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2016-01-24 13:30:00

Shonda Rhimes is often called a trailblazer – but she sees it differently. “It’s not trailblazing to write the world as it actually is,” said the TV powerhouse, 46, while accepting the Norman Lear achievement award at the Producers Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, where the official champagne sponsor of the evening was Piper-Heidsieck. Speaking of the diverse characters on her ABC shows – which include Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and Grey’s Anatomy – Rhimes said she “created the content that I wanted to see and I created what I know is normal.” She continued: “Basically, you are just giving me an award for being me, in which case I totally deserve this. Really, I am honored to receive it. The respect of this award does mean the world. It just makes me a little bit sad. First of all, [writing about] strong women and three dimensional people of color is something Norman was doing 40 something years ago. So how come it has to be done all over again?” That’s when Rhimes turned the focus to the industry influencers in the audience, asking why Hollywood doesn’t offer more examples of strong black women in America outside of her programs. “What are we waiting for? I mean, I know this is a room full of producers, so probably you’re waiting for money. Clearly, money.” Earlier in her speech, Rhimes pointed out that setting an example for content creators was not difficult. “I have, against no odds, courageously pioneered the art of writing for people of color as if they were human beings,” she jokingly explained. “I’ve bravely gone around just casting parts for actors who were the best ones. I fearlessly faced down ABC when they completely agreed with me that Olivia Pope should be black.” She added: “See, the thing about all this trailblazing that everyone says I’ve been doing, it’s not like I did things and then the studio or the network gasped with horror and fought me. It was 2004.” According to Rhimes, she didn’t hear the word “no” when pitching her dynamic characters. “They were perfectly happy to say yes,” she said. “You know what the problem was? I don’t think anyone else was asking them. I think it had been a very long time since anybody had thought to, or tried. Maybe content creators were afraid, maybe they had been hitting brick walls, maybe they had had their spirits broken. Maybe their privilege had made them oblivious. Maybe. But for me, I was just being normal.” Then Rhimes gave credit to the Good Times writer and producer after whom her award was named, saying, “Norman Lear had already done a bunch of trailblazing 40 years earlier.” How to Get Away with Murder‘s Viola Davis delivered a touching introduction to Rhimes. The actress pointed out that Rhimes is the first solo female recipient of the award and alluded to the ongoing controversy over the lack of diversity in this year’s Oscar nominations.

2019-06-28 00:00:00

Yesterday, the Supreme Court delivered answers on two highly watched questions. The first: In a blockbuster 5-4 decision, the court declined to weigh in on two partisan gerrymandering cases that accused politicians in Maryland and North Carolina of rigging their maps in favor of their respective parties. The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, argued that while “excessive partisanship” in drawing voter maps can lead to “results that reasonably seem unjust,” it’s not up to the courts to fix it because it would represent an “unprecedented expansion of judicial power.” The second: The court ruled the Trump administration can’t put a citizenship question on the 2020 census — for now. The supremes sent the case back to the Commerce Department, asking for a better explanation of why the government tried to add a citizenship question in the first place. It was night two of the Democratic presidential debates — a second night being needed because there are so many candidates in the race. Last night’s debate brought together many of the race’s heavyweights in an evening where the Democratic party’s generational split was on full display. Here are the highlights: Every Democrat at the debate said they’d extend health care benefits to undocumented immigrants. Kamala Harris took on Joe Biden’s record on race in a memorable, dramatic clash. Her supporters say that display of controlling the stage is the reason they want to see her debate Trump. Joe Biden’s campaign was prepared for him to be attacked — but not like this. Here's how Biden’s debate plan got blown up. Marianne Williamson’s performance at the debate got a lot of people talking. Mostly, saying things like “what?” Pete Buttigieg says he can’t fire racist cops — we explain why that’s not the whole story. And because you’re really here for the funny debate tweets, we collected the best of them for you. For what it’s worth, this was my favorite: “There are no activities, only crying.” Kids describe in their own words the dire conditions inside a border detention center. Here’s what one 16-year-old girl said: “We are in a metal cage with 20 other teenagers with babies and young children. We have one mat we need to share with each other. It is very cold.” Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple’s most iconic products, is leaving the company. Ive, the Apple design chief behind the industrial design of products like the iPhone and iMac, has been with Apple for decades. Read CEO Tim Cook’s internal email on Ive’s departure. Trump tweets that violate Twitter’s rules will now get a warning label. In a move to “protect the health of public conversation,” the social media company will allow violative tweets from world leaders to remain on its platform, but with warnings. A California woman was killed by three sharks while snorkeling in the Bahamas. Jordan Lindsey didn't hear her family shouting about the sharks approaching when she was attacked. Officials told the Associated Press that Lindsey suffered bites to her arms, legs, and buttocks, and was pronounced dead in hospital. Jameela Jamil apologized for being “preachy” after criticizing Kim Kardashian West’s new body makeup line. The actor said “I’ve spent 20 years of my life having an eating disorder and using the lasers and using the creams...” and while she doesn’t want young people making the same mistakes, she would never judge anyone for making their own decisions. Jamil said she would “work on her tone.” Here’s the thing about Wikipedia: As the rest of the internet has been engulfed in the culture wars, the open-source encyclopedia has remained neutral. It was once maligned as a sign of a future where there is no authority over facts. Instead, its self-policing community became the best hope for a global digital portal to truth. That may be about to change. On June 10, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, did something unprecedented: It banned a user from the English-language Wikipedia for a year. Before this, bans were rare — and never, until now, temporary. The target of the ban, known as Fram, is one of Wikipedia’s best-known administrators. The community backlash against the foundation has been swift. Read Joe Bernstein’s deep dive into this conflict and how Wikipedia “finds itself in the painful position that the YouTubes and Twitters of the world have been unable to escape: in open conflict with some of its most devoted users.” Chernobyl Blew Up My Childhood. Will Climate Change Do The Same For My Kids? In a piercing essay, Sophia Moskalenko explores what happens when adults and institutions fail their children and the lasting damage it leaves — and draws a connection between feeling abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster and inaction in the face of climate change. “My relationships with my mother and my country never recovered from the damage inflicted by Chernobyl,” she writes. YA Twitter Can Be Toxic. But It Also Points Out Real Problems. Within the span of months, two debut young adult authors have chosen to postpone or cancel their books in the wake of intense social media scrutiny. Molly Templeton zooms out and looks at that scrutiny in context, arguing that when critics on social media “cancel” a YA writer or book, it’s really about ongoing frustrations with an overwhelmingly white publishing industry. Going Through Menopause Changed The Way I Think About Gender. In this excerpt from Darcey Steinke’s Flash Count Diary, Steinke explains that she’s experienced menopause as a kind of “ungendering” — and lays out what comes with that: It’s disorienting, thrilling, and freeing.

2016-08-13 00:00:00

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Host Brazil is likely to miss its medal target after losses in judo, almost certainly a first Olympics without a swimming medal since 2004 and dashed hopes in tennis and archery. After registering a record number of podiums at London 2012 with 17 medals, Team Brazil set a goal for Rio of finishing in the top 10 medal winning nations. But with just four medals in the first week of the Games —one gold, one silver and two bronze — Brazilian athletes will need to perform better to fulfill that objective. Italy finished 10th in the total 2012 medal count by taking home 28. Brazil’s greatest frustration was in judo. Despite a gold for Rafaela Silva, it did not surpass its performance of four medals in London, earning only three. Sarah Menezes, the 2012 champion, as well as Erica Miranda, Tiago Camilo and Felipe Kitadai were all judo disappointments. “We could have contributed with more medals, we had this potential,” said Ney Wilson, an official at Brazil’s Judo Confederation. Brazil had lower expectations for swimming, especially after former Olympic champion Cesar Cielo failed to qualify, but no one thought its swimmers would leave the pool empty handed. The top hopes were Thiago Pereira, silver medalist in the 400 meters medley in London, and Bruno Fratus but neither set a personal best in their divisions and finished without medals. Brazil, which has won swimming medals at every Games since Athens in 2004, still has two more races left but does not expect to medal in either. Aside from sports in which it traditionally excels, Brazil also had goals of medaling in canoeing, tennis and archery but has so far failed. All the Brazilian tennis players, including doubles favorites Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, were eliminated. So was 18-year-old archer Marcus D’Almeida. Brazil’s first medal was actually a surprise, a silver won by shooter Felipe Wu. Brazil still has medal hopes in men’s water polo and marathon swimming. Despite a humiliating loss in double overtime to arch rival Argentina in basketball on Saturday, Brazil is still in contention for several team sports, like beach and regular volleyball, handball and soccer. It is also guaranteed at least a bronze in boxing and has high hopes in sailing. Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Ken Ferris

2018-05-31 15:00:05

Graphic Content Six pages into SABRINA (Drawn and Quarterly, $27.95), Nick Drnaso’s new graphic novel, the title character’s sister reads out a clue from the crossword puzzle she’s working on. “Twelve letters,” she says. “We killed the Clutter family.” Sabrina knows the answer: “Dick and Perry” — the killers made famous by Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” On first read, it’s just an example of the conversational vérité that Drnaso excels at, the brief reunion between the two adult siblings at their mom’s house in Chicago. Four pages later, Sabrina heads out the door, the last time we see her alive. Not yet 30, Drnaso has topped his virtuoso 2016 debut, “Beverly,” which had a cheerful palette gleefully at odds with all that roiled beneath its speckless Midwestern skies: class friction and psychosexual urges, brain-draining sitcoms and kneejerk racism. (Nearly everyone in Drnasoland is white.) Some of the visual shocks in “Beverly” lodge in the head, like certain demonic glimpses from “The Shining” — but “Sabrina” goes deeper, risks more. It’s an unnerving mystery told by a rigorous moralist, a profoundly American nightmare set squarely in the first year of the Trump presidency. Politics is never mentioned, but the dread is everywhere: on the airwaves, at an open mic, in a kid’s activity book, and — most barbarically — online. The book centers on the uneasy bond between Calvin Wrobel, who works at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, and Teddy, Sabrina’s boyfriend of two years. Newly divorced, Calvin is unusually empathetic and selfless; he takes in Teddy, who arrives from Illinois completely numb after Sabrina’s disappearance. Out of touch since high school, Calvin nevertheless cares for his helpless charge, bringing him fast food and giving him the run of his comfortable, desolate house. At work, dressed in fatigues, Calvin periodically fills out Department of Defense mental health surveys, registering hours slept, drinks consumed and whether he’s entertained thoughts of suicide. He always answers in the negative. Then a videotape surfaces at a news outlet, with sickening confirmation of Sabrina’s fate. Naturally, the murderer’s name starts trending. An investigator tells Calvin they’re “desperately trying to keep this video from leaking onto the internet,” but its migration is inevitable. (“I need to see this,” one commenter writes.) In an unguarded moment, the upright Calvin hits download, but Drnaso doesn’t show what he sees, leaving the worst of it to the reader’s imagination. Teddy’s rage at the senseless loss and the virtual violation makes him vulnerable, unpredictably, to another obscenity: a false-flag narrative peddled by an “Infowars”-like show, relentlessly flowing from a radio as he clutches a pillow. “I have been targeted for voicing what amounts to perfectly legal and acceptable free speech,” the host insists. “If you ever see me being taken away in handcuffs, you’ll know what’s going on.” After conspiracy theorists, emboldened online, notice that the victim’s last boyfriend is cohabiting with a member of the military, Calvin gets threats from people who believe he’s an actor. “I’m what’s called a boundary technician,” Calvin explains to Teddy. He monitors weaknesses in the networks, looks for breaches. Drnaso is an ace boundary technician as well. With his fluid framing — fitting anywhere from two to 24 panels to a page — he dictates information delivery, allowing the mind to breathe. His drawing style is at once poetically attuned to details of neighborhoods and interiors (the lit canopy of a gas station at night, the banquette at an antiseptic diner) and deceptively plain when it comes to the people who inhabit them. Figures are airtight yet textureless, with eyes like pinholes. Calvin is built along the hefty lines of Walt from “Gasoline Alley.” Sabrina, with her Dorothy Hamill haircut, at first appears to be a man; Teddy, sporting a limp blond shag, resembles a woman. The fleeting sexiness of “Beverly” is absent, the characters’ drabness somehow making their awful plight all the more intimate. “In Cold Blood” aestheticized the Clutter murders, mixing lurid details with gossamer prose. The fictional killing in “Sabrina” is disturbing, but Drnaso doesn’t fixate on the gore or the culprit; he’s more concerned with how the public claims and consumes it, spinning out morbid fantasies with impunity. Blink and you’ll miss it: The first D.O.D. mental health survey we see is dated Sept. 11, 2017. The book’s title might allude not to the fizzy Audrey Hepburn film, but to Sabrina Harman, one of the guards convicted of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Drnaso subtly suggests that the current climate of constant horror, weaponized by hashtags and spread by autofill, has its seeds in the fall of the Twin Towers and our response to the tragedy. It’s a shattering work of art. Michael Kupperman’s graphic memoir ALL THE ANSWERS (Gallery 13, $25) reaches back to a more distant history and a different kind of corrosive publicity. An irrepressible surrealist (“Tales Designed to Thrizzle”), here Kupperman restrains his loopier impulses as he excavates the life of his ailing father, Joel, who found fame as one of radio’s celebrated “Quiz Kids.” (Philip Roth mentions Joel in his novel “The Anatomy Lesson,” and Salinger surely had him in mind when imagining the Glass spawn’s turn on “It’s a Wise Child.”) With an I.Q. of 219, 6-year-old Joel became the show’s most popular contestant. Nicknamed “Baby Euclid,” he received 10,000 pieces of fan mail a week and met a who’s who of entertainment royalty, from Marlene Dietrich to Milton Berle. Joel continued to appear on the show past the “graduation” age of 16, but was savagely bullied in college by classmates who couldn’t stand his know-it-all persona. He craved anonymity; he eventually became a university professor in Connecticut, writing books on ethics. Seeking to understand his father’s nonexistent parenting style as Alzheimer’s encroaches, Kupperman discovers that “the trauma has become almost visible to me as a negative shape.” “All the Answers” works best as an account of an improbable life, with a peek at America’s bygone celebrity culture and unquenchable thirst for entertainment. There’s also a fascinating propaganda angle to consider: Three of the four main Quiz Kids were Jewish, as was the producer Louis G. Cowan, who (Kupperman theorizes) used the show to humanize the Jews in the thick of World War II. “Whether by design or accident,” Joel was “a symbol because of his race.” For an artist known for his off-kilter tableaus, this book has a static look, especially in its rendering of boldfaced names from the past. More problematic are the gaps: mysteries unsolved, re-creations that collapse under the weight of a disclaimer. Of a 1943 meeting between Joel and Henry Ford (once a vocal anti-Semite), Kupperman wonders, “What did they think of each other? There’s no way of knowing.” Later he complains: “I don’t know what I thought this book would be, or what good it could do.” Beginning his project in frustration at his father, he ends in frustration with the project itself.

2016-06-06 00:00:00

Honey, you never looked better. While in London, Lindsay Lohan couldn't resist stopping by the classic house from her breakout movie The Parent Trap. Somehow, 18 years have passed since The Parent Trap was released and changed our lives.  Lohan recently posed in front of her character's house and captioned the picture, "A trip down memory lane." She evidently isn't over the movie either. A trip down memory lane #sundayfunday #theparenttrapmovie "Annie's house" but it was number 7 in the movie A photo posted by Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) on Jun 5, 2016 at 7:35am PDT In The Parent Trap, Lohan played a pair of twins reunited at camp almost 12 years after being separated at birth. The house Lohan visited was also set in London in the film. It belonged to twin Annie James and her family, including her mother, played by the late Natasha Richardson. Is it just us, or does Lindsay's outfit from her visit seem inspired by these iconic ones she wore in 'The Parent Trap'? Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

2017-01-12 15:00:00

On Tuesday evening, BuzzFeed released an unverified dossier that claims to outline president-elect Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia. Social media went wild with one particular detail, which describes an (unconfirmed) instance in which Trump booked the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel and hired sex workers to "perform a 'golden showers' (urination) show in front of him." Twitter, especially, had a field day with the news. This flurry, affectionately named "Piss Twitter" by its participants, continues to have a monopoly on social media feeds. However, the document also outlined several far more troubling alleged details about the president-elect. Here's what you may have missed:Russia may have been planning to help Donald Trump's campaign for the past five years, with total cooperation between Trump's team and the Russian government. The document claims that not only was Trump's team aware of Russia's role in the recent hacking of the Democratic National Convention and its desire to provide intel, but also that they found it "very helpful." In exchange, the Trump team allegedly gave Russia information on U.S.-based Russian oligarchs and their families. The document also alleges that Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with Kremlin officials in Prague in 2016, that advisor Carter Page had secret meetings in Moscow, and that Russia has "kompromat," or embarrassing information, on Trump, but has promised to withhold as long as he and his team continue to cooperate. Trump, his lawyer, and his former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway have denied these allegations. Both Trump and Cohen took to Twitter to refute the claims, and Trump denied the allegations again during a press conference yesterday, claiming he was a "germaphobe." Conway appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers to deny the reports. Of the 36-page report, only two paragraphs are dedicated to Trump's time in Russia and the sexual practices he may or may not have engaged in while there. We're not seeing jokes about Russia's intimidation tactics, or outrage about Trump's alleged willingness to trade information, which make up a majority of the report. Instead, America immediately pounced on the urine fetish as a "weakness" in Trump, as opposed to focusing on the far more serious allegations that were also on display in the document. And frankly, this nonsense is a waste of our time right now. Trump enjoying golden showers was an immediate, irresistible thrill for the public. We were, and continue to be, titillated by it. Our reactions legitimized it as blackmail, proving that we arbitrarily draw the line at what is and isn't okay when it comes to sex. This isn't to say we shouldn't be talking about it. The golden shower detail provokes a shocking image, but it's not shameful or embarrassing for the reasons too many on the internet are implying. Trump's alleged sexual preferences aren't the problem. Trump allegedly booking the room with the bed the Obamas slept in for the express purpose of defiling it, Trump's repeated attempts to delegitimize a Black president, and Trump's disregard for the hotel and its staff is. These blatant acts of disrespect (if they're all true, that is) are simply unfitting of a president-elect.However, as far as Trump is concerned, the best thing the public could do is focus on the golden shower incident in lieu of holding the microscope to the far more shocking, actually harmful details of the report. Now more than ever, in a time where it seems the very fabric of reality is slipping through our fingers, we have to hold onto our values and stick to them, as well as examine and rework any beliefs that may be holding us back. Let's not let a dated view of sexuality shift our focus from the real work that needs to be done: taking these allegations seriously, finding the truth, and figuring out how best the American people can move forward.

2016-03-05

MOSCOW, March 5 (Reuters) - Russia needs to adapt its budget to lower oil prices, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Saturday after credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service warned Moscow it might downgrade the country’s sovereign debt rating further into junk territory. The agency said on Friday that it placed Russia’s Ba1 debt rating on review for downgrade, pending a two-month review of the government’s policies. Of the three major rating agencies, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, only the latter keeps Russia’s debt rating in an investment grade, although only a notch above junk. “Moody’s assessment indicates the need to adapt the budget system to the new reality in the commodities market,” Siluanov said. Oil and gas receipts produce about half of Russia’s revenues and falling oil prices threaten to increase the budget deficit, now envisaged at 3 percent of gross domestic product this year if oil averages at $40 per barrel, according to a finance ministry forecast. The decline in oil has also knocked the rouble sharply. The country’s budget, which still assumes an oil price of an average of $50 per barrel this year, is to be amended next month. The Russian Central bank sees oil at $35 on average this year. “Given pressures on the government’s finances, Moody’s sees risks that the government would become overly reliant on a weak currency to offset the lower oil prices or else resort to central bank financing, both of which would keep inflation at relatively high levels and threaten the recovery of the domestic banking system,” Moody’s said in its statement. Siluanov said the government was already hard at work on how to mitigate the impact of lower crude. “The Russian government has already prepared rapid-response measures to the current economic situation and is working on how to balance the budget in the medium term,” Siluanov said. Plans include expenditure cuts, hikes in excise taxes and further tightening of tax enforcement. But Moody’s said this might not be not enough and that more radical reforms to Russia’s fiscal regime, such as pension reform, might not happen soon. “The political sensitivity of any such reform is likely to postpone its enactment until after the upcoming parliamentary election in September and possibly even until after the presidential election in early 2018,” Moody’s said. (Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Lidia Kelly. Editing by Jane Merriman)

2016-09-22

(Adds detail, company comment) HAMBURG, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Europe’s largest sugar refiner Suedzucker increased its full-year earnings forecast on Thursday after rising sugar prices fuelled a 56 percent jump in half-year earnings. Raw sugar futures reached a four-year high on Sept. 19, supported by tightening global sugar supplies, and Rabobank has forecast a global sugar deficit of 7.2 million tonnes in the 2016/17 season after a 7.9 million tonne shortfall in the current season. Suedzucker now expects group operating profit in its 2016/17 financial year to reach between 340 million euros and 390 million euros ($382 million to $438 million). That compares with a previous forecast of 250 million euros to 350 million euros and a 2015/16 result of 241 million euros. Operating profit rose to 209 million euros in the six months to Aug. 31, against 134 million euros in the same period last year, Suedzucker said in an advance release of its results. “This earnings increase is caused especially by the development in the sugar segment,” the company said in a statement. The improvement came in spite of a 4 percent dip in half-year revenue and a company spokesman said: “The sugar price in Europe is recovering; on the world market we are even seeing prices moving upwards.” The Suedzucker group’s special product sectors, including food ingredients and starches, benefited from reduced costs because of lower commodity prices, as did biofuel unit CropEnergies, the spokesman said. CropEnergies reiterated its outlook on Thursday, saying that lower raw material costs were compensating for weaker bioethanol prices. Suedzucker will announce detailed half-year results on Oct. 13. ($1 = 0.8896 euros) (Reporting by Michael Hogan and Ludwig Burger; Editing by David Goodman)

2016-12-05

The recent stock market rally on hopes for pro-growth economic policies under President-elect Donald Trump is just a small hint of what lies ahead as the will rally 14 percent in 2017 from current levels, according to RBC Capital Markets, which on Monday released its investment playbook for next year. "While the market's recent rotation might seem abrupt, the S&P 500 is up only 3 percent since Election Day, leaving it with substantial potential upside," RBC's chief equity strategist, Jonathan Golub, wrote in a note to clients, setting a 2,500 year-end price target for the index. The bullishness stems from the economic policies likely implemented by Trump such as a reduction in corporate taxes to 15 percent from 35 percent, along with other fiscal measures, which in turn could flood S&P companies with cash, and spark a wave of buybacks, mergers and acquisitions, and earnings growth, according to the firm.

2016-09-26 00:00:00

IN THE world of bookselling, Shakespeare and Company is peerless in its fame and influence. Just shy of a century since it first came to be, they begin formally publishing works under its own eponymous imprint. The first book to be published by the legendary Parisian institution is, fittingly, a memoir of the shop itself. But tucked within the pages of photos, letters, diary entries and anecdotes is one recurring question: could literary lightning strike again? Or is the intimate relationship between bookseller and author that has made Shakespeare and Company so legendary ill-fitted to the realities of publishing and bookselling today? When we talk about Shakespeare and Company, we are often talking about two distinct bookstores. The first to be opened under the now-iconic name, on rue de l'Odeon in the Latin Quarter, was founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919 and became a second home to F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and other anglophone writers. That iteration of the shop was forced to close in 1941 following intimidation by German soldiers. George Whitman opened the Librarie le Mistral on the rue de la Bûcherie in 1951; Beach offered him the “Shakespeare and Company” name in 1958. It cemented its place in the popular imagination as the rightful inheritor of the famous bookshop’s legacy. Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. That legacy included some publishing, along with numerous other ways large and small that Beach supported the writers who often populated her bookshop. Patronage has been the calling card of Shakespeare and Company from its earliest days, whether through the lending of books to the penniless or letting travelling writers stay in the shop for free (an estimated 30,000 young writers and artists have slept in the shop since it opened its doors). When others shied away from publishing the already banned “Ulysses”, Beach offered to release Joyce’s novel herself. She didn’t stop there, either: she worked with her network of writer allies to smuggle it into America and Britain. Later she championed Ernest Hemingway’s manuscripts, introducing him to a private publisher. Whitman wasn’t quite so hands-on with publishing, although two literary magazines came into being from within the shop. The first, Merlin—founded by editors Alexander Trocchi, Christopher Logue and Richard Seaver—was started in 1952. The magazine co-existed with the Paris Review as a leading English-language literary review, publishing Jean-Paul Sartre and establishing Samuel Beckett as a writer to watch. Whitman himself also started a literary review called the Paris Magazine in 1967, publishing in its inaugural issue writing by Allen Ginsberg, Sartre and Pablo Neruda. It was created with an eye to recreating something in literary culture that Whitman felt had been lost; “unlike the big anonymous publications,” he wrote, “we can at least go back to the days of personal journalism when a poet, carpenter, bookseller, printer, and journalist…would publish manifestos or set the type for his own book of poems.” Nostalgia has always been a prominent element of literary culture, one that simultaneously allows for woeful lamenting about the future and harkening back to a time that was more amenable to writers. Shakespeare and Company has become synonymous with those supposed halcyon days, a place where the greatest writers of the 20th century could come together in unassuming comfort. But Whitman’s words suggest that even mid-century, the sort of space Shakespeare and Company sought out to create was rare. In the decades since, it has only become more uncommon. Bookshops have had a hard time in the past few decades. While publishing and literature has been subject to undue eulogising over the centuries, our changing relationship with reading in the digital age has meant that the physical spaces where books reside—be it libraries or bookshops—have been subject to cuts and closures. In Paris alone, Village Voice and La Hune, fellow beloved independent bookshops, have closed in the past five years. In America, 1,000 bookshops closed between 2000 and 2007. In Britain, around one-third of independent bookshops have shut, according to the Booksellers Association. It is difficult to imagine a bookshop with such a range of offerings for writers opening today. Not only are bookshops unenviable businesses to run, but the demand for the space is not there either. Writers no longer need to congregate in one location to find community; Literary Twitter is a digital stand-in for the salons of old. The internet has provided endless opportunities for writers to self-publish their work, and the growing number of online-only review websites suggests that the literary community is adapting to the web age. It may be less romantic than a Left Bank bookshop haunted by the ghosts of Hemingway, Anais Nin and James Baldwin. We may not want to think of writing as individuals tethered to computers, rather than grouped around one physical table arguing and shaping 20th century literature over wine, Whitman’s Irish stew and piles of books. But as “A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart” makes clear, Shakespeare and Company was always an anomaly. Since it opened in 1919, it was always meant to be one of a kind. Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. By Krista Halverson, Sylvia Whitman and Jeannette Winterson. Shakespeare and Company Paris; 384 pages, $34.95 and £26.97

2019-09-16 00:00:00

The strong U.S. labor market continues to add jobs, but the retail sector has been moving in the opposite direction. Why it matters: Brick and mortar retail is likely to keep shedding jobs for the foreseeable future because of an "efficiency gap" between traditional stores and e-commerce, according to economists at the Institute of International Finance. What it means: IIF's economists assert that it takes significantly fewer employees to deliver the same amount of product for e-commerce businesses, meaning they will continue to deliver better profits and push out old-school retailers in large stores. "This efficiency gap has persisted because ongoing job losses in brick-and-mortar retail are only just keeping pace with falling market share, which unfortunately means that downsizing is likely to continue for some time," IIF managing director and chief economist Robin Brooks and economist Jonathan Fortun say in a report published Thursday. Details: They highlight a few key trends in the labor market between traditional and online retail. "Job losses in the retail sector have been a persistent feature of the US labor market." "This downsizing has so far only offset falling market share of 'brick-and-mortar' retail, and therefore not helped close the persistent efficiency gap that exists versus e-commerce." "Department stores need 8 employees to generate $1 million in sales per year, while electronic shopping & mail-order houses, the category that captures e-commerce in the establishment survey, need as few as 0.6."

2017-09-06 00:00:00

With Facebook reportedly hard at work cloning its group video chat service, Houseparty is playing some offense. Houseparty, an app which connects people with their friends in spontaneous video chats, is today releasing its first major product update — a new feature that lets users form groups of up to 16 people and call them in organized video chats. The new feature differs from Houseparty’s current dial-in-and-see-who’s-there functionality and could appeal to users looking to use the app for more practical purposes, such as study group calls. Houseparty has 20 million users and an average session time of 51 minutes, the company told BuzzFeed News. Those are solid metrics, but the company needs to bolster its feature set if it's to defend against an impending copycat offering from Facebook, codenamed “Bonfire.” With Groups, Houseparty hopes to encourage people to quickly create video-calling groups for everything from sports teams to families. That could help it retain users who might be tempted to switch over to a similar Facebook service should the social network launch one. “If you already have your group somewhere — if everybody’s already there — why would you move?” Houseparty CEO and founder Ben Rubin told BuzzFeed News. It’s a reasonable question. But a look at Snapchat’s struggles shows how devastating a Facebook clone can be, even for well-established app with a strong network. A year ago, Snapchat was riding high, heading towards an IPO with a fast-growing user base and a Stories feature that had people creating loads of fun, casual posts. Then, last August, Facebook copied Stories, bringing the cloned product first to Instagram and then to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger as well. Now Instagram Stories alone boasts more users than Snapchat. Meanwhile, shares in the app’s parent company, Snap Inc., are trading well below their IPO price. Even Rubin, as optimistic as he is, concedes the prospect of competing with Facebook is a daunting one. "Nothing is invulnerable," he told BuzzFeed News. Like Meetup, which is currently under assault from Facebook’s Groups product, Houseparty’s pitch — "empower people to have more frequent conversations with the people they care about" — very closely aligns with Facebook’s new mission, “Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." Given that, a Facebook clone of Houseparty seems an inevitability more than anything else. With the launch of Facebook's Houseparty clone rumored for later this year, Rubin is bracing himself for a fight. But he won't let it become a singular focus. "We'll persevere," he said. "We'll focus on our users; we'll think about our mission and we'll fucking grind it."

