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<p>VENTURA, Calif.?Southern California has felt yellow wind, orange wind, and red wind. But never purple wind. Until now.</p>
<p>The color-coded system showing the expected strength of the winds driving the region's fierce wildfires has reached uncharted territory, pushing past red, which means "high" into the color that means "extreme."</p>
<p>The forecast for Thursday is purple.</p>
<p>"We've never used purple before," said Ken Pimlott, director at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.</p>
<p />
<p>Southern California has already been hit hard by three major fires that have put tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders and destroyed at nearly 200 homes and buildings, a figure that is almost certain to grow.</p>
<p>But the hard-won progress of firefighters could be erased Thursday.</p>
<p>"We're talking winds that can surface that can be 80 miles an hour," Pimlott said. "These will be winds that there will no ability to fight fires."</p>
<p>Such winds can instantly turn a tiny fire into a large one, or carry embers that spark new fires miles away.</p>
<p>Millions of cellphones buzzed loudly Tuesday night from San Diego to Santa Barbara with a sound that usually means an Amber Alert, but this time meant a rare weather warning for strong winds making extreme fire danger.</p>
<p>Officials hope the electronic push will keep the whole region alert and keep the death toll from the week's fires at zero.</p>
<p>Melissa Rosenzweig, 47, was briefly back home Tuesday after evacuating from her Ventura house, which has been spared so far while most on her street had burned in the largest and most destructive of the region's fires. She and her husband were about to evacuate again, hoping they will get lucky twice as the new winds arrive.</p>
<p>"Heck yeah I'm still worried," Rosenzweig said. "We're very grateful but I know we're not out of the woods."</p>
<p>In what may have been an early sign of the 140-square-mile fire getting new life, several thousand new evacuations were ordered late Tuesday night in Ojai, a town of artists and resorts. The blaze had been creeping there already, but an increase in winds pushed it close enough for many more to flee.</p>
<p>The wilder winds could easily send make new fires explode too, as one did Wednesday in Los Angeles' exclusive Bel-Air section, where a fire consumed multimillion-dollar houses that give the rich and famous sweeping views of Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Little flame was visible by late Tuesday, but in the morning fire exploded on the steep slopes of Sepulveda Pass, closing a section of heavily traveled Interstate 405 and destroying four homes.</p>
<p>Flames burned a wine storage shed at media mogul Rupert Murdoch's 16-acre (6.5-hectare) Moraga Vineyards estate and appeared to have damaged about 7 acres (2.8 hectares) of vines, a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>Across the wide I-405 freeway from the fire, the Getty Center art complex was closed to protect its collection from smoke damage. Many schools across Los Angeles were closed because of poor air quality and classes were canceled at 265 schools Thursday.</p>
<p>Back in the beachside city of Ventura, the fire killed more than two dozen horses at a stable and had destroyed at least 150 structures, a number that was expected to get far bigger as firefighters are able to assess losses.</p>
<p>Air tankers that had been grounded much of the week because of high winds flew on Wednesday, dropping flame retardant. Firefighters rushed to attack the fires before winds picked up again.</p>
<p>"We're basically in an urban firefight in Ventura, where if you can keep that house from burning, you might be able to slow the fire down," said Tim Chavez, a fire behavior specialist at the blaze. "But that's about it."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press Writers Brian Melley, Robert Jablon, Michael Balsamo, John Antczak, Jae Hong and Reed Saxon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For complete coverage of the California wildfires, click here: https://apnews.com/tag/Wildfires</p> | Higher Winds Could Frustrate Wildfire Fight | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/forecast-higher-winds-complicate-wildfire-fight/ | 2017-12-07 | 4 |
<p>By Lisa Lambert</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pennsylvania’s Attorney General is leading the charge among his Democratic peers preparing to shore up protections for borrowers and savers while President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to defang a powerful consumer finance watchdog.</p>
<p>Since he was sworn in January, Democrat Josh Shapiro has built up his own consumer finance unit in preparation for when Republican Trump’s officials take over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).</p>
<p>The unit is staffed with more than a dozen people and led by a former senior CFPB attorney. Shapiro and this team have already filed cases against Navient (O:), a student loan servicer, which is accused of deceiving borrowers in order to drive up profits, and are leading a 48-state investigation into hacking at Equifax (N:), a consumer credit bureau.</p>
<p>“We’re demonstrating a capacity to handle these big, complex</p>
<p>consumer financial protection cases,” Shapiro told Reuters, adding that attorneys general from both parties have asked about how they can “mimic our efforts”.</p>
<p>Navient has said it operates within federal laws and rules on student loans, and has contested similar charges brought by the CFPB in court. An Equifax spokesperson said the company cannot comment on pending litigation, “but we remain focused on helping our customers, as well as their employees and consumers, to navigate this situation.”</p>
<p>Shapiro expects his case load will grow, particularly now that Trump has installed his budget director and fierce CFPB critic, Mick Mulvaney, as temporary chief of the agency.</p>
<p>The press office at the Office of Management and Budget, which is currently handling public relations for CFPB, said it was too early to comment on Democratic attorneys’ plans.</p>
<p>“However, of course we will carry out what we are statutorily obliged to enforce,” spokesman John Czwartacki said.</p>
<p>Created in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis to crack down on predatory financial practices, the CFBP has long been criticized by Republicans, including Trump, who say it is far too powerful and burdens lenders with red tape.</p>
<p>POWERFUL WEAPON</p>
<p>Shapiro is part of a group of Democratic attorneys general from powerful and large states such as California and New York who disagree with Trump’s call for financial deregulation.</p>
<p>Since Trump’s inauguration in January, those top law enforcement officials have sued the administration at least 25 times over its crackdown on immigration and dismantling of regulations across a range of areas from energy to education.</p>
<p>When it comes to financial consumer protection state attorneys general wield an additional potentially powerful weapon.</p>
<p>A little-known provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which created the CFPB, gives them the authority to enforce the agency’s rules and its broad ban on “unfair, deceptive and abusive” practices beyond state lines.</p>
<p>States have rarely used those provisions while Richard Cordray, appointed by President Barack Obama and known for aggressively pursuing financial firms, was in charge of the watchdog.</p>
<p>But with his departure last week, Mulvaney freezing new rulemakings and hiring and a permanent successor expected to loosen the watchdog’s regulation and enforcement, top attorneys in states such as Pennsylvania and California say they are preparing to get more active.</p>
<p>“If we have to do this with just states that makes it more difficult but that doesn’t make it impossible,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat.</p>
<p>One difficulty for states wanting to pursue federal enforcement cases and go after financial firms across state lines, is that, by law, they must notify the CFPB, said Ori Lev, consumer financial services partner at law firm Mayer Brown.</p>
<p>If they proceed without the CFPB’ blessing or if the agency changes its mind about a case, then the agency could challenge them in federal court, and they would most likely have to defer to the CFPB, said C. Boyden Gray, a founding partner of Boyden Gray &amp; Associates, who works with the conservative Federalist Society on tracking regulation.</p>
<p>Still, attorneys general have jurisdiction to sue institutions operating in their states under state consumer protection laws and they could join forces to pursue cases nationally. Attorneys general contacted by Reuters and the Democratic Attorneys General Association, representing 22 officials, or nearly half the top state attorneys in the country, said they were prepared to take on more cases.</p>
<p>Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said his office’s consumer finance division now had 27 attorneys, compared with 11 four years ago.</p>
<p>“Consequently, we are well positioned to use all the tools available to us to protect Washingtonians if a new leader of the CFPB does not share director Cordray’s vigor for protecting consumers,” the Democrat said.</p>
<p>Before the consumer watchdog was created, states often took the lead in cases involving consumer lenders.</p>
<p>As Ohio’s attorney general, Cordray, for example, led the investigation of financial firms which precipitated the financial crisis, winning more than $2 billion in settlements for the state and its pension funds.</p>
<p>Consumer advocacy groups have generally applauded the work of both the CFPB and the states on consumer protections, but some Republican attorneys general have sided with Trump on the need to rein in the federal watchdog.</p>
<p>In a Nov. 27 letter to Trump, Republican attorneys from West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma said Mulvaney would help curb “the CFPB’s practice of overreaching regulation that harms the interests of consumers and small financial institutions.”</p>
<p>Anticipating more state activity, Maria Earley, partner at the law firm Reed Smith, has been advising clients facing CFPB charges against stalling in hopes the watchdog will become more lenient under Trump.</p>
<p>“You may want to litigate to run out the clock, but you’re going to have six, seven, eight states who will start looking into you,” Earley said, adding she has settled three CFPB cases for clients since Trump took office. Reuters could not independently verify this number.</p>
<p>Michelle Rogers, a partner with Buckley Sandler, said Wall Street may end up with increased regulatory complexity rather than relief as the state attorneys step in.</p>
<p>“They are more nimble than a big federal agency. They have their own staff, and their own agenda, and they can send out a subpoena on a whim on a broader set of issues,” she said.</p>
<p>(This story corrects 18th paragraph to attribute idea to C. Boyden Gray, instead of Ori Lev)</p> | U.S. states gird for fight as Trump targets consumer finance watchdog | false | https://newsline.com/u-s-states-gird-for-fight-as-trump-targets-consumer-finance-watchdog/ | 2017-12-01 | 1 |
<p>Citing a widespread cultural acceptance of tattoos, Las Vegas officials are pitching a zoning change that would allow tattoo parlors in more areas of the city.</p>
<p>If the City Council approves the change on Wednesday, tattoo parlor/body piercing studio businesses could open in the city’s limited commercial zoning district with a special-use permit.</p>
<p>Properties with that zoning designation, which includes much of the city’s retail shopping, are scattered throughout the city, often at the edges of residential neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Tattoo parlors currently are allowed only in industrial areas and commercial districts farther out from concentrated residential development.</p>
<p>“People are more comfortable with tattoo parlors now in their neighborhoods, as opposed to the image of what tattoo parlors used to be,” Councilman Ricki Barlow said Monday.</p>
<p>The City Council is also slated to do away with signage requirements specific to marijuana dispensaries and cultivation and production facilities. If the council approves the change, signage at marijuana businesses will need to align with the zoning district the business is in.</p>
<p>Contact Jamie Munks at <a href="" type="internal">jmunks@reviewjournal.com</a> or 702-383-0340. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieMunksRJ" type="external">@JamieMunksRJ</a> on Twitter.</p> | Tattoo parlors may be allowed in more areas of Las Vegas | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas/tattoo-parlors-may-be-allowed-in-more-areas-of-las-vegas/ | 2017-12-04 | 1 |
<p>Pastor Wendell Estep of the First Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina warned over the weekend that the so-called persecution of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was a sign of Christ's return.</p>
<p>In his sermon on Sunday, Estep argued that the Bible predicted "militant homosexuality" would be rampant during the End Times.</p>
<p>"Are you surprised at how quickly the homosexual movement has become militant?" he asked. "I mean, there is a clerk in Kentucky who has been jailed for not going along or not agreeing. There is a baker in Washington who has been fined. There are florists around the country who have been fined because they do no participate in same-sex marriage."</p>
<p>According to the pastor, the antichrist would establish an atheistic one-world government that was "anti-God."</p>
<p>"We see some of this taking shape now even in our on country," Estep warned. "We see that atheism is on the rise in our country."</p>
<p>"The clerk in Kentucky, I go back to, but she was put in jail. Why was that?" he continued. "Because there is no place for natural law in a secular society. In other words, you can believe what you wish within the confines of the walls of the church, but you can't take it outside the church."</p>
<p>"Folks, as we come to the End of Time and as the antichrist comes and establishes his kingdom, don't think that things are going to be favorable to Christianity and favorable to God," Estep insisted.</p> | South Carolina Pastor: 'Militant Homosexuals' Jailing Kim Davis Is A Sign Of The End Times | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/09/south-carolina-pastor-militant-homosexuals | 2015-09-20 | 4 |
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<p>An attorney for Chad Butler Jr., the rapper’s oldest son, told a judge that his father’s home in Port Arthur is in foreclosure, expensive jewelry is missing and various bills have gone unpaid, the Beaumont Enterprise reported ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2fqzC2F" type="external">http://bit.ly/2fqzC2F</a> ).</p>
<p>At a court hearing Wednesday, Josh Heinz, an attorney for Chad Butler, presented financial documents that showed Chinara Butler, Pimp C’s widow, spent $150,000 of the estate’s revenue from 2011 to 2013 and more than $80,000 in the past two years.</p>
<p>Public records show the estate has a $7.2 million federal tax lien and owes $5.1 million to a former manager.</p>
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<p>“Nobody’s gotten any money,” said Heinz. “She’s on red carpets in Los Angeles and New York and these kids have nothing.”</p>
<p>Chinara Butler, who is Chad Butler Jr.’s stepmother, said she never kept Pimp C’s family members from using his likeness to make money.</p>
<p>“I have not left (Pimp C’s) kids abandoned,” said Chinara Butler, who is the mother of Pimp C’s youngest child. “I’ve invested my own money into this estate and done my best to keep Pimp C relevant.”</p>
<p>Pimp C, born Chad Butler, was one half of the trailblazing rap duo Underground Kingz. He died in December 2007 from an accidental drug overdose.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old father of three died without a last will and testament.</p>
<p>Chad Butler Jr. said he became increasingly frustrated last fall when Chinara Butler started promoting an album “Long Live the Pimp,” one of three posthumous albums produced since his father’s death.</p>
<p>Chinara Butler said she received little to nothing from the three albums.</p>
<p>Cherrell Rene, Chinara Butler’s manager, said her client did not oppose the judge’s ruling because managing the estate was a burden.</p>
<p>Chinara Butler had previously been removed as administrator for several months in 2010 after a judge found she had misapplied $150,000 worth of jewelry and could not account for certain estate assets.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Beaumont Enterprise, <a href="http://beaumontenterprise.com" type="external">http://beaumontenterprise.com</a></p> | Rapper Pimp C’s widow removed as estate administrator | false | https://abqjournal.com/878686/rapper-pimp-cs-widow-removed-as-estate-administrator.html | 2 | |
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<p>What can you buy for over $100 million? Quite a bit, actually. The Center for Public Integrity has a new report out revealing that pharmaceutical companies spent $18 million on political contributions between 2001 and 2004, along with <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=794" type="external">$44 million</a> lobby state governments in 2003 and 2004, in order to thwart state attempts to reduce drug prices. And that all pales beside the <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=795" type="external">$83 million</a> the industry spent to defeat a California drug discount proposition in 2005.</p>
<p>33 states have passed at least 66 separate laws pushing down drug prices since 2003, although the Center doesn’t quite say how many further laws were scuttled because of lobbying, besides, of course, the California initiative.</p>
<p /> | Pushing Prescriptions | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/04/pushing-prescriptions/ | 2006-04-06 | 4 |
<p>Chances are that you'd struggle to find an industry within the U.S. that's growing at a faster and more consistent pace than legal marijuana.</p>
<p>Colorado, one of the eight states that's legalized recreational and medical cannabis, and the first state to sell adult-use weed, saw combined sales of legal weed soar by more than 30%, to over $1.3 billion in 2016. This surge in sales is a result of organic growth in recreational weed, right along with an increase in tourism to the state.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>On a broader basis, Marijuana Business Daily's latest report, entitled "Marijuana Business Factbook 2017," projects legal marijuana sales growth in the U.S. of 45% in 2018, and an aggregate of 300% between 2016 and 2021, ultimately reaching about $17 billion.&#160;With pro-legalization groups <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/14/5-states-angling-to-put-recreational-marijuana-on.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">rallying around multiple states Opens a New Window.</a> for the 2018 elections (e.g., Arizona and Michigan), the chances of pot's expansion are decent if things stay as they are.</p>
<p>However, the cannabis industry has one major obstacle: the federal government. Marijuana is a schedule I drug on Capitol Hill, making it entirely illegal, just like heroin and LSD. Cannabis also has no recognized medical benefits on Capitol Hill despite a handful of studies that have appeared to suggest otherwise. For example,&#160;GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH), a U.K.-based drug developer that utilizes cannabinoids to effect positive biologic change, has demonstrated in multiple phase 3 studies that its cannabidiol-based oral drug Epidiolex can significantly reduce seizure frequency in patients with two rare forms of childhood-onset epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.</p>
<p>Along with this brick wall in Washington comes a number of inherent disadvantages for marijuana-based businesses. They have little to no access to basic banking services, such as a checking account, and they're almost always required to pay tax on their gross profit -- as opposed to their net profits -- if they're profitable. This is because U.S. tax code 280E disallows businesses that sell a federally illegal substance from taking normal corporate income tax deductions.</p>
<p>Yet here's the interesting aspect of this bifurcation between the states and the federal government: The people side with the states. A newly released Gallup poll finds that <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/29/support-for-legalizing-marijuana-hits-another-reco.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">64% of Americans want cannabis to be legal Opens a New Window.</a> across the United States.&#160;A separately conducted survey from the independent Quinnipiac University, which was released in April, found even stronger support for the idea of legalizing medical cannabis. Some 94% of respondents were in favor compared to only 5% opposed.</p>
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<p>What's the holdup on Capitol Hill? Finger-pointing would dictate that it's Republicans holding up marijuana's expansion. Republicans and senior citizens have historically been the two groups who've opposed the expansion of pot. However, Gallup's survey shows something different in 2017.</p>
<p>When the national pollster questioned folks about their opinion on legalizing marijuana and asked for their political party affiliation, 51% of Republicans favored legalization. That's the first time ever that a majority of Republicans were in favor of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. It should be noted that, at 51% support, the margin of error of this poll is still within range to push this figure below 50%, but it's nonetheless an impressive milestone.</p>
<p>GOP support for weed rose very slowly, from 20% in 2003 to 37% in 2015, but it's exploded higher over the past two years. Perhaps this surge in support is a result of a shift in perception from their constituents. After all, if lawmakers don't abide by the desires of their constituents, they risk being voted out of office.</p>
<p>Of course, not all Republicans support weed, or are in favor of its expansion, even if they have no moral objection to cannabis. An example is Gov. Phil Scott (R-Vt.), who earlier this year vetoed a recreational marijuana bill in Vermont that overwhelmingly passed in the state's Senate and House. Scott <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/03/marijuana-stock-investors-are-denied-vermonts-gove.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">cited concerns Opens a New Window.</a> about weak penalties for driving under the influence as the reason for vetoing the legislation, but left the door open for future legislation once his concerns were addressed.</p>
<p>But there's one key Republican who really stands in the way of Washington even considering a change in stance on weed -- and it's not President Trump. The true barrier to progress lies squarely with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.</p>
<p>Sessions has, on numerous occasions, not minced words about his views on cannabis. Sessions is quick to remind folks that federal law still holds true in all 50 states and has implied that the Justice Department is reviewing the possibility of coming down more harshly on the marijuana industry in states that have legalized.</p>
<p>What's more, Sessions sent a letter to some of his congressional colleagues in May that requested they repeal the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which disallows the Justice Department from using federal funds to prosecute marijuana businesses that are operating in legal states. Sessions' insistence that this be repealed is a pretty clear indication that he's possibly preparing to wage war on the marijuana industry.</p>
<p>Even with the tide shifting among the public and within the Republican Party, it's difficult to see how any real progress will be made at the federal level with Sessions as attorney general. That'll likely cap the potential of the marijuana industry, and may put a serious crimp in the returns for marijuana stock investors.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than GW PharmaceuticalsWhen 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>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=c57efc80-ac83-4c73-9b44-f79076238a10&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and GW Pharmaceuticals wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=c57efc80-ac83-4c73-9b44-f79076238a10&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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=d9d08f70-bde0-11e7-bf61-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | True or False: Republicans Support Legalizing Marijuana? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/05/true-or-false-republicans-support-legalizing-marijuana.html | 2017-11-05 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Pixabay.</p>
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<p>The past couple of weeks have delivered a nice sigh of relief to investors who've endured the worst start to a new year in recorded history. At one point the broad-based indexes were bordering on double-digit percentage losses over the course of just a few weeks.</p>
<p>Yet even with this latest rebound, the increase in volatility and economic uncertainty has left investors scrambling for ways to shore up their portfolios and keep them on track for long-term gains. Over the past couple of weeks we've analyzed a number of ways investors can protect their assets, while retaining the opportunity for share price appreciation. We've looked at companies boasting <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/07/these-5-companies-collectively-have-521-billion-in.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">boatloads of cash Opens a New Window.</a>, paying out <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/22/6-brand-name-stocks-that-could-deliver-a-cumulativ.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">hefty dividends Opens a New Window.</a>, and cranking out the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/12/these-7-single-digit-pe-stocks-could-collectively.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">cash flow Opens a New Window.</a>-- companiesthat were on track to generate <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/29/these-5-companies-could-collectively-generate-almo.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">juicy profits Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>One of the common themes of these lists is that these companies are typically large-caps or megacaps (arbitrarily defined as a market valuation of $100 billion or higher). Big companies typically have solid foundations that can withstand a downturn in the U.S. economy and stock market. They also tend to have healthy cash flow, diversified business models, and juicy profits.</p>
<p>Megacap stocks with juicy EPS growth rates What you don't often find with the largest publicly traded companies is rapid growth prospects. Big companies are often mature when it comes to top- and bottom-line growth. However, that's not the case for three megacap stocks. Based on Wall Street's projections, the following three business giants are on pace to grow their EPS by more than 20% over the next five years.</p>
<p>Image source: Facebook.</p>
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<p>1. Facebook Probably no surprises here that social media giant Facebook is one of the fastest growing megacap stocks you'll find. Wall Street projections suggest that the company's $2.28 in reported full-year EPS in 2015 could grow to north of $7 by 2019. Revenue is also expected to surge from $17.9 billion to $52.1 billion over the same time span.</p>
<p>These growth figures are phenomenal, but they only matter if we understand the dynamics of what's driving them. In the case of Facebook, it's a superior social media platform and multiple channels to generate revenue and cash flow.</p>
<p>Facebook's latest quarterly report tells you everything you need to know about its dominance among social media networks. It had 1.04 billion daily active users as of December, of which 934 million were daily mobile active users. It also claimed another 550 million people were monthly active users. It's using these impressions to entice small- and medium-sized businesses to jump on board its advertising platform -- and the results have been phenomenal. Advertising revenue rose 57% year-over-year in Q4, and operating margin spiked 15% to 44%. Facebook doesn't have to do nearly as much from an operating perspective since its all-encompassing network is selling itself.</p>
<p>Facebook also has growth channels through subsidiaries like Instagram, an opportunity to expand its advertising margins through an increased use of video (which you've probably already seen on your own Facebook feeds), and the ability to monetize its platform for payments. We've already witnessed the introduction of free friend-to-friend payments through Messenger.</p>
<p>In short, Facebook's ability to monetize its platform is still in its infancy, and the competition has been left in the dust.</p>
<p>2. Amazon.comNext up we have Amazon.com , the king of all e-commerce retailers. Amazon typically gets a lot of flak for its focus on expansion over profits, but Wall Street sees this changing in a big way in the coming years. Following a $1.25 full-year profit in 2015, Wall Street expects $21.75 in full-year EPS by 2019. Sales are also expected to practically double from the $107 billion reported in 2015 to an estimated $212 billion in 2019.</p>
<p>Amazon's retail operations are an absolute monster, and it's the clear trendsetter in e-commerce. The scary thing is that e-commerce as a whole still accounts for just 7.4% of total retail sales, yet Amazon accounted for about half of all U.S. retail growth in the fourth quarter based on estimates from Wells Fargo. The company's Prime membership serves to keep consumers loyal, and more importantly it helps remove one of the biggest gripes of shopping online: shipping costs. Prime members enjoy free two-day shipping on qualifying orders. It also doesn't hurt that Amazon's prices can undercut those of most of its competition.</p>
<p>Like Facebook, Amazon also has numerous channels where it can boost its profitability beyond just retail. It's building one heck of a digital library that consumers can access to stream movies or TV shows directly into their homes. Also, Amazon's Web Services, or AWS, is a rapidly growing cloud-based platform for businesses and even the Internet of Things, one that grew by 70% in fiscal 2015 and now accounts for more than 7% of Amazon's total annual revenue.</p>
<p>There seems to be no stopping Amazon's dominance, and as e-commerce use spreads, Amazon's platform should become even more important to the consumer.</p>
<p>3. Bristol-Myers Squibb Finally, we have drug developer Bristol-Myers Squibb which Wall Street believes can more than double its full-year EPS from $2.01 in 2015 to $4.33 by 2019. Additionally, analysts expect Bristol-Myers' revenue to grow from a reported $16.6 billion in 2015 to $23.6 billion in 2019.</p>
<p>Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.</p>
<p>The great secret for Bristol-Myers Squibb is no secret at all -- it's one big part innovation and a side helping of inorganic growth.</p>
<p>In terms of innovation, a lot will be riding on cancer immunotherapy Opdivo. Cancer immunotherapies are a relatively new treatment designed to kick your immune system into high gear, while simultaneously blocking the immunosuppressant quality of cancer cells. Thus far, Opdivo has been approved as a treatment for metastatic melanoma, second-line advanced renal cell carcinoma, and second-line non-small cell lung cancer. In each instance it's demonstrated substantial improvements in response rates and progression-free survival (as well as overall survival in select instances), especially in patients whose tumors express PD-L1. Opdivo's best bet is as a combination therapy, which leaves it open to dozens upon dozens of combinations and therapeutic indications.</p>
<p>Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.</p>
<p>But don't discount blood-thinner Eliquis, which was co-developed with megacap Pfizer . In a prior head-to-head study against warfarin, a longtime go-to anticoagulant, patients taking Eliquis exhibited fewer strokes, less major bleeding, fewer hemorrhagic strokes, and fewer deaths. Its expansion is dependent on how many new indications it can garner, but Pfizer and Bristol-Myers are likely looking at a multi-billion dollar drug if the clinical data keeps going their way.</p>
<p>Lastly, Bristol-Myers' management team believes in adding value through acquisitions. Among its latest is the purchase of privately held Cardioxyl for up to $2.1 billion. The move allows Bristol-Myers Squibb to get its hands on Cardioxyl's lead clinical cardiovascular product, CXL-1427, for the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure.</p>
<p>A deep pipeline tells a tale of strong growth to come at Bristol-Myers Squibb.</p>
<p>Let growth be your guideWhat this diverse group of megacap stocks offers an investor is a possible mix of market-topping growth and better-than-average stability in the face of a stock market and/or economic downturn. Understandably, EPS growth rate is just one consideration that should be made when examining a stock -- but these three businesses could be well-suited for an investor looking to nab a bargain growth stock following the rough start to the year.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/14/3-megacap-stocks-with-5-year-projected-earnings-gr.aspx" type="external">3 Megacap Stocks With 5-Year Projected Earnings Growth Rates Above 20% Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, track every pick he makes under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/trackultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TrackUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com, Facebook, and Wells Fargo. It also has the following options: short March 2016 $52 puts on Wells Fargo. 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> | 3 Megacap Stocks With 5-Year Projected Earnings Growth Rates Above 20% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/14/3-megacap-stocks-with-5-year-projected-earnings-growth-rates-above-20.html | 2016-03-14 | 0 |
<p>And of course, it was a shell game. A protection racket of the highest order. So convinced were you that you were powerless that you surrendered your spirits to these jackals. To Krauthammer, an American conservative born in Uruguay. To a President willing to let a Canadian carpetbagger write those three words — Axis of Evil — that he will not outlive. Bush as cover for machinations so obvious that they cry out to be named.</p>
<p>But no one can name them in polite society. Look how they got Scott Ritter, planting barrettes and N-Sync compact discs in the front seat of his vehicle, practically. Was it a sixteen-year-old at the Home of the Whopper, or a taunting nymphet under the golden arches? Those Happy Meals seem like unhappy affairs now, huh? No longer can Mr. Ritter appear on MSNBC without the danger of having ACCUSED PEDOPHILE appear under his name.</p>
<p>Ritter’s predilections — whether he holds them or not — have no bearing on his arguments. But that doesn’t matter. One of the most suspicious phenomena of 2002 actually was the amount of play given to Ritter and his positions. He was portrayed as a serious, high-profile critic of US invasion of Iraq at a time when so much of the media seemed devoted to advancing the idea that no criticism of US action mattered. Now it’s clear why. There was dirt on Ritter, and that dirt was a matter of common knowledge in certain circles. Ritter got a run of token offense in, raging against the war machine, serving as our proxy. A rock-ribbed, square-jawed ex-Marine. And look at him now. I mean, if you can find him. Don’t expect Phil Donahue to have him back on the show anytime soon to lay the smack down on Ken Adelman. No sir, seems Mr. Ritter has problems of his own now.</p>
<p>And, to think, there were those who wanted him to run a primary challenge against W in 2004. Never has a Whopper tasted so much like decayed flesh.</p>
<p>Many things are common knowledge about the wars on tap for 2003 and beyond. They will probably be about oil, either the direct control of the commodity itself or simply the ability to fix its price. The defense of Israel is about as important as the defense of the US itself. Charges that Saddam Hussein makes that actions against his country are part of a Zionist conspiracy must be discounted, as Hussein is an evil man who gasses his own people, and who holds political prisoners. Since only about one in every 34 Americans is entrapped by the criminal justice apparatus, it is clear to everyone in the world that the US leadership is radically different than that of Saddam Hussein. No one-party state here!</p>
<p>Since everything in the last paragraph is “known”, perhaps we should consider alternative interpretations as to why the US plans multi-front wars for the foreseeable future. Take what Shelton Hull has to say about the increasingly perilous condition of the US economy:</p>
<p>The nation’s economy. . . assailed by forces both internal (like crooked CFOs) and external (like organized Islamic banking which only does business with those adhering to shari’a law). The dollar’s main opponents for what amounts to home-field advantage in the grand game of international finance are the Euro and gold. Whomever has control of whatever the main “settlement currency” is at any moment can screw with the entire world economy through simple internal manipulation, which isn’t nearly as bad for the home team as the visitors. But now more Islamic nations are beginning to peg their currencies to gold, a commodity which they have massive supplies of. Upward spikes like we’ve seen in 2002 (25%) heighten the disparity between what their money buys them from us and the reciprocal, which is a big problem because we want to control them. Control needs ontrol to control, and it starts with the money supply.</p>
<p>The chickens, coming home to roost. Or better still, the bill collectors at the door and ringing your phone while you try to sleep. Since the mid 1930’s, there has been a concentrated campaign underway to bamboozle the American body politic. To convince them that men so far from their home bases have love for anything but their own power, that there is wisdom in allowing a Kissinger or a Martin Indyk to have any say-so in American foreign policy decisions. To make them believe that the military-industrial complex could somehow pull off the loaves and fishes miracle.</p>
<p>Sure, once upon a time there were loaves and there were fishes. The reward for establishing the US military occupation and control of Europe that has existed since 1945 was the GI Bill, and the Greatest Generation - got over more than any generation since. But the free food was no longer quite so forthcoming after stalemate actions in Korea and Vietnam. The US government realized that it could never fully subjugate a people quite so well as its own. Its tired, its poor, its debtor prison white trash, its drunken Injuns, its Irish travelers, its refugees of all hues, all crying, all damned. And so that government turned its guns on the people who supposedly ran it.</p>
<p>Lose Vietnam, get a War on Drugs that exists only as an end in itself, a police action every bit as disgusting as what the IDF does to the Palestinians. Your car gets flashlight searched during a purportedly random seatbelt check. Get out of your car and spread ’em. You’re not from around here, are you boy? What’s in that bag on the front seat?</p>
<p>Lose Vietnam, get a bunch of corporate liberals, gussied-up corpses with eighty dollar haircuts. All of these Democrats feel the need to run their own campaigns for the Presidency. Lieberman pimped his on the Israeli Home Shopping Network, practically. But no need for divisive language here, because they all found common ground just this week. At the behest of NARAL, six Democratic candidates for the 2004 Presidential nomination found themselves extolling the wisdom undergirding Roe V Wade. Fitting, that Sharpton, Gephardt, Holy Joe, and all the rest could come together to see that the state protects the right to commit preemptive infanticide. And they say the Democrats lack a cohesive message.</p>
<p>ANTHONY GANCARSKI, author of <a href="" type="internal">Unfortunate Incidents</a> [Diversity Inc, 2001], welcomes comments at <a href="mailto:Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com" type="external">Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com</a>. Rumors that he is considering a bid for the US House in 2004 cannot be addressed at this time.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | America Never Was America to Me | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/01/25/america-never-was-america-to-me/ | 2003-01-25 | 4 |
<p>Work crews upgrading a road in southern China have uncovered 43 fossilized dinosaur eggs, 19 of which were intact. After the initial discovery it took only two hours of digging to unearth the full collection.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyuan" type="external">Heyuan</a>, a city of about 3 million people in Guangdong province, had been <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Apr/125456.htm" type="external">officially</a> dubbed&#160;“Hometown of the Dinosaur in China” and with good reason. In 1996, the first dinosaur eggs in the region were found on a river bank. Since that time, 17,000 full or partial dinosaur eggs, primarily from oviraptorid and duck-billed dinosaurs&#160;have been found in the area surrounding the city.</p>
<p>The museum in Heyuan is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for its fossilized egg collection.</p>
<p>The latest find is the first to be made in the city’s center but likely won’t be the last.</p>
<p>Du Yanli, the director of the city’s Dinosaur Museum has said that he believes many other dinosaur remains will be found in sandstone beds around the city and that construction projects should be halted if and when fossils are found according to the <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1771958/dinosaur-egg-fossils-found-during-road-works-southern-china" type="external">South China Morning Post</a>.</p>
<p>In 2004 a farmer in the area was detained by police after 557 fossilized eggs were found at his home which had not been reported to authorities.</p>
<p>The eggs will be examined by experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to determine their age and the species they belong to. However, Yanli reports that the eggs are large with one measuring about 5 inches in diameter.</p>
<p>In addition to the eggs, eight fossilized skeletons and 168 footprints have been found in the area. All of the fossils to date are from the late Cretaceous period, 89 to 65 million years ago.</p>
<p>Of the skeletons found, seven belong to a species that is named for the city. Heyuannia or “ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyuannia" type="external">Heyuannia One</a>” is a genus of feathered oviraptor originally found in the area and first described in 2003. The animals were about 5 feet long and weighed over 40 pounds. The oviraptorid was toothless with a steep snout and short skull.</p>
<p>In addition to its treasure trove of ancient fossils, the area is also home to something of a living fossil. In March a giant salamander, thought to be extinct in the area, was <a href="http://news.asiantown.net/r/47568/living-fossil-chinese-park-ranger-captures-incredibly-rare-giant-salamander-that-roamed-the-earth-million-years-ago" type="external">found</a> by a park ranger.</p>
<p>The two and a half foot long, 11 pound amphibian is listed as <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/1272/0" type="external">critically endangered</a> throughout China by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Known as the ‘wa wa yu’ or ‘baby fish’, the animals have barely changed since the Jurassic period 170 million years ago, long before the region’s dinosaur eggs were laid.</p>
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<p /> | Dozens of dinosaur eggs found at Chinese construction site | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/22/dozens-of-dinosaur-eggs-found-at-chinese-construction-site/ | 2015-04-22 | 3 |
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<p>After 28 years in business as a pawnbroker, Robbie Whitten decided it was the right time to franchise the company he and his father founded in 1980.&#160; Over two years Whitten spent $200,000 in franchise development and in 2010 he sold the first <a href="http://www.moneymizerfranchises.com" type="external">Money Mizer Pawn &amp; Jewelry &#160; Opens a New Window.</a>franchise to two men who he considers ideal partners.</p>
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<p>“We asked ourselves: ‘What kind of people are we looking for in franchisees?’” said &#160;CEO Robbie Whitten, “Well, we are looking for individuals who are highly motivated, preferably have some corporate background on their resume, and are willing to follow rules.”</p>
<p>While it may be easy to define the ideal franchisee, it may not be easy to turn the wrong one down.</p>
<p>“Everybody wants to close a franchise sale, and no one wants to admit that the guy handing over $50,000 and a commitment of 10 years is the wrong person,” said franchise attorney Scott Weber of law firm <a href="http://www.phelpsdunbar.com" type="external">Phelps Dunbar Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to read: Is Your Business Franchise Worthy? Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>But it’s the wrong person who can have the biggest impact on the growth of a franchise. “The single most important aspect of quality control is the people you pick as your franchisees,” said Mark Siebert, CEO of franchising consultancy <a href="http://www.ifranchise.net" type="external">iFranchise Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>“The franchisor should be looking for someone who is not like them,” advised Siebert, “[The franchisor] are rule breakers by definition. Franchisors need someone who is willing to follow the system. They should be adaptive, not combative.”</p>
<p>Weber warned someone with the wrong motivation is likely to cost the franchise in legal expenses. “Understanding what makes a good franchisee and what makes a potentially litigious franchisee is just as important as any law that applies to franchising.”</p>
<p>Deciding on a franchisee is very much a judgment call. At iFranchise, Siebert helps clients identify the right buyers by finding comparable franchise systems and conducting profiles of the franchisees in those systems. &#160;He also recommends using personality tests such as the <a href="http://www.nathanprofiler.com" type="external">Nathan Profiler Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Another way to test potential franchisees is with a pre-sale employment process. According to Weber, the franchisor can require that a potential buyer work at a location prior to finalizing the sale. However, those terms must be disclosed ahead of time.&#160; This creates an opportunity to see how well the potential franchisee works with others and adapts to the system.</p>
<p>At Money Mizer, Whitten requires that franchisees train at its corporate headquarters for approximately four weeks and then work in a store for 30 days.</p>
<p>The franchise relationship can last decades, and so the courting period is an opportunity to spot potential weaknesses in the partnership.</p>
<p>“Most conflicts can be addressed with better communication and a better sales process,” said Weber. “Franchise sales departments sometimes create legitimate&#160; misunderstandings. Maybe they are describing the system in the wrong way or perhaps are a little too rosy in describing sales prospects.”</p>
<p>Whitten just started putting money into franchise marketing and sales and has been cautious in bringing on additional franchisees before seeing the first one off successfully.</p>
<p>“We wanted our first store to have a year behind them. We wanted to be able to support our franchisee.”</p> | How to Identify Good Franchisee Candidates | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/03/03/identify-good-franchisee-candidates.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
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<p>Neither Valley’s Joe Coleman nor Cleveland’s Brian Smith could explain it.</p>
<p>The second quarter of Valley’s 77-54 boys basketball victory Friday night at Cleveland was as decisive as it was tough to figure out for the two head coaches.</p>
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<p>In the other three quarters combined, the Vikings and Storm scored 48 points apiece. The second was a 29-6 Valley landslide.</p>
<p>Vikings teammates Adonis Saltes and Joe Anaya combined for 22 points in those pivotal eight minutes, while the Storm managed just one field goal — a Marcus Williams 3-pointer.</p>
<p>Understandably, Coleman and Smith had different perspectives on the second quarter, even if they couldn’t really explain it.</p>
<p>“We just shot the ball as well as we can shoot it,” Coleman said. “It doesn’t happen often, but it’s sure nice when it does.”</p>
<p>Coleman went on to credit crisp, effective passing and the high-energy play of point guard Robert Armijo for helping his Vikings improve to 4-1. Still, he conceded Valley looked like a different team Friday than the squad that lost to La Cueva a week earlier.</p>
<p>Smith’s Storm was coming off a 13-day layoff, and said his team’s poor second quarter was part of an unfortunate trend.</p>
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<p>“Every game we’ve played, we’ve had one bad quarter,” Smith said. “Tonight, we played pretty well in the first quarter then fell apart in the second. It’s tough to overcome a stretch like that.”</p>
<p>The first quarter included five ties, two lead changes and seemed to promise a tight pre-holiday battle. Cleveland’s Josh Marsh gave his team a 14-13 lead late in the final minute, but Armijo’s basket gave Valley a one-point edge at quarter’s end.</p>
<p>That’s when Saltes began to take over. The junior scored seven straight points as Valley started the second quarter with an 11-1 run.</p>
<p>Saltes would net three 3-pointers in the quarter and had personally outscored the Storm 23-20 at halftime. As a group, the Vikes took a 44-20 lead to intermission.</p>
<p>“Valley’s just a typical Joe Coleman team,” Smith said. “They play hard, they attack and they don’t let up when they get a lead. Kudos to them.”</p>
<p>Cleveland regained its composure in the third quarter but was unable to put much of a dent in Valley’s lead. Coleman began pulling his starters midway through the quarter and got solid play from several reserves. Chris Martinez came off the bench to nail four 3-pointers.</p>
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<p>“Chris has a funky looking shot,” Coleman said, “but he knocks ’em down. It’s nice to have a kid that can come in and give you scoring like that.”</p>
<p>Anaya finished with 14 points, including an 8-for-9 performance from the foul line.</p>
<p>Free throws were not a highlight for the Storm, which went 16 for 30 from the line. Marcus Williams was the lone Storm player to reach double figures with 20 points.</p>
<p>Also Friday:</p>
<p>n Eric Gutierrez had 19 points and Jason Baca 18 for West Mesa, but the Mustangs fell to visiting La Cueva 69-59.</p>
<p>n Atrisco Heritage won a defensive struggle at Cibola, 48-42. Patrick Roark had 18 points for the Jags (5-2), while post Ross Buchman paced the Cougars (4-4) with 20.</p>
<p>n Rio Grande’s boys were beaten 50-45 by Manzano. Mike Torrez led the Ravens with 18 points and Dennis Lucero added 12 for Rio Grande.</p>
<p>n Rio Rancho’s girls (3-4) cruised past winless Rio Grande 52-30, as guards Ally Salata and Alicia Herrera combined for 22 points. Vanessa Hernandez had nine points to lead the Ravens (0-6).</p> | Valley Blows Out Storm in 2nd | false | https://abqjournal.com/155229/valley-blows-out-storm-in-2nd-2.html | 2012-12-22 | 2 |
