hospital corpsman in Vietnam in the late 1960s.</p>
<p>It was the start of what turned out to be a decades-long career for Longenette. After he was discharged from the military, he went back to school to study pharmacy and worked in the field right up until his retirement last year.</p>
<p>Longenette said the public’s current embrace of veterans is important.</p>
<p>“Most Vietnam veterans, when they see each other, they welcome each other home because they didn’t get welcomed home in those days,” he said.</p>
<p>Dogs hang out with their owner Monday along the route of the Veterans Day parade in Santa Fe. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
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<p>[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G000084aPeWUHUpI” g_name=”Veteran-s-Day-2013″ width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]</p> | Purple Hearts on parade in Santa Fe | false | https://abqjournal.com/299415/purple-hearts-on-parade-in-santa-fe.html | 2013-11-12 | 2 |
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<p>VALENCIA, Venezuela — Soldiers battled for three hours Sunday morning against a small band of anti-government fighters who snuck onto a Venezuelan army base, apparently intent on fomenting an uprising, President Nicolas Maduro said.</p>
<p>Troops killed two of the intruders, wounded another and captured seven, but 10 others got away, the embattled leader announced in his weekly broadcast on state television.</p>
<p>“We know where they are headed and all of our military and police force is deployed,” Maduro said. He said he would ask for “the maximum penalty for those who participated in this terrorist attack.”</p>
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<p>The incident happened during the early morning hours at the Paramacay base in the central city of Valencia. Residents who live nearby said they heard repeated bursts of gunfire starting around 4:30 a.m.</p>
<p>A video showing more than a dozen men dressed in military fatigues, some carrying rifles, began circulating widely on social media around that time. In the recording, a man who identified himself as Capt. Juan Caguaripano said the men were members of the military who oppose Maduro’s socialist government and called on military units to declare themselves in open rebellion.</p>
<p>“This is not a coup d’etat,” the man said. “This is a civic and military action to re-establish the constitutional order.”</p>
<p>Twenty men entered the base, catching soldiers on night watch by surprise, Maduro said. The intruders managed to reach the base’s weapons depot before an alarm sounded, alerting troops to the incursion. He said 10 of the invaders then escaped, some carrying off arms, while those left behind exchanged gunfire with soldiers until about 8 a.m. before all were either killed or captured.</p>
<p>“Today we had to defeat terrorism with bullets,” Maduro said.</p>
<p>Residents who live nearby and saw the dissident group’s video online gathered around the military base chanting “Freedom!” Other protests also emerged spontaneously around Valencia into the afternoon.</p>
<p>Troops dispersed the protesters with tear gas and a man was fatally shot at a demonstration less than a mile from the base, said Haydee Franco, coordinating secretary of the opposition Progressive Advance party. More than 120 people have been reported killed in unrest that began in early April.</p>
<p>Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez characterized the attackers as a “paramilitary” expedition, saying the intruders were civilians dressed in uniforms. He did not identify any of the participants, but said they included a lieutenant who had abandoned his post. He said the man who recorded the video was a former officer dismissed three years ago after being charged with rebellion and betraying the homeland.</p>
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<p>In 2014, Caguaripano released a 12-minute video denouncing Maduro during a previous wave of anti-government unrest. He later reportedly sought exile after a military tribunal ordered his arrest, appearing in an interview on CNN en Espanol to draw attention to what he said was discontent within military ranks.</p>
<p>He returned to Venezuela to lead Sunday’s uprising, said Giomar Flores, a mutinous naval officer now in Bogota, Colombia, who said he is a spokesman for the group.</p>
<p>Padrino Lopez alleged the attackers were recruited by “right-wing extremists” working with unspecified foreign governments. Maduro said the attack was “paid for by Miami and Colombia” — cities with large numbers of Venezuelans who oppose his government. Neither provided specific details on how they had come to that conclusion.</p>
<p>“Today’s terrorist attack is no more than a propaganda show,” Padrino Lopez said.</p>
<p>Venezuela’s latest bout of political unrest erupted in protest to a Supreme Court decision in late March ordering the opposition-controlled National Assembly dissolved. Although the order was quickly annulled, near-daily demonstrations snowballed into a general protest calling for a new presidential election.</p>
<p>Opposition leaders have urged the military, which historically has served as an arbiter of Venezuela’s political disputes, to break with Maduro over what his foes consider violations of the constitution.</p>
<p>But the president is believed to still have the military’s support. He and his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chavez, worked diligently to assure their allegiance.</p>
<p>Like Sunday’s uprising, most manifestations of dissent among troops have been small and isolated thus far.</p>
<p>“It’s still very hard to know to what extent there are significant divisions within the military,” Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said recently.</p>
<p>The attack capped an already tense weekend during which a new constitutional assembly that will rule with nearly unlimited powers voted to remove chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz.</p>
<p>Ortega Diaz, a longtime government loyalist who has become one of Maduro’s most outspoken critics, reiterated her refusal to recognize that decision at a public appearance alongside opposition leaders Sunday.</p>
<p>“I am still Venezuela’s chief prosecutor,” she said to applause.</p>
<p>The assembly ordered her replaced by Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, who was recently sanctioned by Washington for failing to protect protesters from abuses in his role as the nation’s top human rights official.</p>
<p>In his Sunday address, Maduro defended the constitutional assembly’s right to remove Ortega Diaz, comparing it to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to fire acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she publicly questioned his immigration order shortly after taking office in January.</p>
<p>He also announced that a new “truth commission” was being installed Sunday, setting up its offices in a historic building in Caracas that also houses the Ministry of Foreign Relations. The commission will have the right to require those it summons to testify and those who lie can be charged with perjury, the president said.</p>
<p>Maduro said the assembly is considering creating a law against “hate, intolerance and fascism” that would immediately punish those responsible for the current upheaval.</p>
<p>Maduro frequently refers to opposition leaders and protesters as “fascists.”</p>
<p>The president singled out Julio Borges, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, warning him, “Justice is coming for you and the terrorists you’ve helped advance.”</p>
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<p>Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Christine Armario in Miami and Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.</p> | Venezuela troops quash anti-Maduro attack on military base | false | https://abqjournal.com/1043997/venezuela-official-reports-attack-at-military-base-arrests.html | 2017-08-06 | 2 |
<p>Shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) have tripled over the last 52 weeks, driven by the one-two punch of <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/03/why-nvidia-stock-tripled-in-2016.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">a successful Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/03/why-nvidia-stock-tripled-in-2016.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Pascal launch Opens a New Window.</a> and brand-new business opportunities in markets like automotive computing.</p>
<p>That's great news for longtime NVIDIA owners but not very useful for new investors. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and it's often better to settle for more modest growth for a longer time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>On that note, I'd like to show you a handful of stocks that have doubled over the last year -- and appear to have plenty of rocket fuel left in their tanks today. Read on to see why I'm shining a high-growth spotlight on STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI), Momo (NASDAQ: MOMO), and Meritor (NYSE: MTOR).</p>
<p>The data above shows, in stark black and white, that NVIDIA shares are trading at an extremely rich valuation right now while many other high-growth stocks offer a balance between strong performance and modest market prices. The growth-adjusted PEG ratio weighs future earnings growth estimates against the plain old P/E ratio to give a rough estimate of the stock price's fairness. Values between 1.0 and 2.0 are seen as a measure of fair valuation, with larger figures pointing to overvaluation and smaller ones leading the way toward bargain-basement discounts.</p>
<p>China-based social network operator Momo is perhaps the best example of this, offering both faster share price gains than NVIDIA and a milder price tag. This combination of high growth and low P/E ratios should satisfy both growth junkies and value hounds. If online dating has a future in China, it would make sense to see an early leader in that space making the most of its first-mover advantage -- and <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/06/3-chinese-stocks-that-could-grow-the-most-in-2017.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Momo is known as the Chinese version of Tinder Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Semiconductor maker STMicro has found its sea legs again after a rough patch. Three years of shrinking sales have bounced back to modest growth again, and both EBITDA profits and free cash flows are skyrocketing. Like Momo, STMicro's stock is selling at eminently reasonable prices today. This is a turnaround story in progress, built on the company's strong portfolio of products for the Internet of Things and <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/12/the-biggest-reason-to-own-nxp-semiconductors-nv-to.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">automotive computing Opens a New Window.</a>. Yep, those are secular market trends with lasting value -- and a good place to start a sustainable growth trajectory.</p>
<p>Industrial and military vehicle parts maker Meritor takes the PEG discounts to a whole new level and seems poised to triple on short notice. Despite falling annual sales, analysts expect Meritor's earnings to grow by at least 10% a year for the next half-decade. Importantly, the company is putting together a portfolio of drivetrains for electric trucks. Ready to exploit the upcoming electric vehicle megatrend, Meritor may very well exceed Wall Street's long-term growth projections, making the current rock-bottom P/E ratio look even sillier in hindsight. As the trucking industry evolves, Meritor stands ready to follow suit -- and investors don't appear to expect that kind of staying power.</p>
<p>Finally, shares of printed circuit board builder TTM Technologies are trading at less than 10 times trailing earnings but the company is tapping into high-growth opportunities such as flagship smartphones and -- you guessed it! -- automotive computing. In the car-based computing market, TTM can supply circuit boards for the data-crunching units themselves but also for the plethora of digital environment sensors that will be necessary for <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/11/the-levels-of-self-driving-explained.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Level 4 and Level 5 self-driving cars Opens a New Window.</a>. The true long-term value of this stock looks stupendous, and yet shares are trading in the bargain bin.</p>
<p>All of these stocks have more than doubled over the last year, and all four look ready to crush both the market's and NVIDIA's returns starting today.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like even better than MomoWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFZahrim/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Anders Bylund Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Momo. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ce93b530-6325-11e7-b579-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Forget NVIDIA Corporation: These 4 Stocks Doubled Last Year | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/08/forget-nvidia-corporation-these-4-stocks-doubled-last-year.html | 2017-07-08 | 0 |
<p>Julio Maldonado faces flying into an uncertain future if federal authorities succeed in deporting this former construction worker to Peru, the South American country he left 39-years-ago as a three-year-old child.</p>
<p>Maldonado faces deportation due to dictates of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).</p>
<p>This law requires expulsion of both illegal immigrants and legal aliens like Maldonado who have criminal records.</p>
<p>Maldonado’s predicament is truly Kafkaesque from the circumstances producing his criminal record to the fact that federal authorities imprisoned him for four years based on his refusal to sign his deportation papers.</p>
<p>Maldonado resisted the deportation stressing he was wrongfully convicted, a claim supported by medical evidence, a jury’s verdict and a judicial ruling.</p>
<p>The case involving Maldonado and his cousin Denis Calderon has become a mini-controversy in Philadelphia, Pa, the city where they were convicted in 1997.</p>
<p>The prosecutor who convicted these cousins – Seth Williams – is widely recognized as front-runner in this year’s race to become Philadelphia’s next District Attorney. If the highly qualified Williams wins the November election as expected, he will become the first African-American elected as Philadelphia’s top prosecutor.</p>
<p>Williams terms the predicament of Maldonado and Calderon (who also faces deportation to Peru) “unfortunate” but Williams vigorously denies that their convictions constitute a miscarriage of justice.</p>
<p>“What I did in that case was stand up for the victim!” Williams said recently. “Maldonado and Calderon were found guilty.”</p>
<p>An advocate for Maldonado/Calderon, their cousin Maria Rolon, decries the convictions and deportation of her kin as unjust persecution. “They were the victims of a hate crime and have been discriminated against since then,” said Rolon, whose advocacy actions include creating a website <a href="http://denisandjulioandfaith.com/" type="external">http://denisandjulioandfaith.com/</a>.</p>
<p>In August 1996 Maldonado and Calderon were attacked in the Oxford Circle section of Northeast Philadelphia by a crowd of drunken white males shouting racist slurs.</p>
<p>Maldonado, who lived in New York City at the time, was visiting Calderon who lived in Oxford Circle, the only Latino family in a predominately white area.</p>
<p>When the cousins walked towards a neighborhood bar to buy a beer, crowd members confronted them, shouting anti-black slurs, mistakenly thinking they were African-American.</p>
<p>When Calderon told crowd members that he and Maldonado were Latinos the slurs shifted from N-word based to anti-Hispanic epithets. As the cousins retreated towards Calderon’s home members of the crowd chased them, raining beer bottles on them before pouncing.</p>
<p>During that attack, one member of the crowd, 18-year-old Christian Saladino, collapsed and was hospitalized comatose. Police arrested the cousins after crowd members told police the cousins attacked them and pounded Saladino with metal objects.</p>
<p>Police did not lodge any charges against any of the drunken attackers who freely admitted using racist slurs, throwing bottles and battling with the cousins.</p>
<p>Calderon says one drunk slugged him as he talked with a policeman and the officer ignored that assault. Yet when Calderon sought to hit that attacker, the policeman handcuffed Calderon.</p>
<p>Seemingly biased police enforcement in racially charged incidents is a recurring problem in the predominately white Northeast section of Philadelphia. Rolon said police and prosecutors also ignored the intense intimidation unleashed on neighbors supportive of Calderon.</p>
<p>While Seth Williams currently characterizes that 1996 clash as a “street fight” between “a large crowd of white teenagers” and the two Hispanic males, Rolon says that attack by a “racist mob” forced her cousins to defend themselves.</p>
<p>Williams concedes the cousins had a right to self-defense but says the pair lost their right to self-defense when they escalated the fight by using weapons: a baseball bat and a ‘Club’ auto steering wheel lock.</p>
<p>Williams argued in court that Saladino was an innocent bystander who Maldonado maliciously struck on the base of his skull with the ‘Club.’ That blow, Williams said recent, triggered a hemorrhage that incapacitated Saladino.</p>
<p>Maldonado had taken the ‘Club’ from his car as attackers pummeled him.</p>
<p>Maldonado admitted swinging the ‘Club’ at a man he saw stabbing Calderon but testified that he merely grazed the shoulder of this assailant prosecutor Williams later championed in court as “the victim” – Saladino.</p>
<p>After Maldonado freed Calderon from those men bashing him, Calderon ran into his house, telling his wife to call 911. Rolon said Calderon went back outside to rescue Maldonado from the crowd, taking a bat with him because crowd members were on his porch threatening to burn the house down.</p>
<p>Williams says Calderon should have waited for police to arrive instead of leaving his house armed with that baseball bat.</p>
<p>Williams, Philadelphia’s former Inspector General, remains convinced that Maldonado blow caused Saladino’s coma.</p>
<p>Williams maintains this position despite no medical records specifically documenting blunt force trauma as the cause of Saladino’s collapse. For example, medical records cited in the most recent Pa appellate ruling in this case list the cause of Saladino’s collapse and subsequent coma as “unknown.”</p>
<p>EMT personnel who treated Saladino at the clash scene, ER doctors and CAT scans did not find any signs of blunt force trauma to Saladino’s head or body consistent with accounts from Saladino’s friends who testified later that the cousins brutally beat Saladino on the head, back and stomach with those metal objects.</p>
<p>Tests did prove that Saladino was legally drunk at the time of his collapse. EMT personnel suspected a drug overdose and gave an overdose countering injection. Medical tests were not performed to determine drug levels in Saladino’s body.</p>
<p>Rolon faults Williams for downplaying that Calderon was a hard-working family man and homeowner with “no reason to attack twenty drunks.” She also scores Williams for sidestepping Saladino’s history of arrests for violence which undercuts contentions that Saladino was a mere bystander.</p>
<p>One appellate ruling noted an arrest of Saladino days before the brawl for attacking a policeman. Williams says Saladino’s record was irrelevant to the fact that he was viciously beaten. Saladino collapsed in front of Calderon’s house. According to testimony, Saladino ran to the street in front of Calderon’s house after the fight started.</p>
<p>A Philadelphia judge convicted the cousins on assault and conspiracy charges in 1997, accepting contradictory testimony from members of that drunken, racist-slur spewing crowd. The cousins received identical 2-10-year sentences.</p>
<p>When Saladino died two years after the clash, prosecutors filed murder charges against Maldonado and Calderon contending the young man’s death was a direct result of the beating.</p>
<p>But a jury acquitted the cousins based largely on testimony from a forensic pathologist who provided evidence that Saladino’s rare blood disorder most likely caused his 1996 collapse.</p>
<p>A report prepared by that pathologist prior to the murder trial stated it was his “opinion that Christian Saladino could have collapsed as the result of either a pre-existing natural disease process or drugs of abuse. However, his medical condition was not as the result of being struck by an instrument/weapon such as a club.”</p>
<p>That pathologist did not testify during the assault trial.</p>
<p>That murder trial medical testimony caused the Philadelphia judge who initially convicted the cousins to overturn their clash related convictions.</p>
<p>But prosecutors appealed that judge’s ruling, securing reinstatement of those clash convictions on a technicality that contradicted their position during the assault trial of the cousins.</p>
<p>Prosecutors successfully argued that the failure of the pathologist to testify at the assault trial did not harm the cousin’s defense because their trial lawyers got the prosecution’s principal medical expert to admit that no records showed Saladino’s condition stemmed from external trauma like a beating.</p>
<p>Yes, prosecutors conceded in appellate court what they had denied in trial court: no medical records documented that the glancing blow from Maldonado and/or the alleged beating by Calderon caused Saladino’s collapse.</p>
<p>After Maldonado and Calderon served more than two years in prison for the clash related conviction, federal authorities initiated deportation proceedings. When the cousins refused to assist with their deportation by signing required papers, the feds imprisoned them in 2005 for failing to cooperate.</p>
<p>Maldonado served four years in a Pennsylvania jail contracted by federal immigration authorities.&#160; Calderon remains in an immigration prison in Pa serving the sentence for refusing to sign his deportation papers. Federal authorities re-imprisoned Maldonado shortly after his release months ago and now push for his deportation to Peru.</p>
<p>“My cousins are innocent and we know that once they are deported, it’s a permanent exile,” Rolon said.</p>
<p>“I didn’t want to go public with this. I just wanted Seth to do the right thing, acknowledge that my cousins were victims and oppose their deportation,” said Rolon,</p>
<p>“We’ve been told that Julio was sent to Louisiana and apparently will be deported,” said Rolon said who’s petitioned Pa’s Governor Ed Rendell for a full pardon and is separately petitioning Homeland Security officials to stay her cousins deportation until Rendell decides the pardon request.</p>
<p>Defenders of Seth Williams say he did his job properly in prosecuting Maldonado/Calderon for assault, the later murder charge and challenging their appeals.</p>
<p>In a fair system prosecutors would actively seek to right wrongful convictions.</p>
<p>A Pa Supreme Court ruling in 1889 declared that the duty of prosecutors is to seek “justice only…and it is as much the duty of the district attorney to see that no innocent man suffers as it is to see that no guilty man escapes.”</p>
<p>However, in Philadelphia’s often perverted justice system, prosecutors routinely pursue justice crushing convict-at-all-costs practices that frequently involve bending or breaking the law.</p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds of the cases where Pa courts overturned convictions due to misconduct by prosecutors originated in Philadelphia according to an extensive investigation conducted by The Center for Public Integrity examining a 33-year period.</p>
<p>Compounding convict-at-all-costs practices by Philly prosecutors is their penchant for clawing to maintain tainted convictions.</p>
<p>Courts have faulted some famous Philly prosecutors for foul practices.</p>
<p>The Pa Supreme Court, in a stinging 1978 ruling, blasted a then former Philly DA Office official for “misleading” testimony in a murder case where he helped his former colleagues perpetrate “a fraud” to secure a conviction.</p>
<p>The name of the official specifically cited in that ruling is Ed Rendell, Pa’s Governor who served two terms as Philadelphia District Attorney.</p>
<p>Changing the “culture” among Philadelphia prosecutors – including eliminating convict-at-all-costs practices – is a key campaign pledge of Seth Williams…a pledge that Rolon and others wonder if Williams will fulfill.</p>
<p>LINN WASHINGTON JR. is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune who writes frequently about justice system issues.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Kafkaesque Deportation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/10/21/a-kafkaesque-deportation/ | 2009-10-21 | 4 |
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<p>An El Paso tourism website was giving an open invitation to Sun Bowl visitors — in town on New Year’s Eve to watch Miami vs. Notre Dame — to make a trip across the border to its sister city Juarez.</p>
<p>Trouble is, Juarez has become the murder capital of the Western Hemisphere, if not the world, and the Sun Bowl page on the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau has been taken down, El Paso television station <a href="http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/26070677/detail.html" type="external">KFOX</a> reported.</p>
<p>After KFOX brought the ad to the visitors bureau’s attention, staffers removed the information and all other references to Juarez and its attractions.</p>
<p>“It was an oversight, and we have removed it,” General Manager Bill Blaziek told the station. “Naturally, we’re not talking about visiting our sister city Juarez at this time.”</p>
<p>Blaziek said the Convention and Visitors Bureau has been discouraging travel to Mexico since the U.S. State Department issued its first travel warning a couple of years ago, KFOX said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 5:50am — On Second Thought, Don’t Go | false | https://abqjournal.com/10586/550am-on-second-thought-dont-go.html | 2 | |
<p />
<p>(from a talk at a Burlington, Vermont Town Meeting titled "Can We Vote to End The War?" Feb. 18, 2004)</p>
<p>I have never voted in the general election for a presidential candidate from one of the two major parties. The reason for this isn’t because I don’t believe in electoral politics–in fact, I usually vote for the various other offices on the ballot and make my mark regarding bond issues and so on. No, the reason I haven’t voted for a presidential candidate is because there has never been a mainstream candidate that expresses even half of what I believe in. Unlike the mainstream media, I actually look at the substance of the candidates’ messages, not just the style that they deliver them in.</p>
<p>This year a lot of my friends are in the camp that would vote for Anyone-But-Bush. Because of my deep disgust for Bush and his politics and style, I too am tempted to jump on this bandwagon. After all, as everyone up here must agree, it is essential not only to the country’s future, but to the world’s, that the Bush administration lose their jobs. Their plan for enriching themselves and their supporters through war and more war is not a plan that I can even begin to consider, mush less support. To be honest, I truly think they should be in court defending themselves against the crimes they have committed, but I can live with them being somewhere besides the White House and its environs.</p>
<p>Where do the remaining candidates stand on the war? Both Kerry and Edwards voted for the resolution that sent US troops into Iraq. Hell, John Edwards even helped write the resolution based on Cheney’s lies. Kerry signed on to the one that sent the military into Afghanistan-a war that isn’t about fighting terrorism as much as it is about revenge and empire. Kucinich and Sharpton did not.</p>
<p>Since the war in Iraq was falsely declared over, Kerry has tried to cloud over his support. Yet, if you read his statements around this issue, you will find that his argument isn’t over the rightness or wrongness of the war, but over how the war was waged. Of course, it is quite possible for a candidate to change his mind-they are human after all-but one has to wonder at the timing of Mr. Kerry’s conversion. In fact, the more important part of their position is what they think should be done in Iraq and now and what would they do in the future should a cry for war against another country arise.</p>