2018-02-03

Former White House communications director Anthony ScaramucciAnthony ScaramucciThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump tries to reassure voters on economy Trump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE engaged in a heated exchange with a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush on Bill Maher's HBO program on Friday night, with Scaramucci at one point suggesting David Frum take a suppository and an "anger management class." Scaramucci set the tone on "Real Time with Bill Maher" by joking about his short-lived stint as White House communications director in July 2017. "If you could redo one thing during your time at the White House, what would it be?" Maher asked. "The Ryan Lizza call," Scaramucci responded. "I probably wouldn't have had that one." In a phone interview with then-New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza on July 27, Scaramucci unloaded on White House senior officials, including then-chief strategist Stephen Bannon. “I’m not Steve BannonStephen (Steve) Kevin BannonThe specter of Steve Bannon may loom over 2020 Trump campaign Sunday shows - Trump's Epstein conspiracy theory retweet grabs spotlight Steve Bannon: 'President Trump is not a racist' MORE, I’m not trying to suck my own c---,” Scaramucci said of Bannon during the Lizza call. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f---ing strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” "In ten days you actually — " Maher began to say before Scaramucci corrected him. "Eleven. Or 954,000 seconds," the former financier joked, before saying he was able to "get rid of the two biggest leakers" in the West Wing, an apparent reference to Bannon and former chief of staff Reince PriebusReinhold (Reince) Richard PriebusTrump blasts Scaramucci as 'incapable' Trump taps Sean Spicer to join Naval Academy board of visitors Trump's no racist — he's an equal opportunity offender MORE, who both left the White House, Priebus in late July and Bannon in August, citing unrelated reasons. But things turned contentious when Frum asked Scaramucci about a business deal he made before joining the Trump administration. “I have a question for you. Before you went into government, you received an enormous offer from a Chinese group, for the purchase of your company, $90 million, and after you came out the purchasers lost interest. How am I to understand that?” Scaramucci said the question was “factually inaccurate” and Maher attempted to end the discussion after some crosstalk. "OK, this is a different show. Nobody knows what you’re talking about and nobody cares," the host said to Frum. “It’s a set-up question,” Scaramucci said. “He’s trying to suggest that they were buying into the lobbying." "I curse a lot but I don’t curse on TV, but that’s B.S.," he added. “You don’t curse?” an amused Maher asked. “You’re the one who said Steve Bannon sucks his own c---.” “I don’t think he’s anatomically capable of it,” Scaramucci deadpanned. “What David is trying to say is that the Chinese company bought my business as a favor to Trump." “Why are we going back to this?” asked Maher. “I see why you and Trump get along.” After the show was over, Frum and Scaramucci appeared on the program's online-only "Overtime" segment, where matters became even more contentious. “Your anger toward Trump is clouding your judgment, by the way,” Scaramucci said to Frum. “A good anger management class would help you think a little more clearly.” “Don’t let anger cloud your judgment — but don’t let your ambitions cloud your judgment," Frum responded. “What does that even mean?” said Scaramucci. “You talking about my ambition? I’d already lived a great life. I went in there to try to serve the country and help the middle and lower-class people that are struggling in this country." “You gotta wake up, brother. You’re living in an ivory tower. Snap out of it. Drop the anger," he advised before suggesting Frum take a suppository. “I’m not a weak guy,” said Frum. “You’re mean, and you’re angry,” Scaramucci replied. “I want to know what drug you’re on,” Maher asked Scaramucci. “He is very Michael Corleone. He doesn’t raise his voice, he’s a quiet killer.” “I’m a little bit too honest, though,” Scaramucci said, before directing his next comment at Frum. “I’m not the typical backstabbing Washingtonian.” Frum is a CNN contributor and joined The Atlantic in March 2014 as a senior politics editor. Scaramucci launched his own news site, "The Scaramucci Post" in 2017. He once hosted "Wall Street Week" on Fox Business. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2018-05-11

(CNN)Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday signed a law that says no child-placement agency will be required to put children up for adoption or in foster care in situations that "violate the agency's written religious or moral convictions or policies." The governor said the law will not restrict the ability of LGBT people from getting a child through adoption or foster care, but critics fiercely disagreed. Oklahomans for Equality posted a video on Facebook in which officials said they are looking into legal action. "The idea that bigotry trumps decency is really reprehensible. I am horribly disappointed in Governor Fallin tonight," Sharon Bishop-Baldwin, vice president of the organization's board of directors, says in the video. Fallin, a Republican, said neither adoption or foster care by LGBT individuals or same-sex couples is not banned. "Instead, the bill will help continue Oklahoma's successful placement of children with a broad array of loving families and basically maintain the status quo by setting forth in statute practices which have successfully worked for the best interest of Oklahoma children," Fallin said in a statement. The governor said the law is similar to one in Virginia that was enacted in 2012. Faith-based organizations involved in adoption and foster care have closed in other states that don't have similar laws, she said. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma said LGBT people in the state are "political pawns." "SB 1140 is discriminatory, anti-family, anti-children, and anti-First Amendment," Allie Shinn, external affairs director for the ACLU of Oklahoma, said in a news release. "Rather than stand up to religious fanaticism, the governor has chosen to reinforce the delusions of those who confuse discrimination with liberty." Freedom Oklahoma executive director Troy Stevenson said his group will pursue legal action. He said children who are desperately looking for homes will be harmed and young people will be stigmatized by "state-sanctioned hate." "We'll see you in court," he said in a statement. The top officials in the Catholic church in two of Oklahoma's most populous cities welcomed the new law. Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City, and ‪Most Rev. David Konderla, Bishop of Tulsa, said they were grateful for the governor's support and they believe nothing changes in the adoption or foster care process with the bill's signing. And more agencies will be involved, they said. "The new law will bring more adoption services to the state and allow crucial faith-based agencies to continue their decades-long tradition of caring for Oklahoma's most vulnerable children," they said in a statement on social media. The bill passed by mostly party-line votes in the Republican-dominated house (56-21) and senate (33-7).‬ CNN's Lindsay Benson contributed to this report.

2019-12-14 00:00:00

(Reuters) - A top U.S. Olympic official on Friday expressed doubt over whether any Russian competitors could prove clean to compete as neutral athletes in the upcoming Tokyo Games, after Russia was barred from competition for doping violations. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Monday that Russia was banned from top global sporting competition for four years, including the upcoming summer and winter Olympics, after determining that Moscow had interfered with doping tests. But while the ruling precludes Russian athletes from competing under their own flag, those who can prove they are clean could potentially enter the 2020 Olympics as neutral participants. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chair Susanne Lyons said the U.S. board was skeptical such a determination would be possible. “Considering the data manipulation that occurred – right up until the 11th hour of WADA’s investigation – it’s going to be incredibly difficult for clean Russian athletes to prove they’re innocent,” Lyons told reporters. “It’s very difficult for us to see how justice can be served and how there will be a true deterrent against future corruption if any of the athletes from Russia have the right to compete in Tokyo under any flag, neutral or otherwise.” Lyons stopped short of endorsing a blanket ban, saying that it was not for the USOPC to decide whether adequate means of evaluating Russian competitors exists. The saga is the latest black eye for Russia’s powerhouse athletic federation, after a 2015 report WADA commissioned showed evidence of widespread doping by Russian athletes. A defiant Russia criticized the use of collective punishment in the sanctions and blamed politics, not its own sports officials, for the ban. Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Leslie Adler

2018-01-27

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Illinois state lawmaker apologizes for photos depicting mock assassination of Trump Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE said that he wouldn’t call himself a feminist in a new interview with Piers Morgan, Morgan said Saturday. The British news host tweeted out Trump’s quotes from the interview on Saturday night. “No, I wouldn't say I'm a feminist. I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far,” Trump said in the interview, according to Morgan. “I’m for women, I'm for men, I’m for everyone.”   BREAKING NEWS:President Trump has declared he is NOT a feminist. He tells me: ‘No, I wouldn't say I'm a feminist. I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far. I'm for women, I'm for men, I’m for everyone.' Full interview, Sunday, ITV, 10pm. pic.twitter.com/GCviovNb6o   The full interview with Morgan will air on Sunday. Trump’s comments come amid an international conversation about sexual misconduct and behavior toward women. The #MeToo and "Time's Up" movements have been launched into the spotlight as prominent men in entertainment and politics have faced claims of sexual misconduct. Trump has also been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women. Four of his accusers called for Congress to investigate the claims last year, as did dozens of Democratic female lawmakers. Trump has repeatedly denied the claims. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2017-11-05 00:00:00

China’s Shanshan Feng defended an LPGA title for the first time when she secured a two-shot victory at the TOTO Japan Classic on Sunday. Feng rolled in a 20-foot birdie at the penultimate hole to preserve her lead and made a tap-in par at the last to hold off Japan’s Ai Suzuki at the Taiheiyo Club Minori. “I’ve played here twice and won twice,” and excited Feng said after carding 68 to finish at 19-under-par 197. Her third round of 63 was the key to victory. “I shot a very low score yesterday and that really helped me win the tournament today,” Feng said after claiming her eighth LPGA victory, and her second this year on the U.S.-based circuit. Suzuki (68) had to settle for second place, much to the disappointment of the large gallery enjoying a crisp, cloudless day in the pretty countryside nearly 100 kilometers north-east of Tokyo. Swede Anna Nordqvist (66) was two shots further back in third place. Feng’s victory was certainly no stroll in the park. The pivotal moment came at the par-five 17th, where her tenuous one-stroke advantage looked likely to evaporate. With Suzuki having a tap-in birdie, Feng had to hole her 20-footer to preserve her lead, and hole it she did, her putt catching the left edge of the hole, circling the cup and dropping in. Runner-up Suzuki, who subsequently bogeyed the last, enjoyed a consolation of sorts, her performance lifting the 23-year-old to the top of the Japan LPGA money list. Feng acknowledged Suzuki’s quality at the tournament jointly sanctioned by the LPGA and the JLPGA. “Normally I say my ball-striking is pretty good but today her ball-striking was much better,” Feng said. “It gave me a lot of pressure but I tried to ignore it and play my own game.”

2016-10-17 18:12:00

Nearly 13,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the impeachment of a Montana judge who sentenced a 40-year-old man who admitted to raping his 12-year-old daughter to 60 days in jail, PEOPLE confirms. Judge John C. McKeon’s sentence was handed down on Oct. 4, according to the Glasgow Courier. The defendant — a resident of Glasgow, Montana, whom PEOPLE has decided not to name to protect the anonymity of his daughter — faced a maximum of 25 years in prison. The father will have to register as a sex offender and will be on probation for the next 30 years after admitting in court to raping his daughter once. Two other rape charges against him were dismissed as part of a plea deal, the Courier reports. At the Oct. 4 sentencing, McKeon said he was moved by the many letters of support he received from the confessed rapist’s relatives and friends, as well as members of the church the defendant attends, reports KTVQ. When contacted by PEOPLE, prosecutor Dylan Jensen refused to comment on McKeon’s sentence. He told the Courier he “was shocked and disappointed” but would “respect” it. The online petition seeking McKeon’s impeachment had 12,750 signatures as of Monday afternoon. The petition states “it is time to start punishing the judges who let these monsters walk our streets.” Before handing down his sentence, McKeon characterized the conditions the man would eventually face upon his release as “quite restrictive” and “quite rigorous,” according to KWWL. McKeon did not respond to PEOPLE’s calls seeking comment. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. In a written response to the public outcry following the sentencing, McKeon released a statement citing a psycho-sexual evaluation that was completed on the man, according to the Billings Gazette. According to McKeon’s statement, the psycho-sexual evaluation found that “the defendant could be safely treated and supervised as a sex offender in the community, that such community treatment was available, that the defendant would benefit from such community-based treatment and that it would be best that he start and complete the same treatment program.” McKeon writes that “both the plea agreement and the pre-sentence investigation report contain detailed recommendations” to assure the defendant won’t reoffend. McKeon cites “compliance with the community-based sex offender treatment, regular contact with a probation officer and polygraph testing, approval of treatment providers and his probation officer prior to contact with victim or anyone under 18 years of age, no access to materials of sexual nature, limited access to computers and Internet, written approval of residence and before departure from an assigned district and open inspection of residence.” PEOPLE was unable to reach the defendant’s family or Glasgow’s police chief.

2019-03-20

Ahead of its annual shareholders meeting Wednesday, Starbucks said it will target two areas to boost future growth: start-ups and improving its in-store experience. Starbucks announced a $100 million investment in a new venture fund with Valor Equity Partners, which has previously invested in Tesla and SpaceX. The fund will give the coffee giant the first look at food and retail start-ups. Valor Siren Ventures Fund marks the first time that Starbucks has made this kind of investment, but it follows CEO Kevin Johnson's tech-heavy focus for the company. In his roughly two years as chief executive, he has pushed the company into delivery and increased its digital engagement with customers. Prior to joining Starbucks, Johnson served as CEO of tech company Juniper Networks and as an executive at Microsoft. Investing in start-ups has become increasingly popular in the last few years among other food companies adjusting to changing consumer tastes, an issue that Starbucks is trying to address as less customers sip its calorie-heavy Frappucinos. Struggling food giant Kraft Heinz launched its own fund in October, following the example of Big Food rivals Campbell Soup, Kellogg and General Mills. The fund plans to raise an additional $300 million from outside investors in the coming months. The Seattle-based company also announced plans to update its stores starting with New York City locations this summer. It teased the changes at its investor day in December. Starbucks has long branded its stores as "the third place," a social spot between home and the office. "I don't want anyone to walk away today thinking this is about furniture or a new renovation strategy," COO Roz Brewer said in a statement. "Reimagining the third place is about listening to our customers so we can better position our business now and for the future." Starbucks did not share how it plans to refresh the cafes nor how it will finance those plans. Brewer said the changes will focus on convenience, comfort and connection. She provided shareholders with two examples of recent cafe updates, which reflected customer feedback. An Austin, Texas store was transformed to be "brighter, fresher, cleaner," she said. The company changed a Glen Ridge, New Jersey location to reflect that customers used the cafe differently throughout the day. In the morning, they look for convenience, while they want comfort in the afternoon. While the company did not provide much more detail on the renovations, the concept goes beyond that to include technology and new products. The announcement comes as Starbucks has been working to expand delivery through Uber Eats to nearly a quarter of its U.S. locations. Other restaurant companies have been remodeling their locations to account for how delivery and digital pick-up orders change foot traffic. Chipotle, for example, is testing drive-thru lanes called Chipotlanes for digital orders only, while McDonald's is pushing franchisees to remodel their stores with high tech updates. Starbucks also announced Wednesday that it plans to test recyclable and compostable cups in several of its markets later this year as it looks to reduce waste.

2016-09-22 11:30:00

The following is an excerpt from Asa Akira's recently released memoir Dirty Thirty.Another year of wasted eggs because I chose to whore instead.“Do you wanna hold him?”I did. I wanted to hold him and squeeze him and kiss his tiny peanut forehead and pretend it was I who had given birth. I wanted to softly swing him side to side in my arms, like I had done as a child with my Cabbage Patch dolls. I wanted to put my nipple in his mouth and see if he would latch on with his perfect little lips, as he looked up at me, silently thanking me with his eyes for giving him life, love, and food.But I was scared.The reality was that I had never held a baby. It looked easy enough, until I had the opportunity to do it.Maya must have seen the nerves on my face. “Just hold him. You’re not gonna drop him.” Smiling, she held him out to me, one hand under his head, the other under his body. I positioned my arms into a cradle and thought how bizarre this moment was.At 27, Maya was my first friend to pass on an abortion. It seemed that while the rest of the country had been starting families and getting fat for the last half decade, the two coasts were busy making careers, experimenting with drugs and online dating, not yet ready to stop being selfish. When she first told me on the phone she was pregnant, my response had been not congratulatory excitement, but sympathetic apology.“Oh shit, that sucks. I’m so sorry. Do you know whose it is? How far along are you? Do you feel like shit?”“This Brazilian guy I met in Japan. It’s been three months. I’m throwing up everyday.”It wasn’t until I asked if she needed a recommendation for a clinic that I realized she was planning on keeping it.I flew back to New York and saw Maya a few times throughout her pregnancy. We had known each other since we were two years old, when our mothers enrolled us in a Saturday Japanese School in order for us to have some sense of our culture. Both of us being only children of Japanese immigrants in New York City, we saw each other more as family than friends, and we often pretended to strangers that we were twins. To this day I refer to her as my cousin, and her parents are my auntie and uncle.As I saw her belly grow with each trip to the city, I couldn’t quite believe she was going to be a mother. I was ready for her to give up at any second, go in for a late-term abortion, or maybe even reveal it had all been a joke—anything would be more believable than Maya having a baby. Even as I touched her stomach and felt the little legs kicking against my hand, I didn’t think this thing in her stomach would ever become an actual being. This was a girl I had done drugs with since age 13. We had shoplifted together. We had snuck out of our houses and gone boy-hunting at 3 a.m. together. We had spent hours constructing elaborate lies to tell our parents. And now — now, she was going to be a parent.This kid’s first word was going to be “fuck.”As a child, I was extremely drawn to pregnancy: my preschool teacher, Maria from “Sesame Street,” that girl from “Degrassi Junior High.” In kindergarten, my friend Sally had a photo on her fridge of when her mother was pregnant with her. I used to stare at that photo whenever I went over for a play date, using any excuse I could to go to the kitchen once more. I’d trace my fingers over the bump, and when I got home, I would go to my room and touch myself, imagining her announcing to me over and over, “I’m pregnant.”I don’t know where the fascination came from, or why it made me horny. At the time, I didn’t identify the feeling, or even masturbating, as sexual — but looking back, it was definitely horniness I was feeling. I had not yet learned how babies were made, but maybe it’s the kind of knowledge that’s ingrained in us on some sort of a primal level — at least, this is what I’ve told myself to make it less weird. Even now, nothing turns me on more than when Toni cums inside of me. When he starts picking up the pace, and makes that face he only does when he’s about to cum, it makes me orgasm instantly.“Cum inside me, make me pregnant!” I’ll yell, right before we orgasm at the same time, which is ridiculous, considering I’ve been on birth control since I was 15.Aside from getting cream-pied, though, I hadn’t given pregnancy much thought as an adult. So when Maya got knocked up, my questions were more scientific.“Are you afraid you’ll get fat?”She’d shrug and answer, “I haven’t even had time to think about it.” As shocking as the reply was, I believed it. Her answer remained the same once Kai was born. “Honestly I don’t even care. My whole life is different now — it revolves around him,” she’d tell me on the phone.I was desperately jealous. A life without the fear of weight gain was unfathomable to me. I wanted to feel that — I wanted to know what it was to have something so important that it didn’t even matter if I got fat.“Maybe I should have a baby,” I’d think as I hung up.Then I’d drive to my set for the day — a double penetration scene — and imagine myself going home later that evening with cum in my hair from two men who were not my husband, who were not the father of my imaginary baby.I’d decide I was not yet ready.“See? You’re fine!” Maya encouragingly smiled, patting Kai’s head as I held him. He was heavier than I had anticipated — probably because Maya had insisted how light he would be for my Barry’s bootcamp-trained arms. I sat frozen, scared to stand, move, or even breathe. I wondered if it was possible that I looked at all natural holding this little person in my arms.“Where’s your phone? I gotta take a picture of this,” Maya clapped her hands together.“Over there,” I nodded toward my purse.As Maya took the photo of us, I felt guilt hit me the way an ecstasy tab does — inching closer and closer, so slowly you weren’t sure if you were just imagining it — until it finally just encompassed you in an undeniable way. I didn’t deserve to be in this photo. I didn’t deserve to hold this little human. Only three days ago, I had been sitting in something called a blowjob cage. What if Kai looked back on this picture one day and felt disgust?What if someone found this photo and thought it was part of a porno? What if this kid grew up to be a politician? If this picture surfaced, his chances would be over. I let Maya take the photo on my phone, but swore to myself I would delete it as soon as I left.I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Maya be a mother. Kai would go in and out of naps as she folded his tiny little laundry, breastfed him, and burped him afterward. She looked so natural, as if she were a whole new person — she was so good at being a mother. Not for one moment did she look how I felt when I had held Kai. I tried to imagine myself doing the same things. There were moments I could, but there were more moments I could not.I flew home to L.A. sure I would never bear a child. It was too late for me. I had done too much. Not only had I fucked too many people, but too many people had seen me fucking too many people. It wasn’t something I regretted — but I supposed this is what they meant when they said you couldn’t have it all. It saddened me. The same way I knew if I had never done porn, I would’ve forever looked back and regretted it, I knew that if I never had a child, I wouldn’t feel fulfilled in life. I pulled out my phone and looked at the photo of me and Kai. As my finger hovered over the “delete” button, another feeling hit me like an ecstasy tab — only this time, the feeling was hope. I let my finger back away, so slowly I wasn’t even sure if it was moving. Finally, I told myself I didn’t have to delete the picture right away — I could keep it for myself for now and make that decision later.

2019-11-08 00:00:00

RABAT, Morocco — Ivanka Trump on Friday echoed her father’s view that the House impeachment investigation is an attempt to overturn the 2016 election. But, in an interview with The Associated Press, she parted ways with President Donald Trump by calling the identity of the impeachment whistleblower “not particularly relevant.” The Republican president and some of his allies have been pressing the news media to publicize the whistleblower’s name, but Ivanka Trump said the person’s motives were more important. And she declined to speculate on what they may have been. “The whistleblower shouldn’t be a substantive part of the conversation,” she told the AP, saying the person “did not have firsthand information.” She added that, “to me, it’s not particularly relevant aside from what the motivation behind all of this was.” In a wide-ranging, 25-minute interview, Ivanka Trump also addressed her family’s criticism of Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, whether she wants four more years in the White House and the possible future sale of her family’s landmark Washington hotel, which she helped develop and referred to as “my baby.” She said she shares her father’s oft-repeated view that the impeachment investigation is about “overturning the results of the 2016 election.” House Democrats, by contrast, maintain the inquiry is about whether Trump abused his office by putting his political interests first. “Basically since the election, this has been the experience that our administration and our family has been having,” Ivanka Trump said of persistent criticism of the president. “Rather than wait, under a year, until the people can decide for themselves based on his record and based on his accomplishments, this new effort has commenced.” Asked whether impeachment marked a low point for the president, she demurred: “I think when Americans are winning, we’re feeling great, so I wouldn’t consider it a low point. I think Americans are prospering like never before.” Ivanka Trump noted that the whistleblower was not among administration officials who heard the president ask Ukraine’s leader during a July 25 telephone conversation to investigate Biden, a former vice president who’s currently a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to challenge Trump. While her brothers Don Jr. and Eric have been vocal critics of the impeachment inquiry, Ivanka Trump has largely stayed out of the discussion. She did recently tweet a quote from Thomas Jefferson about the “enemies and spies” who surrounded him and added that “some things never change, dad.” In the interview, she again placed her father in august company when it comes to being the target of criticism, saying, “This has been the experience of most.” “Abraham Lincoln was famously, even within his own Cabinet, surrounded by people who were former political adversaries,” she said. She rejected any suggestion that her own family has been profiting off the presidency even as President Trump and his allies have criticized the involvement of Biden’s son with a Ukrainian oil venture when Biden was vice president. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son. Still, Ivanka Trump said the Bidens had “created wealth as a derivative” of public service while her family had made its money in business before her father became president. Good government groups, however, have criticized the president for unethically mixing official business with promotion of his own interests. Trump is the first president in modern history who has not separated himself from his business holdings. He makes frequent trips to his for-profit golf clubs, collects dues at his members-only properties and hosts fundraisers and foreign delegations at hotels that bear his family’s name. Ivanka Trump said she hasn’t been involved in discussions about the possible sale of the president’s landmark Washington hotel after nearly three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency. She led the acquisition and development of the hotel a few blocks from the White House. But, a possible future sale “should satisfy the critics,” she said. The president’s daughter is wrapping up a three-day visit to Morocco, where she has been promoting a U.S. program aimed at empowering women in developing countries.

2019-03-11 07:54:00

George Foreman is mourning the loss of his daughter Freeda after her death at the age of 42. The world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist, 70, shared a touching message about his daughter’s death to Twitter on Sunday. He began by recalling how Freeda had wanted to follow in his footsteps as a boxer, quoting her telling him, “Daddy I want to box.” His advice to her was to “get an education first” — something he was proud that she did. “She brought the bacon home (degree),” Foreman tweeting, adding a photo of the two of them at her college graduation from Sam Houston State University. Freeda would eventually begin boxing professionally, taking on the sport in 2000 before retiring the next year with a record of 5-1. In addition to her education and her career, she was also mother to two kids with her husband and grandmother to three grandchildren, Foreman noted. “First Sunday in 42 years without my Freeda,” he lamented. “She’s with her maker now.” “Just one more day I wanted,” Foreman, a father of 12, added. “Okay, one more year — aww one more decade.” Daddy I want to Box,”Get an Education first” I said, well she Brought The bacon home ( degree) 2 Kids 3 Grands (Husband) First Sunday in 42 years without my Freeda. She’s With her maker now.10 kids forever. Just 1 more day I wanted okay 1 more year aw I more decade pic.twitter.com/q6mMSBxWqE — George Foreman (@GeorgeForeman) March 11, 2019 On Saturday, TMZ — citing law enforcement sources — reported that Freeda was found unresponsive in her home near Houston, Texas, by a family member. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE that officers were called to her home around 6:13 p.m. local time on Friday night. “Atascocita EMS were at the home and determined the woman, Freeda George Foreman, was deceased,” police said. “Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide investigators also responded to the scene. Preliminary indications are that the cause of death is an apparent suicide. A final determination on the cause of death will be made by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.”

2017-05-25 17:09:33

Starting with “Rosalinda” in 2010, the Argentine filmmaker Matías Piñeiro has been making what he calls “Shakespeareads,” modern-day stories inspired by the playwright’s heroines. Which is not to say that you need to brush up on your Shakespeare to engage with “Hermia & Helena,” the latest in Mr. Piñeiro’s series and the first one set in the United States. In a quietly virtuosic opening shot, Mr. Piñeiro’s camera pirouettes on an apartment terrace, looking down at a park below, as a young woman speaks to her lover on a phone, picking him out in the park just as the camera does. Carmen (María Villar) is finishing an arts fellowship in New York; her lover, Lukas (Keith Poulson), is also her administrator. As if in a relay, Carmen returns to Buenos Aires and urges her friend Camila (Agustina Muñoz), who’s off to New York on the same fellowship, to make sure to touch Lukas’s hair. Camila eventually acts on her friend’s recommendation, but this spectacularly enigmatic character also has other agendas, including looking up an old lover and meeting her biological father. Also in the mix: A mysterious woman who is sending postcards from a multistate road trip to Carmen’s apartment in New York, though Camila is now staying there and receiving them. (This character, Danièlle, is played by Mati Diop, the intriguing French actress who’s been in films by Claire Denis and Antonio Campos.) All this activity tends to distract Camila from her actual work, a Spanish translation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” But she never becomes entirely disconnected from that beloved comedy and its life-as-a-dream theme. The movie has a hopscotching-in-time structure, moving back from its New York scenes to the actions of the day in Argentina when Carmen and Camila meet and conspire. As frequently as the movie touches back down in Argentina, though, it is very much a New York story. Expanding on its opening shot, the movie often lingers in the middle of parks where lovers and friends meet, unhurriedly takes in car rides across borough-connecting bridges, and more. Sometimes the image turns to negative, and handwritten text decorates the outer edges of the frame. All of these touches make “Hermia & Helena” a peculiar film, one both steely and delicate. It is also an often amusing look at the contemporary mating mores of this fair city, with Mr. Poulson’s portrayal of a nonchalantly sleazy womanizing hipster milquetoast particularly resonant. But the film belongs to Ms. Muñoz. She’s the kind of performer (like Setsuko Hara, the Japanese actress to whom the film is dedicated) you can’t take your eyes off, even when she doesn’t seem to be up to much of anything.