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<p>"Descanso" is currently raising money to finish the 12-minute film, which will be shot around New Mexico.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Descansos are seen all over New Mexico. The roadside markers are a memorial to those who have died along the roads in New Mexico.</p>
<p>WEISBERG: Director says filming will start soon</p>
<p>This is what inspired filmmaker Ron Weisberg to jump in and direct the short film, "Descanso."</p>
<p>Weisberg says he was approached by a mother of a child who takes acting classes with him.</p>
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<p>"They asked me if I would produce the film," he says. "I read the script and thought it was very poignant, especially here in New Mexico. The story was good and the family had its heart in the right place."</p>
<p>"Descanso" follows a jaded contractor who is worried about his wife's pregnancy and must move a grave marker to progress with construction for his latest project. The family who put up the descanso is notified and they rush to make sure it is restored.</p>
<p>Weisberg says, of course, there is more twists and turns in the story.</p>
<p>GARCIA: Came up with idea for "Descanso"</p>
<p>The idea for the film came from 11-year-old Christopher W. Garcia and was written by his father Don.</p>
<p>"It's amazing to see that this entire project is the result of Christopher," he says. "He wanted to make a difference and is using film as a way to get the message across."</p>
<p>RANNEY: One of the stars of the film</p>
<p>The film stars Garcia, Heather Nicole, Chase A. Fox and Chris Ranney.</p>
<p>Weisberg says the cast is about 80 percent complete and shooting will start soon. He says the goal is to produce a 12-minute short film that will then be sent out to film festivals.</p>
<p>"This is such a great subject," he says. "We're still rasing money for the film, but it's coming along."</p>
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<p>Weisberg says the crew is trying to bring forth the importance of descansos.</p>
<p>He's also looking at getting the public involved to tell their stories and will feature them in the end credits of the film.</p>
<p>"When I approach anything, I approach it from the story - what it means for people and for me," he says. "I'm the one that came up with the idea for the story to be a memorial."</p>
<p>Inaugural film fest: Closet Cinema, producer of the annual The Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, has joined forces with the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico to bring "Transcastic! ABQ's Transgender Film Festival."</p>
<p>The festival opens Friday, April 4 with a party at ArtBar, 119 Gold SW.</p>
<p>Roberto Appicciafoco, festival director, says with the emergence of transgender-themed films and filmmakers on the rise in recent years, it became apparent that a festival was needed to help celebrate and highlight these films.</p>
<p>The films to be screened will be "Transvisible: The Bamby Salcedo Story," "Too Cold Out There Without You," "Turning," "Open Up to Me" and "Melting Away."</p>
<p>To see the full film schedule, visit <a href="http://swglff.com/transtastic2014" type="external">swglff.com/transtastic2014</a>. All screenings will be at the Guild Cinema, 3405 W. Central. Advance full fest passes will be available at the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, 120 Morningside NE, or at The Guild Cinema.</p>
<p>SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email <a href="" type="internal">film@ABQjournal.com</a>. Follow me on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/agomezArt" type="external">@agomezART</a>.</p>
<p /> | NM family gets script about roadside memorials produced | false | https://abqjournal.com/376158/story-of-roadside-memorials-films-in-nm.html | 2 | |
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<p>There has been a lot of buzz about the importance of encouraging failure in the <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/workplace.html" type="external">workplace Opens a New Window.</a> and how it can lead to great ideas that may not have otherwise come about. This is not a new way of thinking. Asked about his failures, Thomas Edison is purported to have said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."</p>
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<p>While it is true that failure can play a&#160;role in the workplace, it is important to outline the parameters for failure before encouraging it. Someone who works in marketing has more leeway in terms of responsibilities and more autonomy, so it is perfectly reasonable to expect someone in this position to test out new&#160;avenues and approaches that may not always work. On the flip side, if someone is in a position where they're expected to get X number of cogs made in an hour, this person has a lot less room for failure.</p>
<p>Many companies have adopted cultures wherein failure is not only accepted, but encouraged. Still, many employees&#160;fear the embarrassment and loss of credibility that can come with failure. Others worry they will lose their jobs if they fail.</p>
<p>Encouraging employees to fail does not always mean encouraging employees to do things that won't work. Positive failures can also come in the idea-generation stage. Management should identify ways for employees to express their opinions to&#160;one another – e.g., anonymous feedback platforms or frequent brainstorming sessions.</p>
<p>When creating messaging that encourages employees to embrace failure, make it more specific than "Don't be afraid to fail." Verbiage should focus less on failure and more on the value of ideas that may seem atypical or out of the norm.</p>
<p>Here are a few things your company can do to create healthy parameters for failure within your various departments:</p>
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<p>1. Clearly Define Which Tasks Are Appropriate for Failure and Which Are Not</p>
<p>For example, if an employee's job primarily focuses on customer service, there will be times when failure is not an option. It's okay to try some riskier things that could elevate the customer experience, but only if failure wouldn't lower the customer experience to a level below acceptable.</p>
<p>2. Outline When Employees Can Act</p>
<p>Make sure employees know when they're empowered to act on their own and when they need&#160;input from a manager before pursuing a new idea. Give employees freedom to implement ideas with a relatively low risk levels. Doing so will allow them to grow and gain the confidence to try bigger, riskier things in the future – with their manager's input, of course!</p>
<p>3. Share Both Success and Failure Stories</p>
<p>When companies only report back on successful ventures, it makes&#160;failure seem like a scary option. In recent times, some companies have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction, focusing too much on celebrating failures to the detriment of the whole team.</p>
<p>Failures should be celebrated and encouraged, but if the successes aren't shared as well, employees won't know what they're working toward.</p>
<p>Meghann Isgan is the team success manager at <a href="http://readers.com/" type="external">Readers.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How to Create Healthy Parameters for Failure: | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/09/how-to-create-healthy-parameters-for-failure.html | 2017-08-16 | 0 |
<p>Via the <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tlc-orders-duggar-daughters-specials-826975" type="external">Hollywood Reporter</a>:</p>
<p>The Duggars are returning to TLC. At least, some of them are. Two months after the Discovery-owned cable channel canceled 19 Kids and Counting over Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation admission, TLC has ordered several new specials centered on his two sisters Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard. Production is slated to begin soon for a targeted year-end premiere for at least one of the specials, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The untitled specials will center on Dillard, her husband, Derick, and their infant son as they prepare to move to El Salvador for missionary work, and Seewald, who is expecting her first child with husband Ben on Nov. 1. Two or three specials are currently planned. Over 19 Kids and Counting‘s 15-season run, Jill and Jessa became two of the family’s most famous members, appearing on magazine covers documenting their engagements, marriages and pregnancies.</p>
<p>Last month the sisters appeared on a TLC child abuse special in which they <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kelly-previews-sitdown-with-two-of-josh-duggars-sisters-victims/" type="external">defended</a> their brother for molesting them.</p> | Duggar Sisters To Star In TLC Specials | true | http://joemygod.com/2015/09/24/duggar-sisters-to-star-in-tlc-specials/ | 2015-09-24 | 4 |
<p />
<p>I just read something both horrifying and so, so sad on <a href="http://blogs.theroot.com/blogs/diggingdeep/archive/2008/06/30/the-atlanta-subway-incident-and-our-defenseless-seniors.aspx" type="external">The Root</a>.</p>
<p>It happened two months ago, and this is the first, and probably only, time I’ll hear about it: A young, bipolar black woman on an Atlanta bus went manic and terrorized an elderly black woman while the rest of the riders did nothing. Well, except for the ones who laughed and helped the deranged woman freestyle rap lyrics with which to terrorize all our grandmothers. And, of course, the one who was busy taking the video. The other riders didn’t respond until she went after them.</p>
<p>As for her helpless victim—a study in dignity and courage. She said nothing, never asked for help. I guess she knew by then it would be pointless to ask. If I’d been looking for a better way to reinforce my post on <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/07/8919_california-heat-wave-emergency.html" type="external">heat waves</a>, I’d never have found it.</p>
<p>Too bad that grandmother wasn’t assaulted by a crazed white girl. Then, her fellow riders would have responded and it would have been all over the news. No, it was just someone who could have been her granddaughter, and therefore just one more instance of black-on-black nihilism that only an Uncle Tom would discuss ‘in front of white folks’. Someone should track down that lovely, dignified lady and have her tell the truth on national TV, and shame the intracommunal devil that allows such things to happen.</p>
<p>I once came to the aide of an elderly lady being similarly terrorized by a deranged man in a crowded public place, as everyone else just gave them a wide berth. I didn’t confront him—he was terrifying, ranting and raving at her—I just said “Mrs. Smith, there you are! We’re late, let’s go.” The crazy are easily confused, and he just watched stupefied as I led her away. Both of them were white, as it happens, and I could have never slept well again if I’d walked past that poor woman, just glad he wasn’t after me. I wasn’t proud of myself at the time. It just seemed like something that needed doing. But now, I guess I deserve a medal.</p>
<p>What a pass we’ve come to. Shame on everyone on that bus. Shame. And one more thing: Why didn’t someone call the police? Anyone can see she needed to be in a hospital. But they just laughed and egged her on to run amok in their own community, destroying herself and everyone around her.</p>
<p>If you’re black and want to hang your head in shame, <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZnYmURBUY8U&amp;feature=related" type="external">watch the video</a>.</p>
<p /> | Black on Black Nihilism | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/07/black-black-nihilism/ | 2008-07-11 | 4 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Some biographies are great histories. Others are lively and interesting discussions of the subject’s life. Very few are both. Even fewer are not only both of the above, but also inspirational. Ray Ginger’s biography of Eugene Debs, <a href="" type="internal">The Bending Cross</a>, is one of those few. At once a history of the early US labor and socialist movements, The Bending Cross is an intricate look at the life of the man who is probably most identified with both of those movements’ early history.</p>
<p>The Debs we are introduced to in the early pages of Ginger’s work is a man whose commitment to social justice is already apparent. Not yet a socialist in name, Debs the railway worker applies his understanding of Christ’s social justice message to the plight of his fellow workers. Knowing almost by instinct that it would be foolish to expect the men who own the railroads to improve the lives of their workers, Debs joins one of the railway brotherhoods and almost immediately begins pushing the mission of the organization away from cooperation with ownership and towards organizing workers to demand a fair wage and a life with dignity. After it becomes apparent that the leadership of the brotherhoods have too much to lose in confronting the ownership, Debs and his cohorts form another more radical association. This pattern continues throughout Debs’ life as an organizer. As he observes the pursuit of profits over human existence by corporate capitalism and its justification for the desolation and despair it causes, Debs searches for understanding of the nature of the economic system he finds himself in. This quest leads him to Marxism.</p>
<p>Yet, even his fiercest enemies find it impossible to pigeonhole Debs and caricature him as some kind of crazed revolutionist. Indeed, some are even forced to acknowledge the man’s kindness and purity of motivation–something one would be hard put to attribute to any of the robber barons no matter how great their philanthropy. Ginger attributes Debs’ incredible popularity to this purity of motivation and, without mawkishness, creates an image of an almost mythical human being in his text. Debs would probably not have appreciated the romanticized version of his life, but biographies are not written for the subject, but for those who live other lives.</p>
<p>The romanticized nature of Ginger’s biography does not detract from the story being told nor does it lessen the history lesson within its pages. One reason for this is that Debs’ life was a life that reads like a movie script. His presence and involvement in some of history’s most exciting moments insured that any telling of his life would be, at the least, captivating on each and every page. The difference with The Bending Cross is that it goes beyond a good story and becomes an inspirational tale that everyone and anyone hoping to improve the world they live in by ending capitalism should read. In fact, not only should they read it, but they should keep it nearby in order to reach for it during those moments when that struggle seems hopeless.</p>
<p>During his life, Debs was many things–a railway worker, a clerk, a labor organizer and speaker, and a journalist. In fact, journalism was the only constant in the list of roles he played. The subject of another biography recently completed was also a journalist by trade. Unlike Debs, who wrote primarily for labor and socialist periodicals, Pham Xuan An was a correspondent for the mainstream Time magazine during the US war on Vietnam. Unlike Debs, who mostly wrote essays and opinion columns, An was a reporter who worked with some of the better known US journalists covering that imperial adventure. At the same time, An was a master spy for the revolutionary nationalist struggle of the Vietnamese.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Perfect Spy</a> by Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California’s Davis campus, is a fascinating account of An’s life during the Vietnamese war with the US. Like Ginger’s biography of Debs, Berman’s work presents the reader with a man whose life is more than the sum of its parts. An, who died a hero of the Vietnamese struggle for independence in 2006, lived two lives as a spy and a journalist. Berman’s many interviews with An help him provide a picture of how An managed this while simultaneously keeping his allegiance to Americans he befriended and to the Vietnamese revolution. It’s not 007 stuff that is related here, but intrigue exists, especially in the recounting of An’s work prior to the Tet offensive in 1968 and in his efforts to get friends from the losing side out of Vietnam during the final days of the southern Vietnamese government in 1975.</p>
<p>Equally interesting to today’s reader is the contextual information Berman provides throughout the book. As the United States edges closer to the fifth year of its war in Iraq, the descriptions of US tactics during the war in Vietnam make it clear that not only was the US involvement in Vietnam a combination of imperial hubris and human pride, it was very much a policy and not a mistake. As one analyzes US actions in that war forty years ago in light of the current one, it’s quite apparent that many of the strategies that failed in Vietnam are being attempted again in Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal variation. Likewise, it becomes ever more apparent that , like the Vietnamese war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not mistakes or blunders (as today’s Democrats are so fond of saying),but essential parts of US geopolitical strategy. Even though it is clear by now that there are several differences between the US war on Vietnam and its current adventure in Iraq, there are similarities that can not be denied. One example came to me as I read Berman’s description of the various factions in southern Vietnam and Washington’s attempts to sort them out through bribery, political chicanery and murder. The description of these manipulations are reminiscent of the ongoing situation in Iraq, where multiple factions are struggling for control and US intelligence and other forces seem to shift their alliances every few months, seemingly without reason.</p>
<p>In the same manner that the US reader will see similarities between the way the war in Vietnam was waged in Vietnam and in the US media and political arena, so might the Iraqi or Afghani reader. Indeed, if I were a member of the resistance in those countries, I might even draw some useful lessons from An’s insights and analysis as it was applied to the situation of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle by its fighters. Likewise, the astute reader of An’s biography can not help but see how many of today’s arguments used to justify the continued US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing but rehashed rationales from its debacle in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Eugene Debs is the more famous of these two men, for his unbending opposition to imperial war, no matter what the rationales provided by the war makers and those who profit from it. From the so-called liberation of Cuba from the Spanish by Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riding army to the war to make the world safe for democracy organized under Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s administration, Debs never wavered from the perception that war under capitalism is always a war of conquest. It’s not that he was a pacifist, by any means. Indeed, although he hoped for a world where profit ceased to exist, he knew from his experience and observation that such a world would only come via revolution.</p>
<p>Pham Xuan An’s life as a revolutionary patriot of Vietnam and the war he fought in only serves to prove Debs’ perceptions of capitalist wars. Their lives together prove the virtue of resistance to those wars.</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 just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net" type="external">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Virtues of Resistance | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/08/18/the-virtues-of-resistance/ | 2007-08-18 | 4 |
<p>U.S. economic growth picked up in the second quarter of the year.</p>
<p>Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a 2.6% annual rate in the April to June period, the Commerce Department said Friday. Figures are adjusted for inflation and seasonality.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected an increase of 2.7%.</p>
<p>The second-quarter advance is a welcome rebound after a lackluster start to the year, when GDP grew at only 1.2% pace. It's less clear if stronger growth is a sign of momentum or simply repeating a familiar pattern of weak winters followed by a stronger spring and summer.</p>
<p>The U.S. emerged from the last recession in mid-2009. Eight years later, the country has entered the third-longest but also the slowest expansion since World War II, with GDP growth averaging a little over 2%. By comparison, growth averaged 3.6% during a 10-year span in the 1990s and 4.9% during a nearly nine-year stretch in the 1960s, the only two expansions with longer durations.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump, who took office in late January, has pledged to return the nation to the above-3% growth.</p>
<p>Details within Friday's report were generally positive.</p>
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<p>Both consumers and businesses helped propel growth in the second quarter.</p>
<p>Household outlays rose at a 2.8% pace, an improvement from the first quarter's 1.9%. Consumers stepped up spending on both goods and services, possibly reflecting a broadly positive outlook since the election. The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence in July rose to the second-highest level in 16 years.</p>
<p>Businesses also have been upbeat. A measure of corporate spending on projects, nonresidential fixed investment, climbed at a 5.2% pace. While that was down from the first quarter's 7.2%, it's still one of the best readings since 2014.</p>
<p>In a sign of an improving global economy, U.S. exports expanded faster than imports. That made trade a small--0.18 percentage point--contributer to overall growth.</p>
<p>Government outlays rose, led by a surge in federal defense spending. State and local governments cut back.</p>
<p>Spending on home building and improvements was the biggest drag in the second quarter. Residential fixed investment dropped at a 6.8% pace, the sharpest decline since 2010.</p>
<p>Businesses, meanwhile, didn't restock their shelves and warehouses in the second quarter. A small decline in inventories shaved 0.02 percentage point off of the headline GDP number.</p>
<p>Inflation eased. The price index for personal consumption expenditures--the Fed's preferred inflation gauge--rose at a rate of 0.3% in the second quarter. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs, increased 0.9%.</p>
<p>The Commerce Department's release on GDP can be found at: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm</p>
<p>Write to Jeffrey Sparshott at jeffrey.sparshott@wsj.com and Eric Morath at eric.morath@wsj.com.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 28, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)</p> | U.S. GDP Advances 2.6% in Second Quarter | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/28/u-s-gdp-advances-2-6-in-second-quarter.html | 2017-07-28 | 0 |
<p>Not only are customers feeling guilty about that extra slice of pizza they didn’t need to eat…or that stuffed crust, or the garlic wings, or the full-calorie soda (because is it really possible to drink water with pizza?)…but now their stomach hurts because they have to worry about identity theft as well.</p>
<p>Pizza Hut got hacked. And there is a chance the personal information of their customers have been compromised.</p>
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<p>What is worse? Pizza Hut was a little delayed in getting the information out–two weeks late to be exact.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://amp.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article178930896.html" type="external">Charlotte Observer</a>:</p>
<p>Breaking news updates and daily headlines from a news source you can trust.</p>
<p>[T]hose who placed an order on its website or mobile app between the morning of Oct. 1 and midday Oct. 2 might have had their information exposed.</p>
<p>The “temporary security intrusion” lasted for about 28 hours, the notice said, and it’s believed that names, billing ZIP codes, delivery addresses, email addresses and payment card information — meaning account number, expiration date and CVV number — were compromised.</p>
<p>“The security intrusion at issue impacted a small percentage of our customers and we estimate that less than one percent of the visits to our website over the course of the relevant week were affected,” read a customer notice sent only to those affected. “That said, we regret to say that we believe your information is among that impacted group.”</p>
<p>A call center operator told McClatchy that about 60,000 people across the U.S. were affected.</p>
<p>The customer notice said Pizza Hut is talking to cybersecurity experts outside of the company to look into the apparent hack and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.</p>
<p>Affected customers are advised to look out for scams asking for personal information because of the hack, as Pizza Hut will not ask you for personal information like your social security number, the company said.</p>
<p>The company is also offering a free credit monitoring service for a year with Kroll Information Assurance, LLC. You have until Jan. 11 to register for the credit monitoring service, the notice said.</p>
<p>Thanks for that, Pizza Hut.</p>
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<p>Not only did you give us 10,000 extra calories that went directly to our thighs for $10 but you also made us feel incredibly insecure about our personal and financial records.</p>
<p>According to their new motto, “No one out pizzas the hut!”</p>
<p>I guess that’s true. What other pizza chain can say they’ve doled out your personal info overnight?</p>
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<p>What surprised me most about this story is that I found that two states “don’t have security breach notification laws”.</p>
<p>Alabama and South Dakota.</p>
<p>Just last month <a href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/breach-at-sonic-drive-in-may-have-impacted-millions-of-credit-debit-cards/" type="external">Sonic</a> was hacked as well.</p>
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<p>And, this last April, <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/04/25/chipotles-restaurants-hacked/" type="external">Chipotle</a> was hacked as well.</p>
<p>Besides expanding waist lines, heart burn, and food guilt, the current breaches in security across various fast food restaurants may be the greatest reason why we should avoid eating out.</p>
<p>If any group of humans could take a break from the one-click, saturated-fat-and-carbs-appear-at-your-doorstep lifestyle, it is likely Americans.</p>
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<p>And shoot, I’m part of that camp as well.</p>
<p>So let’s avoid cyber crime, make a salad, and take a walk today. Shall we?</p>
<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Pizza Hut Says They Were Hacked | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/pizza-hut-says-they-were-hacked | 0 | |
<p>WASHINGTON — Director <a href="http://variety.com/t/rob-reiner/" type="external">Rob Reiner</a> and Atlantic senior editor <a href="http://variety.com/t/david-frum/" type="external">David Frum</a> are among the advisory board members helping to launch the <a href="http://variety.com/t/committee-to-investigate-russia/" type="external">Committee to Investigate Russia</a>, formed to highlight what is known about the Russian threat to interfere with American elections and other institutions.</p>
<p>The committee was scheduled to go live with a website on Tuesday at InvestigateRussia.org, as well as a video featuring Morgan Freeman.</p>
<p>The committee’s advisory board members also include James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence; Charlie Sykes, the conservative political commentator; Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.</p>
<p>The non-partisan committee will feature explanatory material on its website, as well as a social media campaign, daily newsletter, and breaking news updates. The announcement did not mention Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference and whether there were any connections to the campaign of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>According to an announcement, one of the reasons for forming the group is that, in contrast to the days of the Cold War, “it’s a lot harder to recognize today’s cyber attacks and espionage from Russia, but the goal is the same — to undermine our country. This isn’t about politics. This is about ensuring the Russians cannot wage war on us without Americans knowing it and making sure our elected leaders do something about it.”</p>
<p>Frum was special assistant to President George W. Bush, and has written extensively on Russia’s role in the 2016 campaign.</p>
<p>Reiner and his wife Michele were founding members of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged California’s Proposition 8 in federal court. The state initiative was overturned, clearing the way for same-sex marriage in California and a prelude to marriage equality nationwide.</p> | Rob Reiner, David Frum Help Launch Committee to Investigate Russia | false | https://newsline.com/rob-reiner-david-frum-help-launch-committee-to-investigate-russia/ | 2017-09-19 | 1 |
<p>No doubt Lenny Bruce would have laughed with at least a tinge of bitterness if — like millions of Americans — he picked up a newspaper the day before Christmas 2003 and read that he’d been “pardoned” by the governor of New York for an obscenity conviction.</p>
<p>In their own time, people who are stubbornly ahead of it usually get a lot more grief than accolades. And decades later — in this case, 39 years after Bruce’s bust for a nightclub performance and 37 years after his death — the belated praise from on high is predictably insufferable.</p>
<p>The New York Times lead sentence on Dec. 24 called Bruce “the potty-mouthed wit who turned stand-up comedy into social commentary.” Actually, far from being “potty-mouthed” in an emblematic way, Lenny Bruce was a Fool in the Shakespearean sense, jousting with a society dominated by various aspiring Lears — and quite a few Elmer Gantrys.</p>
<p>Most people who can remember Lenny Bruce have their favorite moments. I think of when he took the opportunity, on a network TV show, to “play” a dollar bill as a percussion device, snapping it in front of the microphone. Or his bits, taped and then captured on record albums, satirizing the entrepreneurial zeal of evangelical moralists. He anticipated the unctuous likes of Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and, yes, George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Lenny Bruce lampooned hypocrisy, yet he avoided the earnest fervor that dulls the teeth of much would-be biting humor. Bruce may have occasionally lapsed into sermonizing, but he was not pious. The 1974 movie “Lenny” strayed when actor Dustin Hoffman wasn’t quite able to portray Bruce’s righteousness without preceding it with the hyphenated “self.”</p>
<p>Bruce was a consummate mimic who spent many hours fiddling with tape from his on-stage routines. As an instrument of enormous versatility, his voice was orchestral in scope.</p>
<p>Protracted struggles with judicial repression for saying “bad” words made him obsessed with absurdities in law books. For Bruce, legalistic labyrinths culminated in August 1966 with a morphine overdose, two months short of his 40th birthday.</p>
<p>We ought to note that his last two years spanned from the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through a period of rapid military escalation in Vietnam, with U.S. troop deployments mounting into the hundreds of thousands.</p>
<p>On a noncommercial radio station about 30 years ago, while the war was still raging, I used to air an obscure record that featured some of Bruce’s final performance. He did a bit he’d presented many times before, reciting (with a thick German accent) a poem by the radically humanistic Trappist monk Thomas Merton — a meditation on the high-ranking Nazi official Adolf Eichmann.</p>
<p>Here are words I’ve often remembered over the course of three decades:</p>
<p>“My defense: I was a soldier. I saw the end of a conscientious day’s effort. I watched through the portholes. I saw every Jew burned and turned into soap. Do you people think yourselves better because you burned your enemies at long distance with missiles without ever seeing what you had done to them?”</p>
<p>Such questions are still too hot for mainstream media to handle. We may congratulate ourselves on how risque the words and images are now, in mass media, but the lasting power of Lenny Bruce’s caustic humor has nothing to do with four-letter words. Today, naughty language and sexual images are big media sellers. The tacit taboos are in other realms of expression.</p>
<p>Though it wasn’t then the propaganda mantra that it has recently become, President Johnson referred to people violently resisting the U.S. occupation of Vietnam as “terrorists.” These days, President Bush is fond of applying the “terrorist” label to people violently resisting the U.S. occupation of Iraq.</p>
<p>Naturally, as one of the home-front politicos eager to boost the latest war, New York’s Gov. George Pataki could not resist combining the announcement of his pardon for Bruce with a plug for the sanctification of present-day militarism under the guise of combating terrorism. “Freedom of speech is one of the greatest American liberties,” Pataki declared, “and I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve as we continue to wage the war on terror.”</p>
<p>But the question that Lenny Bruce kept voicing from the stage, meanwhile, still hangs in the air: “Do you people think yourselves better because you burned your enemies at long distance with missiles without ever seeing what you had done to them?”</p>
<p>NORMAN SOLOMON is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy in San Francisco. He is co-author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893956393/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You.</a> (Context Books, 2003).</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/12/26/the-unpardonable-lenny-bruce/ | 2003-12-26 | 4 |
<p>This is not a story about a woman who raised four children, sent one off to war, and collapsed one day in a fit of screaming at the news that he was dead.</p>
<p>This is not a piece to describe how that woman tried to stay awake for the next three days so as not to have to scream like that again after waking and then remembering that news.</p>
<p>There will be no attempt in this piece to comprehend the maddening indecency of the overgrown frat-boy president who sent her son to kill and die for lies and still had the gall to call her “Mom” and sits day after day — to this day — as the self-appointed, unrestrained king of the world.</p>
<p>This is not a piece about a woman who exposed her grief and her rawest nerves, who sacrificed a twenty-nine year marriage and time with her remaining children, to a country calloused to the daily loss of life and succeeded in stirring many to their feet, into the streets, and to the tops of their lungs.</p>
<p>This is not a piece about how this woman parked herself in the dusty heat of a ditch in Texas and said yes to enough speaking engagements and phone calls from soldiers and late nights with grieving parents to send her own life teetering near its edge because she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t give everything she could to prevent another mother from having to experience the loss that she knew.</p>
<p>This piece is not even about how her loss and her grief were not confined to her son, but extended each day further, to include the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, and further yet, to those cast in the impoverished margins of our planet — including the thousands of children dying each day from starvation — as the U.S. obscenely spends hundreds of billions on constructing and deploying the machinery of mass death.</p>
<p>Nor is this about the millions who learned this woman’s name, whose hearts broke with hers, but whose spirits were lifted and consciences were challenged by the way she seized the moral high ground and much of the spotlight from the world’s biggest liars and most pitiless killers because she was right and she was fearless — to hell with the odds.</p>
<p>This piece isn’t even simply about a culture that demonizes and attacks such a person, that makes their every word or slightest gesture grist for the dishonest mill of the small-minded bloggers, the jones for cruelty of the war-planners, and fascist propagandizing of the major media mouthpieces.</p>
<p>Nor is this about a society that props up mothers as “keepers of the flame,” a counter-balance meant to excuse the war-makers, only to turn on them and call them “whores,” should they dare to do more than weep silently.</p>
<p>This is not merely about this woman’s refusal to be corralled into “realistic” and empire-bound strategies like timetables or phased-redeployment, about her righteous refusal to excuse the funding of the war, about her simple and righteous insistence that the slaughter and torture of human beings stop right now.</p>
<p>And, no, this is not mainly about the many questions that she herself ran up against and has put straight up in front of the movement and that all too many don’t want to speak to. Like why the Democrats won’t bend to the will of the people, or what kind of system only allows for two sides of the pro-war position, or what to do about an American people who are well on their way to becoming Good Germans. Those questions are crucial and agonizing and there are answers to them that can be found or forged. And there is a need for a movement that encourages the debate to rage around these questions and insists on honestly and unsparingly confronting reality. A movement that insists on getting to, and telling the people, the truth.</p>
<p>No, throwing up your hands is never the right response. But to be perfectly honest, this piece is not about what Cindy Sheehan should be doing. Not when really there are 300 million other people in this country who each morning wake up with profound choices to make ­ and who make them every day, whether they know it or not.</p>
<p>So, no, this article is not about Cindy Sheehan.</p>
<p>This article is about you.</p>
<p>Reading on your computer screen. Smudging black ink off the newsprint in your hands. Breathing in and out, your chest rising even as the chests of other human beings who happen to have been born atop huge reservoirs of oil fall still, as their breath is stolen, as their land is ravaged, as their girls learn to fear their budding breasts and widening hips under the leer of the occupier’s eye, as their fathers lose their minds trying to comprehend the life-danger they’ve become to their own children for being of a different religion than their mother, as the psyche and politics and view of what kind of world is possible of a whole country and region is forever marked by the apparent indifference of way too many Americans to their sustained destruction as millions who are also heart-sick flirt with the devastating and impermissible comfort of throwing up their own hands and looking away from the war zone</p>
<p>This article is about you — because frankly, there is not enough space and not enough time and not enough ink and not enough trees to make enough paper to hold all the ways that the roadblocks hit by a woman like Cindy are a sign of failure. Not of the failure of the possibility for change, nor the failure of those who put everything on the line to make all this stop, but the failure of a society that does not cherish and have room for a woman like her. And the failure of continuing on a course that does not fundamentally challenge the killing confines of the choices this system puts before us.</p>
<p>So, again, this is about you — whether you will hide behind and resign yourself because of the faltering of another or whether you will step into the breech.</p>
<p>This article is about what you think about and do when you wake up each morning. About whose lives you value and prioritize. About whether it is sufficient to register disapproval or whether you are responsible for stretching your limits, risking friendships and family if you must, confronting discomforting truths about this political system, and whether you will dare to inspire and challenge and set an example of living for and impacting something bigger than yourself.</p>
<p>This is about whether you know enough and have seen enough of other people’s sons and daughters dying in the service of empire to say without equivocation that all this must halt. This is about whether you will plunge into and confront the dead-ends that have led so many to disorientation — whether you will look deeper, consider radical solutions, even ones you might once have dismissed.</p>
<p>And, yes, it can seem at times like we are hurling our soft bodies and our embattled dreams up against cold rock, and like the forces aligned against us are made of impenetrable marble. But marble has fissures and faultlines and cracks deep beneath the surface and these can be located and the marble itself can be pried apart by the determined action of millions who dare. So I am struck again with the truth and the enormity of our choices captured in the final words of the World Can’t Wait Call: “History is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.”</p>
<p>The war is still wrong.</p>
<p>What are you going to do?</p>
<p>SUNSARA TAYLOR writes for <a href="http://www.revcom.us/" type="external">Revolution Newspaper</a> and sits on the Advisory Board of <a href="http://www.worldcantwait.org/" type="external">The World Can’t Wait ­ Drive Out the Bush Regime</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:sunsarasworld@yahoo.com" type="external">sunsarasworld@yahoo.com</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/06/02/this-is-not-a-story-about-cindy-sheehan/ | 2007-06-02 | 4 |
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<p>Bernie&#160;Sanders&#160;promised on Thursday to work with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election, but did not formally pull out of the race for the White House.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Sanders&#160;did not endorse Clinton during an online speech to his supporters, but made it clear he was shifting his focus to building a grassroots movement to fight for his liberal policy agenda and transform the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>"The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly, and I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time," the U.S. senator from Vermont said.</p>
<p>"I also look forward to working with Secretary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party so that it becomes a party of working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors," he said in a speech broadcast from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.</p>
<p>Sanders, who has resisted pressure from Democrats to exit the White House race and back Clinton since she clinched the party nomination last week, said he would keep fighting for his goals of reducing income inequality, removing big money from politics and reining in Wall Street.</p>
<p>"Defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become," he said. "And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia where we will have more than 1,900 delegates."</p>
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<p>Sanders&#160;has kept his campaign alive as leverage to force concessions from Clinton on his policy goals during deliberations on the party's issues platform, and on the reforms he seeks in the Democratic Party's nominating process.</p>
<p>But he has laid off some staff, stopped campaigning and dropped plans to court unbound delegates in an unspoken acknowledgment the former secretary of state will be the nominee.</p>
<p>Sanders, who met with Clinton on Tuesday night after the nominating process ended, said he would continue his discussions with her campaign to make certain "the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history, and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda."</p>
<p>"Our vision for the future of this country is not some kind of fringe idea. It is not a radical idea. It is mainstream. It is what millions of Americans believe in and want to see happen,"&#160;Sanderssaid.</p>
<p>(Editing by Peter Cooney)</p> | Sanders Vows to Help Clinton Beat Trump | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/17/sanders-vows-to-help-clinton-beat-trump.html | 2016-06-17 | 0 |
<p>Well, it turns out, ABC couldn’t decide between “charming, charismatic beauty, Britt” and “Kaitlyn, the gorgeous, fun- loving, warm-hearted, but irreverent firecracker.” (Um, Kaitlyn has more adjectives, doesn’t that count as extra points?) So they decided to do the most patriarchal thing ever: they’re letting the dudes decide. Last night on “After the Final Rose” — Prince Farming picked Whitney, by the way, who never watched the show and will therefore never know that he really wanted to pick Becca, the virgin who was not that into him — Chris Harrison made the announcement that both Britt and Kaitlyn would walk into the “Bachelorette” mansion on ABC’s studio lot and their 25 potential suitors will decide “who will make the better wife.” A GOOD OLD FASHIONED CAT FIGHT. To quote Kaitlyn, this is not ideal, especially since men are stupid and I would not be surprised if Britt’s bouncy waves and 10 layers of eyeshadow trump Kaitlyn’s, well, awesome normalcy. I will obviously be watching despite my reservations, because I am weak-willed. [ <a href="http://time.com/3738745/bachelorette-big-twist-new-season/" type="external">TIME</a>]</p> | An Infographic Guide To “The Bachelor” (Week 10! And Your Next “Bachelorette” Is…) | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-03-10/an-infographic-guide-to-the-bachelor-week-10-and-your-next-bachelorette-is/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dbachelorette | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>In a metaphorical walk around the debt crisis block, Greece’s prime minister has said that he believes his country is “turning the corner” as economic recovery efforts by the ransacked country may have started to pay off.</p>
<p>Greece avoided defaulting on its debt last month after it was awarded a $131 billion rescue package from euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund. –JCL</p>
<p>Al Jazeera English:</p>
<p>Greece is “turning the corner” as steps taken to fight its debt crisis start paying dividends, the country’s prime minister has said.</p>
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<p>“Today is the first time when I can look to the future with more optimism,” George Papandreou told members of the Institute for International Finance (IIF) in Austria’s capital, Vienna, on Friday.</p>
<p>“We have taken difficult decisions, tough but necessary decisions, and we are now witnessing the first signs that we are turning the corner.”</p>
<p>After accumulating massive public debt and overspending, Greece avoided a default last month through the first instalment of a 110 billion euro ($131bn) rescue package from its 15 euro currency partners and the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<p><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/06/201061223324651129.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Turning the Crisis Corner | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/turning-the-crisis-corner/ | 2010-06-12 | 4 |
<p>Jan. 4 (UPI) — A tourist filming his walk through a garden in Nicaragua captured the moment a monkey lunged at him and tried to take his camera.</p>
<p>The video shows the filmer walking through the garden when he captures the attention of a nearby white-headed capuchin monkey.</p>
<p>The monkey lunges at the man and attempts to grab his camera.</p>
<p>The primate manages to hold on for a moment, but the man is able to free his camera from its grip.</p>
<p>“While walking through a friend’s garden in Nicaragua, a white headed capuchin monkey takes a shot at me,” the man wrote.</p> | Monkey attempts to steal tourist’s camera | false | https://newsline.com/monkey-attempts-to-steal-tourists-camera/ | 2018-01-05 | 1 |
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<p>FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Padge Gordon, also known as Padge Victoria Windslowe. The former madam who performed illegal "body sculpting" with low-grade silicone is set to be sentenced in the death of a London dancer. Padge-Victoria Windslowe told jurors during her spring murder trial that fans call her "the Michelangelo of buttocks injections." But prosecutors say she had no medical training and used deadly products on vulnerable women who wanted more curves. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department, File)</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA - A former madam who performed illegal "body sculpting" with low-grade silicone is set to be sentenced in the death of a London dancer.</p>
<p>Padge-Victoria Windslowe told jurors during her spring murder trial that fans call her "the Michelangelo of buttocks injections."</p>
<p>But prosecutors say she had no medical training and used deadly products on vulnerable women who wanted more curves.</p>
<p>Windslowe has been in prison for three years in the 2011 death of Claudia Aderotimi.</p>
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<p>She faces 20 to 40 years Thursday after her third-degree murder conviction.</p>
<p>Her lawyer says she didn't realize the dangers of the procedure and is remorseful about her client's death.</p>
<p>Windslowe admits running a transgender escort service and performed as "the Black Madam" in Gothic hip-hop videos.</p> | Madam faces sentencing in underground cosmetic surgery death | false | https://abqjournal.com/597249/madam-faces-sentencing-in-underground-cosmetic-surgery-death.html | 2 | |
<p>The right’s relentless campaign to demonize immigrants is an openly racist attempt to “make America white again.” There is no ethical justification for deporting productive, law-abiding people, who have lived here since childhood, to countries they never knew as home. But Republicans are determined to conflate these good neighbors with criminals and force them to leave their families and businesses for no reason other than their hatred of what they consider dark-skinned invaders.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2031537810194337" type="external" /></p>
<p>Consistent with their support for conservative bigotry, Fox News invited right-wing radio talker Wayne Dupree to discuss immigration with the knuckleheads of Fox and Friends (video below). The discussion was triggered by a clip from CNN wherein host Brooke Baldwin stated the obvious truth that it’s wrong to imply that all immigrants are criminals. Well, that indisputable fact was too much for the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends to comprehend.</p>
<p>The Fox segment featured a banner that read: “CNN Analyst: Trump Labels Illegals as Killers.” Setting aside the racist and insulting “Illegals” rhetoric, it was otherwise accurate. Trump has been tying immigrants to criminals since the day he announced his candidacy. But co-host Steve Doocy still had to admit that he couldn’t understand what Baldwin was talking about:</p>
<p>Doocy: You’ve got her saying that people are here for all kinds of valid and patriotic reasons. I don’t get that part. Dupree: Oh, I do. It’s easy. CNN is trying to raise their ratings. They need illegal immigrants to watch their ratings, to get their ratings back up so that’s why they’re calling them patriotic. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on over there, whether it’s wacky tobacky or Latin lettuce in the break rooms or what not, but the American people right now, we want our polticians to enforce the laws.</p>
