WASHINGTON – The Republican-led House yesterday passed the largest tax cut in nearly 20 years, but President Clinton’s veto threat means it’s still a long way from showing up on IRS forms.
The 10-year, $792 billion package won on a 223-208 vote. Only four Republicans, including upstate Rep. Jack Quinn, opposed it – and six Democrats supported it.
Clinton, who has called any tax cut above $300 billion “too risky” to the booming economy, yesterday left no doubt about what he’ll do if it gets through the Senate and reaches his desk.
“I will veto it,” he said at a community college in Lansing, Mich.
The Senate plans to vote next week on a very different tax-cut plan – although it’s the same size, at $792 billion.
The confusion makes it almost impossible to say exactly what, if any, tax cuts will show up on IRS forms next year.
Clinton and the Republicans will either compromise and approve a smaller tax cut, or they’ll fight over the issue during the election season.
The centerpiece of the House plan is a 10-percent across-the-board rate deduction on personal income taxes.
The House plan also includes a repeal of estate and alternative minimum taxes, breaks for education and health care, and a capital-gains tax cut.
The centerpiece of the Senate plan is a reduction in the bottom tax bracket from 15 percent to 14 percent. It also would expand IRA contribution limits and deductions.
Clinton’s main complaint is that the large cut doesn’t set aside enough money to pay for education, Medicare and reduce the national debt.
Republicans counter that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the GOP plan would reduce the debt by more than Clinton’s plan.
Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union predicted some tax cuts would survive the messy lawmaking process, but he said only one group is guaranteed to come out a winner – accountants.
“Most accountants are rubbing their hands together, and taxpayers are left scratching their heads,” Sepp said.
“Somewhere between the person on the street and Congress there are a bunch of lobbyists and political demagogues saying that kind of tax relief is unfair,” he said.


Photo credit: hit thatswitch via flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
New York City, N.Y., May 16, 2016 / 04:39 pm ().- The drug company Pfizer has announced it will no longer sell drugs for use in lethal injections because it objects to their use in executions.
“Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. Consistent with these values, Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment,” the company said in an April 2016 policy position paper.
The company is enforcing a distribution restriction for seven drugs that have been a part of lethal injection protocols or have considered for such protocols.
The new policy means there is no remaining open-market source of lethal injection drugs in the U.S., the New York Times reports. Over 20 American and European companies have adopted restrictions on lethal injection drug provision, sometimes as a result of advocacy from death penalty opponents. The European Union has banned the export of the drugs used in lethal injections.
The drugs affected by the Pfizer policy change include pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride, propofol, midazolam, hydromorphone, rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide.
“Pfizer offers these products because they save or improve lives, and markets them solely for use as indicated in the product labeling,” the company said.
The drugs will be sold to wholesalers, distributors and direct purchasers on condition that they not resell them to correctional institutions for use in lethal injections. Government purchasers may not provide the drugs to any other party.
The company said it will monitor the distribution of these drugs and act upon any findings of non-compliance.
Drug production bottlenecks as well as opposition from death penalty opponents have limited the availability of lethal injection drugs.
New drug combinations have been faulted for several high-profile botched executions, in which the condemned inmates took a prolonged period to die.
There are 32 U.S. states that allow the death penalty. Some states have adopted the electric chair, firing squad or gas chamber as an alternative to lethal injection.


Sam Allardyce, England manager. How does that sound? Because for one game at least, that's how it'll be. Sort of.
Stoke are in talks with West Ham about a possible move for England striker Dean Ashton.
West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola has revealed that Dean Ashton is unlikely to return to action until March at the earliest.
West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola is determined to keep the likes of Dean Ashton and Matthew Upson at the club when the January transfer window opens.
West Ham striker Dean Ashton faces a month on the sidelines after it was confirmed he requires an ankle operation.
West Ham striker Dean Ashton has been passed fit despite limping out of Saturday's Premier League defeat of Wigan.
West Ham striker Dean Ashton has been told to lose weight if he wants to further his England career.


Esty decided against running for re-election last year following criticism from Connecticut Democrats about how she handled an abusive staffer. Esty did not terminate the staffer for months after she learned of his abuse and gave him severance and a favorable job recommendation.
Elected in 2012 to represent the sprawling northwestern 5th congressional district, Esty was sworn into Congress shortly after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which is in the district.
Esty became a co-chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. On Monday, the retiring lawmaker’s successor, Representative-elect Jahana Hayes, said she planned to join the task force in the next Congress.
Esty did not mention the circumstances that prompted her to leave office. Instead, she spoke of her work promoting STEM education for women, seeking to improve her district’s infrastructure and working with others to pass legislation that would help veterans.
“If you look for and build on common ground, you can get things done even with people with whom you disagree with on many issues,” Esty said.
Esty has said she planned to take a few months to decide what she will do after leaving Congress.


Come celebrate with LiveGlobally at The Fruit to live music in your most effervescent attire. Enjoy artful delicacies crafted by Master Chef Chris McLaurin a world premiere performance by ShaLeigh DanceWorks, and a wealth of decadent silent auction items and services, for a glistening, magical night at The Fruit! Guests receive a complimentary beverage of beer, wine, or one of our signature cocktails featuring authentic tastes of Africa, Costa Rica, or North Carolina. This is a fundraising event to support children at The Ingrid Education Center in Nairobi, Kenya, the initiation a clean water project in Drake Bay, and our mission at the Girls & Boys Club of Durham and Chapel Hill.


The Presidency has on Tuesday asked the National Peace Committee, NPC, to caution the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from lying against the family of President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that such action violates the peace accord signed by the presidential candidates in December.
In a statement on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, accused the PDP presidential campaign organisation of bad faith, character assassination and inflammatory utterances.
Shehu noted that the open and unsubstantiated allegations against the President’s family by the Atiku Abubakar media campaign contravenes the spirit of the peace accord that was signed at the instance of former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar , Bishop Mathew Kukah and other eminent public figures who constitute the committee.
“Dragging the President’s family into the campaign and accusing them of wrongdoing without producing unassailable evidence, amounts to an act of bad faith and malice,” he said.
He added that, more than one week after accusing President Buhari’s family of corruption and wrong doing, the PDP presidential campaign still cannot provide proof of the allegations against them, despite being encouraged by the Presidency and the public to do so.
“Instead, they are ridiculously expecting the accused to prove their own allegations instead of it being the other way round,” the presidential spokesman said.
Accusing the PDP presidential campaign of being indolent and poor in research , Shehu noted that it was irresponsible to go public with allegations that they could not prove, describing that as something other than politics. “It is sheer desperation and a clear sign of disarray in the PDP campaign,” he said.


NEW YORK, N.Y. - Philadelphia Flyers forward Scott Hartnell has been added to the NHL all-star roster for this weekend's game in Ottawa.
He replaces Chicago Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews, who is nursing an upper-body injury.
Hartnell leads the Flyers with 25 goals this season. The 29-year-old Regina native also leads the Flyers with a plus-18 rating and is second on the club with 44 points.
It will be Hartnell's first appearance at the all-star game. He participated in the NHL YoungStars Game during the 2002 all-star weekend in Los Angeles.
Tuesday's announcement came a day after Edmonton Oilers forward Jordan Eberle and Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Kris Letang were added to the roster. They are replacing Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu and Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, who are both out with injuries.
There could be another injury replacement coming before the all-star weekend kicks off Thursday with the fantasy draft. Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn remains questionable after undergoing an appendectomy.
The skills competition will be held Saturday at Scotiabank Place with the all-star game to be played Sunday.


Would you rather have an Apple Watch - or a BABY?
Video footage has revealed a man's relief when the Apple watch his wife gifted him on his birthday turned out to be a positive pregnancy test.
The financial stability needed to support a household which uses Apple products often requires the tax-breaks offered to married couples for sustained investment.
The costs of raising a child, however, are far lower.
That Tag Heuer guy's barely settled in, right?