2017-07-20 00:00:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Global grain trader Bunge Ltd’s cost cutting and restructuring plans could buy it time in the face of a takeover bid from a larger rival as it struggles to stay independent during a slump in the commodities market, analysts said. The moves seek to reduce overhead costs by $250 million by the end of 2019. They were designed to withstand the three-year downturn in commodities that has crushed profits at companies that buy, sell and process grains and oilseeds. “We believe that management wanted to assure investors that the company does not need to be acquired, that it can deliver these savings that might have been synergies,” said Ann Duignan, analyst at J.P. Morgan. “Also, it can deliver them on its own and increase returns to shareholders without needing to be acquired. I believe that this plan buys management time.” Bunge, the smallest of the listed global grains traders, rebuffed a takeover bid from Glencore PLC in May. In its restructuring announcement, seen as a defense against both Glencore and activist investor Carlson Capital, Bunge also warned that its second quarter profit would fall below the low end of a range of analyst estimates. Multi-strategy hedge fund Carlson Capital has occasionally taken activist positions. It owned 1.75 million Bunge shares as of the last quarter, according to securities filings, making it the 15th largest shareholder with a stake worth 1.24 percent of the company. Certain segments of the grain industry were ripe for consolidation, Bunge Chief Executive Soren Schroder said. “The way we have gone about this over the last couple of years and continue to pursue is really by forming regional alliances with companies that can see the benefit of joining forces,” he said on a conference call with analysts. “I think there are more opportunities like that that we can explore over time.” Schroder reiterated that Bunge wanted to be a leader in such alliances and joint ventures. He declined to comment further on industry consolidation. Glencore declined to comment on the possibility of a fresh bid for Bunge. Bunge’s shares rose 89 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close at $79.58 on Thursday. During the session, they hit their highest since June 9. “They have announced this cost cutting in response to weak industry conditions,” said Chris Johnson, lead agribusiness credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “From our point of view, this announcement is communicating to shareholders that they are still within guidance (on earnings) and, less directly, signaling they can still operate as a standalone entity.” Additional reporting by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago, Lauren Hirsch and Michael Flaherty in New York and Zandi Shabalala in London; editing by David Gregorio

2019-03-08 00:00:00

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Voters in Northern Ireland want the softest possible Brexit and would prefer checks on goods traveling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland rather than checks on the Irish border, a poll for the Irish Times showed on Friday. A significant majority, 67 percent, support a Brexit in which the United Kingdom stays in the EU’s single market and customs union, so avoiding the need for checks anywhere, the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll showed. Almost 60 percent say they want a special arrangement for Northern Ireland for no checks on the border, even if that meant some checks on goods traveling between Great Britain and its province of Northern Ireland. The poll found that Northern Irish voters are deeply dissatisfied with the management of Brexit by the UK government and, most significantly, with the Democratic Unionist Party, the Northern Irish party which props up Prime Minister Theresa May’s government. More than two-thirds of all voters (67 percent) say the DUP is doing a bad job of representing Northern Ireland at Westminster, while 69 percent of people — including 57 percent of those from a Protestant background –- are dissatisfied with DUP leader Arlene Foster. Dissatisfaction with the UK government was at more that 75 percent. The poll was conducted in Northern Ireland through face-to-face interviews among a national quota sample of 536 people throughout all regions. Personal in-home interviewing took place on March 4, 5 and 6. The accuracy level is estimated to be about plus or minus 4.29 percent. A parallel poll in Ireland found that almost half of all voters south of the border (49 percent) favor a referendum on Irish unity and a clear majority (62 percent) would vote in favor of unification. Over half of Irish voters (54 percent) say they are satisfied with the way the Irish government has handled Brexit. The poll in Ireland was conducted on March 4 and 5 with a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over in face-to-face interviews at 120 sampling points in all constituencies. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent. Reporting by Graham Fahy; Editing by Catherine Evans

2017-10-23

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell: Hasbro – The toymaker earned an adjusted $2.09 per share for its latest quarter, 15 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts. Hasbro's results were helped by strong demand for My Little Pony and Transformers toys. Hartford Financial – The insurer bought Aetna's group life and disability unit for $1.45 billion, making Hartford the second largest group life and disability insurer in the U.S. Halliburton – The oilfield services company beat forecast by five cents a share, with quarterly profit of 42 cents per share. Revenue also topped expectations. The company said its North American business is strong and that international operations are performing well in a challenging environment. Roku – The maker of video streaming devices was rated "buy" in new coverage at Needham, calling it a pure play on the growth of "over the top" video. VF Corp. – The maker of Timberland, North Face, and other branded apparel beat forecasts on both the top and bottom lines, raised its full-year forecast, and increased its dividend by 10 percent. General Electric – The stock was downgraded to "neutral" from "buy" at UBS, which cited disappointing third-quarter earnings, the company's forecast, and the risk that GE might cut its dividend. Cisco Systems - The networking equipment maker is reportedly near a deal to buy telecommunications software maker BroadSoft. Reuters reports the price would be close to $2 billion. AstraZeneca – The drugmaker received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a new formulation for its type-2 diabetes treatment Bydureon. JPMorgan Chase – The bank is launching a new smartphone app today that will offer its first ever online bank accounts. The app is called "Finn by Chase" and lets consumers open a bank account, make payments, and set up savings. Apple – Apple and contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn will hold a meeting of executives to discuss production problems with the new iPhone X, according to published reports in Japan. Tesla — Tesla reached a deal to set up a manufacturing plant in Shanghai without a local partner, according to The Wall Street Journal. Separately, the automaker announced it has increased its borrowing capacity for its car lease program to $1.1 billion from the prior $600 million. Potlatch – Potlatch announced a deal to combine with lumber competitor Deltic Timber in a stock swap transaction. Deltic shareholders will receive 1.8 Potlatch shares for each share they now own. ServiceNow – ServiceNow was upgraded to "overweight" from "neutral" at Piper Jaffray, which made the call following channel checks and conversations with various companies in the human resources software industry. Rio Tinto – Rio Tinto was downgraded to "sector perform" from "market perform" at RBC Capital, which cited the mining company's exposure to commodity volatility. Royal Philips – Royal Philips reported slightly better than expected earnings for its latest quarter, although both sales and profits were down from a year earlier, and the Dutch technology company reaffirmed its full-year forecast. GlaxoSmithKline – The drugmaker won FDA approval for a new shingles vaccine, an injectable drug known as Shingrix. The drug outperformed Merck's Zostavax in clinical trials.

2019-11-24 09:30:00

Underwater photos are often blue-tinted because of the way light bends in water, obscuring the incredibly vibrant colors of ocean flora and fauna.Researchers Derya Akkaynak and Tali Trebitz created a color-correcting algorithm that reveals the true colors of corals, fish, and other marine life.Akkaynak told Business Insider she hopes the technology can enable a new wave of artificial intelligence-driven image analysis, as AI has historically had trouble analyzing underwater images.Visit Business Insider&aposs homepage for more stories.Scientists have created a computer algorithm that can take an underwater photograph and automatically readjust its colors to compensate for the distorting effect of water on light.Researchers Derya Akkaynak and Tali Trebitz started work on the technology – called Sea-thru — more than three years ago. Akkaynak told Business Insider via email that Sea-thru&aposs mission is to enable huge, artificial intelligence-powered analysis of underwater images.The algorithm effectively adjusts underwater images to make them look like they were taken in broad daylight, making them easier for AI software to analyze."On underwater images, AI methods generally perform poorly or inconsistently, because water degrades images too severely for automated analysis," she said.This often means marine scientists have to manually pore through photographs to analyse what images they&aposve captured, which can turn out to be a really gargantuan task. "It is not uncommon that they come back to the lab with hundreds to thousands from a single dive. Only a tiny fraction of those images ever get analyzed, because on average, it takes a human expert two hours to identify and count fish in a video that is one hour long," she said.Trebitz, who established the University of Haifa&aposs marine-imaging lab, added that the way light is distorted in water can be hard to notice when you&aposre diving because the human brain adjusts to it."We are both avid divers, and when you dive the human brain amazingly compensates for the water effects. So there are situations where you dive and experience a tremendously rich and colorful environment, but when you look at the pictures you acquired after the dive they look dull and blue, and you know that there is more there than what is actually visible in the images," she said. In 2015 while at the University of Haifa in Israel, Akkaynak realised discovered that scientists were using color-correction equations designed to be used in the atmosphere."Once I discovered that, I formulated a (more) physically accurate equation specifically for the ocean, and that equation (called the Akkaynak-Treibitz model) is the real breakthrough that led to the Sea-thru algorithm," she said. Akkaynak tested the algorithm by placing color charts next to underwater objects. She then ran the photo through Sea-thru and was able to see if the chart had been altered back to its correct colors. The finished Sea-Thru product doesn&apost need color charts to function. Sea-thru could have a wide range of uses according to Akkaynak. "It takes away the need to carry artificial lights, which means less expense and gear to carry for many photographers," she said, adding that Sea-thru can reach further than most strobe lights, which illuminate about one meter ahead in water. "I see it as a module in Photoshop, integrated into consumer cameras, and even diving masks," she added.Most importantly though, Akkaynak thinks Sea-thru could enable a new AI-driven wave of marine data analysis, even though Sea-thru itself doesn&apost use any AI."When these images (e.g. surveys of reefs, seafloor, fish stocks) are pre-processed with Sea-thru, scientists will then be able to use existing powerful computer vision and machine-learning methods to be able to count, identify, segment, and classify animals and other objects in them. This is why I see Sea-thru as the start of the AI boom in marine science," she said.With modern science knowing more about the surface of the moon than it does about the depths of the ocean, Sea-thru could be the key to some extraordinary future scientific discoveries.

2017-05-18

May 18 (Reuters) - United Bank of India: * March quarter net profit 735.6 million rupees versus net loss of 4.13 billion rupees year ago * March quarter interest earned 23.52 billion rupees versus 23.79 billion rupees year ago * March quarter provisions 10.59 billion rupees versus 8.07 billion rupees year ago * March quarter gross NPA 15.53 percent versus 15.98 percent previous quarter * March quarter net NPA 10.02 percent versus 10.62 percent previous quarter Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2019-09-24 00:00:00

Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersVoter support for universal basic income grows: poll Poll: Warren closes in on Biden's lead Warren surges to 9-point lead in California poll MORE (I-Vt.) unveiled a wealth tax proposal on Tuesday that goes further than his Democratic presidential primary rival Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenElizabeth Warren could become the next Pied Piper of American decline Jonathan Van Ness endorses Warren over her health care plan Here are the Senate Democrats backing a Trump impeachment inquiry over Ukraine call MORE's signature plan in hitting the rich with new taxes. “At a time when millions of people are working 2 or 3 jobs to feed their families, the three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people,” Sanders said in announcing his plan. “Enough is enough. We are going to take on the billionaire class, substantially reduce wealth inequality in America and stop our democracy from turning into a corrupt oligarchy,” he said.  In a tweet on Tuesday touting the plan, Sanders said that "there should be no billionaires."   There should be no billionaires. We are going to tax their extreme wealth and invest in working people. Read the plan: https://t.co/RJDLvX5H4c Sanders unveiled his plan at a time when Warren, Sanders's chief progressive rival for the nomination, is seeing momentum in the polls, including a survey this week from the Des Moines Register that found Sanders running in third place in the Iowa caucuses, behind Warren and former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenWhistleblower complaint declassified on eve of high-stakes testimony Ocasio-Cortez on impeachment: 'I think the ground has shifted' Democrats ask Pentagon to probe delayed Ukraine aid MORE.  Warren and Sanders have been battling for progressive voters and attention as they contend with Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. A wealth tax has been one of Warren's signature proposals, with her supporters cheering it at rallies by chanting "two cents." She has touted it as a way to pay for her other plans. The Sanders plan, which he touts as a "Tax on Extreme Wealth," would kick in at a lower threshold than his fellow senator's proposal, and would rise all the way to an 8 percent tax on married couples' wealth over $10 billion.   Sanders's and Warren's plans match in imposing a 2 percent tax on wealth between $50 million and $250 million.  University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanual Saez and Gabriel Zucman said in a letter that they estimate that Sanders's proposed wealth tax would raise $4.35 trillion over a decade and would "fully eliminate the gap between wealth growth for billionaires and wealth growth for the middle class."  Sanders proposes using the revenue raised from his wealth tax to pay for his affordable-housing plan and universal child care, as well as to help fund "Medicare for All." Democratic presidential candidates across the ideological spectrum have floated tax increases on the rich. But proposals to impose a new tax on wealth could face long odds in Congress, particularly if Republicans hold either chamber.  Critics of wealth taxes have argued that they could be difficult to administer and enforce, and might be unconstitutional. Sanders is proposing several mechanisms aimed at preventing wealthy people from avoiding the tax. These include the creation of a national wealth registry, a requirement that the IRS audit 30 percent of wealth tax returns filed by those in the 1 percent bracket and all returns filed by billionaires, and an exit tax for wealthy people seeking to give up their U.S. citizenship. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2017-01-07 20:38:09

The Carpetbagger LOS ANGELES — Golden Globes Weekend is in full dizzying swing here in Hollywood, and on Saturday the Bagger found herself invited, for the first time, to the It Girl Luncheon held by W Magazine’s editor-at-large, Lynn Hirschberg, on the sun-dappled patio of A.O.C., the West Hollywood restaurant. And verily the lunch was chock-a-block with many an it girl – Amber Heard, Laura Mulleavy of the art-fashion label Rodarte, Thandie Newton, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lily Collins. It was a sea of flawless skin, diaphanous dresses, wasp waists, and carb aversion: the Bagger was one of only three at her table of 18 to not order the salad. “I always wanted to be an it girl, and I never was,” Ms. Hirschberg said at the lunch’s outset. “But now I get to choose them.” The Bagger sat between the actresses Aja Naomi King and Eiza González, bonding over photos of our dogs. Popping by to say hello, Ms. Hirschberg noted the Bagger’s absence from W Magazine’s annual party at the Chateau Marmont by saying, “You didn’t make it, but Barbra Streisand did.” The paparazzi lurked outside, hollering ‘Happy New Year!” at Ms. Heard and asking Ms. Ross what she ate last night(?!). Then it was out to the waiting limos and Ubers for the three-minute drive to the Four Seasons, where the Bafta tea was under way. This is the annual gathering put on by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and stars abounded: Tom Hiddleston, Justin Timberlake, Amy Adams, Keegan-Michael Key, Evan Rachel Wood, Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Ava DuVernay. Michael Shannon asked his publicist if he had to do the red carpet, while Viggo Mortensen, a one-man publicity machine for “Captain Fantastic,” walked his handsome self into the crowd, the focal point for many a woman’s — and man’s — glad eyes.

2017-11-06

Retiring Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said in a new interview with the Miami Herald that she has no regrets about refusing to endorse Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Illinois state lawmaker apologizes for photos depicting mock assassination of Trump Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE for president during last year’s campaign. Ros-Lehtinen, a centrist who is the first Hispanic woman to serve in Congress, said Trump is a “bully” and uninterested in the legislative process. She was one of a handful of GOP lawmakers who declined to support Trump in 2016, citing his divisive rhetoric toward Mexicans and a Muslim Gold Star family. And she says Trump’s performance since taking office has not led her to change her position. “One of the best decisions I made was not endorsing Trump,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Herald in an interview published on Monday. “Every day, I’m feeling so much better about it. Oh my gosh, I wake up with a smile on my face.” Ros-Lehtinen, a former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, doesn’t think Trump has sufficient interest in policymaking. “I could ask him maybe 10 questions on the Iranian nuclear deal, I don’t know that he would answer them,” Ros-Lehtinen said in the interview. “I’m not saying that I’m the smartest person and he’s a dummy, he’s just genuinely not interested in legislation. I get nervous when I see him doing a freewheeling press conference.” She also criticized Trump’s frequent attacks on critics from his Twitter account. “I just don’t react well to people who take to bullying on Twitter,” Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. “I can’t comprehend why you would be president and do that. … It’s just interesting to me that people who were with him during the campaign … are now seeing that he’s kind of a bully.” Ros-Lehtinen insisted that her decision to retire after nearly three decades in the House isn't due to concerns she might lose reelection in a district that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonTop Sanders adviser: Warren isn't competing for 'same pool of voters' Anti-Trump vets join Steyer group in pressing Democrats to impeach Trump Republicans plot comeback in New Jersey MORE carried by 20 points. Despite Trump’s current dominance over the GOP, Ros-Lehtinen expressed optimism that the party will still be a place for centrists like herself, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and fellow Florida Republican Rep. Carlos CurbeloCarlos Luis CurbeloOvernight Energy: Warren edges past Sanders in poll of climate-focused voters | Carbon tax shows new signs of life | Greens fuming at Trump plans for development at Bears Ears monument Carbon tax shows new signs of life in Congress Democratic lawmaker pushes back on Castro's call to repeal law making illegal border crossings a crime MORE. “I am not concerned that our Republican Party will not have room for folks like me, like Curbelo, like Jeb Bush, because I believe the Trump presidency is just going to be a blip,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Herald. Ros-Lehtinen co-authored bipartisan legislation this year, known as the Dream Act, to grant a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. The Trump administration announced in September that it would phase out the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants qualifying young immigrants work permits. Congress has until March to enact a permanent fix, or else current DACA recipients could face deportation. Ros-Lehtinen delivered a speech on the House floor last week calling for a vote on her bill, which only four other House Republicans have endorsed to date. "Let’s bring the Dream Act for a vote so that these young professionals can make their American dream a reality. The clock is ticking,” Ros-Lehtinen said. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2017-07-27

The FCC has officially granted Apple approval to begin testing experimental 5G technology, according to  DSLR Reports.  The iPhone maker now has permission to begin using something called "short-range millimeter wave spectrum" at two locations in California. The technology could be used in next-generation broadband, also known as 5G. Apple applied for the license back in May, with few details about its plans or objectives other than a goal that the tests would range from the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands. The company's hope is that the results "will provide engineering data relevant to the operation of devices on wireless carriers' future 5G networks."  In other words, Apple is most likely testing 5G so it has an edge on making future iPhones ultra fast and efficient when 5G finally rolls out to the public.  The millimeter wave tests are slated to take place at two different locations in Silicon Valley, one in Milpitas and another close to Apple HQ in Cupertino. The testing will last for no longer than a year, according to the company's original application.  Apple is far ahead of the trend, especially since the 5G standard isn't set yet. In fact, most experts don't expect common use of 5G technology until 2020. We're starting to see signs of progress toward the new standard, like Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X50 chip. Intel also announced it will roll out limited 5G connectivity for the 2018 Winter Olympic village next year.   We reached out to Apple for comment on the FCC approval and its plans for testing 5G tech, but haven't heard back. We'll update the story if we get a response.

2016-08-18

The world is coming together for the first time in many years, and it's not just for the Olympic games — says one strategist. "We think the global economic recovery may be in the early stages of a synchronized bounce," Wells Capital Management's Chief Investment Strategist James Paulsen told CNBC's "Futures Now " in a recent interview. "I think there's evidence of that already happening." According to Paulsen, for the first time in the last eight years, policy officials around the world are "simultaneously pushing upward on the global economy, " whereas in the past, many "other developed and emerging economic policies have often been in conflict" to the United States. He pointed to easing in Japan and the eurozone, referring to it as "full out Bernanke stimulus" and noting that it has helped to push equities higher. And while he admitted that the economic growth will be "subpar" when compared to the historical average, he does see steady improvements. "If you look at global surprise indices, they are up in most places across the globe including the United States," said Paulsen. "The surprise index measures economic reports from around the globe that are coming out better than expected. When it goes up, it suggests that economic momentum is going up," he added. Paulsen pointed to the Westpac Positive Surprise Global index and noted that it went from one of its lowest readings in the last five years in March to one of its highest readings in August. "An improvement in economic momentum is also strongly suggested by rising stock markets," he added. Indeed equities around the world have been rallying — all major indexes in the U.S. are sitting at record highs, while the emerging markets ETF is up more than 15 percent this year. "Globally stocks are going higher, and now international markets are starting to outperform the U.S., suggesting this is more of a global fundamental pick-up," Paulsen explained. While he does expect U.S. stocks to continue to rise, he warned that stock investors "should look a-yonder" to target bigger gains. "I don't know that the U.S. stock market will go much higher this year, maybe the S&P will hit 2,250 — but I do think that the international stock market will do a lot better from here than the United States, " he said. "International stocks have underperformed the U.S. throughout most of this recovery, and because foreign stocks have underperformed so persistently, they are likely significantly under-owned by most investors." Paulsen suggested being overweight ex-U.S. developed and emerging stock markets.

2019-03-05

Server room equipment; stock image.Photo: Michael Bocchieri (Getty Images)Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has acknowledged it made a major mistake when it bought Italian blockchain analytics firm Neutrino, whose senior management staff included several members of infamous Italian firm Hacking Team—which has reportedly sold powerful hacking and surveillance tools to oppressive governments.A 2015 report by Motherboard found that Hacking Team sold software to “Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan and many others,” matching the findings of research by Citizen Lab. A cache of documents stolen from Hacking Team servers by hackers and leaked to media showed that it had faced a United Nations inquiry into whether the sale of its Remote Control System spyware to Sudan violated embargoes imposed over its government’s numerous human rights abuses, which include allegations of slavery, child soldiers, persecution of dissidents, and war crimes.Hacking Team sold its tools stateside to the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI—something also not likely to go down well with the cryptocurrency community, which tends to lean heavily libertarian.Per Bloomberg, Coinbase users as well as blockchain-focused publication Breaker Mag quickly clued onto the fact that many of Neutrino’s executives were Hacking Team alumni. In a blog post on Medium, Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong said the onboarding of Hacking Team staff was due to a “gap in our due diligence process” and that the decision was not properly evaluated “from the perspective of our mission and values as a crypto company.” Armstrong added that those individuals will be leaving Coinbase. Bloomberg wrote:Coinbase announced the purchase of Neutrino on Feb. 19 and soon faced push-back from users. Neutrino’s chief executive officer Giancarlo Russo, chief research officer Marco Valleri, and chief technical officer Alberto Ornaghi were former members of Hacking Team, according to a BreakerMag article.... “We took some time to dig further into this over the past week,” said Armstrong, adding that those who previously worked at Hacking Team “will transition out of Coinbase.”However, as Breaker Mag noted, Coinbase had previously issued a statement defending the Neutrino acquisition reading in part, “We are aware that Neutrino’s co-founders previously worked at Hacking Team, which we reviewed as part of our security, technical, and hiring diligence.”According to crypto industry publication CoinDesk, Coinbase director of institutional sales Christine Sandler had previously justified the acquisition of Neutrino by stating their previous analytics provider had been “selling client data to outside sources,” spooking some customers further.However, on Tuesday, a Coinbase spokesperson told Coindesk it had “never shared our customers’ personally identifiable information with any third-party blockchain analysis vendors.” Some users characterized the Neutrino acquisition as another privacy violation, CoinDesk wrote, with one writing, “It’s really frightening to think who has gained access to Coinbase customer data over the years.” As the Next Web noted, there is still a lack of clarity as to which Neutrino workers other than the three identified by Breaker Mag, if any, worked with Hacking Team, and what the timeline of their exit from Coinbase is.Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story, and we’ll update if we hear back.[Bloomberg]

2016-11-21

The U.K.'s Chancellor Philip Hammond will be in the spotlight Wednesday when he presents the government's first "Autumn Statement" on the state of the economy after the Brexit vote. Analysts will be poring over Hammond's speech for clarity on what the government's economic plans are after the decision to leave the EU. "It's normally an important fiscal event…But this year it's even more significant because of the uncertainties surrounding the (Brexit) referendum," Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec told CNBC over the phone. It is also the first Autumn Statement delivered by Phillip Hammond, who replaced George Osborne as Chancellor in July, who has said there would be a "fiscal reset," Shaw noted. Last June, when British voters decided to give up on its membership of the European Union, analysts foresaw an economic contraction for Britain, both in the short- and medium-term. However, the economy has proven more resilient than originally expected, growing 0.7 percent and 0.5 percent in the second and third quarters of this year respectively. "Absent a sharp slowdown, we are sceptical about the case for a short-term fiscal boost, particularly with a starting point where the economy is at full employment. But we see better case for more sustained support to offset the Brexit drag," Morgan Stanley said in a research note last week. CNBC takes a look at some of the issues surrounding the Autumn Statement. "We will not see a major fiscal stimulus, it will be moderate," Kallum Pickering, U.K. economist at Berenberg told CNBC over the phone. There would be "modest cuts and modest infrastructure investment," he added. According to Morgan Stanley, the government could announce as much as £80 billion ($98.7 billion) to boost public finances, with an additional £4 billion per annum in additional stimulus. Government borrowing should go up by £98 billion. "We expect the Autumn Statement to focus on infrastructure investment, although Chancellor has indicated a number of times that he will be keeping a close eye on fiscal prudence," PwC said in a note. Chancellor Hammond's strategy should include support for infrastructure investments, including road and railway projects. Essentially, Hammond will look for "small schemes," which are "easier to implement and bring benefits, which can be felt by people sooner cross the whole country," Neil Broadhead, head of UK capital projects and infrastructure at PwC, said. However, Number 10 has already mentioned some bigger investment projects on the pipeline. It approved a £18 billion investment in a nuclear power station, announced support for a third runway at Heathrow Airport and given the go-ahead for the world's largest wind farm. After the Brexit vote, analysts started questioning whether Number 10 would try to attract businesses by lowering its corporate tax rate. According to the Financial Times, Hammond told ministers in Brussels that he would not pursue a pledge by his predecessor to bring down corporate tax to 15 percent. "The rate's unlikely to be cut below the 17 percent target set out. While going further would send a signal to the outside world that the U.K. is well and truly open for business, it would not play well with the public," Mike Cooper, tax partner at PwC said in a note. Most analysts do not foresee any changes to value-added tax. Morgan Stanley said reducing VAT would be an "expensive" measure and there is no need for an "emergency fiscal support" measure given that the economy isn't contracting. According to Pickering, Hammond could announce updates to the income tax thresholds and support real disposable income to offset higher inflation. Housing is another key issue and one of the areas that Hammond has promised to improve. Earlier last month, he unveiled a £5 billion stimulus to support the construction of thousands of new homes. "If it was an easy problem, we'd have solved it by now," Shaw from Investec told CNBC, adding that Hammond could go further in the Autumn Statement and present changes to planning regulations. According to Shaw, from Investec, Chancellor Hammond could surprise on the value of the infrastructure investment. But Pickering suggested that Hammond could surprise with potential cuts to capital gains and corporate taxes, but it will mostly be "more of the same" with "small changes to spending and tax cuts."‎ Whichever direction Hammond takes, he will be constrained by the high level of public deficit. Despite the chancellor's support for what he describes as "modest, rapidly deliverable investments," he also aims to lead Britain on a path to a fiscal surplus. "Markets will be underwhelmed by the Autumn Statement," Pickering from Berenberg told CNBC. "It would be good for markets if Hammond would present specific short and medium term measures to offset he shocks of Brexit," Pickering added, suggesting that the likelihood of this happening is small. Follow CNBC International on and Facebook.

2018-03-20

“We don’t need redundant brakes & steering, or a fancy new car, we need better software,” then-Google engineer Anthony Levandowski wrote in an email to Larry Page in January 2016. “To get to that better software faster we should deploy the first 1000 cars asap. I don’t understand why we are not doing that. Part of our team seems to be afraid to ship.” Shortly thereafter, Levandowski would leave to found his own self-driving trucking company, which was quickly acquired by Uber. Anthony Levandowski wasn’t the only Uber employee who took the “move fast and break things” attitude to an alarming place, but many of his comments are now a matter of public record thanks to Waymo v. Uber, the lawsuit filed against the ride-sharing company for Levandowski’s alleged theft of 14,000 documents and the misappropriation of Google trade secrets. Uber fired Levandowski in 2017 and settled the lawsuit in February 2018. Uber has a new CEO who appears to be sincere in his desire to transform the corporate culture created by Travis Kalanick. But the company may be haunted by Levandowski’s legacy for some time, especially in the wake of the self-driving car accident in Tempe, Arizona that left a pedestrian dead. During the trial in February, lawyers for Waymo — the rebranded Google self-driving car project — painted a picture of a problem employee who clashed with his new boss over his slower, more cautious approach to self-driving cars. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said that Levandowski had vehemently held that redundant systems for steering and braking were unnecessary. “I think it’s fair to say we had different points of view on safety,” said Krafcik in court. New York Magazine once attributed Levandowski as saying, “I’m pissed we didn’t have the first death,” to a group of Uber engineers after a driver died in a Tesla on autopilot in 2016. (Levandowski has denied ever saying it). “The team is not moving fast enough due to a combination of risk aversion and lack of urgency, we need to move faster,” Levandowski told Page in another communication that was shown during the Waymo trial. His messages to Travis Kalanick were more casual. “We need to think through the strategy, to take all the shortcuts we can find,” he said in one text message. And in another, “I just see this as a race and we need to win, second place is first looser [sic].” Kalanick was similarly breezy. “Burn the village,” he texted Levandowski at one point. “Yup,” Levandowski replied, within seconds. In court, Kalanick said he did not remember what that exchange referred to. Whatever these communications were — jokes, off-color remarks, effusive babble — they don’t look good in the context of Levandowski’s views on safety and even worse after Tempe, Arizona. A spokesperson for Uber distanced the current company from Levandowski, pointing to the changes in both leadership and personnel. “We believe that technology has the power to make transportation safer than ever before and recognize our deep responsibility to keep people safe,” he said in an email. “Uber’s new leadership has made it clear to the entire company that safety has to be at the core of what we do. That’s how we operate at Uber today.” Update, March 20th 2018 3:31PM: The article has been updated to add comment from Uber.

2017-05-11 00:00:00

May 11 (Reuters) - Sidecar Interactive Inc: * Sidecar Interactive Inc says raises $8.5 million in equity financing Source text: (bit.ly/2q5nHLT)

2019-04-12 16:43:00

A 5-year-old boy was critically injured after being pushed or thrown by a 24-year-old man from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Friday, police say. “She was screaming, ‘Everyone pray, everyone pray. Oh my God, my baby, someone threw him over the edge,&apos” witness Brian Johnson said of the child’s mother, reports local TV station WCCO. The child and suspect did not know each other and investigators are “actively trying to figure out why this occurred,” Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts told reporters, according to the Pioneer Press. The Bloomington Police Department is investigating an incident at the Mall of America today. A five-year-old child suffered injuries and is at the hospital now. A press conference will happen outside the north entrance at 12:15 PM next to the security vehicle. Thank you — Bloomington Police (@BPD_MN) April 12, 2019 The 24-year-old is in custody and has been identified as Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda by Bloomington police, who confirmed he has been arrested on a charge of attempted homicide. Witnesses said the child landed on the first level and the suspect took off running before he was apprehended by officers who took him into custody at the transit station of the mall, police said. Officers responded to the incident at 10:17 a.m. Friday. In a statement Friday afternoon, the mall’s management acknowledged the incident. “Earlier today, Mall of America security was notified of an incident involving a child falling from one of the upper floors. Mall Security responded immediately as well as the Bloomington Police Department. Emergency Services were notified and responded as well. The child was treated at the scene and transported to the hospital. Bloomington Police is investigating the incident,” it said. “The child did suffer significant injuries,” said the police chief, according to CNN. “The child has been transported to the hospital and has been receiving care.”