<p>John Kerry states in his campaign literature: "We need the rest of the world to be involved in order to reduce America’s carrying all the risks and all the costs, in order to reduce the targeting of American soldiers, and in order to maximize our ability to wage the war on terror in that region and elsewhere." It continues: "Senator Kerry supported legislation authorizing the use of force if necessary to disarm Iraq and remove the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s brutal and aggressive regime, a position he has not waivered from." In short, John Kerry only opposes the current war in Iraq because he believes that Bush’s unilateralist approach will make it more difficult to fight America’s other wars-in Afghanistan, Colombia, and wherever else its corporate interests are threatened.</p>
<p>John Edwards not only co-wrote the resolution that gave George Bush congressional permission to invade Iraq, he continues to wholeheartedly support the effort. Furthermore, he wants a larger military and more covert operations against governments and organizations that oppose the US agenda for the world. That means more Special Forces operations-operations that are often nothing more than cold-blooded murders. In his literature Edwards calls for an expansion of NATO and a renewed US resolve to get rid of the current governments in Cuba, northern Korea, and Middle Eastern countries other than Israel. He calls for actions against those countries that hold political prisoners, while simultaneously demanding greater restrictions on civil liberties in the US and harsher penalties for those convicted under various laws designed to curb dissent.</p>
<p>Kucinich also wants other governments to give up their young people to corporate America’s war in Iraq. He would turn the chore over to the UN-in essence asking them to be the Pentagon’s accomplices in this crime against humanity. I want a candidate who says the war and occupation are fundamentally wrong, not one who merely wants to change its appearance. I want a candidate who will end the PATRIOT Act, not just bits and pieces of it. I haven’t heard these statements yet from any of them. And, if things continue as they have, I won’t hear it.</p>
<p>All of these men are of the mind that the US should finish what it started. Now, this is not merely foolish, it’s stupid. No matter what John Kerry or any other politician says, there is no right way to do the wrong thing. How many more people will have to die before the United States realizes that it cannot win a war against the world. It can, however, work to make a peace that works towards honestly resolving many of the problems that create the situations that lead it to war. First and foremost, that means that the US must stop thinking that its power is deserved. It isn’t. Just because it is stronger than any of its potential opponents doesn’t mean it deserves to rule the world. Just because it is stronger doesn’t mean it should get its way at the world’s expense.</p>
<p>I want peace and justice in the world. That means that I want there to be a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth. I am appalled that men, women and children die every day from hunger, disease and war. I am even further appalled when I realize that the government in DC and the corporations that it works for are directly responsible for those deaths. And so are we in some way. It’s not that we are bad people-although some in the current regime are definitely not very nice, to say the least-it’s just that the nature of our system and its need to continually take advantage of those who are weaker leads us to make decisions and compromises that lessen and destroy the lives of many who are less powerful. This is why we go to war so often. John Kerry says as much in his new book.</p>
<p>None of the candidates are going to address this. If they did, they would lose their media credibility and perhaps even their life. Besides, it is not in their interest to do so. John Kerry is a member of the Yale secret society known for its connections to the US intelligence community, the corporate world, and several other links to the tower of power in this country. This is the same secret society that Papa and Baby Bush belong to-Skull and Bones. John Edwards is no slouch, either. He is a trial lawyer and former prosecutor. Like Bill Clinton, he may have been born outside of America’s ruling circles, but he is doing whatever it takes to get in to them.</p>
<p>These guys are invested in this system! They share the assumption that if the interests of corporate America are threatened, then the American people are threatened as individuals. This is not usually the case. Even the more left candidates-Kucinich and Sharpton–don’t challenge the fundamental reality of corporate America, believing instead that this system can be humane even though it requires war and empire to survive. To address the basic inequities that this system needs to thrive would be tantamount to calling for a revolution and, in the United States of today, mainstream politicians just don’t do that. After all, it is that very system that keeps them employed, even when they are out of politics.</p>
<p>That is one reason why there are no candidates who are truly opposition candidates. They simply cannot run, much less win, with the way the US system is constructed. If you remember, last year on February 15-a year and three days ago tonight-millions of people around the world marched in the streets of their cities in opposition to the impending war on Iraq. This included over a half a million people in New York City alone, despite the sub-freezing temperatures and the refusal of the city and its police department to issue a permit. This day was the largest expression of antiwar feeling ever in the history of the world. Yet, did it make a bit of a difference to Washington? Hell no. Did it cause some of the Democratic candidates to modify their support for Dubya’s war of lies? Yes, but only for the moment.</p>
<p>I want to remind my friends who plan on voting for the Democratic candidate that democracy is not at the ballot box alone, especially in this country and especially after the 2000 election theft. No, real democracy is in the streets. So, for those of you who are supporting a candidate, please remember this and don’t let yourself be convinced that you have done all you can when Election Day is over. Equally important as after the election is the campaign itself. We who oppose the war and occupation must make it the major issue in this campaign.</p>
<p>To those on the left, let me assure you. I am not becoming a Democrat. But I truly believe that the history of the last fifty years in the US tells us that it is not repression that breeds radical change, but hope. And, in the current political reality of the US, it is the Democrats who bring hope to many of the workers, and most of the poor, the young and the elderly; women and people of color; and all the rest of this nation’s residents who are underrepresented in the halls of power. It always proves to be a mostly misguided hope, for sure, but, like it or not, this is history. If folks are arguing for a candidate, it seems to me that this means they want to change their situation. For us, it means that we should acknowledge this desire by moving the conversation beyond the Democrats and beyond Election Day. The conversation shouldn’t be about elections, but about taking back our country from the crooks and liars in both parties who think it’s there for the benefit of a relative few.</p>
<p>Just for a moment, I would like to revisit the 2000 election. If you recall, George Bush did not win that vote. His opponent did. What happened in the weeks following Election Day 2000 is this: George Bush and his gang stole the election. Plain and simple. And we let it happen. When elections are stolen in most other countries, people protest in the streets. But that didn’t happen here. Why? Because we are trained to think that our system is fair. That anyone can be president. Yet no woman has ever been president. No African-American has ever been president. Nope, nobody but white men has ever been president of the US. Sure, some of them haven’t been okay presidents, but those are the facts. And, in the 20th century, they were all pretty damn rich, besides. Judging from the current crop, that last fact isn’t going to change.</p>
<p>I have this recurring dream-it’s a nightmare, really-that a Democrat wins the election both by popular vote and by electoral college in November, yet on the day after Inauguration Day 2005, George W. Bush is still in the White House and a state of martial law has been declared because Ashcroft has put the nation in a Code Red Terror Alert. And nobody protests.</p>
<p>I hope this scenario is just a paranoid fantasy and that George Bush is back in Texas for good in 2005. But if his gang of thieves steal or otherwise ignore the results of an opponent’s victory, then we must be ready to put democracy back where it truly belongs-in the streets!! And if a Democrat does make it back to the White House, it is up to us to keep him as honest as a politician can be by constantly reminding him that real democracy isn’t in the White House or Congress or Wall Street, but amongst the people.</p>
<p>I can’t say this enough. We must not rest on our laurels.</p>
<p>To put it simply: a Democrat in the White House is not a step forward, but it might very well give us a few months to organize and pull America back from the abyss of war and totalitarianism that George Bush and company have led us into.</p>
<p>Let me leave you all with this thought: The most important thing to remember is that our power is in the streets and in our hearts, not in any candidate’s pocket. Let’s keep it there!</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is being republished by Verso.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu" type="external">rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu</a></p>
<p /> | Our Power is in the Streets and in Our Hearts | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/02/25/our-power-is-in-the-streets-and-in-our-hearts/ | 2004-02-25 | 4 |
<p>The global capitalist crisis prompted protests and rebellions in different countries, poor and rich. In the US, budget cuts and attacks on the collective bargaining rights of state employees led to action earlier this year notably in Wisconsin, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets and occupied the state capital building.</p>
<p>But Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is possibly a more radical social movement. Started in early September with the occupation of a small park in Manhattan’s financial district, it has spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the US. Unlike the Wisconsin protests, OWS is not a response to a particular bill, budget or specific government threat: instead, it expresses a broad indictment of corporate power, economic and political.</p>
<p>The “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City” drawn up by OWS activists sums up their perspective:</p>
<p>“We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit overpeople, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.”</p>
<p>Though the movement has targeted the banks and financial institutions we associate with Wall Street, it views corporate power more generally as the source of the problems of the 99% of the population the movement claims to represent. In a country where capitalism has only been weakly and intermittently challenged, this is clearly not US politics as usual.</p>
<p>OWS activists in New York are not exactly Marxists. They tend to decry “corporate greed” rather than capitalism as such. In this respect, OWS resembles the&#160;indignados&#160;(the indignant) who are protesting in Madrid, Athens, London and elsewhere. The tactic of permanently occupying public space was clearly influenced by the occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo this January. This is not simply a movement against unemployment, austerity, home foreclosures, union busting, environmental degradation, student debt or the corrupting power of money in politics: OWS activists embrace&#160;all&#160;these causes and link them to overweening corporate power.</p>
<p>Can the movement already have notched up a victory in just two months? In OWS has sparked conversations and debates across the US about matters that have hardly entered mainstream public discourse in recent years. It has also spawned a growing number of demonstrations and political initiatives by providing a focal point around which groups with a wide range of specific grievancesunions, community groups, students, anti-war groups, environmental activistshave gravitated, piggy-backing on the growing media and public interest in the movement. We can now speak of a loose OWS coalition that encompasses these groups.</p>
<p>The key question, still unanswered, is how the movement will transform the anger and excitement it has helped to generate into real leverage against its adversaries. Most of the core OWS activists are students or unemployed (or irregularly employed) youth who do not play a strategic role or have any other direct influence within the powerful banks and corporations they eloquently criticise. What muscle the movement is able to muster is more likely to come from organised groups with at least some leverage in important institutions which have begun to coalesce around OWS community organisations, student groups and especially trade unions. But the crisis has put these groups and unions (which were already weakened) on the defensive. What’s more, union officials in the US (with a few exceptions), do not share the anti-corporate worldview or militant tactics of OWS activists.</p>
<p>Another threat to OWS comes from liberal Democratic politicians who would love to divert and channel its energy into their own electoral campaigns in 2012. As Robert Reich, labour secretary under Bill Clinton, recently pointed out, it is exceedingly unlikely that OWS will push the Democratic Party to embrace anything like anti-corporate politics. The Democrats are far too dependent on corporate money, media and connections to move more than a centimetre or two in this direction. Yet some Democratic politicians will no doubt try to present themselves to the public as anti-corporate populists, to draw on OWS energy and enthusiasm as even President Obama sometimes did in 2008, despite his close ties to Wall Street.</p>
<p>Will this strategy work? Clearly not with the core OWS activists, whose disdain for liberal Democrats like Obama and New York senator Charles Schumer, another Wall Street favourite, is palpable. However, some of the groups and unions that are part of the broader OWS coalition will certainly plunge into Democratic Party campaigns next year, along with some students and others who have not fully bought into the critique of corporate power, and the Democratic Party. Many of today’s enthusiasts may peel off as we head into next election season.</p>
<p>Jeff Goodwin is professor of sociology at New York University and author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991</a>,Cambridge University Press, 2001</p>
<p>This article first appeared in the October edition excellent monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, whose English language edition can be found at&#160; <a href="http://www.mondediplo.com/" type="external">mondediplo.com</a>&#160;The full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique and CounterPunch&#160; features two or three articles from LMD every month.</p>
<p>All rights reserved ©&#160; Le Monde diplomatique. 
</p> | Coalition of the Disenchanted | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/11/09/coalition-of-the-disenchanted/ | 2011-11-09 | 4 |
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<p>In a remarkable development and transformation from his former Likud days, outgoing Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/world/middleeast/30olmert.html?hp" type="external">given an interview</a> to an Israeli newspaper in which he says Israel should pull out of the West Bank, and more broadly, rethink its strategic defense doctrine from one that is so heavily military-based.</p>
<p>In an unusually frank and soul-searching interview granted after he resigned to fight corruption charges — he remains interim prime minister until a new government is sworn in — Mr. Olmert discarded longstanding Israeli defense doctrine and called for radical new thinking in words that are sure to stir controversy as his expected successor, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, tries to build a coalition.</p>
<p>“What I am saying to you now has not been said by any Israeli leader before me,” Mr. Olmert told Yediot Aharonot newspaper in the interview to mark the Jewish new year that runs from Monday night till Wednesday night. “The time has come to say these things.”</p>
<p>He said traditional Israeli defense strategists had learned nothing from past experiences and seemed stuck in the considerations of the 1948 Independence War. “With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop,” he said. “All these things are worthless.”</p>
<p>He added, “Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the State of Israel’s basic security?”</p>
<p>Over the last year, Mr. Olmert has publicly castigated himself for his earlier right-wing views and he did so again in this interview. On Jerusalem, for example, he said, “I am the first who wanted to enforce Israeli sovereignty on the entire city. I admit it. I am not trying to justify retroactively what I did for 35 years. For a large portion of these years, I was unwilling to look at reality in all its depth.”</p>
<p>He said that maintaining sovereignty over an undivided Jerusalem, Israel’s official policy, would involve bringing 270,000 Palestinians inside Israel’s security barrier. It would mean an ongoing risk of terrorist attacks against civilians like those carried out earlier this year by Jerusalem Palestinian residents with a bulldozer and earth mover.</p>
<p>“A decision has to be made,” he said. “This decision is difficult, terrible, a decision that contradicts our natural instincts, our innermost desires, our collective memories, the prayers of the Jewish people for 2,000 years.”</p>
<p /> | Olmert Says Israel Should Pull Out of West Bank | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/olmert-says-israel-should-pull-out-west-bank/ | 2008-09-29 | 4 |
<p>With sickly approval ratings and a stagnant Congress, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address will likely be more of an opportunity to press the reset button than a feel-good TV presentation for his party.</p>
<p>State of the Union speeches typically include a laundry list of policy goals and requests for congressional action. But with Congress mostly spinning its wheels – with the notable exception of some possible traction on immigration reform – Obama’s remarks are likely to prompt substantial discussion of what he can – and can’t – do to bypass Capitol Hill entirely.</p>
<p>And, as the term “lame duck” increasingly creeps into the vocabulary used to describe the president’s future, Obama’s efforts to carve out his own legacy will be in the spotlight.</p>
<p>Here are six things to watch for during the president’s speech:</p>
<p>Economic fairness has always been a theme for the president, but it’s a defining one for Democrats now eyeing the midterm elections. And the party thinks it’s a winning issue: A new USA TODAY/ Pew Research Center poll shows that majorities of both Republicans and Democrats believe income inequality has been growing over the past decade. The same survey showed overwhelming support for extending the stalled jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and for raising the minimum wage. Republicans also have their eyes on those numbers, with high-profile and possible 2016 GOPers like Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Marco Rubio already pre-butting the president’s argument, arguing that the ‘War on Poverty” has fundamentally failed. (That same famed “War on Poverty” was itself launched in a State of the Union speech – by President Lyndon Johnson – 50 years ago.)</p>
<p>At the end of last year, Obama coined the term “Year of Action” to describe his administration’s approach to 2014. Since then, he’s been blunt about what that means: using executive action and the presidential bully pulpit (the “pen” and the “phone) to bypass a deadlocked Congress to achieve policy goals. Expect Obama to expand on that theme and be specific about what he’s asking Congress to do legislatively and what he intends to do without an OK from the Hill.</p>
<p>With congressional Republicans poised to roll out their “principles” on immigration, watch the president’s wording on what he’s called his top domestic issue. Obama opened the door last year to accept what Republican House Speaker John Boehner calls a “step-by-step” approach to the problem as long as it checked the administration’s boxes. Key Republicans say that they’re open to a program that would grant legal status to most undocumented immigrants. The White House and its allies have been clear that they want a path to citizenship as well – but Obama won’t want his language to be perceived as too pushy right before the GOP embarks on the delicate effort to pass meaningful immigration legislation.</p>
<p>At the end of President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union, Obama closed with a passionate plea for a “a simple vote” on legislation to address gun violence, invoking the victims of the Newtown and Aurora massacres, Gabby Giffords and the family of Chicago shooting victim Hadiya Pendleton. A year later, those proposals remain firmly stalled in Congress, with little hope of mustering enough support even to push any through the Democratically-controlled Senate. With locked-down schools and public violence becoming drearily familiar, Obama can scarcely fail to highlight the steps his administration has tried taking to beef up gun regulations at the executive level. But the sweeping federal legislation he wants isn’t going to happen anytime soon.</p>
<p>The White House doesn’t just want Americans to watch the SOTU. They want supporters to experience a multimedia, chock-full-of-charts production ripe with the kind of graphics and data that catch eyes on Facebook and Twitter. More than a week before the big night, WhiteHouse.Gov was already steering people towards this year’s “enhanced” viewing experience online. The White House had the same strategy last year; this year, they’re also pegging a follow-up “national Google+ Hangout” by the president to the State of the Union on January 31. It says a lot about our media environment – and about the multiple audiences (Congress, diehard backers, independents and casual viewers) he’s trying to reach.</p>
<p>"We must do more to combat climate change."</p>
<p>"I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy.”</p>
<p>“Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away.”</p>
<p>Pundits can picture Obama uttering all of those phrases on Jan. 28, 2014. Trouble is: they’re all from LAST YEAR’s address. This January finds the second-term president in much the same place as last year, with the vast majority of his top agenda items snarled in Congress. And this year, he has the bungled early rollout of the Affordable Care Act to defend as well. A lot of this year’s big ticket items are going to sound very familiar to his audiences.</p> | What To Watch For During the State of the Union | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/state-of-the-union/what-watch-during-state-union-n16106 | 2014-01-27 | 3 |
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<p>The city of Albuquerque has a growing number of choices for young people in our community who attend high school. These choices range from traditional high schools to schools that serve incarcerated youth.</p>
<p>We are fortunate to have a growing portfolio of public school options for our diverse community that are becoming more tailored to the unique needs of young people.</p>
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<p>At ACE Leadership High School, we have looked at our enrollment since the graduation rates for Albuquerque Public Schools were published recently. Our school specializes in architecture, construction and engineering and working with young people who are in danger of dropping out of high school or not returning to high school after they have left.</p>
<p>In fact, more than 200 of our students have come to us after leaving one of the traditional APS high schools in the district. Some leave on their own or they have a caring adult on campus who refers them to us.</p>
<p>Our school is an option for the young people of Albuquerque. While it is tempting for APS to parse the graduation rate between district and charter schools, it is inappropriate to do so.</p>
<p>Suggesting that there are two dropout rates, one calculated with and one without counting charters, does not tell the whole story.</p>
<p>Many students from our community who attend charter schools are there because they have not been served in traditional schools.</p>
<p>In fact, APS graduation rates are computed based on the time students are enrolled at any school. If a young person attends an APS high school for two years, drops out and then comes to our school and graduates, APS still gets 50 percent of the credit for their perseverance.</p>
<p>The schools are literally connected through this mathematical calculation. The Public Education Department has labeled this process “shared accountability.”</p>
<p>The actual way our state calculates graduation rates should connect charters to traditional schools when discussing a young person’s academic progress, emotional development and graduation. However, there is a more important reason that all of our public schools, traditional and charter, should be seen through one graduation rate.</p>
<p>We live in a community where only 65 percent of students graduate from high school. It will take a change in the current approach and collaboration between all who serve our students if we are to deal with the challenge of having outstanding graduation rates.</p>
<p>Creating a “winners” and “losers” scenario only undermines our ability to think collectively about meeting their needs, and the recent attempt by the district to position itself in this argument is not helpful.</p> | Work Together To Meet Kids’ Needs | false | https://abqjournal.com/165729/work-together-to-meet-kids-needs.html | 2013-02-03 | 2 |
<p>At a cemetery north of Yangon, a crowd roars with grief, as the watch the arrival of the bodies of 13 boys. They died in their sleep last week, when a fire broke out in their Islamic boarding school in the city.</p>
<p>Muslims, who make up a minority in Myanmar (also known as Burma), have been living in fear, following three days of anti-Muslim mob violence in the heartlands that killed dozens of people. Authorities imposed martial law and sent troops to restore calm. But now the fire in the Yangon boys' school has Muslims in the country's largest city worried that the violence may be arriving on their doorstep.</p>
<p>Kyaw Win and his wife watched the bodies of their two sons, ages 13 and 15, being washed and prepared for burial.</p>
<p>"I feel very sad today," says Kyaw Win, as his wife weeps beside him. "I used to feel sad when my sons suffered small injuries. Now their whole bodies are burned, and they're dead. There are no words to express my sadness now."</p>
<p>One of the mourners at the funeral yells out that Buddhist fundamentalists used chemical weapons to kill the boys, and he says they're the victims of religiously motivated attacks that started outside Yangon.</p>
<p>Authorities say a preliminary investigation indicates an electrical failure sparked the fire. But many people here don't believe it.</p>
<p>"There were all sorts of rumors circulating, because people want to know what happened in the building, and they're very scared," says Kyaw Soe, a Muslim religious leader in Yangon.</p>
<p>"They're angry about the deaths of those 13 children."</p>
<p>A day after the school fire, police arrested two young men who they say had flammable materials outside of a nearby mosque. Township authorities have instituted curfews and sent out neighborhood patrols.</p>
<p>Meantime, stickers with the number "969"³ have started to appear on taxis and businesses in Yangon, identifying them as Buddhist. The numbers stand for the different attributes of the Buddha, and are thought to ward off evil. They're inspired by a radical Mandalay monk called U Wirathu, who was imprisoned for spreading hate messages against Muslims in 2003; he was released last year when the government freed political prisoners.</p>
<p>Now, neighbors in who lived together in Yangon's ethnically and religiously diverse communities are living on edge.</p>
<p>Htuu Lou Rae, a young Burmese man who started a group to foster religious harmony called Coexist, says there are many roots to the tension and violence, but religious hatred isn't the main factor. He says it's more a response to years of military rule.</p>