The social media platform is connecting criminals to credit card information and identity-theft tools.
Facebook is connecting not only old friends, but also new criminals.
Researchers uncovered more than 70 Facebook groups openly selling black-market cyberfraud services, some of which they say had been running for up to eight years.
The now-removed groups had more than 385,000 members in total and offered a variety of illegal services, from credit card information and identity theft to website hacking and email phishing, according to cybersecurity researchers at Talos, the threat intelligence division for the technology company Cisco.
By searching for a few well-known fraud terms, the researchers exposed a sizable online black market hiding in plain sight on the world’s most popular social media site.
“Selling CVV fresh $5” read one post for stolen credit card numbers. “100k mail list fresh” touted another from the “Professional Spammer’s and Hacker’s [sic]” page. Both posts included purported screenshots of their wares.
Facebook's recommendation system appeared to amplify the issue. After the researchers joined video game cheat groups, they found that Facebook began suggesting they join groups advertising more serious cybercriminal activity.
“Facebook's algorithm that's designed to connect users with similar hobbies is also picking up on keywords between these different types of criminal groups,” said Craig Williams, a director for Talos.
“Unfortunately, instead of connecting people with positive hobbies, it's connecting people with criminal means,” and promoting hacking tools to the general public, he said.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company took down the pages, most of which they said were created in 2018, after being notified by the Talos researchers. The social media network also blocked the ability of the administrators behind the removed pages to create new groups, removed any pages, groups, and accounts associated with those administrators, and are continuing to investigate.
But NBC News was able to find Facebook hosting other groups still active. Some of them had names that were the same as those flagged by the researchers, or only slight variations thereof. After being notified by NBC News, Facebook investigated and took these groups down as well.
The groups’ participants weren’t shy about their interests.
“Hi, Im looking any botnet, for steal bank info,” read a post in a group called “BotNet,” referring to networks of compromised digital devices that can be remotely controlled to execute malicious actions.
Other active pages advertised false identification documents, including driver’s licenses, passports, Social Security numbers and green cards.
These groups are just a few examples of the vast constellation of online marketplaces that extend beyond Facebook in which fraudsters can sell their tools.
Recent attention has focused on illicit sales in the so-called “dark web,” an anonymous system of sites accessible only via specialized web browsers.
Law enforcement action has shut down some dark-web sites, and encouraged other operators to consolidate or sell their forums, according to Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at Carbon Black, a digital security company.
But any online site can be exploited to become a forum for cyberfraud — even those more known for cute grandkid photos and viral puppy videos.
Researchers also found that if a user’s friend joined one of these groups, Facebook could end up recommending the illicit group to their friends or family members.
It’s unknown how many of the postings resulted in successful transactions or whether some of the services were themselves fraudulent. Some of the posts the researchers found showed replies back and forth between accounts purporting to be sellers and potential buyers.
But at least one service appeared to be linked to actual criminal activity detected off Facebook, according to the Talos report.
One spammer the researchers found promised to deliver fake Apple invoices to Hotmail and Yahoo inboxes. The screenshot the spammer used in their post matched up with phishing emails Talos identified elsewhere. The links in the phony invoices directed to an internet protocol address known to have hosted other suspicious domains that appeared to impersonate account verification sites for Apple and other companies, the Talos report said.
The company recommends users who spot abusive content or spam to click a “Give feedback” link near the post and select “Report to admin” to notify the page admin moderator or “Report post” to flag it to Facebook.
Facebook removed 1.3 billion pieces of posted spam from July to September 2018, according to its most recent community standards enforcement report. That year it said it doubled the number of employees working on safety and security to 30,000.
Last April, Facebook removed almost 120 discussion groups for cyberfraud, with more than 300,000 members identified by independent security reporter Brian Krebs after two hours of work. Those groups also used well-known phrases for online fraud terms in their names.
But the issue is worse than whack-a-mole. Facebook can take down individual accounts and pages, only to have new ones crop up in their place, accessible just by entering search terms in the bar at the top of every Facebook user’s page. And Facebook’s group and friend recommendation systems can draw in members to refill the cyberfraud groups’ ranks.
Real solutions will require deeper thinking and more proactive intervention, experts say.
“Facebook has sequentially dealt with each threat one by one, and they really haven't gotten to the level yet either in terms of staffing or strategy of thinking holistically about their platform and how to go at fraudsters or criminal groups that are repeating the same activity time and time again,” Watts said.


Long before the tryptophan takes effect and seconds are served, San Angelo residents will have access to some of the best holiday shopping deals.
Long before the tryptophan takes effect and seconds are being served, San Angelo residents will have access to some of the best deals in town.
The San Angelo Standard-Times is excited to announce our biggest edition of the year — the Thanksgiving Day newspaper — will be available at select retailers Wednesday evening.
The edition will be stuffed with the biggest Black Friday specials, and scores of inserts full of savings and great holiday gift ideas for even the pickiest on your shopping list. Everyone in the family will find something to flip through, including the do-it-yourselfers, fashionistas, home decorators, and kids looking for the season’s hottest toy.
This paper is so stuffed it will put some Thanksgiving turkeys to shame.
If shopping isn’t your thing, look for some of the other special holiday features, including the massive crossword puzzle that spans two pages and a holiday coloring page.
The news team is looking at gifts with exclusive ties to San Angelo, and homegrown chefs who are making names for themselves outside our fair city, among other stories.
Read biographies of kids in state care who are looking for their “Forever Homes” and snippets from San Angelo Independent School District elementary students who share their adorable and heartwarming reasons for being thankful this year.
Sports will detail its Best of 2017, which will feature Top 10 performances, game of the year, biggest surprises and other unforgettable moments paired with exclusive photos from the games never run in print.
We are constantly discussing ways to evolve and better meet the needs of our readers and advertisers, whether online, in print, through our mobile apps, or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
One way of doing this is by giving our audience access to valuable content you won’t find anywhere else and the fattest pile of coupons and advertising inserts of the year.
This issue won’t be found in our mechanical racks, but you can pick one up at major retailers Wednesday evening, including H-E-B, Walmart, Food King, Stripes and Market Street.


The word coming out of the Toronto Fan Expo yesterday is that DC Comics is to launch two new comic book series, The Spectre written by Pete Tomasi and Hawk & Dove written by Steve Orlando. Artists are still a mystery.
The Spectre is one of DC’s oldest comic book characters, created in 1940 by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, Jim Corrigan, a policeman who is visited by the word of God and transformed into a supernatural being of justice – and vengeance.
The character has been reinvented over the decades and powered up and down. He was last seen in the DC Universe as working as a detective for Gotham’s Detailed Case Task Force, a small precinct responsible for investigating supernatural events off the books. Including his own.
Hawk & Dove were created by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates in 1969 as a superhero duo who had diametrically opposed political viewpoints. The characters have been recreated over the years, most recently in the New 52 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld, and were most recently seen in the near-future-set Doomsday Clock, shown on TV being arrested by the Rocket Red Brigade for interfering with the Russian police.
Expect more- much more – at NYCC.
Will New David Cronenberg TV Series Lead Us Towards Dimension C-137’s Fate?


Perhaps "fired" is the incorrect word, since she was a volunteer for the past eight years on the library board -- the last two as its chairman. Prior to that she had served, without compensation, as a leader of the Friends of the Bethel Public Library. Her principal goal during this time was to see that the renovation of the old library was brought to a successful completion. She has devoted hundreds of hours to this mission, only to end up being dismissed by Mr. Burke. He described her efforts to raise the approximately $3 million needed as "ineffective." Anyone involved with the Bethel Public Library knows that this accusation is ridiculous. Mr. Burke and his political handlers did not reappoint her or Trisha Lewis, the now outgoing vice chairman, simply because they are not members of what now claims to be the Bethel Republican Party. Bethel residents who voted for Mr. Burke in the last election should remind him that it was not a mandate to exclude or humiliate people who have devoted their time and efforts to the betterment of our community.


Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Jessica Mauboy have once again been nominated for Act of the Year for the Indigenous Music Awards.
The pair will be vying for the prestigious title with musician Warren H. Williams, who is currently standing as the Greens Northern Territory Senate candidate in the upcoming federal election.
The finalists for the Song of the Year are Ali Mills's Waltjim Bat Matilda, Garrangali's songs Garrangali and Sea Rights, Jagit's Close Your Eyes and Pott Street's Struggle.
Ali Mills, Garrangali, Warren H. Williams and Brian Murphy and the Band Nomadics are also up for Album of the Year.
The winners will be announced on August 28 at a Darwin Festival event.


The HMS Bounty, a tall ship, went down near Cape Hatteras. Fourteen were rescued, two still missing.
Extreme weather off the coast of North Carolina sank a tall masted ?ship Monday after sweeping three crew members overboard. Two people in the crew of the ship, the HMS Bounty, remain missing.
The 180-foot ship, used in making movies, was heading for Florida. The crew had been in touch with the National Hurricane Center and had tried to go around the storm.
One of the three swept overboard managed to swim to a life raft. The entire crew was forced to abandon ship as the vessel sank.
They were rescued by the Coast Guard and taken to Air Station Elizabeth City.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the east coast of the United States. Tens of millions of people have prepared for potential blackouts and road blockages in their areas by clearing store shelves of batteries, canned goods, bottled water, chocolate and other storm essentials.