<p>Are you friggin’ kidding me? This deep-fried dope is in the media business and has no idea how ratings work. Does he think that immigrants dash across the border and are picked up by representatives from Nielsen Media who immediately start to register their TV viewing habits? This is too stupid, even for Fox News. Yet Dupree portrayed it as the “easy” answer to Doocy’s asinine question.</p>
<p>And if that weren’t enough, Dupree then implies that CNN’s reporters are drug users, and that results in them opposing law enforcement. Does anything coming out of his mouth make the slightest bit of sense? And before you answer that, consider this unadulterated nonsense:</p>
<p>Dupree: Illegal immigrants…don’t have any allegiance to this country. They don’t care about this country. And that’s why they can go out drinking and run over a rising NFL star.</p>
<p>What the F…? If anyone is high here, it’s Dupree. There is simply no discernible logic in that statement. Does he really think that anyone would get drunk, then take the car out for spin because they don’t like America? That would be stupid enough by itself, but it’s even worse when accusing people who take great risks to come to this country of not caring about it. What’s more, if Dupree thinks that drunk driving fatalities are caused by people who don’t like America, then let him explain the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html" type="external">10,000 annual deaths</a> caused by drunk driving American citizens.</p>
<p>This idiotic argument is nothing new for Fox News. They exploited the same sort of thing with the tragic death of Kate Steinle. In that case an immigrant accidentally fired a gun he had found. He was acquitted of any criminal homicide charges. And every time there is any crime committed by an undocumented resident, Fox News goes bonkers trying to associate the crime with the person’s residency status. Which has nothing to do with the crime. Something else that Fox News will never accept is the fact that undocumented immigrants <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/immigrants-commit-less-crime-than-native-born-americans-trump-speech-2017-3" type="external">commit far fewer crimes</a> than native-born citizens. But why let facts get in the way of a good racist narrative?</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
<p /> | So Stupid: Fox News Guest Says CNN ‘Needs Illegal Immigrants to Get Their Ratings Up’ | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D26101 | 4 | |
<p>We see this kind of news story now and again. Sometimes we try to imagine the people behind the numbers, the human realities underneath the surface abstractions. But overall, the responses testify to journalism’s failings — and our own.</p>
<p>“Poor nutrition contributes to the deaths of some 5.6 million children every year,” an Associated Press dispatch said early this month, citing new data from the U.N. Children’s Fund. And: “In its report, UNICEF said one of every four children under age 5, including 146 million children in the developing world, is underweight.”</p>
<p>The future is bleak for many children who will be born in the next decade. As AP noted, “the world has fallen far short in efforts to reduce hunger by half before 2015.”</p>
<p>Reading this news over a more-than-ample breakfast, I thought about the limitations of journalistic work that is often done with the best of intentions. Try as they might, reporters and editors don’t often go beyond the professional groove of the media workplace. Journalists routinely function as cogs in media machinery that processes tragedy as just another news commodity.</p>
<p>Many people are troubled by the patterns of negative events around the world. And hunger is especially disturbing; in an era of prodigious affluence for some, the absence of basic nutrition for huge numbers of human beings is a basic moral obscenity. Across the spectrums of culture, faith and ideologies — whether remedies might seem to lie in religious charity or governmental action — heartfelt desire to reduce suffering is very common.</p>
<p>News outlets are adept at producing vivid stories about misfortune. Those stories might be emotionally affecting or even politically mobilizing in terms of relief efforts. But the overarching matter of priorities is not apt to come into media focus. In general, corporate-employed journalists are not much more inclined to hammer at the skewed character of national and global priorities than corporate chieftains or government officials are.</p>
<p>In a world where so much wealth and so much poverty coexist, the maintenance of a rough status quo depends on a sense of propriety that borders on — and even intersects with — moral if not legal criminality. The institutional realities of power may numb us to our own personal sense of the distinction between what is just and what is just not acceptable.</p>
<p>On this planet in 2006, no greater contrast exists than the gap between human hunger and military spending. While international relief agencies slash already-meager food budgets because of funding shortfalls, the largesse for weaponry and war continues to be grotesquely generous. The globe’s biggest offender is the United States government, which at the current skyrocketing rate of expenditures is — if you add up all the standard budgets and “supplemental” appropriations for war — closing in on a time when U.S. military spending will reach $2 billion per day.</p>
<p>This is what Martin Luther King Jr. was talking about in 1967 when he warned: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Such an occurrence isn’t sudden; it overtakes us gradually, becoming part of the normalized scenery.</p>
<p>Journalism, in its prevalent incarnations, has a strong tendency to blend into that scenery. And whether you’re working in a newsroom or watching in a living room or reading at a breakfast table, it takes a conscious act of will to look at the big picture — and challenge the reigning priorities that are simultaneously quite proper and horrific.</p>
<p>We’re encouraged to see high-quality journalism as dispassionate, so that professionals do their jobs without advocating. But passive acceptance of murderous priorities in our midst is a form of de facto advocacy. It’s advocacy of the most convincing sort — by example.</p>
<p>A hoary cliche says money makes the world go ’round. The extent to which that’s true may be arguable. But deeper questions revolve around the priorities that ought to determine the profoundly important choices made by individuals and institutions. Journalism can’t answer those questions. But journalism should ask them.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Sick, Hungry Well-Armed Nation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/05/16/a-sick-hungry-well-armed-nation/ | 2006-05-16 | 4 |
<p>Good morning. Here are some of the stories we're following today:</p>
<p>Authorities in the city of North Charleston announced murder charges against officer Michael Slager, 33, after viewing a dramatic video of him shooting a man following a routine traffic stop. The video, which was first <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html?_r=0" type="external">obtained by T</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html?_r=0" type="external">he New York Times</a>, shows Slager, who is white, shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott eight times as he runs away in a vacant lot. The officer said Scott, who is black, took his Taser and <a href="" type="internal">that he feared for his life</a>, but the video appears to contradict his claims - outraging Scott's family. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Scott's father told TODAY on Wednesday that his "heart was broken" over his son's death:</p>
<p>Michael Slager, a Coast Guard veteran, had two complaints lodged against him during his five years with the North Charleston Police Department, documents show. In one of them, Slager was cleared of a complaint regarding use of force. A man alleged Slager had used his Taser for no reason and slammed him to the ground in September 2013. The officer was exonerated upon investigation, documents from North Charleston police show. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Russia was behind a cyberattack on an unclassified White House system last year, but the international hack allegedly did not impact any classified information, U.S. officials said. The system contained the president's private schedule. A National Security Council spokesman would not confirm that Russia is believed to have carried out the hack. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the Obama administration was up front when it disclosed the "cyber intrusion" last year, and the White House takes regular steps to prevent hackers from gaining access. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in POLITICS</a>.</p>
<p>The father who was found dead with his seven kids in their southern Maryland home - due to carbon monoxide poisoning as the result of a running generator - never asked for electricity service to be connected to the home, a utility company said Tuesday. <a href="" type="internal">Rodney Todd Sr., 36, and his five daughters and two sons</a>, who ranged in ages 6 to 16, died after a generator was left running inside their Princess Anne home. Todd's family told The Associated Press on Monday that the father had bought a generator to keep the family warm after power to the home was cut because of an outstanding bill. But the local utility company said in a statement that last October, the owner of the home requested that service be disconnected. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Voters in Ferguson, Missouri, elected two black candidates to the City Council on Tuesday in the first election since Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer. The shooting set off an explosion of protests and sparked a national conversation about race and policing. The election of Wesley Bell and Ella Jones to Council means three of the body's six members will be African-American, <a href="http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/ferguson/2015/04/08/ferguson-city-council-election/25447361/" type="external">NBC station KSDK reported.</a> Until Tuesday, five of the six members were white. "This community came out in record numbers to make sure our voices were heard," said Councilman-elect Bell. "When you have a community engaged, the sky is the limit." <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>America's oasis, known for its golf course greens and swimming pool-specked resorts, sits in the desert in a state struggling with a four-year drought. Faced with a dry future, Palm Springs and the region are stepping up ways to ensure they can survive. A year ago, before Brown ordered mandatory restrictions, Mayor Steve Pougnet said he wanted to bring water use at city facilities down 50 percent by 2020, and asked residents to make voluntary cuts of 30 percent. The city and the Desert Water Agency also both run "turf buy back" programs that pay residents to replace their water-guzzling lawns with desert-style landscaping, a practice known as xeriscaping. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Around 30 million Americans were under threat Wednesday from a fierce storm promising large hail, high winds and a strong chance of tornadoes in parts of the Midwest and Plains, meteorologists warned. The severe weather outbreak would likely bring the greatest tornado threat seen anywhere in the nation this calendar year, said Weather Channel lead meteorologist Kevin Roth. "We are likely to see multiple tornadoes, and fairly strong ones as well," Roth said, adding that the danger zone for twisters was expected to be in parts of Texas, Kansas and Missouri from late afternoon until midnight. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Harold Ekeh, of Elmont, Long Island, applied to 13 colleges, hoping to "maybe" get into one of his safety schools. But the straight-A student accomplished a rare feat: Not only did he get into every school, he was also accepted to all eight Ivy League institutions. He credited his parents' work ethic for setting an example and a desire to strive in his adopted homeland after emigrating from Nigeria 10 years ago. "It's very, like, stunning - it's like getting hit with a brick, honestly," Ekeh, a 17-year-old senior at Elmont Memorial High School, told NBC News. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p /> | KNOW IT ALL: Wednesday's Top 8 Stories at NBC News | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/know-it-all/know-it-all-wednesday-s-top-8-stories-nbc-news-n337716 | 2015-04-08 | 3 |
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<p>My apologies for the cliché — and to executive director Jeff Siembieda and the New Mexico Bowl, while I’m at it — but if coach Bob Davie and the Lobos want to fill seats at University Stadium, now is the time to get that concrete poured.</p>
<p>After the Lobos’ 59-17 demolition of Louisiana Monroe in a desolate University Stadium on Saturday, chances of a 6-6 season and becoming bowl eligible shouldn’t even be a topic.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The goals should be much higher for the 4-3 Lobos. So should the crowds.</p>
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<p>Saturday’s announced attendance was a dismal 18,099 — and that was the inflated “official” number.</p>
<p>The average this season is even lower than last year.</p>
<p>“I understand what the economy, maybe, is,” Davie said, referring to the spattering of fans. “I understand we played a late game at night. UL Monroe is not a household name. So again, coach your team, right? Coach your team. I’ve got a lot more things to worry about than that.”</p>
<p>Yes, it was a night game — a beautiful Burque fall evening — but not a late one. A 7 p.m. kickoff on a Saturday is too late?</p>
<p>There are many factors and theories about the dismal crowds of recent years — the main one being the Lobos’ dismal performances of recent years. When you’ve got a powerhouse name like Louisiana Monroe coming to town for a program that has had just one winning season — barely, going 7-6 last year — in nearly a decade, you’re not exactly going to have a fanatical following.</p>
<p>It takes time to change that. And 6-6 won’t.</p>
<p>There isn’t a team left on the their slate the Lobos can’t beat. In fact, unless something dramatically changes — for the better or worse — every game they play the rest of the way will likely have a Las Vegas line around 3 or 4 points, with the exception of&#160; Nov. 5 when UNM plays host to Nevada (3-5, 1-3 in Mountain West). The Wolf Pack has a bye this week, and will likely be a double-digit underdog to the Lobos (3-1 in MW) next week.</p>
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<p>This week, UNM heads to the Islands to take on surprising Hawaii (4-4, 3-1) — one of the nation’s worst programs the last four years at 4-28 in league play.</p>
<p>After the Nevada game, the Lobos have back-to-back road games at Utah State (3-4, 1-3) and Colorado State (4-4, 2-2), then finish the regular season at home against Wyoming (5-2, 3-0).</p>
<p>Granted the Lobos have lost to New Mexico State and Rutgers — teams with a combined 4-11 record — but if they build a six-game winning streak when Wyoming comes to town on Nov. 26, more than the New Mexico Bowl could be at stake.</p>
<p>And the fans will likely come. And, just maybe, return next season.</p>
<p>FALL FANATICS: Speaking of building fan bases (different topic, but smooth transition, right?), the Chicago Cubs have had one for more than a century.</p>
<p>But has it ever been this big?</p>
<p>While with my 6-year-old son at the mall on Sunday and later at the park, I couldn’t help but chuckle at all the Cubs gear.</p>
<p>There were T-shirts, jerseys and hats on folks from 8-to-80.</p>
<p>Ah, the bandwagon.</p>
<p>As I’ve aged, I’ve long-since separated from rooting for a certain pro team because that’s what I did as a kid. When I was a lad, my dad told me that would happen.</p>
<p>“You’ll grow up, someday,” he said. “Cheering for teams won’t matter much.”</p>
<p>He was right. But I think it was more than the aging process. Journalism played a big role, but I think part of the fanaticism was squelched when my child-hood heroes — the Minnesota Twins — finally won it all in 1987.</p>
<p>It was nearly as cool in 1991. After that, I kind of lost interest.</p>
<p>I find it a little goofy for adults to be so passionate about a pro team (and no matter what, grown ups should never wear a player jersey in public, sans Oct. 31), but I understand it in some cases.</p>
<p>Heck, I wrote a column all about it in 1987. I was guilty as charged.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>And I certainly understand the fanaticism for this Fall Classic. It’s even got me interested — especially for a couple of buddies.</p>
<p>My long-time co-worker Rick Wright — my desk mate in the office — is a diehard Cleveland Indians fan. The Tribe last won the World Series in 1948. I can’t imagine Rick remembers it.</p>
<p>It was 1945 when the Cubs last went to the Series and 1908 since they won it.</p>
<p>Which brings us to former Journal business editor Scott Merville, the ultimate Cubs fan — but a no-excuses guy who doesn’t need blue and white face paint or cuddly bears on sticks.</p>
<p>His life-long motto? “Wait until next year,” what else?</p>
<p>His father, Herb, was the same way. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it to this fall. Herb passed away in 2012. The longtime Albuquerque teacher and member of the Zion-Benton (Ill.) High School Hall of Fame (baseball, of course) was 81.</p>
<p>Widow Adelle, like Herb a native of Zion, will be glued to her tube this week in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>You see, Scott was more than just a co-worker. We grew up next door to each other. He’s been my friend since I was 18 months old. From Collet Park to Jackson to Eldorado, we stayed pals, traded baseball cards, played every sport imaginable and learned about life.</p>
<p>And he always remained loyal to the Cubs.</p>
<p>Scott now lives in Houston, but we stay in touch. And he still texts about the Cubbies.</p>
<p>I feel for Scott having to put up with all the bandwagon nonsense, although he’s never complained.</p>
<p>I knew the bandwagon feeling firsthand in 1987. With social media these days, I can’t imagine how bad it is for a lifelong Cub or Indian fan.</p>
<p>Still, as I wrote in that column nearly three decades ago, there is something that won’t change.</p>
<p>The diehard fans of this Series winner will find an inner peace, despite all the craziness around them.</p>
<p>And that’s how you can tell a true fanatic.</p> | Smith column: Seeking fans; being a fan | false | https://abqjournal.com/874240/smith-column-seeking-fans-being-a-fan.html | 2 | |
<p />
<p>As part of our special investigation “ <a href="/news/feature/2008/09/mission-creep.html" type="external">Mission Creep: US Military Presence Worldwide</a>,” we asked a host of military thinkers to contribute their two cents on topics relating to global Pentagon strategy. (You can access the archive <a href="/news/feature/2008/10/military-dispatches.html" type="external">here</a>.)</p>
<p>The following dispatch comes from <a href="/interview/2007/11/iraq-war-john-nagl.html" type="external">John Nagl</a>, a retired military officer and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Counterinsurgency-Lessons-Malaya-Vietnam-Learning/dp/0275976955" type="external">Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons From Malaya and Vietnam</a>. Nagl is a senior fellow at the <a href="http://www.cnas.org/" type="external">Center for a New American Security</a>.</p>
<p>How the US Can Win in Afghanistan; Lessons from Iraq</p>
<p>Afghanistan is not just the base from which Al Qaeda attacked the United States on 9/11; it is also the key to stability in Pakistan, which is the only Islamic country known to possess nuclear weapons. The security of those weapons and the stability of Pakistan would be vital American national interests even if Osama bin Laden and his associates were not hiding in the lawless <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-30-cia-mtp_N.htm" type="external">Afghan-Pakistan border region</a> and plotting their next attack.</p>
<p>Our failure to help build a responsible government in <a href="/news/outfront/2003/07/ma_454_01.html" type="external">Afghanistan</a> in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal allowed terror to grow unchecked in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Our failure to win the war there today could have even more serious consequences. Success in Afghanistan will require a degree of effort we have not yet contemplated and decades of commitment—but the alternative is truly horrifying to contemplate.</p>
<p>The remarkable decline in violence in Iraq over the past 18 months provides a glimpse of what a post-American Iraq will look like—and suggests the amount of effort and time that will likely be required to create similar possibilities in Afghanistan. The <a href="/news/feature/2008/09/iraq-sofas.html" type="external">status of forces agreement</a> that will govern the activities of American troops in Iraq after the expiration of the <a href="http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/sc8879.doc.htm" type="external">United Nations mandate</a> on December 31 is likely to place significant restrictions on American freedom of action. Rather than having US forces in the lead, this world will be defined principally by more-capable Iraqi security forces with coalition forces in support. A responsible drawdown and a reorientation of the American mission away from combat and toward advising Iraqi forces stand a good chance of advancing our interests in Iraq at acceptable costs.</p>
<p>Under this model, embedded military advisers will train, equip, and advise Iraqis to conduct counterinsurgency, rather than conducting it themselves. US advisers, Special Forces units to conduct counterterrorism missions, and combat enablers such as fixed and rotary wing aircraft will likely be required for some years to come—but the face of the security forces will increasingly be an Iraqi one as Americans fade into the background.</p>
<p>Achieving this state of affairs took years of effort. Developing the <a href="/commentary/columns/2005/12/little_promise_in_iraqi_security_forces.html" type="external">Iraqi security forces</a> to the point that they can take lead in counterinsurgency operations (as most now can) and so that they can assume control of the majority of Iraqi provinces, as they now have, was an extraordinary accomplishment. Iraqi forces still suffer from significant shortcomings including sectarianism, training and planning difficulties, and logistical challenges.</p>
<p>Building the Afghan security forces to even a similar level of competence will take significantly more time, and some hard calculations: Their projected end strength, even after recent plus-ups, is about half of the strength of existing Iraqi security forces, although Afghanistan is larger than Iraq in both square miles and population. Furthermore, the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan benefits from far more substantial external support even than did the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Making war on rebellion is messy and slow, and fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan—like the one in Iraq—will be an effort of many years.</p>
<p>Increasing our efforts to train and equip Afghan security forces so that they can assume the majority of the cost of the campaign more rapidly will be an expensive proposition in both lives and treasure, but the payoff will be a shorter campaign. The key to winning hard wars of insurgency is protecting the population—initially with our forces and, when they have been built, with forces of the host country. This is not a mission that our armed forces are optimized to conduct, but it is one in which they must succeed.</p>
<p>More Dispatches</p>
<p><a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9722_mission_creep_d.html" type="external">Robert Kaplan</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9729_mission_creep_d_1.html" type="external">Katherine McCaffrey</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9731_mission-creep-winslow-wheeler.html" type="external">Winslow Wheeler</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9733_mission-creep-steven-metz.html" type="external">Steven Metz</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9775_mission-creep-douglas-lummis.html" type="external">C. Douglas Lummis</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9777_mission-creep-douglas-macgregor.html" type="external">Douglas Macgregor</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9779_mission-creep-william-hartung.html" type="external">William Hartung</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9789_mission-creep-john-lindsay-poland.html" type="external">John Lindsay-Poland</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9791_mission-creep-john-feffer.html" type="external">John Feffer</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9932_mission-creep-catherine-lutz.html" type="external">Catherine Lutz</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9956_mission-creep-peter-beck.html" type="external">Peter Beck</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/9957_mission-creep-nick-turse.html" type="external">Nick Turse</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/10037_mission-creep-john-pike.html" type="external">John Pike</a> <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/9958_mission-creep-mark-selden.html" type="external">Mark Selden</a></p>
<p /> | Mission Creep Dispatch: John Nagl | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/mission-creep-dispatch-john-nagl/ | 2008-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Shares of CarMax Inc. slipped 0.6% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the used car seller beat fiscal third-quarter profit expectations, but came up a bit short on sales. Earnings for the quarter to Nov. 30 rose to $136.6 million, or 72 cents a share, from $128.2 million, or 63 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet earnings-per-share consensus was 70 cents. Revenue rose 4.4% to $3.70 billion, just below the FactSet consensus of $3.74 billion, although same-store sales growth of 5.4% beat expectations of a 4.2% rise. Total used unit sales increased 9.1% while wholesale unit sales declined 2.2%. Average selling prices for used vehicles declined 2.9% to $19,520. The stock has climbed 16% year to date through Monday, while the S&amp;P 500 has gained 11%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | CarMax's Stock Slips After Profit Beats Expectations But Revenue Just Misses | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/20/carmax-stock-slips-after-profit-beats-expectations-but-revenue-just-misses.html | 2016-12-20 | 0 |
<p>&amp;amp;lt;i&amp;amp;gt;This post originally ran on &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/05/militias-announce-campaign.html" title="Juan Cole’s Web page"&amp;amp;gt;Juan Cole’s website&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;/i&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Shiite militias in Iraq, joined by some Sunni tribal levies, on Tuesday reached a university campus just to the southwest of Ramadi in what is called a “shaping operation” intended to set the stage for an all-out assault. There were some scattered firefights with Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) commandos, and the US-led coalition bombed Daesh targets around Ramadi.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Ahmad al-Asadi, a parliamentarian from the Shiite Islamic Mission Party (Hizb al-Da`wah), said that regular Iraqi army troops, police gendarmes, and counter-terrorism units, along with most of the major Shiite militias, were all joining in. He said that the campaign would swiftly take Ramadi and then go on to conquer all of al-Anbar Province (geographically Iraq’s largest, which is dominated by the Sunni Dulaym clan).&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;The Shiite militias say they have already taken back Ankur and Tash south of Ramadi. They also claim to have cut the roads to Ramadi off on three sides, the east, south and west, hampering Daesh reinforcements. (This makes no sense to me, since presumably the reinforcements would come down from Syria to the north, and the north is wide open all the way to the Syrian border.)&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;div class="sidebar__ad-label"&amp;amp;gt;Advertisement&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;broadstreet-zone zone-id="58577"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/broadstreet-zone&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Shiite Iraqis were alarmed by the fall of Ramadi to Daesh a week and a half ago, since it brought the terrorist organization to only 78 miles from Baghdad and striking distance from the Shiite religious center of Karbala to the southeast.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.juancole.com/images/2015/05/Screen-Shot-2015-05-27-at-1.07.43-AM.png"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img src="http://www.juancole.com/images/2015/05/Screen-Shot-2015-05-27-at-1.07.43-AM.png" alt="Screen Shot 2015-05-27 at 1.07.43 AM" width="570" height="392" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152574"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p align="right"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;small&amp;amp;gt; Via &amp;amp;lt;a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Karbala,+Al-Karbala,+Iraq/Ramadi,+Iraq/@33.1778168,43.7031019,8z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x15596be147b8cdc9:0xf6c5daaaaea111f0!2m2!1d44.033333!2d32.616667!1m5!1m1!1s0x155a5d406d7f0a2b:0x53aa8865855f0cc!2m2!1d43.3!2d33.416667%20"&amp;amp;gt; Google Maps&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/small&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;The Shiite militias or “popular mobilization forces” &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.almadapaper.net/ar/news/488449/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%8A%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A3-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A3%D8%B7%D8%A8%20"&amp;amp;gt; termed their campaign to take Ramadi away from Daesh “Here I am, O Husayn” (Labbaik Ya Husayn)&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;. Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is especially honored by Shiites in ritual ways beyond what is done by Sunnis, though most Sunnis also reverence him. Friday was Imam Husayn’s birthday, and a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia was blown up by Daesh on that day.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Hard line Salafis, influenced by the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia, deeply object to Shiite veneration of Husayn, so the campaign’s name is a poke in their eye. In 1803, Wahhabi armies from what is now Saudi Arabia attacked the shrine city of Karbala in Iraq and looted and damaged the tomb of Imam Husayn there, viewing tombs and shrines as a form of idolatry.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;If you will permit me an inaccurate analogy: It is sort of like calling a largely Catholic campaign to take a largely Protestant city the “St. Peter’s Offensive.” Protestants probably favor Paul over Peter, but honor them both. Everyone knows, though, that Catholics view Peter as the founder of their branch of Christianity, so it might be provocative to name it that way if you wanted to avoid a sectarian overtone.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/iraq-launches-operation-to-reclaim-anbar-province/2790640.html%20"&amp;amp;gt; Colonel Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman, objected&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; to the naming of the campaign, calling it “unhelpful.” He did, however, express pleasure that Sunni fighters were joining in.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Sunnis hold that the Prophet Muhammad was succeeded after his death by four Orthodox Caliphs, the fourth of which was Ali b. Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Shiites believe that Ali should have been the first vicar of the Prophet, and they call these vicars Imams rather than Caliphs.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;After the Orthodox Caliphs, Sunnis hold that authority passed to the Umayyad Caliphate, though may contemporary academics think the Umayyad state was just an Arab kingdom, with only a minority of early Muslims investing its kings with spiritual authority.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;After Ali’s assassination in 661, Shiites hold that he should have been succeeded by his sons with Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet. These were Hasan and Husayn, and then they hold the succession should have gone to Husayn’s son, grandson and so forth until the 12th of the line. They believe the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, disappeared from mortal eyes as a child, and will one day return to fill the world with justice, rather as Christians await the return of Christ.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Muslims in Iraq chafed under the rule of the Umayyads, and late in the reign of Yazid I, they pleaded with Husayn to come from Mecca and lead them in their protest. Husayn answered their call, but ended up being surrounded with his family and a small contingent of supporters on the plain of Karbala in 680. Yazid’s general, Shimr, cut them all down. Husayn’s small son was pierced by an arrow. He himself was beheaded and the head was mounted on a stave and deposited at the feet of Yazid in his capital of Damascus.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.juancole.com/images/2015/05/moharram_2013_2.jpg"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img src="http://www.juancole.com/images/2015/05/moharram_2013_2.jpg" alt="moharram_2013_2" width="530" height="398" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152573"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Shiite Muslims commemorate Husayn’s death annually on Ashura, the 10th of the month of Muharram, with processions, chanting and flagellation (beating the chest rhythmically or in some folk practice beating the body with whips or chains, as with some medieval Catholic practice). Many Shiites also go on pilgrimage (ziyara) to the shrine of Imam Husayn in Karbala, where a tomb was erected where he was struck down. They go especially on Arba’in, the 40th day after his death.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Sunnis do not typically practice these rituals, though some Sunnis in Iraq do join in the Arba’in pilgrimage, e.g. Husayn is nevertheless a hero to many Sunnis, and there are mosques dedicated to him in both Damascus and Cairo (largely Sunni cities). Egyptian Sunnis have given me a special pudding on Ashura in Cairo.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;But the Wahhabi branch of Islam in Saudi Arabia and the Salafi Sunnis influenced by it elsewhere are sometimes hostile to Husayn. A Salafi in Islamabad once maintained to me that Caliph Yazid I was right to stop the disorder down in Iraq. Most Sunnis and all Shiites would avoid naming their children Yazid, but it is a name found among Wahhabis.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;So saying “I am here for you, O Husayn” in a campaign against the Salafi Daesh in Ramadi definitely has sectarian overtones, though they are not straightforward given mainstream Sunni reverence for Husayn and the family of the Prophet in general.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;</p> | Shiite Militias Announce 'Here I Am, O Husayn' Campaign for Sunni Ramadi | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/shiite-militias-announce-here-i-am-o-husayn-campaign-for-sunni-ramadi/ | 2015-05-27 | 4 |
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<p>After 36 years in Congress, Domenici now works as a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist public policy group in Washington. He called last week to tell me about an article he wrote for The Energy Daily, a Washington trade publication. I also asked the former Senate Budget Committee chairman about his views on the federal government shutdown, the debt limit crisis and the tea party wing of the Republican Party. I’ll have more on that in a minute.</p>
<p>First, let’s take a look at what Domenici, who served as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2003-2007, had to say about energy, and government-funded research and development. At a time when many on the political right are sharply – and fairly – questioning the value of taxpayer investment in clean energy technologies, Domenici’s comments are incisive. His lead sentence in the Energy Daily op-ed summed up his general view:</p>
<p>“Reflecting on my time as senator, I am overwhelmingly convinced that the federal government’s investments in technology research and development, paired with policies that promote free markets, have provided the American people with a great bargain.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The former lawmaker goes on to explain that the push for deregulation of the natural gas market, of which he was a big part in the late 1970s, coupled with government research underwritten by American taxpayers, revolutionized the industry. Horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing – widely known as “fracking” – and microseismic imaging all came about because of the work of scientists at places like Sandia National Laboratories, as well as researchers in the private sector.</p>
<p>“The early breakthroughs in these technologies began with or were accelerated by government funding – funding that today might be considered earmarked,” Domenici wrote, adding that similar government research led to the creation of the Human Genome Project.</p>
<p>“Many of the investments we made were controversial,” Domenici wrote. “Indeed, some are still controversial today. But the passing of time has demonstrated that these investments have not only paid off but they have sustained America through one of the worst economic recessions in the past century.”</p>
<p>In his conversation with me, Domenici stressed that he doesn’t give government all the credit: “I don’t want to leave the impression it was all government research – not at all.”</p>
<p>Asked if he supports similar government-funded R&amp;D into clean energy research, such as solar, wind and geothermal, Domenici said he does. But industry needs to step up, too.</p>
<p>“We want to have diversity (among energy sources), but the marketplace seems to be governing this to a great extent,” he said. “That means alternatives are having a hard time. We’ve subsidized them both in research and direct investment substantially and I think for a longer period of time than we expected.”</p>
<p>Domenici said his own lifelong crusade for expanded use of nuclear power has been undermined by its expensive cost – especially when natural gas is so cheap and abundant.</p>
<p>“You can’t have a board of directors spending five or six billion dollars for a power plant when they don’t know how to pay for it and someone else is using natural gas to produce electricity,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Turning his attention to Congress, Domenici sounded dismayed, if not downright depressed.</p>
<p>“We’re at a level of incivility … when you’re up here you can feel it in the air,” Domenici said. “They’re getting close to hating each other and that’s bad.”</p>
<p>He predicted that Congress will reach agreement on raising the debt limit before it settles its federal budget dispute. And he shuddered to think what could happen if Congress defaults on America’s debt.</p>
<p>“The debt limit (impasse) could break the banking system of the world,” Domenici said. “Who knows what will happen if we keep doing this – maybe the world will decide it needs a better player.”</p>
<p>He also suggested that those in the tea party who fought to gut Obamacare at the expense of a functioning government in recent weeks are misguided.</p>
<p>“They certainly thought what they were getting into was principled and would work out to the betterment of their country,” Domenici said. “I don’t see them as bad people or people that had anything but a good future for their country in mind … but I’m not sure they understood the dynamics of their involvement and I’m not sure that it is going to work out the way they expect.”</p>
<p>E-mail: <a href="" type="internal">mcoleman@abqjournal.com</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Government-funded R&D ‘a great bargain’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/280665/governmentfunded-rampd-a-great-bargain.html | 2013-10-13 | 2 |
<p>I grew up in South Dakota during the 1950s and ’60s, the grandson of pioneers on both sides of my family. My grandfather was part of the posse that killed the last wolf in the state, and my mother loathed mostly anything with large canines.</p>
<p>Despite this, I went on to spend most of my life studying large carnivores.</p>
<p>My liberating evolution from intolerant beginnings has been a source of personal optimism regarding the redemptive possibilities of humanity. But this optimism has been severely taxed, certainly during the last year, and more recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final ruling to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">remove Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone’s 600 to 700 grizzly bears</a>.</p>
<p>The last three years have seen record-breaking bear mortality, far exceeding any we might expect from numbers of bears in the population. Yet, Fish and Wildlife has shown remarkable disregard for this and other concerns. Over 120 tribes with legitimate spiritual, historical and legal claims have demanded that grizzly bears be protected from sport hunting, and that they be consulted on matters touching their claims. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s response has been dismissive. Likewise, the fact that more than 600,000 people submitted comments opposing removal of protections has been met with bureaucratic indifference.</p>
<p>Fish and Wildlife’s use of science in support of its de-listing agenda has been particularly problematic. The scope has been unduly limited, the methods suspect and representation of results tainted by partisan distortions. More fundamentally, all the investigations have been undertaken by a monopolistic cabal of government scientists who have debarred necessary correctives, including open, unfettered and independent inquiry. In fact, an earlier effort in 2007 to deprive Yellowstone’s grizzlies of ESA protections legally foundered in federal court because of the service’s previous disregard for science.</p>
<p>Then there are the tender mercies of state wildlife managers who await Yellowstone’s grizzly bears. These managers unabashedly claim that their primary purpose is to provide hunters with hunting opportunities, and that killing animals is their primary means of management, all under the comforting rubric of serving the public trust. Trophy hunting of grizzly bears — up to the very boundaries of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks — will simply be the culmination of a central cultural aspiration for state wildlife managers.</p>
<p>And the governance of state wildlife management doesn’t mitigate its dubious cultural premises. By design, institutional arrangements disenfranchise not only everyone living outside state boundaries, but also the many people residing within those boundaries who do not hunt or fish. The privileged few hunters in Yellowstone’s three-state region are almost wholly white men, comprising less than 1 percent of the American public currently enfranchised by federal management of Yellowstone’s grizzly bears. Most families flocking to our nation’s oldest park in hopes of glimpsing a wild grizzly bear will be unaware that, with removal of ESA protections, they have little or no say in the bear’s future.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the governors and congressional delegations of Wyoming and Idaho have enthusiastically endorsed removal of those protections. But, then, these politicians have made clear they speak primarily for the interests of ranchers and executives of the oil and gas industry, and, through this lens, see grizzly bears as a nuisance, symbolic threat, pawn in the war over states’ rights, and of value primarily as a trophy on the wall.</p>
<p>We all want success. But success should not be contrived from perverting due process, subverting the integrity of science, disregarding substance, disrespecting legitimate claims and disenfranchising most of the American public. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has fully earned the deluge of litigation triggered by its removal of protections for Yellowstone’s grizzly bears.</p>
<p>This column originally appeared in the Denver Post.</p> | America’s Grizzly Bears are in Trouble and So is the Nation’s Moral Compass | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/09/05/americas-grizzly-bears-are-in-trouble-and-so-is-the-nations-moral-compass/ | 2017-09-05 | 4 |
<p>Meet Noel Petro&#160;—&#160;guitarist&#160;and bullfighter.</p>
<p>This larger-than-life character is&#160;considered something of a Colombian Chuck Berry for his innovation on the electric guitar.</p>
<p>Since the 1950s, Petro has had&#160;hit after hit. Among his most famous tunes are: “Cabeza de Hacha,”&#160;“Azucena,”&#160;“El ñato,”&#160;“El Burro Mocho” and “Loco Rock.”</p>
<p>He's from Cereté, a small town in the province of Córdoba, Colombia.</p>
<p>In the early 1960s, inspired by Mexico's trio Los Panchos, Petro created the electric requinto,&#160;a lead guitar with a very tropical flavor.&#160;His songs are filled with humor and slapstick, including his own self-deprecating song "El Burro Mocho,"&#160;the "blunt or broken donkey."</p>
<p>In addition to being such a funny, unusual character, there's&#160;another thing that blows you away: He's also a bullfighter.</p>
<p>Petro has&#160;even played a number of gigs where he does a bullfight&#160;and a music performance at the same venue. Once he was badly wounded by the bull and still went on stage, bleeding, singing his&#160;funny tunes.</p>
<p>He likes to tell the story when he played a double bill with Los Panchos in the Colombian city of Medellín: He said he was so excited to play a show with his long-time heroes, only to find out that Los Panchos were just as thrilled to meet him.</p>
<p>Here's a video of Petro performing his&#160;classic tune, “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2MwtOZB-gM" type="external">El Burro Mocho</a>.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>A&#160;promoter in Bogotá once said to him:&#160;“Play and do the bullfight, people want to see you do both."</p>
<p>But Petro says he prefers to do them separately —&#160;“It’s very uncomfortable” to do both.&#160;</p>
<p>It's not always in the artist's hands. And sometimes,&#160;the president of the bullring will decide&#160;which comes first, the music or the bullfight.</p>
<p>A bullfighter friend once told Petro, “I would not sing in the bullring, not knowing what kind of bulls you’re going to fight. They could be good or they could be ready to put up a fight.”</p>
<p>And Petro knows all about angry bulls.</p>
<p>“I’ve been gored and I played with a crack in my head and three loose ribs, and the ‘donkey’ sings as if nothing happened, and after the show to the hospital!” he says.&#160;“It’s incredible, that’s happened to me, it’s very serious.”</p>
<p>He pauses and says with a smile, “I’m used to it.”</p>
<p>Check out Noel Petro on lead guitar with Héctor Buitrago of the band, Aterciopelados:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Guitarist Noel Petro is also a bullfighter — sometimes at the same time | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-06-09/guitarist-noel-petro-also-bullfighter-sometimes-same-time | 2016-06-09 | 3 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasfam/2801647177/" target="_blank"&gt;Paul Schultz&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons)</p>
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<p>For <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/rachel-maddow-feeling-gross-and-harrassed-by-scott-brown/" type="external">much</a> of the last week, revered liberal dork Rachel&#160;Maddow has been <a href="http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/maddow-senator-brown-you-need-to-stop-lying.php" type="external">blasting</a> Massachusetts senator <a href="" type="internal">Scott Brown</a> for sending out fundraising e-mails suggesting she could run against him in 2012. Since—according to Maddow, who would presumably know—the MSNBC&#160;anchor is not going to run against Brown, this makes Brown a “liar.” To a certain extent, Maddow has a point:&#160;Brown is, of course, deliberately spreading an untruth in the hopes of boosting his fundraising totals. But the notion that a politician might sensationalize his opposition for his own gain is hardly much of a scoop, and while it reflects poorly on Brown, it doesn’t make him history’s greatest monster, either.</p>
<p>But there’s a bigger reason why Maddow should <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/03/27/brown_vs_maddow_the_feud_that_isnt/" type="external">cool it</a> with the criticism:&#160;she’d actually make a pretty compelling candidate. For a state that’s so heavily Democratic in its local and federal officers, Massachusetts has a remarkably thin bench of political talent. Barney&#160;Frank isn’t running. John&#160;Kerry’s already has a job. Boston Mayor Tom&#160;Menino would never run. And incumbent Gov.&#160;Deval&#160;Patrick, facing a <a href="" type="internal">tough re-election bid</a>, isn’t really in a position to think two years ahead. If the 2012 Democratic primary were held today, it would likely pit Rep.&#160;Michael&#160;Capuano (whose brand of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYQec094oU" type="external">antagonistic</a> populism is so underwhelming he once lost to&#160;Martha Coakley) against Rep.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Stephen&#160;Lynch</a> (pro-life, pro-Iraq war, and “ <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/24/evasive_maneuvers/" type="external">foragainst</a>” Health&#160;Care). Either one would probably be an improvement over Brown, but given how rarely these seats become available, it’s a bit of a wasted opportunity for progressives.</p>
<p>Maddow shouldn’t call Scott Brown a liar. She should take him up on the offer! She’s wonkish, affable, articulate, and, as we’ve seen, unafraid of a challenge. From a substantive standpoint, few commentators spend as much time harping on the shortcomings of Senate procedure as Maddow does (she once conducted an interview with “ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dVo3nbLYC0" type="external">the Bill</a>” from Schoolhouse Rock). Who better to come in and fix it? At the very least, she’d give complacent Bay&#160;State Dems something to be excited about. If <a href="" type="internal">Stuart Smalley</a> could do it…</p>
<p /> | Dear Rachel Maddow: Enough About Scott Brown | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/04/dear-rachel-maddow-enough-about-scott-brown/ | 2010-04-02 | 4 |
<p>When Hamlet says, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," he means that the king is corrupt. He is not making any comment on the political life of ordinary Danish citizens, for there were no citizens and no political life outside the court at Elsinore. Today, we all know that something is rotten in our own state, but it isn't enough to point to the White House or to Richard Nixon and his entourage. The malaise seems more general. After all, this is a republic; our politics doesn't focus exclusively on a single person. Republics don't rot so readily as monarchies, nor is the rot cut out so easily. We need to talk about Watergate without the President.</p>