<p>"It is a reaction to all these oppression and discrimination by the junta for over 40 years," he says. "People react and take it out on people who are easy to discriminate."</p>
<p>Coexist has started its own sticker campaign, handing out stickers with the message, "We are Myanmar citizens who do not discriminate by either race or religion."</p>
<p>Today, they are handing them out near the burned school. The building's charred window frames have already been repainted at the request of authorities. Ye Naung Thein, a religious leader at a nearby mosque, was among the first to arrive at the scene after the fire was extinguished. He says he initially believed it was a deliberate attack, but not now.</p>
<p>When the police gave a press conference, he says, he found out that the school kept gasoline on site to run the generator during power outages, and that teachers had used pillows stuffed with old clothing to try to put out the fire. So he no longer thinks it was arson.</p>
<p>But, he says, if police don't do a thorough investigation to answer everyone's questions, there could be violence.</p>
<p>Last month, President Thein Sein warned in a televised speech that he would not hesitate to use force against "religious extremists" who instigate violence. That has some people worried that the religious tension and violence could stall the country's recent transition from oppressive military rule to democracy.</p> | Yangon Muslims Watch Nervously as Violence Spreads in Myanmar | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-11/yangon-muslims-watch-nervously-violence-spreads-myanmar | 2013-04-11 | 3 |
<p>Published time: 21 Sep, 2017 16:27</p>
<p>A half-brother and sister have been legally recognized as the parents of their child after a legal battle in France.</p>
<p>Rose-Marie and Hervé didn’t know they were half-siblings until they went to get their child’s birth certificate. It was then they found out they shared the same mother. The half-siblings had been separated as children and raised in different foster homes in the Aube region in northeastern France.</p>
<p>They met in 2006 and their daughter was born in 2009. The couple broke up shortly before the child was born and she was raised by her mother.</p>
<p>According to French Civil Code Article <a href="https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006070721&amp;idArticle=LEGIARTI000006424546&amp;dateTexte=&amp;categorieLien=cid" type="external">310-2</a>, only one parent of a child born in an incestuous relationship can be named the parent.</p>
<p>A Cherbourg judge ruled in 2016 that the mother’s relationship to the child should be annulled, saying, “The child’s incestuous origin should not be known to everyone,” Le Point <a href="http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/la-justice-reconnait-une-enfant-nee-d-une-relation-frere-soeur-19-09-2017-2158141_23.php" type="external">reports</a>. Hervé had made a paternity recognition request a few weeks before Océane was born, ahead of Rose-Marie, and so the judge ruled he should be the named parent.</p>
<p>The court ruled that the child be granted a new birth certificate which would name only her father as parent.</p>
<p>Rose-Marie appealed the decision. In June, the Court of Appeal of Caen overturned the earlier judgement, finding Rose-Marie’s name should remain on the birth certificate, Le Point <a href="http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/la-justice-reconnait-une-enfant-nee-d-une-relation-frere-soeur-19-09-2017-2158141_23.php" type="external">reports</a>.</p>
<p>It made its decision based on the “superior right of the child” under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.&#160;</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/politics/403694-childrens-rights-ombudsman-opposes-health/" type="external" /></p>
<p>“Eight-year-old Océane has lived with her mother since birth,” the judges <a href="http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/la-justice-reconnait-une-enfant-nee-d-une-relation-frere-soeur-19-09-2017-2158141_23.php" type="external">said</a>. “The father does not contest the mother’s parenthood and he does not appear to have kept any particularly close relationship with his daughter.”</p>
<p>“Annulling the mother’s official recognition as a parent would have harmful consequences for the child,” they said.</p>
<p>“It’s a happy decision for Océane,” Herve’s lawyer Catherine Besson <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/ils-sont-frere-et-soeur-et-legalement-parents-d-une-petite-fille-20-09-2017-7273098.php" type="external">told</a> Le Parisien. “Hervé, the father, was the first to say that is a parental tie were to go, it had to be his. He did not raise this child.”</p>
<p>The public prosecutor has not decided whether or not to contest the Caen court’s decision. “We are confronted with two contradictory interests: that of the child and public order,” the prosecutor’s office <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/ils-sont-frere-et-soeur-et-legalement-parents-d-une-petite-fille-20-09-2017-7273098.php" type="external">told</a> Le Parisien.</p> | Incestous parents officially named on child’s birth cert | false | https://newsline.com/incestous-parents-officially-named-on-childs-birth-cert/ | 2017-09-21 | 1 |
<p>Adidas shares spring higher; French economy expands</p>
<p>European stocks were swept lower Friday, with Swiss bank UBS Group AG among decliners in the wake of its financial update, and the selloff was pushing the market toward a weekly loss.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 1.1% to 377.96, moving toward its lowest close since mid-April, FactSet data showed. No sectors advanced. The index on Thursday slipped 0.1% at 382.32 after a choppy session (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-search-for-direction-in-busy-session-for-earnings-2017-07-27).</p>
<p>The index was on course for a weekly decline of 0.5%, which would extend last week's drop of 1.7%.</p>
<p>"European markets look set to end the week on a softer note after a weak Asia session and some late profit-taking in the tech sector heading into the U.S. close, which saw both the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq close lower on the day," Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets UK, wrote.</p>
<p>"We've seen a veritable earnings bonanza from the tech sector over the past week or so with Netflix, Alphabet and Facebook surprising to the upside, so hopes were high that Amazon would follow suit."</p>
<p>E-commerce behemoth Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) after U.S. trading closed Thursday posted a larger-than-expected drop of 77% in second-quarter earnings, hurt by the company's spending (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-earnings-fall-77-shares-drop-2017-07-27).</p>
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<p>European technology shares slid a collective 1.6% on Friday, putting in the worst performance among all sectors.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, banking stocks were in focus with a stack of earnings reports coming from the sector.</p>
<p>Earnings roundup: UBS shares were knocked back 2.7% on concerns over margins in its wealth management division despite the lender's 14% profit rise in the second quarter to 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($1.21 billion).</p>
<p>But shares of Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.EB) gained 2% after the Swiss lender posted better-than-expected net income of 303 million francs.</p>
<p>Read: UBS, Credit Suisse profit up after strategic shift (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ubs-credit-suisse-profit-up-after-strategic-shift-2017-07-28)</p>
<p>French bank BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) said net profit fell 6.4% to EUR2.4 billion, but the result was better than anticipated as an economic pickup in Europe bolstered business at several of its divisions. Shares were down 0.2%.</p>
<p>Spanish lender Banco Santander SA's (SAN) net profit and net interest income rose in line with figures it outlined this month (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/santander-profit-rises-upbeat-on-banco-popular-2017-07-28-3485019) when it launched a capital increase to fund its cleanup of Banco Popular Espanol SA. Santander shares slipped 0.6%.</p>
<p>Outside of banks, Adidas AG (ADS.XE) rallied 8.2% after the German sports-apparel maker raised its full-year forecast.</p>
<p>Shares of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN) reversed gains and fell 1.5%. The parent company of British Airways early Friday said second-quarter net profit surged 20% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/british-airways-parent-iags-profit-soars-2017-07-28) to EUR540 million ($631 million) on rising ticket prices.</p>
<p>Shares of Renault SA (RNO.FR) dropped 5.9% even as the French car maker's first-half profit surged 59% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/renault-profit-leaps-but-shares-decline-2017-07-28) on increased volume and as it received a larger payout from its holding in Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY)</p>
<p>National indexes: France's CAC 40 index dropped 1.3% to 5,177.11, with Renault a drag and most of the index's other components selling off.</p>
<p>Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.7% to 12,126.56, heading toward its eighth loss in 11 sessions.</p>
<p>The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gave up 0.7% at 7,387.09, and Spain's IBEX 35 was yanked down 0.8% to 10,515.20.</p>
<p>The euro fetched $1.1707, up from $1.1677 late Thursday in New York.</p>
<p>Data: The French economy expanded 0.5% in the second quarter, with statistics agency Insee's first estimate of growth showing exports climbed 3.1% while imports slowed.</p>
<p>Also from France, inflation rose 0.7% in July (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/french-inflation-steady-in-july-2017-07-28), the same rate notched in June.</p>
<p>German consumer prices rose (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-consumer-prices-rise-faster-than-expected-2017-07-28) by a faster-than-expected rate of 0.4% in July on the month, and inflation rose 1.5% on the year, according to Destatis.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 28, 2017 06:59 ET (10:59 GMT)</p> | EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Drop To 3-month Low As UBS Falls, Tech Worries Weigh | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/28/europe-markets-european-stocks-drop-to-3-month-low-as-ubs-falls-tech-worries-weigh.html | 2017-07-28 | 0 |
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<p>For someone covering the distance on foot in the middle of winter, it can be deadly.</p>
<p>City and county officials have taken note and are working to find a way to move inmates, many of them homeless, who lack transportation options.</p>
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<p>Jail director Pablo Sedillo said the issue is “a concern to me. I think it’s a concern to the community.”</p>
<p>Newly released inmates walking from the jail into town are at risk for hypothermia, among other problems.</p>
<p>The city of Santa Fe’s Public Safety Committee discussed the issue Tuesday, and agreed the topic merits further discussion.</p>
<p>In the past, jail officials transported newly released inmates to a “central location” within city limits, Sedillo said. But that practice was discontinued because there were “some issues that didn’t meet standards,” he said.</p>
<p>Sedillo said that, while “nothing is etched in concrete,” county officials are now considering a plan where some inmates would be transported while still in custody to an administrative facility on Airport Road.</p>
<p>At that point, inmates could be released and provided with bus passes or other options. St. Elizabeth Shelter, for instance, is talking with the county about perhaps sending a van to the Airport Road building, Sedillo said.</p>
<p>City Councilor Ron Trujillo mused that the city could take over once inmates were moved within city boundaries.</p>
<p>Sedillo emphasized that he wants to find a solution for individuals genuinely without motorized transportation — not provide a shuttle service to all inmates. “We don’t want to open it up for a free ride,” he said.</p>
<p>Jail officials plans to add questions to their intake process to better determine which inmates are homeless, he said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Santa Fe Considers How To Transport Homeless Inmates | false | https://abqjournal.com/139147/santa-fe-considers-how-to-transport-homeless-inmates.html | 2 | |
<p>California's Salton Sea was once hailed as a "miracle in the desert," <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17818361" type="external">according to BBC News</a>, but its increasing level of salt is making it dry up, possibly for good.</p>
<p>The once-thriving sea in southeastern California is now in danger of disappearing, making it an environmental disaster, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/salton-sea-drying-215543216.html" type="external">reported Yahoo News</a>. It's massive for an inland sea, stretching 376 square miles, and has caught the eye of many festivalgoers, as it is located close to the land Coachella calls home.</p>
<p>But this isn't the first time the Salton Sea has gotten media attention. In 1905, it was created accidentally when the Colorado River flooded the area and filled a low-lying basin, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/333293/20120425/salton-sea-california-lake-photo-desert-miracle.htm" type="external">according to the International Business Times</a>. It has now become a major stop for migratory birds and is home to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Complex.&#160;</p>
<p>It was also once a hotbed for rich vacationers, reported the BBC News, but the towns along its shore now have some of the highest unemployment rates in the United States.</p>
<p>But in March 2012, <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/14/supreme-court-supports-san-diego-water-transfer/" type="external">the San Diego Union-Tribune reported</a> a decision by the California state Supreme Court to uphold a water transfer deal that has been challenged by many parties, all who think the deal will spell disaster for the region's environment.</p>
<p>Known as the <a href="http://www.sdcwa.org/quantification-settlement-agreement" type="external">Quantification Settlement Agreement</a>, it calls for the diversion of up to 200,000 acre-feet of water from Imperial Irrigation District farmland to San Diego County, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/salton-sea-dry-san-diego-water-authority-plan-california_n_1452938.html" type="external">according to the Huffington Post</a>. One acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, "enough to supply two single-family households of four for a year," <a href="http://www.sdcwa.org/sites/default/files/files/publications/qsa-fs.pdf" type="external">said San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) literature</a>.</p>
<p>The SDCWA plan&#160;could drain the Salton Sea in a matter of years, <a href="http://www.npr.org/local/stories/KQED/150167107" type="external">reported NPR</a>. And that drying could release harmful elements like selenium and arsenic from the lakebed, possibly spreading clouds of toxic dust across southern California, according to BBC News.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://ca.audubon.org/salton-sea" type="external">the California Audubon Society</a> has already this is happening.</p>
<p>"As water has been siphoned off or agricultural and urban use, dust emissions have increasingly threatened public health," the society's website states.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/101007/death-the-colorado-river" type="external">Photo story: Death of the Colorado River</a></p> | Salton Sea: Drying up for good? (PHOTOS) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-26/salton-sea-drying-good-photos | 2012-04-26 | 3 |
<p>Yesterday state Senate President pro Tem <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/03/3746996/steinberg-bill-aims-to-ease-california.html" type="external">Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, released an outline of a drought reduction bill</a>.</p>
<p>Steinberg does not want to be outdone by Republican congressmen grabbing all the media attention for being the first to float an anti-drought bill in California.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Last week, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, floated H.R. 3964, the San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act</a>, in&#160;the Republican-controlled House.</p>
<p>Nunes gained media attention by getting House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to visit Bakersfield to help announce a bill that would provide relief to farmers that rely on the federal Central Valley Water Project.</p>
<p>Since 1990, 58 percent of water in California’s Central Valley has been diverted from farmers to the environment (see Slide No. 5&#160; <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/165733452/Bay_Delta_Westlands_BDCP_DWR_Workshop_11-20-13_Powerpoint" type="external">here</a>).</p>
<p>Steinberg’s bill is not targeted at farmers, but at the Democratic Party constituencies of farm labor communities, rural housing that does not comply with the land subdivision laws and the policing of farmers’ use of their own groundwater.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.vineyardteam.org/files/resources/Merkley,DannyOverviewOfWaterIssues.pdf" type="external">average rainfall year</a>, California commits 48 percent of its available system water for environmental use, 41 percent for farming and 11 percent for municipal and industrial use.</p>
<p>An outline of Senate Bill 731, as released by Steinberg’s office:</p>
<p>The <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1532" type="external">Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund</a> is comprised of air pollution taxes collected from electric utilities and large industries under the cap-and-trade program.&#160; Gov. Jerry Brown has tried to reallocate funds from this same budget pot for California’s High-Speed Rail Project.&#160; But even <a href="" type="internal">environmental organizations</a> assert that reallocating such funds for other than the reduction of air pollution is not legal. &#160;However, Brown borrowed from Special Funds to patch the state general fund budget deficit and perhaps Steinberg could do the same with cap-and-trade funds.</p>
<p>But it might take winning a lawsuit challenge by environmental organizations to divert these funds to farmers or farm-labor camps.</p>
<p>Funding drinking water programs for makeshift residential subdivisions that have no water systems has been a pet agenda in the California Legislature, but would hardly have any impact in drought reduction where it is most needed.</p>
<p>Moreover, funding for water systems for rural home subdivisions in unincorporated areas was already provided under <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB21" type="external">AB21</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>A $1.3 million federal grant for a <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/04/27/3277167/living-in-a-toxic-land-a-history.html" type="external">wastewater treatment system in the unincorporated area of Lanare</a> in the San Joaquin Valley resulted in low-income residents being unable to pay $54 per month to run the plant that sits dormant and unused.</p>
<p>From 2000 to 2012, California voters approved <a href="" type="internal">five water bonds totaling $18.7 billion</a>.&#160; None of this was directly spent on drought alleviation for Central Valley farmers, where the current epicenter of the drought is.&#160; Steinberg’s $105.8 million in reappropriated funding for drought reduction projects would amount to less than 1 percent of the $18.7 billion for water bonds.</p>
<p>Additionally, <a href="http://farmwaternews.blogspot.com/2014/01/news-articles-and-links-from-january-31.html" type="external">Mike Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition</a> reports that San Joaquin Valley farmers invested $2 billion in upgraded irrigation systems on more than 1.8 million acres since 2003. Again, Steinberg’s drought bill funding would only be a drop in the bucket of what farmers have already self-funded for water conservation.</p> | Sen. Steinberg advances drought bill | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/02/04/sen-steinberg-advances-drought-bill/ | 2018-02-20 | 3 |
<p>Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.</p>
<p>— Herbert Marcuse</p>
<p>As this Midwestern university town gets set for NCAA March Madness, I find myself surrounded by canny analysts of the teams and the contests. They look at past performance, present conditions involving bench power, match up certainties and uncertainties of players and coaches. You could call this their analysis of the conditions of play, or what others outside the sports world might call “conditions on the ground.”</p>
<p>I also note as enthusiasts square off against each other that there is some interpretation of why each knows and believes as they do. “You think Duke will win because you went to Duke and you’re a brainwashed fan.” Or, “You don’t think South Dakota State can take it all because you’ve never seen them play.” An effort to know why your belligerent interlocutor thinks differently than you do is not aimed at bringing him or her to some understanding and awareness but rather only to dismiss judgments by questioning the legitimacy of their sources.</p>
<p>There is much of this off court contesting that goes on and, however heated it becomes, is unquestionably part of the exhilaration of the games themselves.</p>
<p>Conditions of the Game</p>
<p>While it may be true that Americans have not been as interested in politics as those countries who have historically suffered for not paying attention, it is true now that President Donald Trump has drawn Americans to the drama of the political scene, almost as completely and as cleverly as an addictive Reality-TV show.</p>
<p>Some are drawn because of a total visceral connection with Donald Trump as their anti-political avenger against an “administrative State” which they perceive has given their deserved status to the undeserving. Some are drawn because Donald Trump’s presidency is perceived to be a threat to an Enlightenment reasoning that has led to liberal and neo-liberal values of individual freedom and choice that complement the principles of capitalism.</p>
<p>The bench set against Trump/Bannon is deep, uniting both Liberals and Neo-liberals in their allegiance to a Reason- Freedom -Capitalism calculus that leads to personal satisfaction.</p>
<p>A Republican Congress holds on to the hope of unleashing market forces to pre-Great Recession levels without much damage done by President Trump to reason’s role in controlling a relationship between personal freedom and maximizing profits.</p>
<p>Liberals have since FDR mostly avoided facing the Reason-Freedom-Capitalism calculus, preferring to focus on social issues, which they now fear a Trump regime will harm.</p>
<p>This is not a fear that Neo-liberals share, and certainly not a matter that will separate them from Trump. Neo-liberal resistance will come when Trump threatens the cozy affiliation of personal freedom and market freedom as well as the reasoning, a focused instrument, directed to support both.</p>
<p>Trump and his minions have already fostered an attack upon a neutral reasoning, thus exposing its “instrumental” features. The road down the “alternative facts” and “your” reasoning and “my reasoning” has already brought to a grassroots’ level a suspicious awareness of reason itself as a political instrument. Here, we are dangerously close to questioning capitalism’s control of reasoning itself to construct ideas of consumer freedom and profit sovereignty,</p>
<p>If we transfer the experienced ways in which we analyze and interpret NCAA March Madness to the present political scene, we might illuminate this court from a familiar perspective.</p>
<p>The Referees</p>
<p>First, there are no longer any referees whose judgments are recognized by all players.</p>
<p>The game, as the philosopher would say in reference to chess, is now being played on a “bottomless chessboard.” No moves clearly are foul. No win cannot be represented as a loss, and vice versa. What immiserates The People can be represented as done in the interests of The People. No reference to The People can be traced to anything but The People, which can be traced back to innumerable references to The People.</p>
<p>Team play grounded on a mutual recognition of the authority of the rules of the game and a belief that team solidarity overrides individual preference would be, on the political court, recognition of authority that overrides personal opinion and creates solidarity beyond the determining power of personal “Likes.”</p>
<p>Right now, our conditions on this political court indicate that the opinionated are rule-resistant, unstoppable and are more liable to be seeking and finding online support for even the craziest beliefs than any challenge or refutation.</p>
<p>Thus, multiple, fractured societies now rival and undermine a real world societal solidarity that has historically been sought and preserved. &#160;This is, you might say, a new set play on the political court that unravels an existing order of things, what Steve Bannon calls a “deconstruction of the administrative State.”</p>
<p>That deconstruction, however, will not stop at whatever regime of order he envisions. We are at the beginning of a Great Unraveling.</p>
<p>Present conditions on the ground also show us a prospering since President Reagan of a small percentage of the population benefiting from the globalization of a gone-wild economic system rewarding investment and not wages.</p>
<p>The resulting top 1% having as much combined income as the bottom 95% has led to a painful awareness of decline but only by those in that painful decline. And that awareness is both recent and at once distracted and misled. A discourse disclosing and interpreting this decline has a difficult time breaking through the relentless barrage of opinions from our online and offline worlds. We also see now that a top 20% professional class, serving the top 1%, has been in charge of the discourse, of the representation of the “conditions on the ground.” A long time separation of the professional class from the embittered class has led to the absence of a much needed disclosure of the sources of estrangement and bitterness.</p>
<p>There is an estrangement then also of the Liberal media from The Forgotten rallying to Trump which has much to do with Liberals setting their tent on the margins. This has left the multitude slated for extinction by a rabid form of globalized capitalism with no electoral choices they see as relevant to them.</p>
<p>They were asked in the 2016 Presidential election to put aside their plight and vote a Democratic ticket focusing on social issues, from abortion and gun control to racial equity and LGBTQ rights. Beyond being highly problematic and contentious issues among The Forgotten, they are first and foremost way outside the court of their interests. Liberals can argue that this should not be so but the fact, not an alternative one, remains. Facts now in our post-truth age weigh only as much as they are perceived to weigh.</p>
<p>Right-wing media places itself solidly in the court of The Forgotten’s phenomenal world, repeatedly pounding messages to the darkest and most twisted branches of our human nature, and doing so in order to preserve a plutocratic order that is yet dependent upon winning elections. This is a focused attack on any politics critical of market rule or seeking to constrain in any way its unregulated free play for profit. However, that same appeal to the worst angels of our nature is being made by the autocratic regime of Donald Trump who is personally and not ideologically invested. His protection of Neoliberal ideology will go no further than the borders of his own personal enrichment and his own hold on power.</p>
<p>How to defend against Trump’s autocratic game style is markedly different from defending against Neoliberal market rule.</p>
<p>A brief scan of history reveals that in the U.S., critique of Market Rule is loudly and repeatedly condemned as “socialist,” which, for some 43% of the population, always means an attempt to take away their personal freedom, starting with taking away their guns. No one in Scandinavia, in the view of this segment of the population, has any personal freedom and so live the listless, mind controlled lives engineered by a Socialist State.</p>