Scott Atran runs with a rough, international crowd– jihadis, mujahideen, and lashkars– otherwise known as Islamic fundamentalists, otherwise known as terrorists, who have invited Atran into their worlds. As we know all too well, their worlds can be dangerous, even for a westerner with an invite.
Atran visited Kashmir after the earthquake in 2005 to look at relief efforts, as well as to investigate jihadi groups, who were riding around on military trucks and using loudspeakers to announce that people had turned away from God, and that the way back to God was to join the jihadi movement. Shortly after arriving there, Atran, hosted by Kashmiri Nationals (neither pro-Indian, nor pro-Pakistani), was told that Lashkar-e-Taiba (an Al Quaeda-affiliated group operating mainly out of Pakistan) was looking for him, a search, he says, that equated to a death threat. He had to hide under the floor-boards of a mosque.
In Sulawesi, Indonesia, he was interviewing a jihadi commander by conducting an anthropological experiment, which involves asking the question: If a child is born to Zionist parents but is raised by jihadi parents, will the child grow up to be a Zionist or a jihadi?
Atran claims he has asked this question in many countries all over the world and never feared for his life afterward, but his experience in Sulawesi was different. The commander replied: "The child would grow up to be a jihadi." Then he looked at Atran and asked, "but, are you a Jew?" It was at that point Atran excused himself for a "bathroom break," then received a text from his interpreter saying there were plans to "get rid of me in the evening." He had to climb out the bathroom window to escape. Atran claims that, since the advent of the Internet, he averages about an "hour on the ground" in these exotic places before someone Googles him and his life is in jeopardy. Seems like a movie, doesn't it?
Speaking of movies, a reporter asks Atran his thoughts on the movie Zero Dark Thirty, which he calls a "good movie, except for the torture stuff," which is "baloney." Why? "Because I know how they got some of that [information], and it wasn't through torture," he answers. Further, he claims that the Western interpretation of Bin Laden as he's portrayed in the movie– as living poorly, sitting on the floor with a blanket around him– is incorrect. Mohammed himself was called "the blanketed one" and lived very austerely, says Atran, so Bin Laden's appearance in the movie actually worked to bolster his standing with Muslim audiences.
Atran, 61, is an anthropologist and research director at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, while also keeping offices at the University of Michigan and John Jay College, feels that empathy, and trying to understand who terrorists are and why they do what they do– but not necessarily sympathizing with their cause– is the antidote to terrorism. And that's the subject of his most recent book, Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists.
"It should be read carefully, and pondered,” advises famed intellectual Noam Chomsky.
Atran will discuss "Can We Make Peace With Terrorists?" at noon Friday, March 22, in Charlottesville City Council Chambers.


Europe’s markets were mixed on Wednesday, with banking and autos sectors under pressure and investors waiting for further details on a potential U.S./ China trade deal.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +0.23% was flat on at 375.69, after finishing up 0.15% on Tuesday.
The German DAX DAX, -0.43% and France’s CAC 40 PX1, +0.20% both fell by 0.1%, dropping to 11,606.12 and 5,294.02, respectively.
But the FTSE 100 UKX, +0.85% rose by 0.1% to 7,190.46, Italy’s FTSE MIB index I945, -0.27% was up by 0.2% to 20,752.10 and Spain’s IBEX 35 IBEX, -0.57% lifted 0.1% to 9,268.30.
The pound GBPUSD, +0.0000% fell to $1.3147 from $1.3177 late in New York on Tuesday. While the euro EURUSD, -0.0089% remained mostly flat fetching $1.1307.
The auto sector was under the investor microscope on after German auto parts maker Schaeffler AG SHA, -2.24% adjusted targets for 2020.
Meanwhile, banks came under heavy pressure after Tuesday’s reports that billions of Russian funds have allegedly been channeled via Lithuanian financial institutions to banks that include those in the Netherlands. Shares of Dutch lenders ABN AMRO ABN, -0.82% and ING INGA, -0.71% among others, fell.
Elsewhere, investors are anticipating further trade deal developments after Monday’s media flurry that an agreement between U.S. and China will soon be reached.
Legal & General Group PLC LGEN, -0.07% lost 4%, despite announcing a profit rise in 2018. “Shares have slid back from three year highs in early trading, no doubt due to some profit-taking, after a 24% rise from the lows we saw in December,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets U.K., in a note.
Another of Europe’s biggest losers was the online food-deliver company Just Eat PLC JE., +0.65% which fell by 4% amid increasing delivery costs outlined in the group’s earnings.
“Just Eat are trying to work with the same sort of branded restaurants their rivals are targeting, and offering their own delivery offering. None of this comes cheaply, and the costs are holding profits back,” said Steve Clayton, manager of the Hargreaves Lansdown’s select funds.
British American Tobacco PLC BATS, +1.03% added 4%, reclaiming some of its loses after Monday’s dip, while in Tullow Oil PLC TLW, +3.31% rose 3%.


Months after she lost out on the job of public health executive director - a position new mayor Mongameli Bobani had been gunning for her to get - Nombeko Nkomane is set to be back in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality as his chief of staff.
Nkomane was Bobani's advisor when he was deputy mayor and political head of the public health department.
Bobani confirmed yesterday that Nkomane would be appointed chief of staff. "[Ms Nkomane] worked with me a lot when I was the deputy mayor. When her paper work is concluded, she will be the chief of staff," Bobani said.
The fact that Nkomane was not appointed public health executive director in March last year, was one of the causes of the fall out between Bobani and former mayor Athol Trollip.
Bobani subsequently pulled out of the coalition with Trollip - at the time - and was ousted as a member of the mayoral committee and later deputy mayor.
But with him at the helm of the city now - unless the courts decide otherwise - Bobani said he would announce the rest of his political support staff by Friday.
"We have only been in office for two days, we are trying to settle in," Bobani said.
He added that he would meet with director in the mayor's office Roelf Basson to discuss the appointments of his political support staff, including his spokesperson.
Political staff attached to Trollip were given until Friday to vacate their positions and offices.
The DA and its coalition partners - Cope and the Patriotic Alliance - on Friday filed their court application to have the election of the new government in Nelson Mandela Bay declared null and void.
Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani and Port Elizabeth resident Gretchen November on Friday smoked the proverbial peace pipe.
Meanwhile, officials from the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) were in the Bay on Friday to investigate what had transpired at last Monday's council meeting where a new political leadership was elected.
City manager Johann Mettler said he had met with the delegation from Cogta.
Mettler declined to divulge any further details, saying only: "The officials wanted to verify a number of facts related to Monday's council meeting."
The delegation was supposed to meet with all political parties, but met only with the DA.
DA councillor Retief Odendaal claimed the ANC, UDM and other smaller parties had given the delegation the "middle finger".
Cogta deputy director-general Themba Fosi said the aim of the meeting was to gather information to understand the facts around the council meeting.
Fosi confirmed the delegation of four officials had met with the DA and its coalition partners on Friday.


Few forms of civil disobedience attract the same level of public attention as a hunger strike.
Visceral, agonizing, and striking at a person’s most simple needs, the method of protest has been used the world over to galvanize popular support, unite a cause, and draw attention to issues that otherwise might go ignored.
Entirely reliant on how long the striker can hold out against his or her most basic instincts, hunger strikes don’t require placards or meeting halls or television cameras. It’s a means of dissent available to almost anyone, anywhere in the world.
President Obama vowed on Tuesday to make good on an old campaign promise and close Guantanamo Bay, where more than half of the terror suspects held at the prison camp are on a hunger strike to protest their living conditions and continued detention.
After being arrested for mounting a protest outside the House of Commons in July 1909, Wallace-Dunlop became the first British suffragette to take up a hunger strike. She held out for ninety-one hours before being released by authorities worried for her health. The tactic caught on in popularity among other incarcerated members of the Women’s Social and Political Union.
The man credited with helping found an independent Indian state and the inspiration for countless non-violent protests, Gandhi used hunger strikes as a tactic numerous times. Some proved unsuccessful, like a twenty-one day fast against British rule that Gandhi began in February 1943. Another fast in 1948 ended after five days, with Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus saying they would work toward Gandhi’s vision of greater national unity.
United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez at a rally in Salinas, Calif., in 1970.
The Latino-American labor rights leader used hunger strikes multiple times while agitating for farm workers. In 1968, Chavez undertook a 25-day fast to gain recognition for the union he helped co-found, the United Farm Workers. He repeated the fast for 24 days in 1972, then carried on a 36-day fast in 1988 at the age of 61.
A Cuban journalist and dissident, Farinas has mounted hunger strikes to protest the death of a fellow activist, denounce his country’s position on Internet censorship, and demand the release of political prisoners.
This Irish nationalist died 66 days into a hunger strike in 1981, demanding that Irish Republican Army members be held as political prisoners by the British during the Troubles. The 27-year-old Sands lost 60 pounds before he died. He actions drew the ire of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who called him a "convicted criminal" after he died, who "chose to take his own life." Nine more hunger strikers died after Sands.
Undated picture of North Ireland's Bobby Sands.
No matter how harrowing, not all hunger strikes elicit the public’s good will. Iraq’s deposed despot announced in February 2006 that he had gone on a hunger strike to protest his trial. Hussein lasted nineteen days, citing health concerns when he threw in the towel.