<p /> | Watergate Without the President | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/watergate-without-the-president | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts postal worker has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $20,000 from the postal service.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Dennis Reis, of Taunton, entered his plea Monday to one count of embezzlement and one count of theft of public money.</p>
<p>Reis formerly worked as the lead sales and service associate at the East Taunton Post Office.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Reis’ embezzlement scheme involved him voiding cash sales of stamps by customers. Reis would then enter a “no sale” transaction and take the money paid by customers without the system accounting for it.</p>
<p>Authorities say the scheme lasted from January 2015 to March.</p>
<p>Reis faces up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing scheduled for April 25.</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts postal worker has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $20,000 from the postal service.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Dennis Reis, of Taunton, entered his plea Monday to one count of embezzlement and one count of theft of public money.</p>
<p>Reis formerly worked as the lead sales and service associate at the East Taunton Post Office.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say Reis’ embezzlement scheme involved him voiding cash sales of stamps by customers. Reis would then enter a “no sale” transaction and take the money paid by customers without the system accounting for it.</p>
<p>Authorities say the scheme lasted from January 2015 to March.</p>
<p>Reis faces up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing scheduled for April 25.</p> | Former postal worker pleads guilty to $20,000 embezzlement | false | https://apnews.com/468dd7af5feb44b4bac75b1f3764c8b1 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Disney (NYSE:DIS) has been a huge success story for investors, having given longtime shareholders average annual returns of more than 14% for the past half a century. Yet one thing that the member of the Dow Jones Industrials (DJINDICES: ^DJI) hasn't done as well as it could is to reward its investors with high dividends. Indeed, Disney ranks in the bottom five of the 30 Dow components, and its dividend policy differs from the vast majority of dividend stocks. Many Disney shareholders might prefer it if the entertainment giant would be more forthcoming with dividend increases in the future. Below, we'll take a closer look at Disney's dividend history.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Disney's History of Dividend Payments</p>
<p>Disney has a long history of dividend payments that dates back 60 years, but it hasn't been as consistent about dividend growth as it has in fostering the success of its fundamental business. During much of its history, the company would keep its dividend unchanged for periods of several years and then make a payout increase before another extended period of flat dividends. The net result was slow but steady dividend growth that wasn't nearly as apparent as it was for companies that made a habit of raising their dividends each and every year.</p>
<p>Image source: Disney.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s and 1990s, Disney changed its stripes, making annual dividend increases that were more meaningful. Boosts of 20% or more became commonplace throughout much of that period, and the resulting streak seemed to put Disney on course to join the ranks of other key dividend payers in promoting more regular dividend growth.</p>
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/DIS/dividend" type="external">DIS Dividend Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>. Note: The extent of the jump in 1999-2000 and the drop in 2015-2016 are both misleading, as they reflect changes in Disney's dividend payment frequency from quarterly to annual in 1999 and then to semiannual in 2015.</p>
<p>Yet one of the most interesting things that Disney did with its dividend came in 1999. Until then, Disney had paid dividends on a quarterly basis, like most U.S. companies. However, Disney changed its mind in late 1998, saying that it would start making annual payments instead. The justification that Disney came up with for the move was that because so many individual shareholders hold small numbers of shares of the entertainment giant's stock, processing so many small dividend checks on a quarter basis wasn't cost-effective. Moreover, in many cases, Disney's relative stinginess with how much it paid in dividend resulted in dividend checks for small shareholders that were less than the cost of the postage stamp to mail them.</p>
<p>How Disney Has Done With its Dividends Lately</p>
<p>Yet one troubling aspect of the move was that following the switch to annual dividends, Disney stopped boosting them for several years. It wasn't until 2004 that Disney starting boosting the payouts again. The House of Mouse then went through another flat period from 2007 to 2009 in the lead-up to the financial crisis and recession in 2008.</p>
<p>Disney has gotten more aggressive with its dividend growth recently. A 50% rise in 2011 set the stage for aggressive increases, and Disney boosted its dividend frequency to two times per year starting in 2015. The most recent boost came in December, with a 10% rise to take the semiannual payout to $0.78 per share.</p>
<p>What's Next for Disney's Dividend History?</p>
<p>Many shareholders remain frustrated with Disney despite its recent dividend growth. Investors are still getting a subpar yield of just 1.4%, and the payout represents just 27% of the company's earnings over the past 12 months. There's no doubt that if it wanted to, Disney could dramatically increase its dividends without sacrificing much in terms of available capital for other needs.</p>
<p>Yet Disney shows no signs of doing anything different with its dividends. On the company's most recent quarterly earnings call, one analyst asked how Disney views its balance between dividends and other uses of capital. CFO Christine McCarthy answered, "We also consider dividends, but that's after we invest in our businesses and look at other growth opportunities." In essence, Disney believes it can use its capital better than its shareholders can, and that's why it chooses to keep its yield relatively low.</p>
<p>For income investors, Disney hasn't always delivered the dividend income they would have liked to see. However, the long-term total returns from Disney stock have made most shareholders quite happy with the company.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Walt Disney When 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>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ca298c92-1c03-4a68-b815-1c00c58447e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Walt Disney wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=ca298c92-1c03-4a68-b815-1c00c58447e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. 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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Disney Dividend History: Will the House of Mouse Ever Pay a Decent Yield? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/06/disney-dividend-history-will-house-mouse-ever-pay-decent-yield.html | 2017-02-07 | 0 |
<p>The Japanese government has placed a ban on rice produced near the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster" type="external">Fukushima nuclear plant</a> for the first time, after dangerous levels of radioactive contamination were detected.</p>
<p>Rice produced at a farm about 60 kilometers northwest of the plant showed a concentration of cesium well above the safety limit, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsC8TPfYltYyQgpGHq4atHounMvg?docId=CNG.6ab26853180b22896ebb646320e8d72e.501" type="external">Agence France Presse reported</a>.</p>
<p>Food safety officials measured 630 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of rice. The government safety limit is 500 becquerels.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/111115/japan-radioactive-soil-unsafe-farming" type="external">Radioactive soil in Japan unsafe for farming, say scientists</a></p>
<p>Ministers have ordered a ban on shipments from the Onami district of Fukushima city, where the contaminated rice was produced. A total of 154 farms, with 192 tonnes of crops this year, will be affected.</p>
<p>The ban will remain in place until the area's rice crop can be confirmed safe, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.</p>
<p>None of the contaminated rice reached the market, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/111028/japan-fukushima-radiation-two-times-higher-estimates" type="external">Fukushima radiation 'two times higher' than estimates</a></p>
<p>The news comes two days after an international research team warned that <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/111115/japan-radioactive-soil-unsafe-farming" type="external">levels of soil radiation in Fukushima prefecture</a> were above the safe limit for farming.</p>
<p>Many other foods have been suspected of contamination since the nuclear crisis at Fukushima, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15769321" type="external">the BBC noted</a>, but this is the first time rice - a staple of the Japanese diet - has been reported unsafe.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will continue to eat rice produced near Fukushima, <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111117x1.html" type="external">the</a> <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111117x1.html" type="external">Japan Times</a> <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111117x1.html" type="external">reported</a>. Noda switched his supply last month in order to support local farmers, he said on his blog.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/111101/japanese-lawmaker-drinks-radioactive-water" type="external">Japanese lawmaker drinks Fukushima water</a></p> | Japan: Radioactive rice found near Fukushima | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-17/japan-radioactive-rice-found-near-fukushima | 2011-11-17 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Image source: iStock/Thinkstock.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The good news keeps rolling in for banks. On Thursday, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/yellen20161117a.htm" type="external">told Opens a New Window.</a> Congress that an interest rate hike "could well become appropriate relatively soon."</p>
<p>Interest rates are the single most important variable for investors in bank stocks to watch right now. It's why I've talked ad nauseam about the issue for much of the past year, as the most widely held bank stocks -- JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) -- all stand to profit handsomely once rates increase in earnest.</p>
<p>Indeed, the most likely reason to explain why all four of these stocks climbed on Thursday was Yellen's testimony.</p>
<p>Data source: Yahoo! Finance.</p>
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<p>Yellen focused on three specific things in her remarks to Congress, the first being the rosy jobs picture. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.9% in October, which continues to be below the Fed's definition of maximum employment, defined as an unemployment rate of 5%.</p>
<p>The Fed chairwoman noted that the rate of jobs growth continues to be "above trend" and that the labor force participation rate has remained constant despite headwinds from an aging population -- which, holding all else equal, causes labor force participation to fall as retirees exit the workforce.</p>
<p>But the best sign on the employment front in the United States right now relates to jobless claims. The latest data, released Thursday, shows that the number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in more than four decades. You have to go back to 1973 to see a comparable level.</p>
<p>Data source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Chart by author.</p>
<p>Yellen also found economic growth data to be a positive sign. Although output grew at just 1% for the first six months of 2016, it's estimated to have nearly tripled to just under 3% in the third quarter. It did so in spite of the ongoing concerns about the integrity of the European Union and moderating growth in China.</p>
<p>Last but not least, the one area that monetary policymakers continue to watch for improvement is inflation. And while the most recent data shows that inflation remains below the Fed's 2% target rate -- it came in at 1.6% in October -- the trend in consumer prices is heading in the right direction as well.</p>
<p>Data source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Chart by author.</p>
<p>This is the variable, in turn, that investors in JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup should watch most closely. The higher inflation goes, the more likely the Fed is to raise rates and thereby boost the amount of money that each of these banks earns from their multibillion-dollar portfolios of loans and securities.</p>
<p>On the low end, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase will earn between $2 billion and $3 billion in added net interest income each year from a 1-percentage-point increase in rates. On the high end, Bank of America's net interest income would climb by $5.3 billion under the same scenario. (Wells Fargo's disclosures around interest rate sensitivity are less specific.)</p>
<p>With this in mind, Yellen's comments about a possible rate hike coming soon should be music to bank investors' ears. According to the Fed chief, at the latest meeting of the committee in charge of monetary policy, its members "judged that the case for an increase in the target range had continued to strengthen and that such an increase could well become appropriate relatively soon."</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Bank of America When 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>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=fb7984cd-a006-475a-baf8-f2e578ab834a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Bank of America wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/JohnMaxfield37/info.aspx" type="external">John Maxfield Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" 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://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" 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?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Janet Yellen Says Interest Rates Could Rise "Relatively Soon" | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/18/janet-yellen-says-interest-rates-could-rise-relatively-soon.html | 2016-11-18 | 0 |
<p>VATICAN CITY—Young Catholics told the Vatican on Saturday they want a more transparent and authentic church, where women play a greater leadership role and where obeying “unreachable” moral standards isn’t the price of admission.</p>
<p>In a fascinating final document from a weeklong Vatican-initiated conference, 300 young people from around the world joined by 15,000 young people online gave the older men who run the 1.2-billion strong church a piece of their collective mind.</p>
<p>They urged Pope Francis and the bishops who will gather at the Vatican in the fall to back their recommendations that church leaders must address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is used and abused. They warned that “excessive moralism” is driving faithful away and that out-of-touch church bureaucrats need to accompany their flock with humility and transparency.</p>
<p>“We, the young church, ask that our leaders speak in practical terms about subjects such as homosexuality and gender issues, about which young people are already freely discussing,” they said.</p>
<p />
<p>Among the participants, however, there was no consensus on hot-button issues such as church teaching on contraception, homosexuality, abortion or cohabitation. The document said some young people want the church to change its teaching or better explain it; others accept the teachings and want the church to proclaim them more forcefully.</p>
<p>But overall, the young people concluded, the church often comes off as too severe and its “excessive moralism” often sends the faithful looking elsewhere for peace and spiritual fulfillment.</p>
<p>“We need a church that is welcoming and merciful, which appreciates its roots and patrimony and which loves everyone, even those who are not following the perceived standards,” they said.</p>
<p>The 300 young people who attended the conference were mostly selected by their national bishops’ conferences, universities or church movements. A handful of non-Catholics and non-Christians, as well as some atheists, also participated, and their views were incorporated into the final document.</p>
<p>Their reflections will be formally presented to Francis on Sunday — Palm Sunday — and will become one of the working documents that will guide discussions during an October synod of bishops at the Vatican on better helping young people find their way in the church.</p>
<p>On four separate occasions in the 16-page document, the participants demanded greater and equal roles for women in the church, calling for “real discussion and open-mindedness” about ways to promote the dignity of women so they feel accepted and appreciated.</p>
<p>“Some young women feel that there is a lack of leading female role models within the church, and they too wish to give their intellectual and professional gifts to the church,” they said.</p>
<p>The young people also made it clear that they love their technology and the church must get hip to that or lose relevance. At the same time, the document said young people are looking for guidance as to how to responsibly use technology and combat online addiction, pornography and cyberbullying.</p>
<p>They called for the Vatican to issue a teaching document about technology, and use it better to spread the faith.</p>
<p>The final report is brutally honest in places, responding to Francis’ call on the first day for the participants to speak freely and courageously.</p>
<p>It noted that young people are leaving the church in droves, in part because they have experienced “indifference, judgment and rejection” by the institution.</p>
<p>Church leaders, they say, are too focused on administration than community, and use words like “vocation” and “discernment” that young people often don’t understand.</p>
<p>But mostly, they say, the church needs to admit that it is human and makes mistakes, and that its mentors aren’t perfect people but forgiven sinners. The document cited the clergy sex abuse scandal as both an error that has driven people away and an ongoing issue that requires admission of wrongdoing.</p>
<p>“Some mentors are put on a pedestal, and when they fall, the devastation may impact young people’s abilities to continue to engage with the church,” they said.</p> | Young People Give Pope Francis a Piece of Their Mind | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/young-people-give-pope-francis-a-piece-of-their-mind/ | 2018-03-24 | 4 |
<p>LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Jason Dufner made two great escapes. The first, from Alcatraz, no less.</p>
<p>David Lingmerth got no such reprieve at PGA West's punishing TPC Stadium Course.</p>
<p>Dufner won the CareerBuilder Challenge with a par on the second hole of a playoff Sunday, taking advantage of Lingmerth's shot that bounced off the jagged rocks and into the water.</p>
<p>In regulation on the island-green 17th called Alcatraz, Dufner — tied with Lingmerth for the lead — pulled his 8-iron tee shot and thought it bounced into the water. Instead, it settled into a small sandy area between some of the tangled rocks that circle the green.</p>
<p>"I was like, 'Man, this is a great break I'm going to take advantage of it,'" Dufner said. "'This is what I need. I need this right now. I need this break to happen. I'm confident with what I can do with this shot and I need to make this happen and get a par.'"</p>
<p>He hooked a chip that struck the flagstick and stopped inches away.</p>
<p>"It's a shot that I've hit some, not in the hazard, but something similar," Dufner said. "You kind of hit that low little spinning one with some check on it."</p>
<p>On the first extra hole on the par-4 18th with a rock wall and water running the length of the left side, Dufner hit his 3-wood drive near the front lip in a right-side bunker. He blasted out 100 yards to set up a 110-yard third shot that he hit to 11 feet.</p>
<p>"I wanted to hit 6-iron — about 180 to the front there," Dufner said. "But it was probably a shot I pull off maybe two out of 10 times or three out of 10 times. The other seven or eight times it probably hits the lip or goes in the water.</p>
<p>"I felt like, 'My wedges have been good, I'm going to play the percentages. If he makes birdie, then he deserves to win. I'll try and get it up-and-down and extend it.'"</p>
<p>Lingmerth missed his 23-foot birdie try, giving Dufner a chance to extend the playoff.</p>
<p>He did, sending the two back to the 18th tee.</p>
<p>"I like those situation putts," Dufner said. "It's kind of like what we see in the Presidents Cup in match play. Because if I miss it, there's no next putt, it doesn't really matter."</p>
<p>Dufner switched to a driver and followed Lingmerth into a grass bunker on the right side. Lingmerth's approach from 184 yards crashed into the rocks and shot left into the water.</p>
<p>"The rough is a little heavy in some spots and it grabbed my club a little bit more," Lingmerth said. "It really wasn't a bad swing. I should have probably choked up a little bit more on the grip. ... A small mistake that was very costly."</p>
<p>Dufner hit the front of the green with his second shot and two-putted for par, holing a 5-footer after Lingmerth missed his par try from 22 feet.</p>
<p>Dufner finished with a 2-under 70 to tie Lingmerth at 25-under 263. Lingmerth shot a bogey-free 65, matching the best score of the day on the difficult course that was used in the tournament for the first time since being dropped after its 1987 debut.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old Dufner won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour and first since the 2013 PGA Championship.</p>
<p>"I'm excited for this year," Dufner said. "I'm excited to accomplish one of my goals this early in the year. I'm excited to keep playing well. I feel like I'm doing some really good stuff."</p>
<p>Lingmerth had a 62 on Saturday on the Nicklaus Tournament Course to pull within five shots of Dufner.</p>
<p>"I was just trying to focus on keeping my play the way I had been playing and, if Jason, for some reason didn't keep scoring the way he did, I was hoping to have a chance," Lingmerth said.</p>
<p>Lingmerth also lost a playoff in the 2013 tournament on PGA West's Palmer Private Course. That year, the Swede dropped out on first extra hole after hitting into the water and making a bogey. Brian Gay went on to beat Charles Howell III with a birdie on the second hole.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson shot a 68 to tie for third at 21 under in his first start since the Presidents Cup in October and first since splitting with swing coach Butch Harmon to work with Andrew Getson. Lefty will play the next three events, starting next week at Torrey Pines in his hometown of San Diego.</p>
<p>"I'm excited," Mickelson said. "This is a really good week for me for validation that I'm on the right track and that it's continuing to get better as I go along."</p>
<p>LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Jason Dufner made two great escapes. The first, from Alcatraz, no less.</p>
<p>David Lingmerth got no such reprieve at PGA West's punishing TPC Stadium Course.</p>
<p>Dufner won the CareerBuilder Challenge with a par on the second hole of a playoff Sunday, taking advantage of Lingmerth's shot that bounced off the jagged rocks and into the water.</p>
<p>In regulation on the island-green 17th called Alcatraz, Dufner — tied with Lingmerth for the lead — pulled his 8-iron tee shot and thought it bounced into the water. Instead, it settled into a small sandy area between some of the tangled rocks that circle the green.</p>
<p>"I was like, 'Man, this is a great break I'm going to take advantage of it,'" Dufner said. "'This is what I need. I need this right now. I need this break to happen. I'm confident with what I can do with this shot and I need to make this happen and get a par.'"</p>
<p>He hooked a chip that struck the flagstick and stopped inches away.</p>
<p>"It's a shot that I've hit some, not in the hazard, but something similar," Dufner said. "You kind of hit that low little spinning one with some check on it."</p>
<p>On the first extra hole on the par-4 18th with a rock wall and water running the length of the left side, Dufner hit his 3-wood drive near the front lip in a right-side bunker. He blasted out 100 yards to set up a 110-yard third shot that he hit to 11 feet.</p>
<p>"I wanted to hit 6-iron — about 180 to the front there," Dufner said. "But it was probably a shot I pull off maybe two out of 10 times or three out of 10 times. The other seven or eight times it probably hits the lip or goes in the water.</p>
<p>"I felt like, 'My wedges have been good, I'm going to play the percentages. If he makes birdie, then he deserves to win. I'll try and get it up-and-down and extend it.'"</p>
<p>Lingmerth missed his 23-foot birdie try, giving Dufner a chance to extend the playoff.</p>
<p>He did, sending the two back to the 18th tee.</p>
<p>"I like those situation putts," Dufner said. "It's kind of like what we see in the Presidents Cup in match play. Because if I miss it, there's no next putt, it doesn't really matter."</p>
<p>Dufner switched to a driver and followed Lingmerth into a grass bunker on the right side. Lingmerth's approach from 184 yards crashed into the rocks and shot left into the water.</p>
<p>"The rough is a little heavy in some spots and it grabbed my club a little bit more," Lingmerth said. "It really wasn't a bad swing. I should have probably choked up a little bit more on the grip. ... A small mistake that was very costly."</p>
<p>Dufner hit the front of the green with his second shot and two-putted for par, holing a 5-footer after Lingmerth missed his par try from 22 feet.</p>
<p>Dufner finished with a 2-under 70 to tie Lingmerth at 25-under 263. Lingmerth shot a bogey-free 65, matching the best score of the day on the difficult course that was used in the tournament for the first time since being dropped after its 1987 debut.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old Dufner won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour and first since the 2013 PGA Championship.</p>
<p>"I'm excited for this year," Dufner said. "I'm excited to accomplish one of my goals this early in the year. I'm excited to keep playing well. I feel like I'm doing some really good stuff."</p>
<p>Lingmerth had a 62 on Saturday on the Nicklaus Tournament Course to pull within five shots of Dufner.</p>
<p>"I was just trying to focus on keeping my play the way I had been playing and, if Jason, for some reason didn't keep scoring the way he did, I was hoping to have a chance," Lingmerth said.</p>
<p>Lingmerth also lost a playoff in the 2013 tournament on PGA West's Palmer Private Course. That year, the Swede dropped out on first extra hole after hitting into the water and making a bogey. Brian Gay went on to beat Charles Howell III with a birdie on the second hole.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson shot a 68 to tie for third at 21 under in his first start since the Presidents Cup in October and first since splitting with swing coach Butch Harmon to work with Andrew Getson. Lefty will play the next three events, starting next week at Torrey Pines in his hometown of San Diego.</p>
<p>"I'm excited," Mickelson said. "This is a really good week for me for validation that I'm on the right track and that it's continuing to get better as I go along."</p> | Jason Dufner wins playoff in CareerBuilder Challenge | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f962ebc967a146c484e0613d6f0a57f8 | 2016-01-25 | 2 |
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri lawmaker has donated a kidney as part of a transplant chain to help his ailing wife.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kmbc.com/article/missouri-state-representative-donates-organ-to-complete-stranger-and-saves-wife/15374932" type="external">KMBC-TV</a> reports that Republican Rep. J. Eggleston, of Maysville, underwent surgery Wednesday. His wife, Cathie, has suffered from kidney failure for years. He wasn’t a compatible donor for her.</p>
<p>Instead he agreed to participate in a three-way exchange. The donors give their kidneys to one of the three other recipients who are compatible.</p>
<p>After his donation, Eggleston’s kidney was flown to Michigan where another person’s kidney was being donated to another city in the United States. The third city is where his wife’s organ donation comes from.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KMBC-TV, <a href="http://www.kmbc.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kmbc.com" type="external">http://www.kmbc.com</a></p>
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri lawmaker has donated a kidney as part of a transplant chain to help his ailing wife.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kmbc.com/article/missouri-state-representative-donates-organ-to-complete-stranger-and-saves-wife/15374932" type="external">KMBC-TV</a> reports that Republican Rep. J. Eggleston, of Maysville, underwent surgery Wednesday. His wife, Cathie, has suffered from kidney failure for years. He wasn’t a compatible donor for her.</p>
<p>Instead he agreed to participate in a three-way exchange. The donors give their kidneys to one of the three other recipients who are compatible.</p>
<p>After his donation, Eggleston’s kidney was flown to Michigan where another person’s kidney was being donated to another city in the United States. The third city is where his wife’s organ donation comes from.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KMBC-TV, <a href="http://www.kmbc.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kmbc.com" type="external">http://www.kmbc.com</a></p> | Missouri lawmaker participates in kidney donation chain | false | https://apnews.com/5106d834573b4428902e915f11a322e8 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Once intended to spur integration, Chicago’s <a href="http://cpsoae.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=72694&amp;type=d" type="external">&#160;magnet</a>schools&#160;are now promoted simply as specialized educational options. Some elementary magnets still have diverse enrollments, but they tend to pre-date the&#160;21st-century push to&#160;give parents choices beyond their neighborhood schools.</p>
<p>In the mid-1960s, Chicago proponents of voluntary school integration began creating schools without borders. The schools had racial quotas and&#160;specialty programs aimed at attracting and keeping white families in the city’s overwhelmingly African-American school district.</p>
<p>While the Board of Education led the creation of Disney Magnet School, community activists pushed&#160;the district to open Black Magnet in South Shore, in an effort to stem white flight.</p>
<p>Then in 1980, Chicago entered into a desegregation consent decree to integrate its public schools as much as possible, given its pervasive housing segregation. While a relative handful of schools across the city were designated as magnet schools, it was a subset of high-achieving magnets located mostly near downtown and along the north lakefront that acquired strong reputations and popularity among middle-class families.</p>
<p>As with all magnet schools, children living nearby sometimes don’t get into them. By the late 1990s, those families pressed for a better deal. That pressure, along with a desire to cut busing costs, lead to the creation, in 1998, of set-asides for families within living with 1.5 miles of magnet schools. The School Board also limited busing to families living between 1.5 miles and six miles away from the school.</p>
<p>In general, magnets beyond downtown and the lakefront were already likely to draw at least 30 percent of their students from the surrounding neighborhood. They were also likely to be lower-achieving and less diverse. Most did not meet the consent decree’s target for a white enrollment between 15 and 35 percent of students.</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2005/07/magnet-school-policy-who-would-benefit/" type="external">Magnet School Policy: Who Would Benefit?”</a> Catalyst November 1997&#160;and “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2005/07/affluent-neighborhoods-get-magnet-school-edge/" type="external">Affluent Neighborhoods Get Magnet School Edge</a>,” Catalyst February 1998</p>
<p>In his push to expand school choice, former CPS CEO Arne Duncan used more than $10 million in federal grants to create new magnet schools. Some replicated long-successful magnets like Disney and LaSalle, while others brought new specialties like Montessori into the district’s school mix. Through a magnet cluster program, Duncan tried to create similar cachet for neighborhood schools, but that effort had little success.</p>
<p>The national shift away from court-mandated desegregation arrived in Chicago in 2009, when a federal court judge vacated the consent decree, ending the practice of race-based lotteries in magnet school admissions. In 2010-11 CPS replaced race-based lotteries with a system that factored in students’ socio-economic status.</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2008/11/specialties-not-big-draw/" type="external">Specialties not a big draw</a>,” Catalyst November 2008&#160;and “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2009/11/chicago-schools-new-admissions-policy-will-best-magnets-become-less-diverse/" type="external">Chicago schools new admissions policy: Will best magnets become less diverse?</a>” Catalyst November 2009</p>
<p>Many have raised concerns that the end of race-based admissions to magnet elementary schools would make them whiter and more affluent. Even before the end of the consent decree, long-term trends in magnet enrollment showed an increase in white and affluent students. See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2008/11/losing-diversity/" type="external">Losing diversity</a>,” Catalyst November 2008.</p>
<p>However, the picture in highly-coveted magnets appears to be more complex than anticipated. Since the end of the consent decree, 13 of 15 magnets informally recognized as the “crown jewels” of the program for their strong academic performance have not seen&#160;increased white enrollment. (The school system has a total of 38 elementary magnets.)</p>
<p>Only two schools—Hawthorne and Wildwood—saw their enrollments become both whiter and more affluent. Six schools lost both white and higher-income students. At seven schools, white enrollment declined but more affluent students increased. A forthcoming report from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research will examine the impact of using socioeconomic factors in admissions to&#160;magnet and selective enrollment schools. Meanwhile, more recently created magnets are less diverse than those intended from inception to foster integration. Among the 11 new elementary magnets created since 2004, only two have white enrollments that fall within the target zone called for under the old consent decree. Five schools have white enrollments of 1 percent or fewer; four have white enrollments above 35 percent. However, the new magnets mostly appear to be fulfilling their promise to offer high-quality school choices: all but two earned high marks under the CPS accountability system; only Clark’s and Smyth’s ratings fell below level 1. Smyth earned a 3, the lowest score in the system.</p> | Magnet school focus shifts from diversity to choice | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/magnet-school-focus-shifts-from-diversity-to-choice/ | 2016-01-22 | 3 |
<p>Published time: 4 Dec, 2017 16:55</p>
<p>Despite excited speculation, Britain’s and the EU’s negotiators have yet to strike a deal which would allow Brexit talks to enter a second phase. The European Commission head insists that this is not a failure, despite Monday’s missed deadline.</p>
<p>European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Theresa May, announced to an expectant public that, once again, a deal has not been brokered.</p>
<p>Juncker called May a tough opponent, and said he hoped that an agreement would be reached within the week.</p>
<p>“The prime minister and myself we had a frank and constructive meeting today… She’s a tough negotiator and not an easy one. She’s defended the point of view of Britain with all the energy we know she has, and I’m doing the same on behalf of the EU,” Juncker said. “Despite our best efforts, and the significant progress we and our teams have made over the past days… it was not possible to reach a complete agreement today.”</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>“We now have a common understanding on most relevant issues… this will require further consultation, further negotiation, and further discussion,” the commission president added. “I’m still confident that we can make sufficient progress before the EU Council on the 15th of December.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/411892-brexit-ireland-london-scotland/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Britain’s Prime Minister said that the rigorous negotiations have been productive and significant progress has been made</p>
<p>“It’s clear, crucially, that we want to move forward together but on a couple of issues some differences do remain that require further negotiation and consultation and those will continue… I’m also confident that we will conclude this positively,” May said.</p>
<p>May and Juncker declined to take questions, claiming that the PM was due to have a meeting with European Council president Donald Tusk.</p>
<p>Tusk had cancelled a planned trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as negotiations reach a “critical moment”, an EU official said on Monday.</p>
<p>There were rumors that a deal had been struck concerning the Irish border, however Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar cancelled his planned Monday press conference and has not yet rescheduled, a grim sign for an Irish deal.</p>
<p>Negotiations will reconvene in Brussels later this week.</p> | ‘This is not a failure’: UK, EU fail to reach Brexit agreement | false | https://newsline.com/this-is-not-a-failure-uk-eu-fail-to-reach-brexit-agreement/ | 2017-12-04 | 1 |
<p>The front of Donald Trump’s new Washington D.C. hotel flashed with projection art designed to get under the president’s skin. The relatively new art form throws an image upon a structure to make a statement, and did the Washington-based artist and filmmaker Robin Bell ever send a strong message to 45.</p>
<p>Bell focused his message on the Trump International Hotel’s entrance Thursday night. The artist used his van as his base to project slides reading in all capital letters “known racist and Nazi sympathizer,” according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/known-racist-and-a-nazi-sympathizer-activist-projects-message-onto-trumps-dc-hotel/2017/08/18/9726a6c0-8413-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.9651152aff00" type="external">Washington Post</a>:</p>
<p>‘The president of the United States is a known racist and a Nazi sympathizer.’</p>
<p>‘This is not a drill. We are all responsible to stand up and end white supremacy.’</p>
<p>‘#Resist.’</p>
<p>‘Pay bribes here.’</p>
<p>Once people passed the hotel and posted pictures of the art online, the message took off.&#160;This was only one of Bell’s projected criticisms of the president. He also threw other powerful messages around D.C.</p>
<p>Thursday night, Bell projected an image on the Newseum, too. It was his tribute to Heather Heyer, 32, whom a white supremacist killed using his car as a weapon in Charlottesville. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/known-racist-and-a-nazi-sympathizer-activist-projects-message-onto-trumps-dc-hotel/2017/08/18/9726a6c0-8413-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.9651152aff00" type="external">Washington Post</a> reported that the image read:</p>
<p>‘Heather Heyer 1985-2017.’</p>
<p>The artist also projected a dotted line onto a statue of a Confederate statue of Albert Pike located near the city’s Judiciary Square. The Washington Post&#160;wrote that animated image below it read:</p>
<p>‘Remove racism above the line.’</p>
<p>Then, a projected image of scissors cut the line.</p>
<p>Separately, some D.C. protesters hung a banner around a D.C. statue Friday morning, which read:&#160;&#160;“modern confederates.”&#160;Washington, D.C. resident and community organizer Anthony Torres helped prepare the banner that named the “modern confederates”&#160;Chief of Staff John Kelly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn. Torres. He told the Washington Post:</p>
<p>‘It is&#160;not just the usual suspects in the administration who support an agenda of white supremacy. It’s been reported that these men have been uncomfortable and upset about Trump’s rhetoric, yet they’ve done nothing. If they were serious about their discomfort with Trump’s overt supremacy, then they would resign from their posts.’</p>
<p>Bell has said that projection art is an effective form of protest because it sends a message without vandalizing property:</p>
<p>‘That is one of the big things that I’m trying to do — using our artwork to explain these stories that are tricky said about his emolument clause projections. If someone can laugh and look at something, and then talk about it.’</p>
<p>Check out this video of the projection below:</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Image Screen Shot via <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/known-racist-and-a-nazi-sympathizer-activist-projects-message-onto-trumps-dc-hotel/2017/08/18/9726a6c0-8413-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.9651152aff00" type="external">Washington Post</a>.</p> | Trump Humiliated After His Flagship Hotel Gets Nailed By Sweet Internet Justice (IMAGES) | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/08/19/trump-humiliated-after-his-flagship-hotel-gets-nailed-by-sweet-internet-justice-images/ | 2017-08-19 | 4 |
<p>PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the death of French chef Paul Bocuse at 91 (all times local):</p>
<p>4:50 p.m.</p>
<p>The Danish chef behind one of Europe’s most famous restaurants, Noma, has thanked Paul Bocuse for “a lifetime of work and inspiration.”</p>
<p>On Twitter, Rene Redzepi wrote Saturday “RIP Paul Bocuse - sleep well chef” about the Frenchman, who embodied French cuisine all over the world.</p>
<p>Redzepi closed Noma last year and plans to reopen an eatery with its own vegetable farm on the edge of Copenhagen’s Christiania neighborhood.</p>
<p>The 40-seat Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordic food — opened in 2003. The eatery that sat on Copenhagen’s waterfront had two Michelin stars and was voted the world’s No. 1 restaurant by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The head chef at the Elysee presidential palace says the best way to honor Paul Bocuse is to keep sharing his passion for French gastronomy.</p>
<p>Guillaume Gomez told BFM television that Bocuse created a soup in 1975 at the Elysee, made from truffles, foie gras, chicken, carrots, onions, celeriac and mushrooms, for then-president Valerie Giscard d’Estaing.</p>
<p>Gomez said the soup is still served at the presidential palace under the name of “Elysee soup.”</p>
<p>Gomez, who met “Mister Paul” several times, said Bocuse was the first to widely appear in the media so that chefs’ work was better recognized.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The wife and children of master French chef Paul Bocuse want to honor their “captain,” who has died at 91.</p>
<p>In a joint statement Saturday, they said that “more than a father and husband, he is a man of heart, a spiritual father, an emblematic figure of world gastronomy and a French flagship who is gone.”</p>
<p>The statement is signed by Bocuse’s wife Raymonde, their daughter Francoise, and his son Jerome who he had with another companion.</p>
<p>They stress that Bocuse loved life, loved transmitting his knowledge of the kitchen to other chefs and loved the team of chefs that he worked with in his hometown of Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or. The family says “these values will forever continue to inspire us.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:55 p.m.</p>
<p>French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to chef Paul Bocuse, the man who embodied French cuisine all over the world.</p>
<p>Macron praised Bocuse’s “fidelity” to his village of Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, near the eastern French city of Lyon, where he was born, created his world-famous restaurant and died Saturday at age 91.</p>
<p>In a statement, Macron underlined Bocuse’s “generosity, his respect for traditions as well as his inventiveness.” Macron said Bocuse had helped train French and foreign chefs up to his last few days.</p>
<p>The French president says “French gastronomy loses a mythical figure ... The chefs cry in their kitchens, at the Elysee and everywhere in France.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:45 p.m.</p>
<p>Paul Bocuse, the master chef who defined French cuisine for nearly half a century and put it on tables around the world, a man who raised the profile of top chefs from invisible kitchen artists to international celebrities, has died at 91.</p>
<p>Often referred to as the “pope of French cuisine,” Bocuse was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with savvy business tactics — branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe. His imposing physical stature and his larger-than-life personality matched his bold dreams and his far-flung accomplishments.</p>
<p>Interior Minister Gerard Collomb tweeted Saturday that “Mister Paul was France. Simplicity and generosity. Excellence and art de vivre.”</p>
<p>PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the death of French chef Paul Bocuse at 91 (all times local):</p>
<p>4:50 p.m.</p>
<p>The Danish chef behind one of Europe’s most famous restaurants, Noma, has thanked Paul Bocuse for “a lifetime of work and inspiration.”</p>
<p>On Twitter, Rene Redzepi wrote Saturday “RIP Paul Bocuse - sleep well chef” about the Frenchman, who embodied French cuisine all over the world.</p>
<p>Redzepi closed Noma last year and plans to reopen an eatery with its own vegetable farm on the edge of Copenhagen’s Christiania neighborhood.</p>
<p>The 40-seat Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordic food — opened in 2003. The eatery that sat on Copenhagen’s waterfront had two Michelin stars and was voted the world’s No. 1 restaurant by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The head chef at the Elysee presidential palace says the best way to honor Paul Bocuse is to keep sharing his passion for French gastronomy.</p>
<p>Guillaume Gomez told BFM television that Bocuse created a soup in 1975 at the Elysee, made from truffles, foie gras, chicken, carrots, onions, celeriac and mushrooms, for then-president Valerie Giscard d’Estaing.</p>
<p>Gomez said the soup is still served at the presidential palace under the name of “Elysee soup.”</p>
<p>Gomez, who met “Mister Paul” several times, said Bocuse was the first to widely appear in the media so that chefs’ work was better recognized.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:55 p.m.</p>
<p>The wife and children of master French chef Paul Bocuse want to honor their “captain,” who has died at 91.</p>
<p>In a joint statement Saturday, they said that “more than a father and husband, he is a man of heart, a spiritual father, an emblematic figure of world gastronomy and a French flagship who is gone.”</p>
<p>The statement is signed by Bocuse’s wife Raymonde, their daughter Francoise, and his son Jerome who he had with another companion.</p>
<p>They stress that Bocuse loved life, loved transmitting his knowledge of the kitchen to other chefs and loved the team of chefs that he worked with in his hometown of Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or. The family says “these values will forever continue to inspire us.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:55 p.m.</p>
<p>French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to chef Paul Bocuse, the man who embodied French cuisine all over the world.</p>
<p>Macron praised Bocuse’s “fidelity” to his village of Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, near the eastern French city of Lyon, where he was born, created his world-famous restaurant and died Saturday at age 91.</p>
<p>In a statement, Macron underlined Bocuse’s “generosity, his respect for traditions as well as his inventiveness.” Macron said Bocuse had helped train French and foreign chefs up to his last few days.</p>
<p>The French president says “French gastronomy loses a mythical figure ... The chefs cry in their kitchens, at the Elysee and everywhere in France.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:45 p.m.</p>
<p>Paul Bocuse, the master chef who defined French cuisine for nearly half a century and put it on tables around the world, a man who raised the profile of top chefs from invisible kitchen artists to international celebrities, has died at 91.</p>
<p>Often referred to as the “pope of French cuisine,” Bocuse was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with savvy business tactics — branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe. His imposing physical stature and his larger-than-life personality matched his bold dreams and his far-flung accomplishments.</p>
<p>Interior Minister Gerard Collomb tweeted Saturday that “Mister Paul was France. Simplicity and generosity. Excellence and art de vivre.”</p> | The Latest: Danish chef behind Noma thanks Bocuse | false | https://apnews.com/c859f226923d4894a79cb885f0da3811 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>Oil operators in North Dakota will be required to provide more details to mineral owners about deductions taken from their royalty checks.</p>
<p>The state Industrial Commission unanimously approved the rules Monday to address frustration among royalty owners who struggle to get answers from oil companies about the purpose of the charges, The Bismarck Tribune reported.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The new rule will require standardized royalty statements that identify the amount and purpose of each deduction. The deductions also will be identified under the categories of transportation, processing, compression and administrative costs.</p>
<p>The North Dakota Petroleum Council testified against the rule change, saying it will require expensive software upgrades.</p>
<p>It will cost up to $1 million for each software package — potentially several million dollars for the industry statewide, according to Brady Pelton, the industry group's government affairs manager.</p>
<p>State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said the cost of compliance should be considered in the context of the amount of royalties distributed by the oil industry, which he said was $8 million per day in September.</p>
<p>The rule changes need to be reviewed by the Attorney General's Office and the Legislature's Administrative Rules Committee before they can go into effect in July 2019. The state Legislature could address the issue during its 2019 session, which will conclude before July of that year.</p>
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<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com</p> | New rules require more transparency for royalty statements | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/12/05/new-rules-require-more-transparency-for-royalty-statements.html | 2017-12-05 | 0 |