<p>What Adorno called “The Culture Industry,” now formidable online and offline, has so owned the hearts and minds of those ill served by Market Rule that its own Reality-TV creation, Donald Trump, is now the 45th president of the United States. The autocrat is now anxious to confine capitalism’s global ambitions to national borders and engage in the kind of social expenditure that will keep The Forgotten on his side. And “The Culture Industry” is as available to serve autocracy as plutocracy, although its expanse, notably in cyberspace, was once applauded as”democratization.”</p>
<p>Regardless of sufficient reason and cause for The Forgotten to seek an upturning of what is clearly a plutocratic order, they misread both reasons and causes and therefore reach for the wrong solution, in this case, the autocrat, Donald Trump. This mis-reading of The Forgotten as to the circumstances of their own plight is not a misreading that can be obliged by either the Fourth Estate or by the institutions, practices and laws of a government built on Enlightenment principles. Whereas Market Rule and the plutocracy it leads to can be tamed, autocratic rule presents vastly different problems.</p>
<p>In order for a republic grounded in a Western tradition of reason and its methods in establishing truth to survive it cannot make any concessions to a populist slide into the irrational, a societal retrogression into “alternative fact” based opinions, gut responses, cult and celebrity worship, and the darkness of all manner of discriminations and hatreds. From this perspective, of long, enduring tradition in the West, there is no order of things but only a vicious chaos, a descent into the maelstrom of the worst in human nature, if we give up our Enlightenment direction.</p>
<p>Free market principles, even those extended beyond domains where profit does not apply, can summon a rational defense. The kind of autocratic rule of a president clearly burdened with deep, unresolved psychological issues, cannot so summon reason. And that is the ground upon which he must be challenged.</p>
<p>However, an increasingly strong exception to this tradition of rationality and realism is observable in both the 20th century Modernism’s “tragic vision” and in the deconstructing postmodernists who launched us into the “post-truth” mindset.</p>
<p>The Modernists had pointed out that an instrumental reasoning had led to the successive warfare and atrocities of the 20th century, continuing now in the 21st century as perpetual warfare. Our avowed “reasoning and realism” have led to the underwriting of an economic system that axiomatically has scheduled many to extinction. These appear now as Trump’s Forgotten, aware of being written off but not aware as to how or why or by who or what. Trump gives all the answers that satisfy only because he has, among all his presidential primary challengers, recognized all the questions.</p>
<p>The vote for a man who demonstrates he recognizes The Forgotten, who gives them visibility and importance is not a mindless matter but one establishing a deep existential bond. Trump’s election is a sign and a result of the importance of those discarded on the “creatively destroyed” pile.</p>
<p>The “administrative State” which Steve Bannon wishes to deconstruct is a deconstruction of capitalism’s globalist adventures that have created The Forgotten. These adventures were themselves the offspring of a Western Tradition of Rationality and Realism. We have then an allegiance to an instrumental Reason-Freedom-Capitalism’s satisfaction of personal choice calculus, which is itself a calculus that has created the plight of The Forgotten. A failure to address that plight and communicate its causes led to the inevitable coalescing of the angry and embittered and a turn to Trump. In a culture that attends personalities and not ideas, a turn to a larger than life personality as a redeemer is no surprise. That celebrities are packaged with manias and quirks broadcast loudly is to be expected. No one becomes a fan of someone who looks, acts and talks like themselves.</p>
<p>We are in no way ready to sever our connection either with plutocracy or deranged autocracy, or, more significantly with our instrumentalized reasoning. We are not prepared to dismantle this dark allegiance, this rational calculus on behalf of The Forgotten or any semblance of an egalitarian democracy.</p>
<p>A globalist techno-capitalism with a financialized vanguard can brook no nationalist boundaries and therefore cannot allow our autocrat’s mission to succeed. Thus far, it is clear that both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell believe they can hold back autocratic derangement long enough to further implant Market Rule.</p>
<p>Society also cannot put aside a rule of reason and realism and accept a misrule of “alternative facts,” even though we have “reasoned” our society into a plutocratic order in which more than the followers of Trump are The Forgotten. The present reasoning has created a 20% democracy order, or, more precisely, a plutocracy, which in turn has brought us into the arms of a deranged autocrat as our relief. Whatever Occupy Wall Street envisioned as relief it could not have been the autocratic rule of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>There is thus every reason to deconstruct a reasoning that has led us on a path to plutocracy and now autocracy. But there is also every reason to preserve it because a descent into the irrational, into “alternative facts” and so on has brought Trump into being and sustains his authority among The Forgotten. We are therefore within a culture that desperately needs a post-truth way of reasoning that is not an instrument of Market Rule or a descent into the chaos of “alternative facts.”</p>
<p>The Coaches</p>
<p>The Democrats have been poor coaches ever since Newt Gingrich in the 1994 Congressional elections mobilized conservatives behind the Contract with America and frightened President Clinton into a conservative presidency. Reagan’s red carpet, rolled out for those already flush from the Viet-nam war, benefited both Liberals and Neoliberals alike, both parties being heavily invested in the success of an economic system that increasingly benefited dividend recipients and not wage earners.</p>
<p>This complicity effectively removed the Democratic Party from all but disingenuous representation of those who would flock to Donald Trump. That party’s removal from the center to the margins, seeking whoever and whatever was a social equity issue, made it an unfit party for Bernie Sanders’ direct and persistent focusing on the economic system as the promulgator of gross inequities. Because only two coaches are allowed in our political game, Sanders had no real viable alternative to the Democratic Party. He was a danger to both parties and so both parties, along with the media, did all they could to deny his interpretation of conditions on the ground from being seriously considered.</p>
<p>The Republican Party has since Reagan bet on its financial winners, who they coddle and pamper as if they were thoroughbreds with the potential of winning in high stake races, while providing alibis such as “tough love,” “moral hazard,” “creative destruction,” “personal responsibility,” “Welfare Queens,” “Moochers,” and so on to detour attention from the looters to the looted, from the exploiters to the exploited. The problem as represented was not that the wealthy scrunch workers and planet for the sake of profit but that the laziness and cunning of the scrunched sapped the wealth of the nation.</p>
<p>With a manic drive to global profit and a mandate to seek new marketing frontiers,&#160; the Ayn Rand school of Republicans double downed on a 20% Democracy game. Neither 9/11 and the Neo-conservative lunatic aggression into the wrong places in the Middle East nor the 2007 Great Recession which led to inescapable crises for the Forgotten and opportunity for investors blew the whistle on growing plutocratic rule.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, those at the bottom since Reagan have remained there, joined by those who had been at the middle, although meritocracy continues to bring to those with inherited intelligence, socially and educationally nurtured ambition, and opportunity to envision a future for themselves. Meritocracy presents testing hurdles for some 20% who can thus form the only social and economic mobility available.</p>
<p>The coach who put together the winning team was Donald Trump. He scoffed and mocked Republicans, not in any detail but such was not necessary. A Bernie Sanders’ indicting, point by point exposition was not what Trump’s followers were looking for nor did they have the interest, background or patience to deal with it. They wanted scoffing, mocking, belittling, exterminations, the kind of direct actions those who have been punched, abused and messed with want, those who have been denied the chance to retaliate. By the time Trump had knocked out his Republican rivals and was facing Hillary Clinton, he found himself with a readymade arsenal he could launch against Liberals, Obama, and Hillary.</p>
<p>Scapegoating Obama had been a major event for the past eight years, every allegation from not being an American by birth, an allegation that many held on to like a religious belief, to Obamacare, taking away guns and the Death Panels, were already in place in the American mass psyche. Tax and spend liberals, those who take a wage earners’ wages and give them to those who do not want to work, remained and continue to remain the Darth Vaders in that same psyche.</p>
<p>The Liberal affiliation with gentrification, or, the uprooting of the working class to make way for the Elite, with political correctness, a gag on an American’s right to speak out, with a soft prison life for criminals, with apologies for welfare fraud, with environmental regulations that close down jobs, with a growing Federal bureaucracy that takes away individual freedom and choice . . . Almost an endless litany of aggression, disloyalty, and injustice to personal and individual freedom and choice. Trump kept a fire under all these aggressions, not in the elegant way Stephen Curry plays B-ball but in a stunted, fractured, repetitive drumbeat style that got the win nevertheless, not to mention the tweets, the chosen discourse medium of the new Millennium.</p>
<p>How the game will end</p>
<p>“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” A frequently quoted statement from Jefferson’s retirement papers. Survival meant the ability of those whose freedom is being threatened to interpret rationally how it is being threatened. Corollary to this is the ability to recognize bullshit and lies that deter an autocrat on the horizon from doing so.</p>
<p>What I call “rational” now has an “alternative” rational, which means, in short, we have lost our affiliation with “rational.” It is floating free of fact and evidence. Reason floats free the way capital does. We can expect, however, that like the blind man holding the tail of the elephant and insisting the elephant is shaped exactly like a snake, that at some point the elephant will disprove that, to the blind man’s regret.</p>
<p>This reliance on reality at some point upsetting our irrationality is not, however, totally soothing. Mother Nature cannot bring us to universally accepting the connection between human activity and global warming and if science has not already done that, it is not liable to.</p>
<p>And if President Trump’s unfitness, by all criteria, leads to or is revealed by some sort of crisis, such an event will not universally expose that unfitness. Crisis will most likely cement the autocratic rule as The Forgotten and everyone else rallies around the flag, held by Trump. The reality of crisis could be shipped from his unfitness to the judiciary, or the media, or the Liberals, or Obama or the gods or Arnold Schwarzenegger.</p>
<p>If survival is an extended event not fixed at any one moment, then we have time to educate a citizenry toward developing the tools of a common, communicative understanding, to a consensual validation of what is true and what is not as survival priorities present themselves.</p>
<p>If, however, the moment of survival is now, and the very pressing issue of global warming says it is, then we have already had our chance to educate and we have failed.</p>
<p>Not the first society to have failed in this manner but certainly the first in which the survival of the human species is at stake. Happily, the planet itself has the capacity to re-organize after catastrophic events, the human race, like a sudden asteroid, being one.</p>
<p>While President Trump remains the mountebank Donald Trump, now playing the part of president and not much invested in it beyond monetizing the office, he is an aberration that would dissolve if so many lackeys, bootlickers, Eichmann-like flunkies and enablers, so may ready to service apparatchiks and useful idiots had not so quickly gathered around him. These are not The Forgotten, the tragically duped but rather the opportunists who rally around a strong man anxious to do his will.</p>
<p>It is refreshing to return to the jubilant NCAA March Madness because whoever gets to the final two, the champion game and wins will be recognized by all as the winner. There will be no alternative winner, no alternative game, and no alternative baskets. There can be no deflecting of loss to winning or winning to loss. It is a refreshing madness, this NCAA March Madness.</p> | March Madness Outside the Basketball Court | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/03/24/march-madness-outside-the-basketball-court/ | 2017-03-24 | 4 |
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<p>New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez makes an announcement regarding job creation at SambaSafety in Albuquerque, photographed on Friday May 1, 2015. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Gov. Susana Martinez on Friday announced the expansions of two New Mexico high-tech firms that will create 70 jobs in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The jobs will will pay annual salaries of up to $100,000, according to information provided by the New Mexico Economic Development Department.</p>
<p>SambaSafety, a driver risk-management monitoring software service, will be adding 40 jobs in engineering, software development, customer care, account management and accounting. Salaries for those positions will range from $60,000 to $100,000.</p>
<p>RiskSense Inc. a cybersecurity company formerly known as CAaNES, is adding 30 jobs. RiskSense will receive $583,909 in Job Training Incentive Program funding to hire and train their new workers. The jobs will range from web designers to security analysts with an average annual salary of nearly $70,000.</p>
<p>"It's exciting to see two homegrown companies expand their operations and add more New Mexicans to their payrolls. Companies like these play a critical role in building a strong private-sector, which is exactly what we want," Martinez said in a news release.</p>
<p>SambaSafety was started in 1998 with venture-capital backing and was acquired in 2011 by a group of private investors from New York and Texas.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The company started as a local provider of vehicle registration data and has expanded into data collection sources and services. It now serves more than 14,000 customers nationwide.</p>
<p>SambaSafety moved into a 10,000-square-foot office near Balloon Fiesta Park last fall. The company plans to relocate all its customer care operations to Albuquerque by the end of this year, the release said.</p>
<p>RiskSense was launched as Computational Analysis &amp; Network Enterprise Solutions in 2006 by New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology in Socorro.</p>
<p>The company provides security services to businesses using proprietary software developed by researchers at NM Tech. The main product they produce was called RiskSense, which has now become the company name.</p>
<p>RiskSense plans to move from two leased spaces into an 18,400-square-foot space at 4200 Osuna NE in July.</p> | Governor announces 70 new high-tech jobs | false | https://abqjournal.com/578129/governor-announces-70-new-high-tech-jobs.html | 2015-05-01 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Anthem Inc and the U.S. Justice Department dug in their heels on Monday in court over whether the lower prices the health insurer expects to negotiate after buying smaller rival Cigna Corp are an efficiency that benefits customers or an antitrust violation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In the first phase of what could be a two-stage trial, a lawyer for Anthem argued that the $45-billion deal, which was announced more than a year ago, would create a new, bigger insurer with the power to push down prices that it would pass onto customers.</p>
<p>But the Justice Department argued that any cost cuts would come from Anthem using its clout in the market to force hospitals and doctors to work for less.</p>
<p>"Efficiencies don't count if the only way you get them is more market power," the Justice Department's attorney Jon Jacobs said in opening statements.</p>
<p>Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may opt to block the proposed deal if she decides it will mean higher prices for consumers or that it hurts suppliers. The Justice Department asked her to declare the deal illegal under antitrust law.</p>
<p>The Justice Department's Jacobs argued that the deal would also lead to fewer companies selling health insurance to big, nationwide employers that need a broad network of services.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Fewer companies usually means higher prices for these big companies, and Anthem's lawyer Christopher Curran took issue with that idea. "The notion that these Fortune 500 companies are going to be victimized here ... is not realistic," Curran said in court.</p>
<p>Curran also argued that the Justice Department had failed to consider the new online private exchanges where corporations allow employees to choose from multiple insurers.</p>
<p>Judge Jackson noted that the major insurance companies were the ones in the exchanges and asked: "How's that the answer to the problem?"</p>
<p>The Justice Department's Jacobs noted the tough competition between the companies, referring to an Anthem document. "It offered its sales force a bounty if they took business away from Aetna or Cigna," said Jacobs.</p>
<p>The trial is expected to end by the end of the year.</p>
<p>The Justice Department filed lawsuits on July 21 asking a federal court to stop the $45-billion purchase of Cigna and Aetna Inc's $33-billion planned acquisition of Humana , arguing that such consolidation among the largest health insurers would be anti-competitive.</p>
<p>Anthem attempted to make the case that it was not truly a national insurance company because it is only in 14 states.</p>
<p>Joseph Swedish, chief executive of Anthem, the largest member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, testified that he would be inclined to assist another so-called blue plan land a national contract in a way it would not help one of the other major companies.</p>
<p>"If a blue plan reaches out to me to give help, I'll give help," Swedish said.</p>
<p>Anthem shares closed up 1.5 percent at $137.36, while Cigna shares fell 1.2 percent to close at $137.08.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Diane Bartz, writing by Caroline Humer and Diane Bartz; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Bernard Orr)</p> | Anthem argues Fortune 500 will not suffer from Cigna deal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/11/21/anthem-argues-fortune-500-will-not-suffer-from-cigna-deal.html | 2016-11-22 | 0 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - A court hearing is scheduled Thursday for a former city bus driver who's charged with murder in a string of deadly nighttime shootings in Phoenix.</p>
<p>The status conference for Aaron Juan Saucedo is his first court hearing since prosecutors said they intended on seeking the death penalty against him.</p>
<p>Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and drive-by shooting in attacks that killed nine people and wounded two others during a nearly one-year period that ended in July 2016.</p>
<p>Most of the killings were in a mostly Latino neighborhood where residents became afraid to go outside their homes at night.</p>
<p>Saucedo has chosen not to attend four previous court hearings.</p>
<p>His trial is scheduled for Nov. 4, 2019.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - A court hearing is scheduled Thursday for a former city bus driver who's charged with murder in a string of deadly nighttime shootings in Phoenix.</p>
<p>The status conference for Aaron Juan Saucedo is his first court hearing since prosecutors said they intended on seeking the death penalty against him.</p>
<p>Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and drive-by shooting in attacks that killed nine people and wounded two others during a nearly one-year period that ended in July 2016.</p>
<p>Most of the killings were in a mostly Latino neighborhood where residents became afraid to go outside their homes at night.</p>
<p>Saucedo has chosen not to attend four previous court hearings.</p>
<p>His trial is scheduled for Nov. 4, 2019.</p> | Hearing set for man charged in Phoenix's serial killings | false | https://apnews.com/amp/bfae81a8aca2497eb9c385ba401c070d | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>Over the past 18 months, the&#160;New York Times&#160;has dedicated 21 columns and articles to the subject of conservatives’ free speech on campus, while only three covered the silencing of college liberals or leftists. A review of&#160;Times&#160;articles, columns, op-eds and reports shows a clear emphasis on documenting and condemning perceived suppression of conservative voices at American universities, while rarely mentioning harassment campaigns against leftist professors and/or the criminalization of leftist causes such as the pro-Palestinian BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement.</p>
<p>The&#160;Times’ articles since May 1, 2016, on the alleged suppression of right-wing speech include:</p>
<p>The&#160;Times&#160;articles on the suppression of left speech:</p>
<p>The hand-wringing over liberal intolerance was kicked off in earnest with a double shot from columnist Nick Kristof, whose “Confession of Liberal Intolerance” ( <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html" type="external">5/8/16</a>) and “The Liberal Blind Spot” ( <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-liberal-blind-spot.html" type="external">5/28/16</a>) both lamented the rising “intolerance” of liberals in academia. This piece was followed up with a thematic carbon copy in December 2016 in the wake of Trump’s surprise victory. As FAIR &#160;( <a href="https://fair.org/home/campuses-dont-need-affirmative-action-for-trumpism/" type="external">12/13/16</a>) noted at the time, Kristof used his considerable influence to argue for what was, in effect, affirmative action for the far right.</p>
<p />
<p>Some articles, like “Berkeley Is Under Attack From Both Sides” ( <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/opinion/berkeley-is-under-attack-from-both-sides.html" type="external">4/26/17</a>), lamented the free speech oppression of “both sides,” but took no strong position against either perceived threat.</p>
<p>Professors silenced or fired over anti-Israel activities, like Berkeley’s&#160; <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/israel-palestine-free-speech-college-campuses-occupation-bds" type="external">Paul Hadweh</a>&#160;or SUNY Plattsburgh’s&#160; <a href="https://jezebel.com/the-campus-free-speech-battle-youre-not-seeing-1791631293" type="external">Simona Sharoni</a>, were not covered, much less defended, in the&#160;Times&#160;during the study period. The&#160; <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/dianne-feinstein-husband-threaten-univ-calif-demanding-ban-excessive-israel-criticism/" type="external">broader trend of anti-BDS activity</a>&#160;threatening college free speech was almost never touched upon, and when it was, it was given only a fraction of the pearl-clutching reserved for the lack of far-right professors or the mean things said about Trump supporters by undergrads.The&#160;New York Times&#160;did sporadically cover the dozens of laws throughout the country seeking to criminalize BDS, but never put it in the broader context of college free speech. (For example, musician Roger Waters’ “Congress Shouldn’t Silence Human Rights Advocates”— <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/opinion/roger-waters-congress-silencing-advocates.html" type="external">9/7/17</a>—criticized laws that target “individuals and businesses who actively participate in boycott campaigns in support of Palestinian rights,” not specifically student activists.) A &#160;piece defending BDS speech rights by anti-BDS CUNY professor Eric Alterman did&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/opinion/the-bds-movement-and-anti-semitism-on-campus.html" type="external">run in March 2016</a>, outside the timeframe of the study.</p>
<p>A similar phenomenon emerged during the primaries, when reporters would parachute in to&#160; <a href="http://www.carlbeijer.com/2016/05/the-oppression-of-clinton-supporters_12.html" type="external">document</a>&#160;the oppression of Hillary Clinton backers by Bernie Sanders supporters on college campuses; both conceits were based on the false notion that college campus should be 1-to-1 hospitable to all ideologies and candidates at all times. The idea that certain viewpoints—like supply-side economics, racial eugenics or a Eurocentric view of history—are underrepresented on campus because they aren’t intellectually credible is never entertained.</p>
<p>On the dubious altar of “ideological diversity,” the paper of record sacrifices any sense of proportionality. With alt-right and neo-Nazi elements on the march—and a White House that’s at the very least sympathetic to them—the&#160;Times&#160;focuses its tremendous influence, time and again, on creating a space in academia for reactionary, racist and sexist views that are wildly overrepresented in almost every other sector of society.</p> | N.Y. Times Focuses on Rights of Campus Conservatives, Slights Liberals | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/new-york-times-campus-free-speech-coverage-focuses-7-1-plight-right/ | 2018-01-22 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>This was not just any race, but the Boston Marathon, the granddaddy of all marathons. A race that requires a qualifying time and serves as a crown for years of training and dedication.</p>
<p>Now, after finishing this famous race, it was time for me and my group of friends to celebrate our personal accomplishments, delight in overcoming pain and marvel at the human spirit.</p>
<p>Instead, we soon were witnessing the depths of human depravity.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I was gathered with 11 others, marathon finishers and friends and my wife, daughter and her boyfriend. We were giddily chatting about Heartbreak Hill, the crazy spectators, fast runners and tired legs. We had met up at Au Bon Pain, a sidewalk cafe three blocks from the finish line.</p>
<p>Dozens of others had gathered there too – marathoners who joined with friends, who also shared in the conversational buzz about aches and joy and triumph and congratulations.</p>
<p>Then came the noise.</p>
<p>Boom.</p>
<p>Loud. Cold. Hollow.</p>
<p>And then another.</p>
<p>Boom.</p>
<p>What was that? It sounded like a cannon, someone said. But that makes no sense. Why would they be shooting cannons now? You fire cannons at the beginning, not at the end. Especially not now, hours after the winners had crossed the finish line.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And then, silence. Tense silence.</p>
<p>We all looked in the direction of the finish line. Across the street in a high-rise, we saw office workers peering out their windows, not curiously but intently.</p>
<p>Then about 10 police officers ran by in formation.</p>
<p>“Out of the way, please, out of the way,” one yelled, as they ran down the sidewalk in front of us.</p>
<p>I felt a pit in my stomach.</p>
<p>We knew, as all of those in our area did, to stay calm, move out of the area so the responders could do their jobs and help those in need.</p>
<p>And we moved on, walking while texting and calling friends and fellow runners, making sure everyone was OK. “Did anyone hear from Olga?” someone asked. “What about Tom, where is he?”</p>
<p>Ambulances whizzed by, sirens blaring. More police passed. Several Boston police cars, other unmarked police cars with lights flashing.</p>
<p>Soon the calls came in, from family and friends throughout the country and beyond, checking on us, asking about others, trying to find any bit of information.</p>