2018-09-20 00:00:00

SALZBURG, Austria, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Britain is preparing to leave the European Union without an agreement on the terms of its departure unless there is a proposal it deems acceptable, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday. May said that she would only agree to a “backstop” proposal for the Irish border if it worked for the whole United Kingdom. “If there is no agreement on a deal that is acceptable to the United Kingdom, then we’re preparing for no deal,” she said at a news conference after meeting EU leaders in Austria. “I believe we can get a good deal. I believe there is a growing desire to sit down and ensure that we can achieve a deal.” (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

2016-05-18

A Democratic friend called to make sure I saw the great news that likely Democratic Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonLewandowski on potential NH Senate run: If I run, 'I'm going to win' Fighter pilot vs. astronaut match-up in Arizona could determine control of Senate Progressive Democrats' turnout plans simply don't add up MORE had pulled to within 4 percentage points of presumptive Republican nominee Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpPossible GOP challenger says Trump doesn't doesn't deserve reelection, but would vote for him over Democrat O'Rourke: Trump driving global, U.S. economy into recession Manchin: Trump has 'golden opportunity' on gun reforms MORE in Georgia, according to a poll from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. My friend was right. That poll did show Trump with 45 percent and Clinton with 41 percent. It is good news that Clinton could be poised to make a bid to win Georgia's electoral votes. And then, looking deeper at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, I saw something even more interesting — indeed fascinating and shocking. The poll found Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersJoe Biden faces an uncertain path Bernie Sanders vows to go to 'war with white nationalism and racism' as president Biden: 'There's an awful lot of really good Republicans out there' MORE (Vt.) defeating Trump outright, with Sanders getting 47 percent and Trump lagging behind with only 42 percent! According to this new and highly reputable poll, Sanders could well be the favorite to win Georgia's electoral votes in a Trump vs. Sanders race, until another poll provides different results, which may or may not happen. There are two key points behind this shocking Georgia poll. The first is that in this poll of Georgians, Sanders runs 9 points stronger than Clinton in a match-up against Trump, a pattern that has been repeated in many other states. The second key point is that Sanders runs far stronger than Trump in general election match-up polling nationally, almost always beating Trump by landslide double-digit margins. All Democrats and serious political commentators should give far more attention and focus to why almost all polling suggests that Sanders would defeat Trump by landslide margins (and also have defeated the other Republican candidates formerly running, almost all by powerfully large margins). One reason Sanders runs stronger than Clinton against Republicans, and far stronger than Republican opponents in match-up polling, is that he is seen as more authentic, honorable, and sincere than any GOP opponent. Can anyone imagine Sanders posing as a publicist to praise himself to the media? It is almost laughable watching Republicans parade to television cameras to announce they will support "the nominee." They seem as afraid to mention Trump's name as Dracula was of a crucifix! Regarding inauthenticity, possibly never before in the history of presidential politics have so many members of one party refused to publicly tell the truth about what they believe about their candidate. Many Republicans who privately believe that Trump will be a disaster to the GOP use ludicrous weasel words in public to describe the candidacy of the man they refer to as "whoever is the nominee." The second and equally important reason is that Sanders stands for a progressive populist agenda that is popular with the American people. It more popular than Republican versions of trickle-down economics. It is more popular than the carefully calculated positions of Clinton if the purpose is to defeat Trump in the general election. The Sanders view of the world is more popular than the Trump vision, whatever one calls it, even as Trump's views on major issues have begun to change faster than a rabbit in passion. The lesson for Clinton in these numbers is that she must work overtime to convince voters than she is sincerely committed to Sanders's positions in favor of income equality, affordable education and healthcare, and a progressive agenda in general. For today, every commentator worth his or her salt should think about and discuss why the Sanders revolution has so much appeal to voters in Georgia that a highly respected poll finds he would carry Georgia in November. There is a tidal wave of opinion in the land in favor of sweeping change, in favor of greater economic justice and equality, in favor of a society that is decent and honest and gives all Americans truly equal rights. It is indeed shocking that a case can now be made that the people of Georgia are ready to join the Sanders revolution in November if they are given the chance. Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net. View the discussion thread. Contributor's Signup The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2016-10-26

Today, Microsoft unveiled Paint 3D, its biggest upgrade ever to its classic Paint app. Hooray nostalgia! But don't get too wistful: This is not the MS Paint of your childhood. Sure, the fundamentals are there; it's still dead simple to use, and the things you create with it still look goofy as hell. But this is a surprisingly ambitious piece of software. With Paint 3D, Microsoft wants to democratize 3-D creation. The way the company sees it, we live in a 3-D world, and our creative output should reflect that. “Human beings have worked really hard to take all of the thousands of years of genetic training and learn how to exist and be super functional in a 2-D environment,” says Kodu Tsunoda, a creative vice president at Microsoft who runs the product group overseeing 3-D tools. Painting, drawing, and sculpting in 3-D, Tsunoda argues, will ultimately result in a more authentic translation of the ideas kicking around in your head.

2019-09-25 16:43:00

The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, and the intelligence community's watchdog, Michael Atkinson, referred a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, The New York Times reported.Atkinson was reportedly concerned that a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that's at the center of the complaint could amount to a violation of federal campaign finance laws.The Justice Department's criminal division reviewed the complaint and determined there were no grounds to investigate Trump's behavior because the call didn't show him breaking the law by asking for a financial contribution or item of value.But notes from the call released on Wednesday indicate that Trump repeatedly pressed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, after discussing US military aid to Ukraine.The US president made no direct mention of offering aid in exchange for Zelensky's assistance in probing Biden, but be brought up how the US does "a lot for Ukraine" right before asking Zelensky for a favor.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, and the intelligence community inspector general, Michael Atkinson, referred a whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, The New York Times reported Wednesday.Yahoo News reported that Atkinson told Maguire that a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which is at the center of the whistleblower complaint, could amount to a federal campaign finance violation.Notes of the call that the White House released on Wednesday show Trump repeatedly pressing Zelensky to discredit the Russia investigation and investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Trump asked Zelensky to do him that "favor" after Zelensky raised the issue of US military aid to Ukraine.The Justice Department's criminal division reviewed the whistleblower's complaint and determined that there were no grounds for an investigation of Trump's behavior, The Times reported. Officials are said to have decided that the memo of Trump's phone call with Zelensky didn't show him violating campaign finance laws by asking for a financial contribution or an "item of tangible value."But notes of the phone call indicate that Trump repeatedly pressed Zelensky to investigate the Bidens after discussing US military aid to Ukraine.Read more: The notes on Trump's call with Ukraine's president hint at a quid pro quo over investigating Joe Biden's son'We do a lot for Ukraine'Trump had ordered the US to withhold the nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine days before the phone call. The US president made no direct mention of offering aid in exchange for Zelensky's assistance in probing Biden, but be brought up how the US does "a lot for Ukraine" right before asking Zelensky for a favor.Early in the call, Trump reminded Zelensky that "we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing."Zelensky agreed, telling Trump he was "absolutely right." He added, "The European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union ... the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine."The Ukrainian president went on to thank Trump for "your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps. Specifically, we're almost ready to buy more javelins from the United States for defense purposes."Trump then responded, "I would like you to do us a favor though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people ... The server, they say Ukraine has it."Read more: Trump aides were so afraid he'd pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden that they tried to derail his call with the Ukrainian presidentThe US president was referring to the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which the Democratic National Committee hired to respond to Russia's breach of its servers during the 2016 election. Trump's reference to "the server" relates to an unfounded conspiracy theory that the DNC hid an incriminating server from the FBI while the bureau was investigating Russia's hack, and that the server contains information about who was really responsible for the breach.Trump's discussion of the server and Crowdstrike with Zelensky shows his continued reluctance to accept the US intelligence community's finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to propel him to the presidency.'Whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great'"I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it," Trump said, according to the notes. "Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible."He then pivoted to discussing Biden: "There's a lot of talk about [former vice president Joe Biden's] son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me."Trump and his allies maintain that he did nothing wrong during the phone call. But national-security veterans and congressional Democrats have sounded the alarm over his move to repeatedly pressure a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent ahead of a presidential election.On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump stemming from the call and the whistleblower's complaint.Shortly after, Trump reportedly reached out to Pelosi and tried to negotiate with her about releasing the whistleblower's complaint to Congress, but Pelosi shot him down and told him, "Tell your people to obey the law."The shift appears to indicate that the White House is taking the impeachment proceedings seriously, even as Trump decries them as a continuation of the "witch hunt" he's long said has been wielded against him and his presidency.The White House decided on Tuesday evening to release the whistleblower's complaint to congressional intelligence committees. The move came after Pelosi's announcement and after the Senate, in a rare show of bipartisanship, unanimously voted for a resolution calling for the complaint to be released to Congress.

2017-11-20

Photo: APThings seem to be looking up at Uber’s embattled self-driving car unit. The company just made a deal with Volvo for as many as 24,000 XC90 sport utility vehicles to be delivered between 2019 and 2021. Uber then plans to add its own driverless technology and unleash a fleet of robo-taxis onto the world. It would be the first of its kind.News of the deal and Uber’s continued ambitions to lead the way on driverless cars comes with a lot of caveats. A small one is that retail prices for the XC90 start at $45,750, which means this deal could cost Uber around a billion dollars. Which is a lot of money for a company that famously loses money very quickly.The bigger problem is the company’s on-going lawsuit with Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Waymo has accused Uber of stealing confidential information about its self-driving technology when it acquired the self-driving truck company Otto and hired its star engineer Anthony Levandowski, who co-founded Google’s self-driving car operation. The trial takes place next month, and things do not look good for Uber. A recently revealed report shows that Levandowski started meeting with Uber six months before he left Google and then destroyed five hard drives that contained proprietary Google data after Uber told him not to bring any trade secrets from his old job. Uber fired Levandowski earlier this year, claiming that the 37-year-old engineer refused to participate in an internal company investigation. Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick resigned a month later, after a string of scandals involving sexual harassment and discrimination. After all that fracas, Levandowski founded a religion called Way of the Future that focuses on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.” Which is a weird thing to do.Photo: APBut the Waymo lawsuit is just the most immediate problem that Uber faces in attempting to be the first ride-hailing service with its own fleet of self-driving cars. In recent months, multiple reports catalog in-fighting and technological struggles within Uber’s self-driving car unit, known as the Advanced Technology Group (ATG). Uber made a big splash a year ago when it picked Pittsburgh as the headquarters for the ATG and poached several prominent professors from Carnegie Mellon University to develop its self-driving technology. It only took the company a year to chase away several of those engineers—some of whom started competing driverless car companies—and alienate the city of Pittsburgh by failing to produce jobs and support fundraising efforts, among other things. The city’s controller, Michael Lamb, called the Uber partnership “an opportunity missed” this past May.Still, Uber’s engineers in Pittsburgh march on. The team is slowly confronting the very difficult problem of perfecting self-driving technology and scaling it up to work on an entire fleet. Now that the company has actually signed an agreement for a fleet, the ATG is under pressure figure it all out in a few short years, not decades. That is, of course, assuming that Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, can eventually steer the ship away from its scandalous, money-losing habits. And also assuming that the verdict in the Waymo lawsuit doesn’t lead to serious setbacks for Uber in the self-driving taxi race—a competition the company must win, some say, to keep having a future.So, uh, congratulations to Uber on buying all those Volvos. If the self-driving stuff doesn’t work out, at least the resale value tends to be pretty good with those Swedish safety machines.

2019-10-09 00:00:00

ANKARA (Reuters) - A planned Turkish incursion into northeast Syria has not begun, but final preparations are being made and the deployment of troops and equipment has been completed, Turkish officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Turkish soldiers with heavy equipment have removed a concrete section of the border wall, one of the officials said after media reports said that Turkish troops were crossing into Syria. Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Dominic Evans

2019-05-14 00:00:00

Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Good Deals stamp of approval, so if you're looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Microsoft’s disc-less Xbox One S All-Digital launched last week for $249. The idea behind its design is that removing the 4K Blu-ray drive will save customers some money, at the expense of not being able to insert physical games or movie discs. However, Walmart currently has the regular Xbox One S with 1TB of storage for $207.75. In addition to being a pretty good gaming console, the original Xbox One S is an affordable way to play 4K Blu-ray discs (the more expensive Xbox One X can, as well, though the PS4 and PS4 Pro can’t play UHD discs). You’ll probably be able to find a decent deal so long as there’s stock of this older model to run through at retailers, though this is currently the best price. Until May 18th, you’ll get a $100 gift card along with the purchase of a Google Pixel 3A or Pixel 3A XL. Retailers honoring this promotion include Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Google Store. If you’re shopping for a new phone, the $399 Pixel 3A is worth considering, as it features the Pixel 3’s great camera and it can work with practically any US carrier. Check out Dieter Bohn’s review of the Pixel 3A and 3A XL for detailed impressions and camera samples. It’s been more affordable to pick up high-capacity microSD cards lately. SanDisk’s popular 400GB model is currently $56.99 — its best price yet — and it can add a lot of storage to your Nintendo Switch, a phone, or any other device that supports microSD cards. This model has been wiggling down in cost from around $70 since 2019 began, though I don’t expect it to drop much further for now. If you want even more storage, Samsung’s 512GB microSD card has stayed at $99.99 for the past week. It’s not as good of a value as SanDisk’s model, though you’ll be able to store even more on a single card without switching it out for another.

2020-03-23 05:00:20

Many owners fear taking on debt they are not sure they can repay and are looking to the federal government for more than low-interest disaster loans. As small businesses such as restaurants, bars, gyms and hair salons are forced by the coronavirus pandemic to go dark and lay off millions of employees, frantic owners are desperate for government aid to help them salvage enterprises that can’t survive for long without customers. But the main federal lifeline offered so far — low-interest disaster loans — is unappealing to many people running on thin margins and leery of taking on debt they can’t afford to repay. “All we do is make enough money to make it through the off-season,” said Donna Benefiel, who owns the Sunset Produce Market in Banks, Ore., and a grocery store on the Oregon coast. “We’re not that profitable. We don’t have any reserves. How do we borrow a year’s worth of money and then have to pay it back?” On Monday, the Federal Reserve resurrected an asset-purchase facility from the 2008 financial crisis intended to encourage banks and financiers to make loans to small businesses and households. It also plans to announce a new Main Street Business Lending Program designed to support lending to “eligible small and medium-sized businesses” but offered few details. A disaster loan program is already up and running. Congress authorized up to $7 billion early this month for small business disaster loans through the Small Business Administration. Unlike the agency’s flagship loans, which are made by banks, disaster loans are issued directly by the government. Red tape has slowed the process. To make businesses in their state eligible for the loans, each state’s governor had to submit a formal disaster declaration request to the agency. It took until Sunday for all 50 states to have their applications filed and approved. S.B.A. representatives declined to say how many loan applications the agency has received or approved. In past disasters, it has typically taken the agency at least two weeks to make loan decisions. Companies with up to 500 workers can borrow as much as $2 million at a 3.75 percent interest rate, which is far lower than the cost of typical small business loans. But defaulting can have catastrophic consequences: The agency asks those seeking more than $25,000 — and most small business loans are at least that much — to put up collateral, preferably real estate. That’s a standard term on nearly all S.B.A. loans. Borrowers who own their homes often risk losing the property if they can’t repay what they borrowed. Terms like that spook business owners, especially now, when there is little clarity around when and how the coronavirus pandemic will subside, and whether mom-and-pop shops will ever recover. Lori Lucas and her husband run This Old Couch, a vintage home décor store, out of a bright yellow farmhouse just outside Dayton, Ohio. Over Memorial Day weekend last year, tornadoes tore through the area, leaving the couple’s home damaged and local shopping at a standstill. The couple took a $16,000 disaster loan from the S.B.A., which they began repaying this month — just as the pandemic crisis set in. The idea of piling on more debt is frightening, but they may have to do it. “It may be our only option to pay the mortgage,” Ms. Lucas said. “We also don’t draw a paycheck, so we can’t even apply for unemployment.” On Monday, the S.B.A. said that it will automatically defer payments on its existing disaster loans through the end of the year. Nearly half of America’s private-sector workers get a paycheck from a company with less than 500 employees, and a third of those work for a business with fewer than 100 workers. Following the outbreak, countries like Denmark, Germany and France have offered large payroll subsidies and other aid to help companies pay bills and keep workers employed. Michael and Melody Shemtov, who co-own nine restaurants in South Carolina and Tennessee, are wistfully eying that kind of forceful government support. This past week, they laid off more than 250 employees, a process they described as heartbreaking. “When you terminate staff, their health insurance is terminated as well,” Mr. Shemtov said. But with no cash coming in, they said they had little choice. Restaurants and retailers nationwide, big and small, are making the same grim calculation. Unemployment claims rose 30 percent the week of March 8 and could reach unprecedented heights. The Trump administration and lawmakers have discussed plans for a bailout that could top $2 trillion, including direct payments to individuals and aid for battered industries like the airlines. A memo circulated on Wednesday by the Treasury Department proposed $300 billion for small business “interruption” loans. That would be a vastly larger program than anything the government has previously run. Last year, the Small Business Administration backed $28 billion in loans issued by banks; its disaster program lent out just over $2 billion. The agency is used to ramping up quickly to disburse loans after natural disasters like floods and earthquakes — after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, it processed most loan applications in less than three weeks — but its track record with large economic disasters is troubled. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress ordered the S.B.A. to partner with banks on zero-interest loans of up to $35,000 to “viable” small companies hurt by the recession. The program was laden with complex rules, and fewer than 9,000 companies took the loans. Nearly half of the applications approved did not meet all of the agency’s rules, auditors estimated. And many vulnerable businesses cannot afford to wait weeks for a cash infusion. The median small company takes in $381 a day and spends $374, a 2016 analysis by the JPMorgan Chase Institute found. The typical business has enough savings to survive just 27 days. Ms. Benefiel is already calculating how the dominoes will fall in the collapse of her produce stores. She relies on the spring and summer tourist trade to carry her family and her four employees through the lean winter months. This year, the entire season could be wiped out, and without sales, she can’t pay fixed expenses like rent and utility bills. “The first thing that’s going to happen is that we’re going to lose our business because of lack of income, and we’ll get evicted,” she said. “The second thing that’s going to happen is the same thing to us, personally. “We’re not going to be able to pay the mortgage on our house,” Ms. Benefiel said. “Our credit is perfect, but by the time we get through this, it will be so horrific that even if we had any money, we wouldn’t be able to rent a place.” Entrepreneurs desperate for quick cash, at nearly any cost, have flocked to online lenders and loan brokers. Daily loan requests at Lendio, a loan marketplace, jumped from $130 million right before the World Health Organization declared the virus outbreak a pandemic to an average of $212 million in the days after. But the credit available has dwindled. Two of Lendio’s 75 lenders have stopped making any new loans, and most of the rest have restricted the industries and geographic areas they’re willing to fund. “Many of the business owners that are seeking capital are those that have been the most affected by the coronavirus — restaurants, event centers, bars,” said Brock Blake, Lendio’s chief executive. “Those are the exact businesses that the lenders are removing from their credit box.” Kabbage, one of the largest online business lenders, acknowledged that the market has shifted fast. The lender is not increasing rates but has to manage its risk, meaning that some customers will have less access to credit, said Kathryn Petralia, the president of Kabbage. What many entrepreneurs want is government help to delay or reduce fixed costs like rent and to keep their workers solvent. But the federal options being discussed for helping companies with problems such as making payroll also require business owners to take on more debt — something most are loath to do. “That’s all but useless for our clients,” said Ned Staebler, the chief executive of TechTown Detroit, a business incubator. “If we don’t do something big and creative to get money into the hands of business owners immediately, you’ll be seeing a lot of vacancies and empty storefronts. We’re at risk of about half the small businesses in this country being gone.” Updated March 24, 2020

2017-02-28

Though Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are worth $86.4 billion and $76.8 billion respectively, the two friends have the same definition of success, and it's one that has nothing to do with wealth. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Monday, Gates replies to the question, "What is your idea of success?" by citing his friend: "Warren Buffett has always said the measure is whether the people close to you are happy and love you." At 61, Gates has not shown any signs of slowing down. He remains actively involved in running The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But he prioritizes making time for family. "I just went on a trip with my 17-year-old son to see six colleges," says Gates. "He is a junior in high school and trying to figure out where he should go. Trips like that have been a great way to spend time together." When in public with his three children, Gates says he sometimes disguises himself a bit in order to remain inconspicuous. "For example, when I did college tours with my son, I wanted the focus to be totally on him," says Gates. "A lot less people recognize me when I have a hat on or else they realize I am trying to be incognito." Gates, an avid reader, also says that he takes book recommendations from his son. Even billionaire business magnates appreciate the routine moments with family. "Melinda is very creative about helping me find chances to spend time with the kids. Even just driving them to school is a great time to talk to them," says Gates. He admits that he hopes to become a grandfather. In addition to making sure the loved ones in his life are happy and cared for, the second critical component of success to Gates is making the world a better place. Gates writes, "It is also nice to feel like you made a difference — inventing something or raising kids or helping people in need." Gates says he still considers his work at Microsoft to be the most important of his lifetime, more vital even than his philanthropic endeavors. "Although the Foundation work is super promising and will be the biggest thing over the decades ahead, I still think the chance to be part of the software revolution empowering people was the biggest thing I have gotten to do."

2020-02-24 07:30:08

Word of the day This word has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. noun: a wooden instrument of punishment on a post with holes for the wrists and neck; offenders were locked in and so exposed to public scorn verb: expose to ridicule or public scorn verb: punish by putting in a pillory verb: criticize harshly or violently _________ The word pillory has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on April 17 in “Let He Who Is Without Yeezys Cast the First Stone” by Rick Rojas: The pastors were among those included on an Instagram account that recently popped up called “PreachersNSneakers,” where men and women of God are shown wearing footwear that could cost more than a month’s rent for many of their followers. Before long, each post was clogged with hundreds of comments. “Pass the collection plate,” one person wrote, “daddy needs a new pair of shoes.” …. The pastors have contributed little to the conversation. They have talked about it privately and reached out to the person behind the account, who said he was told by the pastors that shoes and clothes are often given to them. Others on Instagram defended them, arguing that the account aimed to sow discord and pillory the pastors. _________ The Word of the Day and the quiz question have been provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

2019-01-15 00:00:00

LOS ANGELES — In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school system in the United States, there are fewer than 400 nurses serving over a thousand schools distributed across roughly 900 campuses. That means many schools have a nurse on-site only once a week. “We have no confidentiality in many of our offices,” said Stephanie Yellin-Mednick, a school nurse in the San Fernando Valley. “At one of our schools, the nurse works in a hallway. Or under the stairwell. A closet.” This makes it difficult for nurses to perform basic duties like helping students cope with possible pregnancies, neglect, or child abuse. “It’s very difficult to deal with child abuse when you have an office full, to try to close the door to talk to a child — let alone if you don’t have a door,” Yellin-Mednick said. Yellin-Mednick is one of more than 30,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles who walked off the job Monday to demand better funding for LA’s public schools. In addition to more nurses, counselors, and librarians, UTLA is asking for better pay and smaller class sizes, along with several non-economic demands such as stronger regulations for charter schools. The school district says meeting all of these demands would force it into bankruptcy, and while it has offered some improvements in funding, UTLA has rejected them as insufficient. The walkout in LA is the latest in a wave of teachers’ strikes across the country. But whereas most of last year's strikes hit Republican-controlled states, this one is taking place in the largest city in one of the bluest states of all. That’s because California, in spite of its reputation as a high-tax state, has been chronically underfunding education for decades. California now ranks near the bottom in the country on metrics like per-pupil spending and students enrolled per teacher. Particularly at the high school level, teachers routinely have classes of over 40 students, compared to the national average of 26. While the union and the school district agree that the root of the immediate funding problem is a lack of resources from the state, many teachers believe the district has no long-term interest in investing in the public schools, and is instead committed to reforming the system with an emphasis on charter schools and other privatization measures. “Our schools are underfunded, and that’s part of the reason we’re losing some of our students to charter schools, when [parents] should be able to trust that the local, traditional public school can provide a quality, culturally-affirming education,” said Henry Garcia, an elementary school teacher in South Los Angeles. “We’re going on strike to defend the institution that is public education." This segment originally aired January 14, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

2016-04-23 00:00:00

AFTER years of fierce debate in China about whether to allow widespread growing of genetically modified (GM) food crops, a strong signal emerged in 2013 that the leadership wanted to push ahead. It was given in a speech on agricultural policy by President Xi Jinping. In it he recounted his own experience of hunger during China’s great famine in the early 1960s. He also recalled lean times later that decade during the Cultural Revolution when he went months without “seeing the tiniest drop of oil” or “knowing the taste of meat”. He said that guaranteeing China’s “food security” was still a serious worry. Hinting at what he saw as a possible remedy, he said China must “occupy the commanding heights of transgenic technology” and not yield that ground to “big foreign firms”. Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Twenty years earlier, visiting European scientists had been flabbergasted at how much progress China appeared to be making in this area. Unlike the Europeans, who had had to beg regulators for permission to experiment with a few hundred square metres of GM plants, their Chinese counterparts were conducting trials across tens of thousands of hectares. Since then, however, Chinese policy had grown much more conservative, for two main reasons. The first is anxiety among some members of the public about the safety of GM foods. The other is a worry that China’s food market might become reliant on foreign GM technology. True, a large share of the soyabeans imported by China are genetically modified. So is the vast majority of the cotton it grows. In 2015 there were more than 6.6m farmers growing GM cotton, and a total of 3.7m hectares of GM crops under cultivation, including cotton and papaya, according to Randy Hautea of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, an industry group. But the government has been reluctant to approve the growing of GM staples such as maize (corn) and rice. Concerns about China’s growing dependence on food imports (see chart) may be causing policymakers to rethink. This year’s Document Number One, the name given to an annual statement on agriculture that is released by the leadership in January, said for the first time that China would “carefully promote” GM food crops. On April 13th Liao Xiyuan, an official at the agriculture ministry, said China planned to “push forward” commercial cultivation of GM maize over the next five years. Worries about foreign domination of GM technology may ease if a $43 billion deal reached in February goes ahead for the takeover of Syngenta, a Swiss agricultural firm, by a Chinese company, ChemChina. The acquisition must still be approved by regulators in several countries, but it could give China control of Syngenta’s valuable GM-seed patents. China’s policymakers may be trying to bring belated order to what is already thought to be the widespread, illegal, growing of GM crops. Greenpeace, an NGO, reported in January that 93% of samples taken from maize fields in Liaoning province in the north-east tested positive for genetic modification, as did nearly all the seed samples and maize-based foods it gathered at supermarkets in the area. Anti-GM campaigners in China may be too late in trying to close the barn door.