<p>On Tuesday, news broke that The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol had settled on a third party option for disenchanted conservatives: National Review columnist David French. The media quickly went into full mockery mode. Andrew Kirell of The Daily Beast wrote, "This must be a joke." MSNBC asked, “Wait, who?” CNN mocked, “Bill Kristol’s white knight: David French.” Elliott Hannon of Slate mused along the same lines, “Wait. Who? You know, conservative magazine staff writer, David French. Tennessee lawyer David French? Still nothing? Well, fear not, you’re not alone.” Dan Scavino, a member of the Trump team, tweeted simply:</p>
<p>WHO⁉️</p>
<p>Bill Kristol chooses David French, for Independent Presidential Run. Have you EVER heard of him? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Trump2016?src=hash" type="external">#Trump2016</a></p>
<p>Now, I’ve made the case against running a <a href="" type="internal">third party candidate</a>. Among my arguments: it won’t work, it appears desperate, any candidate minimizes the level of opposition to both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and those who voted for Trump in the primaries and now ardently back him should reap the whirlwind of an unfettered head-to-head race against the Democrats.</p>
<p>With all of that said, if there’s going to be a third party candidate, nobody would make me happier than David French. French, for those who don’t know him – and very few people outside the conservative movement do – is an excellent thinker, a writer for National Review, a Harvard Law graduate and constitutional attorney, and an Iraq War veteran. Here are six reasons I’d support French running for the presidency:</p>
<p>1. He’s A Relative Unknown. This election cycle has been dominated by figures with 100 percent name recognition. Sure, they’re corrupt and we hate them – by polls, Hillary and Trump are the two most unpopular presidential candidates in American history – but we’re enamored of their names. Familiarity breeds following.</p>
<p>French throws that on its head. Because he isn’t a figure, his ideas matter far more than his persona. French expressing Constitutional freedom on the campaign trail would be a worthwhile endeavor, even if he has no shot at winning: using this failed 2016 race as a barnstorming tour for conservative ideals is a worthwhile goal, now that it’s completely clear that the American electorate simply doesn’t know very much about founding principles.</p>
<p>It would be a positive to put French on stage with Hillary and Trump – and demonstrate to the public that we don’t need a celebrity president, we need someone who will leave us alone and enforce our Constitutional rights.</p>
<p>2. He’s Honest. Nobody trusts Hillary. Nobody trusts Trump. They shouldn’t. They’re both pathological liars. French is honest – and that’s why the media are already combing his columns for pull quotes with which to humiliate him. French, as a complete outsider, has no need to pull punches. Trumpsters keep saying they like Trump’s honesty, even as he switches positions more often than a Vegas hooker. French is actually honest. That honesty will be refreshing.</p>
<p>3. He’s An Iraq War Vet. David French served in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star. He signed up for the military in middle age, with small children at home, after reading in 2005 about hardships the military was experiencing in Iraq. Here’s what <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378157/how-live-life-privilege-david-french?target=author&amp;tid=1048" type="external">he wrote</a>:</p>
<p>America wasn’t too soft to fight a long war. I was too soft. And I had no excuse. Think about that wounded officer. Did he love his wife less than I loved my wife? Did he love his kids less than I love my kids? Yet he was risking everything, and I was risking nothing. So I enlisted. I became a JAG officer in the United States Army and deployed to Iraq as part of the Surge in 2007 — attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment…I prayed throughout my deployment. Every night when I fell asleep, every time a friend and brother fell, every time I put on my gear (we called it “battle rattle”) to go outside the wire. No assurance came. No assurance ever came.</p>
<p>Now, granted, tough guy Trump did serve in his own personal Vietnam while attempting to avoid the scourge of STDs during the go-go 1980s, joking, “I feel like a great and very brave soldier.” And Trump did go to a military high school, which he says was just like serving in the military. And he did dodge the draft.</p>
<p>And granted, Hillary Clinton did get four Americans killed in Benghazi and blamed a video, tried to mandate that members of the military not dress in uniform in the White House, and supposedly tried to sign up for the Marines in an attempt to shame them for alleged sexism.</p>
<p>But we can’t all be heroes.</p>
<p>4. He’s A Constitutional Scholar. French is past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and was senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom. He’s a Harvard Law graduate with a history of Constitutional litigation. This is better than Hillary Clinton, who thinks the Constitution mandates the corporations be stripped of their speech writes and that women be given the unlimited capacity to kill their children in the womb. This is also better than Donald Trump, who thinks that libel laws should be changed, that the Supreme Court ought to be staffed with prosecutors will target Hillary Clinton, and who sees the Constitution as an impediment to presidential power.</p>
<p>5. He’s A Family Man. One of the first pieces of “vetting” issued about David French came courtesy of stupid idiot Kevin Robillard of Politico, who tweeted this:</p>
<p>So when David French was in Iraq, he wouldn't let his wife e-mail men or use Facebook. <a href="https://t.co/F1tEOwE4sc" type="external">https://t.co/F1tEOwE4sc</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZOOV52QXUN" type="external">pic.twitter.com/ZOOV52QXUN</a></p>
<p>First off, the account itself demonstrates that French didn’t force his wife into this arrangement. It was an agreement between a man deploying to Iraq for years at a time and his wife. Second, marriages do fall apart because of social media usage, particularly when a partner is absent for years at a time. But this makes French weird.</p>
<p>What makes <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/363973/my-family-interracial-and-ive-only-seen-liberals-gag-over-it-david-french" type="external">French weirder</a>, according to some on the alt-right, is the fact that French has adopted his daughter Naomi from Ethiopia. Here’s what he wrote:</p>
<p>In 2010 we adopted Naomi, our beautiful youngest daughter. She’s from Ethiopia. For those who have not adopted, it’s difficult to fully communicate the immediate intensity of the connection. I remember looking at her sleeping in her crib the night we arrived back in America and feeling indescribably blessed — the same feeling I had with our older, biological kids (just with more jet lag). And she is one incredible, joy-filled little girl. We grow more thankful for Naomi every day. She is the light of our lives, and we pray every night for the strength and wisdom to be the parents God intends for us to be.</p>
<p>This sort of thing prompts this response from Trump’s alt-right supporters:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench" type="external">@DavidAFrench</a> 's nigglett "daughter" getting no mercy from our Triumphant Leader! <a href="https://t.co/ee9BVJB8uq" type="external">pic.twitter.com/ee9BVJB8uq</a></p>
<p>If French’s run does nothing but expose the evil of the alt-right, it will be worthwhile. Now, granted, French doesn’t have multiple children from multiple different women. He doesn’t leave the raising of those children to his wives. He doesn’t say he’d like to have sex with any of his children.</p>
<p>And granted, French doesn’t enable his spouse’s serial sexual abuse of various strangers.</p>
<p>Still, he seems like a good guy.</p>
<p>6. He’s An Alternative. Conservatives who find Trump appalling and Hillary despicable now have a choice. It’s just as easy for us to tell Trump supporters that a vote for Trump is a vote for Hillary – half-true, given that Trump agrees with a large portion of Hillary’s platform and gave money to her – as for Trump supporters to lecture us on party loyalty. It will be fascinating to hear ardent conservative Trump supporters wail over a prospective French run, explaining to other conservatives how the only real conservatives will vote for a serial liar and adulterer with a history of leftism over an Iraq War veteran with a history of constitutional litigation and conservative thought. If Trump loses, it will also be interesting hearing them blame French supporters -- all six of us -- for the Orange Godking's failures. Good luck.</p>
<p>French still hasn’t said whether he’ll run. And all my criticisms of a third party run still hold here. But if we’re going to have a third party candidate, French would be a terrific option. So, jump on the French roll or become French toast. Maybe it’s time for a French revolution.</p> | 6 Reasons A David French Presidential Run Could Be Great | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6201/6-reasons-david-frenchs-presidential-run-could-be-ben-shapiro | 2016-06-01 | 0 |
<p>Relatives who flew thousands of miles to help save convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from execution took the stand in his death penalty trial Monday, including a Russian aunt who broke down in tears and drew what appeared to be the defendant's first outward sign of emotion.</p>
<p>The aunt, Patimat‎ Suleimanova, began sobbing after spelling her name and was unable to go on. Tsarnaev, watching her, wiped his eyes with a tissue as a judge told her to return after she'd regained her composure.</p>
<p>Her aborted testimony followed two Tsarnaev cousins who remembered him as a good-natured boy raised by an itinerant family, including a mother who became a devout Muslim and an older brother who became radicalized after they emigrated from the Russian Caucasus to the United States.</p>
<p>The relatives offered a rare glimpse into Tsarnaev's childhood, before he grew up and transformed into someone capable of joining his brother in an April 15, 2013, terror attack that killed three people and injured more than 200 others.</p>
<p>"I can only say good things about Dzhokhar, and that's not because he's my cousin," cousin Raisat Suleimanov, a nurse who lives in Moscow, testified. "He was a very warm child. And I think his kindness made everyone around him kind."</p>
<p>Suleimanov's older sister, Naida Suleimanova, grew teary-eyed when she came face-to-face with Tsarnaev in court, where a jury is considering whether to sentence him to death. "He was very cute, very nice, very kind, there was always a smile on his face," she said.</p>
<p>Each cousin's testimony was accompanied by photos of Tsarnaev as a young boy, surrounded by family. One image showed him on the shoulders of his older brother and co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with police four days after the bombing.</p>
<p>"Dzhokhar loved his older brother very much," Suleimanova, a Moscow gas station cashier, said. "This is the custom in our family: You always try to listen to your older sibling and follow his example."</p>
<p>That is exactly the point Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers are trying to make in a bid to spare him from the death penalty. They argued that Tsarnaev was manipulated into taking part in the bombing, and the bloody manhunt that resulted in the murder of an MIT police officer, by Tamerlan after their parents moved back to Russia.</p>
<p>Prosecutors argue that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted last month of all 30 criminal counts against him, was a willing and equal partner in the violence.</p>
<p>At one point during Suleimanova's testimony, a defense lawyer played an audio tape of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in which he described having "this rage of hatred inside of me" and worried about not seeing the creation of an Islamic caliphate before he died.</p>
<p>Suleimanova said she didn't recognize his view of Islam, and was disturbed by his apparent radicalism when he visited her in Russia. "I had two conflicting feelings: to see my brother and hug him," she recalled.</p>
<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb got Suleimanov to acknowledge that while Tsarnaev's family moved around the Russian Caucuses region when he was young, he was loved and well cared for, and even took summer vacations.</p>
<p>She and her sister also recalled their surprise at seeing Tsarnaev's mother start wearing traditional Muslim clothing.</p>
<p>Later on Monday, Shakhruzat Sulelmanov, sister of the Tsarnaev brothers' mother, testified that he hadn't seen Tsarnaev since he was 8, when he was quiet and shy. The entire family had been "a fun loving family," she said.</p>
<p>"They were so good, they wouldn't hurt a fly, my sister's children" Sulelmanov said. "Such good children."</p>
<p>The relatives were followed on Monday by friends of Tsarnaev's from Cambridge, where his family settled upon their arrival in the United States.</p>
<p>The friends recalled Tsarnaev as shy but kind, and known to smoke pot.</p>
<p>Rosa Booth, a former classmate of Tsarnaev's at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, added that he did not strike her as a leader; he was more willing to go along with others. "Not a group decision-maker," she said.</p>
<p>— Tom Winter, Andy Thibault and Jon Schuppe</p> | At Boston Bombing Trial, Cousins Recall Tsarnaev’s Boyhood | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-trial/boston-bombing-trial-cousins-recall-tsarnaevs-boyhood-n353271 | 2015-05-05 | 3 |
<p>Wednesday night's Late Show brought viewers another glimpse at <a href="" type="internal">what Stephen Colbert was up to in Cleveland earlier this week</a> before he returned to New York for a <a href="" type="internal">series of live shows</a> to cover the Republican National Convention.</p>
<p>"I had the chance to go down to Cleveland this week and actually meet the delegates who nominated Donald Trump," Colbert said from his desk. "And I've got to say, they're good people who deserve a better candidate."</p>
<p>With that, we were transported to Cleveland for an old-fashioned field piece that recalled some of Colbert's classic work on The Daily Show. The host began by asking a series of delegates if Trump was their first choice in the Republican primary, to which he received a series of "no's." But there were others who preferred Trump even to the "reanimated corpse" of Ronald Reagan.</p>
<p>When Colbert <a href="" type="internal">had Trump on his show last fall</a>, he asked the then-long-shot candidate to guess whether certain quotes belonged to him or the "Stephen Colbert" character from The Colbert Report. This time, he played a game of "Trump or False" with delegates, making them attempt to determine whether particularly outrageous statements were actually uttered by the man they were about to nominate for president.</p>
<p>One man couldn't believe that Trump did, in fact, say, "My fingers are long and beautiful. It has been well documented, as are various other parts of my body." As Colbert told him, "Your candidate did talk about his penis."</p>
<p>Another was sure Trump never said, "I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words." But he too was wrong.</p>
<p>Colbert presented a female Trump supporter with this line, "I named my dog Megyn Kelly because she's stupid and bad at her job," which certainly sounded like something the candidate may have said at point. But she was right to guess that that "has to be false."</p> | Stephen Colbert Stumps RNC Delegates With Game of 'Trump or False' | true | https://thedailybeast.com/stephen-colbert-stumps-rnc-delegates-with-game-of-trump-or-false | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>The man accused of orchestrating the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been convicted of several terrorism-related charges but acquitted of the stronger murder charges related to the attack.</p>
<p>After five days of deliberation, a federal jury convicted Ahmed Abu Khatallah of four charges on Tuesday, including providing support for terrorism, destroying US property and placing lives in danger, and illegal use of a firearm, according to <a href="https://sputniknews.com/us/201711291059518118-benghazi-libya-mastermind-acquitted-murder/" type="external">multiple</a> <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFMT1ALTL1N1NY2C61" type="external">reports</a>.</p>
<p>The jury found Khatallah, 46, not guilty of 14 charges against him, including the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith, and security officers Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who were all killed in the September 11 attacks on the compound.</p>
<p>Khattala was the first suspect thought responsible for the attack to be apprehended by authorities. He faces a maximum of 60 years in prison, according to a Department of Justice statement obtained by <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/benghazi-suspect-verdict?utm_term=.qhRzmMN48#.wuxZ6Aexd" type="external">Buzzfeed</a>.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/408260-benghazi-attack-militant-arrest/" type="external" /></p>
<p>During the eight-week trial, federal prosecutors painted Khatallah as the mastermind behind the attacks, which they claimed he had been planning from a spy base for at least a year.</p>
<p>The Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ahmed-abu-khatallah-indicted-additional-charges-september-2012-attack-benghazi-libya" type="external">accused</a> Khatallah in 2014 of conspiring with others to “attack the facilities, kill US citizens, destroy buildings and other property, and plunder materials, including documents, maps and computers containing sensitive information.”</p>
<p>Khatallah’s defense attorney argued his client did not organize the attack, but was simply a witness who went to the compound to because he thought there was a protest and wanted to see what was happening.</p>
<p>“They want you to hate him. That’s what this case has been about,” public defender Michelle Peterson told jurors, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/8b5ce7cd1681464e94f03f3765c12842/Prosecutor-calls-Benghazi-suspect-'commander'-of-2012-attack" type="external">Associated Press</a>. “They want you to hate him enough to disregard holes in their evidence.”</p>
<p>Prosecutors acknowledged that Khatallah was not at the compound during the attack, but described him as the “on-scene commander” of the attacks that targeted the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, as well as a nearby CIA complex.</p>
<p>“He viewed the United States, which promoted freedom, as the cause of all the world’s problems,” Assistant US Attorney Michael DiLorenzo told jurors, according to the Associated Press. “He was there to kill Americans, and that is exactly what he and his men did.”</p>
<p>CIA director Mike Pompeo said that the verdict was “a small measure of justice.”</p>
<p>“It took intelligence to find him, soldiers to assist in capturing him, law enforcement to interview him, and a legal team to put him away,” Pompeo said in a note to the agency. “Khatallah’s sentencing is to follow; but no term in prison will bring our people back.”</p>
<p>Though US officials initially claimed that the attack was a spontaneous response to a YouTube movie considered offensive by Muslims, US intelligence later determined that the attack on the US diplomatic compound was coordinated by the militant group Ansar al-Sharia.</p>
<p>The US State Department has called Khattala a “senior leader” of a Benghazi affiliate of Ansar Al-Sharia, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by American officials. The Obama administration previously backed the anti-Gaddafi forces and helped to kill the Libyan leader later that year.</p>
<p>Last month, US special forces in Libya detained Mustafa al-Imam, another militant thought to be involved in the attack.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump said he expects al-Imam to “face justice” on US soil.</p>
<p>“Our memory is deep and our reach is long, &#160;and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice,” Trump said in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/30/statement-president-donald-j-trump-apprehension-mustafa-al-imam-his" type="external">statement</a>.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | Benghazi attack ‘mastermind’ acquitted of murder, convicted of terrorism | false | https://newsline.com/benghazi-attack-mastermind-acquitted-of-murder-convicted-of-terrorism/ | 2017-11-28 | 1 |
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<p>With 5:56 left in Saturday’s game in Moby Arena at Colorado State, Lobos junior guard Elijah Brown stole the ball from Gian Clavell in the open court and sprinted for a wide-open a fast break where he laid the ball off the backboard for a pass and highlight reel dunk for teammate Joe Furstinger.</p>
<p>It gave UNM a 19-point lead with 5:53 remaining in what would wind up being an 84-71 road victory for the Lobos.</p>
<p>The sequence epitomized the good, and sometimes lacking side this season of the Jekyll and Hyde Lobos (10-8, 3-3 Mountain West), who are on the road Tuesday night against Boise State (11-5, 4-1).</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The unlikely play seemed to close the door on much hope of the Rams stringing together a huge rally like Nevada had done against the Lobos the week prior.</p>
<p>It started on defense by Brown, a player often criticized for not playing with high effort on that side of the ball.</p>
<p>It transitioned to Brown, at times accused of focusing too much on his points, passing up two easy, uncontested points to help a teammate get his.</p>
<p>It ended with an athletic dunk from Furstinger, one of several Lobo role players trying to make an impact and one who hasn’t exactly been accused of being the team’s most athletic player in his three seasons at UNM.</p>
<p>It was a sequence that defines how good things can be for a team that says it still believes it can win the league.</p>
<p>“It’s all about a mindset for us,” said Brown, who scored a game-high 25 points to go with nine rebounds and seven assists. “We already know what we’re capable of. I think everyone who watches us knows what we’re capable of when we decide to play the right way.”</p>
<p>That right way has been hit and miss for a team that started the season with a three-game win streak, then alternated wins and losses — Nov. 18 through Dec. 28 — followed by a potential season-defining road win Jan. 1 at preseason league favorite San Diego State, only to follow that with a three-game losing streak.</p>
<p>“I have to do a better job with this team that every team in this league is the top team,” Lobos coach Craig Neal told the Journal on Saturday. “Anybody on any given Sunday, as they say in the movie, can beat them. I’ve got to do a better job of preparing my guys that we play every minute of every possession and they did that (in Saturday’s win at CSU).”</p>
<p>When playing in the “team bubble,” as Neal has referred to often this season, the Lobos have looked capable of being as good as any team in what has proven to be a down MWC.</p>
<p>The “team bubble” doesn’t mean Brown (17.5 points per game this season) and senior forward Tim Williams (18.3 points per game) aren’t still going to be the Lobos leading scorers almost every night the rest of the season. To beat the Broncos, it would be hard to imagine the duo not needing huge nights like they had in a pair of wins last season against Boise State in which Brown averaged 28.0 points, hit eight 3-pointers and made 20 free throws while Williams averaged 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and hit 17 free throws.</p>
<p>BROWN’S BIG DAY: In addition to his 9 rebounds and 7 assists, Brown’s 25 points gave him 315 for the season and 1,009 for his UNM career, a milestone reached in just 50 games played (20.2 points per game).</p>
<p>“He played in the system,” Neal said. “He’s as good as it gets and I enjoy coaching him. We’ve got a great relationship. We went through some bumps, but he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and he looked like the player he was (when he was at his best last year).”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p> | Lobos hope to build momentum at Boise State | false | https://abqjournal.com/928952/lobos-hope-to-build-momentum-at-boise-state.html | 2 | |
<p>Jan 19 (Reuters) - NCI Building Systems Inc:</p>
<p>* NCI BUILDING SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES REDEMPTION NOTICE FOR SENIOR NOTES CONDITIONED UPON REFINANCING</p>
<p>* NCI BUILDING SYSTEMS - ‍ DELIVERED A CONDITIONAL NOTICE OF REDEMPTION TO TRUSTEE OF OUTSTANDING 8.25% SENIOR NOTES DUE 2023 ISSUED BY CO</p>
<p>* NCI BUILDING SYSTEMS INC - ‍NOTICE CALLS FOR REDEMPTION OF $250 MILLION AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF NOTES​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MUENSTER, Germany (Reuters) - A German man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a restaurant in the old city center of Muenster in western Germany on Saturday, killing two of them before shooting himself dead, police and state officials said.</p>
<p>The vehicle plowed into people seated at tables outside the Grosser Kiepenkerl eatery, a popular destination for tourists in the pretty university city.</p>
<p>Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Muenster, told German television the suspect was a German citizen and there was “no indication of an Islamist background”.</p>
<p>Police spokesman Andreas Bode earlier said: “At 15:27 (1327 GMT), a vehicle drove into the outside area of the restaurant ... three people were killed, 20 injured, and six of those seriously injured,”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-germany-crash-timeline-factbox/factbox-deadly-attacks-in-western-europe-idUSKBN1HE0ND" type="external">Factbox: Deadly attacks in Western Europe</a>
<p>“The perpetrator killed himself in the vehicle,” Bode added.</p>
<p>Reul said the three dead included the perpetrator.</p>
<p>The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported in its online edition that the perpetrator was Jens R., aged 48, who lived some 2 km (1.2 miles) from the crime scene.</p>
<p>Broadcaster ZDF said police were searching his apartment and that he had contact with far-right extremists, but there was no evidence thus far that he was a far-right extremist himself.</p>
<p>The Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the man had psychological problems. The Interior Ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia would neither confirm nor deny the report.</p>
<p>Bode said investigators were looking at the possibility that other suspects fled the scene, though they had no evidence that this was the case, he added.</p>
<p>Bild newspaper said police were searching for two possible additional suspects after witnesses said they had seen two people jump out of the van. Jens R. had no police record, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>“The crime scene investigators are checking out the crime scene, trying to identify, investigate and secure traces. That is our current task,” Bode said.</p>
<p>A police spokeswoman said: “The danger is over.”</p>
<p>Martin Wiech, who said he had studied in Muenster, told Der Spiegel he had driven to Muenster to go shopping and was now unable to return to his car.</p> Police stands guard in a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
<p>“Unbelievable that something like this could happen in Muenster. It is one of the most peaceful cities I know,” he said.</p> MERKEL “SHAKEN”
<p>The incident came one year to the day after a truck attack in Stockholm that killed five people.</p>
<p>It also evoked memories of a December 2016 truck attack in Berlin that killed 12. In that attack, Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck, killed the driver and then plowed into a crowded marketplace, killing 11 more people and injuring dozens of others.</p> Slideshow (17 Images)
<p>Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement she was “deeply shaken”.</p>
<p>“Everything possible is now being done to clarify the facts and to support the victims and their relatives,” she added.</p>
<p>French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “All my thoughts are with the victims of the attack in Muenster. France shares in Germany’s suffering.”</p>
<p>Der Spiegel reported that police were investigating a similar incident that occurred in the eastern German city of Cottbus on Friday evening, when a man drove his car into a group of people, injuring two, before fleeing.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold and Andrea Shalal in Berlin, Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf, and Sarah White in Paris; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Dale Hudson and Hugh Lawson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Ice hockey teams around the world expressed shock and paid tribute on Saturday to the Canadian junior team whose bus was involved in a crash that killed at least 15 people.</p> The Humboldt Broncos logo at centre ice at the Elgar Petersen Arena in Humboldt Saskatchewan, Canada April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Matt Smith
<p>The Humboldt Broncos were on their way to compete in a playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks when their bus collided with a tractor trailer about 185 miles (300 km) north of Regina in Saskatchewan.</p>
<p>Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, who grew up nearby in Saskatoon and went on to steer the Canadian ice hockey team to back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, began a pre-game press conference fighting back tears.</p>
<p>“I can’t even imagine being a parent, or the wife, or the kids at home, going through something like this,” he said.</p>
<p>“The hockey world is an unbelievable world. You can’t make up for loss, you just can’t. It’s going to rip the heart out of your chest. We pray for those families and think about them.”</p>
<p>Sorrow was felt far beyond hockey-loving Canada: the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) carried the Humboldt Broncos logo on its website’s homepage and said a moment of silence was scheduled ahead of Saturday’s game between Poland and Estonia in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital.</p>
<p>Another moment of silence will be observed before Sunday’s matchup between Latvia and Kazakhstan in Riga.</p> A Humboldt Broncos team jersey is seen among notes and flowers at a memorial for the Humboldt Broncos team leading into the Elgar Petersen Arena in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Matt Smith
<p>“The international ice hockey community&#160;extends its sincerest condolences to the families and friends of those involved,” IIHF president Rene Fasel said in a statement.</p>
<p>National Hockey League coaches and players also expressed their condolences. The Calgary Flames had a Broncos team photo up in their locker room. The Philadelphia Flyers held a moment of silence before their game against the New York Rangers.</p>
<p>Babcock addressed the press conference in front of a backdrop that carried both the Maple Leafs and Broncos logos.</p>
<p>“It just goes to show you’ve got to embrace each and every day, and each and every day, you’re with your family,” he said. “You better enjoy it.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Gene Cherry; writing by Daniel Wallis, editing by G Crosse</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HUMBOLDT, Saskatchewan (Reuters) - Fifteen people were killed when a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team collided with a truck in Saskatchewan province, police said on Saturday, in one of the worst disasters to strike Canada’s sporting community.</p>
<p>The tragedy sent shock waves through the hockey-loving country and engulfed the home of the Humboldt Broncos ice hockey team, a small farming town of fewer than 6,000 people, in grief. Fourteen survivors were in hospital, with some in critical condition, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.</p>
<p>The team had been traveling to a playoff game when the accident occurred at about 5 p.m. on Friday near the Tisdale area, around 185 miles (300 km) north of Regina.</p>
<p>“Our Broncos family is in shock as we try to come to grips with our incredible loss,” Kevin Garinger, the team’s president, said in a statement.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-canada-crash-icehockey/ice-hockey-world-shocked-by-fatal-junior-team-crash-in-canada-idUSKBN1HE0U6" type="external">Ice hockey world shocked by fatal junior team crash in Canada</a>
<p>The players had been on their way to compete in Game 5 of a playoff series against the Nipawin Hawks when the bus they were traveling in collided with a semi-trailer.</p>
<p>The Hawks’ president, Darren Opp, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the truck T-boned the players’ bus. “It’s a horrible accident, my God,” he said. “It’s very, very bad.”</p>
<p>The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured in the crash, RCMP Saskatchewan assistant commissioner Curtis Zablocki told a media conference. He said the driver was initially detained, but later released.</p>
<p>RCMP is continuing its investigation and it was too early to comment on the cause of the collision, Zablocki added.</p>
<p>Citing relatives, the Canadian Press reported that the Broncos’ head coach Darcy Haugan and the team’s 20-year-old captain, Logan Schatz, were among those killed.</p>
<p>Many social media users posted Haugan’s photograph alongside messages of shock and sympathy, and the hashtags #prayersforhumboldt and #humboldtstrong.</p>
<p>“God bless Darcy Haugan for being an incredible mentor and coach to young hockey players and prayers for his family to help cope with their immense loss,” the Western Provinces Hockey Association wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL mourned the passing of those who died “and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they loved.”</p> ‘TERRIBLE TRAGEDY’
<p>A steady stream of people arrived at Humboldt’s Elgar Petersen sports arena on Saturday, consoling the grieving families and offering flowers. Counseling services for the victims’ relatives were offered in a nearby room.</p> The 2017-2018 Humboldt Broncos Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team is pictured in this undated handout photo. Amanda Brochu/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“We woke up to the reality of what happened last night,” Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench told Reuters. “It has been a tragedy nobody would have imagined. It’s very tough, but I have been trying to get the message out that we will get through this, we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.”</p>
<p>Condolences poured in from current and former hockey players, sports organizations and political leaders.</p>
<p>“I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a tweet.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post that he had spoken with Trudeau “to pay my highest respect and condolences to the families of the terrible Humboldt Team tragedy. May God be with them all!”</p> Slideshow (17 Images)
<p>Pastor Jordan Gadsby of Nipawin’s Apostolic Church said hundreds of people, including parents and relatives of players on the bus, had gathered at the church late on Friday to seek information and solace.</p>
<p>“The worst part of the night was watching parents waiting for news of their kids,” he said. “There’s not a lot we can do. It’s a terrible thing that happened.”</p>
<p>For some, the tragedy revived painful memories of a bus crash in the province in December 1986 that killed four young players from the Swift Current Broncos ice hockey team.</p>
<p>An online fundraising campaign for the affected players and their families, with an initial target of $10,000, was set up late on Friday by the mother of a former Broncos teammate. By lunchtime on Saturday it had raised more than $1 million.</p>
<p>“Stay Hockey family strong,” wrote one donor on the GoFundMe site who said he was a coach from rural Saskatchewan.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; writing by Denny Thomas and Daniel Wallis; editing by Janet Lawrence, Tom Brown and G Crosse</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned himself in to police on Saturday, ending a day-long standoff to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption that derails his bid to return to power.</p> Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is carried by supporters in front of the metallurgic trade union in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Francisco Proer
<p>Lula moved out in a convoy of black police SUVs after pushing his way out of the steel workers union headquarters where he had taken refuge, as militant supporters sought to stop him from surrendering to police. He entered police custody more than 24 hours after a court deadline on Friday afternoon.</p>
<p>In a fiery speech hours earlier to a crowd of red-shirted supporters of his Workers Party outside the union building, Brazil’s first working class president insisted on his innocence and called his bribery conviction a political crime, but said he would turn himself in.</p>
<p>“I will comply with the order,” he told the cheering crowd. “I’m not above the law. If I didn’t believe in the law, I wouldn’t have started a political party. I would have started a revolution.”</p> Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leaves the steel workers union, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto
<p>Lula’s imprisonment removes Brazil’s most influential political figure and front-runner from this year’s presidential campaign, throwing the race wide open and strengthening the odds of a more centrist candidate prevailing, according to analysts and political foes.</p>
<p>It also marks the end of an era for Brazil’s left, which was out in force in the streets outside of the union headquarters in the industrial suburb of Sao Paulo where Lula’s political career began four decades ago as a union organizer.</p>
<p>The throngs of supporters, which began gathering when he arrived late on Thursday night, dissuaded police from trying to take him into custody and heightened concerns about a violent showdown.</p>
<p>Supporters blocked Lula’s first attempt to leave the union building on Saturday afternoon, pushing back against fellow party members trying to open the gate for his car to leave. Workers Party chief Gleisi Hoffmann pleaded with supporters to let him exit.</p>
<p>He will be flown by police to the southern city of Curitiba and held in a special jail cell where he will begin serving his 12-year sentence.</p>
<p>Lula was convicted of taking bribes, including renovation of a three-story seaside apartment that he denies ever owning, from an engineering firm in return for help landing public contracts.</p> Slideshow (14 Images)
<p>“I’m the only person being prosecuted over an apartment that isn’t mine,” insisted Lula, standing on a sound truck alongside his impeached handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff and leaders of other left-wing parties.</p>
<p>A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Saturday rejected the latest plea by Lula’s legal team, which argued they had not exhausted procedural appeals when a judge issued the order to turn himself in.</p>
<p>Under Brazilian electoral law, a candidate is forbidden from running for office for eight years after being found guilty of a crime. Rare exceptions have been made in the past, and the final decision would be made by the top electoral court if and when Lula officially files to be a candidate.</p>
<p>The union where Lula, 72, sought refuge was the launch pad for his career in the late 1970s leading nationwide strikes that helped to end Brazil’s 1964-85 military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Lula’s everyman style and unvarnished speeches electrified masses and eventually won him two terms as president, from 2003 to 2011, when he oversaw robust economic growth and falling inequality amid a commodities boom.</p>
<p>“Those who condemn me without proof know that I am innocent and I governed honestly,” Lula said in a video message to his supporters. “Those who persecute me can do what they want to me, but they will never imprison our dreams.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassú, Ricardo Brito and Jake Spring in Brasilia; Writing by Anthony Boadle and Jake Spring; Editing by Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-NCI Building Systems Announces Redemption Notice For Senior Notes Conditioned Upon Refinancing Man drives van into restaurant in Germany, killing two plus himself Ice hockey world shocked by fatal junior team crash in Canada Fifteen killed in Canadian junior hockey team bus crash Lula turns himself in to Brazil police, ending standoff | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-nci-building-systems-announces-red/brief-nci-building-systems-announces-redemption-notice-for-senior-notes-conditioned-upon-refinancing-idUSASB0C1JO | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Eighteen have been arrested in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood as New Yorkers came out for a third night of protest over the police killing of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, police reported.</p>
<p>The demonstration began at Brooklyn's 67th Precinct in East Flatbush, the part of New York's Brooklyn section where Gray was shot to death by police on Saturday. Witness and police accounts differ on whether Gray was brandishing a weapon before he was killed.</p>
<p>According to autopsy results, Gray was shot seven times – four times in the front of his body, and three times in the back.</p>
<p>Brooklynites were heard shouting "murderers!" at the massive police presence Wednesday as officers prohibited people from even stepping onto the street in one of New York's poorer neighborhoods while police helicopters circled overhead.</p>
<p>The event has been marked by a near-absolute lack of commercial media coverage, with most of the slack being picked up by activists livestreaming from the rally or reporting via Twitter.</p>
<p>Reinforcements were brought into the neighborhood early in the evening after a police car's rear windshield was smashed at the tense but generally peaceful demonstration.</p>
<p>"About 45 arrests so far, lot of young black women in particular," said Twitter user @shushugah, reporting earlier from the demonstration. Police only confirm 18 people arrested.</p>
<p>"The block is closed," a police officer told Ustream user stopmotionsolo as he tried to film the protest. "Party's over," the officer added.</p>
<p>Gray's killing struck a nerve in East Flatbush, where in August 2012, 23-year-old Shantel Davis was shot to death by a police officer after being dragged out of her car. The officer claimed she had stolen the car she was driving at gunpoint. She bled to death.</p>
<p>RT has been covering the East Flatbush rallies in memory of Gray from day one, and spoke to legendary civil rights activist Carl Dix, who has spent much of his career advocating against police brutality.</p>
<p>The NYPD has long struggled with accusations of systematic racism, and Dix says U.S. authorities have their priorities mixed up. “The police – whenever they murder or kill a black or Latino youth – it is always justifiable homicide. The witnesses tell a different story, and this happens again and again,” Dix told RT.</p>
<p>“We should live in a society where those who are entrusted with public security would sooner risk their own lives than murder or injure an innocent person. But it’s the other way around.”</p>
<p>“People are frustrated, people are angry," Dix said of the Brooklyn rallies in recent days. "And I’m not going to condemn them for standing up expressing their anger – because the real violence in this case begins with the killing of Kimani Gray.”</p> | Brooklyn Rises Up in Protest of Police Shooting | true | http://occupy.com/article/brooklyn-rises-protest-police-shooting | 4 | |
<p />
<p>Union mechanics at United Airlines on Monday ratified a six-year joint collective bargaining agreement with the airline, marking the end to several years of contract talks between the two parties.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, maintenance technicians at Chicago-based United, the No. 3 U.S. airline by passenger traffic, will see pay hikes that will put their compensation packages "2 percent above the highest compensation in the industry every two years."</p>
<p>(Reporting by Alana Wise, editing by G Crosse)</p> | United Airlines mechanics vote to ratify new contract | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/12/05/united-airlines-mechanics-vote-to-ratify-new-contract.html | 2016-12-05 | 0 |
<p>PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. (AP) - The grassy brown Sierra meadow where California's water managers gave the results of the winter's first manual snowpack measurements Wednesday told the story - the drought-prone state is off to another unusually dry start in its vital winter rain and snow season.</p>
<p>"We would like to have had more snow," Grant Davis, head of California's Department of Water Resources, told news crews gathered in this mountain field, bare of all but a few crusty dots of old snow.</p>
<p>"It's early," Davis said. "We're obviously hopeful there will be more snow the next time we come out here."</p>
<p>He spoke after Frank Gehrke, head of the state's snow survey team, stuck a metal pole into one of the few patches of snow at the site, measuring just over an inch (2.5 centimeters), or 3 percent of normal.</p>
<p>Climate change increasingly is changing the mountain snowfall equation, but historically up to 60 percent of Californians' water supply each year starts out as snowfall in the Sierras. That makes the state's manual and electronic snowpack measurements in these mountains crucial gauges of how much water cities and farms will get in the year ahead.</p>
<p>This winter, one month into the state's peak storm season, snowpack across the Sierras stood Wednesday at 24 percent of normal.</p>
<p>The dry spell is even more acute in Southern California, including Los Angeles, which the National Weather Service said this week was marking its driest 10-month period on record. Residents there last saw significant rainfall in February.</p>
<p>The dry start to the rain and snow season is raising worries the state could be plunging right back into drought. The scene Wednesday was remiscent of 2015, when Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a brown, dry Sierra meadow equally bare of snow to declare a drought emergency, including mandatory water cutbacks by cities and towns.</p>
<p>Near-record rainfall last winter snapped the historic drought, filling reservoirs and sending many rivers over their banks. Reservoirs remain at 110 percent of normal storage thanks to the last wet winter, water officials said.</p>
<p>As Californians, "we live in the most variable climate in the country," Davis said Wednesday, surrounded by forecasters and water officials in parkas for their mountain-meadow news conference. "That variability is what we have to manage."</p>
<p>He called for more improvements in long-range forecasting, to help the state's reservoir managers better operate dams for both water supplies and flood control. As the climate changes, much of the state's water is coming in the form of rain during storms known as "atmospheric rivers," Davis noted.</p>
<p>"It's very clear to us that we need to have more information" about how atmospheric rivers behave overall, Davis said.</p>
<p>This winter, in contrast to the previous rain-sodden one, meteorologists point to a strengthening La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific, which typically brings drier weather.</p>
<p>A stubborn ridge of high pressure in the Pacific - the same bad guy during the state's drought - has been blocking storms from reaching Southern California in particular.</p>
<p>In December, dry winds and parched vegetation combined for the state's biggest wildfires on record in the Los Angeles area, after deadlier wildfires in Northern California in October.</p>
<p>Even as the water officials spoke Wednesday, a welcome new storm carried some of the first rain in weeks into Northern California, which also had marked one of its driest Decembers on record.</p>
<p>Parts of Northern California will see rain - but not massive amounts of it - through the first half of January, with 1 or 2 inches (2.5 or 5 centimeters) of snow expected in the Sierras, the weather service said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Knickmeyer reported from San Francisco.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show Grant Davis, head of California's Department of Water Resources, said he was hopeful for more snow, not Frank Gehrke, head of the state's snow survey team.</p>
<p>PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. (AP) - The grassy brown Sierra meadow where California's water managers gave the results of the winter's first manual snowpack measurements Wednesday told the story - the drought-prone state is off to another unusually dry start in its vital winter rain and snow season.</p>
<p>"We would like to have had more snow," Grant Davis, head of California's Department of Water Resources, told news crews gathered in this mountain field, bare of all but a few crusty dots of old snow.</p>
<p>"It's early," Davis said. "We're obviously hopeful there will be more snow the next time we come out here."</p>
<p>He spoke after Frank Gehrke, head of the state's snow survey team, stuck a metal pole into one of the few patches of snow at the site, measuring just over an inch (2.5 centimeters), or 3 percent of normal.</p>
<p>Climate change increasingly is changing the mountain snowfall equation, but historically up to 60 percent of Californians' water supply each year starts out as snowfall in the Sierras. That makes the state's manual and electronic snowpack measurements in these mountains crucial gauges of how much water cities and farms will get in the year ahead.</p>
<p>This winter, one month into the state's peak storm season, snowpack across the Sierras stood Wednesday at 24 percent of normal.</p>
<p>The dry spell is even more acute in Southern California, including Los Angeles, which the National Weather Service said this week was marking its driest 10-month period on record. Residents there last saw significant rainfall in February.</p>
<p>The dry start to the rain and snow season is raising worries the state could be plunging right back into drought. The scene Wednesday was remiscent of 2015, when Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a brown, dry Sierra meadow equally bare of snow to declare a drought emergency, including mandatory water cutbacks by cities and towns.</p>
<p>Near-record rainfall last winter snapped the historic drought, filling reservoirs and sending many rivers over their banks. Reservoirs remain at 110 percent of normal storage thanks to the last wet winter, water officials said.</p>
<p>As Californians, "we live in the most variable climate in the country," Davis said Wednesday, surrounded by forecasters and water officials in parkas for their mountain-meadow news conference. "That variability is what we have to manage."</p>
<p>He called for more improvements in long-range forecasting, to help the state's reservoir managers better operate dams for both water supplies and flood control. As the climate changes, much of the state's water is coming in the form of rain during storms known as "atmospheric rivers," Davis noted.</p>
<p>"It's very clear to us that we need to have more information" about how atmospheric rivers behave overall, Davis said.</p>
<p>This winter, in contrast to the previous rain-sodden one, meteorologists point to a strengthening La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific, which typically brings drier weather.</p>
<p>A stubborn ridge of high pressure in the Pacific - the same bad guy during the state's drought - has been blocking storms from reaching Southern California in particular.</p>
<p>In December, dry winds and parched vegetation combined for the state's biggest wildfires on record in the Los Angeles area, after deadlier wildfires in Northern California in October.</p>