Android tablet makers do everything they can to make products that compete with the top dog, iPad. That's fine and dandy but the iPad has one advantage that Android cannot touch.
The iPad is the undisputed leader in the tablet race, and by a wide margin. This is especially true if you treat each Android tablet as a single competitor, which it is, instead of lumping them all together as an Android tablet army. Even if you do the lumping, the lion's share of tablet sales belong to the iPad. Try as they might to compete with Apple's iPad, Android tablet makers find one iPad advantage that leaves them in the dust and always will.
Most gadget buyers have a tendency to buy accessories for them, from simple cases to more exotic items that extend the usefulness of the device. I am as bad as anyone in this regard, the first thing I do after buying a new gadget is look at accessories to outfit the new toy.
I own an iPad 2 and several Android tablets, and one thing is clear -- there is no comparison to the wealth of third party iPad accessories when compared to those for Android tablets. This is due to the success of the iPad, and the lead in the market it has enjoyed. Many iPad accessories also work with the iPod Touch and iPhone, another reason there are so many of them by design. Owners of new Android tablets on the contrary soon find a frustrating lack of accessories to get for their new slate.
While simple accessories like cases may eventually make it to the market for top-selling Android tablets, not much else does. Buyers are limited to accessories the tablet makers choose to offer for their particular models. There is not much choice available to the Android tablet owner.
Contrast that with iPad accessories, which number in the thousands. Don't believe that? Go to Amazon and search for iPad accessories. That search returns no fewer than 62,065 currently, ranging from hundreds of cases to unusual items like kits to mount the iPad to virtually any surface imaginable. Sure there are some duplicates in those thousands of items, but most of them are unique products that work with the iPad.
Go to the Best Buy online store and while more limited you still see more of the same. There are a more reasonable 781 products in the online store, thoughtfully organized into types of accessories. These cover the range of expected accessories, like cases and cables.
What makes this accessory ecosystem so impressive is these thousands of products are custom-made for the iPad for the most part. The hundreds (or thousands) of cases available are all custom-fitted for the iPad and not generic products that "just fit". Companies churn them out because the installed customer base is big enough to generate a return on investment. That doesn't exist for Android tablets, thus the lack of choice.
The accessories for the iPad cover a wide range of uses, from the whimsical to the practical. Want a blood pressure monitor that connects to the iPad for tracking your health over time? Those are out there. Want a scale that turns your iPad into a big brother that watches your weight for you wirelessly? Those, too. Dream of using your iPad to fly a small helicopter around the office? There are several of those to choose from.
Accessories can maximize the usefulness of tablets in addition to help protect them. The wealth of options for the iPad ensure owners can always find what they need, something that just isn't true for the Android competition.


We see rises for Man Group, Kentz, and Range Resources.
LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES:^FTSE) picked up a bit yesterday afternoon after the European Central Bank cuts its benchmark interest rate from 0.75% to 0.5%, but there's little movement today, with the index of top U.K. shares up just 0.24% to 6,477 points as of 7:45 a.m. EDT. Despite the cut, there are still few signs of economic cheer across the eurozone, with manufacturing output having fallen in April.
But things are happier for some of our individual companies. Here are three that are perking up today.
Man Group saw its shares rise 9.4% to 116 pence this morning after the investment manager released a quarterly update telling us that its AHL Diversified program is up 4.2% for the quarter and up 10.4% for the year to date. But on the downside, the firm saw a net outflow of capital of $3.7 billion over the period, taking total funds under management down to $54.8 billion.
But perhaps the biggest news is that Man will use up $470 million of its surplus capital to redeem all its debt securities, saving $78 million in interest payments from 2014.
An interim update from Kentz Corporation sent the firm's shares up 2.7% to 409 pence, bringing a welcome uptick to a share price that has been erratic all year; it's now down a couple of percent over 12 months.
The engineering and construction group tells us trading so far is in line with expectations and that all three of its business units have been awarded new contracts since the end of the last full year. Order intake for the first four months of the year stands at about $700 million, and the firm's prospect pipeline is now up to $13.7 billion.
The Range Resources share price has fallen about 70% over the past 12 months, but the price blipped up 2.3% to 3.6 pence this morning after the firm released news of its proposed merger with International Petroleum. The raising of the funding needed for the merger is apparently close to completion, with 67 million of Range's 339 million new shares having been placed and the rest to be allocated within the next day or two.
The merger will provide Range with access to resources in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Niger, adding to its main interests in Somalia, Georgia, the U.S., Trinidad, and Colombia.
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The IOC has approved the entry of 271 Russian athletes for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The International Olympic Committee announced the decision Thursday night, about 24 hours before the opening ceremony of the games.
The 271 approved athletes come from Russia's original entry list of 389.
The IOC asked international sports federations to decide which Russian athletes should be cleared to compete after a review of their doping records. That followed an investigation for the World Anti-Doping Agency that detailed state-sponsored cheating in Russia.
The final decision on entries was up to a three-member IOC panel, which received advice from an independent sports arbitrator.


Jeremy Corbyn, a noted republican, will kneel before the Queen and kiss her hand to accept a position on the Privy Council.
The new Labour leader, who has called for the monarchy to be abolished, on Monday accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation to join the ancient council.
It means he will now receive secret briefings on issues of national security.
Friends and aides of the Labour leader had raised doubts about Mr Corbyn agreeing to serve on the Privy Council because of his anti-monarchy views.
While MPs have to swear or affirm allegiance to the Queen, the oath required of Privy Council members is much fuller.
The current wording, which has been adhered to since Tudor times, states: “You will not know or understand of any manner of thing to be attempted, done or spoken against Her Majesty’s Person, Honour, Crown or Dignity Royal, but you will lett [sic] and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power, and either cause it to be revealed to Her Majesty Herself, or to such of Her Privy Council as shall advertise Her Majesty of the same.
David Cameron, who was on a trip to refugee camps in the Middle East, said that he had offered Privy Council membership to the opposition leader on Saturday after congratulating him on his election victory.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman made clear that Mr Corbyn, who is chairman of the Stop The War campaign, will be invited to attend sensitive meetings of the National Security Council. She said: “The Prime Minister has ensured that the leader of the opposition is briefed on national security issues previously, as appropriate, and will continue to look to do that.
Mr Corbyn has in recent days been heavily criticised after he said that he was “unclear” about the point of the drone strike attack which killed a British Isil jihadist who had directed a plot to kill the Queen.
He has also called for the Armed Forces to be abolished.
Mr Corbyn was heavily criticised earlier this month after he said that he could not think of “any circumstances” that would lead him to deploy the Armed Forces.
He also said that Britain was “quite a small country” and questioned whether it could afford its current “global reach”.
Mr Corbyn has also previously said that taxpayers should be allowed to opt out of funding the Army.
In 1996, he challenged the Speaker over whether he could propose a debate about “the future of the monarchy in this country”.
Since being propelled to the Labour leadership, Mr Corbyn has attempted to play down his republicanism, saying that abolition of the monarchy is not a priority.