<p>Yes, we were OK. No one we knew was hurt. We had accounted for mostly everyone. Thank you. I love you, too. Yes, God was with us. Pray for those who hurt.</p>
<p>And what was most bizarre, what I secretly hoped, was that it was a natural gas explosion or an equipment malfunction or something, anything, but what it turned out to be – terrorism.</p>
<p>It would take another hour, after we had walked to the condo we had rented a half mile from the finish line, for us to realize that this was an attack, not an accident. That a bomb had cut through the spectators, tearing off their limbs, ripping through flesh and leaving a scene of grim destruction.</p>
<p>And we realized that somebody had wanted the marathoners, the spectators – us – to die. For what reason, we – I- didn’t understand.</p>
<p>From time to time, I’m asked why I run marathons.</p>
<p>I usually try to give a quick answer – “It’s fun,” I’ll say – but occasionally I get a questioner who doesn’t buy that answer.</p>
<p>So I have to explain the truth.</p>
<p>Long-distance running, for me and most runners, is a way to understand life. To understand it in all its contradictions: its joy and pain, defeat and accomplishment, the loneliness and the camaraderie.</p>
<p>Indeed, running is a way for us to embrace the fact that we are alive.</p>
<p>Last Monday, someone tried to deny us that.</p>
<p>I pity them for actually believing that by detonating a couple of bombs they could somehow put an end to something that is so integral to our human spirit.</p>
<p>They are doomed to failure.</p>
<p>Jim Weddell is a longtime marathon runner and four-time Boston Marathoner. He will run the Boston Marathon again in 2014. He finished this year’s marathon in 2:59.06.</p> | Runner says Boston bombing can’t kill our spirit | false | https://abqjournal.com/190246/runner-says-boston-bombing-cant-kill-our-spirit.html | 2013-04-19 | 2 |
<p>. <a href="" type="internal" />.</p>
<p>How many more accidental shootings because of the presence of a gun, intentional shootings because of the presence of a gun, or convenient shootings because of the presence of gun must America continue to endure. The NRA says guns do not kill. They are absolutely right.Good people and bad people with guns kill.</p>
<p>CNN reports that on Thursday an eight year old kid intentionally killed his elderly caregiver after playing a violent video game. He killed Marie Smothers, his 87 year old grandmother in a Slaughter, Louisiana mobile home park. She was pronounced dead at the scene.</p>
<p>"By accounts of relatives of the victim, as well as friends of the family, the victim and the juvenile had a normal, loving, relationship and even shared the same bedroom," the sheriff's department said.</p>
<p>The gun belonged to Smothers, WBRZ reported. <a href="http://www.wafb.com/story/23242078/investigators-believe-8-year-old-intentionally-killed-90-year-old-woman#at_pco=cfd-1.0" type="external">CNN affiliate WAFB</a> reported that a man identifying himself as the boy's father also said the gun belongs to Smothers.</p>
<p>Although the boy initially told investigators that he accidentally shot the woman while playing with a firearm, the probe led authorities to believe he "intentionally shot Mrs. Smothers in the back of the head as she sat in her living room watching television," the sheriff's department statement said.</p>
<p>The boy won't face charges. Under Louisiana law, a child under 10 is exempt from criminal responsibility. [ <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/louisiana-boy-kills-grandmother/index.html?on.cnn=1&amp;hpt=hp_t2" type="external">Source</a>]</p>
<p>The sheriff’s department press release implies that playing the Play Station III ‘Grand Theft Auto’ may have influenced the boys actions. No one knows where the grandmother had the guns stored.</p>
<p>It is a known fact that the presence of guns in a home increases the likelihood of someone in that home being injured or killed by a gun either by accident, homicide, or suicide. Moreover, there is absolutely no credible evidence that having a gun in the home reduces ones risk of being a victim of crime.</p>
<p>This fact is so incontrovertible that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pediatricians urge parents to <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2012/12/health-risk-having-gun-home" type="external">remove ALL guns from their homes</a>. It does not say to store safely or to store guns unloaded. It says they should not be in the home, period.</p>
<p>One must wonder if politicians and citizens will be more proactive given the recent rash of gun incidences. Just last week a fully AK-47 armed gunman with over 500 rounds was <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/08/22/antoinette-tuff-stops-school-massacre/" type="external">subdued by the love and kindness of Antoinette Tuff</a>, a bookkeeper at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Lithonia, GA.</p>
<p>Next week there will be a test. Two Colorado Democratic <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/22/20141305-colorado-voters-oppose-recalling-two-democratic-state-senators-but-against-new-gun-law" type="external">state senators are being recalled</a> for supporting a tough new gun law. Both the margin of victory or defeat of the recall effort will tell if the <a href="" type="internal">perceived influence of the NRA</a> is valid. They are spending buckets of cash for that recall.</p>
<p>This young boy is now a killer. Who is to be blamed? Blame must be placed on every politician and American citizen who refuses to acknowledge the reality that guns are no different than any other potentially lethal product that must be strictly regulated and in some circumstances outlawed.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> LIKE My <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/EgbertoWilliescom/181893712536" type="external">Facebook Page</a> – Visit My Blog: <a href="http://www.EgbertoWillies.com" type="external">EgbertoWillies.com</a></p> | Guns Don’t Kill–8 Year Old Boy With A Gun Did (VIDEO) | true | http://egbertowillies.com/2013/08/25/guns-dont-kill8-year-old-boy-gun-video/?fb_source%3Dpubv1 | 2013-08-25 | 4 |
<p>BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP) — Richard Alberta went from not believing in God for 10 years to preaching the word of God for 40 years.</p>
<p>On Dec. 31, after 26 years and more than 3,100 sermons as senior pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Alberta stepped down from the pulpit.</p>
<p>"It's unusual to stay this long," he told <a href="http://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/brighton/2018/01/05/brighton-pastor-atheist-turned-evangelical-steps-down-after-40-year-career/1008014001/" type="external">the Livingston Daily Press &amp; Argus</a> . "I've had the same family for 26 years, I can't keep telling the same story."</p>
<p>His story is one of transformation. Raised in New York in a non-religious, "dysfunctional" family fractured by divorce, he was a decided atheist by the late 1960s while he and his high school sweetheart, Donna, were both attending Rutgers University.</p>
<p>Donna Alberta notes her husband became an intellectual atheist during the tumultuous '60s, "a time of great upheaval and change," particularly with the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the start of the war in Vietnam.</p>
<p>"He felt at that time, if there was a God, he was impotent or uncaring," said Donna Alberta, who along with her husband tended to believe there must not be a God in a world that seemed to be going crazy.</p>
<p>The couple married in 1969 and graduated from Rutgers in 1970. They were yuppies, climbing the career success ladder. Richard Alberta was working in banking and financing in New York when he and Donna Alberta welcomed their first child, seven years into their marriage.</p>
<p>It was 1977 and Richard Alberta found himself at a crossroads. He had the successful career, a beautiful home, a happy marriage, a new son, but still, something was missing. That something was someone, he clarifies, and cites a biblical passage — "I stand at the door and knock."</p>
<p>He opened the door to Jesus Christ after his niece took him to church.</p>
<p>Within that next year, his conviction became so strong that not only was he a believer, but he found himself led to strengthen and support the faith of others by devoting himself to ministry.</p>
<p>"I said to God, 'what is your plan with my life?' I immediately eliminated being a belly dancer or in the French Navy, and we ended up moving to Massachusetts for the seminary," Richard Alberta said.</p>
<p>Donna Alberta was resistant at first. Her childhood recollection of a pastor's wife was a woman who was very serious and dressed in black.</p>
<p>"It didn't seem fun — I am very social. I can't play the piano or organ, I can bake a decent chocolate chip cookie," Donna Alberta said. "But when he shared his heart with me, and extraordinary experience, I knew I needed to respect that. The Lord changed my heart and gave me excitement even though we had a brand new baby in our life."</p>
<p>The couple sold their home and most of their possessions and moved to Massachusetts, where Richard attended the "Harvard" of theological schools — the Gordon-Conwell Seminary, earning his master's of divinity in 1982.</p>
<p>The couple did mission work for two years before moving back to New York for ministry. In 1988, they arrived in Michigan and Richard was the pastor at Ward Church in Northville. That position continued until 1991, when he became the first pastor to preach at Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church's new facility.</p>
<p>Since that time, he has preached two or three services each Sunday, and multiple services in the Christmas and Easter seasons. He has presided over hundreds of weddings, which he likes but also says can be a pain because "the bride's mother is always cold," and he does "a mean funeral."</p>
<p>He has seen the church grow as the facility has undergone several building expansions, increasing from 22,000 square feet to more than 100,000 square feet to also include a school up through the eighth grade.</p>
<p>He has watched his congregation age, dedicating babies whose weddings he later officiated.</p>
<p>Since 1991 and the beginning of his leadership at Cornerstone and through the work of the congregation, the church has given $25 million in missions to share the gospel both stateside and around the world.</p>
<p>Richard Alberta's favorite work has been done from the pulpit, difficult as it may sometimes be to keep the messages fresh and different as he works from an unchanging Scripture.</p>
<p>"You can't just mail it in," he said. "If you're supposed to lead Christian people toward a greater life in Christ, you're acting as a shepherd. Sheep need to be led gently and affectionately and creatively. A pastor should understand their role as shepherds. We have to think of how to motivate."</p>
<p>He said he has also enjoyed the intellectual conversations he has shared out of the pulpit — about the integration of faith with science, with politics, with culture.</p>
<p>His former atheism helps him to be more effective, he said, because he is not irritated by unbelief or skepticism because he understands those feelings.</p>
<p>The congregation grew from 350 members to about 2,100 at its peak in about 2006.</p>
<p>The membership has since receded to about 1,600, which Richard Alberta attributes to multiple, sometimes conflicting factors. The housing market led to many members of the congregation leaving the area to find work, but previous and subsequent growth in the county also led to more church options.</p>
<p>And across the country, there has been a decrease in church attendance and other religious activities, a trend he attributes to a technological explosion, a collapse of moral certainty, and a secularized society that has no zeal for accommodating religion.</p>
<p>The one exception to a decline in church attendance, Richard Alberta said, is that true, Bible-believing churches like his own continue to grow. He cites, in particular, a pro-life stance and belief in "biblical marriage."</p>
<p>"We have been committed — this is a very strong, pro-life church," Richard said. "Killing of unborn children is a capital sin in America. Right behind it are things like gay marriage. I am not homophobic or hateful, I have dozens of friends who are gay. This church has maintained fidelity to the teachings of Scripture and that is why God has blessed it."</p>
<p>While he believes those stances are absolutes, he wonders how evangelicalism "squares with its support of Mr. Trump."</p>
<p>The president, he continued, has become a "major issue" in evangelical writing and politics."</p>
<p>"We are going through an incredibly uncomfortable time because evangelicals tend to support the unborn, biblical marriage, and are very concerned with the Supreme Court," Richard Alberta said. "Those values are high on the list, but we are concerned with a president who is careless with his remarks and has a questionable reputation with women. For the first time in my career, in my view, evangelicals are so divided. We like most of his policies but are uneasy with this man. The church is in an odd state right about now. The lines are not clearly drawn. Presidents who wouldn't protect the unborn and biblical marriage are very frustrating to an evangelical. On the other hand, presidents with a reputation of being disrespectful of women and earth, we don't want either."</p>
<p>Regardless of who is leading the country, Richard Alberta said he expects excellent leadership at Cornerstone as he hands over the lead pastor role to Chris Winans, who he said will be supported by the wonderful church staff.</p>
<p>The 37-year-old married father and former New York jazz musician came to Cornerstone four years ago to oversee the Christian education ministry. He is a graduate of the Reform Theological Seminary and has a goal for the church to be a place of connection.</p>
<p>"My role is to be the one to facilitate the connection," Winans said. "In Ephesians, it says the work of a church is to equip people so the Holy Spirit within them can do the work. Richard has been a real mentor to me, a spiritual father. I have tremendous respect for him. He has maintained a virtuous life and I admire him a lot."</p>
<p>Winans was installed as the lead pastor in a service on Sunday, Jan. 7, at the church.</p>
<p>While Richard Alberta will no longer preach from the Cornerstone pulpit, he said he plans to stay in the ministry, doing some writing, speaking, golfing, driving his "hot Mustang" and spending time with his family, which includes four sons and several grandchildren.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Livingston Daily Press &amp; Argus, <a href="http://www.livingstondaily.com" type="external">http://www.livingstondaily.com</a></p>
<p>BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP) — Richard Alberta went from not believing in God for 10 years to preaching the word of God for 40 years.</p>
<p>On Dec. 31, after 26 years and more than 3,100 sermons as senior pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Alberta stepped down from the pulpit.</p>
<p>"It's unusual to stay this long," he told <a href="http://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/brighton/2018/01/05/brighton-pastor-atheist-turned-evangelical-steps-down-after-40-year-career/1008014001/" type="external">the Livingston Daily Press &amp; Argus</a> . "I've had the same family for 26 years, I can't keep telling the same story."</p>
<p>His story is one of transformation. Raised in New York in a non-religious, "dysfunctional" family fractured by divorce, he was a decided atheist by the late 1960s while he and his high school sweetheart, Donna, were both attending Rutgers University.</p>
<p>Donna Alberta notes her husband became an intellectual atheist during the tumultuous '60s, "a time of great upheaval and change," particularly with the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the start of the war in Vietnam.</p>
<p>"He felt at that time, if there was a God, he was impotent or uncaring," said Donna Alberta, who along with her husband tended to believe there must not be a God in a world that seemed to be going crazy.</p>
<p>The couple married in 1969 and graduated from Rutgers in 1970. They were yuppies, climbing the career success ladder. Richard Alberta was working in banking and financing in New York when he and Donna Alberta welcomed their first child, seven years into their marriage.</p>
<p>It was 1977 and Richard Alberta found himself at a crossroads. He had the successful career, a beautiful home, a happy marriage, a new son, but still, something was missing. That something was someone, he clarifies, and cites a biblical passage — "I stand at the door and knock."</p>
<p>He opened the door to Jesus Christ after his niece took him to church.</p>
<p>Within that next year, his conviction became so strong that not only was he a believer, but he found himself led to strengthen and support the faith of others by devoting himself to ministry.</p>
<p>"I said to God, 'what is your plan with my life?' I immediately eliminated being a belly dancer or in the French Navy, and we ended up moving to Massachusetts for the seminary," Richard Alberta said.</p>
<p>Donna Alberta was resistant at first. Her childhood recollection of a pastor's wife was a woman who was very serious and dressed in black.</p>
<p>"It didn't seem fun — I am very social. I can't play the piano or organ, I can bake a decent chocolate chip cookie," Donna Alberta said. "But when he shared his heart with me, and extraordinary experience, I knew I needed to respect that. The Lord changed my heart and gave me excitement even though we had a brand new baby in our life."</p>
<p>The couple sold their home and most of their possessions and moved to Massachusetts, where Richard attended the "Harvard" of theological schools — the Gordon-Conwell Seminary, earning his master's of divinity in 1982.</p>
<p>The couple did mission work for two years before moving back to New York for ministry. In 1988, they arrived in Michigan and Richard was the pastor at Ward Church in Northville. That position continued until 1991, when he became the first pastor to preach at Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church's new facility.</p>
<p>Since that time, he has preached two or three services each Sunday, and multiple services in the Christmas and Easter seasons. He has presided over hundreds of weddings, which he likes but also says can be a pain because "the bride's mother is always cold," and he does "a mean funeral."</p>
<p>He has seen the church grow as the facility has undergone several building expansions, increasing from 22,000 square feet to more than 100,000 square feet to also include a school up through the eighth grade.</p>
<p>He has watched his congregation age, dedicating babies whose weddings he later officiated.</p>
<p>Since 1991 and the beginning of his leadership at Cornerstone and through the work of the congregation, the church has given $25 million in missions to share the gospel both stateside and around the world.</p>
<p>Richard Alberta's favorite work has been done from the pulpit, difficult as it may sometimes be to keep the messages fresh and different as he works from an unchanging Scripture.</p>
<p>"You can't just mail it in," he said. "If you're supposed to lead Christian people toward a greater life in Christ, you're acting as a shepherd. Sheep need to be led gently and affectionately and creatively. A pastor should understand their role as shepherds. We have to think of how to motivate."</p>
<p>He said he has also enjoyed the intellectual conversations he has shared out of the pulpit — about the integration of faith with science, with politics, with culture.</p>
<p>His former atheism helps him to be more effective, he said, because he is not irritated by unbelief or skepticism because he understands those feelings.</p>
<p>The congregation grew from 350 members to about 2,100 at its peak in about 2006.</p>
<p>The membership has since receded to about 1,600, which Richard Alberta attributes to multiple, sometimes conflicting factors. The housing market led to many members of the congregation leaving the area to find work, but previous and subsequent growth in the county also led to more church options.</p>
<p>And across the country, there has been a decrease in church attendance and other religious activities, a trend he attributes to a technological explosion, a collapse of moral certainty, and a secularized society that has no zeal for accommodating religion.</p>
<p>The one exception to a decline in church attendance, Richard Alberta said, is that true, Bible-believing churches like his own continue to grow. He cites, in particular, a pro-life stance and belief in "biblical marriage."</p>
<p>"We have been committed — this is a very strong, pro-life church," Richard said. "Killing of unborn children is a capital sin in America. Right behind it are things like gay marriage. I am not homophobic or hateful, I have dozens of friends who are gay. This church has maintained fidelity to the teachings of Scripture and that is why God has blessed it."</p>
<p>While he believes those stances are absolutes, he wonders how evangelicalism "squares with its support of Mr. Trump."</p>
<p>The president, he continued, has become a "major issue" in evangelical writing and politics."</p>
<p>"We are going through an incredibly uncomfortable time because evangelicals tend to support the unborn, biblical marriage, and are very concerned with the Supreme Court," Richard Alberta said. "Those values are high on the list, but we are concerned with a president who is careless with his remarks and has a questionable reputation with women. For the first time in my career, in my view, evangelicals are so divided. We like most of his policies but are uneasy with this man. The church is in an odd state right about now. The lines are not clearly drawn. Presidents who wouldn't protect the unborn and biblical marriage are very frustrating to an evangelical. On the other hand, presidents with a reputation of being disrespectful of women and earth, we don't want either."</p>
<p>Regardless of who is leading the country, Richard Alberta said he expects excellent leadership at Cornerstone as he hands over the lead pastor role to Chris Winans, who he said will be supported by the wonderful church staff.</p>
<p>The 37-year-old married father and former New York jazz musician came to Cornerstone four years ago to oversee the Christian education ministry. He is a graduate of the Reform Theological Seminary and has a goal for the church to be a place of connection.</p>
<p>"My role is to be the one to facilitate the connection," Winans said. "In Ephesians, it says the work of a church is to equip people so the Holy Spirit within them can do the work. Richard has been a real mentor to me, a spiritual father. I have tremendous respect for him. He has maintained a virtuous life and I admire him a lot."</p>
<p>Winans was installed as the lead pastor in a service on Sunday, Jan. 7, at the church.</p>
<p>While Richard Alberta will no longer preach from the Cornerstone pulpit, he said he plans to stay in the ministry, doing some writing, speaking, golfing, driving his "hot Mustang" and spending time with his family, which includes four sons and several grandchildren.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Livingston Daily Press &amp; Argus, <a href="http://www.livingstondaily.com" type="external">http://www.livingstondaily.com</a></p> | Michigan man ends 40-year career as a pastor | false | https://apnews.com/amp/5987488ee64044edbaed04f8ef637d4c | 2018-01-15 | 2 |
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube)</p>
<p>“Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert announced on Wednesday that she is in a relationship with a woman.</p>
<p>The best-selling author, 47, wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GilbertLiz/posts/1107564732658974:0" type="external">Facebook</a>post that she is in love with her best friend Rayya Elias. She says she discovered her feelings after Elias was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer.</p>
<p>“Something happened to my heart and mind in the days and weeks following Rayya’s diagnosis. Death — or the prospect of death — has a way of clearing away everything that is not real, and in that space of stark and utter realness, I was faced with this truth: I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya,” Gilbert writes.</p>
<p>“Here is where we stand now: Rayya and I are together. I love her, and she loves me. I’m walking through this cancer journey with her, not only as her friend, but as her partner. I am exactly where I need to be — the only place I can be,” Gilbert continued.</p>
<p>Gilbert made headlines earlier this year when she announced the divorce from her second husband Jose Nunes, who she met at the end of her “Eat, Pray, Love” journey.</p>
<p>“For those of you who are doing the math here, and who are wondering if this situation is why my marriage came to an end this spring, the simple answer is yes,” Gilbert writes. “(Please understand that I cannot say anything more about it than that. I trust you are all sensitive enough to understand how difficult this has been. As David Foster Wallace once wrote: “The truth will set you free — but not until it’s had its way with you.” Yes, it has been hard. Yes, the truth has had its way with us. And yes, the truth still stands).”</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Eat Pray Love</a> <a href="" type="internal">Elizabeth Gilbert</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jose Nunes</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rayya Elias</a></p> | ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ author Elizabeth Gilbert comes out | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/09/08/eat-pray-love-author-elizabeth-gilbert-comes/ | 3 | |
<p>A New Jersey nun who died 80 years ago will be beatified Saturday, the first to be beatified on U.S. soil – for miraculously curing a boy of an eye disease 50 years ago.</p>
<p>The ceremony will take place at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark led by Cardinal Angelo Amato. Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, who died in 1927 at 26 years of age, will be beatified. Beatification is the third in a four-step process to becoming a saint in the Catholic faith.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, a boy, Michael Mencer, prayed to Sister Miriam Teresa while holding a lock of her hair. His macular degeneration then started to fade.</p>
<p>According to Sister Mary Canavan of the Sisters of Charity, “Within a period of six weeks, it was totally reversed.”</p>
<p>Mencer <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nun-who-cured-blindness-first-be-beatified-u-s-soil-n213961" type="external">recently interviewed with NBC news</a>, describing his miracle. He was given a memento of Sister Miriam Teresa, an ornament decorated with a lock of her hair, by his school teacher. “I kept trying to look at [the memento], trying to focus with my peripheral vision,” said Mencer, who did not have central vision at this time, “I looked up and I saw an orb in the middle… I thought was the sun, but it didn’t hurt…. But then when I looked back down at the memento… I could see the hair in the memento.</p>
<p>“It still didn’t dawn on me that a miracle had happened.”</p>
<p>A servant of God will be beatified once the pope validates a miracle has occurred as a result of a person praying to the servant after the servant has died. It took 50 years for this nun’s miracle to be validated because the tale was lost to history until a letter from the mother of Mencer was found last year.</p>
<p>Americans have been beatified before, but never on American soil. These ceremonies traditionally occur in Rome, Italy.</p>
<p /> | Report: American nun credited with curing boy beatified | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/10/05/report-american-nun-credited-with-curing-boy-beatified/ | 2014-10-05 | 3 |
<p>Bethesda, Maryland</p>
<p>“And I’ve yet to hear a strong argument as to why the Patriot Act should not be reauthorized.”</p>
<p>Alberto Gonzales U.S. Attorney General San Francisco Chronicle</p>
<p>There is a bi-partisan, grassroots rebellion afoot in American, a movement to resist the USA PATRIOT Act. The Bush Administration, United Stated Congress and mainstream media had better stand-up and take notice as pressure builds to reform provisions of the Act that violate American civil liberties.</p>
<p>As the USA PATRIOT Act is scheduled up for renewal in the U.S. Congress, 5 states* and 378 cities, counties and municipalities have passed resolutions calling on their representatives to take a hard look at eliminating the worst elements of the Act and bringing it into line with U.S. Constitutional guarantees of civil liberties.</p>