2017-08-22 00:00:00

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc * Toll brothers reports FY 2017 3rd quarter and 9 month results * Q3 earnings per share $0.87 * Q3 earnings per share view $0.69 — Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S * Sees FY 2017 revenue $5.6 billion to $6.0 billion * Q3 revenue $1.5 billion versus I/B/E/S view $1.51 billion * Toll Brothers Inc says ‍now estimates it will deliver between 7,000 and 7,300 homes in FY 2017, compared to previous guidance of 6,950 to 7,450 units​ * Toll Brothers Inc - ‍Expects FY 2017 fourth-quarter deliveries of between 2,275 and 2,575 units with an average price of between $840,000 and $860,000​ * Toll Brothers - Quarter end backlog of $5.31 billion and 6,282 units rose 21% in dollars and units, compared to FY 2016’s third-quarter-end backlog * Sees ‍average delivered price for FY 2017’s full year of between $800,000 and $825,000 per home​ * Toll Brothers Inc says ‍expects its fourth-quarter FY 2017 adjusted gross margin to improve 35 to 50 basis points from FY 2017’s third-quarter​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2020-01-02 00:00:00

Officials in the Philippines confirmed Thursday that Sen. Ed MarkeyEdward (Ed) John MarkeySenators introduce resolution warning that Congress has not authorized Iran war Overnight Defense: Iran takes credit for rocket attack on US base | Trump briefed | Trump puts talk of Iraq withdrawal on hold | Progressives push to block funding for Iran war | Trump backs off threat to hit Iranian cultural sites Senate Republican blocks unanimous consent on resolution calling targeting cultural sites a war crime MORE (D-Mass.) has been banned from entering the country, the third U.S. senator to be banned over support for a critic of the country’s government, CNN Philippines reported. Salvador Panelo, a spokesperson for President Rodrigo Duterte, told reporters at a Thursday press briefing that Markey will be blocked from entering the country. He cited the senator’s support for a resolution in the 2020 budget from Sens. Dick DurbinRichard (Dick) Joseph DurbinPressure building on Pelosi over articles of impeachment Democrats call for updates on US troop deployments Impeachment trial complicates efforts to rein in Trump on Iran MORE (D-Ill.) and Patrick LeahyPatrick Joseph LeahyThird US senator banned from the Philippines over support of top government critic Democratic congressman: McConnell is making a 'mockery of the entire system' with impeachment approach Philippines president bans 2 US senators from entering country over support of top government critic MORE (D-Vt.) that sought to deny any Philippine official involved in the jailing of Sen. Leila de Lima from entering the U.S.  Markey hit back after the announcement Thursday, tweeting “President Duterte is sorely mistaken if he thinks he can silence my voice. He has already failed to silence @SenLeiladeLima and others who have spoken truth to power. I stand with the people of the Philippines in fighting against his strongman tactics.” President Duterte is sorely mistaken if he thinks he can silence my voice. He has already failed to silence @SenLeiladeLima and others who have spoken truth to power. I stand with the people of the Philippines in fighting against his strongman tactics.https://t.co/IZ5udRHZgu   De Lima was charged with drug offenses in 2017 after leading an investigation into mass killings amid Duterte’s anti-drug attacks.  Duterte ordered the country’s Bureau of Immigration to immediately refuse entry to Durbin and Leahy last week. Panelo told reporters at the time that “we will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign state.” Markey has been a vocal supporter of de Lima. He shared on Twitter last year “Sen. de Lima has been the target of very troubling partisan persecution. In an attempt to intimidate and silence voices critical of the government, de Lima has been jailed and not given the opportunity to defend herself. The Duterte administration should release her immediately.” Sen. de Lima has been the target of very troubling partisan persecution. In an attempt to intimidate and silence voices critical of the government, de Lima has been jailed and not given the opportunity to defend herself. The Duterte administration should release her immediately. In November, he tweeted “A sad, shocking milestone: today marks 1,000 days in jail for Senator Leila de Lima – a sitting senator in the Philippines who dared to shine a light on Duterte's abuses. I introduced S.Res.142 because the government must release @SenLeiladeLima & halt its persecution of critics.”  A sad, shocking milestone: today marks 1,000 days in jail for Senator Leila de Lima – a sitting senator in the Philippines who dared to shine a light on Duterte's abuses. I introduced S.Res.142 because the government must release @SenLeiladeLima & halt its persecution of critics. American citizens can currently enter the Philippines without a visa for up to 30 days, although the government threatened to tighten requirements last week amid the tensions with Leahy and Durbin. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2020-03-26

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Home healthcare providers, the lifelines to 12 million vulnerable Americans, are scrambling to decide how to serve patients who show symptoms of coronavirus — and how to ensure that the providers themselves neither catch nor spread it. A Texas-based company operating in 26 states instructed its caregivers to leave the homes of clients who recently traveled from states with “widespread community transmission” or who had contact with anyone screened for coronavirus, regardless of whether that person tested positive, according to an internal directive reviewed by Reuters. In Ohio, a group representing hundreds of providers warned the governor last week of “a sense of impending doom that things are collapsing.” Companies there said they need financial help and protective gear to continue home care. And in New York, America’s epicenter of coronavirus cases, trade groups said dozens of caregivers have left their jobs and their patients, hurting efforts to swiftly screen at-risk adults and slow the spread of the virus. “It’s a hair-on-fire crisis,” said Roger Noyes, spokesman for New York’s Home Care Association. As hospitals continue to handle an influx of coronavirus cases, patients who need care but are not critically ill are likely to be sent home. If home care providers can’t stay afloat or decline to offer services, those patients will “face a rapid, immediately life-threatening deterioration” of their health, said Al Cardillo, president of the New York group. Compounding the industry’s financial woes are bidding wars for essential medical equipment, including latex gloves and coveted N95 masks, which provide a higher level of protection than surgical masks. Private companies and public agencies are fighting for limited supplies – and those with the biggest pocketbooks are winning. During a news conference this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo decried that he was forced to amass basic medical supplies by “bidding up other states on the prices.” For now, that can leave smaller home health companies at the back of the line, said Emma Dickison, board president of the Home Care Association of America. “I spent the whole weekend to score new masks,” said Dickison, also executive officer of Cincinnati-based Home Helpers Home Care. With three weeks’ worth of masks in inventory, her own company, a large franchise operation that serves 1,000 cities and towns, is among the fortunate. Caregivers from a handful of much smaller Ohio home health businesses have no masks or gloves, a trade group representative told Reuters. “Stop the visit, leave the residence” In recent weeks, many home health companies have launched safety programs to protect caregivers and patients from coronavirus. One of the nation’s most comprehensive approaches belongs to Texas-based Addus HomeCare. The company oversees 33,000 employees in 26 states, including Washington and New York – two of the hardest hit by the virus. Addus caregivers are required to ask clients five questions about emerging or worsening respiratory problems; contacts with other people diagnosed or screened for the virus; and recent domestic and foreign travel. “In the event that a client answers ‘Yes’ to any of the questions, an alert will be triggered,” according to the directive distributed last week. “You will be instructed to stop the visit, leave the residence, and contact your supervisor immediately.” In turn, supervisors complete a one-page incident report and notify local health departments in cases of suspected infection. In most cases, Addus caregivers told Reuters, care is quickly resumed absent clear evidence of respiratory disease. Even in confirmed cases of coronavirus, care may continue if delays would pose potential harm to patients. Caregivers must answer the same five questions for supervisors at the start of each shift. Patient screening by home health companies can help detect new viral outbreaks and allow quicker response by public health agencies. However, accuracy relies on the honor system, possibly undermined by caregivers who don’t want to miss a day of work or by patients unwilling to delay care. Joe Russell, executive director for the Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice, said he knew the letter he sent last week to the state’s governor on behalf of 600 providers would raise alarms. “I don’t care,” he said. “I’m going to keep yelling until someone pays attention.” Because of financial challenges tied to coronavirus, many home-care businesses are at a financial “breaking point,” he wrote in the four-page letter. Care programs earmarked for low-income homebound patients are poised to “collapse.” While the need for home care is increasing daily, “our ability to provide these services has decreased.” He asked Gov. Mike DeWine to waive restrictions prohibiting the use of telehealth services, such as live video conference calls. Remote patient monitoring, or telehealth, is a common time-saving strategy used by hospitals and doctors for nearly a decade. It is subsidized by state and federal reimbursements. But for the home healthcare industry, government reimbursements generally cover only person-to-person visits to the home. Although DeWine’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, Russell said state officials are giving the matter “serious” consideration. “We’re just sort of in a holding pattern,” he said. National home health trade groups have pushed government regulators for years to expand use of telehealth services, a plea more pressing today because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Many home visits are administrative in nature, often involving doctors and nurses who review care plans or query patients on their conditions, Russell said. Approving telehealth options for such visits would reap huge financial savings for home health companies without diminishing quality of care, he said. “Our problems are not caused by COVID-19,” he said. “Our problems are caused by what the government hasn’t done.” Reporting By Michael Berens in Chicago. Additional reporting by Jonnelle Marte in New York. Edited by Blake Morrison.

2017-05-06 22:10:00

Day 228: "Where Ya At" – No Ceilings 2, 2015 There's a lot of cool stuff happening on Wayne's version of Drake and Future's "Where Ya At": He has good jabs about being in the Hot Boys while his haters were watching Baller Blockin' and about bringing out Floyd Mayweather for a fight. He says the word "dorks" with truly beautiful enunciation. He talks about lean by saying the purple rain is in the soft drink. He sings "I'm moving slow but the money coming Godspeed" like it's a symphony. Mostly, he explores the possibilities of using Auto-Tune like mouthwash, gargling his words to lace the entire song with a cloudy texture. It sounds cool as hell. He fires through the end of the song with a machine gun patter still in that same type of gurgled Auto-Tune but dropping lines like, "You know my M.O., nigga, spit that A-M-M-O, nigga." It's sick. More importantly, though, this is what it sounds like when Lil Wayne sings Smash Mouth's "All Star" in Auto-Tune: Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.

2016-06-18 00:00:00

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Environment Ministry fined mining company Samarco 142 million reais ($41.6 million) for damages to three protected areas resulting from a tailings dam burst in November, the ministry said on Friday. The ministry said in a statement the three areas on the coast of Espirito Santo state were contaminated by metals such as lead, coper and cadmium. The metals spilled from the dam and were carried all the way from Minas Gerais through the Doce River to the ocean. Experts from the Environmental Ministry found several species had been wiped out in the contaminated areas, the statement said. Samarco, a joint venture between Brazil’s Vale SA and BHP Billiton, has shut its iron ore operation in Mariana, Minas Gerais state, since the accident late last year. The company sealed a deal with the Brazilian government in March to pay as much as $5.1 billion over 15 years for damages resulting from the dam burst. In a statement late on Friday, Samarco confirmed the new fines and said it was evaluating a possible appeal. It said all necessary works and associated costs to mitigate damages resulting from the spill were already included in the March deal, which was also signed by the ministry. Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Cynthia Osterman

2019-07-10 08:00:00

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are focused on giving their son, Archie Harrison, a peaceful start. The royal parents, who left their Kensington Palace home in London for the laid-back setting of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor ahead of Archie’s birth, have been savoring the first eight weeks of parenthood with their baby boy. “They are basking in the glow and enjoying each day,” a royal source tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “As most new parents are, they’re just so excited. There’s something new every day. They’re just really happy.” That happiness was felt throughout Archie’s christening on July 6, a private family celebration that the couple ensured was intimate and sacred. “It was very, very low key,” a Windsor source says of the brief ceremony and luncheon that followed, held at Windsor Castle for around 25 close family members and friends. “You wouldn’t have even known it was going on. It was all very well thought through.” The service itself held special meaning for Meghan, who was confirmed in the Church of England before marrying Harry. “Having gone through her confirmation just a little more than a year ago, she forged a very close bond with the Archbishop of Canterbury [Justin Welby],” says the royal source. “She has a particular fondness for him, having gone through confirmation as an adult, and going through that process relatively new to the U.K. and at a key point in her life.” As for the christening’s guest of honor, “Archie was so sweet, so calm,” says the source. “The mood was joyful.”

2017-12-13

The Democratic Party's ground game was the deciding factor in the election of Doug Jones to the Senate, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said Wednesday. Speaking on "Breitbart News Daily" on SiriusXM, Bannon sought to explain the loss of Roy Moore, the Republican candidate in Alabama he endorsed and campaigned for. Bannon said Moore was out-organized by Jones and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). "I mean, one thing you gotta give a hats-off to. The DNC came in here, slipped in here underneath the radar and did an amazing job of organizing. What’s my favorite word? Ground game. Nice ground game," Bannon told Breitbart's editor-in-chief Alex Marlow. "Hey. You gotta give the devil its due," he said. Bannon actively supported Moore throughout the state's GOP primary against Sen. Luther StrangeLuther Johnson StrangeGOP frets over nightmare scenario for Senate primaries Roy Moore trails Republican field in Alabama The Hill's Morning Report — US strikes approved against Iran pulled back MORE (R-Ala.), who currently holds the seat and was endorsed in the primary race by President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Illinois state lawmaker apologizes for photos depicting mock assassination of Trump Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump faces crucial decisions on economy, guns Are Democrats turning Trump-like? House Democrat calls for gun control: Cities can ban plastic straws but 'we can't ban assault weapons?' MORE (R-Ky.) and a slew of other national Republican figures. Bannon's support for Moore was unwavering after The Washington Post published allegations from multiple women who said Moore pursued them for sexual relationships when they were teenagers. The former Trump aide chalked up Moore's loss Tuesday to his campaign being "outworked" by Democrats. "I tell people every day — there’s no magic wand, you’re going to have to outwork people. If you get outworked, you’re going to lose. And, I gotta tell ya, their ability to get out votes, that’s what it comes down to," Bannon said. Jones won Tuesday's election by just shy of 21,000 votes, about 1.5 percent of the vote. He is expected to be seated in the Senate next year.  View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2020-03-27 18:14:08

The virus is inside the walls of the Vatican, which has canceled public participation in Easter ceremonies, is testing scores of people and considering isolating measures for Pope Francis. ROME — The coronavirus that is threatening the world and knows no religion has penetrated the high walls of the Vatican and come to the doorstep of Pope Francis and the elderly cardinals who live near him. “For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives,” Francis, who is 83 and had part of a lung removed during an illness in his youth, said in remarks hauntingly delivered on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica Friday evening. He spoke alone and before a vast and empty square, its cobblestones slicked with rain and reflecting the blue lights of the police locking down Rome to fight the virus. “We find ourselves afraid,” the pope added. “And lost.” The remarks on such a dramatic and grand stage amounted to a change of course for the pontiff, who throughout the first weeks of the coronavirus crisis in Italy — now the world’s deadliest outbreak — tended to talk about other things, or addressed the issue via live stream. When he came down with a bad cold last month, he refused to address whether he had been tested for the virus; some employees have grumbled about offices having stayed open too long. But the Vatican confirmed on Tuesday cases of the virus inside its walls, and on Wednesday reports emerged that an Italian Vatican official who lives in the pope’s residence had tested positive and required hospitalization. Now the Vatican, which has also essentially canceled all public participation in Easter ceremonies, is testing scores of people and considering isolating measures for Francis. Top Vatican officials said Francis has had negative results to two separate tests and has said privately he doesn’t have the virus. And as is the case with most governments, some have questioned the Vatican’s handling of the crisis. Rev. Mauro Cozzoli, 73, a professor of moral theology at the Lateran Pontifical University, where he lives, said “until four days ago everyone was still forced to go to the office.” Now, he said, “they activated the smart working from home, and here in the offices people go in shifts.” He said there was tension, with the cardinals who run the congregations keeping offices open against the opposition of workers. “They said, ‘We did it because this was the Pope’s will,’” he said, adding he did not know if that was in fact the pope’s order. The Vatican declined to comment on Friday. What is clear is that a new anxiety has seized Vatican City, with about 600 citizens and a population of about 246 people behind the Vatican walls. About 100 of the residents are young Swiss Guards, but the remaining denizens include the pope, a handful of older cardinals, the people who work in their households, and some laymen, making it in some ways as vulnerable as a nursing home to a virus that can be devastating to the old. Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, 85, the president emeritus of the Vatican City State, acknowledged that elderly people like himself were the “first candidates” and joked that given the elderly population of Vatican City, “the only place more quiet than this is the cemetery.” He called the Vatican “a small island separated from the rest of the city” but nevertheless said that life in the Vatican now “is very limited” with people closed in their apartments. “We can also go out in the Vatican Gardens for a walk but always must keep distance from one another to avoid contagions,” he said. The Vatican has followed the decrees of the Italian state, which has restricted movement except to procure essential goods. “I went to the pharmacy for a necessity and before entering they took my temperature,” said Cardinal Francesco Monterisi, 85, who lives in the Vatican. He said that he had no way of getting a haircut, that his watch had stopped because the battery died, and that he couldn’t replace it. “But we go ahead with trust, we need to hope because the Lord is good, it’s not true that he punishes.” Pope Benedict XVI, who is 92 and frail, also lives in the Vatican. His longtime personal secretary and confidante, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, said that in the Vatican monastery that is their residence, “we live as if in seclusion. No visits from the outside and no going out.” He said he and Benedict spent much of the day praying for the infected, for the dead, for the doctors and priests on the front lines and for the end of the pandemic. Their shopping, they said, was done by their “caretaker angels.” Benedict’s former secretary, Bishop Josef Clemens, 72, also lives behind the Vatican’s walls and said that he worked from home like everyone else he knew and watched the pope’s sermons on live stream. He said he went out for food shopping by Sant’Anna gate, where only a few people were allowed inside at a time. He said that he rarely saw cardinals waiting in line. “Other people go for the cardinals,” he said. As everywhere else, he said, the survival of those in the Vatican depended on one another, not any external fortress. “It’s not about the Vatican walls,” he said. “It’s about one’s own behavior.” In the middle of February, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, 87, the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, returned home after successful treatment for pneumonia in a hospital. He was under strict orders to stay inside his home in the San Callisto Palace, an extraterritorial property of the church in the Trastevere section of Rome. “Since Feb. 11, I haven’t left home,” he said. When he got out of the hospital, he called Pope Francis, who had a cold at the time. “I spoke personally with him on the telephone,” he said. “I asked him if he had this virus and he said, no no, that I don’t have.” “He wasn’t worried,” he said. But many in the Vatican are worried for the pope, especially since news broke on Wednesday that an Italian priest who lives in Santa Marta, the hotel-style residence that is home to the pope, had tested positive for the virus. Cardinal Peter Turkson, 71, who runs the department for promoting integral human development, met with the Pope on Friday morning as part of a “think tank” for coronavirus issues such as the protection of health care workers, access to health care, inequality and unemployment. The pope received him, he said, in his private library, where there were a “lot of hand sanitizers” but no masks. Cardinal Turkson said he had understood the pope had been tested twice for the virus, both with negative results. On Friday, he said, the pope talked to the group about how somebody was “discovered to be infected in Santa Marta.” He added that the issue of Santa Marta was a serious one, because while the 130 rooms were separate from one another, it was nevertheless an enclosed space. “The hallways and the corridors are the same. You need to pass through corridors to get to elevators. So there is a lot of interconnected life,” he said. The case had resulted in “some measures taken to ensure the pope is safe” as well as testing in the Vatican, where he said a lot of workers came in and out, and where older cardinals lived in apartments. Cardinal Lajolo added that especially after the scare in Santa Marta, the pope no longer ate in the refectory with the other priests. “They have forced him into isolation because, naturally, he is a person we all care about.” In his remarks on Friday evening, Francis thanked the doctors, first responders and workers on the front lines and said the pandemic “unmasks” to the faithful how “false and superfluous” the priorities of modern life had become. With a wooden crucifix behind him that had been carried through Rome’s streets in 1522 against the great plague, Francis sought to bolster faith in a world facing anxiety and fear. “From this colonnade that embraces Rome and the whole world, may God’s blessing come down upon you as a consoling embrace,” Francis concluded. “Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts.” Elisabetta Povoledo contributed from Rome, Emma Bubola from Verona. Updated March 24, 2020

2016-10-07 07:55:00

The National Hurricane Center downgraded Hurricane Matthew to a Category 3 storm overnight. But while the eye of the storm has remained off-shore from the East Coast of the United States, its 115 mph storm surge winds, 10 inches of rain and up to 12 ft. waves have still cause substantial damage to southern Florida — with over 600,000 power-outages, Gov. Rick Scott said. The first U.S. storm-related death has also been reported. The St. Lucie County, Florida, sheriff confirmed to WPTV that a 58-year-old woman died overnight when emergency officials could not get to her after suspending operations because of the hurricane. The victim, whose name has not been released, suffered cardiac arrest. Speaking with Today, Scott urged Florida residents who still haven’t evacuated in areas like Jacksonville to head away from the shorelines. “The most important thing to me is we don’t lose one life,” he said. “If you have a chance to evacuate, you’ve got to get out now. Save your life. That’s what I care about now. Take care of yourself.” Scott said the state had 22,000 residents in shelters, with hotels filled to the brim. “A lot of people went inland, a lot of people went west,” he said. “People had the opportunity to evacuate, and I think most people did.” He’s asked President Barack Obama for support, declaring a state of emergency in the sunshine state. An estimated 3,500 Florida National Guard members have been activated to assist in any rescues and recovery missions. Scott said he’s asked the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA for food, water and tarps, pumping support, generators, debris removal crews and power support. Hurricane Matthew is over 350 miles wide and could be the most catastrophic storm to hit the U.S. in over 10 years. pic.twitter.com/ELvl0UnrAP — Good Morning America (@GMA) October 7, 2016   At over 350 miles wide, the storm could be the most catastrophic to hit the U.S. in over 10 years, Good Morning America reports. Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center said the hurricane is “moving parallel to and just offshore” of Florida’s east coast. They warned that the “eye of extremely dangerous” storm is still approaching. The last time Florida saw a landfalling major hurricane — category 3 or higher — was Hurricane Wilma in 2005. It’ll be the first hurricane to hit Florida’s east coast since 1950’s Hurricane King — which hit Miami, killing seven and destroying 21,000 homes, NBC News reports.   #HurricaneMatthew latest:Category 3, 120 mph winds300K power outages in FloridaHaiti death toll: 283 https://t.co/wAZOEqHu2g — TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 7, 2016 State of emergencies have also been declared in Georgia and the Carolinas. The White House and Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, released a statement to PEOPLE on Thursday saying Matthew is “a dangerous storm.” “Evacuations for coastal counties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are in effect. If you live in these areas, please listen to the directions of your state, tribal, and local officials. If instructed to evacuate, don’t wait. You can always repair and rebuild — and we’ll be here to help you do that. The most important thing you can do is keep you and your family safe,” the statement read. Bases in Albany, Georgia and Fort Bragg, North Carolina are collecting resources to help close affected areas, according to Fugate. As of Thursday morning, there were more than 414,000 liters of water, more than 513,700 meals and more than 20,600 cots in both locations. WATCH: Millions evacuate as deadly Hurricane Matthew moves up the Florida coast. https://t.co/RuaMPBnoOl — Good Morning America (@GMA) October 7, 2016 An estimated 3 million people have been evacuated from their homes across the four states, GMA reports. With airports closed, 3,800 flights already been cancelled, the ABC morning news show adds. Disney World has also closed its doors for the fourth time  ever in the park’s 45-year history. The Haitian government raised their death toll on Thursday after from Hurricane Matthew, according to the New York Times. Officials said that at least 283 people died instead of the initial half-dozen or so reported. The aftermath of Matthew is a bleak reminder of the 2010 devastation that Haiti experienced following an earthquake.

2016-04-18

April 18 (Reuters) - Dignitana AB * Says DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was recently cleared by the FDA to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer, is now also available at cancer treatment centers in Tampa and Palm Beach, Florida and Battle Creek, Michigan Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)

2016-02-04

(Adds details, background) DUBAI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Gulf-based group Adeptio signed an initial agreement with the Al Khair holding company to buy its stake in Kuwait Food Co (Americana), the companies said in bourse statements on Thursday. State news agency KUNA said Adeptio, led by a businessman it identified as Mohammed Alabbar, would buy a 69 percent stake from Al Khair, which is owned by Kuwait’s billionaire al-Kharafi family. Americana, which owns the Middle East franchises for popular fast food chains KFC and Pizza Hut and also makes food products, has a market value of around $2.52 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. “We do not have the slightest doubt that Americana will attain new horizons as a leader in the food and restaurants sector in the region,” KUNA quoted Luay al-Kharafi, a representative of Al Khair, as saying. KUNA said the deal was conditional on due diligence and the approval of Kuwait’s capital market regulator as well as Americana’s board. Adeptio will also make a mandatory offer to buy out minority shareholders in Americana, KUNA said. Americana’s big shareholders had been in talks since early 2014 on selling a stake in the firm; banking sources said expressions of interest had come from potential investors including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Saudi food maker Savola Group, and private equity funds KKR and CVC. The Kuwaiti market regulator, in another statement to the exchange, said market rules provided for Americana shares to be temporarily suspended from trade. (Reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Sylvia Westall; Writing by Nadia Saleem; Editing by Andrew Torchia)

2016-01-29 00:00:00

Microsoft, at long last, is learning. That’s a key takeaway from Microsoft's largely positive 2016 Q2 results. Released on Thursday, the numbers are a reflection of the company's performance during the last holiday season. What we learned is that Microsoft knows how to strengthen its business to make up for weak spots. Despite a declining PC business, a 49% decline in Windows mobile revenue and a near complete lack of color on Xbox One console sales, analysts and observers are essentially thrilled with the company's results. Why? The answer is, at least partly, in the cloud. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told investors that the company has nearly doubled its cloud customers over the past 12 months. The company saw huge gains in its Azure business (an able competitor to Amazon’s Web Services). Azure revenue grew 140%. “Our commercial cloud run rate surpassed $9.4 billion dollars, up over 70% year-over-year and almost halfway to our goal of $20 billion,” said Nadella. “I like that [Microsoft's] Azure is giving Amazon a run for its money. Right now, as it relates to big businesses, it’s a two-horse race,” said Patrick Moorhead, President and Principle Analyst for Moor Insights and Strategy. Investors love when the business side of a big business grows like that. They also found much to cheer in Windows. Nadella reported that more than 200 million users are now running Windows 10. “Adoption is nearly 140% faster than Windows 7,” said Nadella in the earnings call. And even as the PC business continues to decline, the bleeding has been largely staunched. Windows OEM business fell by 13% in late 2014. The latest earnings put the decline at 5% (at the end of 2015). “The Windows 10 buy-in is important and will help keep the PC sales only decline about 2-3% this year vs 10% last year. That is good for Microsoft and their PC partners,” said Creative Strategies President and long-time Microsoft watcher Tim Bajarin. Microsoft’s Surface bet also continues to pay off as the company reported a 29% increase in revenue that they say is driven by the dual launch of the Surface Pro 4 and the hybrid Surface Book. “This was the best quarter for Surface ever with over $1.3 billion in sales,” said Nadella. Microsoft is “gaining solid acceptance with their own Surface brands and I see Microsoft staying in the hardware business to drive innovation on the Windows platform from now on. This is becoming an important strategic product for them,” said Bajarin. Windows Phone continued its spectacular fall — a 49% revenue decrease — but it's such old news that during the call, no analysts asked about it. The company is reportedly rebranding its handheld efforts, putting them under the increasingly popular “Surface” brand, a move that some believe could help resurrect the Microsoft handset business. “We haven’t seen yet what the Surface team has in store, which I believe will be a much better Windows phone than anyone has seen,” said Moorhead, though he added that Microsoft’s phone efforts will be on a very short leash. “How many times do they have to get it right? Surface didn’t really hit their stride until Surface Pro 3, three generations later. Surface phone wouldn’t have three chances. They need to get it right the first time,” said Moorhead. Microsoft’s also being buoyed by the continued strong response to its Office subscription business. The company now has 20 million Office subscribers (all of which use that popular Microsoft cloud). More interesting, though, is Microsoft’s effective multi-platform strategy. “On iOS and Android, Skype has more than 900 million downloads and Office apps surpassed 340 million this quarter. There are also 30 million iOS and Android active devices running Outlook,” said Nadella. Microsoft reported an all-time-high 48 million Xbox Live subscribers, but offered no information about Xbox One units sold. Last year at this time, the company reported 6.6 million Xbox units sold and last October the company was crowing about outselling Sony's PlayStation 4. During the call, however, Microsoft CFO Amy E. Hood noted an Xbox hardware revenue decrease, but pinned it on declining Xbox 360 sales. Not that this apparently mattered to investors, as not a single one questioned the Xbox hardware numbers during the earnings call.

2019-09-18 00:00:00

cleaner cars@ (Adds comments by California governor, automakers trade group, Sierra Club executive director, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, other details) WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency will revoke California's authority to require automakers to build cleaner vehicles than federal requirements demand - a decision that will set off a massive legal battle. It marks the latest move in the Trump administration's multipronged attack on California's efforts to reduce vehicle emissions and could reshape the mix of vehicles driven by Americans for years. The announcement will not immediately lead to revised emissions requirements, but the Trump administration plans to announce this autumn a separate rule to dramatically roll back Obama-era fuel-efficiency standards. Trump, who is in California this week, urged automakers to back the action, but so far none have publicly supported revocation of California's authority. "Automakers should seize this opportunity because without this alternative to California, you will be out of business," Trump wrote on Twitter. California Governor Gavin Newsom said the decision was "a continuation of a political vendetta against California and our progress." But he said would win in court. "We will prevail," he said at a news conference in Sacramento. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp , Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co and others, declined to take a position on Trump's revocation of California's waiver, saying automakers will review the decision "to get the full picture of how this impacts automakers, our workers and our customers." The EPA and U.S. Transportation Department plan to announce on Thursday that the government is revoking an EPA waiver California received in 2013 to set state emissions rules and will hold a news conference at 8 a.m. EDT to discuss the decision. The Trump administration will argue that barring California from setting its own stricter rules will provide automakers with regulatory certainty and also argue that the lower emissions standards will reduce the future price of vehicles. Environmental groups contend Americans will spend more in fuel costs than they would save in upfront costs. In addition to auto emissions, the Trump administration and California have already locked horns over high-speed rail funding, border wall funding and immigration regulations. Trump has also moved to roll back other Obama-era climate change regulations. The move, which will also include the Transportation Department declaring California is pre-empted from regulating vehicle fuel economy, will spark legal challenges over issues including states' rights and climate change that administration could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump met with senior officials last Thursday and agreed to green-light the plan to bar California from setting tailpipe emission standards that are followed by a dozen other states or requiring a rising number of zero-emission vehicles, Reuters reported last week. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said the environmental group would file suit to challenge the move, calling it "nothing more than pure vindictiveness from an administration set on giving Big Oil a polluting pass at the expense of our climate and the well-being of American families." Democrats sharply criticized the decision. "Higher auto emission standards make the air we all breathe cleaner, keep us healthier - and keep our auto industry competitive in the global marketplace," Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden said. Under Trump, federal regulators have backed freezing emissions requirements for new cars and trucks at 2020 levels through 2026. Administration officials say the final regulation will include a modest boost in annual efficiency requirements but far less than what the Obama administration set in 2012. At the time, California agreed to adopt the Obama rules rather than set its own standards. The Obama-era rules called for a fleetwide fuel efficiency average of 46.7 miles (75 km) per gallon by 2025, with average annual increases of about 5%, compared with 37 mpg by 2026 under the Trump administrations preferred option to freeze requirements. The Trump plan's preferred option would increase U.S. oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels per day by the 2030s but reduce automakers regulatory costs by more than $300 billion. California wants 15.4% of vehicle sales by 2025 to be EVs or other zero-emission vehicles and 10 other states have adopted those requirements. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in San Francisco and Ben Klayman in Detroit Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Matthew Lewis)

2019-09-26 00:00:00

NEW DELHI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - India's ban on electronic cigarettes has been challenged in a court in the eastern city of Kolkata, marking the start of the first legal battle against the anti-vaping decision. The Indian government banned the sale, import and manufacture of e-cigarettes this month and warned of an "epidemic" among young people. The move could dash the expansion plans of companies such as Juul Labs Inc and Philip Morris International in the country. Two separate challenges have been filed to the high court in Kolkata, by e-cigarette importer Plume Vapour and another company named Woke Vapors, according to court listing records publicly available online. A senior health ministry official in New Delhi said the government had been notified of the cases, which were heard by the court on Thursday and will next be heard on Monday. "We are confident of defending our decision," the official added. Further details about the challenges were not immediately available. More than 900,000 people die each year due to tobacco-related illnesses in India, home to about 1.3 billion people. The government argues the e-cigarette ban is essential to protect people, especially young people, saying vaping can lead to nicotine addiction and push users towards consuming tobacco. Pro-vaping groups, however, say vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco and that the ban will deprive millions of smokers of a safer solution to cut back on smoking. "This (ban) raises several important questions of constitutional law and is mindless, arbitrary and excessive," said Abhishek Manu Singhvi, one of India's most prominent lawyers, who is representing Plume Vapour. The ban includes a jail term of up to one year and a fine of 100,000 rupees ($1,411) for first-time offenders, though use of the device by individuals is not prohibited. India has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China in the world, making it a lucrative potential market for companies selling vaping products. Juul had plans to launch its e-cigarette in India and has hired several senior executives in recent months. Philip Morris had plans to launch its heat-not-burn tobacco device in India, Reuters has reported. (Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Pravin Char)

2018-06-07 00:00:00

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is warning that "internal and external pressures risk undermining Somalia&aposs political unity" and is expressing serious concern at the threats posed by the al-Shabab Islamic extremist group. A presidential statement approved Thursday by the 15-member council calls for stepped-up efforts "to prevent destabilizing effects of regional crises and disputes from spilling over into Somalia" and to support the country&aposs federal system and institutions. Somalia has been trying to rebuild since establishing its first functioning transitional government in 2012 after more than two decades as a failed state riven by conflict, famine and al-Shabab attacks. Concerns have been high over plans to hand over the country&aposs security to Somalia&aposs military as a 21,000-strong African Union force begins a withdrawal that is expected to be complete in 2020.