<p>Even as the water officials spoke Wednesday, a welcome new storm carried some of the first rain in weeks into Northern California, which also had marked one of its driest Decembers on record.</p>
<p>Parts of Northern California will see rain - but not massive amounts of it - through the first half of January, with 1 or 2 inches (2.5 or 5 centimeters) of snow expected in the Sierras, the weather service said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Knickmeyer reported from San Francisco.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show Grant Davis, head of California's Department of Water Resources, said he was hopeful for more snow, not Frank Gehrke, head of the state's snow survey team.</p> | California: Hardly any snow but not in drought again, yet | false | https://apnews.com/abd289f4735e4a07a3a92fb4f1e51336 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>It’s a cabaret-style performance of 26 songs within the framework of a story. It is being presented Saturday, July 20 at the Jewish Community Center.</p>
<p>“We are posing as a group performers whose show isn’t going as planned. Something is wrong,” said Jackie Bregman, one of the singers. “The manager isn’t happy. He’s instructed us to go back into rehearsal before the next show.”</p>
<p>The performance begins with the four singing “The Story of Love.”</p>
<p />
<p>WHERE: Jewish Community Center, 5520 Wyoming NE</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>HOW MUCH: $20 for general seating, $25 for premium seating. Tickets are available in advance at <a href="http://www.jccabq.org" type="external">www.jccabq.org</a> or at the door. For more information call 348-4500</p>
<p>“It kind of sets the scene for the rest of the show. It’s about why some of us are feeling down,” Bregman said. “From there the different performers go on individually and sing about their perspective on love.”</p>
<p>The other three singers are William Dudeck, Courtney Wilgus and Warren Wilgus.</p>
<p>Courtney Wilgus portrays the character who was brought in to save the show but the rest of the group is dubious about her being able to accomplish that, Bregman said.</p>
<p>Her first solo song is “I’m the Greatest Star.” Dudeck goes on next, singing “Hey, Jealous Lover.” Then Bregman sings “Hard-Hearted Hannah,” followed by Warren Wilgus doing “Unforgettable.”</p>
<p>In between songs, Bregman said, the performers talk about what’s going on in the personal lives of their characters.</p>
<p>“Act Two takes place in a nightclub where we go to rehearse before the next cabaret show,” she said.</p>
<p>In that act, Warren Wilgus sings “The Girl That I Marry” and “Luck Be a Lady,” Dudeck sings “Feelin’ Good,” Courtney Wilgus serves up “Perhaps” and Bregman does “Makin’ Whoopee.”</p>
<p>“We have been having a great time doing it,” Bregman said. “It’s fun. It allows us to play around in a fantasy world with our characters. Yet when we sing, we can present songs the way we want to present them.”</p>
<p>The piano accompanist is Joe McCanna.</p> | Cabaret-style songs, story of love | false | https://abqjournal.com/221085/cabaretstyle-songs-story-of-love.html | 2013-07-14 | 2 |
<p>The National Association of Evangelicals has a seven-point statement of faith. Members affirm they believe:</p>
<p>• The Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word of God. • There is one God, eternally existent in three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. • In the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in his vicarious and atoning death through his shed blood, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in his personal return in power and glory. • For the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. • In the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. • In the resurrection of both the saved and the lost—they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation. • In the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.nae.net/" type="external">www.nae.net</a></p>
<p>Christian researcher George Barna defines evangelicals according to nine questions. By Barna’s criteria, an evangelical is someone who:</p>
<p>• Has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in his or her life today. • Believes he or she will go to heaven based on confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. • Believes faith is very important in his or her life today. • Believes he or she has a personal responsibility to share religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians. • Believes Satan exists. • Believes eternal life is possible only through grace, not works. • Believes Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth. • Asserts the Bible is accurate in all it teaches. • Describes God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Deity who created the universe and still rules it today.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.barna.org" type="external">www.barna.org</a></p> | Definitions of “evangelical” vary | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/definitionsofevangelicalvary/ | 3 | |
<p>Former President Bill Clinton took a moment to blast all of the flurry over the non-existent email scandal. At the Asian American Journalists' Association meeting in Las Vegas, Clinton was asked by someone claiming to be a supporter how they could possibly trust Hillary Clinton in the wake of this terrible email "scandal."</p>
<p>"First of all, the FBI director said when he testified before Congress that she had never received any emails congress he had to amend his previous day's statement that she had never received any e-mails marked classified. They saw two little notes with a word about telephone calls marked c on it," he fumed.</p>
<p>Clinton added, "This is the biggest load of bull that I've ever heard."</p>
<p>He expanded on that by saying, "Do you really believe there are 300 career diplomats because that's how many people were on these emails, all of whom were careless with national security? Do you believe that?"</p>
<p>And one last challenge. "Forget about Hillary, forget about her. Is that conceivable?"</p>
<p>Of course it's not conceivable. This is nothing more than the usual effort to find something -- anything -- to smear a Clinton with, and it's obscene.</p> | Bill Clinton Says Email 'Scandal' Is 'The Biggest Bunch Of Bull' Ever | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/bill-clinton-says-email-scandal-biggest | 2016-08-13 | 4 |
<p>The normally mild-mannered Jose Manuel Barrosso, President of the European Commission - the EU's administrative arm - unloaded today on David Cameron.</p>
<p>It's clear that what happened in Brussels last week was that Cameron was there to negotiate on market trading terms rather than agree a way out of a global crisis. He wanted to discuss improvements in trading rules for Britain's key industry, financial services, according to Barrosso, "The United Kingdom, in exchange for giving its agreement, asked for a specific protocol on financial services which, as presented, was a risk to the integrity of the internal market. This made compromise impossible."</p>
<p>Apparently what Cameron was asking for would have led to a wholesale renegotiating of the terms of the market when what everyone was focusing on was negotiating tighter rules on budget deficits.&#160; It's sort of like turning up at an AA meeting and wanting to discuss speed dating rather than listening and helping partners with serious problems.</p>
<p>More reports <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/8952527/Debt-crisis-live.html" type="external">here</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/13/eurozone-crisis-inflation" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>It looks like the news cycle is going to move on from the summit story to more intramural news. Inflation in the UK dropped to 4.8 percent last month. That's good news although it still leaves Britain with the highest inflation rate in the EU.</p>
<p>Next big headline is going to be generated by unemployment figures which are due to be released tomorrow.</p>
<p>I wonder if any hedgies are betting on how far up the figures will go.</p> | Finger pointing continues over Britain's "veto" | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-12-13/finger-pointing-continues-over-britains-veto | 2011-12-13 | 3 |
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<p>Flooding in India and Bangladesh has <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6927389.stm" type="external">drowned out</a> more than 12 million acres of farmland and killed almost 200 people in the last few days. The number of dead is expected to rise dramatically as news begins to flow from remote areas. In India’s Uttar Pradesh, the army is attempting to evacuate 500 villages. The Red Cross and other groups are attempting to provide much-needed food, drinking water, and medical aid, but people on the ground report that their efforts are nowhere near adequate.</p>
<p>Several lessons here about our future with climate change: Developing nations are likely to be hardest hit. Military rule will likely be invoked regularly, diminishing civil liberties. Food and water supplies will be threatened as major disasters like this one become more commonplace.</p>
<p>Smells like apocalypse, huh? I’m only hoping that Bible thumpers will stop devoting their energy to denying <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/04/4101_in_which_i_expl.html" type="external">marriage rights</a> to gays and <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/08/5080_doctors_who_den.html" type="external">freedom of choice</a> to women and start campaigning against greenhouse-gas pollution.</p>
<p /> | Weird Weather Watch: Biblical Flooding in South Asia | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/weird-weather-watch-biblical-flooding-south-asia/ | 2007-08-03 | 4 |
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<p>Overinvesting $35 million – and losing $758K for sure and potentially more than $22 million more – can’t be dismissed as an “honest mistake” that resulted in a “shortfall of cash.” No matter how many times you’ve been treasurer. Yet that pablum is the best ex-treasurer/current part-time investment officer Patrick Padilla can come up with.</p>
<p>And Treasurer Manny Ortiz’s assurances that he will be able to pay routine bills when property tax payments roll in at the end of the year smacks of cartoon character Wimpy promising to gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.</p>
<p>So it is vital the State Securities Division continue its investigation into whether the high turnover in the county’s bond portfolio – made under the oversight of Padilla and Ortiz – was a misguided move to be a yield hog (giving priority to bonds’ interest rate rather than safety or liquidity) or a deliberate attempt at churning (ginning up commissions for bond brokers).</p>
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<p>And it is essential the county follow through on County Manager Tom Zdunek’s request to hire an outside financial expert to provide investment advice as well as review the transaction-fee structure.</p>
<p>And it is important that the state Auditor’s Office complete a special audit related to “troubling risks to county funds in fiscal years beyond 2013” – and do it on a much faster track than it has in controversial cases like the Downs at Albuquerque, where the audit release has been delayed almost a year.</p>
<p>Padilla says there is “absolutely” nothing about his multimillion-dollar investments “that the public needs to be concerned with.” Easy to say when talking about other people’s money, and less than comforting considering the sketchy and incestuous backstory to the Treasurer’s Office.</p>
<p>Consider that Padilla was treasurer from 1988 to 1992. He was defeated at the polls as questions swirled around county investments. He was indicted in 1993 of falsifying investment records and misusing public money, acquitted by a jury in 1994, and discounted the accusations as politically motivated. He returned as treasurer from 2004 to 2012, then swapped jobs with his investment officer, Ortiz.</p>
<p>As County Commissioner Wayne Johnson says, “It does seem to be a cozy little relationship.”</p>
<p>While Padilla plans to leave his county job next month, he hopes New Mexicans are foolish enough to put him in the state Treasurer’s Office.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the broker who handled more of the county bond transactions than any other was sued by Sandoval County for excessively trading investments and overcharging commissions (the suit was dismissed), Padilla’s wife was Sandoval County’s investment officer at the time, and the broker and his former employers have settled two other lawsuits.</p>
<p>County Commission Chairwoman Maggie Hart Stebbins is right when she says, it’s important to get some fresh eyes to “restore some confidence in the Treasurer’s Office.”</p>
<p>Because the office hasn’t had fresh blood in years.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: An outside look critical to treasurer credibility | false | https://abqjournal.com/300419/an-outside-look-critical-to-treasurer-credibility.html | 2 | |
<p>Electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc said on Tuesday it would buy German firm Grohmann Engineering to improve its automated manufacturing systems.</p>
<p>The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, is expected to add over 1,000 engineering and skilled technician jobs in Germany over the next two years, Tesla said in a blogpost. (http://bit.ly/2eIkeNm)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Several elements of Tesla's automated manufacturing systems will be designed and produced in Pr��m, Germany.</p>
<p>Grohmann Engineering, which would be renamed Tesla Grohmann Automation after the deal, will serve as the initial base for Tesla Advanced Automation Germany headquarters, with other locations to follow.</p>
<p>Elon Musk-led Tesla, which has been seeing an upward trend in its production level, expects exponential improvements in the speed and quality of production, while cutting costs, following the deal.</p>
<p>The Grohmann buy will also help Tesla ramp up its production and reach its target of 500,000 vehicles by the year 2018.</p>
<p>The deal, expected to close next year, is subject to clearance from regulators, including those in Germany.</p>
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<p>(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)</p> | Tesla to buy Grohmann Engineering to ramp up automated manufacturing | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/08/tesla-to-buy-grohmann-engineering-to-ramp-up-automated-manufacturing.html | 2016-11-08 | 0 |
<p>Americans are fairly evenly divided as to whether convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison — with a slight majority preferring the ultimate penalty — according to an online poll.</p>
<p>The poll, conducted by NBC News and SurveyMonkey, <a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/AJDocs/NBCPoll_Boston%20Marathon%20Bombing_Release040815.pdf" type="external">found 47 percent</a>of those questioned want Tsarnaev to be executed, while 42 percent would prefer he be imprisoned for life. Eleven percent weren’t sure.</p>
<p>Tsarnaev, 21, <a href="" type="internal">was convicted Wednesday of all 30 counts</a> for his role in the April 15, 2013 bombings that killed three people and injured 260 in the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11. The trail will now move on to the penalty phase, where a jury will decide whether he should be executed.</p>
<p>Defense attorneys never disputed that Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings, but argued his older brother Tamerlan, who was killed by police, was the mastermind.</p>
<p>Older Americans surveyed were more likely to want the death penalty than those under 30. Half those surveyed who are over the age of 30 said they want Tsarnaev to be executed, compared to 34 percent of those under 30 years of age.</p>
<p>Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say they wanted the death penalty for Tsarnaev. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans said they want him executed, compared to 38 percent of Democrats polled. Among those identifying themselves as independents, 43 percent said they want Tsarnaev executed.</p>
<p>Those living in the Northeast were similarly divided on the death penalty for Tsaernaev, with half preferring life in prison for him and 41 percent saying he deserved the death penalty.</p>
<p>Most Americans are satisfied that the government is doing a good job of reducing the threat of terrorism, with nearly 62 percent saying it is doing "very well" or "somewhat well," the poll found.</p>
<p>But 46 percent of those polled also said it is very likely or somewhat likely that there will be a terrorist attack inside the U.S. in the next few months. Only 12 percent said a terrorist attack in the near future was "not at all likely."</p>
<p>The NBC News-SurveyMonkey Poll was conducted online April 6-8, 2015 among a national sample of 2,052 adults aged 18 and over. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in the SurveyMonkey Contribute panel.</p>
<p>Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.</p>
<p>A full description of our methodology <a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/AJDocs/NBCPoll_Boston%20Marathon%20Bombing_TOPLINES_040815.pdf" type="external">can be found here</a>.</p>
<p>The survey was produced by the Analytics Unit of NBC News in conjunction with Penn’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies with data collection and tabulation conducted by SurveyMonkey. Analysis was done by the University of Pennsylvania’'s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies.</p> | Americans Divided Over Death For Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Poll Finds | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-trial/americans-divided-over-death-boston-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-poll-finds-n338076 | 2015-04-09 | 3 |
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<p>When trying to grow a business, a common misstep is to focus on gaining new business, but the secret may actually be right before your eyes. Focusing on what you already have – internal staff and external customers – may be the key to success.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>To achieve business growth and development this year, consider practicing:</p>
<p>Customer service is king. Reality is, everyone doesn't have a nice demeanor and not everyone cares about how they or their company are perceived. It’s crucial to teach and stress the importance of client relationships, and the value of treating them with respect. Gaining business from new customers is nice, but retaining current customers is more important. Establishing a loyal customer base ensures steady, reliable business.</p>
<p>Hire slow, fire fast. Take the time to find and hire the right people…people that are a culture fit, and don’t be afraid to part ways with the bad hires who impact productivity, moral and culture. To ensure a candidate is the right fit for the company, and vice versa, each candidate should meet with four or five different staff members individually. If a few employees have concerns, it’s likely they aren’t the right fit for the organization. If a manager still ends up hiring the wrong person for the role, they should remove the employee immediately.</p>
<p>Invest in professional development. Growing a company means committing time to professional development. Managers can’t expect their staff to want to learn, grow and invest time outside of the workplace by attending seminars or taking continuing education classes if managers aren’t doing it themselves.</p>
<p>3E’s: Education, Empowerment, Empathy. Utilizing the 3E’s will help you retain staff.</p>
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<p>Education: Employees want to continue developing their skills while learning new ones. Offering training sessions and having employees attend webinars and conferences will feed their desire to learn while augmenting their skill sets.</p>
<p>Empowerment: Empower staff by demonstrating confidence in their abilities to utilize the newly acquired skill set with new and challenging tasks. Once the employees are comfortable in their roles and know what they’re doing, encourage them to act first and apologize later.</p>
<p>Empathy: I believe the best managers and leaders have great empathy for their teams and staff. They understand that an employee can feel pressure without understanding the end goal, and make it a point to walk them through the process and help them to understand.</p>
<p>3C’s: Collaboration, Compassion, Competition.&#160;</p>
<p>Collaboration: Promote internal communication. Encourage employees to get up, move around the office and talk to co-workers in different units. Some of the best ideas come from cross-unit/cross-office communication.</p>
<p>Compassion: Have compassion for one another and try to understand what others are going through. Realize events outside of the office may affect someone at work, i.e. planning a wedding, death of a family member, having a child, etc. Consider reorganizing tasks on his/her team.</p>
<p>Competition: Internal competitiveness is OK! It’s great for an employee to want to be better…better than they were yesterday…better than a coworker…better than their direct team members. This doesn’t this mean they want anyone to fail. And it never hurts to remind the team to compete as a whole against your business competition. Then everyone wins.</p>
<p><a href="http://thelasallenetwork.com/about/leadership/" type="external">Tom Gimbel Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;is the Founder and CEO of&#160; <a href="http://thelasallenetwork.com/" type="external">LaSalle Network Opens a New Window.</a>, a staffing firm based in Chicago. Founded in 1998, LaSalle has served thousands of clients and candidates, placing job seekers in temporary, temporary-to-permanent and permanent positions. LaSalle Network has been listed on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list for the past seven years, named by Staffing Industry Analysts’ as a top five “Best Staffing Firms to Work For” from 2011 through 2013, and among the “Fastest Growing Staffing Firms” in 2012 and 2013.</p> | 5 Ways to Grow Your Business in 2014 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/01/28/5-ways-to-grow-your-business-in-2014.html | 2016-04-07 | 0 |
<p>Is it coincidence or conspiracy?</p>
<p>Supporters of five Cuban intelligence agents now serving lengthy sentences in US federal prison following controversial espionage convictions, say federal government documents detailing payments made by a US government-run anti-Castro propaganda operation to prominent Miami-area journalists prove a conspiracy.</p>
<p>Articles by those journalists and others, a federal appeals court once noted, contributed significantly to inflaming “pervasive community prejudice” in Miami which made it impossible for the agents known as the Cuban Five to receive a fair trial.</p>
<p>Others, however, claim it’s just coincidence that the same journalists who were paid $1,125 to $58,600 to appear on anti-Castro programs produced by the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting before and during the trial for the Cuban Five also published scandalous articles about the Five in an influential Spanish language newspaper owned by the Miami Herald and in other local media.</p>
<p>The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, during a recent press conference in Washington, released documents listing both the amounts of federal funds paid to the journalists and the articles they published.</p>
<p>“This is a most blatant and outrageous example of government influence destroying the right to a fair trial and the right to appeal,” said Gloria La Riva, Coordinator of the National Committee.</p>
<p>“During the pre-trial period there were hundreds of articles on the Cuban Five and not one was favorable,” La Riva said.</p>
<p>La Riva, in her remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, said the payments to journalists, funneled through Radio and TV Marti, violated federal law banning domestic government propaganda.</p>
<p>The National Committee along with the National Lawyers Guild, the Partnership for Civil Justice and the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition are calling upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to take immediate action to correct the unjust convictions of the Cuban Five – two of whom are serving life sentences.</p>
<p>The eight-month long trial for the Cuban Five that ended with their convictions in June 2001 is widely condemned as unfair partly due to the acid nature of the anti-Cuban Five news coverage that saturated Miami, where the trial was held despite repeated defense requests to have the proceeding moved away from a city containing America’s largest anti-Castro Cuban population.</p>
<p>A May 2005 legal analysis of the Cuban Five case conducted by the United Nation’s Human Rights Commission proclaimed the original trial “did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality” required for fair trials. The Commission’s report called for a new trial.</p>
<p>The US federal appeals court panel that ordered a new trial for the Cuban Five in August 2005 concluded that extensive pre-trial publicity and publicity during the trial, coupled with prosecutorial misconduct, created a “perfect storm” of gale-force unfairness against the defendants.</p>
<p>President George W. Bush’s administration demanded a rehearing on that new trial grant and won a reversal in an August 2006 ruling that found insufficient evidence that news articles ‘impaired’ the right to an impartial jury.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the Five.</p>
<p>Ironically the same federal prosecutors who claimed “objective” news coverage didn’t rob the Cuban Five of their fair trial rights cited negative coverage in Miami when seeking to relocate the trial of a Hispanic federal agent who filed a race discrimination lawsuit against the federal government.</p>
<p>This astounding flip-flop by federal prosecutors regarding the prejudicial impact of news coverage came exactly one year after the Five’s conviction. Federal appellate judges found no fault with this flip-flop.</p>
<p>The Cuban Five, who were dispatched to the US to monitor the activities of anti-Cuban organizations in the US, enjoy hero status in their Caribbean island nation.</p>
<p>These men have support from governmental leaders of a wide array of nations including Argentina, Belgium, Mali, Panama, Russia and Sweden. These leaders see the Five’s imprisonment as persecution, noting that vindictive federal authorities are even denying wives of two Five members permission to visit their incarderated husbands.</p>
<p>The five are: Antonio Guerrero; Fernando Gonzalez; Gerardo Hernandez; Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez.</p>
<p>U.S. authorities consider the Cuban Five dangerous operatives inserted into the U.S. to undermine opponents of the Cuban government living in the U.S. and to spy on U.S. military installations and U.S. political and law enforcement activities.</p>
<p>The Five, however, say their U.S. mission sought to only prevent violence in Cuba by monitoring violent anti-Castro extremists in south Florida, some of whom were conducting terrorists attacks inside Cuba.</p>
<p>Curiously, the FBI arrested the Five in September 1998, three months after the Cuban government gave the FBI voluminous documentation on anti-Cuban government terrorists operating in south Florida, some of whom were openly engaged in paramilitary training.</p>
<p>“The Cuban government gave the FBI names, addresses, videos and documents. The FBI took the information, said they would get back to them but never did,” said Leonard Weinglass, the attorney handling appeals for the Cuban Five.</p>
<p>Weinglass is preparing to file a new round of appeals for the Cuban Five in mid-June that will include evidence of the government payments to those journalists who later authored negative articles.</p>
<p>“No one knew at the time of the trial about the heavy hand of government interference. The reporting was very prejudicial,” observed Weinglass, who didn’t represent the Five at their original trial.</p>
<p>The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is engaged in a separate legal battle to pry additional documents from the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting regarding its payments to journalists. The office is s refusing to release these.</p>
<p>Some see similarities in government payments to journalists like Pablo Alfonso (who received $58,600 during the Five’s detention and trial period, during which time he wrote 16 negative articles), with the much criticized payments the Bush Administration provided journalists to advocate for its No Child Left Behind education program.</p>
<p>One of those Bush-financed “journalists,” conservative media personality Armstrong Williams, received $240,000 in payments…payments that a 2005 GAO report subsequently declared illegal.</p>
<p>Yet a more accurate comparison of government-journalist collusion is the FBI’s secret employment of news media sources to generate negative publicity during its infamous COINTELPRO assaults against African-American and anti-Vietnam War activists during the late 1960s and early 1970s. COINTELPRO actions included interference with court proceedings in an effort to win convictions.</p>
<p>“Much of the Bureau’s propaganda efforts involved giving information or articles to “friendly” media sources,” stated a 1976 U.S. Senate report on the illegal COINTELPRO actions.</p>
<p>The deliberate journalistic sabotage of the Cuban Five trial by paid-off journalists, as detailed in the documents released by the National Committee, apparently is not news considered worthy of reporting by mainstream U.S. media, which has blacked out the story.</p>
<p>A post-press conference examination found no next-day coverage in domestic mainstream media in the news data bases of Google, LEXIS and Yahoo.</p>
<p>“The U.S. news media hasn’t covered the Cuban Five story sufficiently,” says National Committee Coordinator Gloria La Riva.</p>
<p>Linn Washington is a founding member of the new collectively-owned, journalist-run online newspaper ThisCantBeHappening. His work, and that of fellow journalists Dave Lindorff, John Grant and Charles Young, is available at: <a href="http://www.www.thiscantbehappening.net" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | The Federal Government Paid Journalists to Sabotage Trial | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/04/the-federal-government-paid-journalists-to-sabotage-trial/ | 2010-06-04 | 4 |
<p>By Lisa Baertlein</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - <a href="" type="internal">Starbucks</a> Corp's business is "still very strong" despite months of economic turmoil that has weakened sales at other major restaurant chains, Chief Executive <a href="" type="internal">Howard Schultz</a> told Reuters on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Starbucks is having its best year and our business remains strong," he said in a telephone interview.</p>
<p>The comments from the founder and CEO of the world's biggest coffee chain came a day after <a href="" type="internal">Darden Restaurants</a> Inc said diners at its restaurants, which include Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse, ordered fewer appetizers, drinks and desserts during its fiscal first quarter ended August 28.</p>
<p>Darden also said it expected its diners' more frugal behavior to continue for the balance of the company's fiscal year, but at a slightly more moderate level.</p>
<p>When asked if Starbucks has seen its customers respond in similar ways, Schultz said: "We have not."</p>
<p>Starbucks was hit hard by the U.S. housing crisis that dragged the economy into recession. It shuttered nearly 1,000 stores around the world and slashed costs in a painful, but successful restructuring.</p>
<p>Its shares, which fell below $8 in November 2008, closed at $38.17 on the <a href="" type="internal">New York Stock Exchange</a>.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, editing by Bernard Orr)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Starbucks CEO saw no summer weakness | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/09/30/starbucks-ceo-saw-no-summer-weakness.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>DENVER — A Colorado State University graduate student separated from her family because of President Trump’s travel ban is back in Fort Collins.</p>
<p>Hanan Isweiri (HAH’-nan Is-WIR’-ee) had traveled to Libya with her 1-year-old son to visit her sick mother and attend her father’s funeral. She was stopped in Jordan on her return trip because of the president’s executive order halting immigration from Libya and six other Muslim-majority countries.</p>
<p>After a federal judge swept aside the order, she and her son was able to fly back to the United States. Her husband and their three other children were waiting for her with flowers and balloons at Denver International Airport on Sunday.</p>
<p>She told KUSA-TV ( <a href="http://on9news.tv/2kjcynG" type="external">http://on9news.tv/2kjcynG</a> ) that “it’s really great to be home.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | CSU grad student returns from Libya, reunites with family | false | https://abqjournal.com/943663/csu-grad-student-returns-from-libya-reunites-with-family.html | 2 | |
<p>We're testing your globalization IQ for today's Geo Quiz.</p>
<p>And we're getting some help from Carolyn O'Hara.</p>
<p>She's the senior editor at Foreign Policy magazine.</p>
<p>Here's the question:</p>
<p>"What is the United States' number one export by volume?"</p>
<p>a) CORN b) SCRAP PAPER or c) GUNS?</p>
<p>The Geo Quiz answer is "SCRAP PAPER." Listen to all the questions and answers to today's quiz:</p> | Geo Quiz - Geo Answer | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-07-15/geo-quiz-geo-answer | 2008-07-15 | 3 |
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<p>It's been an up-and-down ride for Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CLDX) shareholders since the biotech reported the late-stage failure for Rintega. Celldex refocused on the rest of its pipeline after the major disappointment early last year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 results after the market closed on Tuesday. Here are the highlights.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Data source: Celldex Therapeutics.</p>
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<p>Celldex posted slightly higher revenue in the fourth quarter than in the prior year. This increase was due primarily to itsclinical trial collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and an increase in grant revenue.</p>
<p>The company's operating expenses rose from $35.2 million in the prior-year period to $36.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Celldex's acquisition of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals in November was a major factor behind these higher costs.</p>
<p>The most important financial figure Celldex reported was its cash position. At the end of 2016, the biotech had cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaling $189.8 million.</p>
<p>Other major achievements in the fourth quarter included:</p>
<p>Celldex Therapeutics CEO Anthony Marucci focused on where his company is headed: "Celldex made important progress across our pipeline in the fourth quarter, including successfully completing the integration of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals and its novel RTK antibody programs into our organization and driving a considerable uptick in enrollment in our ongoing study of glembatumumab vedotin in triple negative breast cancer."</p>
<p>He added, "As we look to 2017, we have prioritized completing the glemba studies in breast cancer and checkpoint-refractory metastatic melanoma, the phase 2 collaborative study of varlilumab with [Bristol-Myers Squibb's] Opdivo and our phase 1 studies of both CDX-0158 and CDX-014. Data from a number of these programs are expected to be available over the next six to 12 months."</p>
<p>The primary things to watch with Celldex in the months ahead are the clinical studies for glemba andvarlilumab. Celldex should have several announcements this year.</p>
<p>Results from the early-stage study ofvarlilumab and Opdivo will be presented in mid-2017. Data fromthe glemba/varlilumab combo arm of the phase 2 METRIC study should read out this fall. Results from the early-stage study of CDX-0158 are expected by the end of the year.</p>
<p>For now, Celldex appears to be in good shape to fund its clinical programs for the next couple of years. However, the company hinted again that additional stock could be sold through its agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald. It's possible that further share dilution could be in Celldex's future.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Celldex TherapeuticsWhen 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>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Celldex Therapeutics. 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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. Ends Q4 With Plenty of Cash and Several Key Studies Progressing | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/14/celldex-therapeutics-inc-ends-q4-with-plenty-cash-and-several-key-studies.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
<p>Steve Rubel does a nice job of explaining how the Internet and blogs are spreading out media usage in <a href="http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/4559.asp" type="external">this essay</a> at iMedia Connection -- using the concept of the "long tail."The idea is most easily seen with online DVD-rental services like <a href="http://www.netflix.com" type="external">Netflix</a>. Rather than consumers being limited to the stock on hand in a physical video-rental store, Netflix makes many more thousands of titles available -- many of them obscure and out of the mainstream. With this choice available, we find that more and more consumers make non-mainstream choices, spread out in small hits across many, many options. (Ergo, the list of movies rented, represented as a barchart, would show a left-side spike for the top movies, followed to the right by a very long and thin tail representing obscure titles.)We can think of blogs in the same way. The top media and news sites represent big user bases, and the tail gets thinner and thinner as we go to the right, passing through regional sites, industry websites, etc. Blogs, many with their micro (but devoted) audiences, represent the long, thin tail.Rubel sees several consequences of the media long-tail trend, including that more media outlets will embrace blogs, in some cases buying them out or partnering with them rather than trying to compete with them. Also, mainstream media sites will turn themselves into blog-like aggregators, linking readers to relevant content in their areas of focus. We're already seeing early adopters in the media world exhibit this behavior.</p> | The Long Tail of Blogging | false | https://poynter.org/news/long-tail-blogging | 2004-11-11 | 2 |
<p>A former Hollywood actor and model has accused George Takei of taking his pants off and sexually assaulting him after he passed out from drinking too much alcohol.</p>
<p>Scott R. Burton told <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-takei-accused-sexually-assaulting-model-1981-1056698" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a> in an interview that the alleged assault happened in 1981 when he was 23 and Takei was in his mid-forties.</p>
<p>According to Burton, the two men met each other at Greg’s Blue Dot bar, exchanged phone numbers, and spoke to each other from time to time. Burton says that when he broke up with his boyfriend, Takei invited him out to dinner and a show.</p>
<p>“He was very good at consoling me and understanding that I was upset and still in love with my boyfriend,” Brunton told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a great ear. He was very good about me spilling my heart on my sleeve.”</p>
<p>After the date, Burton said the two went back to Takei’s place to have drinks, which is when the alleged assault happened.</p>
<p>“We have the drink and he asks if I would like another,” Brunton said. “And I said sure. So, I have the second one, and then all of a sudden, I begin feeling very disoriented and dizzy, and I thought I was going to pass out.”</p>
<p>Burton said that he went to lie down and that when he woke up from “pass[ing] out” Takei was sexually assaulting him:</p>
<p>“The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear,” Brunton recalled. “I came to and said, ‘What are you doing?!’ I said, ‘I don't want to do this.’ He goes, ‘You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.’ And I said, ‘No. I don't want to do this.’ And I pushed him off and he said, 'OK, fine.' And I said I am going to go and he said, 'If you feel you must. You're in no condition to drive.'"</p>
<p>The actor said he left Takei’s place as soon as he felt well enough to drive.</p>
<p>When THR spoke with "four longtime friends of Brunton," they told the outlet that they were aware of the story from years before.</p>
<p>Takei strongly denied the allegations Saturday morning on Twitter:</p> | Model Accuses George Takei Of Sexually Assaulting Him | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23446/model-accuses-george-takei-sexually-assaulting-him-ryan-saavedra | 2017-11-11 | 0 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - Lundin Gold Inc:</p>
<p>* LUNDIN GOLD SECURES CREDIT APPROVAL FOR US$300 MILLION SENIOR DEBT FACILITY FOR FRUTA DEL NORTE</p>
<p>* LUNDIN GOLD INC - ‍FRUTA DEL NORTE​ PROJECT REMAINS ON SCHEDULE AND ON BUDGET TO ACHIEVE FIRST GOLD PRODUCTION BY END OF 2019</p>
<p>* LUNDIN GOLD INC - ‍TERM OF DEBT FACILITY WILL BE EIGHT AND A HALF YEARS​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - In the Pakistani hometown of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, reminders are frequent of the daughter of scenic northwestern Swat Valley who survived a gun attack – and so are memories of harsh rule by the Taliban.</p> Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai adjusts her scarf as she speaks during an interview with Reuters at a local hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 30, 2018. REUTERS/Saiyna Bashir
<p>Yousafzai flew into Swat on Saturday by helicopter during her first visit to Pakistan since the Pakistani Taliban - now on the run but still able to launch attacks - shot her in the head in 2012 over her advocacy for girls’ education and opposition to Islamist militancy.</p>
<p>Yousafzai’s return to her hometown was eagerly awaited by admirers and family friends.</p>
<p>“We’re very happy that Malala has come to Pakistan. We welcome Malala,” said Arfa Akhtar, a third grade student in a school where Yousafzai once studied. “I’m also Malala. I’m with Malala in this mission.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-pakistan-malala-swat/nobel-winner-malala-visits-hometown-in-pakistan-for-first-time-since-shooting-idUSKBN1H7052" type="external">Nobel winner Malala visits hometown in Pakistan for first time since shooting</a>
<p>Barkat Ali, 66, says he remembers holding Malala in his lap when she was a child in Mingora. He is proud of the 20-year-old’s struggle to promote girls’ education, just as he is of his refusal 10 years ago to turn over his son when the Taliban demanded new fighters.</p>
<p>“They were the old illiterate people who would say that our daughters will not go to schools,” Ali said, recalling two mortar shells landing in his street, often patrolled by the Taliban.</p>
<p>“Now people have become sensible. They educate their girls.”</p>
<p>The Taliban took over much of the valley starting in 2007, banning girls’ education, killing people, flogging women and hanging bodies from electric poles to enforce their harsh interpretation of Islamic law before the Pakistani army drove them out in 2009.</p>
<p>Not everyone in Swat, though, has such reverence for Yousafzai, who became the youngest Nobel laureate in history in 2014 at age 17.</p>
<p>Resident Mohammad Nisar Khan says the international celebrity and official protection given to the young woman overshadows the sacrifices made by others in Swat.</p> A helicopter carrying Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai prepares to land at her hometown of Mingora in Swat Valley, Pakistan, March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood
<p>“We were the ones who stood up against the Taliban...&#160;My four uncles and two cousins were slaughtered by the Taliban in Matta. They were brutally martyred. Yet, no one has asked about me,” Khan said.</p>
<p>“Can someone show me one brave deed that Malala Yousafzai has performed ... that we have not performed&#160;at age 50?”</p>
<p>Elsewhere in parts of Pakistan, her arrival was met with outright hostility from those who accuse her of building a career abroad by painting a negative picture of her homeland.</p>
<p>In the eastern city of Lahore, a group of private schools staged a protest on Friday with teachers and their students chanting “I am not Malala”, some wearing black armbands.</p>
<p>The organizer of the protest, Kashif Mirza, said dozens of private school chains participated and teachers told students in classes “that Malala does not represent true Pakistan”.</p>
<p>“She maligned Pakistan, Islam and the Pakistani army after going abroad,” said Mirza, who leads the President of All Pakistan Private Schools Federation. He said his group condemned the gun attack on Yousafzai but said since going abroad she had been influenced by foreign powers.</p>
<p>Other private schools, however, declined to join the anti-Malala protest.</p>
<p>“No such day was observed in any of our branches, because we don’t support any event which spreads hatred,” said Tabraiz Bokhari, spokesman of Beacon House School System, with 200 affiliates across Pakistan.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>In the nine years since the army drove out the Taliban, Swat has become mostly peaceful, though there are still occasional militant attacks including one several weeks ago targeting the military.</p>
<p>Many Swat residents, including family friend Jawad Iqbal, were hopeful Malala would be able to return on this trip.</p>
<p>“The people of Swat and the whole of Pakistan are with Malala,” Iqbal said standing in front of a portrait of Yousafzai with her father, who is a teacher.</p>
<p>“God willing, we will counter the terrorism and extremism in our region with the weapon of education, with the weapon of a pen, with the weapons of teachers and with the weapons of books.”</p>
<p>Along the road where Malala was shot on her school bus, resident Amir Zeb also said he hoped Malala will visit.</p>
<p>“Malala Yousafzai is the daughter of Pakistan,” he said, adding. “We’re proud of her.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in LAHORE, Pakistan; Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Peter Graff and Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Fox News show host Laura Ingraham announced on her show late Friday that she is taking next week off, after almost a dozen advertisers dropped her show after the conservative pundit mocked a teenage survivor of the Florida school massacre on Twitter.</p> A combination of file photos show media personality Laura Ingraham in Washington October 14, 2017 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg, at a rally in Washington March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert, Jonathan Ernst/Files
<p>Eleven companies so far have pulled their ads after a pushback by Parkland student David Hogg, 17, who called for a boycott of her advertisers.</p>
<p>Hogg took aim at the host’s show, “Ingraham Angle”, after she taunted him on Twitter on Wednesday, accusing him of whining about being rejected by four colleges to which he had applied.</p>
<p>Hogg is a survivor of the Feb. 14 mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Parkland suburb of Fort Lauderdale. He and other classmates have become the faces of a new youth-led movement calling for tighter restrictions on firearms.</p>
<p>Hogg tweeted a list of a dozen companies that advertise on “The Ingraham Angle” and urged his supporters to demand that they cancel their ads.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Ingraham tweeted an apology “in the spirit of Holy Week,” saying she was sorry for any hurt or upset she had caused Hogg or any of the “brave victims” of Parkland.</p>
<p>But her apology did not stop companies from departing.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TRIP.O" type="external">TripAdvisor Inc</a> 40.89 TRIP.O Nasdaq +0.28 (+0.69%) TRIP.O W.N NESN.S EXPE.O SFIX.O
<p>The companies announcing that they are cancelling their ads are: Nutrish, the pet food line created by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, travel website TripAdvisor Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TRIP.O" type="external">TRIP.O</a>), online home furnishings seller Wayfair Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=W.N" type="external">W.N</a>), the world’s largest packaged food company, Nestle SA ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NESN.S" type="external">NESN.S</a>), online streaming service Hulu, travel website Expedia Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EXPE.O" type="external">EXPE.O</a>) and online personal shopping service Stitch Fix ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SFIX.O" type="external">SFIX.O</a>).</p>
<p>According to CBS News, four other companies joined the list Friday: the home office supply store Office Depot, the dieting company Jenny Craig, the Atlantis, Paradise Island resort and Johnson &amp; Johnson which produces pharmaceuticals as well as consumer products such as Band-Aids, Neutrogena beauty products and Tylenol.</p>
<p>Hogg wrote on Twitter that an apology just to mollify advertisers was insufficient.</p>
<p>Ingraham’s show runs on Fox News, part of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FOXA.O" type="external">FOXA.O</a>). A Fox News representative was not immediately available for comment.</p>
<p>Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Gina Cherelus in New York, Andrew Hay; Editing by David Gregorio, Matthew Lewis, Diane Craft and Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature agreed late on Friday on a $168 billion budget for fiscal 2019, including measures aimed at offsetting damage to taxpayers from new federal tax changes.</p> FILE PHOTO: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during an announcement at The Moynihan Train Hall in New York City, U.S., August 17, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Cuomo outlined details of the agreement - which must be passed and signed before the new fiscal year begins on April 1 - at a press briefing following the agreement.</p>
<p>Cuomo likened the federal tax changes enacted early this year to a missile launched at New York.</p>
<p>“We’re under attack by the federal government,” he said.</p>
<p>To avoid a new federal cap on state and local tax deductions, New York will make those payments charitable contributions, similar to measures working their way through other high-tax states.</p>
<p>New York, which had faced a $4.4 billion deficit, will also create a new payroll tax to replace state income tax, Cuomo said.</p>
<p>New York lawmakers, with a base pay of $79,500, will also get a chance at their first raise since 1999 as the budget includes a legislative compensation review commission.</p>
<p>Republican State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said the bills avoided $1 billion in new taxes. The package also includes $18.9 billion in Medicaid spending.</p>
<p>Cuomo also agreed to boost school aid beyond earlier proposals. The budget adds $1 billion in education funding, bringing school spending to $26.7 billion altogether. It also invests $750 million in regional economic growth plans and $100 million to downtown revitalization initiatives, Cuomo said.</p>
<p>Cuomo, who has fashioned himself as a potential presidential candidate, is fending off a Democratic primary challenge in his quest for a third term from actress Cynthia Nixon, a public schools activist.</p>