<p>Fourteen other red and blue states from Wyoming to Massachusetts have similar resolutions in various stages of development, creating what the Bill of Rights Defense Committee calls “Civil Liberties Safe Zones.”</p>
<p>Montana’s role in this movement is significant because it’s the only state in the continental United States, west of the Mississippi River, that has passed a formal resolution adamantly opposing provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, which citizens and legislators believe subverts civil rights granted by the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Montana is a red state which voted by a 3-2 margin to re-elect George W. Bush. Paul Edwards, a citizen leader of the Red State Rebellion from Helena said, “Here we are in this sea of red and we’re saying ‘No’ to the Bush Administration’s USA PATRIOT Act.”</p>
<p>Montana Resolution 19, passed the State House (87-12) and State Senate (40-10) by resounding margins in both parties. The Resolution, regarded as the toughest passed anywhere to date, made its way through the entire legislative process without amendment.</p>
<p>Members of the Montana House and Senate who voted against the Resolution were described by Paul Edwards as those who favor Bush mandates over federal and state Constitutional rights. Edwards characterized opponents as, “sold-out, valueless politicians with mindless, unswerving loyalty to the Bush regime.”</p>
<p>The leadership that sheparded the Resolution through the legislative process came from both ends of the political spectrum in Montana. Senator Jim Elliott, a Trout Creek progressive was the lead sponsor in the State Senate. Representative Rick Maedje from Fortine, among the most conservative members of the State legislature, led the charge in the State House.</p>
<p>Unlikely allies included some staunch conservative members of the Montana State Senate like Jim Shockley (R-Victor), Ms. Aubyn Curtis (R- Fortine) and Jerry O’Neil (R-Columbia Falls), whose support led to a unanimous voice vote in the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee to pass the Resolution condemning all acts of terrorism against the Unites States, while resisting a campaign “at the expense of essential civil rights and liberties of citizens.”</p>
<p>The Montana Resolution requires that “in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under Montana State law, no agency or instrumentality of the State of Montana may” (the following is a partial list of excerpts from Resolution 119):</p>
<p>initiate, participate in or assist with an inquiry, investigation, surveillance or detention;</p>
<p>record, file, or share intelligence information concerning a person or organization, including library lending and research records, book and video store sales, medical records, financial records, student records, and other personal data;</p>
<p>collect or maintain information about the political, religious or social views; associations or activities of any individual, group, organization or business or engage in racial profiling.</p>
<p>Resolution 19 directs the Montana Attorney General to seek, “the names of all residents of the State of Montana who have been arrested or otherwise detained by federal authorities as a result of terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001; the location of each detainee; the circumstances [of] each detention; the charges … lodged against each detainee, the name of counsel … representing the detainees.”</p>
<p>The Attorney General of Montana is also charged with obtaining information from the federal government about electronic surveillance, monitoring of political or religious meeting and the number of times and circumstances under which citizen’s records are obtained under powers granted by the USA PATRIOT Act.</p>
<p>The Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act was introduced on April 6, 2005 to restore “checks and balances on federal domestic spying powers and narrow several controversial Patriot Act provisions,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The Montana Resolution calls upon its Delegation in the U.S. Congress to correct provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act that “infringe on civil liberties by supporting passage of the SAFE Act and the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA).”</p>
<p>In passing the Resolution the at the urging of its citizens, the Montana State Legislature exhorted the Montana Congressional Delegation including U.S. Senators Max Baucus (D) and Conrad Burns (R) to “vigorously oppose any pending and future federal legislation to the extent that it infringes in American’s civil rights and liberties, such as the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, Better known as Patriot Act II.”</p>
<p>While Governors do not normally sign Resolutions because they do not carry the force of law, Montana Governor Schweitzer is reported to have said that he will sign it next week and that it’s a “no brainer” since Montanans are fiercely devoted to their constitutional guarantees of civil rights.</p>
<p>Paul Edwards believes that the Montana Congressional Delegation must carry this charge to George W. Bush, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Congress, who will ignore Resolution 119 and others like it at their own peril. He believes Democracy itself is at stake. He wishes that the mainstream press were paying more attention to this organized opposition, but says that corporate media “has gotten so lazy and co-opted that they can’t even see when someone holds up a torch in the darkness.”</p>
<p>On the national level, “An unusual coalition of liberal, left, and right-wing groups is convinced that the law’s expansion of the government’s surveillance and investigatory powers threatens individual freedoms and privacy rights,” according to an article on OneWorld.net.</p>
<p>The left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Conservative Union (ACU) have united in opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act. Former Representative Bob Barr (R-GA) has also spoken out against provisions of the Act as the leader of a new group called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.</p>
<p>U. S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, can you hear us now?</p>
<p>* States which have passed Resolutions to date include: Maine, Vermont, Hawaii, Alaska, and Montana</p>
<p>KARYN STRICKLER is a writer, campaign expert and political activist. You can reach her at <a href="mailto:fiftyplusone@earthlink.net" type="external">fiftyplusone@earthlink.net</a> .</p>
<p>Copyright 2005 by KARYN STRICKLER.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Red States Rebellion | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/04/14/red-states-rebellion/ | 2005-04-14 | 4 |
<p>So, Hill Sixpack just rocked a pair of flats that cost nearly $1,000. A woman of the people, indeed.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-clinton-wore-shoes-cost-775-campaign-trail/" type="external">reportedly</a> wore a pair of $775 hand-stitched, rainbow-striped calfskin designer shoes while campaigning in Des Moines, Iowa. Clinton was apparently boasting about being a champion for small business owners and young entrepreneurs while on the trail in her fancy flats.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton" type="external">@HillaryClinton</a> <a href="https://t.co/M01VaHEEMr" type="external">pic.twitter.com/M01VaHEEMr</a></p>
<p>Yes, those hideous shoes cost $775.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-clinton-wore-shoes-cost-775-campaign-trail/" type="external">The Washington Free Beacon</a>, the price of Mrs. Middle Class' shoes are more than an average American's weekly paycheck: “According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average yearly income of a person in the United States as of 2013 was $28,155, meaning that each American earns an average of $2,346.25 per month, or $586.56 weekly.”</p>
<p>This isn't the first time the Democrat has caught some flak for her expensive taste. In early June, Hillary took some heat for wearing a $12,495 tweed jacket designed by Italian fashion icon Giorgio Armani while giving a victory speech in New York after the primary, where she ironically invoked her plight to diminish "income inequality."</p>
<p>As the Daily Wire <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, the former secretary of state's wardrobe is expected to total $200,000 at minimum this election cycle.</p>
<p>Hillary's hair isn't cheap either, apparently. The presidential nominee reportedly gets her iconic hairdo at the prestigious Bergdorf Goodman salon. “The salon charges $600 for a haircut and an additional $600 for color, meaning that patrons could pay as much as $1,200 for one appointment,” <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-clinton-wore-shoes-cost-775-campaign-trail/" type="external">notes</a> the Free Beacon. “In July, Clinton took a trip to see salon owner John Barrett for a cut, shutting down a section of Bergdorf Goodman where staff closed off an elevator bank so the former secretary of state could ride alone.”</p>
<p>While it’s true that political figures on both sides of the aisle have engaged in spending outrageous amounts of money on superficial goods and services, Democrats (and open socialists like <a href="" type="internal">$600,000-summer-home</a> Bernie Sanders) look overtly hypocritical. To be condemning the rich out of one side of your mouth while rocking a $200,000 wardrobe is not a good look.</p> | Woman of the People: Hillary's Hideous Shoes Cost More than an Average American Makes in a Week | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8333/woman-people-hillary-wears-hideous-shoes-cost-more-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-08-12 | 0 |
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<p>Although these visas, known as H-1B, aren’t supposed to displace American workers, critics say the program mostly benefits consulting firms that let tech companies save money by contracting out their jobs to foreign workers.</p>
<p>Trump signed an order Tuesday to direct the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to propose new rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse. Those departments would also be asked to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the “most-skilled or highest-paid applicants.”</p>
<p>Here’s a look at how the H-1B visa program works.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>IS THIS A TECH VISA PROGRAM?</p>
<p>The H-1B program is open to a broad range of occupations, including architects, professors and even fashion models. It’s meant for jobs requiring specialty skills that cannot be filled by a U.S. worker. Many of these jobs happen to be in tech. According to the Labor Department, the top three H-1B occupations are computer systems analysts, application software developers and computer programmers — and those three account for roughly half of the department’s H-1B certifications.</p>
<p>The tech industry says that companies have trouble filling positions with American workers and must turn to other countries through this program. Supporters have sought to expand the number of visas allowed each year, something unlikely to happen.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>BY THE NUMBERS</p>
<p>Although the program is capped at 85,000 new H-1B visas each year, more than 100,000 workers are allowed in annually because of exemptions for university-related positions. Recipients can stay up to six years. Demand is usually higher than the cap, so the government holds an annual lottery. This year, the government received nearly 200,000 applications for the available spots in less than a week.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>WHAT ABOUT AMERICAN JOBS?</p>
<p>By law, companies are required to pay at least the prevailing wage for that occupation. In practice, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience. Many of the overseas workers are willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually, far less than $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers.</p>
<p>As a result, many U.S. companies find it cheaper simply to contract out help desks, programming and other basic tasks to consulting companies such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata in India and IBM and Cognizant in the U.S. These consulting companies hire foreign workers, often from India, and contract them out to U.S. employers looking to save money. Tech workers losing their jobs sometimes have sometimes been required to train their foreign replacements to qualify for severance packages.</p>
<p>In some cases, companies must make a good faith effort to hire a U.S. worker before turning to an H-1B worker, but there are many exceptions to this requirement.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP’S CARDS</p>
<p>The Trump administration can do a few things on its own.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, the Trump administration issued a stern warning to U.S. companies that it would investigate and prosecute those who overlook qualified American workers for jobs. An official with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also circulated a memo intended to reserve approvals for computer programming to more senior positions. Although the memo doesn’t have the force of law and is merely intended as guidance for employees reviewing individual cases, it could make it more difficult for entry-level workers to get approved.</p>
<p>Beyond that, the administration could scrap the current lottery approach and give priority to higher-paying jobs, thereby weeding out lower-paying, entry-level positions. Trump wants individual departments in his administration to come up with proposals.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHAT ABOUT CONGRESS?</p>
<p>One bill, proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, would require companies seeking H-1B visas to first make a good-faith effort to hire Americans, a requirement that applies to only some companies under the current system. It would also give the Labor Department more power to investigate and sanction H-1B abuses and give “the best and brightest” foreign students studying in the U.S. priority in getting H-1B visas.</p>
<p>Reps. Darrell Issa and Scott Peters — a Republican and a Democrat, both from California– propose raising the minimum annual salary for certain exemptions to $100,000, from $60,000. The change could make even more companies subject to the requirement to try to hire U.S. workers first.</p>
<p>Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and former immigration lawyer whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, has proposed raising the minimum salary even higher, to $130,000. Her bill also would give priority to higher-paying jobs, while setting aside 20 percent of spots to smaller businesses, which might not be able to pay as much.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Business Writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this story.</p> | AP Explains: Behind the visa program targeted by Trump | false | https://abqjournal.com/989640/ap-explains-behind-the-visa-program-targeted-by-trump.html | 2017-04-18 | 2 |
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<p>Eichwald granted the motion to change the venue from Valencia to Sandoval counties following a claim that Chavez could not receive a fair trial due to intense media coverage.</p>
<p>Chavez’s attorney, David C. Serna, filed the August motion that said Chavez would not get a fair trial since he claims a Los Lunas trial setting would “reach a fevered pitch” from publicity and media attention.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Serna pointed to multiple stories from local media outlets that he said garnered almost 9,500 views on different websites as of three months ago.</p>
<p>According to Serna, one of those accounts was from an editorial that called Chavez “a rogue cop.”</p>
<p>“This is why it’s important to move this case out of Los Lunas,” Serna said. “…Nothing could be worse than allowing this trial to take place in Valencia County.”</p>
<p>Chavez is accused of killing Tera Chavez with his department-issued service weapon in 2007 in their Las Maravillas home. Prosecutors claim Chavez tried to make the death look like a suicide.</p>
<p>The motion, which is 574 pages, lists stories from several media outlets, including the Albuquerque Journal and Valencia County News-Bulletin, says “the inhabitants of (Valencia County) are prejudiced against the defendant due to public excitement” over the matter. The current media attention is “sufficient to show a reasonable apprehension” that defendant will not secure a fair and impartial trial.</p>
<p>Eichwald told attorneys that a questionnaire of potential jurors from Sandoval County must be completed by mid-March. He said the trial date would not be pushed back.</p>
<p>The trial date is scheduled for June 11, 2013.</p> | Judge Rules Levi Chavez Case to Be Held in Sandoval County | false | https://abqjournal.com/151194/judge-rules-levi-chavez-case-to-be-held-in-sandoval-county.html | 2 | |
<p>Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference CallDec. 4, 2017 5:00 p.m. ET</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Coupa Software Third-Quarter Fiscal 2018 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ryan Hutchinson. Please go ahead, sir.</p>
<p>Ryan Hutchinson -- Managing Director, The Blueshirt Group (Investor Relations)</p>
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<p>Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to Coupa's Third-Quarter Fiscal 2018 Conference Call. Joining me today are Rob Bernshteyn, Coupa's CEO, and Todd Ford, Coupa's CFO. Our remarks today include forward-looking statements about guidance and future results of operations, strategies and plans, market size, products, competitive position, and potential growth opportunities.</p>
<p>Our actual results may be materially different. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are described in our most recently filed Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs and assumptions today and we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. If this call is replayed after today, the information presented may not contain current for accurate information.</p>
<p>We will also be presenting both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP is included in today's release, which you can find on our Investor Relations website. A link to the replay of this call will also be available and if you prefer to access or replay via phone, you can find that information in the earnings release. Unless otherwise stated, growth comparisons are against the same period of the prior year.</p>
<p>With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'd like to start today's call by thanking all the members of our Coupa community. First, thank you to our customers for your commitment to unleashing real value to your organizations.</p>
<p>Thank you to our strategic partners, analysts, and industry friends for sharing our vision. Thank you to our shareholders for their continued investments and support. And last but not least, thank you to my Coupa colleagues around the world for their pledge to ensure customer success, focus on results, and continually strive for excellence.</p>
<p>Coupa's more than 800-employees strong and we remain unwavering in our commitment to our three core values, which are vital now as they've ever been for our continued success. The first is ensuring customer success, not just focusing on customer satisfaction or desire for customer success, but ensuring tangible and measurable results for all our customers, overcoming any challenges that we may face. The second is focusing on results, setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals and working relentlessly to achieve them. And thirdly, striving for excellence, committing to an authentic, collaborative, passionate, and high-integrity environment. Well, all our colleagues are living life without fear and feeling safe and pushing boundaries, making mistakes, learning, and improving as professionals and human beings.</p>
<p>Last week we had our final board meeting of the year at Coupa headquarters, along with the full management team and board member annual dinner event. I was inspired to see the camaraderie, healthy dialogue, and commitment to continue to build a very special company.</p>
<p>The market opportunity in the [inaudible] management market is huge and we're attacking it thoughtfully. In doing so, are continuing to execute on the strategic approach we laid out at the time of our IPO just over a year ago. Ultimately, a winning customer success-oriented culture, expanding our global brand awareness and demand generation, maintaining a disciplined growth strategy, and scaling our enterprise and midmarket go-to-market capabilities and capacity, launching innovation to drive greater share of wallet and customer add-on business, acquiring key assets to further broaden our value proposition, and expanding and developing our global partner ecosystem around Coupa.</p>
<p>The differentiated vision we're offering in the market can be broken down into five fundamental components. Simply explained, the letters that make up our name – COUPA. Our vision is comprehensive, open, user-centric, prescriptive, and accelerated. With every new feature we develop, acquisition we make, integration we build, and investment we set for, our intent is to bolster our offering in one or more of these areas. I recently finished up a blog series. I mentioned our last quarter's call with these vision areas. The blog can be found on the Coupa website for those who are interested.</p>
<p>Now, let's talk about one non-financial measure we use to track our progress -- spend under management. Last quarter we reached a key milestone, surpassing $500 billion in cumulative spend under management. This figure continues to grow at a fast pace, landing at $570 billion at the end of Q3. It's really an amazing thing. I also can't help but consider that with the colossal sum of transactional spend and the related data and information that has run through our platform, we created meaningful competitive barriers to entry. With each new data element we track, our community intelligence gets smarter, as does the value we're offering to our customers.</p>
<p>So, with that let's take a look at some key financial results for Q3. I'm proud to say that we again delivered strong results across the board, including quarterly record revenues of $47.3 million. Earlier this year we drove positive operating and free cash flows in both Q1 and Q2. I'm delighted to say that we did so again in Q3, ending the quarter with positive operating cash flows of $5.2 million and positive free cash flows $3.9 million. Year to date we've generated positive operating cash flow of $21.5 million and positive free cash flows of $18 million and we have $219 million in cash as of October 31, 2017. While we took many customers live this quarter, let me highlight Caterpillar, the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives, who has already gone with Coupa at their first location just months after taking off the project with us earlier in the year. Now, of course, we have plenty of exciting new customer wins in Q3 as well. Toyota Financial Services, a leading provider of automotive financial services offering financial products tailored to customer and dealers, selected Coupa Source to Pay and Contract Lifecycle Management to streamline their core source-to-pay process, leveraging the power of Coupa's unified platform and suites synergy. Zurich Insurance, a leading multi-line insurer that serves its customers in global and local markets, elected Coupa Source-to-Pay and the Expense Management, replacing an incumbent solution based primarily on usability and employee adoption as well as, of course, product innovation.</p>
<p>Some of the other customers we added during the quarter include Razor in Asia Pacific, CrossFit, CHEP USA, Host Analytics, SoftServe, CrossCountry, TeamHealth, Bristol Hospice, Option Edge, Moovel, P.F. Chang's, Dansk Supermarked group, the largest retailer in Denmark, and many others. We're excited to partner with all these new customers and partners.</p>
<p>In October we hosted our annual European Spend Management Conference Coupa Inspire '17 in London. The conference featured speakers from some of the world's leading brands, both customers, and partners of Coupa, which included Airbus, IKEA, Deloitte, Accenture, Maersk, Pearson, and others. The event flowed with debate and discussion around value-based innovation and the atmosphere was simply invigorating. My Coupa colleagues and I left Inspire London with a renewed sense of energy and alignment as we look to finish what has been a very successful year thus far and prepare for next year. Next on the agenda will be Coupa Inspire San Francisco in 2018, which is slated for Q2 of next year and currently being planned.</p>
<p>Also in October, we announced the general availability of Coupa Open Buy with Amazon Business. This offering expands customer buying options by giving employees access to the Amazon Business marketplace. We believe this to be a game-changer, a unified catalog management, and guided buy. And just last week we announced the addition of Coupa to the AWS Marketplace where customers can now quickly discover and subscribe to Coupa's Spend Management Solutions. Overall, we're excited that we continue to expand our relationship with Amazon providing customer, key supplier, and strategic partner to Coupa.</p>
<p>At Inspire London we announced the general availability of Coupa Release 19. We believe Release 19 is further evidence that the Coupa platform for business spending continues to set the innovation agenda for the industry. R19 enhances the platform with more than 70 new capabilities, modernizes risk management, and redefines sourcing optimization. R19 is prescriptive, with recommendations which are identified through Coupa community intelligence. Other advancements in R19 include streamlined invoice management, enhanced user experience to suppliers connected to the platform, and increased compliance and audit capabilities. Reception thus far from our customers has been simply outstanding.</p>
<p>Today, I also want to take a moment to touch on our Coupa Advantage Program. Coupa Advantage offers our customers, large and small, supplier discounts which are negotiated by leveraging the billions of dollars of transactional spend running through the Coupa platform. New customers sign up for Advantage right away, free of additional charge, and start recognizing hard dollar savings right off the bat. Now, the core principle of Advantage is that a portion of proceeds generated is donated toward inspiring not-for-profit causes around the world as well funding our Coupa Cares corporate responsibility program, which is focused on three main areas – sustainability, diversity, and civic engagement. In under a year we've logged over 1,300 volunteer hours from employees around the world.</p>
<p>Moving on. As we laid out at the time of our IPO, we continue to invest heavily in organic development on our modern cloud platform and carefully evaluate potential acquisitions when the right opportunities present themselves. Our acquisition strategy continues to be aimed at adding key power-user application technology that we can integrate into our unified platform and/or key technology components that enhance our transactional engine. Consistent with the strategy, we have successfully executed upon a series of acquisitions over the past decade. In October, we were proud to announce our latest, Deep Relevance based here in the San Francisco Bay area. Deep Relevance uses artificial intelligence and relationship analytics to identify individual employee and collusive fraud and other suspicious transactions. The addition of Deep Relevance allows us to accelerate our vision of helping our customers reduce fraud through community intelligence. Some areas of fraud detection with this technology include conflicts of interest, bidding integrity, fraudulent invoices, inflated expense claims, duplicate expenses, and personal expenses. I'm very excited about the value of this technology and what it will bring to our customers and the expanding mode of community intelligence we're building around our unified cloud platform for business spending.</p>