2019-06-02

Screenshot: CangorooGood news for anyone who’s ever wanted to mix the inherent danger of the trampoline with the thrill of getting nowhere slowly, while simultaneously wondering whether their skeletons should be in more shards. Sweden-based startup Cangoroo is planning to “deploy hundreds of pogo sticks” to “select cities” in the U.S. and elsewhere, CBS San Francisco reported on Friday, in what appears to be some kind of sinister plot to undermine the military readiness of the nation’s knees and shins.Much like companies behind the piles of dockless scooters now littering the country, Cangoroo has an app that allows users to unlock and rent pogo sticks that previous riders have left laying around. They call this a “micro-mobility” service. Cangoroo’s website currently advertises going rates of $1 to unlock one of its pogo sticks and and 30 cents a minute after that.According to The Next Web, CEO Adam Mikkelsen insists that Cangoroo is real, not a prank, despite it being owned by ODD Company, a branding and communications firm that has produced “viral stunts” in the past. Mikkelsen told the site that Cangoroo is simply trying to differentiate itself from competition like e-scooter startups Lime and Bird, with the company repeatedly emphasizing that they are not joking in a separate addendum to their launch press release:With a lot of initial questions along the line of “is this for real?”, we feel the need to underline that Cangoroo is 100% real. Our choice of shared pogo sticks as our first product is a planned out strategy in order to stand out in today’s media landscape and build an engaging brand in the generic “last mile transportation” category. That the team behind Cangoroo is also running a communications agency, we see as an important competitive benefit for the future of the business rather than something we try to hide from stakeholders. Naturally, we’ll soon be announcing complementary, more daily commute-focused, products to our fleet (more similar to the largely popular e-scooters and with a genuine focus on sustainability and health).According to CBS, “Cangoroo officials” say they are planning to deploy pogo sticks in Malmo and Stockholm this summer, after which they will move on to the streets of London and San Francisco. Mikkelsen told CBS that somewhere between 100-200 Cangoroo-branded pogo sticks could be deployed in San Francisco by the end of summer or the fall, and that the company is developing test versions of other products:Additionally, Mikkelsen said that Cangoroo is currently working on prototypes for other micro-mobility vehicles as alternatives to e-scooters.The pogo sticks, he said, could be used to get around, but could also be used as a fitness product, as it counts each jump to keep riders motivated.“We’ve been following the micro-mobility market and seen the demand. However, we also found that existing players are very generic when it comes to brand loyalty and making a statement and contributing to something beyond taking you from point A to B,” he said, emphasizing the sustainability and fitness aspect to the pogo sticks.Note that reports of injuries from e-scooters have become so widespread that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently felt the need to warn the public that they need to remember basic safety precautions like wearing helmets while riding them. Cangoroo does advise all riders to wear helmets on its website, but its rules also include “no highways” and “no passengers,” which immediately conjures the image of some dumb idiot pogo jumping down a highway while another idiot clings to their back.Under another section on whether users are “allowed to operate Cangoroo under the influence of alcohol or any other substances,” the company writes:We highly recommend you to use Cangoroo when you’re sober and to wear a helmet. When using a Cangoroo, you’ll be high enough on life itself.Not! Reassuring!“We don’t have specific details about this company but we will review any new transportation service to ensure compliance with existing laws,” San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose told CBS.A post to Cangoroo’s Instagram page appeared to hint that the company also has plans in Paris, though Huffington Post France noted late last month that deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has warned that if this is not a joke, the pogo sticks will “go straight to the trash.”In any case, if you happen to be visiting San Francisco late this summer or in the fall, we highly advise that you do not turn around any corners without first checking to make sure you’re not about to get stomped.[CBS San Francisco]

2017-09-12

In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Florida residents — or at least those who stuck around — are left scrounging for the items they need most, mainly food and water. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency is prepared to get some supplies to the storm's survivors, it will take time for distribution to begin, with roads still closed and curfews in place. Not even a month ago, FEMA nearly ran out of money after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas. But Congress has since signed off on another $15 billion in emergency funding. In search of essentials, Florida's residents — nearly 6 million of them without electricity — are waiting to learn when, or if, their local supermarkets will be able to reopen. The grocers with the biggest presence in Florida include Publix — which is privately held and headquartered in the state — Wal-Mart, Costco, Winn-Dixie and BJ's Wholesale. Amazon-owned Whole Foods, which also has a presence in Florida, tweeted out a list of closed locations across the state. "The problem becomes you have grocery retailers with a mix of stores ... some are heavily damaged, and other stores didn't suffer any damage but are completely clean of product from their shelves," Brittain Ladd, a strategy consultant who worked on global expansion for AmazonFresh, told CNBC in an interview. "Natural disasters upset the equilibrium within the grocers' supply chain," Ladd continued. A storm like Hurricane Irma caused a "rush" of shopping at the onset, followed by a period of retailers' reassessment and figuring out which stores will need inventory most in the aftermath, and how they're going to get it, he said. Getting fresh groceries back to stores is a top priority for many retailers. But in the downtime and without power, many are helping out, with their boots on the ground, as much as they can. Wal-Mart, for example, has plans to deliver 1,700 truckloads of essential supplies to the state. Target has said that when its facilities reopen, teams will push products to affected stores, including some trailers that were loaded before the hurricane hit. Refrigerated products — milk, yogurt, eggs and meats — will take more time to restock. "Everybody is trying to mobilize and reopen but you can only do so much, and frankly Irma is still blowing," Lee Arnold, executive chairman of Colliers International in Florida, told CNBC in an interview. By Monday morning, Arnold had safely vacated the state and was settled in Atlanta, waiting for the storm to subside and communicating with his emergency-response colleagues further south. Florida was much better prepared with Irma, Arnold said. Following Hurricane Charlie in 2004 and an "era" of similar catastrophes, more gas stations and Publix stores were equipped with generators, ready for this type of storm, he said. Right now, still in the early stages of surveying Irma's destruction, Colliers hasn't been able to determine the exact impact on the real estate market. But rebuilding will take time and money, Arnold emphasized. "We have practiced the art of coming back and helping our citizens," he said. Publix, with a massive presence in its home state, is maintaining a running list of store closures on its website and has promised to reopen "ASAP." One of the biggest issues with Hurricane Irma, which both Ladd and Arnold pointed to, was the storm's last-minute turn to the west. "Retailers really don't have the ability to pivot when a disaster does something unexpectedly," Ladd said. "Now, instead of automatically replenishing stores, they have to do it manually." Southeastern Grocers, the owner of Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixe and Harveys Supermarkets stores, is another retailer seeing a substantial impact from Irma. "We've had roofs come off, we've had serious damage," Anthony Hucker, the CEO of Southeastern Grocers, told CNBC's "Power Lunch " Monday afternoon, from his company's headquarters in Jacksonville. He added, though, that despite the damage he thinks the longest it might take to reopen a shop would be six months. There's nothing that's beyond repair, at least for Southeastern, Hucker told CNBC. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that there are no Food Lion stores in Florida, as was previously reported.

2017-03-01

March 1 (Reuters) - Goldstar Minerals Inc * Goldstar Minerals Inc - amended mineral option and sale agreement with Charles Morrissy on its Lake George property in New Brunswick, Canada * Goldstar Minerals Inc - under this amendment, Goldstar will issue 1.5 million shares to morrissy on or before March 14 * Goldstar Minerals - to exercise option to obtain 90% interest in Lake George property, co will pay Morrissy $100,000 on or before feb 14 in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2019-09-04 00:00:00

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - General Motors chief executive Mary Barra is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and White House officials on Thursday to discuss a variety of issues including trade, ongoing contract talks and revising fuel efficiency standards, three people briefed on the matter said. Trump is expected to attend part of the meetings but his schedule is in flux because of Hurricane Dorian, the people said. On Friday, Trump again criticized GM on Twitter saying the company "which was once the Giant of Detroit, is now one of the smallest auto manufacturers there." GM and the White House declined to comment Wednesday on the meetings. (Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese)

2019-04-07 00:00:00

Lasantha Wickrematunge was the cofounder of Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader newspaper. He was assassinated in January 2009. Three days later, the newspaper published his last column, which he had written to be released in the event of his death. This is that column. No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces — and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the last few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print institutions have been burned, bombed, sealed, and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened, and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last.I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be the Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood.Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognizing the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries.Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre, and security. It is the call of conscience.The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: Whether it be a spade, a thief, or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For instance, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urge government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labeled traitors; and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.Many people suspect that the Sunday Leader has a political agenda: It does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition, it is only because we believe that — excuse cricketing argot — there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the United National party was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred.Indeed, the stream of embarrassing expositions we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE is among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organizations to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dharma is for ever called into question by this savagery — much of it unknown to the public because of censorship.What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self-respect. Do not imagine you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the postwar era. The wounds of war will scar them for ever, and you will have an even more bitter and hateful diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my compatriots — and all the government — cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.It is well-known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended.In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and I have been friends for more than a quarter-century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining to routinely address him by his first name and use the familiar Sinhala address — oya — when talking to him.Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics, and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the Sri Lanka Freedom party presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well-known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air.Then, through an act of folly, you got involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, urging you to return the money. By the time you did, several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: It fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well, my sons and daughter do not have a father.In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry.But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life but yours too depends on it.As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: Most are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: You will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice.As for the readers of the Sunday Leader, what can I say but thank you for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I — and my family — have paid the price that I had long known I would one day have to pay. I am, and have always been, ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remained to be written was when.That the Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be — and will be — killed before the Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanize forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your president to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish.People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: It is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niemöller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold of Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was. It was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niemöller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, he wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.If you remember nothing else, let it be this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident, or disabled.Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: They are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried. This article was republished in The Last Column, a collection of the final articles and photos of journalists killed in the service of news gathering, compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

2018-08-20 21:35:00

When I woke up—or half-awoke—I was on the sidewalk, staring up at a tenement apartment building, and it was the middle of the night. I stood with my hands in the pockets of my pajama pants. The ground felt wet. Looking down, I saw that I was barefoot. There was still some street life at that hour in lower Manhattan: A lady collecting a huge pile of cans balanced on a shopping cart, a man in a disheveled suit walking home from the bar. I stared up at the building, not recognizing it. I wasn’t sure where I was. But I did recognize that I was sleepwalking, something I hadn’t done since childhood. I walked around the block to get my bearings. Then, circling back to the building, I saw an open window on the ground floor that triggered a memory. This was my building. I crawled in the window of my first-floor apartment. Inside, my door was open, my keys and wallet strewn across the floor in the hall. I gathered them up and lay in bed, terrified. I’d never lived alone before and now I was going outside in my sleep. I couldn’t be trusted. I decided to spend the next night at my boyfriend’s to make sure I didn’t wander outside again. I awoke clutching a stuffed bear, which I wasn't sure how I had gotten hold of. My boyfriend said that I had arose around 5:30 in the morning, taken a jug of his coconut water out of the fridge, and placed it in the toilet. The next night I spent at home. I awoke inside, but with my medicine cabinet jumbled through, several items thrown away. What exactly was going on at 5:30 am? Then, as suddenly as the episodes had come on, they vanished. A few months later—worried after a couple more episodes that had me waking up on the sidewalk again—I wondered if there was a way to put a stop to it. Apparently, going outside during a sleepwalking episode is pretty common, says Alcibiades Rodriguez, the medical director of NYU Langone’s Epilepsy Center–Sleep Center. What’s more, I fit a profile. For children that sleepwalk like I had, “Ten to twenty percent recur as an adult,” he said. Overall, four percent of adults in the United States sleepwalk. Sleepwalking falls under the umbrella of sleep disorders called “non-REM parasomnias,” which are basically weird things that happen in your sleep. Non-REM sleep—which comprises 80 percent of your night—has three stages, each of them increasingly deep. Sleepwalking traditionally occurs in stage 3—the deepest stage of sleep. This occurs in the first half of your night. More from Tonic: There are a variety of parasomnias, though, that don’t involve open-air jaunts: Sleep-eating is very common, especially as the sleep-aid medication Ambien has become popular. “Sleep-texting, walking into [a roommate’s] room, that’s not unusual. Sleep sex, too, although no one wants to talk about that,” Rodriguez says. “Sleep driving. Going outside, at least once a month, I do get those [cases].” “Very little is known about sleepwalking in general,” says Andrew Varga, assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Mount Sinai. It is, however, believed to be set off by triggers—usually any kind of stressor. In my case, Varga cited a recent life change. I’d just moved from a comfortable, quiet apartment in Brooklyn where I’d live for nine years to a noisy ground-floor studio in busy neighborhood in Manhattan where it felt like the walls might as well not exist. It had been several months, and I still didn’t feel comfortable sleeping there. It made sense. “The move was very likely the trigger—the combination of the underlying stress and the different sleep environment,” he says. Other common triggers for people are job stress, changing jobs, relationship problems—or changes—marriage or divorce, anxiety, sleep deprivation, another sleep disorder like sleep apnea. The list goes on. If a patient can’t identify a stressor yet continues to sleepwalk, Varga will send her or him to psychotherapy to figure it out. A big part of at least attempting to prevent sleepwalking is identifying, then dealing with, these life stressors—although not necessarily through therapy. While there are tips to minimize sleepwalking, there doesn’t seem to be a cure (although children usually grow out of it). “In medicine, we don’t cure many things. For sleepwalking, I would say that it can simply be controlled,” Rodriguez tells me. There’s medication—mainly long-acting benzodiazepines like Klonopin—which doctors use as a last resort. Doctors are divided on whether or not to use drugs such as Klonopin, which have sedative effects; some feel it brings the patient too deep into phase 3 sleep, which could trigger sleepwalking anyway. In any case, medications, illegal drugs, and alcohol commonly make sleepwalking worse. Beyond identifying and dealing with stressors and monitoring what you put in your body, there’s not much left to do but practice basic sleep hygiene, says Steven Feinsilver, Lenox Hill Hospital’s director of sleep medicine. He suggests getting up at the same time every day; making sure your bed is used only for sleeping, not lounging or watching TV; and spending only enough time in bed as it takes to sleep. The morning after I spoke with the last doctor, I recalled a dream I’d had the night before. I had been wandering the halls of my apartment building, trying to open various doors. I was in my sleeping outfit: underwear and a tank top. Finally, I went and stood in front of the door to my own apartment, waiting for it to magically open, as I had locked myself out. After half an hour of staring at my door, I kicked it open, scampered into bed, and promptly fell asleep. I was mortified in the dream, even though only one confused person in my building had seen me in my underwear. As the facts of the dream added up, I realized it was actually a memory: I had sleepwalked again. At first I superstitiously thought that simply talking about sleepwalking with the doctor made it happen. But the trigger was likely two things I'd been warned about: I'd drank alcohol the night before and I'd gone to bed very late, disrupting my sleep schedule. Soon after—for reasons unrelated to sleepwalking—I made some lifestyle changes. I stopped drinking altogether and started going to bed earlier. Four months later, and I haven’t yet had another incident. While I know I’m not cured, I did remove a few elements in my life that appeared to be stressors. Who knows when another one might pop up—new job? A breakup? The possibilities are endless, if you’re prone to sleepwalking. Sometimes I wonder how many others in New York City walk in their sleep, wandering the stained, uneven sidewalks outside their homes in a dreamlike state. Some of us will end up in the hallway of our buildings in our unmentionables. At first glance, it will not be obvious that we are asleep. And we’re not, quite. “Actually, there’s an in-between sometimes,” Feinsilver says. There’s nothing dreamy about this in-between state, however. I want to go through my days either wide-awake or fast asleep from now on. So I’ve taken all the good doctors’ advice. And with no cure for my nighttime ramblings, the only thing left do is hope for a really long winning streak. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of Tonic delivered to your inbox.

2018-05-06

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday promised tax cuts for lower income earners and flagged a multibillion dollar infrastructure spend, on the eve of a federal budget seen as the unofficial start of election campaigning. Turnbull’s center-right Liberal-National government is under pressure to deliver voter incentives in Tuesday’s budget for the fiscal year ending June 2019, amid a banking sector scandal and falling support in the polls, while also fulfilling a promise to return finances to a surplus as soon as possible. “We are doing everything we can to ease the burden of cost of living pressures on Australian families,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney, as he unveiled part of a A$24.5 billion, 10-year road and rail infrastructure package that is expected to be a cornerstone of the budget. “That is why we have got, you will see tomorrow, important measures relating to tax.” A recent improvement in the government’s coffers due to a pick-up in revenue, particularly from company tax, has fueled speculation it will unveil some big-ticket stimulus in a bid to win over voters. But Treasurer Scott Morrison on Sunday warned voters not to expect “mammoth cuts” to taxes, while declining to comment on speculation the revenue increase would also allow the government to reveal a return to surplus a year earlier than forecast. The government must hold a federal election by May 18, 2019, and Turnbull has made clear it won’t be called before the start of the new year. Deloitte Access Economics has estimated that the corporate tax take has risen by A$36.2 billion from a year ago and individual income tax by A$10.6 billion. In its mid-year review in December, the government forecast an A$10.2 billion ($7.69 billion) surplus in 2020/21, along with an A$20.5 billion deficit for 2018/19. Australia is continuing to rebalance itself away from a once-in-century mining investment boom that helped it become the only OECD country to escape recession during the global financial crisis. Morrison has already flagged a corporate tax cut to 25 percent, from the current 30 percent, despite failing to push the measure through the parliament, where the government has a majority of just one seat. He has argued the cut is needed to keep Australia competitive for investors, but the opposition Labor Party has said it’s a meaningless “zombie cut” without parliamentary support. Turnbull’s government needs a positive response to its spending plan, after being buffeted by a dual citizenship crisis that almost cost it a parliamentary majority, a sex scandal that led to the resignation of the deputy prime minister and revelations of serious misconduct in Australia’s banking sector, during an ongoing Royal Commission inquiry. Morrison has dismissed speculation that the commission has made the government’s planned corporate tax cut a harder sell with the electorate, pointing to a banking levy recently imposed on the banks to raise A$16 billion over 10 years. The government has already announced a raft of infrastructure projects across the country, including a A$5 billion rail link to Melbourne Airport, that it promises will create thousands of jobs. Other budget sweeteners already announced include cutting the amount of excise tax paid by craft beer brewers, an A$140 million package to lure blockbuster film productions to Australia and plans to recover as much A$3.6 billion over the next four years in losses from illegal tobacco imports. Reporting by Jane Wardell; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Sam Holmes

2017-04-26 00:00:00

Do you know your Uber passenger rating? Now you can see it right in the app. Just as Uber passengers get to rate drivers on a scale of one to five stars after a ride, drivers get to rate passengers. And just as passengers have their dislikes, such as a driver who has overly strong air freshener or who exceeds the speed limit, drivers do, too — like when passengers eat in the car or puke. Drivers have always been able to see passenger ratings, and so have passengers, if they knew where to look. But starting today, those ratings will be front and center, right under your name and avatar in the app. In a blog post, Uber says the update — which will roll out globally by Monday — is part of an effort to "make [the] rating system fairer." "Many riders forget that their driver is also rating them," the blog post reads. "We hope this update will remind riders that mutual respect is an important part of our Community Guidelines." It's true that, with a constant reminder of the rating, riders are liable to be a little more polite. It's also possible that, as they watch their own rating rise and fall, they might be a little more thoughtful about the ratings they dole out. In addition to the rider ratings change, Uber is also introducing a tweak to how ratings work in Uber Pool, Uber's carpool feature that involves multiple passengers sharing a car on a mutually efficient route. Starting today, if a rider rates a Pool ride anything less than five stars, they'll be prompted to say why — options include "poor route," "too many pickups," "co-rider behavior," "navigation," "driving," and "other." If the rider selects something that was outside of the driver's control, that rating won't be counted. (Riders aren't required to explain themselves, however.) Uber has been experimenting with changes to its five-star rating system, which some people say is broken, for years, and said the tweaks that rolled out today have been in the works for some time.Netflix just switched its rating system from a five-star scale to a far simpler thumbs-up/thumbs-down. With so much confusion over what star ratings actually mean for the gig workers that earn them, is it time for Uber, Lyft, and Instacart to do the same?

2018-09-26 00:00:00

David Hogg, in an interview with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday, said that he regrets not attending the White House listening session following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and that he would “love” to speak to the president.“I would love to speak to him at this point,” the March for Our Lives activist said.The White House didn’t immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment. Over the summer, Hogg, along with a coalition of anti–gun violence activists from across the country, embarked on a nationwide tour called “Road to Change” to register young voters and to engage with those who disagree with their activism around gun violence. The activist told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday that this experience was part of the reason why he now wishes to speak with Trump. “I’ve learned over the course of traveling the country how to directly address the issues with the dissenting opinions on our policy and I would welcome the opportunity to tell the president to his face how he could save lives,” Hogg said. Hogg said that he wants to speak to the administration to discuss March for Our Lives’ 10-point plan, which includes funding for gun violence research and universal background checks.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in June that the school safety commission, created by the administration following the shooting in Parkland, Florida, will not focus on the role guns play in campus violence. Hogg was invited to attend Trump’s “listening session” following the shooting, but hung up on the White House, he said on Bill Maher’s HBO show in March. “I ended on this message with them — I said, we don’t need to listen to President Trump. President Trump needs to listen to the screams of the children and the screams of this nation,” Hogg said.A number of people from the Florida high school attended the session, including a dad whose 18-year-old daughter, Meadow Pollack, died in the massacre. “How many schools, how many children have to get shot?” Andrew Pollack asked during the emotional meeting. “It stops here with this administration and me.” Hogg said that he was “so emotional” after the massacre at his school, and that he now regrets not attending the listening session. On Bill Maher's show in March, he said the call was “very offensive considering the fact that there were funerals the next day; there was mourning we still had to do.” Most recently, March for Our Lives partnered with mayors across the country to make it easier for young people to register to vote. Hogg told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that the group has a plan, to be announced soon, that will encourage people to show up to the polls on Election Day. So far, Hogg said, the group has registered roughly 30,000 people since creating their QR-code merch, which directs people to the March for Our Lives website when scanned.

2016-02-02

CALGARY/TORONTO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Canadian private equity investments overseas surged to record levels in 2015 on the back of some major buyouts by Canadian pension funds across a wide range of sectors, according to data released on Monday. The Thomson Reuters data showed that Canadian private equity investments abroad jumped to C$159.2 billion ($114 billion) in 2015, more than the combined value of all such deals struck by Canadian PE firms in the five years prior. “Part of the challenge for a Canadian-based private equity platform is that there just aren’t a lot of opportunities in Canada,” said Dougal Macdonald, the head of Morgan Stanley in Canada. “With the sheer size of some of these funds, whether it’s CPPIB, Teachers or Onex, you really have to look outside Canada for opportunities. We expect this trend to continue.” The top 10 outbound PE buyouts accounted for just over C$100 billion in deal value, and Canada’s largest pension fund manager, CPPIB, or the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, was involved in six of those deals in 2015. Private equity buyouts of Canadian companies fell from 2014 levels, but 2015 represented the second best year for PE buyouts in the Canadian market since 2007. While there are fewer buyout opportunities in Canada, the one area that is ripe for picking this year is the energy sector, Macdonald said. “Our expectation is that there will be more activity, some of which will be opportunistic acquisitions of public companies given the environment and some will be driven by rationalization of portfolios, which will drive assets sales.” The data also showed venture capital investment in Canadian companies grew at a strong pace in 2015. Firms invested C$2.64 billion in the space last year, up 11 percent from 2014 levels. And over 20 Canadian companies attracted funding rounds of more than C$25 million. Lately however, there are concerns building about valuations in some pockets in the start-up space, cautions John Ruffolo, head of OMERS Ventures, the VC arm of the OMERS pension fund. “You’re getting lots of pundits who think that 2016 might actually see a slowdown of venture financing. Certainly the hot companies, may be unaffected, but a lot of the others might see a far more difficult year,” said Ruffolo, adding that he still likes the prospects of those in the healthcare and artificial intelligence space. $1 = 1.3966 Canadian dollars Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Leslie Adler

2020-02-11 00:00:00

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said Tuesday that he believes Mexico’s stagnant economy could be pushing migrants north to the United States in search of work. The number of Mexicans apprehended on the southern border increased 10.6 percent in January from the previous month, to 16,116. Mexican nationals represented about 61 percent of apprehended migrants last month, and the majority were single adults. The January figures mark a significant increase from the percentage of Mexican migrants last year. When border apprehensions hit a 13-year high in May, the majority of migrants were from Northern Triangle countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.  “Just like we had pull-push factors from the Northern Triangle countries, those same push-pull factors exist from Mexico, so they’re the same,” Morgan told reporters at a press conference. Morgan said the people smuggling migrants into the United States could be taking advantage of the financial hardships in Mexico "to really drive and convince and trick and lie to these individuals that they’re hoping for prosperity.” Morgan said. “ ‘Just trust us. We’ll get to the United States and everything will be fine.’ ” Mexico's gross domestic product was little changed in the fourth quarter, while the U.S. economy grew 2.1 percent. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 29,200 people at the border in January, an 11 percent decrease from December and the eighth straight month of decline. Another 7,479 were turned away and deemed "inadmissible" because of criminal or terrorist history, drug abuse, medical problems or other characteristics.  Morgan said that more than 1,000 criminal undocumented immigrants have been apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol in the first few months of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. “Not everyone trying to illegally enter the United States is good. Not everyone trying to enter the United States is vulnerable,” Morgan said. “In fact, there are some very dangerous people trying to enter this country every single day.” View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2017-02-06 00:00:00

Aides who travelled with Donald Trump during the campaign marveled at the lax health habits of a 70 year-old obsessed with appearance. Here was a man fixated on his personal brand and look like nobody they'd ever seen. His biggest insecurity, his friends say, was his paunch. And yet he ate and worked out (or, rather, didn't) like a man who's slept through the last 50 years of public-health warnings. Sure, Trump doesn't drink or smoke. But those were about the only health vices he avoided on the trail. He guzzled Diet Coke all day long. Fast food was a constant. The "three staples," in the words of one aide: Domino's, KFC, and McDonald's. Big Macs were served on silver trays in his private jet. Trump's culinary habits have changed since he's entered the White House, an aide insists. He still drinks Diet Coke. But he's ditched the fast food in recent weeks. "The steak-and-potatoes narrative is true," says a source familiar with Trump's routine. "But he also really likes fish and seafood — so, like crab and shrimp. Things like that. He does eat salad. He'll eat like Cobb salad … He eats vegetables." But usually as a side to a slab of steak, according to dining companions. The lowdown on Trump's habits: A red-meat guy: Trump loves big steaks, preferably the ones served at his clubs. (His butler told the NYT the steaks would be so well done they would "rock on the plate.") Trump also brags about the bacon he served as appetizers to guests at his Doral golf resort in Miami. His affection for Big Macs was not a real-American campaign ploy. Snacks: We asked a former aide who spent a lot of time with Trump whether he ever ate fruit or nuts. "Never seen it," the aide replied. Instead, Trump snacks on original-flavored Lay's potato chips and vanilla-flavored Keebler Vienna Fingers. Those two are constants on his plane. Drinks: It's well-documented that Trump doesn't touch alcohol. But he loves a virgin Bloody Mary — tomato juice on ice. "It's like his version of a cocktail," says an aide. Trump blends food with politics. Says a former aide: "He used to love Oreos but he really did stop eating them once they moved [their plants] to Mexico." Caffeine: He doesn't drink coffee. Only Diet Coke or the occasional full-sugared version when it's a particularly trying day at the office. Sleep: Very little — maybe four hours. "I've gotten calls from him as late as 1:30 [a.m.] and as early as 4:30," a former aide said. Exercise: The only workout Trump gets is an occasional round of golf. Even then, he mostly travels by cart. On the campaign trail he viewed his rallies as his form of exercise. Workaholic: Aides say he has no hobbies besides golf. He doesn't hike or hunt, as his sons do. Trump's pleasures revolve around work. He basks in media coverage of himself and in the vast crowds that now attend his every public appearance. Why Trump thinks this doesn't matter: "He really believes in genetic gifts," says Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio. "He wants to assume that he can do something that others can't do simply because of who he is." D'Antonio points out that Trump is tall and until his mid-40s "he was probably a little bit blessed with getting away without paying much attention to his diet and exercise." A source who's spent a significant amount of time with Trump thinks that in Trump's own head, the billionaire hasn't physically changed since the 1980s — still a strapping specimen. Why this does matter: At 70, Trump is the oldest president to enter office. He's subsisted most of his life on very little sleep, coupled with little exercise and a high-fat diet. It's possible that Trump's self-conception is correct — that genetics will triumph over habits. Maybe his perpetual motion and unceasing work ethic really does provide all the exercise he needs. But after two health obsessed, workout warriors as presidents, Trump marks a return to a 90s-era, Middle America Bill Clinton diet. A post presidential book could be "The Art of the Meal: Let America Eat Again."