<p>An extra $2 billion of revenue over four years is to come by capturing some of the sale of the nonprofit New York State Catholic Health Plan, which does business as Fidelis Care.</p>
<p>The budget also impacts New York City, allowing for the use of a new “design-build” procurement method to help renovate three major city projects - an expressway, the notorious Rikers Island correctional facility and the city’s troubled public housing authority.</p>
<p>A new fee on for-hire vehicles in Manhattan would raise $415 million annually for the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s decaying subway system and has been the subject of repeated squabbles between Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.</p>
<p>The measures lack changes sought by government reform activists who hoped a series of corruption cases involving lawmakers and people tied to Cuomo would propel reform.</p>
<p>Reporting by James Odato in Albany; Editing by Hilary Russ and Tom Hogue</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea will take part in the next two Olympic Games in Japan and China, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Saturday after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.</p> International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 31, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters
<p>Bach traveled to Pyongyang on Thursday in a visit that comes after North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Games helped ease tensions over the Korean peninsula.</p> International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 31, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters
<p>Speaking to reporters at Beijing airport upon his return, Bach said North Korea will participate in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.</p>
<p>“This commitment was fully supported by the supreme leader of the DPRK in a very open and fruitful discussion I had with him yesterday,” Bach said, using the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.</p>
<p>“The IOC will make a proposal for a potential joint march or potential other joint activities for Tokyo and then maybe also for Beijing at the appropriate time,” he added.</p>
<p>The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Bach told Kim the trip was to “express the most heartfelt thanks” to North Korea’s leader for helping make February’s the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics a Games that were “symbolic of peace.”</p> International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 31, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters
<p>Athletes from North and South Korea marched under a unified peninsula flag at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, and the two Koreas have seen a significant thaw in tensions since.</p>
<p>KCNA said Kim expressed thanks for the IOC’s support and for cooperating with North Korea “regardless of any political climate and conditions”.</p>
<p>He said he hoped that the IOC’s relationship with the North’s Olympic Committee would continue to develop favorably and expected cooperation in developing and improving sport in North Korea, the report added.</p>
<p>An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was aware of the KCNA’s report but declined to comment further.</p>
<p>Bach had accepted North Korea’s invitation in February, and told Reuters at the time that he saw sports as a way to reduce political tensions.</p>
<p>After Kim made a surprise trip this week to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his engagement with the international community has sparked speculation he may try to meet other leaders ahead of summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The two Koreas have experienced a significant easing in tensions since the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, leading them to set a date to hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27.</p>
<p>Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Additional reporting by Joori Roh; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Lundin Gold Secures Credit Approval For $300 Mln Senior Debt Facility For Fruta Del Norte Joy in Nobel winner Malala's hometown, though some Pakistanis decry her Fox's Ingraham to take week off as advertisers flee amid controversy New York moves to offset federal tax changes in $168 billion budget deal North Korea will take part in next two Olympics: IOC chief Bach | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-lundin-gold-secures-credit-approva/brief-lundin-gold-secures-credit-approval-for-300-mln-senior-debt-facility-for-fruta-del-norte-idUSASB0C1OM | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>More than 200,000 children's sunglasses are being recalled because they contain excessive levels of lead paint. Other consumer products being recalled this week include children's shoes with a metal thread in the liner and bicycles with potentially defective forks.</p>
<p>Here's a more detailed look:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>CHILDREN'S SUNGLASSES</p>
<p>DETAILS: 20 styles of Disney, Marvel and Sears/Kmart brand children's sunglasses. They come in a variety of colors and with printed images of characters on the frames. They were sold from December 2013 to March 2014. Style numbers include: S00014SVS999, S00014SVSBLU, S00014SVSRED, S00021LKC999, S00021SVS999, S01551SDB999, S02964SJN440, S02964SJN999, S03683SDC999, S04611SDC001, S04611SDC080, S04611SDC400, S04611SDC999, S07786SMS500, S07786SMS650, S07786SMS999, S07840SDC999, S07841SDC001, S07841SDC440, and S07841SDC999.</p>
<p>WHY: Surface paint on the sunglasses contains excessive levels of lead, which is prohibited under federal law.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: None reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 215,000.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call FGX International at 877-277-0104 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit www.fgxi.com and click on "Recall" for more information.</p>
<p>STROLLER TRAYS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Tray Vous snack and activity trays with connectors that fit into strollers. The three-piece units include a black plastic tray with a cup holder, a left connector and a right connector. "Tray Vous" and "Patent Approved US7942437B2" are printed on a sticker underneath the tray. They were sold from May 2011 through June 2012.</p>
<p>WHY: The opening between the recalled tray and stroller seat bottom allows an unharnessed child's body to pass through but could trap a child's head, posing a strangulation hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: None reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 770 in the U.S and 90 in Canada.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Tray Vous at 800-281-6483 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT or visit at www.trayvous.com/recall for more information.</p>
<p>BICYCLES</p>
<p>DETAILS: All Avant bicycles and carbon framesets sold with hydraulic disk brakes and all Avant bicycles and carbon framesets that are capable of being configured with hydraulic disc brakes. The model numbers are not marked on the bicycles and there is also no color or gender designation. The word Avant is in black or white on the top and head tube of the frameset and the word "Orbea" is in white on the top and down tube of the frameset. They were sold at authorized Orbea bicycle retailers nationwide from August 2013 to June 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The bicycle front fork can crack, posing a fall hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: None reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 715.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Orbea at 888-466-7232 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, visit www.avantsupport.com and click on the "Support" tab located on the upper right section of the home page, or send email to avantsupport.us@orbea.com for more information.</p>
<p>COOKING THERMOMETER PROBES</p>
<p>DETAILS: All Pro Ambient Temperature Probes and Pro Meat Probes made from May 2014 through June 2014. The probes were sold separately as an accessory for the iGrill, iGrill2, iGrillmini grilling thermometers and the Kitchen Thermometer and Kitchen Thermometer mini cooking thermometers. The meat probe was also sold as a component of the iGrill2 set. The iDevices name and logo and either "iGrill Pro Meat Probe," ''iGrill Pro Ambient Temperature Probe," ''Kitchen Thermometer Pro Meat Probe" or "Kitchen Thermometer Pro Ambient Probe" are printed on the front of the packaging. UPC number 852931005148, 852931005193, 852931005162 or 852931005216 is printed on the bottom of the packaging. They were sold from May 2014 to June 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The plastic insulator located inside the stainless steel probe is not heat resistant and can melt and fall into food, posing an ingestion hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: 11 reports of the probe overheating and the plastic insulator melting during normal use. No injuries were reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 48,500 in the U.S. and 510 in Canada.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call iDevices LLC at 888-313-7019 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit www.iDevicesinc.com and click on "Pro Probe Recall" on the bottom of the page for more information.</p>
<p>HUMIDIFIERS</p>
<p>DETAILS: Air Innovations branded Ultrasonic Clean Mist humidifiers with mood lights. Model number MH-407 and date code MX1342, MX1343, MX1344, MX1344, MX1345 or MX1346 are printed on a label affixed to the underside of the humidifier. QVC item number V32459 is printed on the packing slip shipped with the humidifier. They were sold at QVC TV during January 2014 and online at QVC.com from December 2013 to February 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: Water can enter the base and cause the circuit board to short circuit and overheat, posing a fire hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: 100 reports of overheating resulting in reports of smoke and burning odors. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 70,000.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Great Innovations at 844-600-1370 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit www.greatinnovations.tv and click on "Product Recall" for more information.</p>
<p>TELEVISIONS</p>
<p>DETAILS: JVC 42-inch, Emerald Series Full HD 1080P LED flat panel televisions, model EM42FTR and serial number beginning with "T''. Model and serial numbers are located on the bottom left on the back of the television. They were sold from February 2014 through August 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The neck of the stand can crack and cause the television to tip over unexpectedly, posing a risk of impact injury to the consumer.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: 16 reports of cracked television stand necks. No injuries have been reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 27,000.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call AmTRAN Video toll-free at 855-328-6650 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit www.jvc-tv.com and click on the "Safety Notice" tab at the bottom of the page for more information.</p>
<p>SNOWMOBILES</p>
<p>DETAILS: Model year 2014 SR10R (SRViper), SR10RXS (SRViper RTX SE), SR10L (SRViper LTX), SR10LS (SRViper LTX SE) and SR10XS (SRViper XTX) snowmobiles and model year 2015 SR10LS (SRViper LTX SE) snowmobiles. The VIN number is stamped on the tunnel near the right side footrest. The letter E in the 10th position of the VIN number indicates that the unit was made in the 2014 model year, and a letter F in the 10th position indicates that the unit was made in the 2015 model year. The model number can be found on the lower left and right cowling just below the word "YAMAHA." They were sold at Yamaha snowmobile dealers nationwide from October 2013 through August 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: The fuel hose joint can leak during operation, posing a fire hazard.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Four reports of fuel leakage. No injuries reported.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 2,520.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Yamaha at 800-962-7926 or visit www.yamahamotorsports.com and under the Sports tab, subcategory Snowmobile, click on "Parts and Service," then "Factory Modification Campaigns" for more information.</p>
<p>CHILDREN'S SHOES</p>
<p>DETAILS: Livie &amp; Luca children's shoes in two styles: Carta and Cotton. The Carta style Mary Jane shoes are canvas, solid color shoes stitched to a tan sole with a fabric strap and a brown wooden button. The Carta shoes are blue, fuchsia or gray. The Cotton style Mary Jane canvas shoes have a stitched tan rubber sole and a colored fabric strap with a dandelion printed on a pink square button and a gingham or polka-dot cotton interior lining. Both the Carta and the Cotton style shoes were sold in toddler sizes 4 through 13. Only shoes with date codes 06 2013 through 12 2013 (Month Year) printed on the insole of the shoe are included in the recall. The Livie &amp; Luca logo is printed on the inside of the shoe. They were sold from January 2014 through March 2014.</p>
<p>WHY: A metal thread inside the interior shoe liner can loosen and poke through the shoe lining, posing a laceration hazard to the user.</p>
<p>INCIDENTS: Two reports of the metal thread coming through the liner of the shoe, including one report of a child's foot that was cut by a metal thread poking through the shoe lining.</p>
<p>HOW MANY: About 5,600.</p>
<p>FOR MORE: Call Livie &amp; Luca at 888-548-5822 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, send email to info@livieandluca.com, or visit www.livieandluca.com and click on the "Recall" tab on the top of the website for more information.</p> | Recalls this week include children's sunglasses, bicycles, humidifiers, televisions, shoes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/09/05/recalls-this-week-include-children-sunglasses-bicycles-humidifiers-televisions.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Bill Clinton says the political environment that has given rise to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders can be traced back to the economic woes of the Barack Obama years.</p>
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<p>“The country is doing better than everybody else in the world, but 80% of the country has not had a pay raise since the crash,” Clinton told reporters in East Hartford, Connecticut.</p>
<p>“Therefore there is great fear that we can’t return to broad-based prosperity and that has lit a lot of the fires that have helped Mr. Trump on the right and Sen. Sanders on the left,” Clinton said before his minder jumped in to say he had to go.</p>
<p>“It is totally predictable,” he said.</p> | BILL CLINTON: Obama economy gave rise to Trump, Sanders | true | http://theamericanmirror.com/bill-clinton-obama-economy-gave-rise-to-trump-sanders/ | 2016-04-25 | 0 |
<p>The Federalist contributor Britt McHenry reacts to GQ magazine naming Colin Kaepernick 'Citizen of the Year.'</p>
<p>Britt McHenry, one-time ESPN reporter who famously suggested that she was fired from the network for being a conservative, is now blasting GQ magazine for naming free agent NFL quarterback and national anthem protest ringleader Colin Kaepernick as its “Citizen of the Year.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kaepernick became the first NFL player to kneel for the national anthem during the 2016 season when he played for San Francisco, but currently remains a free agent unable to ink a deal in the league. GQ writes in its story titled, “Colin Kaepernick Will Not Be Silenced” that the anthem protest “transformed Colin Kaepernick into a lightning rod and a <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nfl-cant-stop-colin-kaepernick-protest" type="external">powerful symbol of activism and resistance Opens a New Window.</a>.” Kaepernick is never quoted in the story.</p>
<p>Kaepernick’s protest sparked widespread kneeling among players across the league and has been a controversial issue throughout the 2017 season.</p>
<p>“Kaepernick is unemployed, he’s suing the NFL for collusion. I think there should have been many more examples, JJ Watt is one,” McHenry said during an interview with FBN’s Liz MacDonald.</p>
<p>In response to the cover, McHenry tweeted: “JJ Watt raised $37 million for Hurricane Harvey victims. 37 MILLION! But Kaepernick refused to stand for our national anthem (a year ago) and is Citizen of the Year. Right…”</p>
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<p>“In the rest of that video, they compared Colin Kaepernick to Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. Liz, I’ll tell you right now Jackie Robinson did not receive a guaranteed $39 million - there is a little more adversity, in my opinion, those athletes had to face and stood for,” McHenry said. “And that’s the thing, Colin Kaepernick didn’t even do an interview for GQ, he’s not speaking out. He took a knee again a year ago and that’s what I tweeted and I stand by it."</p>
<p>McHenry says that she does not believe Kaepernick deserves to be name “Citizen of the Year” and that she no longer respects his protest. She also claims that Kaepernick’s position changed when he needed to get back into the NFL.</p>
<p>Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers in March and has not been able to reach a deal with another NFL team.</p> | Ex-ESPN reporter Britt McHenry rips GQ over Kaepernick cover | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/15/ex-espn-reporter-britt-mchenry-rips-gq-over-kaepernick-cover.html | 2017-11-15 | 0 |
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<p>From left are state Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela, Navajo Technical University President Elmer Guy, Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez, and state Economic Development Director Tony Perry. (COURTESY OF NAVAJO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Aspiring Navajo entrepreneurs have a new way to find help now that a business incubator at Navajo Technical University has been officially certified.</p>
<p>The Navajo Nation Tech Innovation Center near Church Rock is now a recognized member of the state's network of business incubators, making it easier to access resources and assistance from other New Mexico incubation programs and from the government. It was officially granted state certification on Thursday.</p>
<p>"We have about 7,000 square feet of on-site leasable incubation space, with about 4,000 square feet still available now for another five companies," the university's entrepreneurial director, Benjamin Jones, told the Journal. "The Navajo Nation originally envisioned it as an incubator for businesses that market arts and crafts. But we will cater to all small business entrepreneurs in general who want to try something that they believe is viable."</p>
<p>The university, which&#160; has been preparing for certification for more than a year, already has four on-site office spaces leased out to local startup companies.</p>
<p>Apart from leasable offices, the center has dedicated areas for computer training and for hands-on work in arts and crafts. It provides training and mentoring services in everything from accounting and bookkeeping to taxes and marketing, Jones said.</p>
<p>Aspiring Navajo entrepreneurs can access those services and programs without having to lease space at the incubator.</p>
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<p>"We're developing an affiliate member program for people to qualify for all our services without becoming resident clients," Jones said. "We're developing a network of mentors to identify areas where entrepreneurs need help and to connect them with resources."</p>
<p>As a state-certified incubator, the Navajo center will reach out to other business incubation programs statewide to provide more resources for aspiring entrepreneurs on the Navajo Nation, and to connect off-reservation Native Americans with services in urban areas.</p>
<p>"At our center, we're focused on Navajo entrepreneurs in rural areas, but there are many people in urban areas who we can also help through the state network," Jones said. "Ideally, we want to develop close relations with all of them. The Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, for example, can help us reach out to Native American students in the Las Cruces area."</p>
<p>The government is providing $18,500 to help the center build its programs, Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela said.</p>
<p>"It is Gov. Susana Martinez and my goal that rural parts of the state have the same opportunity as urban areas to assist startup companies and support entrepreneurs," Barela said in a prepared statement. "The Navajo Tech Innovation Center will mentor Navajo businesses as they move from incubation facilities to their own space, creating jobs and new wealth in the Navajo Nation."</p> | Navajo incubator open for business | false | https://abqjournal.com/689998/navajo-incubator-open-for-business.html | 2015-12-11 | 2 |
<p>In the aftermath of the Cold War and what was prematurely assumed to be the final triumph of democracy and the market, ideological challenges to Western-style liberal democracy have been chiefly confined to the worlds-within-worlds of Islam, and to various eastern European ethnic and ethno-religious movements (of which the madcap Russian neo-fascism of Vladimir Zhirinovsky is perhaps the most potentially lethal). But now a more intellectually serious challenge has arisen, one that is all the more compelling because it presents itself, not as an atavistic return to a traditional past, but as an alternative form of organizing a prosperous society under the conditions of modernity.</p>
<p>This new challenge to liberal democracy has come from East Asian political leaders, diplomats, and political theorists, in countries ranging from the massive People’s Republic of China to medium-sized Malaysia to the tiny city-state of Singapore: which is to say, from a curious coterie of Communists, modernizing Muslims, and gung-ho capitalist Confucians. Aspects of their critique of the West and its liberal institutions can be glimpsed in international forums (like last year’s World conference on Human Rights) and in recent policy quarrels (such as the question of “Most Favored Nation” trading status for China); a window into the debate also opened briefly during the multicultural drama surrounding Singapore’s caning of American teenager and truant Michael Fay. But the philosophical roots of the new East Asian critique of Western democracy, and the moral challenge that this critique poses to the West, comes into clearest focus in the writings of the three most prominent members of the “Singapore School”: former prime minister (and current “senior minister”) Lee Kuan Yew, Bilahari Kausikan of the ministry of foreign affairs, and Kishore Mahbubani, a career diplomat who served as Singapore’s ambassador to the United Nations 1984-89.</p>
<p>It may seem excessive to suggest that the ruminations of a trio of men from the ruling elite of a microstate smaller than Chicago could pose a serious challenge to Western understandings of democracy and human rights. But the “Singapore School” has had an impact far beyond the borders of that state itself. Officials of the PRC have come to Singapore to study the island-city-state as a model of economic and political development; Singapore has reciprocated by agreeing to manage the city of Suzhou in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. A downmarket version of the Singapore critique, articulated by Malaysian prime minister Muhamad Mahathir, has driven the usually phlegmatic English into a fury, with the London Spectator opening its March 5 editorial in these sulphurous terms:</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>There are many good things about Dr. Muhamad Mahathir. Probably the best of them is that his job as prime minister of Malaysia keeps him some 7,000 miles distant from Britain, such that his periodic lectures on the dangers of democracy, the decline of the West, the rise of Asia, and the invigorating leadership of Dr. Mahathir himself can be heard here much more faintly and fitfully than in Malaysia itself, where they are held to embody a new and great wisdom.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>On a wider canvas (and of considerably greater consequence), the Singapore School critique was central to the April 1993 “Bangkok Declaration” that set the terms of debate for the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights; key elements in the ideology of the Singapore School could be found in the Bangkok Declaration’s rejection of the universality of civil rights and political freedoms, and in its celebration of the so-called right to development. Perhaps most ominously, the Bangkok Declaration raised the moral stakes in the world debate by dismissing traditional notions of civil rights and political freedoms (as adumbrated in that Magna Carta of the human-rights movement, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights) as examples of an odious Western cultural imperialism.</p>
<p>Ideologically volatile political arguments are rarely pure, and this one sets no new standards of disinterestedness. Indeed, a considerable part of the East Asian critique of the decadent democratic West is little more than a rationalization for authoritarianism by authoritarians comfortable with their power and intent on maintaining it. That the arguments for repression are tarted up philosophically makes little difference to the essential hypocrisy involved.</p>
<p>But not all of the East Asian critique is of this more tawdry sort. Some of it is quite serious and deserves to be engaged as such. Moreover, at its most penetrating the East Asian critique cuts close to the heart of our current domestic debate over how the character and virtues of the American people relate to the security of our democratic institutions. Thus a thoughtful consideration of this critique will help us clear our heads about the future of American society and culture, even as it prepares us for what is likely to be one of the enduring foreign-policy debates of the next decade.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | Not Decadent Beyond Repair | false | https://eppc.org/publications/not-decadent-beyond-repair/ | 1 | |
<p>Venezuelan bonds tumbled Friday after President Nicolás Maduro said the cash-strapped nation would seek to restructure its debt, an announcement that confounded bondholders and analysts who say there is no clear way forward because of U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>Bonds of state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, due in 2022, dropped to 28 cents on the dollar Friday morning from 48 cents before the announcement, according to MarketAxess BondTicker. Venezuela's benchmark government bond due 2027 dropped 15 cents to 20 cents on the dollar in London trading, according to UBS Wealth Management.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Venezuelan president announced late Thursday that, after making a bond payment Friday, he would attempt a restructuring of the country's remaining debt.</p>
<p>Mr. Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials had said in the past they would pay off their debt, and in recent years investors have been rewarded with some of the best returns in emerging markets. But two hefty payments due back to back over the past week have made some bondholders and analysts acutely nervous about the country's ability to pay.</p>
<p>PdVSA had $1.2 billion in principal and interest due Nov. 2. Last week, the state-owned oil company said it would pay the $842 million in principal on a separate bond that was due Oct. 27, and Venezuelan bonds rallied after the announcement.</p>
<p>The South American country is stretched for cash with prices for oil, its main export, well below the level of three years ago. U.S. sanctions also have restricted Venezuela's options. President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting U.S. institutions from trading new bonds that would serve to help finance Mr. Maduro's government. The sanctions also limit dealings with Venezuelan officials.</p>
<p>Mr. Maduro said Thursday that Vice President Tareck El Aissami would be in charge of negotiating the restructuring. The U.S. government put Mr. El Aissami on a sanctions list in February for allegedly aiding drug traffickers. In the past, Mr. El Aissami and other Venezuelan officials have dismissed U.S. sanctions and accusations as attempts to destabilize the country's leftist government.</p>
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<p>Venezuela's information ministry, a spokesman for Mr. El Aissami and a spokesman for PdVSA didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>"The way in which this has been handled does not give confidence that refinancing or restructuring talks will start smoothly nor that there will be a quick solution," said Stuart Culverhouse, head of macro and fixed income research at the specialist frontier and emerging markets investment bank, Exotix Capital, which doesn't own Venezuelan securities.</p>
<p>"Details are sparse and it is not really clear what the government intends, nor whether it can do anything at all with U.S. sanctions in place," he said.</p>
<p>Write to Julie Wernau at Julie.Wernau@wsj.com and Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 03, 2017 11:29 ET (15:29 GMT)</p> | Venezuelan Bond Prices Slide as Maduro Seeks to Restructure Debt | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/03/venezuelan-bond-prices-slide-as-maduro-seeks-to-restructure-debt.html | 2017-11-03 | 0 |
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<p><a href="http://goo.gl/081Qfg" type="external">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p>When I went into journalism, one of the first things I was told as a freshman is that journalism is different from stenography. It is supposed to be — or at least has been — about using rights granted under the First Amendment to be a check on government and corporate power.</p>
<p>Yet, the hedge in that last sentence is deliberate — and appropriate. That’s because a new survey from the Indiana University suggests things are fast changing in the news industry — and not for the better.</p>
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<p>The latest in 42 years worth of surveys of journalists, this one polled more than 1,000 reporters in the latter half of 2013. That timeframe is significant — it was right when revelations about the NSA’s mass surveillance were being published.</p>
<p>You might think such an historic time period in the annals of journalism would only strengthen reporters’ belief in the necessity of responsibly — but fearlessly — publishing information, even if the powers that be do not authorize such publication. Instead, it seems the exact opposite has happened.</p>
<p>As IU researchers note, “the percentage of U.S. journalists endorsing the occasional use of ‘confidential business or government documents without authorization,’ dropped significantly from 81.8 percent in 1992 to 57.7 percent in 2013.”</p>
<p>To really understand the implications of this shift, think back to almost every famous investigative scoop. Then ask yourself: What would have happened to those stories had they only come to one of those 4 in 10 reporters who oppose the use of “confidential business or government documents without authorization”?</p>
<p>The answer, most likely, is that those stories would never have been published, and history might have unfolded in an entirely different way. Maybe “The Jungle” would never have been written, and then the most basic food safety standards would never have become law. Maybe Richard Nixon would have served two full terms. And maybe we would still know very little about just how much our own government is surveilling us.</p>
<p>Noting all this isn’t to dismiss the trepidation that comes with doing real investigative journalism. After all, when you do that kind of work, you inevitably run the risk of legal threats and intimidation. You are also all but guaranteed to face the scorn of state-aligned or corporate-aligned journalists — i.e., those reporters who predicate their work on echoing, amplifying and pleasing those in power.</p>
<p>But all of those costs are an unavoidable part of the job, at least if you think “the job” is reporting information, without fear or favor, in the public interest.</p>
<p>That definition, though, may not be so sacrosanct anymore. “The job” is now defined differently depending on where you may be in the news ecosystem. And in much of that ecosystem, the risks and costs associated with adversarial journalism have reduced “the job” to that of a loyal state- and corporate-aligned journalist. This is why so many Washington reporters publicly slammed the NSA disclosures. It also explains why financial journalists so often defend Wall Street.</p>
<p>Simply put, the path that avoids regular confrontation with power is often far easier, less risky and more lucrative in the news business. Thus, it has become the preferred path du jour, to the point where almost half of the news business does not support reporting news that the government and corporations don’t want reported. And who knows? Maybe the next IU survey 10 years from now shows a full-on majority of journalists saying news outlets shouldn’t publish without the express consent of the corporations and governments.</p>
<p>That would no doubt make the CEOs and politicians quite happy, but it would be a tragedy for the rest of us.</p>
<p>David Sirota is a staff writer at PandoDaily and the best-selling author of the books “Hostile Takeover,” “The Uprising” and “Back to Our Future.” Email him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.</p>
<p>© 2014 CREATORS.COM</p> | Is Journalism Losing Its Nerve? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/is-journalism-losing-its-nerve/ | 2014-05-16 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Ecoli.jpg" type="external" />Check your ground beef before you grill out this Memorial Day weekend. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says stores in nine states may have received beef contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 . The FSIS announced earlier this week that 1.8 million pounds of ground beef [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/21/health/beef-recall/index.html?hpt=hp_t1" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.cnn.com</a></p>
<p /> | Stores in 9 states may be selling beef tainted with E. coli | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/stores-may-have-received-tainted-beef/ | 0 | |
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Fashion jewelry maker Alex and Ani says its president and chief financial officer have left the Rhode Island-based company.</p>
<p>Company attorney Mark Geragos tells <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20171227/alex-and-ani-president-and-cfo-depart-after-year-on-job" type="external">the Providence Journal</a> president Cindy DiPietrantonio and chief financial officer Bob Woodruff moved on after their one-year contracts with the company expired. He says neither was fired.</p>
<p>DiPietrantonio and Woodruff are the latest in a series of executives to depart the Cranston-based company.</p>
<p>Former CEO Giovanni Feroce left Alex and Ani in March 2014. His successor, Harlan Kent, stayed for less than a year. Former chief operating officer Jayne Fitzpatrick-Conway joined the company in 2014 and left in 2016. Former senior vice president of sales Dan Sills also departed in 2016.</p>
<p>Geragos says the company expects 2017 will break sales records.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Providence Journal, <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com" type="external">http://www.providencejournal.com</a></p>
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Fashion jewelry maker Alex and Ani says its president and chief financial officer have left the Rhode Island-based company.</p>
<p>Company attorney Mark Geragos tells <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20171227/alex-and-ani-president-and-cfo-depart-after-year-on-job" type="external">the Providence Journal</a> president Cindy DiPietrantonio and chief financial officer Bob Woodruff moved on after their one-year contracts with the company expired. He says neither was fired.</p>
<p>DiPietrantonio and Woodruff are the latest in a series of executives to depart the Cranston-based company.</p>
<p>Former CEO Giovanni Feroce left Alex and Ani in March 2014. His successor, Harlan Kent, stayed for less than a year. Former chief operating officer Jayne Fitzpatrick-Conway joined the company in 2014 and left in 2016. Former senior vice president of sales Dan Sills also departed in 2016.</p>
<p>Geragos says the company expects 2017 will break sales records.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Providence Journal, <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com" type="external">http://www.providencejournal.com</a></p> | Jewelry company Alex and Ani's president, finance boss leave | false | https://apnews.com/amp/89d6f5240fde46d1a8a6841059c64d1e | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>This year saw the slow, painful dismantling of Nortel. Its gradual exit from the tech scene played out the entire year, as each month brought news of more layoffs, markdowns or sell-offs.</p>
<p>The story began in January, when Nortel filed for <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/011509-nortel.html" type="external">Chapter 11 bankruptcy Opens a New Window.</a> in an effort to stem a financial free fall brought on by the perfect storm of the global economic crisis, little demand for product, the ripple effect of a previous accounting scandal and strategic missteps.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Then the company began small-scale divestitures that would ultimately lead to a more significant dismantling of operations. It exited the mobile WiMAX business by ending an alliance with Alvarion (Nortel had previously <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/012909-nortel-exits-wimax.html" type="external">targeted WiMAX Opens a New Window.</a> as a strategic growth business for the company going forward).</p>
<p>In February, Nortel claimed it was still signing up new customers in light of the bankruptcy filing. But later that month, the company ditched its shareholders meeting, laid off thousands more employees, and then sold its <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/accel/2009/033009netop2.html" type="external">application switch business Opens a New Window.</a> to Radware for a mere fraction of what it paid when it bought Alteon in 2000.</p>
<p>The deal with Radware was but an appetizer for a much more significant dissolution of company assets and operations. In March, word leaked that Nortel was looking to sell off more assets and businesses as part of its sweeping restructuring under bankruptcy. Also that month, Nortel wound down its investment in the Carrier Ethernet switch and router market and canceled its block of rooms at the CTIA convention in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>In April, reports surfaced that Nortel was also looking to sell off its stake in a joint venture with LG, the Korean electronics giant. The venture was started in 2005 and had about $1 billion in revenue in 2008.</p>
<p>In May, Nortel tried to deflect attention from its unraveling operations by announcing a core data center switch, the <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/051809-nortel-data-center-switch.html" type="external">VSP 9000 Opens a New Window.</a>, at Interop. But at Interop, enterprise chief Joel Hackney admitted that customers had "hit the pause button" on purchasing and placing orders for Nortel products in light of the company's <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/052109-nortel-enterprise.html" type="external">fading fortunes. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
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<p>The next month revealed that some former <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061009-nortel-execs-offer.html" type="external">Nortel executives Opens a New Window.</a> were looking to acquire the company in an effort to keep it the top investor in R&amp;D in Canada. That deal never materialized, but others did -- Nortel announced that it was selling its CDMA and LTE wireless businesses, and confirmed speculation from previous months that it is seeking buyers for the rest of the company's operations. Nortel was officially leaving the scene after admitting that it was unable to complete its restructuring plan.</p>
<p>Later in June, reports surfaced that Avaya was offering $500 million for Nortel's enterprise business, and that Nortel was <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/062509-nortel-layoffs-ica-microsoft.html" type="external">laying off executives Opens a New Window.</a> spearheading its unified communications alliance with <a href="" type="internal">Microsoft</a>. But the writing was already on the wall for that partnership -- Microsoft got cozy with HP in May to effectively replace Nortel as a strategic UC ally.</p>
<p>In July, former Bay Networks CEO Dave House (Nortel bought Bay for about $8 billion in 1998 only to watch that business decline over the next 10 years) suggested Nortel <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/070209-nortel-bay-networks.html" type="external">spin off Opens a New Window.</a> the enterprise business as a stand-alone entity and "rename" it Bay Networks. Too late: Avaya made the earlier speculation official when it offered $475 million for Nortel's enterprise assets.</p>
<p>And later that month, Ericsson emerged as the <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/072709-ericsson-nortel.html" type="external">winning bidder Opens a New Window.</a>for Nortel's CDMA and LTE wireless assets by agreeing to pay $1.13 billion for them, almost twice the initial offer from <a href="" type="internal">Nokia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Siemens</a>.</p>
<p>August saw Nortel <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/081009-zafirovski-confirms-departure.html" type="external">CEO Mike Zafirovski Opens a New Window.</a> leave the company following a determination by Nortel's board that the company had reached a "natural transition point." Zafirovski had failed to revitalize the bankrupt telecom giant as he had planned when he took the reins in 2005.</p>
<p>In September, Avaya officially won Nortel's enterprise business but it had to almost double its initial offer, and jump through some flaming hoops ignited by <a href="" type="internal">Verizon</a>. The carrier, which resold Nortel's VoIP product, went to court to win assurances from Avaya that Verizon customers would not be left out to dry on service and support contracts. <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/091509-avaya-nortel.html" type="external">Avaya Opens a New Window.</a> promised "near-term" support for those customers.</p>
<p>Nortel's Metro Ethernet business attracted Ciena in October, to the tune of $521 million. And then ex-CEO Mike Z re-emerged -- to <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/100809-nortel-ceo-payout.html" type="external">sue Nortel Opens a New Window.</a> for $12 million in back pay, bonuses and benefits he claimed was owed him, even after failing to revitalize the company. That litigation was still pending at press time.</p>
<p>Late November saw Ciena win Nortel's Metro Ethernet business by upping its price to <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/112309-ciena-will-pay-769m-for.html" type="external">$769 million Opens a New Window.</a>. And Ericsson and Kapsch acquired Nortel's <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.allaboutnortel.com/2009/11/25/ericsson-kapsch-acquire-gsm-business/" type="external">GSM wireless assets Opens a New Window.</a> for about $103 million.</p>
<p>With Metro Ethernet, enterprise and wireless operations sold off, and WiMAX shuttered, what is left of Nortel is essentially the Carrier VoIP and Applications Solutions group, which includes softswitches, media gateways and applications. But that too is <a href="http://www.idg.com/www/rd.nsf/rd?readform&amp;u=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/081309-nortel-voip-offer.html" type="external">for sale Opens a New Window.</a> and the company is in maintenance mode while preparing for what seems to be an eventual extinction.</p>
<p>More from IDG:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/nwlookup.jsp?rid=193824" type="external">Original story Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Nortel in '09: Dismantling of a tech stalwart | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2009/12/02/nortel-dismantling-tech-stalwart.html | 2016-03-18 | 0 |
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<p>He was at it again last week in West Allis, Wis., during his Watch-Me-Divide-The-Country-Further “Victory Tour.” Trump declared: “So when I started 18 months ago, I told my first crowd in Wisconsin that we are going to come back here someday and we are going to say merry Christmas again. Merry Christmas. So, merry Christmas everyone.”</p>
<p>Here’s what bothers me: Long before Trump came along we were entirely free to say merry Christmas to each other. Our political leaders could say it, too.</p>
<p>On her MSNBC program last weekend, my friend Joy Reid demonstrated that President Obama was no Christmas-hating guy trying to hide remembrances of the birth of Jesus Christ behind some noxious wall of secularism. She showed not one but 20 moments when the president said the words “merry Christmas.”</p>
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<p>As for me, I’ve never felt the least reluctant to say “merry Christmas” – as long as I know the person I’m talking to is a Christian who observes the holiday.</p>
<p>And there’s the rub. We all know that Trump has simply picked up the “war on Christmas” theme driven annually by conservative media. Like so much else these days, this “issue” divides us along partisan lines. A PRRI survey released this week found that Republicans, by more than 2-to-1, want stores and businesses to greet customers with “merry Christmas.” Democrats, by a similar margin, prefer them to say “Happy Holidays.”</p>
<p>The political commotion around Christmas is partly a response to litigation over what religious freedom demands when it comes to governments setting up displays in public places at this time of year. There are legitimate and heartfelt differences of opinion over what the First Amendment tells us about this.</p>
<p>But as is his way, Trump sidesteps all the complexities. He reduces everything to whether or not we can “say merry Christmas” and folds this into his attack on “political correctness.” The political correctness police are instantly transformed into a phalanx of heathen Scrooges and Grinches.</p>
<p>It doesn’t stop Trump that “Happy Holidays” is popular among retailers not because some Big Brother liberals (let alone government) are telling them to say it. They simply want to sell to a broad group of consumers, many of whom aren’t Christian.</p>
<p>If Trump wanted to criticize the commercialization of Christmas, he might start an interesting conversation. But a man who sells his brand for a living probably doesn’t want to go there.</p>
<p>What Trump is demeaning is the simple decency that lies behind the decision to avoid saying “merry Christmas” to non-Christians. I learned about this not from secular liberals, but from my very devotedly Catholic (and Republican) parents. We lived in the most Jewish neighborhood of our overwhelmingly Catholic town. The idea that you can be, simultaneously, part of a majority and a minority is a common experience in our open and religiously diverse society.</p>
<p>My parents taught my sister and me back in the 1950s, long before anyone had heard of “political correctness,” that we should respect our Jewish friends and neighbors by saying “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Hanukkah.” We proudly celebrated Christmas and were one of the few houses on our block with Christmas lights. But we also wanted to honor the religious commitments of our Jewish friends and neighbors, just as they honored ours.</p>
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<p>It was a way of taking everyone’s religion very seriously. My late mom had many conversations over tea and coffee about the nature of God with Emma Dondis, our next-door neighbor. Mrs. Dondis, as we called her, was a devout Jew who cared a great deal about faith, what it meant and what it required. (I also liked her because she and her son Eli always let us use their basketball hoop.)</p>
<p>As it happens, I love Christmas and started writing this column as we were setting up our tree and the manger, recalling the place where a Savior was born when there was no room at the inn. To all who honor Christmas, may this one be very merry.</p>
<p>And in a season of peace and good will to all, may Donald Trump enjoy a moment of serene tranquility and reflection. Since he does not strike me or most others as particularly religious, I will err on the cautious side and wish him the very happiest of holidays.</p>
<p>Dionne’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion – look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail: ejdionne@washpost.com.</p>
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<p /> | ‘Happy Holidays’ isn’t PC, it’s just a simple courtesy | false | https://abqjournal.com/914628/happy-holidays-isnt-pc-its-just-a-simple-courtesy.html | 2 | |
<p>Rush Limbaugh told a caller on Monday that he never took Donald Trump’s positioning on the issue of illegal immigration seriously.</p>
<p>Rick in Los Angeles called in to critique what he described as Limbaugh's minimization of what he saw as Trump's changing positions on the issue of deportations of illegal immigrants.</p>
<p>I just wanted to comment on your comments that you just made about Trump and his illegal -- and his deportation shift. And I just distinctly heard you say that it’s not even, it’s not considered a flip-flop. And I just wanna tell you, you’re doing a disservice to all of us Republican primary voters that didn’t vote for Trump that are struggling with whether or not to vote for Trump. When you diminish the impact of his single policy that he ridiculed all other candidates for for over a year.</p>
<p>Trump went ahead and ridiculed everybody who wasn’t for deportation. And for all of us who were saying that it was a con job, that is was a snow job, that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that he’s unqualified to be president - for you to sit here and say that now that he adopts all the positions of everybody he ridicules as not even being a flip-flop and it’s not big deal? This is why so many Republican voters have such a hard time going to the con man.</p>
<p>Limbaugh replied that he never took Trump's deportation promises seriously.</p>
<p>“I guess the difference is, or not the difference, I guess the thing is - this is gonna enrage you, you know, I can choose a path here to try to mollify you, but - I never took him seriously on this.”</p>
<p>Limbaugh explained that Trump had not shifted much on the issue of illegal immigration. Indeed, Trump took varying positions on the issue across his presidential campaign, often doing so with nebulous and unclear language.</p>
<p>Watch the video below, via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jchWX9ejwUxYhMFiDZPxQ" type="external">Daily Rushbo</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Limbaugh: I Never Took Trump Seriously On Deporations | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8750/limbaugh-i-never-took-trump-seriously-deporations-robert-kraychik | 2016-08-29 | 0 |
<p>NBC News has learned from two knowledgeable Democratic sources that Hillary Clinton intends to announce her choice of running mate Friday evening by text message to her supporters.</p>