<p>Recently, I was pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Riggs as our new chief customer officer at Coupa. Mark brings over 25 years of experience with a consistent track record of trading and scaling customer-facing teams across organizations, large and small. Mark is here to help us continue maximizing the lifetime value Coupa for our customers. We're very excited to have Mark on board. In fact, many of you will see Mark and the rest the Coupa management team next Monday, December 11, 2017, at Coupa's first ever Financial Analyst Day, which will be held at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York City. I will say, it's the perfect forum for us to give the investment community an opportunity to meet new team members on our management team, review some of our accomplishments, and most importantly, better understand our go-forward strategy as we plan to take our business to the next level. I look forward to seeing many of you there next week.</p>
<p>In summary, we're very pleased with our Q3 performance. We're in a very strong position in the market as we continue to execute. To date, we've put together 34 consecutive successful quarters in a row from both the financial and business goals perspective. With Q4 upon us, we're laser-focused on finishing out the fiscal year strong.</p>
<p>Let me now turn the call over to Todd, who will review our Q3 financials in detail and provide our outlook for Q4 and the full fiscal year. Todd.</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Thanks, Rob, and good afternoon, everyone. The company continues to execute, and once again delivered strong results for the quarter. Total revenues for the third quarter grew 34% year over year to $47.3 million. For Q3, subscription revenues were $42.8 million, up 39% year over year and comprised 90% of total revenue.</p>
<p>Our non-GAAP operating loss was $2.4 million or -5% of revenue compared to -8% in the year-ago period. Total calculated billings for the trailing 12 months ended October 31, 2017, were $195.7 million, up 37% year over year, which was up slightly from our trailing 12-month billings growth rate at the end of Q2 of 36%. Total deferred revenue at quarter-end was $97.6 million, up from $73 million in the previous year. As a reminder, we define calculated billing at the change in deferred revenue on the balance sheet for the period plus revenue recognized during the period.</p>
<p>Our calculated billings and deferred revenue results often fluctuate on a quarterly basis due to seasonality, the timing of renewals, and timing of annual contracted billings.</p>
<p>Let's now turn to operating expenses and results of operations. Our third-quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 72.6% compared to 69.4% in the same period last year. Although we continue to invest in our professional services and support organizations, we have continued to show gross margin improvement. Non-GAAP gross margin from subscriptions was 81% and non-GAAP gross margin from professional services and other was -5%. Operating expenses were in line with our expectations, and the net result of our Q3 performance with the non-GAAP net loss of $2.8 million and a loss per share of -$0.05 on 58.8 million weighted average shares. Given that we are in a net loss position, all outstanding stock options and common stock equivalence are anti-diluted and not included in the loss per share calculation.</p>
<p>Now let's move on to the balance sheet and cash flow. Cash at quarter-end was $219 million, up from $208 million at the end of Q2. Cash flows from operations in the third quarter were positive $5.2 million and $21.5 million year to date. Free cash flows for the third quarter were positive $3.9 million and $18 million year to date. Q3 also marks the first time that free cash flows have been positive on a trailing 12-month basis, exceeding our original expectations. Given the seasonality in our business, similar to Q4 last year we are expecting cash flows to be negative in Q4. That said, we expect operating and free cash flows to be positive for the current fiscal year. As a reminder, we define free cash flow as operating cash flow plus investing cash flows minus the impact of any cash paid for acquisition.</p>
<p>Now, let's turn to guidance. For the fourth quarter, we expect total revenues to be between $48.3 million and $48.8 million. This includes expected subscription revenues of between $43.8 million and $44.3 million and professional services revenues of approximately $4.5 million. We're expecting Q4 non-GAAP gross margins to be between 69% and 71%. We expect a non-GAAP loss from operations to be between $7.5 million and $9 million. We expect a non-GAAP net loss per share in the range of -$0.14 and -$0.16 per share based upon an estimated 54.7 million weighted average shares for the quarter. For the full year ending January 31, 2018, we expect total revenues to be between $181.5 million and $182 million with non-GAAP gross margins coming in near the high end of the range given for Q4 at 69% to 71%. We expect a non-GAAP loss from operations to be between $19.5 million and $21 million and we expect a non-GAAP net loss per share in the range of $0.37 to $0.39 based upon an estimated 53 million weighted average shares for the full year.</p>
<p>We will provide FY '19 guidance on our next call but I'd like to remind you a few things regarding Q1 of next year as you begin to roll your models forward. First, we recognize revenue based on the number of days in the quarter. As Q3 has three fewer days in the quarter due to February, our steady-state subscription revenues will be approximately 3% lower in Q1 as compared to Q4. Secondly, in Q1 of next year, the new revenue recognitions will take effect. We have not yet finalized our analysis. However, we expect some deferred revenue will need to be eliminated, which will have a corresponding impact on our Q1 revenue from calculated billings.</p>
<p>To conclude, our strategy remains the same. We are investing for the long term with a disciplined growth strategy to maximize market opportunity and financial results. Now, we will be happy to take your questions. Operator.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. If you'd like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing * 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please release your mute function [inaudible] equipment.</p>
<p>Once again, that is * 1.</p>
<p>And your first question will come from Stan Zlotsky with Morgan Stanley.</p>
<p>Stan Zlotsky -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst</p>
<p>Hey, guys, good afternoon and thank you so much for taking my question. Maybe just to start off, the Amazon partnership, it certainly sounds over the last couple of months that there's a lot of movement there and then we've seen from various webinars that you guys have been advertising, there's certainly a lot more marketing around the partnership. Maybe just walk us through what kind of opportunities you see there and what's the profile of a customer that you see as the target for the Amazon partnership?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Thanks, Stan. Beyond what we reported in our earnings call and what I shared as part of the opening comments, there's really nothing new to formally report regarding the partnership. When we see good business opportunities, we like to take advantage of them, and we're sure Amazon thinks very much the same way. We have a great relationship with Amazon as a customer, as a supplier and we found ways to partner on a host of different initiatives like the ones that's described.</p>
<p>We see an opportunity for a whole host of customers across just about every company size in every vertical to take advantage of some of the synergies we're bringing to the market together.</p>
<p>Stan Zlotsky -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst</p>
<p>Got it. And maybe just out one for Todd. The impact to Q1 from ASC 606 and I'm guessing also the broader Fiscal 19, can you just maybe, as much as you're still evaluating it, what are the puts and takes there as far as what would cause the headwind of revenue being recognized.</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>[Inaudible] beginning next year different banks with respect to DSG, professional services that may have been impacted, due to go live under the prior method but there will be an amount of revenue that gets eliminated. We think the overall impact is going to be small but if you look at it from a Q1 perspective, it could be a few million dollars and quite frankly we won't know what it is until we close Q4 but we just want to at least call it out so that there is no surprises on the earnings call.</p>
<p>Stan Zlotsky -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst</p>
<p>And you expect most of that pressure to take place on the pro-services line, right?</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>It would also be subscription revenue from things that were calculated under different allocation methods that we have to eliminate revenue on.</p>
<p>Stan Zlotsky -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst</p>
<p>Got it. I understand. OK, thank you very much expense.</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Thanks, Stan.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>From JP Morgan, Mark Murphy.</p>
<p>Mark Murphy -- JPMorgan Chase -- Analyst</p>
<p>Yes, thank you very much and congrats on the execution in Q3. So, Rob, the wins with Zurich and Dansk look very impressive, potentially in terms of scale. Any commentary on what percent of spend you'll have under management with these organizations? And also were they swayed by the community intelligence or the volume of data that you're bringing to the table or any of the newer AI capabilities that you've been layering in?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Sure. Thanks for that question. One other thing we do that I think is quite special in this market is with every one of our customers at the exploration of identifying value for them and then going into delivering that value and optimizing that value, we set very clear measurable goals. Very often those goals are around getting a certain amount of spend on management and in some cases, a certain amount of savings targets, whatever they may be and they're very unique and specific to every one of our customers and are confidential to that customer.</p>
<p>But we like to use spend management as the key non-financial measure for the organization because at the end of the day, if you're not capturing that spend, you don't have an opportunity to optimize it to look for greater value propositions around it. As you've seen, our spend management numbers continue to grow faster and faster and faster. So, there's an acceleration there and it's clearly correlated to the value that's being delivered.</p>
<p>Mark Murphy -- JPMorgan Chase -- Analyst</p>
<p>OK. And then a question for you, Todd, about Deep Relevance acquisition. Do you have any metrics in terms of the number of employees or number of customers, bookings or revenue, run rate, just anything that would help us to approximate the size and scale of the organization?</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Thanks, Mark. It's consistent with our other M&amp;A strategy we've done. This one I would classify more as an [inaudible] smaller groups. So, nothing that I would call out from the customer revenue standpoint.</p>
<p>Mark Murphy -- JPMorgan Chase -- Analyst</p>
<p>OK. And, Todd, are we still on track for, I think, in round numbers to have a billings benefit and something like $1.5 million for Q3 and then roughly $3 million for Q4, just going back and relating to the change in the professional services rev-rec?</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>We're definitely seeing that billing headwind subside. If you were to look at Q3 in particular year over year, the professional-services revenue was down 2%. So, while we did see a slight positive impact in Q3, it wasn't as pronounced as I'd have originally anticipated but I think you'll see that turn faster in Q4.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Mark, this is Rob. I want to try to answer the second part of your question because I don't think [Inaudible] addressed it. I was trying to make sure I understood you, you said Zurich Insurance, I couldn't hear you well. In terms of the value proposition for customers like Zurich and others, the P in Coupa which for "prescriptive," is the method by which we deliver the community intelligence capabilities to our customers.</p>
<p>We're able to see across hundreds of billions of dollars of spend data and be prescriptive for them about information such as supplier risk and the like. Without question many of our customers over the course of the year recognize the value of that vision and many of them are already taking advantage of that with our latest release around community intelligence focused on profits and insights, which are aspirational benchmarks running across the company, as well as our risk-aware product which we made generally available at the last Inspire event. So, without a doubt, this is an area that continues to be of high interest for our prospective customers and one that continues to build huge barriers to entry for us in the marketplace given the hundreds of billions of dollars of data spending that we're tracking on one unified cloud platform.</p>
<p>Mark Murphy -- JPMorgan Chase -- Analyst</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>Next question will come from Raimo Lenschow with Barclays.</p>
<p>Raimo Lenschow -- Barclays -- Analyst</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for taking my question. First, one for you, Rob. Can you list kind of big wins like you have with Zurich now and Caterpillar and Unilever the quarters before. Can you talk about the evolution of the partner ecosystem around them because I would assume there is going to be a lot more coming that way with your success you at the moment? How happy are you with where they are and what's their progress?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Well, we're not going to be happy until every primary partner at the biggest systems integrators engages with their clients and tells them to consider optimizing their spend leveraging a platform such as Coupa, and that's when we'll be able to say our goal's complete. Without a doubt will we continue to make significant progress there. All the key systems integrators of note are beginning to build practices around Coupa with real revenue targets. We'll continue to certify hundreds of consultants around the world that are equipped to implement Coupa and we think we're continuing to make progress, moving well past the early adopter stage of customers to the early majority stage, where the heart of the market lies and, as you know and we shared many times, we believe this to be a $25-billion type market that we're in the very early stages of continuing to take share in.</p>
<p>Raimo Lenschow -- Barclays -- Analyst</p>
<p>Perfect. And then the next one I had on, it looks like Caterpillar is going to be a huge installation for you guys and you mentioned parts of that already. Can you talk us through and a big account like Caterpillar, how do we have to think about a rollout of Coupa in that in terms of timing? Is it on a regional level? Is it on a business-unit level? How do we have to think about that?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>The way we think about it is internally and to give you some leading indicators to how we're recognized it, the way we think about internally is that we never want to be the bottleneck. We never want to be the obstacle to adoption as fast as the customer's willing to adopt us. Now, very often they'll run change management programs, procurement transformation initiatives around the Coupa deployment, but rarely are they sitting around asking, "Can you do this or that in Coupa?" or "Do we have technical constraints?" So we provide as much agility as possible to the customer and then we allow them to work in concert with business integrators to get customers deployed. The leading indicator metric of adoption, of course, is the one key non-financial measure that we share, and that is spend management, how quickly they continue to adopt.</p>
<p>They may adopt division by division. They may go product category by product category. They may go geography by geography. They may go business process by business process.</p>
<p>We want them to have the agility that they desire but to get value in an accelerated way which is, of course, the A in Coupa.</p>
<p>Raimo Lenschow -- Barclays -- Analyst</p>
<p>Yes, OK. And then last question, one for Todd. Todd, you mentioned earlier 606 in Q1 gave you some headwinds and you mentioned some on the subscription side as well on. What's driving that? You have other vendors that have some small parts of the business as on-premise solutions and hence you have a change in revenue recognition.</p>
<p>Is that kind of the same case for you as well or how can subscription be impacted for you guys?</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Yeah. It's, in the whole scheme of things, very minimal and certainly, as you noted, companies that have long-term solutions are having much more a material impact from 606 but there are times, based upon BESP where different allocations are made between subscription revenue and professional-services revenue, for example, for giving professional services away for free, and it's a big implementation, you'd have to reallocate some of that subscription revenue. So, while it's a very much a quarter case for a few of those situations like that, under the new rules we will no longer be able to recognize the deferred revenue. So, it will be completely eliminated.</p>
<p>So, the few cases about that exist would be no longer recognized as revenue going forward.</p>
<p>Raimo Lenschow -- Barclays -- Analyst</p>
<p>OK, makes sense. Thanks for that.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>From BTIG Joel Fishbein.</p>
<p>Joel Fishbein -- BTIG -- Analyst</p>
<p>My congrats as well on a fantastic [inaudible]. Rob, for you, just would love to hear how your sales ramp is ramping and also how are you doing on your sales productivity metrics.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Sure. Thank you. Thank you for that question. So, when we think about the buildup of this business, we're obviously consistently looking at managing our overall sales and marketing expense and continue to scale this and utilize our discretion marketing effectively and carefully.</p>
<p>So, there's a lot of aspects that go into developing this business. One is of course how many reps are on the ground for coverage, but of course the regional pipeline metrics, our discretion marketing elements, the systems integrator pool, which is I think Raimo was asking about, how would we continue to develop our brand, how are we aligning our top talent and training our talent from a sales training program perspective, the marketing collateral we're creating, the product maturity that we're driving. So, in balancing all those [inaudible] that we continue to feel better and better about the team openings on the ground and the expenditures we're putting in place to maximize the opportunity, all against three pillars of our business. So, absolutely a continued area of investment and focus for the business and we continue to mature.</p>
<p>Joel Fishbein -- BTIG -- Analyst</p>
<p>Great. Thank you.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>Next, we'll hear from Ross MacMillan with RBC Capital Markets.</p>
<p>Ross MacMillan -- RBC -- Analyst</p>
<p>Thanks so much and my congrats as well. One for Robb, first of all. When I look at your spend under management metric, I think that's up $270 billion when I look at the incremental in the last year and that's actually much larger than your big competitor that also discloses a business network incremental spend under management number. So, you know you're smaller, you're growing that number at a faster rate, I guess, is the point.</p>
<p>And I was just curious as to getting your perspective on how much of that is just your success in kind of core procure to pay or how diversified is that number becoming? So, I think of the time of the IPO, you were about 90% procure to pay but I was curious to get a sense of how that's evolving. Thanks.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Thanks for those comments and the question. It absolutely continues to diversify. When we look at our capability mix the customers are subscribing to quarter over quarter, I think looking back as far as 34 quarters, it continues to broaden. So, with the value as a service that we're offering is really what customers are buying.</p>
<p>They're not buying a module. They're not buying a product. They're buying a subscription to value and that value continues to get broader as well as richer with every release we come out with three times a year. We're also learning how to implement the solution more effectively.</p>
<p>We're doing it in an accelerated way. So, I think all of those capabilities that we're developing are part of why this spend management number continues to grow at such a fast pace.</p>
<p>Ross MacMillan -- RBC -- Analyst</p>
<p>Is it possible to talk to how big those other and all procurement pieces are within the mix yet or should we keep our powder dry for the Analyst Day?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Yeah, I was just going to suggest we were actually planning to share some of that information at Analyst Day. So look forward to giving you more color on that.</p>
<p>Ross MacMillan -- RBC -- Analyst</p>
<p>Great. And maybe just one follow-up for Todd. You've given us a TTM gross and net dollar-based retention rate. Historically, I wondered if you had those numbers?</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Yeah, it's remained virtually exactly the same for the past three quarters. So, no real new updates there. It's trending basically for the last three quarters.</p>
<p>Ross MacMillan -- RBC -- Analyst</p>
<p>Thanks so much and congratulations.</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Thanks, Ross.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>From Raymond James, Brian Peterson.</p>
<p>Brian Peterson -- Raymond James -- Analyst</p>
<p>Hi, thanks and congratulations for the quarter, guys. So, maybe just a high-level perspective. If we think about the data opportunity that's in front of you currently, with the $570 billion in spend, I'm curious how you think about that. Are you thinking that that's going to actually evolve into a monetization strategy or are you guys early enough in the growth opportunity where that will be more about acquiring new customers this quarter?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>It's a great question. Look, ultimately, that was sharing in the early question, we're offering these customers value as a service. So, the more data we have and more community intelligence we develop, and the more use cases with which we elevate that community intelligence so that at the point of need, it's being given to the particular user or the particular customer for them to make a business decision, the more value we're going to offer and for that incremental value we hope to be paid fairly and we anticipate being paid fairly. So, we'll look for different ways to bring these capabilities out as part of the subscription but there's no question they drive a great deal of value and that as well as the network effect that's created in this marketplace, the leverage of buy-side aggregation that we've created through Coupa Advantage and community intelligence, we think we're building significant barriers to entry for anyone else entering the market, but most importantly, we're able to drive more and more value for customers for the near term and the long term.</p>
<p>Brian Peterson -- Raymond James -- Analyst</p>
<p>Got it. Thanks, Rob. And, Todd, maybe one for you real quick just on the gross margin guidance. The 69% to 71%, it's down a little bit sequentially.</p>
<p>Any moving parts you want to highlight there? Thanks.</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Just continued investments in all areas of professional services and the support organization and then and then in Q4 different groups may have bonuses and payments associated with contribution margin. So, nothing that I would call out as significant in that guide.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Operator, next question.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>And that will come from Pat Walravens with JMP Securities.</p>
<p>Pal Walravens -- JMP Securities -- Analyst</p>
<p>Oh, great. Thank you and congratulations, you guys. Rob, I guess I'm wondering big picture as Workday and SAP and Oracle are all starting to really push moving financial to the cloud, does that create a tailwind?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Well, look, as I've said many times on the earnings calls, and as I witness almost on a daily basis working with prospects and customers, we think although this is a large-size market and there will always be plenty of players, ultimately the only competition here is ourselves. The opportunity is very real. We're not a financial applications ERP provider. We're a spend-management provider that work very seamlessly with just about any ERP system that's out there.</p>
<p>So, we think long-term we have this big market opportunity to build into. And so, as you know, we're being very thoughtful about how we manage across all three pillars – our revenue growth, our sales and marketing efficiency, and how we're scaling our operating margins and [inaudible] markets. So, we're going to continue to be very thoughtful about that. We know that there are options for folks to consider but for many of the ones that sign on with us, it's becoming more and more of the early majority stage and they're signing up for a future, modern cloud-based spend-management solution that can work seamlessly with any of the companies you just named.</p>
<p>Pal Walravens -- JMP Securities -- Analyst</p>
<p>Okay. And where are we going to end up on this sort of machine learning AI journey? What's your vision? Not 10 years out but two or three years from now what would you like to be able to do that you can't do today?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Well, look, one area of our vision is worth talking about is that the best UI is no UI and the way that goes deeper is simply [inaudible]. If the machine can handle the processing work, can make the decision, the machine should do that and should only interface with the human being in areas where they themselves can have some sort of value. So, there is a whole host of permutations where that comes up to the surface. The need to do data entry is going to be removed in a lot of places through machine learning as we're doing with our invoice [inaudible] capabilities as one example of that.</p>
<p>The need to process a lot of spend data offsite somewhere for lower costs can be automated through machine learning capabilities to drive spend analysis and will give you a deep understanding of categories you ought to focus on, opportunities for savings, opportunities for value. Those are just two examples. So, consistently thinking about ways where we can remove repeated tasks that drive end-user proactive sort of interaction with our system to areas that we can streamline for them through machine-learning capabilities. And the biggest opportunity, I would say, of all and the one that you know we're clearly focused on is around overall community intelligence data.</p>
<p>So leveraging the sanitized distilled insights from transactional data happening around the world daily, millions of transactions, hundreds of billions of dollars of spend information can help each customer get smarter and smarter about the way their organizations spend money and drive value and that's what we're trying for without a doubt.</p>
<p>Pal Walravens -- JMP Securities -- Analyst</p>
<p>Awesome. Thank you.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>From Northland Capital Markets, Robert Breza.</p>
<p>Robert Breza -- Northland Capital -- Analyst</p>
<p>Hi. Thanks for fitting me in. Rob, maybe just a big-picture question. If you think about the business model margins, you're at 800 employees now.</p>
<p>How do you think about devising the go-forward employee headcount? I specifically want to really get some insight from you with the customers that you mentioned on the international side versus North America. How are you thinking about the investments going forward just from a headcount perspective? Thanks.</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Sure. So, more than that, it's obviously across every function in our business and we manage the business annually. We also manage the business quarterly. From sales and marketing investment perspective, we've committed to staying within a tight band of sales and marketing efficiency and we've stayed within that band now for 34 quarters, but as we continue to build up our recurring revenue base, we invest accordingly.</p>