2017-10-16 11:23:41

A federal jury convicted Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a loner from New Jersey drawn to online calls to jihad and instruction manuals for carrying it out, of setting the explosives in the Chelsea neighborhood that blew out windows and sent shrapnel flying into buildings, cars and people during a two-day bombing campaign in and around New York City last year. Mr. Ramini, 29, a stocky and bearded husband and father born in Afghanistan who lived most of his life in New Jersey, remained mostly expressionless in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday as he listened to a single word — “guilty” — called out over and over, eight times, by the jury foreman. He blinked rapidly and at times appeared to nod. Terror attacks that kill and injure scores of people have become all too common around the world. The Chelsea explosion, which took no lives, was widely seen as a near miss. But its proximity to the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in Manhattan, and its callbacks to that day, sent shudders through the city 15 years later. The police have said there have been some two dozen terror plots against the city since then, the vast majority thwarted, but none that shook and smashed a block as strongly. “Today’s verdict is a victory for New York City, a victory for America and its fight against terror, and a victory for all who believe in the cause of justice,” said Joon H. Kim, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, in remarks outside the courthouse. William F. Sweeney Jr., the head of the F.B.I.’s New York office, praised the public “for how engaged they were as this was going on,” and asked that New Yorkers stay vigilant. John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, called the joint investigation with federal authorities “seamless.” In a statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio lauded the verdict, too. “The Chelsea bombing was an attempt to bring our city to its knees,” he said. “Instead, our N.Y.P.D., F.B.I. and federal prosecutors have brought Ahmad Rahimi to justice.” Mr. Rahimi was charged with eight counts of transporting and setting explosives in New York for use as weapons of mass destruction. He was found guilty of all eight. The conviction carries a mandatory life sentence; Judge Richard M. Berman set a sentencing date for Jan. 18. Mr. Rahimi’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, who said her office planned to appeal, delivered an unconventional closing argument to jurors on Friday, insisting on her client’s innocence in only one of the two bombs placed in Chelsea that night. Jurors rejected that argument. After the verdict, one juror said that the evidence was “very overwhelming” and left no doubt of Mr. Rahimi’s guilt. Jurors were in agreement on most of the counts early in their four hours of deliberations, said the juror, who asked that his name be withheld because of the nature of the case. Dozens of F.B.I. agents, police bomb-squad detectives, computer analysts and technicians presented evidence over eight days of trial testimony. They had sorted through a blocklong field of debris on West 23rd Street and feeds from dozens of video cameras in the days after the Sept. 17, 2016, explosion, searching for clues and glimpses of a suspect who made no effort to hide himself that night. Jurors also heard from those wounded by shrapnel from a bomb specifically designed to maim people. That no one was killed was a remarkable stroke of good fortune when the magnitude of the explosion became clearer. It blew out windows and doors and left debris on the rooftops of buildings. It threw a heavy trash bin across a street six lanes wide; the mangled metal container was rolled out for inspection by jurors hearing the trial. Mr. Rahimi carried multiple bombs — nine in all — but most did not explode. The first was set early that morning in a garbage can at the finish line of a United States Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, N.J. The race’s start time was delayed, however, by an unexpectedly high turnout, and no one was hurt when the bomb exploded. That night, the blast occurred in Chelsea. A short time later, passers-by found a bomb on West 27th Street, which was disarmed by the police bomb squad. The next day, Mr. Rahimi returned to New Jersey, leaving six pipe bombs in a backpack at an Elizabeth, N.J., train station. They carried fuses, not timers, and while they were not set to explode, they were dangerous; bomb-squad officers unintentionally detonated one later with a robot. Mr. Rahimi was identified by his fingerprints and DNA on the unexploded devices and debris from the bombs. Video from cameras along the length of his journey from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, where he arrived from New Jersey that Saturday evening with his bombs, to West 23rd and West 27th Streets, were played for jurors over several days. Unhurried, his face without expression, Mr. Rahimi walked along the city’s sidewalks, pulling a rolling suitcase with each hand. He left one on West 23rd, the other on West 27th. The first exploded at about 8:30 p.m. Camera after camera on the block showed smiling pedestrians, until a white blast of light filled the air. On the videos, the same pedestrians fled, their hands over their ears. Later that night, on 27th Street, two men saw a suitcase on the sidewalk. One bent to open it, removing an object wrapped in a plastic bag — it was a pressure cooker packed with shrapnel and attached to a cellphone detonator. They took the empty suitcase. A neighbor passed, noticed the device and, rattled by the nearby explosion, called the police. Ms. Shroff, the defense lawyer, told jurors that Mr. Rahimi had a change of heart after hearing the explosion from his first bomb, and disarmed the second device. The jury’s foreman, who, like the other juror, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the case, said the group did not buy that theory. “We were ultimately convinced the 27th Street device was in fact set, and while it did not go off, that was not a compelling reason to give us doubt as to the intent of the device,” he said. The foreman, from Manhattan, said the trial was a personal reminder of everyday risks. “It’s hard to be a New Yorker who is not always looking around,” he said.

2019-10-27 00:00:00

President Donald Trump received widespread Republican criticism for his decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria just weeks ago. But with the death of the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, over the weekend, Republicans are praising him for his efforts to fight terrorism. The death of Baghdadi in Syria came after Republicans warned the president that removing troops from the region would lead to the escape of ISIS prisoners and prompt the re-emergence of the terrorist group. “What I see happening in Syria makes sense to me,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who spoke at the White House on Sunday and previously denounced the troop withdrawal. He added Baghdadi's killing is “a game changer in the war on terror.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who introduced a resolution last week calling on Trump to end the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, also thanked the administration for the Baghdadi operation. “A victory like this is only possible because of the expertise, skill, and courage of those who work to keep the United States safe,” McConnell said in a statement. “I am grateful for the intelligence professionals who laid the groundwork for this raid, for the brave American servicemembers who risked everything to carry it out, and to President Trump and his team for their leadership.” But Republicans, including Graham and McConnell, warned that the battle against terrorism was not over. McConnell noted that ISIS and Al Qaeda remained resilient terrorist organizations, and he urged the continuation of counterterrorism efforts in the region. The news of Baghdadi’s death also drew some attention away from the House’s impeachment inquiry, after a week that included damning testimony about the president’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. The death of Baghdadi, who detonated a suicide vest after he was cornered in a tunnel, comes as Congress has struggled to coalesce around a strategy for responding to Trump’s decision to pull troops from Syria. That move led to a Turkish incursion in the country and the emergence of Russian forces in an area once controlled by U.S.-allied Kurds. Graham, who warned that Trump’s decision to withdraw troops could be the greatest mistake of his presidency, has introduced a sanctions package against Turkey with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The South Carolina Republican said last week that he would continue to push for co-sponsors, but added that recent events allowed for “breathing space.” The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), also have their own sanctions proposal. But McConnell has also urged caution against sanctioning a NATO ally. “I commend President Trump on his leadership and resolve in the fight against terror,” Risch said in a statement on Sunday. “Baghdadi’s removal from the battlefield represents another significant milestone in the fight against ISIS. We must continue to apply pressure until the Islamic State is incapable of reconstituting.” Democrats, meanwhile, have called on Senate Republicans to pass a House resolution condemning Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria, a measure that received significant support from House Republicans. McConnell has argued that his resolution is stronger. A group of Republican senators took a more positive tone on Thursday about the administration’s Syria policy, following a lunch at the White House with the president. “We were actually pretty encouraged by what progress would be made in Syria and what the game plan is,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), after meeting with Trump. While Baghdadi’s death received bipartisan praise, Democrats renewed their criticism of the troop withdrawal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also slammed the administration for neglecting to inform congressional leaders about the raid. “The death of al-Baghdadi is significant, but the death of this ISIS leader does not mean the death of ISIS,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top Congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the Administration’s overall strategy in the region.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) further warned that “there are still potentially hundreds of ISIS prisoners and sympathizers who have escaped in recent weeks” and that “we still need a plan for how we will deal with the escaped prisoners and ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS.” The news of Baghdadi’s death gave additional ammunition to Trump’s defenders against the House’s impeachment inquiry, after explosive testimony last week from the administration’s top diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor, and the appearance of a string of officials who defied a White House directive not to cooperate with the investigation. While this week’s Sunday news shows were expected to focus on impeachment, Baghdadi’s death instead dominated. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the panel’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), for focusing on impeachment instead of Syria. He said he couldn’t recall the last time the committee had a briefing on Syria, but added that the panel would receive one on Monday. “Unfortunately, the Intelligence Committee that I serve on hasn’t been spending a whole lot of time on these issues. We’ve been caught up in Adam Schiff’s secret impeachment inquiry,” Ratcliffe said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “All I can remember is one ambassador after another that I’ve never heard of before.” Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said on the same program that Baghdadi’s death demonstrated that Trump “kept his eye on the ball” despite being “attacked and harassed by the House impeachment probe.” He further criticized Democrats for not offering sufficient praise of the Trump administration for Baghdadi’s death. “To see the silence from them, maybe they are upset that maybe their impeachment headlines are knocked off the front page for a morning,” Collins said.

2018-04-13

Photo: Daniel Berehulak (Getty)Police in the United Kingdom are partnering with credit reporting agencies to predict whether criminals will reoffend, a report from UK civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch, has uncovered. Police in Durham, in Northeastern England, paid international data broker Experian for access to its “Mosaic” database, complex credit profiling information that includes marketing and finance data on 50 million adults across the UK. Privacy experts balk at the idea of tying personal financial data, without the public’s consent, to criminal justice decisions.Called HART (Harm Assessment Risk Tool), the AI analyzes multiple data points on suspects, then ranks them as a low, medium, or high risk to reoffend. Authorities can then use that ranking to decide whether an offender should receive jail time or be allowed to enter a rehabilitation program.While Durham police have used the HART “risk assessment AI” since at least last summer, Big Brother Watch’s report reveals that HART now uses consumer marketing data from Experian to assess risk. A few of the datapoints Experian collects for its Mosaic profile (now included in HART) are, via Big Brother Watch:Family composition, including children,Family/personal names linked to ethnicity,Online data, including data scraped from the pregnancy advice website ‘Emma’s Diary’, and Rightmove,Occupation,Child benefits, tax credits, and income support,Health data,GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] results,Ratio of gardens to buildings,Census data,Gas and electricity consumption.Experian’s Mosaic groups together people according to consumer behavior, making it easier for marketers to target people based on their interests and finances. “Aspiring Homemakers,” for example, are young couples with professional jobs more likely to be interested in online services and baby/family oriented goods. “Disconnected Youth” are under 25, live in modest housing, with low incomes and modest credit histories. By having access to these categories, HART can almost instantly make sensitive inferences about every facet of their lives.“For a credit checking company to collect millions of pieces of information about us and sell profiles to the highest bidder is chilling,” Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch, says in the report. “But for police to feed these crude and offensive profiles through artificial intelligence to make decisions on freedom and justice in the UK is truly dystopian.”Mosaic also sorts people into racial categories. “Asian Heritage” is defined as large South Asian families, usually with ties to Pakistan and Bangladesh, living in inexpensive, rented homes. “Crowded Kaleidoscope” are low-income, immigrant families working “jobs with high turnover,” living in “cramped” houses. What do these financial groupings have to do with someone’s likelihood to commit crimes? If the profiles are influenced by race and poverty, is it discriminatory to use them as data points when assessing risk? In the US, a landmark 2016 Pro Publica report found that COMPAS, another risk-assessment AI, routinely underestimated the likelihood of white suspects reoffending, even when the suspect’s race wasn’t included in the dataset. The opposite was true for black suspects; they were generally considered greater risks. A 2018 study by researchers at Dartmouth College found COMPAS was about as accurate as humans guessing based on far fewer data points.“We wouldn’t accept people going through our bins to collect information about us,” Carlo says in the report. “Nor should we accept multi-billion pound companies like Experian scavenging for information about us online or offline, whether for profit or policing. Parliament should urgently consider what place this big data and artificial intelligence has in our policing.”[Techdirt via Big Brother Watch]

2017-05-30 00:00:00

BERLIN, May 30 (Reuters) - German consumer inflation eased more than expected in May to fall below the European Central Bank’s price stability target of just under 2 percent, data showed on Tuesday, taking some pressure off the ECB to wind down its monetary stimulus soon. German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European countries (HICP), rose by 1.4 percent on the year after inflation accelerated to 2.0 percent in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office said. The reading was the lowest since November and came in below the Reuters consensus forecast of 1.6 percent. On the month, German consumer prices fell 0.2 percent on an EU-harmonised basis, the data showed. A breakdown of non-harmonised data showed energy costs rose less sharply given the fall in oil prices while food price inflation increased. Services inflation also slowed, reflecting cheaper prices for leisure and package holidays as special factors related to the Easter holidays in April were reversed in May. With euro zone growth on its best run since the bloc’s crisis took hold a decade ago, pressure from Germany and other countries has been mounting on the ECB to start planning an exit from its policy of aggressive bond purchases and sub-zero rates. However, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday that euro zone growth may be improving but inflation remained subdued and still required substantial stimulus, tempering expectations for the central bank’s June 8 policy meeting. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Paul Carrel)

2017-10-06

Gun enthusiasts looking for an extra thrill have long found makeshift ways to replicate the exhilaration of using an automatic weapon — the thrill of the noise and the jolt of rapid-fire rounds — while bypassing the legal hassle and expense of getting one. They contrived devices using pieces of wood, belt loops and sometimes even rubber bands, to mimic the speed of a fully automatic weapon — even if it meant sacrificing accuracy. Then came Jeremiah Cottle with an answer. A Texas farm boy turned Air Force veteran, he figured he could do better. He sank $120,000 of his savings into the development of a high-end bump stock, a device that harnessed a rifle's recoil to fire hundreds of rounds a minute. He began selling his bump stocks in 2010 with the help of his wife and grandparents in Moran, Tex., his small hometown of fewer than 300 residents. His company, Slide Fire Solutions, won approval from federal firearms regulators, and the business moved from a portable building that had once been a dog kennel into a much larger space on the Cottle family farm. Sales exceeded $10 million and 35,000 units in the first year. "We literally made our first million in a doghouse," Mr. Cottle told The Albany News of Texas in 2011. Interest in his products, and in similar stocks from other companies, suddenly surged after Sunday when Stephen Paddock, equipped with a small arsenal of weapons that included a dozen rifles outfitted with bump stocks, massacred dozens of people and injured hundreds in Las Vegas. The distinct, jagged sound of the rifles has haunted newscasts for days. Before long, retailers like Walmart and Cabela's pulled bump stocks from their websites. Some gun owners, fearing an imminent crackdown, flooded social media looking to buy them. Lawmakers, including Republicans in Congress, have called for bump stocks to be banned. The National Rifle Association said in a statement on Thursday that it "believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations." Slide Fire — which boasts on its website that it "revolutionized recreational shooting" — soon ran out of stock and stopped taking orders. Mr. Cottle did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but said in an interview with Ammoland last year that highly regulated firearms like machine guns require "a mountain of paperwork sure to give you life-threatening paper cuts." But bump stocks, he said, can help a semiautomatic firearm recreate the adrenaline-inducing power of an automatic weapon. "Some people like drag racing, some people like skiing and some people, like me, love full auto," he told Ammoland. Fiercely protective of his creation, Mr. Cottle has repeatedly — and successfully — sued competitors for patent infringement. But before this week, the product remained largely obscure except in certain gun enthusiast circles. "It was only ever a niche product to begin with — it was a tiny component of the industry that wasn't really well known," said Rommel Dionisio, managing director at Aegis Capital. "It was never a significant seller." The AR-15 rifle and similar weapons — Mr. Paddock at least three such firearms in his hotel room — were banned under federal law from 1994 until 2004, when Congress allowed the ban to expire. Outfitting the AR-15 soon became "one of the fastest-growing segments of the firearms market," Mr. Dionisio said. "It's considered the Mr. Potato Head of firearms, because you can put a lot of different accessories on it — barrels, sound suppressors, scopes and more," he said. "The accessories market exploded." Equipment, apparel and supplies constitute 12.8 percent of the $2.5 billion online gun and ammunition industry, with ammunition, handguns and long guns making up the rest, according to IBISWorld, a market research firm. Slide Fire sells online and also through a retail network that, within 11 months of starting business, included 500 outlets, according to The Albany News. Mr. Cottle joined the military at 19 and was in the Air Force for nine years, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. He was involved in the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts, and medically retired from the military after developing meningitis and encephalitis, he told The Abilene Reporter-News in 2006. Back in Texas, while out shooting with a friend, Mr. Cottle was frustrated with his weapon's firing speed, according to The Albany News. He crafted a prototype bump stock out of wood and metal in two hours. Mr. Cottle saw an opportunity. He sent a production model to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and, in June 2010, received a letter in response saying that the company's bump stock product "is a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act." The letter noted that the stock "has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical function when installed." It also mentioned that Mr. Cottle's letter had described the bump stock as "intended to assist persons whose hands have limited mobility to 'bump-fire' an AR-15 type rifle." The A.T.F. declined to comment on Thursday. On Sept. 16, the agency decided that the AutoGlove — a gauntlet with a battery-powered, motorized trigger finger than can allow its wearer to fire 1,000 rounds per minute — could not be used or possessed by individuals. The company issued refunds to all of its customers soon after, according to a cached version of its website. Slide Fire's product "grants shooters the freedom of controlled rapid fire without compromising the safety of themselves or others around them," according to the company's website. Mr. Cottle has appeared on YouTube promoting his bump stocks, priced from $140 to $300. But the internet also abounds with tutorials on how to gin up homemade versions of the accessory using belt loops and rubber bands. On YouTube, videos show AR-15 rifles equipped with 3D-printed bump stocks and "bump boards" made of wood. Mr. Cottle is listed as an inventor on several slide-action stock patents and has doggedly defended his products against copycats. "The technology sets our company apart," Mr. Cottle said in a video on the company website. "There is no one that does what we do." In 2014, Slide Fire sued Bump Fire, a company selling $99 bump stocks. Slide Fire alleged infringement on eight of its patents, winning a court judgment last year that forced Bump Fire to stop producing and selling stocks that functionally mirror Slide Fire's products. In early 2014, Slide Fire began an advertising campaign that included billboards with an image of a rifle next to photos of an apple pie and a baseball glove above the phrase "Pure American." The display represented "the perfect symbolism for the core beliefs we hold here at Slide Fire," the company said in a blog post. The advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America asked that one of the billboard, next to a busy Chicago freeway, be taken down. But Lamar Advertising Co. said in a Facebook post that it would "support the First Amendment right of advertisers and believe that it is in the best interest of our company and the communities we serve to accept advertising copy openly." Back home, Slide Fire is seen as a hometown anchor of sorts. Mr. Cottle hired local residents, including a former teacher and a neighbor, and became a major employer in the area, according to The Albany News. He told the publication that the company's success was a miracle. "This is beyond a Cinderella story," he said.

2017-01-19 00:00:00

(Reuters) - A federal judge is expected to block a proposed deal between health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) and Cigna Corp (CI.N) as soon as Thursday, the New York Post reported, citing sources. Anthem, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plans in 14 U.S. states, is trying to buy smaller rival Cigna. The government sued seven months ago to stop the deal, saying it was anti-competitive. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has not yet issued an opinion on the case. The trial began late last year, and Cigna said it ended on Jan. 4. Anthem is preparing for an appeal of any ruling that doesn't go its way and insiders expect Jackson to rule against the deal, the Post reported. (nyp.st/2iWTcUq) Anthem said earlier on Thursday it extended the deadline for its acquisition of Cigna by three months. Anthem and Cigna could not be immediately reached for comment. Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

2018-04-30 17:27:00

If you’re wondering if the Democrats can manage to take back the House and Senate in some of the most anticipated midterm elections in years, you should look to 2006. Back then, the Republican president’s approval rating was stuck around 40 percent, the House was seen as wallowing in corruption, and Democrats faced a similarly uphill climb in terms of the map (they needed to win 15 seats but there were only 16 Republicans in districts won by John Kerry in 2004, while this year Democrats need to win 23 seats while there are only 25 that were won by Hillary Clinton). So when I saw Democrats touting that more than 40 of their candidates outraised incumbent challengers, I wondered, how much predictive power does raising more money than your opponent have? Let’s use 2006 as a model: That year, Democrats won 30 seats, and lost 31 more that were rated highly competitive by UVA’s Crystal Ball. After throwing out four races where either the incumbent or challenger dropped out after the first quarter (Florida’s 16th, Ohio’s 18th, Texas’s 22th, and Arizona’s First) as well as the seat where there had been a special election the week before the filing deadline (California’s 50th), you have 56 races—27 of which Democrats won. Such a small number isn’t statistically significant, but I do think it’s a helpful exercise to try and spot any patterns from such a similar political environment. So what predictive power did the first quarter fundraising reports have that year? Here’s what I found: Outraising your opponent in the first quarter didn’t mean all that much. In 2006, 21 Democrats outraised their Republican challengers in Q1. Of those 21 races, Democrats won 13. Which means of the remaining 35 races, they won 17. Not a terribly predictive marker. Moreover, if you lower the threshold to Democrats who raised only 65 percent of their opponent the measure is similarly predictive. That’s an arbitrary cutoff but I think it speaks to the larger point around how outraising your opponent in Q1 doesn’t necessarily indicate a whole lot. It doesn’t matter if a Democrat outraises his or her opponent; all that matters is they don’t trail the Republican by an insurmountable amount. And with few touted Democrats in 2018 lagging that much behind their Republican counterparts, there aren’t too many races to be down on based on fundraising numbers. Of course, candidates’ fundraising reports don’t just show how much they raised in the previous three months. They also show how much they have available for the rest of the campaign going forward (known to political nerds as cash on hand, or CoH). And wouldn’t you know it... Having more cash on hand than your opponent was predictive. There were five races where Democrats had a decisive cash-on-hand advantage and three where the parties had functionally the same amount of money on hand in 2006. Democrats won the five with a decisive advantage and two of the three where the candidates were within 5 percent of each other. Using 2006 as a yardstick, it appears that cash on hand is a better predictor of success than amount raised. And if a Republican incumbent trails a challenger in cash on hand it’s a sign they may not be taking their re-election campaign seriously enough. I mean, how hard is it to stash away money when it’s your job to stick up for payday lenders, oil companies, and Nigerian princes? Now, by my count there are 15 races where a Democrat has more cash on hand than a Republican incumbent, and 13 additional open seats where the top Democratic fundraiser has more than the top Republican. I’m not saying that Democrats will win seven-eighths of those seats, but there are some races on that list that are being overlooked by a lot of prognosticators. Of the 28, most are already being tracked closely by national parties and the media. But there are five that have fallen through the cracks and I think are underrated by House handicappers like the Crystal Ball, Inside Elections, and Cook Political. Here they are: Democrat Leslie Cockburn: $300,000 CoHIncumbent Republican Tom Garrett: $142,000 CoH Cockburn doesn’t even have the most cash on hand of any Democrat running here—she has less than businessman RD Hufstetler. But Cockburn is all but assured of the nomination here as the Fifth opted for an undemocratic party convention instead of a primary open to all voters, and Cockburn has enough pledged delegates to win it on May 5. Now Cockburn will face Tom Garrett, who like a lot of recently elected Republicans has never had to win a difficult general election before. Garrett is perhaps best known for posing with the organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which happens to be in this district. So while some Democrats are worried that Cockburn’s history of criticizing Israel’s influence on America’s foreign policy will come back to haunt her, I’m not persuaded: The Jewish population in the district is small and even those who live there (a demographic that once included me) aren’t likely to turn on a Democrat who criticizes Israel in favor of a Republican who pals around with white supremacists. Democrat Max Rose: $891,000 CoHIncumbent Republican Dan Donovan: $739,000 CoHRepublican Michael Grimm: $332,000 CoH Neither party is quite sure who their nominee will be next year. Dan Donovan exacerbated the problems he faced with a fractious local party when it broke that he allegedly helped his partner’s son avoid criminal charges for heroin possession. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Donovan is trailing his predecessor Michael Grimm in the only primary poll released to date. Grimm just got out of prison for tax fraud, and once threatened to break a reporter in half “like a boy.” But Republicans seem to be willing to believe that any conservative prosecuted by the federal government from 2009-2016 was actually a political prisoner, and he’s made a play at being the pro-Trump candidate in the race. So don’t count him out in the primary. And don’t count him out in the general either. Grimm was under indictment when he beat City Council Member Domenic Recchia by 13 points in 2014. Recchia was hamstrung by a gaffe-prone campaign, a Brooklyn address, and a bad Democratic year. Rose’s campaign, on the other hand, has been disciplined to date, he’s running from Staten Island (he didn’t grow up there, but neither did Grimm), and 2018 is shaping up to be far better for Democrats than 2014. He’s running against six other candidates in the primary, but none of them have emerged as the de facto anti-establishment standard-bearer. Unless one of them breaks from the pack, it’s hard to see how Rose isn’t the nominee. Democrat Matt Morgan: $317,000 CoHRepublican incumbent Jack Bergman: $307,000 CoH Democrat Dan Kohl: $842,000Republican incumbent Glenn Grothman: $705,000 Democrat J.D. Scholten: $271,000Republican incumbent Steve King: $76,000 I’m lumping these three districts together for a few reasons: Democrats Not Named Hillary Clinton Can Win in These Districts. In 2008, Barack Obama won Wisconsin’s Sixth and Michigan’s First while only losing Iowa’s Fourth by 2 percent. And in the past year Democrats have run well ahead of Hillary Clinton’s margins in elections in every one of these districts. They all still lean Republican in even the best of conditions but… Their Incumbents Are Weak. Steve King has been aping talking points from The Turner Diaries for decades, but he’s gotten worse since Trump is elected. Western Iowa is socially conservative, but I suspect a majority of them voted for King out of party loyalty and at the very least tune him out when he starts going on about how great European ethno-nationalists are. Maybe, just maybe, 2018 will be the year where they’re finally embarrassed enough to send him packing now that our big wet president has brought the ugliness of the far right so neatly into focus. Glenn Grothman isn’t a wannabe brownshirt, he’s more a AM radio drive-time bilge pump. He represents a seat that historically sent a more moderate Republican to Congress, having only made it to Congress in what were terrible years for Wisconsin Democrats. So if a blue wave comes, he may not be able to keep his head above water. While Jack Bergman isn’t as odious as King or Grothman, he’s only a freshman. Both King and Grothman have been able to build up goodwill (and electoral skill) through decades in public office, while Bergman’s relatively new to the endeavor. Freshmen congressmen should at least be able to raise money well, but he apparently can’t even do that. And there’s a wildcard that could really impact the Iowa and Wisconsin races: Retaliatory Tariffs Could Hit The Upper Midwest Hard. The Chinese have made noise about retaliatory tariffs on corn and soybeans. You know which states grow a ton of corn and soybeans? Iowa and Wisconsin! And if family farms get hit hard they could revolt against Republicans—during the late 80s farm crisis those two states voted for Mike Dukakis even as California, Connecticut and Maryland were voting for George H.W. Bush. I’m not saying that Democrats will win all five of these seats. But I am saying that handicappers are underestimating Democrats’ chances in them. And that if you’re looking to fundraising reports to gauge candidate viability, you’re doing it wrong. Obviously a candidate without enough money to pay for staff and rent is at a severe disadvantage going into November. But the ability to raise more money than a Republican opponent isn’t a sign of automatic strength. It’s easy to use fundraising as a marker of viability because you can quantify it, but it’s also lazy and potentially misleading. However, having more money to spend than a Republican opponent, especially an incumbent, shows that the Republican is perhaps not taking the race seriously enough, or might not have experience in running in tough races. One of the biggest incumbency advantages is the ability to bank money for potential future challenges—just ask Mick Mulvaney. So when a Democrat has more cash on hand it shows that the incumbent has been caught napping. And if a blue wave comes, expect it to wash out the laziest Republicans. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Robert Wheel (a pseudonym) is an attorney who lives in New York. He tweets here , and his DMs are open.