Edward D. “Ed” Kerchesky, 82, Northern Cambria, passed away Wednesday.
He was born in Oil City, near Cassandra, son of Michael and Helen (Benjack) Kerchesky.
Surviving are his life partner of 40 years, Joseph R. Minarish; three nieces: Donna Canavan, Kim Furnari, Cheryl Hunter and their families; a sister-in-law, Marlene (Minarish) Strittmatter and husband, Glenn; nieces and nephews: Heather (Strittmatter) and Paul Avazier, Daniel Strittmatter, Corey and Amber (Wilkins) Strittmatter; and a great-nephew and great-niece, Jackson and Madelyn Avazier.
He was preceded in death by his parents; stepmother, Mildred “Millie” Kerchesky; and his “adopted” parents, Joseph G. and Florence Minarish.
After graduating from Portage High School, Ed worked 27 years for Portage Cleaners. In 1984, together with his partner, Joe, he purchased Flowers by Phyllis in Barnesboro and Cherry Tree, and operated a thriving business for the next 20 years. He next worked seven years for the Cambria County Agency on Aging until his retirement. In his younger years, Ed was an avid bowler and loved to travel, especially going on cruises, and enjoyed many trips to the casinos. He proudly celebrated his Polish heritage, dancing and listening to polka music and attending many polka festivals throughout the area.
He kept busy playing bingo and cooking and baking. Spending time with close friends and family was when he was happiest. He grew up a member of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Cassandra, where he served as a lector and sang in the church choir. He later became a member of St. John Roman Catholic Church, now Prince of Peace Church, Northern Cambria.
Friends will be received from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, 2019, at Moriconi Funeral Home Inc., Northern Cambria. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Committal will be at North Barnesboro Cemetery.


Indebted Debenhams to raise up to 400m in rights issue | City A.M.
BRITAIN’S second biggest high street retailer Debenhams is expected to announce today that it is raising up to £400m through a placing and open offer.

The high street bellwether is hoping to raise between £300m and £400m to cut its £1bn debt pile. Debenhams was controversially floated in 2006 by private equity firms IPG and CVC Capital Partners, which own 12.8 per cent and 8.4 per cent of the retailer respectively. It is now understood that they are selling down their stakes, which were last night worth £104.4m and £73.4m respectively, after Debenhams closed down 1.34 per cent at 92.2p.

Chief executive Rob Templeman last month reiterated his desire to take the company’s debt pile “off the agenda.” It hired restructuring specialist Lazards in January to examine the renegotiation of its £900m debt pile beyond its repayment deadline of 2011.

No further payments are due until next May, but it is thought that Debenhams is keen to act now after its shares recovered last month on the back of better-than-expected results at its interims. Debenhams is also being advised by Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, the two banks which led its IPO.

It declined to comment last night.


Serena Williams has been handed a challenging draw in her quest for a record-equalling 24th grand slam title at the Australian Open, starting with Germany's Tatjana Maria in the first round.
The American, seeded 16, is gunning to match Margaret Court's record of singles majors and claim an eighth Australian Open crown.
But Williams is in a tough half of the draw and could meet world No 1 Simona Halep in the fourth round, and if she gets through that Karolina Pliskova in the last eight.
Before those potential ties, either Chinese wildcard Peng Shui or Canadian Eugenie Bouchard would await Williams in the second round.
Halep, who enters the tournament having played just one game in four months after a back injury, was handed a chance to avenge Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, who beat her in the first round of the US Open in August.
If she comes through that dangerous opening showdown, she could meet Venus Williams in Round 3.
Defending champion and third seed Caroline Wozniacki starts against Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium and could meet 2008 champion Maria Sharapova in the third round.
"Coming back as defending champion, it's something I always dreamed of. I feel at home here. These courts are suited for me. I'm enjoying every minute," said the Dane at Thursday's draw, while paying tribute to Williams.
"Serena is the greatest player to have played the game. Her experiences have been a learning experience for me. It's been fun though as well. She has a baby now! It's amazing being back on tour so soon."
The 2016 winner Angelique Kerber, seeded two, begins her draw against Slovenia's Polona Hercog and could meet fifth seed Wozniacki in the semis.
Japan's Naomi Osaka, the US Open champion, kicks off her tournament against Poland's Magda Linette and is in line to meet Australia's Daria Gavrilova round two.


UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's UN envoy on Thursday urged Belgrade and Pristina to stay committed to promoting the normalization of bilateral relations through dialogue and consultation after the two sides halted negotiations last December.
Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu made the appeal at a Security Council meeting on Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 without the latter's recognition.
Ma said China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and understands its legitimate concerns regarding Kosovo.
All parties should reach a solution that is acceptable to all through dialogue and negotiation, he urged.
"Achieving reconciliation and common development is in the fundamental interests of all peoples," the Chinese envoy said, calling on all parties concerned to "put the well-being of their people first, protect the legitimate rights and interests of all communities, and promote the economic and social development of all ethnic groups."
Dominated by ethnic Albanians, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, an act not recognized by Belgrade.
The two sides committed to a European Union-mediated dialogue with the signing of the Brussels agreement in 2013. But the negotiations stopped last December after Pristina's decisions to increase tariffs on goods imported from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 10 to 100 percent. It also adopted three draft laws aimed at strengthening the role and capacity of the Kosovo Security Force.
Ma said the moves were not conducive to enhancing mutual trust and dialogue, calling on the parties concerned to refrain from any rhetoric or action that may complicate or escalate the situation.
Also at the meeting, Zahir Tanin, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Kosovo, said the atmosphere for resuming dialogue has been challenged.
Tanin also underlined the importance of the council's role in dealing with the issue, saying that reducing tensions, enhancing mutual trust and removing obstacles to dialogue are "crucial" to the region's stability.
China's Ma also called on the international community to play a constructive role in promoting a proper solution to the Kosovo issue.
Despite the current impasse between Belgrade and Pristina, the council members agreed Thursday to hold fewer meetings over the Kosovo issue instead of meeting on the current quarterly basis.
The UN's most powerful body will hold three meetings on the issue in 2019, including Thursday's session, and two annually from 2020 onward.


Hundreds of teachers across the Sacramento Unified School District walked out of their classrooms and onto picket lines Thursday morning for the first time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging unfair labor practices by the district.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association expected a majority of its 2,500 teachers to join the walkout.
The district, which serves 42,000 students, told parents in advance that schools would be open and classes would be appropriately staffed. A normal school day was scheduled, with regular attendance monitoring, bus service, meals and programs.
Rosa Parks Elementary School teacher John Brindley greeted his 6th grade students with fist bumps as they walked onto campus Thursday morning, but remained out front with a protest sign rather than join them in the classroom.
Amy Sheehan, a parent of two children at Theodore Judah Elementary School in East Sacramento, brought a megaphone to the picket lines.
The strike adds to the extreme pressure faced by Sacramento City Unified, which is under the threat of state takeover as it attempts to close a $35 million budget gap.
The teachers union, which was on the verge of striking just 18 months ago before a last-minute deal was brokered that included pay raises, again voted overwhelmingly last month to strike, arguing that the district is not honoring that 2017 agreement. The district maintains it is working with the union to abide by its understanding of the contract.
In a statement released Thursday morning, the teachers union said they were forced to strike, citing unfair labor practices, because the district was not honoring its contract that would reduce class sizes and improve student services.
“SCUSD officials simply need to honor the contract and obey the law,” SCTA president David Fisher said in a statement.
At McClatchy High School, the largest school in the district, more than 100 teachers took to the picket lines Wednesday morning. Government teacher Lori Jablonski said that group was an overwhelming majority of the school’s educators.
The strike stems from allegations by the teachers union that the district is not honoring its 2017 agreement, including directing savings from a lower quality health plan strictly toward reducing class sizes and funding more health workers and counselors. The union says the district did not reconfirm those funding allocations.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg—who helped broker the 2017 contract—and district administrators believe the millions in potential health plan savings should go toward alleviating Sacramento City Unified’s $35 million deficit before improving student services. A new health plan has not been agreed upon.
A mediation session Monday between district leaders and the union was unsuccessful, officials said. At a press conference at Success Academy in Meadowview on Thursday morning, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar acknowledged that tensions were running high throughout the district and the city.
Some parents opposed the strike, saying that both parties need to come to the table.
The last teacher strike in the district was Sept. 5, 1989, when more than 1,300 teachers and several hundred other certificated workers walked off their jobs on the first day of school to demand higher wages.
The district has until June 20 to balance its budget or face a state takeover.
Copyright (c) 2019, The Sacramento Bee. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
“How Teacher Strikes Are Changing,” March 6, 2019.
"Teachers Are Still Striking, But Their Demands Have Changed. Here's How," (Teacher Beat) February 20, 2019.