<p>In areas where we feel overly efficient, perhaps in some of the deeper markets where we're beginning to get good penetration, that pays for some of our broader investment that might be less efficient in the shorter term but pay off in the longer term. An example will be our mid-market business, some of our international areas, some of our federal attempts to date. So, that's how we think about that one. As we go out we look at [inaudible] results, we look at ways to manage carefully our operating infrastructure through Amazon.</p>
<p>As we think about margins, we think about our services capability and the kind of oversight we need of internal services consultants, and the type of ecosystem we need to build out there, systems integrators, to drive value for customers. And then moving on down to support, where we want to make sure that we can maintain all of our [inaudible] customers given the level of support that they need internationally, always looking for areas to be more thrifty, [inaudible] bring those resources to bear in places like Reno and Dublin and Pune. And last but certainly not least, we're always looking at development and thinking carefully about how we can bring on the type of talent that can not only help us push the platform but not going too fast and just having people idle and not knowing exactly how to contribute and not going too slowly such as we miss the opportunity to develop the breadth that we want to this platform longer term. But rest assured, on a quarterly and annual basis, the team and I sit down and think cheerfully how we manage this money and I think a good result that has been how thoughtful we've been with the money that we spent.</p>
<p>I'm proud to say that to date we've created much more recurring revenue in the amount of money we've earned since the date of our inception and we plan to be and I continue to be as thoughtful about it in the quarters to come.</p>
<p>Robert Breza -- Northland Capital -- Analyst</p>
<p>That was great. Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>From Cantor Fitzgerald, Joseph Foresi.</p>
<p>Mike Reed -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst</p>
<p>Hi, guys. This is Mike Reed on for Joe. I appreciate you taking our question. I had a question.</p>
<p>If there was any more detail maybe on the international outlook performance demand outside of the big wins in Europe this period?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>I would say as far as the time of this earnings call it's nothing material that would be worthy of your attention and focus on. I wouldn't say that there's something happening internationally that would be elevated to our earnings call transcript or big marquee account that we want to showcase at the moment. Having said that, we placed certain bets and we've seen some good pipeline traction and some good closures in certain markets that we believe we can build off of. When we look back to the way we build Europe, which now supports nearly 30% of our current revenue base, we began very carefully by landing key marquee accounts, making them highly referenced in each country, and building off of that, and we're taking a very similar strategy to the other markets around the world.</p>
<p>Mike Reed -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst</p>
<p>All right, thanks. And then on R19, is there any new capability that you want to call out specifically and are there any more releases coming up soon?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Sure. So, we're committed to three times a year releases, three releases per year. We obviously share the details of those at our Inspire event. We also do a whole host of channels through which we communicate with our customers and prospects, which is webinars and our online customer community.</p>
<p>Latest release on R19 has more than 70 new feature capabilities. Our community voted on hundreds of feature capabilities, from which we distilled about 70. And I would say, the highest level they hit across three different dimensions of our strategy. One is continuing to go deeper in key modules.</p>
<p>The second is continuing to go wider to enhance the breadth of our application set. And thirdly, to do something that's innovative and never been done before in our market, and you're seeing many of those coming through community intelligence broadly but also on each functional module area. I wish I had the time to share with you everything that we've done there but certainly at Analyst Day we'll cover more of that, show a demonstration and go much deeper.</p>
<p>Mike Reed -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst</p>
<p>Great. Thanks, guys.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>And once again, everyone, it is * 1 to ask a question. We'll go to Ken Wayne with First Analysis.</p>
<p>Ken Wayne -- First Analysis -- Analyst</p>
<p>Great. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on a strong quarter. Just wondering if you offer just any commentary on where you might see potential functionality gaps in the Coupe suite currently?</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Well, I'll tell you that the concept of a gap is something that is in my mind very much driven by feature-based selection process, and I think that's the way customers chose software in the late '90s was largely driven by how many features you have and the more features you had, the more likely you were to be chosen. We discovered a decade later there wasn't a lot of features that matter to whether or not you go live and get value. It was more about how deep the capabilities were, how usable those capabilities were, and, most importantly, how much they were tied to the measurable value drivers that your customer's actually trying to get. So, our focus doesn't begin with getting to feature and function parity of incumbent solution providers.</p>
<p>Our focus is on "How do we get customers an accelerated way to recognize the measurable value and be able to build off of that value in the years to come?" And the strategy we chose is very straightforward. We want to nail all the transactional areas of spend in a collectively exhaustive way -- procurement, invoice management, and expense management. Once we get a company's spend under management and transactional flow is growing and hundreds of millions of dollars are going through collectively, we then have the ability to get them more power-user capability to optimize that spend flow. And that's the areas that we've been focusing on particularly over the last three or four years in both a build and acquire manner, and I can tell you that many of our customers, particularly those in the early adopter stage and moving to early majority, understand that on this platform they'll be able to get the full breadth of capabilities for driving spend, and that is very much in line with we're [Inaudible] for here.</p>
<p>Ken Wayne -- First Analysis -- Analyst</p>
<p>Perfect. Thanks and congratulations again.</p>
<p>Operator</p>
<p>And that concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.</p>
<p>Duration: 49 minutes</p>
<p>Ryan Hutchinson -- Managing Director, The Blueshirt Group (Investor Relations)</p>
<p>Rob Bernshteyn -- Chief Executive Officer, President and Director</p>
<p>Todd Ford -- Chief Financial Officer</p>
<p>Stan Zlotsky -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst</p>
<p>Mark Murphy -- JPMorgan Chase -- Analyst</p>
<p>Raimo Lenschow -- Barclays -- Analyst</p>
<p>Joel Fishbein -- BTIG -- Analyst</p>
<p>Ross MacMillan -- RBC -- Analyst</p>
<p>Brian Peterson -- Raymond James -- Analyst</p>
<p>Pal Walravens -- JMP Securities -- Analyst</p>
<p>Robert Breza -- Northland Capital -- Analyst</p>
<p>Mike Reed -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- Analyst</p>
<p>Ken Wayne -- First Analysis -- Analyst</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/quote/coup?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=98d71bb4-d9fc-11e7-952a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">More COUP analysis Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our <a href="https://www.fool.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/fool-rules?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=98d71bb4-d9fc-11e7-952a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Terms and Conditions Opens a New Window.</a> for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.</p>
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<p>The Motley Fool owns shares of Coupa Software. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=98d71bb4-d9fc-11e7-952a-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Coupa Software (COUP) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/12/06/coupa-software-coup-q3-2018-earnings-conference-call-transcript.html | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Healthcare reform is sweeping the globe: America, Asia, Africa, Europe. This is good in principle since the number of neglected health needs and pandemics demands urgent change. But while the US and China (once an enthusiastic convert to privatization) are now trying to limit market practice in healthcare and establish wider coverage, the rest of the world is reducing state input and mutual health insurance schemes. Just as the US market-driven model has proven ineffective, other countries are turning to it.</p>
<p>The US is the world’s second-highest spender on healthcare (15.3 per cent&#160; of GDP in 2007), but ranks 30th in “healthy life expectancy” (how many years a person lives in good health), at 69 years.</p>
<p>The concept of social welfare appeared in the 19th century with the industrial revolution and the concentration of workers in urban centers. Mutual benefit societies were created to provide health insurance, and these were then extended into social security systems (the first set up by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1883). Politicians and business leaders wanted to ensure a healthy workforce that could withstand tough working conditions, but they were also pressured by social campaigners to improve standards of living.</p>
<p>After the second world war, systems emerged to encourage social cohesion and prevent class conflict. On &#160;July 5, 1945 the French Consultative Assembly ruled that the purpose of social security was to relieve workers’ anxiety over their future; the difference between classes was that the wealthy had a secure future, while workers lived under the constant threat of destitution. The “right to health for all” was recognised globally with the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. It is far from achieving its goal, despite the UN’s 194 members renewing their commitments in 1978.</p>
<p>There is still huge inequality between nations. And despite advances in medicine, 31 countries (including South Africa, Botswana, Gabon, Russia and Ukraine) have had healthy life expectancy fall between 1990 and 2006. Africa is at the bottom: healthy life expectancy is 29 in Sierra Leone, 33 in Angola, and 37 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Japan it is 75. Some countries have internal conflicts that account for many deaths. But many also die from infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and Aids, which thrive on poverty and a lack of sanitation. These diseases, which are more prevalent in the South (Africa, East Timor, Laos, Bangladesh, Burma), are reduced as economies develop, the “epidemiological transition”.</p>
<p>Wealthy or emerging countries suffer from chronic diseases of the heart and lung, diabetes and cancer. These also afflict developing countries with a growing middle class, such as Ghana, Gabon, South Africa and Pakistan. Infections that have disappeared in the developed world, like tuberculosis, are making a reappearance there.</p>
<p>The wealth of a country and its health expenditure remain the main determining factors in life expectancy. The 31 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which have the highest life expectancy, account for 90 per cent&#160; of global spending on health, although they are only 20 per cent&#160;&#160; of the global population. Sub-Saharan Africa has 12 per cent&#160;&#160; of the world’s population but only 1 per cent&#160;&#160; of health spending. Sierra Leone spends 3.5 per cent&#160; of its GDP on health and Congo 2.1 per cent&#160; ; in Japan it is over 8 per cent&#160; , and 11 per cent&#160;&#160; in France. Even if the US example proves that money is not always well spent, expenditure must reach a minimum level. As the economist Amartya Sen put it: “We should be able to acknowledge that injustices, such as lack of medical care or medicine, can be eliminated, without waiting for everyone to agree on what a perfect society should look like. Just as Condorcet, in his day, addressed the principle of ending slavery, we must address this question of injustice”.</p>
<p>Three world systems</p>
<p>If money is at the heart of the war against disease, a trained army of medical staff with medicine, equipment and education, are also necessary. Access to care also depends on the type of healthcare system and how it is funded. There are three main types: the post-colonial; the former communist; and the system of developed countries, which is often adapted by emerging countries.</p>
<p>The 79 former colonies of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific&#160; inherited a vertical system: local dispensaries and mobile units providing primary care, general hospitals providing secondary care, plus specialist clinics and university hospitals. This system was kept in a precarious balance until the mid-1980s through government and international funding.</p>
<p>But in its 2008 report, the WHO points out that the structural adjustment policies of the IMF and the World Bank have undermined public health systems around the world, widening the gap between private and public care. “Unregulated, commercialized health systems are highly inefficient and costly. They exacerbate inequality, and they provide poor quality, and at times dangerous care that is bad for health.” It gives the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where “safari surgery refers to a common practice of health workers moonlighting by performing appendectomies or other surgical interventions at the patients’ homes, often for crippling fees”. Where there is poverty, you will always find corruption.</p>
<p>While foreign aid is indispensable, it comes from so many different sources (bilateral aid, UN organizations, large foundations) that there is often no coherence in how it is spent. Reform, when it takes place, tends to focus on the construction or renovation of primary healthcare centers and hospitals. Several European countries have been trying to get rid of their surplus stocks of H1N1 flu vaccine since the beginning of 2010. According to the WHO, 95 poor nations need it. But because of an inability to store it safely and the lack of human resources to administer it correctly, only two countries had received it by January&#160;( <a href="" type="internal">6</a>). Even though the WHO’s predictions about the swine flu epidemic may be questioned – they may have had more to do with pressure from pharmaceutical companies than medical reality – the example is still revealing.</p>
<p>Creating a network to deliver healthcare is necessary but not sufficient: “Health-related facilities and services may be available and accessible but be insensitive to culture,” write researchers in The Lancet. They describe a Peruvian project that studied indigenous communities with very high maternal mortality. They found reluctance to use the health facilities offered by the state, partly because these did not take account of local cultural conceptions of health and sickness. Culturally sensitive facilities were introduced, so that women could give birth squatting and gripping a rope, as they were accustomed to, and more people used the facilities. In Africa and India colonial systems have imported western methods, ignoring local practice, but China, under Chairman Mao, did the opposite, combining traditional medicine with western treatment to reduce infectious diseases.</p>
<p>The second system is the one in the former Soviet bloc, based on large hospitals, or sanatoriums, with almost no local healthcare. This bureaucratic system was already ineffective by the end of the Soviet regime, and collapsed when state funding was withdrawn under the new neo-liberal regime. Life became harder, and the loss of a collective way of life led to alcoholism and violence, just as funding for health was being reduced (free medicine stopped, hospitals privatized, old equipment not replaced). Healthy life expectancy in Russia fell from 69 in 1990 to 66 in 2006, from 70 to 67 in Ukraine and from 65 to 64 in Kazakhstan. Inadequate monitoring of treatments led to the arrival of mutant strains of illnesses, such as multi-resistant tuberculosis, rife in Russia’s overcrowded prisons. The focus there now is on creating a network of primary care and consolidating a social security system, but the results so far are disappointing.</p>
<p>There is the system in rich countries, where everyone has access to local doctors, specialists and general hospitals, as well as state of the art medical facilities. There are countries where free healthcare is guaranteed and funded by the state (Sweden, the UK), where public or private care is covered by health insurance (Germany, France, Japan), or where healthcare is mainly private (the US and eastern Europe).</p>
<p>The principle that everyone should pay according to their means, and receive care according to their needs, won acceptance in Europe after the second world war. It was a generous idea, but we have strayed from it.</p>
<p>It may be surprising to learn that the amount spent on healthcare in the developed world does not correlate with state of health and life expectancy. There is more to longevity than money: lifestyle, working conditions and nutrition are also important. Japan’s health budget is 8.1 per cent&#160; of its GDP, and it has a healthy life expectancy of 75. France spends 11.4 per cent and life expectancy is 72, in Sweden the figures are 9.1 per cent and 73, in the UK 8.4 per cent&#160;&#160; and 71.</p>
<p>The relationship between patient and doctor, control (or lack of control) over the price of medicine, and the emphasis given to prevention, all have a direct impact on expenditure. The US has the largest pharmaceutical bill in the world (twice the OECD average), coming above Canada, Greece and France. China, another over-prescriber, is the world’s second-largest market for pharmaceuticals. Underpaid doctors increase their wages by selling the medicines they prescribe.</p>
<p>In Sweden, Norway and the UK, basic healthcare is free, with the state or local councils paying for staff and equipment. Inevitably, when public finances run out, waiting lists grow. That was a consequence of Margaret Thatcher’s reign: in 2001, 22 per cent&#160; of patients in the UK had to wait more than three months for a hospital appointment; 27 per cent&#160;&#160; had to wait six months for an operation.</p>
<p>The Labor Party increased investment in healthcare, funding more doctors and nurses and raising pay. The results are evident, although the standard of care remains below that of Sweden and Norway. So contrary to the arguments of free market junkies about the failure of public health systems, it is the withdrawal of the state that leads to disaster. The overall bill for health care is often lower when the state covers most of it and the proportion paid privately (by individuals or insurance companies) is small, as in Japan (where it is 17.7 per cent&#160; of spending) and Sweden (16.1 per cent&#160; ), compared with almost half in the US.</p>
<p>We only need to look at the most neo-liberal system of all, that of the US, so famous for its failures that there seems to be no system. If you are working, your employer jointly finances your health insurance with a private company. Two-thirds of employees are covered in this way. The self-employed, part-time workers or those working for small businesses must take out much more expensive individual policies, and they are often turned down. If you do not work for a big company, you have no rights. The official unemployment rate keeps rising: it is now approaching 10 per cent&#160; . Pensioners over 65 have access to Medicare, which provides minimal cover, and the poorest get Medicaid. Those who do not fit into either category get nothing. In a country held up as a model of success, one sixth of the population has no health coverage.</p>
<p>Even within countries with a developed healthcare system, inequalities remain. The health economist Richard Wilkinson says that in the US, white women from wealthy areas have a life expectancy of 86, compared to 70 for black women from poor neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>The WHO estimates that 886,202 deaths could have been avoided between 1991 and 2000 if the death rate among white and black Americans were made equal&#160;( <a href="" type="internal">10</a>). It claims that in Glasgow, Scotland, where life expectancy in some poor areas is 54 – less than in India. This is not simply down to healthcare or finance. As the WHO points out, disadvantaged populations accumulate handicaps: inferior education, unemployment, bad working conditions, difficult family life. These socio-psychological factors, to which Wilkinson adds self-esteem and anxiety over the future, play an important role: being poor in a rich country is bad for you.</p>
<p>WHO experts, used to using diplomatic language, do not mince their words: this disparity is not a natural phenomenon. It is the result of policies that put the interests of a powerful and rich minority above those of the underprivileged majority. Even that most neo-liberal of institutions, the OECD, which has championed deregulation, recognizes that privatization can make things worse: “Only a few zealots now adhere absolutely to the belief that competition offers an unalloyed solution to society’s more intractable problems. Society may need to implement measures (such as market regulation) to correct market failures, in the extreme perhaps abandoning market exchange for some other method of allocating society’s resources”.</p>
<p>But the health insurance lobbies in the US have enough political clout with the Democrats to keep their privileges. In France privatization in hospitals is accelerating – 4,000 health service job cuts have been announced in the Paris region between now and 2012. Does healthy life expectancy have to fall as low as Bangladesh before we realize the dangers? The healthy life expectancy of French workers, at 60, is seven years lower than for professionals. What will it be in a few decades if we continue on this path?</p>
<p>Most French people feel they keep paying more (in social security contributions and insurance) for a service that keeps getting worse. “Quite apart from the effect this has on the health of the poorest in society,” says the political researcher Bruno Palier, “this gap threatens to raise doubts about the efficacy and legitimacy of our healthcare system”. Perhaps that is the hidden agenda?</p>
<p>This article&#160; appears in the February edition of the excellent monthly, Le Monde Diplomatique,whose English language edition can be found at <a href="http://www.mondediplo.com/" type="external">mondediplo.com.</a> This full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Live Long …. If You’re Rich | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/02/10/live-long-if-you-re-rich/ | 2010-02-10 | 4 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — A bill sponsored by Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan that would create a licensing procedure and practice framework for dental therapists, passed the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee on Monday and appears headed to the House Health Committee in a few days.</p>
<p>If passed, it would create a new category of mid-level oral health care providers that proponents say would help address a shortage of dentists, particularly in rural areas.</p>
<p>A similar bill sponsored by Sen. Benny Shendo Jr., D-Jemez Pueblo was tabled in the Senate Public Affairs Committee on Feb. 12.</p>
<p>Some New Mexico dentists have raised concerns about the quality of the training proposed for dental therapists.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | House committee passes dental therapist bill | false | https://abqjournal.com/545700/house-committee-passes-dental-therapist-bill.html | 2 | |
<p>On Wednesday, a teacher at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/nyregion/newtown-teacher-charged-with-bringing-gun-to-middle-school.html" type="external">arrested</a> for bringing a gun to school, a violation of state law.</p>
<p>Newtown is also the school district where the Sandy Hook Elementary School is located; on Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza murdered 20 students and six educators at the school before killing himself.</p>
<p>The teacher, Jason Adams, 46, who has a valid pistol permit, brought the gun to Newtown Middle School, according to local police. An <a href="http://abc7ny.com/education/newtown-teacher-carried-gun-into-middle-school-police-say/1279313/" type="external">armed school security officer</a> who is retired from the police saw the gun and alerted police officers, who arrested Adams, charged him with possession of a weapon on school grounds and then released him. He was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.</p>
<p>The Police Department contacted the state’s weapons licensing and permit unit about the arrest.</p>
<p>Since the 2012 massacre, every Newtown school has an armed school security officer.</p>
<p>No students were in the building at the time of Adams’ arrest, according to the <a href="http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-newtown-teacher-gun-arrest-20160406-story.html" type="external">Hartford Courant</a></p>
<p>Scott Wilson, president of the gun owner’s rights group Connecticut Citizens Defense League, stated to the Courant, “We disagree with the law as far as permit holders not being able to carry on school grounds. However, the law is the law and hopefully this person had the intent to protect students from harm’s way in a worst case scenario.”</p> | Teacher Brings Gun To School In Same Town As Sandy Hook | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4725/teacher-brings-gun-school-same-town-sandy-hook-hank-berrien | 2016-04-06 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>The video is the latest public glimpse of the singer’s ongoing struggle with mental health problems.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old Irish singer says in the video posted Thursday that she was staying alive for the sake of others, like her psychiatrist, and if it were up to her, she’d “be gone.”</p>
<p>“I’m fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting — like all the millions and millions that I know I’m one of — to stay alive every day,” she said in the video.</p>
<p>O’Connor lamented what she described is a lack of support from loved ones, saying that “strangers on Facebook” are kinder to her than her own family. She asked her adult children and their fathers to make an effort to bring her home to Ireland.</p>
<p>“It should not be acceptable to any man who knows me and claims to love and care about me that I’m still sitting here after two years and I’m begging … to be brought home,” she said through tears.</p>
<p>O’Connor said she was living in a New Jersey Travelodge and later posted the address of a Travelodge in South Hackensack.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>South Hackensack Police Capt. Robert Kaiser said Tuesday that officers conducted a welfare check, but O’Connor wasn’t in her room at the time. He said she is no longer staying there and police don’t know where she is currently living. An email sent to her agent wasn’t immediately returned.</p>
<p>A follow-up Facebook post on O’Connor’s page late Monday, said to be made on the singer’s behalf, said the singer is safe and not suicidal.</p>
<p>“She is surrounded by love and receiving the best of care,” the post read.</p>
<p>O’Connor has been open about her mental health problems over the years and previously said she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The singer was found in a Chicago-area hotel room last year after a call from a concerned doctor prompted a search by authorities.</p>
<p>The singer topped charts across the globe in 1990 with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” She was sharply criticized two years later after ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II during a performance on “Saturday Night Live.”</p> | Sinead O’Connor pleads for help, says she’s living in motel | false | https://abqjournal.com/1044824/sinead-oconnor-pleads-for-help-says-shes-living-in-motel.html | 2017-08-08 | 2 |
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