<p>Her first joint appearance with her newly minted running mate is slated to be Saturday at a rally in Miami.</p>
<p>Clinton originally appeared ready to announce the identity of her choice at a rally in Tampa, Florida, but that timetable appeared to slip.</p>
<p>On Friday evening, campaign chairman John Podesta was calling candidates not chosen for the job.</p>
<p>Clinton's Brooklyn staff expected to be told of the pick during a meeting this afternoon. Instead campaign manager Robby Mook opened the meeting by saying they will have to wait until “an undisclosed time” for the news, per a source in the meeting.</p>
<p>Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine remains the overwhelming favorite among insiders, but sources caution that Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack is also a top contender. The next most talked about names includes New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Labor Sec. Tom Perez.</p>
<p>Kaine arrived in Boston Friday morning for a previously scheduled fundraiser, telling NECN he was "looking forward" to the fundraising event.</p>
<p>But asked if he has spoken to Hillary Clinton, Kaine demurred.</p>
<p>“That’s all I’m going to say," he said.</p>
<p>The Clinton campaign was considering at least two options for the VP rollout. One potential plan called for unveiling the pick 24 hours earlier and making a joint appearance at the Friday evening rally in Tampa. But seeing the negative press coverage surrounding Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention, Democrats were not eager to change the topic of political conversation and happy to let Trump stew an extra day of bad press, Democrats close to the process said.</p>
<p>Kaine, a former governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, has long been the frontrunner, checking almost all the boxes sought in a running mate.</p>
<p>He was a finalist for the position in 2008, but Barack Obama instead chose Joe Biden, the then-chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, citing his national security credentials.</p>
<p>When Kaine entered the Senate in 2013, he joined both the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee. He has traveled to at least 23 foreign countries on official business, including hotspots like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Israel.</p>
<p>In addition, Kaine is a popular politician from a key swing state and speaks fluent Spanish, a skill he would likely demonstrate in Miami if selected. He also attends a black a church and was elected mayor of majority African-American Richmond, Virginia.</p>
<p>Clinton’s campaign is hoping to use their tightly run vice presidential selection process, and next week’s Democratic National Convention, to contrast with Donald Trump’s messier process.</p> | Clinton VP Pick Expected Friday Night | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/clinton-vp-pick-could-come-friday-afternoon-n615086 | 2016-07-22 | 3 |
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<p>CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Latest on the federal sentencing trial of convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof (all times local):</p>
<p>5:45 p.m.</p>
<p>The brother of a woman slain by Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church says jurors made the right decision in sentencing him to death.</p>
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<p>Malcolm Graham told The Associated Press by phone the death sentence for Roof “sends a strong message” that hate crimes will not be tolerated.</p>
<p>Graham said there is “no room in a civilized society for hatred, racism and discrimination.”</p>
<p>Graham’s sister Cynthia Hurd was among nine people Roof gunned down one June night in 2015 during a Bible study session at the historic black church in downtown Charleston.</p>
<p>Jurors deliberated about three hours before sentencing Roof to death. He is the first person sentenced to death for federal hate crimes.</p>
<p>5:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Attorney General Loretta Lynch says Dylann Roof’s death sentence holds him accountable for his choices.</p>
<p>Lynch issued a statement Tuesday after Roof was sentenced to die for killing nine black church members in Charleston in 2015. She says no verdict can bring back those who were lost because of Roof’s “callous hand.”</p>
<p>But she says she hopes the verdict will provide some measure of closure for Charleston and the country.</p>
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<p>___</p>
<p>5:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Dylann Roof’s relatives say they will always love him and are praying for the families of the nine slain church members.</p>
<p>In a statement emailed to reporters after Roof was sentenced to death, his relatives said they will “struggle as long as we live” to understand why he killed nine black parishioners during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church.</p>
<p>Roof’s relatives, who have not returned to court since the start of his trial, “express the grief we feel for the victims of his crimes, and our sympathy to the many families he has hurt.”</p>
<p>In another statement, Roof’s legal advisers said they are sorry that “despite our best efforts, the legal proceedings have shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy,” a veiled referenced to the mental issues they wanted to present during sentencing. Roof acted as his own attorney and said he wasn’t mentally ill.</p>
<p>Father John Parker, an Eastern Orthodox minister described as Roof’s spiritual adviser, said in a statement he denounces “Dylann’s unspeakable crimes” and prays for the victims.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:45 p.m.</p>
<p>A federal jury has sentenced Dylann Roof to death for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack in 2015.</p>
<p>Roof, who is white, faced either life in prison or execution for the slayings on June 17, 2015. The Justice Department says he is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes.</p>
<p>The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations.</p>
<p>Roof was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During sentencing, he represented himself and told jurors he didn’t have a mental illness. But he didn’t offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared.</p>
<p>Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:30 p.m.</p>
<p>A jury deliberating whether Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof should be sentenced to life in prison or death has reached a verdict.</p>
<p>It will be announced soon. Roof was convicted of killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack on June 17, 2015.</p>
<p>The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations.</p>
<p>Roof, who is white, was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During the penalty phase of the trial, he represented himself and told jurors he didn’t have a mental illness, but he didn’t offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared.</p>
<p>In a lengthy confession, Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Jurors deliberating whether Dylann Roof should get death or life in prison have raised several questions about his potential imprisonment.</p>
<p>The jury on Tuesday asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel for clarification on some of the mitigating factors they’re being asked to consider, including if Roof could safely be confined if he were sentenced to life in prison. The judge told jurors to re-read the instructions he provided them to figure out what that means.</p>
<p>Jurors also asked to re-watch a speech by the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the nine people Roof killed during a Bible study in 2015.</p>
<p>So far, jurors have deliberated Roof’s sentence more than two hours.</p>
<p>Roof didn’t ask jurors to spare his life and told them he still feels he “had to” kill the nine Bible study attendees at Emanuel AME Church.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Jurors have begun deliberating over whether Dylann Roof is sentenced to death or life in prison for his crimes.</p>
<p>Jurors were sent to the jury room Tuesday afternoon to begin considering the case after U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel reviewed the charge that governs jurors’ discussions.</p>
<p>Prosecutors focused on the gruesome nature of the slayings of nine black parishioners attending a June 2015 Bible study at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson also reminded jurors about the days of emotional testimony they’ve heard from relatives of all nine people killed.</p>
<p>Roof gave a brief closing of his own, telling jurors he knew he could ask them to spare his life but wasn’t sure “what good that would do.”</p>
<p>Roof is his own attorney in these proceedings and also told jurors he knew only one of them had to disagree with the others in order for him to avoid a death sentence.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:25 p.m.</p>
<p>Dylann Roof is telling jurors at his sentencing that he has the right to ask them for life in prison instead of execution but he says he is not sure “what good that would do anyway.”</p>
<p>Roof did not ask the jury to spare his life for killing nine black church members in June 2015. He gave a closing argument of about five minutes on Tuesday. At one point, he said he felt like he had to commit the slayings, and “I still feel like I had to do it.”</p>
<p>Prosecutors say he should be executed because he had a “hateful heart” and the young white man targeted the black church in a racially motivated attack.</p>
<p>Jurors will begin deliberations Tuesday afternoon.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have made their final case as to why they believe Dylann Roof should die for slaying nine people during a Bible study.</p>
<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told jurors on Tuesday that Roof’s crimes more than meet the standards they’ll consider for a possible death sentence.</p>
<p>Richardson says the way Roof mercilessly gunned down the black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church, coupled with his lack of remorse, mean he should receive the harshest sentence available.</p>
<p>Richardson also reviewed emotional testimony jurors have heard about each of the victims and the voids created by their deaths.</p>
<p>Roof is representing himself. The government will have the opportunity to give a rebuttal to anything Roof says, if he gives a closing argument.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:15 a.m.</p>
<p>Prosecutors are explaining why they think Dylann Roof deserves to be executed for his crimes.</p>
<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson is laying out the standards that must be met for a death sentence, including that the defendant must be at least 18 years old and intentionally committed the crimes. There are also statutory aggravating factors, including killing “vulnerable” victims.</p>
<p>Richardson is giving the federal government’s closing argument during sentencing for Roof for the June 2015 slaughter at Emanuel AME Church. The prosecutor has reviewed testimony they heard about each of the nine victims, as well as Roof’s preparations for the shootings and the entrenchment of his hatred toward black people.</p>
<p>Roof is representing himself and has the chance to give a closing of his own after prosecutors finish.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:20 a.m.</p>
<p>Jurors are getting a review of the emotional testimony given by friends and relatives of the nine people gunned down by Dylann Roof during a June 2015 Bible study.</p>
<p>One by one, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson is reminding the jury of the voids created by the deaths of the people Roof killed. Relatives of the slain gave four days of testimony about what each person meant to them and how a future without them seems bleak.</p>
<p>Richardson is giving the government’s closing argument in its pursuit of the death penalty against Roof. Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations later Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Prosecutors have begun closing arguments in Dylann Roof’s sentencing by reminding jurors about the bloody crime at a Charleston church where Roof killed nine people.</p>
<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson recalled testimony from one of the massacre’s survivors, who said Roof said he’d leave her alive so she could tell the world what happened.</p>
<p>He reminded jurors of how survivor Felicia Sanders saw her son Tywanza slain as he lay next to her, his blood seeping out onto the floor.</p>
<p>Richardson has said he’ll likely take around two hours to close out the government’s argument as to why Roof should be executed for his crimes in 2015. Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations later Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say they will take about two hours to close out their argument as to why Dylann Roof should be executed for slaying nine people at a South Carolina church.</p>
<p>Closing arguments are being made Tuesday morning in Roof’s federal sentencing trial. This is the last chance for prosecutors to make their case as to why he should be sentenced to death over life in prison.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors wrapped up their case Monday with relatives of the youngest victim to die in the June 2015 attack on a Bible study group at Emanuel AME Church. Roof is representing himself and introduced no witnesses or testimony in his own defense.</p>
<p>Jurors will get the case after closings and their charge instructions.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:20 a.m.</p>
<p>The fate of convicted church shooter Dylann Roof will soon rest in the hands of the 12 jurors considering sentencing in his federal trial.</p>
<p>The same jury last month convicted Roof of 33 federal crimes, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion, in his June 2015 assault on a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church that left nine black parishioners dead.</p>
<p>After a holiday break, jurors returned last week to court, where prosecutors laid out their case for why Roof should be executed.</p>
<p>Jurors will get the case after closing arguments Tuesday morning from prosecutors and perhaps Roof, who has represented himself during sentencing but has put up no fight for his life. The 22-year-old didn’t call any witnesses, present any evidence and so far has not asked for mercy.</p> | Victim’s brother says death appropriate for Roof | false | https://abqjournal.com/924465/the-latest-victims-impact-being-reviewed-for-roof-jury.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>BENTON, Ky. — The 15-year-old accused in a school shooting that killed two students and left 18 others bleeding and broken appeared Thursday before a juvenile court judge who found probable cause to detain him on preliminary charges of murder and assault.</p>
<p>Assistant Marshall County Attorney Jason Darnall said he can’t comment on what happens inside juvenile court, where the teenager’s identity and details of the crime remain cloaked in secrecy. But he reiterated that the state wants to try the teenager as an adult.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, authorities are gathering evidence for a grand jury, hoping to discover why he fired into a crowd of his classmates, all 14 to 18 years old, as they waited for the morning bell inside Marshall County High School on Tuesday.</p>
<p>MONTECITO, Calif. — Taking stock of their lives and remembering those who were lost, emotional residents on Thursday trickled back to the California coastal town that was devastated two weeks ago by mudslides that killed at least 21 people and destroyed more than a hundred homes.</p>
<p>Santa Barbara County officials finally lifted evacuation orders this week for about 1,600 people in the hillside enclave of Montecito, while thousands of others still waited for word that it was safe to return.</p>
<p>Sheriff’s deputies drove vans full of evacuees back to their homes. The owners of those that were heavily damaged or destroyed were allowed to briefly search the rubble for precious belongings.</p>
<p>NEW YORK — Donald and Melania Trump had a simple request: to borrow a Van Gogh painting from a New York museum for their White House private quarters.</p>
<p>Instead, the Washington Post reports the Guggenheim Museum’s curator came up with a pointedly satirical counter-offer: a solid gold toilet used by visitors in a museum restroom until last August.</p>
<p>The first couple wanted Van Gogh’s “Landscape With Snow,” featuring a man and his dog.</p>
<p>Curator Nancy Spector, who’s been openly critical of Trump in social media, emailed the White House in September that the Trumps could borrow the toilet installation titled “America” — Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s jab at the nation’s greedier instincts. The toilet has an estimated value topping $1 million.</p>
<p>The Post said the White House has stayed silent on the offer.</p>
<p /> | Your nation and world news in brief | false | http://greensboro.com/townnews/law/your-nation-and-world-news-in-brief/article_3eb8590f-6cdf-590e-a090-c58d73c139eb.html | 2018-01-25 | 3 |
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<p>Yet you may feel the need to do even more, especially if you’re making the last big push toward retirement. These hacks allow you to shelter more money from taxes now and when you retire. They include:</p>
<p>–Last-minute 529 deductions. You’ll get the most value from state-based college savings plans if you have many years for your contributions to grow. But you may be able to wring a last-minute tax benefit even if your child is about to head off to college or is already there. Most states offer deductions or credits for contributions and don’t have minimum holding periods, said Andrea Feirstein, managing director of AKF Consulting Group, which advises 529 plans. You can contribute to the plan and pull the money out shortly thereafter to pay college bills. In states that do have holding periods, such as Michigan, you may have to deposit the money one year and withdraw it the next to qualify for the deduction. You can find a complete list of tax benefits by state at SavingForCollege.com , but you should call the plan you’re considering to ask about any fees or holding periods.</p>
<p>–Using HSAs to supercharge your retirement savings. Health savings accounts are designed to help people pay their share of high-deductible medical insurance plans. But they offer a rare triple tax break: Your contributions are deductible going in, your money grows tax-deferred, and withdrawals are tax-free if used to pay for qualified medical services. Some financial experts are so enamored of the benefits that they recommend funding an HSA even before contributing enough to a 401(k) to get the full company match. To take full advantage of this strategy, though, HSA owners need to leave the money alone to grow, which means paying deductibles and copays out of their own pockets — and those amounts can be steep. For a family, the maximum out-of-pocket expense for 2017 is $13,100.</p>
<p>–Backdoor Roth contributions. Roth IRAs offer tax-free withdrawals in retirement. That’s a big deal for those with enough time to let the magic of compounding work. Would you rather pay no taxes on $5,500 today (the maximum contribution) or no taxes on many times that amount when you retire? But the ability to contribute ends when your modified adjusted gross income in 2017 exceeds $133,000 if you’re a single filer or $196,000 for married couples filing jointly. The “backdoor ” Roth allows taxpayers to get around those limits. They contribute first to traditional IRAs and then convert those to Roth IRAs, since there’s no income limit on Roth conversions. Income taxes are typically owed on conversions, but the bill could be low or even zero if the taxpayer doesn’t take a deduction and doesn’t have much or any money in IRAs outside of the one being converted. (Taxes on a conversion are based on the proportion of the taxpayer’s IRA holdings that hasn’t yet been taxed.)</p>
<p>–Mega backdoor Roth contributions. Many people can do a backdoor Roth, but the stars really have to align for a mega version to be possible. Once again, you’re contributing after-tax money to a retirement account and then quickly converting it to a Roth vehicle. This time, though, the account you’re using is a 401(k) that allows after-tax contributions beyond the usual deferral limits of $18,000 annually, plus a $6,000 catch-up provision for people 50 and older. The IRS actually allows up to $53,000 to be contributed to a 401(k), including pretax, after-tax and employer contributions. If your 401(k) plan allows these additional options — and most don’t — that means you could put up to $35,000 more into your account. You can roll this money into a Roth IRA when you quit or retire, but there could be a lot of gains that would trigger taxes. By contrast, if you can do frequent “in-plan” conversions — rolled over in the same plan — to a Roth 401(k), or “in-service” conversions — done while you are still working — to a Roth IRA, those gains and any taxes would be minimized. It’s not clear how many 401(k) plans allow both after-tax contributions and in-plan or in-service conversions; it’s certainly not the majority. It’s worth checking with yours, though, since you could be funneling thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars more into Roths each year.</p>
<p>_______</p>
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<p>This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet .</p>
<p>Liz Weston is a certified financial planner and columnist at NerdWallet. Email: lweston @lizweston .</p>
<p>RELATED LINKS:</p>
<p>NerdWallet: How to Set Up a Backdoor Roth IRA: https://nerd.me/2nuKZJn</p>
<p>Savingforcollege.com: State-by-state plan details: <a href="http://www.savingforcollege.com/529_plan_details/" type="external">http://www.savingforcollege.com/529_plan_details/</a></p> | Liz Weston: 4 tax hacks you might not know | false | https://abqjournal.com/981354/liz-weston-4-tax-hacks-you-might-not-know.html | 2017-04-03 | 2 |
<p>BANGKOK — To court Muslim investors, Thailand’s business world is showcasing firms the prophet Mohammed could condone.</p>
<p>The Stock Exchange of Thailand, currently in a tailspin, is hoping to attract moneyed Muslims in the Middle East and in its own backyard. Their pitch, however, doesn’t just rely on promises of high returns. These firms, the exchange says, will benefit Muslims’ bottom line — and their conscience as well.</p>
<p>Debuting next month, Thailand’s “Sharia Index” is a selection of firms vetted by scholars who can navigate both the Qur’an and a balance sheet. Each has been deemed free from violations of Sharia, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia" type="external">Islamic holy law</a>. Companies connected to pork, tobacco, booze — or even the defense industry — are immediately disqualified.</p>
<p>Then comes the hard part. Real expertise is needed to weed out businesses that violate the Sharia’s prohibition on excessive interest. Known as “riba” in the Qur’an, it’s comparable to the Judeo-Christian concept of “usury.” Avoiding interest is the foundation of Islamic financing.</p>
<p>“Dabbling with ‘riba’ is a large sin,” said Habhajan Singh, who tracks Islamic finance trends for The Malaysian Reserve newspaper, where he is associate editor. “For Muslims to partake in the modern financial world, they have to remove that element of interest.” The vetting process eliminates any business that profits from interest — such as banks — in favor of companies profiting from concrete assets.</p>
<p>The idea has made its way into the modern financial world. Thailand’s stock exchange follows exchanges in Singapore and Hong Kong in offering an Islam-vetted stock index. Its new Sharia index will be calculated by the U.K.-based FTSE group.</p>
<p>Santi Kiranand, who heads market development for Thailand’s stock exchange, said the Sharia index is mostly a push for more wealthy Middle East investors. But it also opens doors for investors in Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia. Though predominately Buddhist, Thailand&#160;also is home to many Muslims, though most are concentrated in poorer southern provinces along Malaysia’s border.</p>
<p>“Even though we have a lot of Muslims, and they should be our targets too, we have to diversify our investor base into those other regions of the world,” Santi said. “The Middle East doesn’t invest enough in our capital market.”</p>
<p>Santi and a small team are currently planning a “road show” through the Middle Eastern financial centers Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, he said.</p>
<p>Both the western and east Asian business worlds have recently become more cognizant of Islamic financial principles, said Paul Hoff, managing director of FTSE Asia Pacific. The awareness broadened, he said, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the larger trend towards globalization.</p>
<p>More than just assuaging consciences of Middle East investors, the Islam-guided indices also perform admirably, he said. Proponents of Islamic finance note that Sharia indices can’t include banks or any high-risk, debt-leveraging sectors — which many blame for spurring the current global financial downturn.</p>
<p>“You have to go back and see how the asset is constructed,” Singh said. “If it’s all backed by paper, like in most of the sub-prime cases, then it’s not acceptable by Sharia law.”</p>
<p>Throughout the past four decades, as the Middle East has developed powerful financial hubs, scholars have worked to interpret Islamic financial teachings in a modern context, he said.</p>
<p>Muslim-friendly stocks have shown they can at least compete. A global index of FTSE-picked “emerging” stocks has been slightly outperformed by its Sharia-compliant counterpart, which has brought in a lifetime return of 4.6 percent.</p>
<p>And in the last six months, as most indices have tumbled, many Sharia-friendly stocks appear more resilient — if only by a few percentage points. The FTSE’s “All-World” index made up of more than 2,800 companies has dropped by 44 percent in the last six months. But the Sharia-vetted slice of that grouping dropped by only 40.2 percent.</p>
<p>Other FTSE indices in the past six months have fared more than 5 percent worse than their Sharia-vetted counterparts. “Sometimes they perform way out of line with (non-Sharia-friendly) indices and sometimes they perform very closely,” Hoff said. “But that one percentage point can add up to a lot of money.”</p>
<p>Many companies operate in compliance with the Qur’an without even trying. When the FTSE Group vetted Thailand’s stock exchange through Dubai-based Sharia consultants, it found that nearly half of the 132 listings were already in line with Islamic codes.</p>
<p>The exchange only needed to ward those 50-odd companies into a special index and start pitching to the oil-rich Middle East. Major Thai stocks cleared for the index include Banpu, a power company, and the wealthy Siam Cement Group.</p>
<p>Though the index will mostly target Arab Muslims, Hoff said it could possibly lure investors of all faiths if the profits are right.</p>
<p>“If they see the performance is better,” he said, “it’ll be attractive to everybody.” &#160;</p>
<p>More GlobalPost dispatches by Patrick Winn:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/090224/mcdreaming-thailand" type="external">McDreaming in Thailand</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/090211/fair-and-balanced-bangkok-no" type="external">Fair and balanced in Bangkok? No.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/090202/bangkok-sinking-1" type="external">Bangkok is sinking</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Problems with your portfolio? Maybe you need help from a higher authority. | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-03-05/problems-your-portfolio-maybe-you-need-help-higher-authority | 2009-03-05 | 3 |
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<p>Damien Ressiot, who is in charge of controls at French anti-doping agency AFLD, said Tuesday that taking the banned stimulant for doping purposes now seems to be a “fairly common practice.”</p>
<p>Cocaine is among a class of stimulants whose use is banned only in competition.</p>
<p>Speaking at a news conference at AFLD headquarters, scientific adviser Xavier Bigard insisted it would be “extremely dangerous to minimize its use as a purely recreational drug.”</p>
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<p>Ressiot added that several cases involving cocaine use which are currently under the scrutiny of the AFLD will help the agency determine the type of networks used by cheaters.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, former Wallabies back James O’Connor was fined for cocaine use by the Paris prosecutor’s office and suspended by his club Toulon. The 26-year-old O’Connor and former All Blacks lock Ali Williams spent more than 24 hours in custody after they were arrested outside a nightclub for buying cocaine.</p>
<p>After the incident, Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal said he had the feeling cocaine had become a popular drug in his sport.</p>
<p>Bigard said cocaine use is particularly present in sports where power and strength are required to excel.</p>
<p>“The president of the French Rugby League federation also said cocaine was a problem in elite sport,” Ressiot said.</p>
<p>There have been several cases involving cocaine in the world of sports recently. Last November, Finnish soccer player Roman Eremenko was banned for two years after a positive test for the stimulant. The Court of Arbitration for Sport also gave Algeria forward Youcef Belaili a two-year ban on appeal for cocaine, and rugby league player Ben Barba was released by the Cronulla Sharks in Australia after testing positive for the drug.</p>
<p>Former boxing world champion Tyson Fury also admitted taking cocaine after he had his license suspended over drug use and medical issues.</p>
<p>Presenting the agency’s activity report for 2016, AFLD president Bruno Genevois said endurance sports traditionally hit by doping, a group that includes cycling and track, have made big progress in the fight against doping.</p>
<p>“When you compare the number of doping cases with the number of the sports practitioners, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s statistics show that body building and weightlifting are” the sports the most exposed to doping, Genevois said.</p>
<p>Ressiot added that the agency was also making a priority of testing athletes competing in combat sports like mixed martial arts.</p>
<p>“Although they remain banned in France, mixed martial arts are very popular among youngsters,” Ressiot said. “And the substances involved are heavy, anabolic steroids.”</p>
<p>Ressiot and Genevois also rued a lack of cooperation from the International Tennis Federation that again prevented the AFLD from being involved in the testing process at the French Open this year.</p>
<p>“We have real issues with the ITF, a federation which has the deepest contempt for national anti-doping agencies,” Ressiot said.</p> | French anti-doping officials worried about cocaine use | false | https://abqjournal.com/1017133/french-anti-doping-officials-worried-about-cocaine-use.html | 2017-06-13 | 2 |
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<p>Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is, arguably, the quintissential story stock. I know, I know... that's not exactly a revelation at this point. Elon Musk set out to create a world powered by renewable energy and filled with electric vehicles, told us about how great it would be, made it sexy, and now we can't get enough of the vision. But it has its drawbacks -- such as having an impossible-to-justify valuation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>When confronted with Tesla's ridiculous valuation, bullish investors counter that there's no comparison to what Musk is building with the brand. That's true, but I find the argument to be dangerous, not because I don't appreciate what the company is attempting to accomplish, but because analysts and investors aren't appreciating that the company could fail to accomplish what it's attempting.</p>
<p>A gaudy (and simply ridiculous) valuation is the simple reason why I won't buy Tesla, and I think other investors may feel the same way.</p>
<p>Image source: Tesla.</p>
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<p>The just-released full-year 2016 earnings showed impressive year-over-year growth and promised even more in the first-half of 2017. The Model 3 launch in July and subsequent production ramp-up in the fourth quarter of this year have the potential to really push growth to the next level.</p>
<p>Throw in a simultaneous ramp-up of energy storage products from Gigafactory 1, and it's easy to see why investors are excited.But is all of this worth $40 billion of excitement?</p>
<p>Tesla is now worth nearly as much as Ford Motor Company and General Motors -- established automakers that sell more cars in less than one month than the company did in all of 2016.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/TSLA/market_cap" type="external">TSLA Market Cap</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Investors could argue that offering the first mass-market electric vehicle earns Tesla its enormous valuation, but it's not a very good argument. Ford and General Motors -- and most major automakers -- are readying electric vehicles for market launches in the next several years. Many have plans to greatly expand their offerings of electric vehicles in the next 10 to 15 years.</p>
<p>For instance, the Chevy Bolt, which has a starting price of $37,495 and offers a 238-mile range, promises to give the Model 3 a run for its money. It became available in two states last December and will increase its footprint this year.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Ford has an <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/26/big-dividends-yes-but-fords-ceo-is-seeking-big-gro.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">"electrification" strategy Opens a New Window.</a> that will gradually transition the automaker to hybrid and fully electric vehicles over the next decade. The Ford Fusion Energi was the fourth best-selling electric vehicle in the United States through the first 10 months of last year.</p>
<p>In addition to direct competition, electric vehicles sold by companies other than Tesla will eat away at the company's revenue stream provided by Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) credits, which are sold to comply with regulatory obligations in certain states. In 2016, these accounted for $302 million in revenue. It may not seem like much, but given the revenue is essentially cost free, ZEV credit sales accounted for 19% of the company's gross profit last year.</p>
<p>Investors could argue that, aside from leading the way on electric vehicles, Tesla's hefty valuation is partially earned from leading the way in solar power and energy storage. The annual update letter certainly showed impressive growth last year.</p>
<p>What it didn't show is that the company appears to be abandoning plans to manufacture Silveo modules, and will instead purchase "custom made modules" from Panasonic, according to an agreement signed in December 2016. That could result in a significant writedown of the acquisition costs and technology development.</p>
<p>The update letter also doesn't mention that Tesla's energy-storage ambitions <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/27/dont-believe-elon-musk-on-the-powerwall.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">aren't realistic from a technical standpoint Opens a New Window.</a>. In addition to thermodynamic obstacles from specific lithium-ion chemistries, researchers who have crunched all of the detailed numbers don't think there will be much -- if any -- battery cost-reduction benefit from building larger battery factories. That should make investors a little uncomfortable, especially considering cost reductions were a crucial argument defending billions of dollars in expenses for building Gigafactory 1.</p>
<p>Tesla's reliance on storytelling is offputting to me, doubly so when it results in a $40 billion market cap that is impossible to really justify. Investors continue to overvalue the potential of imaginative solar roofs and uneconomical residential energy storage. However, the real drivers for the company's renewable energy strategy are more likely to be riding the continued growth in traditional residential solar and selling energy storage products into niche markets, such as peak demand stop gaps for utility companies. Even then, the market opportunity is less -- and the competition more -- than investors properly gauge.</p>
<p>Shareholders today may benefit from the Musk Halo Effect -- which attaches a premium valuation to, or boosts, public goodwill of companies and projects he's involved with -- but that doesn't mean investors should bank on it lasting indefinitely. It's the simple reason why I won't be buying Tesla.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than TeslaWhen 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>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=be3d0a33-8bca-48af-91f1-cf53b574662b&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Tesla wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=be3d0a33-8bca-48af-91f1-cf53b574662b&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx" type="external">Maxx Chatsko Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. 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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Simple Reason Why I Won't Buy Tesla | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/11/simple-reason-why-wont-buy-tesla.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
<p>The Legends Football League, formerly known as the Lingerie Football League, responded to the NFL this week by announcing that they stand for the national anthem because the sacrifices made by American heroes are "far too sacred" to protest.</p>
<p>"The LFL recognizes everyone's First Amendment right to protest, but our nation's flag and anthem are far too sacred," the league <a href="http://freebeacon.com/culture/lingerie-football-league-responds-to-nfl-we-stand/" type="external">said</a> Tuesday. "Too many fellow Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice, so that our flag and anthem continue in all its majesty."</p>
<p>The league also released a video announcing their support for the U.S. flag and the national anthem.</p>
<p>"It symbolizes all the blood, sweat, and tears that have been shed so that we as Americans can raise our flag across our nation," the LFL says in the video. "The LFL salutes all those who make this the greatest country in the world."</p>
<p>"We stand in salute of our flag."</p>
<p>WATCH:</p>
<p>For those who are not familiar with the LFL, the all-women league is hard-hitting and in some instances is even more rough-and-tough than the NFL.</p>
<p>Here are some clips from LFL games:</p> | Lingerie Football League Responds To NFL Protests: 'WE STAND!' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21645/lingerie-football-league-responds-nfl-protests-we-ryan-saavedra | 2017-09-28 | 0 |
<p>The ever-mercurial Charlie Sheen took to Twitter Wednesday to make a public plea to God to strike President-elect Donald Trump dead. In the wake of <a href="" type="internal">the shocking deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds</a>, Sheen <a href="https://twitter.com/charliesheen/status/814303837225762816" type="external">tweeted</a>, "Dear God; Trump next, please!" After repeating this plea 5 times, Sheen closed with an emoji that flipped the world the middle finger.</p>
<p>And this is just the latest item on a long list of offenses our national media is showing little to no outrage towards. On top of Sheen, there is the café owner in Hawaii <a href="" type="internal">who refuses to serve Trump supporters</a>, the college professor, who along with his husband, <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/811968572079607808" type="external">harassed Ivanka Trump and her small children on a Christmas Eve flight</a>, <a href="" type="internal">the moron who canceled a party</a> out of fear Trump supporters might show up and enjoy themselves, a dozen or so phony hate crimes committed to smear Trump and his supporters, <a href="" type="internal">the verbal harassment</a> of a Muslim Trump supporter, and numerous Hollywood-types who refuse to bake a cake perform at Trump's inauguration celebration.</p>
<p>Returning to Sheen, so what? Personally, I do not care about tasteless jokes, even if they are directed at My President. As I have mentioned before, people's lives and careers should not be destroyed over jokes or even a momentary lapse of decorum, and that includes the two idiots who harassed Ivanka.</p>
<p>Regardless of which side of the aisle they hail from, these social media death squads give me the creeps.</p>
<p>What is notable, though, is a national media that assures and reassures us they are objective and unbiased guardians of truth and norms, and yet… where is the 24/7 cable news sh*tstorm over what, just 6 weeks ago, this very same media would have rampaged against in defense of their precious Obama?</p>
<p>Let me return to my favorite example, nobody GOP staffer Elizabeth Lauten who, in 2014, and on her own personal Facebook page, wrote the <a href="" type="internal">following nothingburger</a> about President Obama's daughters:</p>
<p>Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re part of the First Family, try showing a little class. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, Lauten's life and career was in tatters, thanks only to a venomous, drunk-on-their-own-McCarthyite-power mainstream media that refused to let the story go. The Washington Post attacked Lauten in no fewer than a dozen headlines, CNN and MSNBC chewed her up in ways they never would an Islamic terrorist, and in the end they got their scalp. Lauten quit her job and scurried away a public pariah.</p>
<p>For my money, Sheen is doing what artists do … pushing boundaries, doing what he is not supposed to do, and while I would never wish anyone dead, I like living in a country where such belligerence is allowed.</p>
<p>What I cannot abide, though, and <a href="" type="internal">the polls show that much of the public agree</a>, is a bullying, dishonest, and hypocritical national political media that puffs itself up as objective, and then goes on to personally destroy anyone who dares color outside the lines when it comes to Obama. But when much worse is done to or said about Trump and his family, the very same media that gleefully annihilated Elizabeth Lauten, that treated peaceful Tea Partiers like terrorists, that blasted all opposition to the Precious as racist -- they treat the public like we are jerks, like we are mental patients misremembering all of that.</p>
<p>Sure, the media dutifully reports these offenses against Trump. They always put themselves on record. And then it is left to die slowly in the sun. Things are so bad, the public is so aware of our media's corruption, you no longer even need to say, "What if James Woods tweeted this plea about Obama?" or "What if a Liberty University professor harassed Chelsea or verbally abused a Muslim Obama supporter?"</p>
<p>This is not how an unbiased, objective, professional media only interested in protecting norms acts.</p>
<p>While Sheen is simply behaving as a free man in America, our media is behaving like what they are: a bullying gang of bloodless, partisan, corporate fascists disguised as journalists.</p>
<p>And they can all burn in hell.</p>
<p>Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC" type="external">@NolteNC</a></p> | Charlie Sheen Begs God to Kill Trump and Gives Us Reason #11,432 to Hate the Media | true | https://dailywire.com/news/11998/charlie-sheen-begs-god-kill-trump-and-gives-us-john-nolte | 2016-12-29 | 0 |
<p>Not One Less, directed by Zhang Yimou (Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern etc) is a propaganda film, a sad come-down for a very talented guy, I think—though its portrait of life among some of the poorest villages of China today is brilliantly rendered and memorably affecting. Here, too, is truth, and this is not something that one expects from propaganda. The other curious thing about it is that it is not only based on actual events, but the people who took part in those events play themselves in the movie. This to me is almost unbelievable, especially in light of the fact that both the central characters, Wei Minzhi and Zhang Huike, are children and natural actors. Perhaps Zhang Yimou only decided to make the film this way when he realized what a treasure he’d found in these two. Or perhaps all Chinese children are natural actors.</p>
<p>The story is set in a village so poor that the one room elementary school (its only school) can scarcely afford chalk, and the children who attend it frequently have to be taken out of school in order to help their families by working in the fields. The village schoolmaster, Teacher Gao (Gao Enman) is called away on family business and so must find a substitute teacher for the month he will be away. The local authority sends him Wei, a 13 year-old girl who has only just finished elementary school herself. “No one [else] will come,” he is told. “This is a remote village, far from everything. No one wants to come.”</p>
<p>Teacher Gao must make the best of it. He interviews his diminutive replacement, asking her “What can you do?” She is tongue-tied. At last she answers: “Sing”</p>
<p>“Sing something,” says Teacher Gao. When she starts singing a patriotic, Maoist song with the appropriate hand gestures, she has to stop in the middle, having forgotten the rest. And she doesn’t know any other songs. “You can’t sing one song for a month,” says Teacher Gao.</p>
<p>But what choice does he have? He shows her his precious supply of chalk. There are 26 pieces of chalk for the 26 days he will be away. With careful use, each piece will last for one day—a day spent, obviously, with her writing on the board and the other children copying what she has written—but only if she makes the ideograms only “as big as donkey’s turd.” Above all, Teacher Gao says, she must take care not to lose any of the little class. He has already lost ten pupils this year. They are always slipping away from the school because their parents need them to work. She should earn 50 yuan for the month’s work (though Gao himself has not been paid for six months) and an extra ten yuan if she doesn’t lose any more. “Not one less,” he says.</p>
<p>The words of the title also stand for the extreme frugality that must be practiced by these desperately poor people. Of course one of the pupils is taken away, the young troublemaker Zhang Huike, and Wei, grimly determined to earn her extra 10 yuan, goes off to the city in search of him. She herself has never been to the city, has no idea how it works or how much things cost, and no idea of how to find Zhang Huike once she gets there. There are a number of heart-tugging incidents caused by her predictable failures and hardships, but always this remarkable child’s combination of impassivity and barely suppressed emotion contrive to move us—even when a deus ex machina comes along in the form of what passes in China for a media frenzy over her.</p>
<p>Gifts for the school pour into the village, but the children can scarcely comprehend it. “So much chalk. We won’t have to buy any more,” says one.</p>
<p>“Lets save it for Teacher Gao,” says another.</p>
<p>The film ends with an announcement that “poverty forces more than one million children in China each year to leave school.” This seems to be a typically disingenuous, quasi-official announcement by the Chinese government, so there is naturally no mention of the extent to which that poverty is the result of 40 years of economic mismanagement under the predecessors of the present Communist régime. But as things begin to improve in China, films like this afford us a glimpse of just how bad things must have been before the economic changes of the past ten years.</p> | Not One Less | false | https://eppc.org/publications/not-one-less/ | 1 | |
<p>Truthdig contributor Marc Cooper, writing for The Nation, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070101/cooperweb" type="external">uncovers</a> a growing movement of active-duty soldiers who are petitioning Congress to begin the withdrawal of troops. A 21-year-old soldier serving in Iraq who signed the petition says of the war: “The well is so poisoned by what we have done here that nothing can fix it.”</p>
<p>The Nation:</p>
<p>“Lisa”–20 years old, E-4, USAF, Stationed at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii:</p>
<p>I joined up two weeks after I turned 17 because I wanted to save American lives. I wanted to be a hero like any American child.</p>
<p />
<p>I supported the war when I joined because I thought it was justified. Only after my own research and the truth coming out did I learn how wrong I was, how–for lack of a better word–how brainwashed I was.</p>
<p>Now I know the war is illegal, unjustified and that our troops have no reason for being there.</p>
<p>When I saw an article about the Appeal in the Air Force Times I went online right away and signed it and have encouraged others to do the same.</p>
<p>“Sgt. Gary”–21 years old. US Army. Deployed with 20th Infantry Regiment, near Mosul, Iraq:</p>
<p>I joined up in 2001, still a junior in high school. I felt very patriotic at the end of my US History class. My idea of the Army was that you signed up, they gave you a rifle and you ran off into battle like in some 1950s war movie. The whole idea of boot camp never really entered my head.</p>
<p>I supported the war in the beginning. I bought everything Bush said about how Saddam had WMDs, how he was working with Al Qaeda, how he was a threat to America. Of course, this all turned out to be false.</p>
<p>This is my second tour, and as of a few days ago it’s half-over. Before I deployed with my unit for the second time I already had feelings of not wanting to go. When in late September a buddy in my platoon died from a bullet in the head, I really took a long hard look at this war, this Administration, and the reasons why.</p>
<p>After months of research on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that this war was based on lies and deception. I started to break free of all the propaganda that the Bush Administration and the Army puts out on a daily basis.</p>
<p>So far in three years we have succeeded in toppling a dictator and replacing him with puppets. Outlawing the old government and its standing army and replacing them with an unreliable and poorly trained crew of paycheck collectors. The well is so poisoned by what we have done here that nothing can fix it.</p>
<p>“Lt. Smith”–24 years old, 1st Lieutenant, US Army. Deployed near Baghdad:</p>
<p>I cannot, from Iraq, attend an antiwar protest. Nor could I attend one in the States and represent myself as a soldier. What I can do is send a protest communication to my Congressional delegate outlining grievances I feel I have suffered. Appeal for Redress gives me that outlet.</p>
<p>I am encouraged by the November elections, but still wary. We rushed into the war on false assumptions, and now we might rush out just as falsely. What troops need now is a light at the end of the tunnel, not just for this deployment but for all deployments. Bringing everyone out this summer is too fast to be supported by our Army’s infrastructure. We would hemorrhage lives if we do so. But so would we if we stay the course.</p>
<p>I am encouraged by politicians who call for a withdrawal by the conclusion of President Bush’s term in office. That seems a realistic timetable for me.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070101/cooperweb" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Troops Starting to Demand Withdrawal | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/troops-starting-to-demand-withdrawal/ | 2006-12-16 | 4 |
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