A common worry many adult children express about aging parents is that the parents are alone and it's time they got some help. The kids are worried because of changes in the parent's health, mobility or memory problems. The aging parent may not agree that there is anything to worry about, and this, of course, leads to resistance. Assisted living is something adult children frequently mention as a solution to their worries. But is it? There are pros and cons to consider and the family needs to understand what assisted living is and what it isn't. On a personal note, I have a 96 year old mother-in-law in one and a disabled sibling in another. I have seen many of these places personally in the course of my work. Here's my list of things you need to know, developed at AgingParents.com after answering countless questions about our clients' aging parents over the last ten years.
1-Medicare does not cover assisted living, nor any part of the expense of this option. Nor does Medicaid pay for it except in a few rare experimental programs. It's largely an out of pocket expense.
2-What happens if an aging parent goes to assisted living, stays for a few years, is happy there, but then runs out of assets? They either have someone else to pay the cost or they have to move out.
3-The actual cost of assisted living may not be fully understood when you size up a place under consideration. You may be quoted the price for the rent of the apartment. The cost is usually more than the rent, as your loved one must also pay many other charges. If help is needed with bathing, for example, there is an additional cost for that. Mom can't remember to take her pills? "Medication management" can be a huge cost on top of the basic rent.
4. Assisted living is not a nursing home with nicer furniture. Nursing care is not offered, nor does this kind of facility have legal authority to give skilled nursing care. If a nurse is on staff, the nurse's role is limited to assessment and directing the resident assistants. Some assisted living facilities also have a separate nursing home wing or section, and that requires a different license to be a skilled nursing facility.
5. If there is an emergency, the assisted living home staff will call 911. They will not offer emergency care because they can't. It is not a hospital, nor can it provide medical assistance.
6. If your loved one is difficult to care for, or needs frequent treatment for chronic conditions, the assisted living facility may not accept them. A doctor has to verify that they are suitable by signing a form. On top of that, the facility does its own assessment to see if the prospective resident is a fit for their community.
7. No one is watching over your loved one 24/7. Help is available, but your aging parent will not have a personal attendant noting their every move. Someone will check on them daily and if they don't show up for meals, someone will notice. If medications are being given out by the attendant ("med tech") every day or more than once a day, that person will notice if something is wrong. However, the assistants are not medically trained. They help with basics but should not be expected to diagnose, or offer anything other than exactly the medications on the resident's list. They may ask the nurse to check on a resident.
7. These homes offer an enriched social environment. There are meals in common and a chance to socialize, activities offered, and entertainment of various kinds. Some communities offer classes. Residents have a way to call someone if there is a problem. If they're not feeling well, an assistant can be summoned by either pulling a cord, a call bell, or pressing a button. The proximity of attention to an aging parent's needs is one of the best ways to assuage the worries of adult children. It may not be perfect, but it is far better than an isolated parent being left alone with scarce opportunity to get help short of calling 911.
8. Usually there is transportation on specific days so that residents can get to medical and other appointments. Some people, like my mother-in-law, decided to give up driving when she moved into an assisted living community. This is a relief for family members concerned about an elder's dangerous driving. It eases them out of that responsibility by making rides in the facility's van easy to get.
9. The work of maintaining one's self is reduced. All meals are provided and the need to shop and cook is eliminated. The facility does the laundry. Linen changes are usually included as well. In other words, someone else makes the bed up with clean sheets, so an impaired elder doesn't have to do that. For aging parents struggling with household chores, this is a major benefit.
10. Many elders resist the idea of moving into "an old folks home." However, once they get there and their lives are easier, many make good adjustments and enjoy the positive things. Social isolation is bad for one's health. Assisted living provides protection against isolation if the aging parent is willing to accept community life. It's not for everyone but when it works it works well to keep aging loved ones engaged.


Those Americans who support building a wall on the Mexican border edge out those who oppose it by a margin of 48 percent to 46 percent, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll.
The percentage of those who oppose the wall has increased significantly, however, since Donald Trump first proposed the idea in August 2015, when 51 percent supported it and only 37 percent were against, while 12 percent were undecided.
•	The wall is a sharply partisan issue, as 75 percent of Republicans want to build it, while 70 percent of Democrats oppose it. Among independents, 47 percent support the construction of the wall, while 44 percent are against it.
•	Almost two-thirds of likely voters (64 percenet) believe illegal immigration is likely to be greatly reduced during Trump’s presidency, while only 33 percent say such a reduction is unlikely.
•	Sixty percent of Republicans said illegal immigration was very important to their vote in the presidential election. Only 43 percent of independents and 19 percent of independents thought the same.
•	Among voters who strongly approve of Trump’s job performance, 92 percent want to build the wall. In contrast, 94 percent of those who strongly disapprove of the job the new president is doing oppose the construction of such a wall.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on January 25-26, by Rasmussen Reports after Trump signed an executive order which set in motion the building of the border wall. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.


The word glowy carries more than one definition. For some, it’s simply dewy skin. For others, it’s liquid makeup that looks luminous instead of greasy. Sometimes, it’s a mix of the two. However you choose to look at it, there’s no mistaking glowy skin when you see it… it just is. And while a healthy skin-care routine and makeup appropriate for your specific needs and concerns definitely help the cause, there are some finds that have achieved best-seller status because they can brighten your complexion in mere minutes.
Whether they’re new kids on the blocks or old pros that have been on store shelves for years, these are the top-rated products that’ll deliver the ultimate glow-up if your vitamin C serum isn’t working as quickly as you’d like.
Available in four shades—from pale pink to bronze—this liquid formula can be used as a base under your foundation or mixed in with your coverage to create a more radiant complexion. Apply all over or to wherever light directly hits the face (cheekbones, bridge of nose, brow bone).
We're never tired of raving about this complexion booster, which can be used to up the brightness of bare skin or on top of foundation to create a dewy glow in seconds.
Since launching its first skin-care range earlier this year, this serum has become a quick standout for its ability to hydrate and brighten the skin without a greasy buildup. It's made with a custom blend of natural ingredients that includes honey, fruit extracts and squalane.
Dubbed as the first-ever "dew effect highlighter," this stick formula comes in three different shades and is made with crystal extracts to literally light up your face.
Meant for use on the eyes, lips and cheeks, this transparent vegan gloss is a quick and easy way to give your bare skin a natural shine or a glossy finish when used on top of makeup.
A lightweight luminizing lotion available in four different hues (fair, light, medium and deep) to hydrate and give your skin an effortless-looking glow-up. Wear alone or under foundation.
This non-shimmery gel-like formula dries down to a texture that isn't too sticky or too dry, leaving you with a highlight that doesn't look like an awkward stripe across the cheekbones. It's also available in gold and rose gold shades.
A multitasking cult favorite face mist that can be used to set makeup, cool off your skin or simply boost your energy in the midst of a crazy day. It's made with glycerin, a humectant that draws moisture to the skin so you can feel dewy, too.
Infused with 24k gold, rosehip seed oil and pure botanicals, this luxe formula not only slows down collagen depletion; it also gives your skin a supple glow.
This lightweight mist is infused with Icelandic glacier water to take your makeup from matte to dewy in a matter of seconds.
Though it may seem like finely crushed rose quartz wouldn't exactly give you a smooth, luminous finish, the addition of nourishing noni fruit extract, coconut and rosehip oils ensure your skin is getting that nourishing luminous glow.
This clean beauty brand's top-selling product is a sheer illuminator with a translucent finish that can be used to create a glowy finish on all skin tones.
This skin multitasker is the key to a radiant glow when you're going makeup-free but still want the lustrous effects of a highlighter palette.
This product has long carried a "cult favorite" status, but its newer illuminating version is slowly climbing the ranks as a skin-makeup hybrid that personifies glowy skin goals.
In addition to providing intense relief to dry skin patches, its all-natural formula is also a low-key amazing way to deliver just the right amount of shine to naked skin.
Hydration? Check. Coverage? Check. Sun protection? Check. What isn't there to love about this all-in-one product, which also delivers a dewy finish (especially when paired with a mix-in illuminator).
No one does mix-in formulas quite like this brand, which offers a line of varying finishes—from holographic to shimmering bronze—depending on your mood.
Blush can be tricky for many, but when you've got a dewy liquid formula that can be blended in like your foundation, the process gets a lot easier.


How to describe Uptown Pub? Just look at the name, ya silly bear! Honestly, that about sums it up. It’s a pub, and it’s in Uptown, on the fringe of West Village. Fine. You want more? There’s a spacious patio in front of this century-old house that overlooks McKinney Avenue, so you can watch all the pretty people jet about on their way to some place that’s got more cultural caché. But you should stay at Uptown Pub for the good, cheap (albeit pedestrian) bar food. And you don’t have to fight 800 other people to get a drink. If the weather is anywhere close to nice, get there.


Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer repeated the claim that more than 7,000 Americans were killed by “climate change-fueled” natural disasters last year in an attempt to tie burning fossil fuels with extreme weather.
The claim, however, is patently false, according to Politifact. It’s also a horribly misleading based on the data.
The misleading nature of Beyer’s claim goes even further; to the heart of the global warming debate. Democrats and environmentalists have been working hard to try and tie in nearly every natural disaster or severe weather event to global warming.
Indeed, Beyer himself argued that “[g]lobal temperature changes are causing prolonged droughts, extreme weather events and rising sea levels” adding that “[m]illions more are at risk unless we act to reverse the disastrous effects.” But such claims are dangerously misleading.
Not only has weather not been getting more “extreme” in the last century, mankind’s ability to withstand extreme weather events has increased globally. The International Disaster Database reports that more than 3.5 million people were killed by natural disasters in the early 1930s when the world population was about half what it is today. Fast forward to 2014 and only 7,700 people worldwide were killed by natural disasters (which includes earthquakes), according to Munich Re.
Many countries are wealthier today than they were in the 1930s, meaning they have the resources to withstand natural disasters. Global warming or no, mankind’s ability to handle disasters has and continues to improve.
But there’s a more serious point to blaming natural disasters on global warming. It’s a political move to further vilify the burning of fossil fuels. Environmentalists and Democrats have latched onto the argument in order to give voters something tangible to illustrate the alleged impacts of warming.
The IPCC says the globe has heated 0.85 degrees Celsius since the mid-1800s. It’s hard to argue that people have felt this nearly imperceptible change in average global temperature. But weather is something people can see and feel — especially when a hurricane bears down on your home town.
But is it fair to blame every weather event on global warming? Not really, and even climate scientists are hesitant to draw a direct link between individual weather events and global warming.
Take the recent cyclone that hit the island nation of Vanuatu. Environmentalists are treating it as a ground-zero for global warming. But scientists are much more cautious in their claims.
“There is no clear evidence that climate change affected the formation or intensity of Cyclone Pam,” Nick Klingaman, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, told the Science Media Centre.
So how many people are actually dying in the U.S. from natural disasters? The National Weather Service says that natural disasters caused 446 fatalities in 2013, the latest year for data. But the 446 deaths also include those killed things like avalanches, fog and rip tides.


that I wasted a few minutes reading Nadella's memo(email) before I wondered WTF I was doing. Microsoft = irrelevant, dinosaur, did I say irrelevant? Remember Nokia? They went from more than a 50% global market share to less than 10% in four years and are currently around 2%. Microsoft will undoubtedly go the same way that much is now certain but it could quite literally take ten times longer to do so.


Consumers will be coughing up for all online media content by 2004 according to Factiva CEO Clare Hart--as online ads aren't paying all the bills.
Consumers will be coughing up for all online media content by 2004, according to Factiva CEO Clare Hart, who sees a two-year turnaround for ISPs to get with the paid-for-content program.
Since the dot-com boom collapsed, it has become increasingly clear to publishers that online advertising isn’t going to drive as much revenue, and more and more online media moguls are charging for largely selective content.
“In order for publishers to continue to pay journalists they’re going to have to start charging, and that’s a good thing. Valuable information has a price,” Hart told ZDNet Australia on a recent visit to Sydney.
According to Hart, consumers do not want to pay for online content because they have been trained not to, whereas business users are used to putting their hands in their pockets for particular information.
“I think that the media has trained the online consumer that there is no value in what they publish,” Hart said. “In two years we will see a turnaround in the consumer market. It’s going to take some time for publishers to build the infrastructure to bill consumers. In the meantime, consumers are going to learn that they have to pay, business users on the other hand have know this for a long time.” Analyst group AMR Interactive said media companies are almost as unanimous in their insistence that paid content is the only way forward as Internet users are in their unwillingness to come up with the cash.
Fifty-seven percent of online Australians can't understand why anyone would pay for content on the Internet and 72 percent have never done so, according to recent AMR Interactive research. AMR Interactive senior consultant Jason Ross claims there are three reasons why this is the case. Firstly, for most of the history of the Internet content has been freely shared between geeks and academics, who believed everyone should have access to everything. This was followed, he said, by online businesses, which operated an “eyeballs at any cost” strategy. Finally, Internet media companies hooked on to the advertising revenue models.
“This combination is making it difficult for media companies to now convince consumers that they should pay for a service that is already free. On top of that, the slow uptake of broadband means that few consumers catch sight of the kind of enhanced value that paid content can provide,” Ross said.
According to Hart, publishers around the world are starting to migrate their users to the notion of paying for content and the next two years are just going to be the transition period. When consumers are unable to access certain information, they will quickly learn to pay for the electronic version, she believes.
The Wall Street Journal, Hart pointed out, never gave the paper away for free having elected for a subscription model from day one. The South Morning China Post is also now a subscription service, and parts of the New York Times are fee-based.
Customization and personalization, Hart said, are two ways to entice people to still come to the Web site. Once they’re there, if they want real value, they will have to pay for it, she said.
Factiva, a 50:50 joint venture between Dow Jones and Reuters born in 1999, aggregates 8000 commercial sources and posts 120,000 new articles every day of which some customers might just want two or three articles that that are relevant to them. Business people, Hart said, are paying for the convenience of being able to source particular areas of interest. Personalizing content is one way to convince users online material is worth paying for, she said. “Factiva wouldn’t be in business if the content and value we add wasn’t worth paying for,” Hart said.
Factiva, which has 1.5 million customers worldwide and staff in 47 cities in 28 countries, is in the process of changing its business model slightly--selling more technology and services to help organizations manage external and internal content.
The Factiva Professional Services division--the company’s consulting arm which is not quite two years old – is a growth opportunity for us, Hart said.
The professional services team covers three main areas; enterprise knowledge assessment--working with organizations to understand their external and internal needs and bringing all these together for them; editorial consulting – which better organizes a company’s internal information; and developer consulting – which looks at software development such as the construction of effective user interfaces.
Moving forward this will be the fastest growing area of the business, Hart said.
However, whilst market research company Simba estimates that that the paid content business market will see a compound annual growth rate of 7 percent between 2000 and 2005, and IDC anticipates a 10 percent annual growth rate, Hart says that given the global economy is growing at 2-3 percent this is a bit of a stretch.


Today is the 45th anniversary of the day the first episode of Star Trek aired on CBS NBC. Over four decades later Star Trek and the movies and shows it spawned are some of the most loved science fiction media properties in America, and perhaps the world. Today several sites have pointed out how many of today’s gadgets resemble, and were often inspired by, the tech on Trek. We’re living in a future with flip phones that act just like communicators, tablets that resemble PADDs, and holodeck dreams that may come true sooner than you think. But is today’s Trek tech as good as the devices envisioned by the writers and prop teams?
Geeks love an X vs. Y fight (Picard would SO beat Kirk, amirite?), so we’ve chosen 5 Trek technologies and their modern counterparts. You, dear readers, get to choose which ones are better. Welcome to the Trek Tech Showdown!
Federation ships had warp drive, endless corridors and tubes, and the most sophisticated computers in the galaxy. The computer (almost) always knew when a crewmember was talking to her, rarely misinterpreted the command or query, and magically knew when to turn off the communicators to stop someone on the wrong end from hearing a witty aside. And did you ever see anyone complain that their Captain’s Log was transcribed incorrectly? You did not.
The voice recognition in Android phones and Google Chrome tries to approach this level of sophistication, but falls short. Voice to text on Android still relies on a connection to the server to work, and has trouble with similar-sounding words and some regional accents. And though it has the capability, I haven’t yet experienced being able to say “open web browser” and have the browser actually open. But I don’t think we’ll have to wait until the 23rd century before this is possible.
Star Trek’s replicators were able to make almost anything you asked for in seconds, but we most often saw them delivering food and “Tea. Earl Grey, hot,” to the crew. The science behind this technology was pretty handwavy — it had something to do with extra molecules leftover in the transporters or something equally icky. Still, in a world with instant food, there can be no hunger. And instant goods without the need for an expensive manufacturing process leads to a paradise (or, so we’re told).
In the present, 3D printers aren’t instantaneous, but they do allow people to manufacture individual items without expensive processes. Taking the concept even further, there now exist 3D printers that print out food. Just as with plastic-based printing, these machines lay down layers of food dot by dot to create items that adhere to nutritional and taste specifications.
Perhaps the estate of Gene Roddenberry will be called on to testify in the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung over tablet design. After all, both the original iPad and the iPad 2 bear a strong resemblance to PADDs in design and functionality. iOS is a better-looking operating system for sure, but there’s a reason why an app exists that mimics the PADD interface. Still, the iPad will need NFC and more advanced Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity with computers, televisions, and espresso machines before it’s as good as the Trek counterpart.
By The Next Generation’s era, the Federation had abandoned handhelds and moved on to communicators and locators in the Starfleet insignia. While that might make practical sense, it’s not nearly as much fun. Whenever Kirk or Spock would pull off that neat little wrist flip I had to smile, and the communicator on chirp is the ringtone of choice amongst many a geek. Still, the old school communicator was a little bulky, had a retro dial for no good reason, and required an unsightly utility belt to hold.
There’s just one thing to say before you get to voting: Is the Android OS fully functional “in every way”? No, it is not.
Data over Android, hands down.
FYI, the original Star Trek ran on NBC. Otherwise great article.
Battle shown here on this show seems very interesting. I will surely gonna watch this show as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing such a great news.
All the Comparisons are very interesting !!!


Ford Motor Co made a profit in India for the first time in a decade in the last fiscal year, signaling that a strategy conceived two years ago by the U.S. car manufacturer for one of the world's most competitive car markets is starting to show some success.
NEW DELHI: Ford Motor Co made a profit in India for the first time in a decade in the last fiscal year, signaling that a strategy conceived two years ago by the U.S. car manufacturer for one of the world's most competitive car markets is starting to show some success.
Over the past two decades, Ford has invested US$2 billion in India, which has become a major growth area for car manufacturers. Car sales rose 8 percent to 3.3 million last year and India is set to become the world's third-largest market by 2020 with sales of over 5 million cars, according to consultant IHS Markit.
Ford's new strategy gives greater autonomy to the local management team, and will contribute to a global restructuring plan to save US$11 billion over the next few years by cutting costs, forming partnerships and investing in new technologies.
Ford India made a profit of 5.26 billion rupees (US$72 million) in the fiscal year that ended on March 31 compared with a loss of 5.21 billion rupees a year ago, according to a regulatory filing.
"We realized we need to have a sustainable and profitable business in India," said Mehrotra, adding that Ford looked at its brand, products, cost and scale to improve efficiency.
For instance, in its Figo hatchback that sells for as little as 600,000 rupees (US$8,200), Ford used imported floormats that cost more than locally sourced ones. During a review under EMOM it learned that buyers don't really want imported mats, he said.


The Eastern garter snake is common and harmless.
Few things are as creepy as walking downstairs in the middle of the night for a glass of water, turning on your kitchen light, and seeing a snake seemingly lurking in your kitchen. Or perhaps you see it slither across your path as your light flickers on. While only 20 native snake species in America are venomous, and most snakes would rather avoid you, knowing you have a snake in your house is still disconcerting. You want it out. You may just be able to do it yourself.
People react in one of two ways to snakes: Some people see any snake as "poisonous" -- although snakes aren't poisonous, but venomous -- and some have absolutely no fear. Whichever camp you fall into, make sure you identify the snake before you have a heart attack or get needlessly brave. If you're uncertain what kind of snake it is, use a snake identification book or website, or call a local agricultural extension or other wildlife expert.
Fortunately, most snakes found inside the house are relatively small. They wander in through small holes, cracks and entrances looking for either food or shelter. The simplest way to get them out is to throw a towel, blanket, or similar material and scoop them up before removing them from the house. Brave individuals may even wear gloves -- as long as it isn't venomous -- and do the same. Funnel traps are available but tend to not be very reliable. A better mechanical trap is a glue pad. Place it near a wall where the snake is likely to slither. Release the snake by taking it away from the home and pouring vegetable oil over it, which will eventually dissolve the glue and free the snake. For poisonous snakes, call a professional. Keep children and pets away from any snake.
Ohio Public Library Information Network: Snake Quick I.D.
Lapham, Karie. "How to Remove Snakes from the House." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/remove-snakes-house-81035.html. Accessed 19 April 2019.
Do Mothballs Work As a Snake Repellent?


The former head of Operation Yewtree has admitted police “got some things wrong” during its investigation into child sexual abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Peter Spindler, a retired Metropolitan Police commander, said some detectives who worked with the probe “didn’t have the skills and knowledge” needed and the inquiry was not set up quickly enough.
Mr Spindler was speaking at the NSPCC’s headquarters in London during a debate on whether non-recent sexual abuse investigations had descended into “media witch-hunts”.
He said: “Yewtree is now a global brand. It’s embedded itself in the national psyche. It has empowered victims to come forward in the knowledge that they will be taken seriously.
“There have been many challenges along the way. We have learnt a lot in this type of investigation. We have got some things wrong.
“One of the things we didn’t get right was we completely underestimated what was going to happen.
“We didn’t have sufficient resources in place. We didn’t have the knowledge and the skills amongst our more general detectives.
“We have been investigating non-recent abuse for years ... this was something different. We needed to create a major inquiry team. We didn’t get it set it up early enough.
Mr Spindler said the media had a “ferocious appetite” but insisted the Metropolitan Police did not release the names of suspects before they were charged.
He said 30,000 victims who had yet to report abuse were expected to come forward to the Goddard inquiry, the independent investigation into child sexual abuse.
Operation Hydrant, set up by the National Police Chiefs’ Council to investigate child sexual abuse allegations, had the names of more than 2,000 suspects and 670 institutions where abuse was said to have happened, he said.
“These people can’t all be making it up, they haven’t all got it wrong,” Mr Spindler said.
Around 70 complaints were being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission in which victims said they were not taken seriously or crimes were covered up, he added.
Operation Yewtree was launched in October 2012 to investigate alleged abuse by Leeds-based Savile and others.
Mr Spindler said he believed a joke in the film The Inbetweeners 2, in which teenage character Neil says, “That’s well Jimmy Savile”, was evidence that young people understood what constituted sexual abuse.
“That really made me think that kids have got this,” he said.
Mr Spindler said he had concerns about young people’s understanding of a “healthy sexual relationship”.
“The images that teenage boys view on their phones and handheld devices are miles away from the sorts of things we would have chuckled over as young boys,” he said.


The principal of Kirklees College has attacked David Cameron over “painful” cuts to the institution’s budget, which amount to a whopping £450,000.
Peter McCann wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister after the government slashed adult funding for English as a second language (Esol) provision and other adult skills training for the forthcoming academic year.
It is another blow to the college, attended by around 18,000 students from across the area, which has already had to grapple with more than £2m worth of cuts since the beginning of 2014.
There are concerns that this latest development will have a significant impact on integration between communities, at a time when the area when the area has fallen under the national spotlight after two local teenagers fled to Syria to join ISIS earlier this year.
Speaking to the Reporter Series this week, Mr McCann said that the announcement was a particular surprise given that on the same day the college received the news David Cameron made a speech on the importance of tackling extremism: “We (Kirklees) have had a problem in that we’ve become one of the most high profile places in this particular area and the college has been praised publicly by the Home Office for our work in integration,” he said.
Kirklees College has several campuses across areas including Dewsbury and Batley and currently employs more than 1,000 staff. However, while no courses will be completely eradicated as a result of the cuts, no guarantees have been offered about the possibility of redundancies.
In his letter, Mr McCann also accused the Prime Minister of showing a “lack of respect” towards the skills sector and criticised him for saddling the financial education sector with what he called a “disproportionate” financial burden.
“To achieve the previous reductions and agree a budget that the governing body has been able to approve has required another painful and difficult process,” he wrote.


Time magazine named U.S. President-elect Donald Trump its "Person of the Year."
Time magazine named Donald Trump its “Person of the Year” on Wednesday. The magazine called him “President of the Divided States of America” on its cover.
Trump is the president-elect. He will take office on January 20, 2017.
The magazine calls the U.S. “the Divided States” in part because Trump did not win the most votes in the election. He did, however, easily win enough electoral votes to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
It said Wednesday that American presidents become “Person of the Year” about half the time in election years.
The last time someone other than a U.S. president won the title in an election year was 1996. That year, AIDS researcher David Ho won.
Time magazine ran its first “Man of the Year” issue in 1928. That year, the honors went to airplane pilot Charles Lindbergh.
Wallis Simpson was the first woman Time magazine chose for the yearly award. She was named in 1937, when she married King Edward VIII and became the Duchess of Windsor.
That year, the cover said “Woman of the Year.” But the name of the award was officially “Man of the Year” until 1999.
Others who have made the cover include Joseph Stalin, Deng Xiaoping, and Winston Churchill. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on the cover last year.
The choice of Trump had both his supporters and detractors talking on social media. “Person of the Year” was one of the top trending topics on Wednesday.
Other commenters suggested Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Julian Assange of Wikileaks, or Harambe, the gorilla who was killed at a zoo in Ohio after a child fell into his enclosure.
Time said it also considered Hillary Clinton, computer hackers, and singer Beyonce, among others, for the title of 2016 Person of the Year.
What do you think of Time magazine’s decision? Who would you select as the Person of the Year? Let us know in the comments section.