2018-02-26 19:53:22

First, it reversed an Obama-era rule helping workers challenge the labor practices of big chains. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board reversed its reversal. The move will make it easier to hold companies responsible for labor law violations committed by franchisees and contractors. Labor advocates and business groups alike were surprised by the turnabout, but it did not reflect any ideological shift. Rather, it followed a determination that a member of the board’s Republican majority had a conflict of interest in the earlier vote. A report released in early February by the agency’s inspector general found that the member, William J. Emanuel, should have recused himself when the case came before the board in December, shortly after the Republicans gained control. That would have left it split at two votes apiece and preserved the status quo. On Monday, three other board members, including its Republican chairman, Marvin E. Kaplan, voted to vacate the December decision, citing a determination that Mr. Emanuel “is, and should have been, disqualified from participating in this proceeding” because his former law firm had handled a related case. That opens the door for the more expansive, Obama-era standard to remain in place for several more months, perhaps even years. Wilma B. Liebman, a Democratic former board member who served as chairwoman early in the Obama administration, said it was highly unusual for a labor board ruling to be reversed because of a conflict — perhaps illustrating the stakes involved. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ms. Liebman said. Two Democratic senators, Patty Murray of Washington and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have been outspoken in recent months in pointing to Mr. Emanuel’s potential conflicts. The issue before the board involved a doctrine known as joint employment. A company, like a fast-food corporation, that is deemed a joint employer of workers at a franchisee can be held liable for violations of their labor rights — such as illegally firing workers involved in an organizing campaign — and can be required to bargain with them if they unionize. Before 2015, a company could be considered a joint employer under federal labor law only if it exercised direct and immediate control over workers at the franchise. But in a case known as Browning-Ferris, the board ruled that the parent company could be deemed a joint employer even if the control it exerted was indirect — for example, if it forced the franchisee to use software that committed it to certain scheduling practices. The board ruled that the parent company could also be considered a joint employer if the company had the right to exercise control over a franchisee that it did not exercise in practice. The more liberal definition of who qualified as a joint employer removed a potentially significant obstacle to workers at fast-food restaurants and hotels who sought to unionize. A parent company that terminates a franchise agreement to avoid doing business with a franchisee whose workers are trying to unionize may face legal liability for doing so if it is considered a joint employer. In December, the board, with its new Republican majority, took up a case known as Hy-Brand and voted to revert to the pre-2015 standard requiring direct and immediate control. But that case did not raise any questions that hinged on what standard to apply — the Obama-era guidelines or the previous ones. Partly as a result, the inspector general argued in his report, it was simply a pretext for relitigating Browning-Ferris. “The practical effect of the Hy-Brand deliberative process was a ‘do-over’ for the Browning-Ferris parties,” the inspector general stated. This created the potential conflict for Mr. Emanuel, whose former law firm had represented a party in the Browning-Ferris case. If the more recent case was simply a do-over for the previous case, the inspector general argued, then Mr. Emanuel should have recused himself. Ms. Liebman, the former chairwoman, said the board would presumably be able to try again. But she said it would have to wait for a case raising its own questions about which joint-employer doctrine is correct, rather than simply use any vaguely related case as a pretext for revisiting the Obama-era decision. “In some future case, where the issue actually arises and some party is seeking a reversal of Browning-Ferris, where more of a deliberation goes on, that could be another vehicle,” she said, adding that there was less likely to be a conflict for Mr. Emanuel in that instance. “This is likely just a reprieve.” For their part, business groups frustrated with the frequently shifting joint-employer definition argued that it was yet another reason for Congress to settle the issue with legislation. “This throws the whole situation back into question for a potentially extended period,” said Matthew Haller, a senior vice president at the International Franchise Association. “Our focus has been — and remains — on the need for Congress to provide legislative certainty.” Mr. Haller added that the House had passed such legislation in November and that it was now all the more urgent for the Senate “to step into the breach.”

2019-11-27 00:00:00

Nov 27 (Reuters) - STADLER RAIL AG: * THE FIRST TRAINS WILL BE DELIVERED TO AZERBAIJAN RAILWAYS IN 2022 ACCORDING TO THE CONTRACT Source text: bit.ly/2XSpPp7 Further company coverage: (Gdansk Newsroom)

2019-03-22 00:00:00

Cal football coach Justin Wilcox is throwing his full support behind a school investigation into claims that members of his team "ruthlessly" sexually harassed a student intern. "We take these allegations extremely seriously," the coach told reporters Friday ... "It's not something that we would tolerate at our university or in our football program and it's something that is really tough to hear." Paige Cornelius -- a former student at Cal -- claims she was "endlessly" and "ruthlessly" sexually harassed by members of the Golden Bears' squad during her time as a team intern. Justin Wilcox spoke with reporters about sexual harassment allegations against Cal football coaches after practice today. Said, “We will fully support the investigation,” but mostly declined to answer questions pic.twitter.com/rI4apo3JbD She even accuses one coach of sexually assaulting her, saying he forcibly touched and kissed her during an after-hours office visit. It's all in a lengthy social media post penned by the ex-Cal student ... in which she claims Wilcox and athletic director Jim Knowlton did nothing even after she reached out with the allegations. "Your mental and physical health do not matter when a revenue sport is involved. Shoutout to Jim Knowlton, Justin Wilcox, the Cal Athletics Administrative office for teaching me this lesson." In her claims ... Cornelius says coaches and players would constantly make her feel uncomfortable on the field -- and in one incident, a coach told her during practice, "I will get you fired if you do not have sex with me.” She also says one coach followed her home after a practice and told her at her front door she "would look amazing in a bikini." Cornelius says as a result of her time with the team, she's now dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome and anxiety and has medically withdrawn from the school. It appears Paige is preparing to file a lawsuit against the program ... writing in a separate social media post, "If you have been sexually harassed by any cal athletics coach or player ... dm me." "My legal team wants to have the best case possible." For his part, Wilcox added at spring practice Friday, "We will fully support the investigation going forward. We are committed here at Cal football to providing an environment where people are protected and respected."

2018-08-07

Yrigoyen said he and Kufrin became a stronger couple after the Instagram controversy. (ABC) “The Bachelorette” winner, Garrett Yrigoyen, offered an explanation and an apology for his past controversial Instagram activity during Monday’s live season finale following his engagement to Becca Kufrin. Yrigoyen, 29, sat down with host Chris Harrison on “After the Final Rose” show and said he and Kufrin, 28, worked through the scandal to become a stronger couple. The California native received backlash in May after a former “Bachelor” contestant resurfaced posts that Yrigoyen “liked” on Instagram. The posts included memes that mocked transgender people, immigrants and feminists, as well as claimed Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg was a crisis actor. “I didn’t realize the effect behind a double tap or a like on Instagram. So I put out an apology [on Instagram in May]. I didn’t mean to offend anybody, I apologize for that still,” Yrigoyen said. “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings or do anything like that. So I stand by everything that I posted in my apology, and I’m just trying to grow as a person, be a better person on a daily basis.” &aposBACHELORETTE&apos BECCA KUFRIN: 5 FAST FACTS ABOUT THE MINNESOTA REALITY STAR In this undated photo provided ABC, Becca Kufrin embraces Garrett Yrigoyen in an episode of the “The Bachelorette”. Kufrin celebrated her engagement to Yrigoyen, capping the Monday, Aug. 6, 2018, finale on ABC following the usual tears and drama. (Paul Hebert/ABC via AP) (© 2018 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.) Yrigoyen said his new fiancée helped him through the scandal. “We’ve been honest and open and transparent with one another since the beginning. And when that all came out, we attacked it, because I feel like when I was liking things, it was going against what she stands for, and that made it really hard on us as a couple,” he added. “So when we started talking about that, we got through that together, and we’re growing, we’re progressing and we’re moving forward.” Kufrin said she doesn’t condone the “Instagram situation.” “I know that he stands by his apology and he feels so bad for everyone that he did offend and he didn’t mean it. But I just want to move forward and to learn and to grow and to continue to educate ourselves,” Kufrin told the audience Monday night. Yrigoyen admitted he thought Kufrin might break up with him when the scandal became public, which occurred around the time of the season premiere. &aposBACHELORETTE&apos STAR LEANDRO DOTTAVIO DENIES HARASSMENT CLAIMS FOLLOWING BEKAH MARTINEZ ACCUSATION Yrigoyen deleted his old Instagram account shortly after the posts were made public and issued an apology on a new profile. Kufrin also came to his defense in May and asked viewers to keep an open mind. In an interview with People this week, Kufrin defended her fiancé as a “a good guy.” “We’ve all made mistakes and done things that aren’t perfect. But all I could ask for is somebody who owns up to what they’ve done and who apologizes and wants to grow. And that’s what he’s done,” she said. Kufrin and Yrigoyen got engaged after the 28-year-old Minnesota native sent home runner-up Blake Horstmann during the taped finale in the Maldives.

2019-11-05 15:02:38

Daniel Russell, a senior research scientist at Google, shared with us three common mistakes that can prevent you from finding the perfect search results.Such habits include performing only one search on a particular topic, tailoring search results to get a specific answer rather than the most accurate result, and skipping search results that include terms you're not familiar with.Russell discovered these tendencies as part of his field research in his role at Google, which involves shadowing people to understand how they're using the company's search engine in everyday life.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Google's search engine has become so pervasive, it's almost impossible to remember a time when you couldn't find the answer to nearly any question just by googling it. It's become such common vernacular that Merriam-Webster began recognizing it as a verb in 2006.But even if you use Google on a daily basis, you've probably struggled to find the result you're looking for on at least a few occasions. That's where Google's Daniel Russell comes in, who works as a senior research scientist for search quality and user happiness at the company.Part of his role involves conducting field tests to gain a better understanding of how people are using Google's search engine in everyday life. And that research has led him to notice three common habits that can make it more difficult to find the answer you're looking for through Google.Here's a look at the top three mistakes people make when conducting a Google search, according to Russell.  Stopping after one Google search when researching a topic. One Google search usually isn't enough to become well-educated on a topic, says Russell, particularly if it's an issue that's complex or broad. Russell suggests performing at least two searches on a given subject to get a more comprehensive and complete view of the topic at hand.  Tailoring your query to get a specific search result. Another common practice Russell sees among Google users is inputting a very specific query in order to turn up a sought-after result that may not accurately answer your question.For example, imagine you're performing a search to find out what the average length of an octopus is. You might have heard that the answer is 21 inches, but perhaps you're not sure so you've decided to do a quick Google search to check.Rather than typing in a query like "average length of an octopus 21 inches," you should just search for "average length of an octopus." Doing the former may prompt Google to pull up search results that list 21 inches as the answer even if it's not correct."You wouldn't want to prejudice a jury," Russell said. "So likewise, you shouldn't put terms into your query that prompt Google to give you a specific type of answer." Avoiding search results with words you may not recognize. If you see a search result that looks promising but includes terms you're not familiar with, don't skip it, says Russell. By doing so, you may be missing out on valuable information that could include the answers you're looking for. Instead, try performing another Google search for the words that you don't recognize.Russell pointed to an example, remembering one instance in which someone he was shadowing as part of his field research inputted a search query that read something like: "Why do I get white patches on my cheeks in the summer?"That person skipped over a top result because it had the word "hypopigmentation" in it, a term that refers to patches of skin that are lighter than your normal skin tone, according to Healthline.But this person didn't know what that meant, so he disregarded it even though it included the information he was looking for. "When you're reading or writing, you shouldn't let these things slip by," Russell said.   Get the latest Google stock price here.

2018-07-26

(CNN)When federal judge Dana Sabraw gave orders to reunite separated families by certain dates, he made his demands clear: These were "firm deadlines," he warned. "Not aspirational goals." That was weeks ago, before an earlier deadline in the case. Fast forward to Thursday, and US officials are scrambling to reunite hundreds of parents and children by the end of the day. The big question is, what happens if the government fails to reunite all families who are eligible for reunification? The short answer: No one really knows. The American Civil Liberties Union -- which is suing the government on behalf of some families separated at the border -- hasn't requested a specific punishment if officials miss the deadline, which falls at 6 p.m. ET Thursday. Judge Sabraw hasn't mentioned any specific consequences, either. But we can look at what happened earlier for clues about what might happen. July 10 was the deadline for the Trump administration to reunite all families with children under 5 years old who were eligible for reunification. (Families might not be eligible if a parent has a serious criminal record, if a parent has a contagious disease or if the adult isn't verified as the child's parent.) The Trump administration missed that July 10 deadline, failing to reunite all eligible families with children under 5 by the end of the day. At the time, Sabraw said the ACLU would be able to suggest any consequences it deemed appropriate. But the ACLU didn't ask for any punishments, and the judge seemed mostly satisfied with the government's efforts to meet his July 10 deadline. Two days later, the government said it had finished reuniting 58 eligible families with children under 5. But that 58 figure paled in comparison to the estimated 2,500 families with older children, ages 5 to 17, who were separated and potentially eligible for reunification. And those families are at the crux of Thursday's deadline. By Tuesday, the government said it had reunited 1,012 of those families. About 600 had been cleared for reunification but hadn't been reunited yet by Tuesday. But as many as 914 parents won't be reunited with their children this week, the government said. In some cases, the parents can't be found or have serious criminal records. In other cases, they've already been deported without their children. And a small number of parents haven't even been identified in the federal system, let alone tracked down.

2018-08-15

Paul Manafort's fraud and conspiracy trial is rounding the final bend. Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Wednesday delivered their closing arguments to jurors on the 12th day of the criminal trial against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. From there, jurors in the U.S. District Court case in Alexandria, Va., will begin considering the 27 witnesses and more than 360 exhibits presented by prosecutors. Jurors are set to begin deliberating at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. A verdict in the trial — the first borne of charges from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe — could be coming as soon as this week. Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts lodged by Mueller's team. Here are the charges he faces: In an indictment unveiled in February against Manafort and his former business partner, Rick Gates, the special counsel laid out what it described as a years-long "tax scheme" intended to lower Manafort's tax bills by hiding his income from U.S. authorities. Manafort worked for years in the 2000s as a consultant for former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian Party of Regions. The tens of millions of dollars he earned for this work were put in foreign accounts, and Manafort used that money to fund a lavish lifestyle primarily through international wire transfers, Mueller alleges. Manafort is accused of failing to report this income on his income tax returns, and falsely claiming he had no authority over those foreign accounts. From 2011 to 2014, Manafort allegedly failed to file foreign bank account reports, known as FBARs, with the Treasury Department to disclose his control over his overseas accounts. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Manafort resorted to bank fraud to obtain loans for himself after Yanukovych was deposed as the leader of Ukraine in 2014, which dried up Manafort's lucrative stream of income. Manafort and Gates are accused of defrauding U.S. banks and other lenders by lying about Manafort's income, debt and the nature of his real estate properties. Prosecutors also allege Manafort and Gates knowingly doctored financial documents. One of Manafort's accountants testified under immunity during the trial that she had been asked to misrepresent Manafort's income by Gates. The indictment alleges Manafort falsely claimed that a New York City condo was "owner-occupied" instead of rented in order to get more money when applying for a $3.4 million mortgage in late 2015. It also says Manafort defrauded another lender by falsely overstating the 2015 income of one his businesses by more than $4 million, among other charges.

2019-11-06 04:00:29

Add HMBradley to the list of Los Angeles-based startups looking to shake up the world of high finance typically dominated by East Coast giants with names like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The new Santa Monica, Calif.-based bank joins companies like Aspiration and Acorns in trying to offer consumers new ways to manage their finances. Founded by a team of fintech veterans and backed by PayPal founder Max Levchin, HMBradley got its start in Levchin’s HVF Labs, a San Francisco-based venture studio. The idea, according to the company’s founder, Zach Bruhnke, was to provide better incentives to consumers for leaving more of their deposits with his bank. “A bank CEO wants to get more deposits and consumers want more interest,” says Bruhnke. So the thesis behind HMBradley is to give consumers higher interest rates based on the amount of money they save. Growing up in Shreveport, La., where his father worked selling fences and his mother oversaw deposits into the local bank vault, high finance was the furthest thing from Bruhnke’s mind. But after the entrepreneur sold his first company, he witnessed firsthand how wealth brought privileges. HMBradley operates differently. “If you have the right habits you will be in the top tier of our customers no matter how many zeroes you have in the account,” Bruhnke says. Working with him on the project is another Shreveport native, Germain Cassiere, an engineer who has worked with Bruhnke on various startups for the past seven years, and Dmitry Gritskevich, a former Goldman Sachs banker who worked on the break-up of GE Capital. Together, the three men, with $3.5 million in seed financing from Accomplice Ventures, Walkabout Ventures, Mucker Capital, Index Ventures and a number of angel investors, intend to change how banking customers are rewarded. “HMBradley presents an entirely new experience that will change how consumers think about banking,” said Levchin. “Aside from its digital-first design that makes sense for the way people handle money today, it was developed to help anyone be more responsible with their money.” At the core of HMBradley’s value proposition is its saving benefit. The company has set up variable annual percentage yields for accounts based on the rate its customers save. The current industry average yield on savings accounts is a paltry 0.09%, but HMBradley will have a tiered system where savers who bank more  than 20% of their direct deposits will have an annual yield of 3%; customers who save between 15% and 20% of their direct deposits will receive rates of 2.25%; while the bottom two tiers of customers (those who save between 10% and 15% of their deposits and 5% to 10% of their direct deposits) will have rates of 1.5% and 1%, respectively. The company also differs from other banks in some pretty significant ways. Chiefly, it doesn’t distinguish between a checking and a savings account. Any bank account opened with the company will earn interest based on savings rate. HMBradley will also offer one-click free credit scoring and will have a network of 55,000 no-fee ATMs available for its customers through the STAR ATM network. Finally, the company’s accounts are insured for up to $250,000 by the FDIC through its sponsor bank — Hatch Bank. Currently, HMBradley is offering a perk to customers who sign up for the company’s waitlist — giving them the option to commit a certain amount of their direct deposit and earn 3% interest on that amount monthly until they make their first deposit (customers have to deposit their money within 30 days from when HMBradley starts accepting deposits to receive the bonus). “We want to start account relationships on a positive note and build from there,” said Gritskevich, the company’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “We believe that the best way to do that and to show how serious we are about working for our customers is to enable them to earn a bonus before their money is even with us. HMBradley will build their trust as their balance grows. The best part is that the earlier someone signs up, the larger their bonus becomes.”

2018-12-13 00:00:00

The FCC yesterday said it will consider reversing a longstanding ban on mergers between the "Big 4" broadcast television networks. It also plans to revisit rules that prevent the same company from owning two TV stations in the same market and ones that limit a company from owning too many local radio stations in the same market. Why it matters: 2018 has been a banner year for media consolidation and, if the FCC gets its way, 2019 could follow suit. It also would be the second round of media deregulation under Trump's FCC, the first of which was reinstatement of the "UHF discount" and the elimination of "cross-ownership" rules on newspaper, radio and TV assets in the same market. Per Axios' Sara Fischer: "The reason they're doing this is the FCC and Trump administration think that deregulation is the best way to allow legacy media to better compete with tech giants, rather than adding regulations on tech." One related thing: The FCC also may soon have another interesting decision to make, as Fox Business reports that Sinclair Communications is "the leading bidder" for a group of 21 regional sports networks that 21st Century Fox is selling as part of its $71 billion takeover by Disney. You may recall that the FCC earlier this year blocked Sinclair's deal to buy 42 local TV stations from Tribune Media, after determining that Sinclair lied to regulators during the review process. Go deeper: FCC ruling gives wireless providers more power to block messages

2018-03-03

Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster will present the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards Sunday in lieu of Casey Affleck, Variety reports.  The news comes after nearly a month of speculation as to who would replace Affleck. The Best Actor winner decided not to present at the end of January because he feared he'd become a distraction.  The Manchester by the Sea star was accused of sexual harassment in two 2010 lawsuits, which mostly went under the radar, until the #MeToo movement shined a spotlight on men with histories of sexual misconduct allegations. Affleck's publicists have characterized the lawsuits as extortion attempts. The producer and cinematographer of I’m Not Here, Affleck's 2010 film, are the accusers. Their cases were settled out of court, with no monetary figure disclosed. The Best Actress winner is usually announced by the Best Actor winner from the previous year. Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren are expected to present the Best Actor award on Sunday. Mashable has reached out to the academy's publicity department to confirm Variety's report.

2016-12-09

Coca-Cola announced Friday that Muhtar Kent is stepping down as chief executive officer, and President and COO James Quincey will succeed him, effective May 1. Kent, who has been at the helm since 2008, will remain chairman. Under his leadership, the company expanded the number of brands by about 1,000 products and announced a bottler refranchising plan. Quincey, 51, joined Coke in 1996 and has been president and COO since August 2015. "Having worked closely with James during the past 10 years of his 20-year career with our company, I know that his vast industry knowledge, expertise with our brands, values and system, coupled with an acute understanding of evolving consumer tastes, make him the ideal candidate to effectively lead our company and bottling system," Kent said in a statement. Coke's board intends to nominate Quincey to stand for election as a director at its annual shareholder meeting in April. Since July 2008, Coca-cola's stock has been in a dead heat with its competitor Pepsi.

2017-03-27

March 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - South Korean prosecutors said they would seek an arrest warrant for former President Park Geun-hye, just 17 days after she was removed from office as part of a wide-ranging political scandal that caused her to be impeached. on.wsj.com/2olCJJw - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities across Russia on Sunday to protest official corruption in the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin in years. Sunday's marches were called by leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was detained during the protest in Moscow. on.wsj.com/2nXYUsS - The Iraqi military said Sunday a blast that killed scores of civilians in western Mosul was triggered by an Islamic State booby trap, contradicting local officials and residents who claimed a U.S.-led coalition airstrike caused the deaths. on.wsj.com/2nUJeGp - The White House sent a warning shot to congressional Republicans that it may increase its outreach to Democrats if it can't get the support of hard-line conservatives, a potential shift in legislative strategy that could affect drug prices, the future of a tax overhaul and budgetary priorities. on.wsj.com/2nD0GPv - Hollywood studios are preparing to upend decades of tradition by releasing movies at home less than 45 days after they debut on the big screen, according to people with knowledge of their plans, a goal they have pursued unsuccessfully for years. on.wsj.com/2mEg2Ur - Barclaycard is shedding a chunk of its subprime card balances, in a deal that reflects diverging views in the card industry about the future of the U.S. economy and the wisdom of wagering on risky borrowers. The credit-card issuer sold $1.6 billion of credit-card balances owed by mostly near-prime and subprime borrowers to privately held personal-loan firm Credit Shop Inc. on.wsj.com/2nDIaGo (Compiled by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru)

2017-06-01 11:46:00

Of all the many, many attempts to make sense of the “covfefe” conundrum, Sean Spicer’s may have been the worst, according to Twitter. At the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Spicer was asked if people should be concerned about President Trump‘s “incoherent” late-night tweet that read: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” “Uh, no,” Spicer said, before going on to claim that the president meant to say the nation’s hottest new buzzword. “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,” Spicer told reporters without further explanation. His defense was met with laughter from the press, with Twitter quickly following suit. Rare performance of Covfefe's Etude in D major tonight. So beautiful. Only I and small group of ppl know exactly what I mean.#PianoRecital — Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 1, 2017 Spicer: "the President and a small group of people knows what he means."#Covfefe pic.twitter.com/BEfT1vRcwR — Kimberly Bryant (@6Gems) May 31, 2017 Sean Spicer wasting time trying to spin #covfefe instead of explaining it was a typo is like… pic.twitter.com/PHKgSRqfc1 — Trish (@Trisha_Lynn77) June 1, 2017 Trump: Tell them #covfefe was intentional. Spicer: It was an innocent mistake.. Trump: INTENTIONAL! Don't make me get the rabbit suit. — Nunca Trump (@NeverTrumpTexan) May 31, 2017 "It was an innocent mistake. He meant to say coverage. He is glad everyone is having fun with it" How hard is it to say that, Sean? https://t.co/stDANggDve — Nunca Trump (@NeverTrumpTexan) May 31, 2017 C'mon, Spicey. Even if covfefe was a real word (it's not), that Tweet still wasn't a complete sentence. https://t.co/3rnbbrQPfl — bkbecks (@BecksRenfro) June 1, 2017 https://twitter.com/_/status/870236920542093312 SEAN SPICER JUST SAID TRUMP'S COVFEFE TWEET WAS NOT INCOHERENT & TRUMP & A SMALL GROUP OF PPL KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT MEANS. 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 i can't… — Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) May 31, 2017 If only Spicer had thought to seek covfefe among the bushes.

2019-09-13 00:02:00

Founded in 1913 by Alphonse Fiore, Fiore's House of Quality is an institution in Hoboken, New Jersey.In its over-a-century-long legacy, Fiore's has established itself as one of the best purveyors of fresh mozzarella, or "mutz" in the area.We visit Fiore's and go behind the deli counter to learn how it makes fresh mutz, as well as its coveted "Roast Beef and Mutz" sandwich.Visit INSIDER.com for more stories.The following is a transcript of the video.Rose Lee: So, I'm on my way to Fiore's House of Quality, which has been an institution in Hoboken, New Jersey, since [1913]. So, they're best known for their roast beef and mutz hero, which is on "30 Rock." They only sell it twice a week, and people line up for it for hours on end. So, I can't wait to give it a try and see if it lives up to the hype.Customer: What do I get here? What do you think I get? I get the mozzarella. What do you think I'm gonna get? The cold cuts, you know, it's always fresh.Rose: People flock to Fiore's House of Quality on Thursdays and Saturdays, year-round, to wait in line for a roast beef and mutz hero.John Amato Jr.: Some days, it flies out the door. Some days, it stays a little longer. I mean, you know, the crowd is ferocious sometimes.Customer: $400 worth of subs. Sent here from Wall Street. Took the ferry straight to Hoboken. We are interns.Rose: The storied Italian deli has been a staple in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, for over 100 years. Fiore's House of Quality was founded in 1913 by an Italian immigrant named Alphonso Fiore, who initially opened up the space as a cheese shop. Years later, the Amato family came into the picture, which is when John Amato Sr. started working at the shop.John: In 1950, my father started working for Joe Fiore. Sweeping the floors, making deliveries. Some of his famous people he delivered to was Dolly Sinatra. Rose: 15 years later, Joe Fiore decided to retire and sell his business to the Amato family.Rose: Today, three generations of Amatos work in the cheese and sandwich shop. Fiore's is the definition of old-school. First off, there's no menu in sight, unless you count the list of daily sandwich specials. There's also no website, nor social media of any kind. Here's how to order at Fiore's. First, choose your bread, of which there's two kinds: round rolls baked in a conventional oven and a longer hoagie-style loaf baked in a brick oven. You then take your bread of choice to the counter, where you'll order your sandwich. If you order the roast beef and mutz hero, they'll ask you if you want gravy on the side or spooned over the sandwich. Keep in mind: The spot is cash-only. So, what makes this sandwich worth waiting in line for? Well, for starters, it's the star of season two, episode 14, of "30 Rock," "Sandwich Day."Frank Rossitano: And the dipping sauce, oh, joy! God bless us, everyone!Rose: Another reason is that Fiore's only sells the coveted sandwich twice a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays. But, most importantly, people wait in line because this sandwich is in a league of its own. Making Fiore's roast beef and mutz hero begins with the sandwich's most important ingredient: the mutz.John: Our mozzarella is the best in town, because we make small batches. We concentrate on the mozzarella. That's what we're known for. We don't want to mass-produce it.Rose: John starts off the mutz-making by pushing a big wedge of cheese curd through sharp wire to break it up into smaller pieces. Once the curd is broken up, hot water is added to begin melting it down. Then, John uses a long wooden stick to mix the curd into the water. Slowly but surely, as John stirs, the mozzarella starts to come together. Once the mutz has a good stretch to it, it's ready to be braided. After the mutz is braided, it goes into a salt brine, which lightly seasons the cheese. Once I saw the mutz being made, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a sandwich and taste it for myself. Mmm, wow. It's really simple, you know. There's really not a ton of ingredients in it. It's just mozzarella, roast beef, and then that au jus sauce that they put on top. And I just, I think that's really what makes this sandwich one of a kind, is that each and every flavor in this sandwich tastes delicious on its own, but combined, like, the bite of the sandwich, with all of the ingredients together, is just a beautiful marriage of just, like, a little bit of sweetness, savoriness, saltiness, and it's just delicious. It's so good. I mean, this gravy is so good, I could take a bath in it. And for people who really like, I think, a wetter sandwich or something that has more dressing to it, I think dunking's the way to go. It's amazing. Customer: This place is a blessing and a curse. The best mozzarella you're ever gonna have. That's the blessing. The curse is when you move away, you're never gonna have anything like this ever again.

2019-10-10 09:02:21

On the Market This week’s properties are in University Heights, on Sutton Place South, and in Prospect Heights. 22 Photos View Slide Show › Click on the slide show to see this week’s featured properties: In University Heights in the Bronx, a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment filled with bold and playful décor, a sunken living room and windows overlooking a community garden, in a six-story 1941 building. On Sutton Place South, a one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath apartment, with a wood-burning fireplace, a terrace and midcentury-modern flair, in a full-service prewar building designed by Emery Roth and Sons. In Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,456-square-foot apartment, with a massive south-facing living and dining room, hardwood floors, a high-end open kitchen and bathrooms with deep soaking tubs, in a full-service Richard Meier-designed building across from Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Public Library. Additional reporting by Kim Velsey. For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

2017-09-11

A KKK rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in July 2017. Photo: APIn recent years, Reddit has banned a bevy of far-right troll havens, including its board for the white supremacist “alt-right” and others used for the harassment of women, minorities and other people. The bans were a reversal of Reddit’s prior policy to not ban “questionable” content—and drew predictable outrage, given that its policy of non-intervention had fostered an explosion of very active fringe communities, many of them far to the right or openly racist.Members of the banned communities portrayed themselves as martyrs, while a slew of other Redditors argued either a free speech ethos requires tolerating hate speech or that the ban wouldn’t work. But a new study from Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and University of Michigan researchers suggests there’s little ambiguity: Banning horrible communities from taking root on Reddit worked.The researchers pulled over 100 million Reddit posts from before and after administrators banned the fat-shaming r/fatpeoplehate and white supremacist r/CoonTown board in 2015. They then developed a metric to quantify the level of hate speech in each of them.Of the thousands of active members of those boards, the team found, a significant percentage gave up and discontinued their accounts compared to the control group. Those that stayed were not whipped up into a greater fury, but instead decreased their level of hate speech “by at least 80 percent” in subsequent posts:For the banned community users that remained active, the ban drastically reduced the amount of hate speech they used across Reddit by a large and significant amount. Following the ban, Reddit saw a 90.63% decrease in the usage of manually filtered hate words by r/fatpeoplehate users, and a 81.08% decrease in the usage of manually filtered hate words by r/CoonTown users (relative to their respective control groups). The observed changes in hate speech usage were verified to be caused by the ban and not random chance, via permutation tests.According to the researchers, banning the two subreddits did not appear to “spread the infection” to others in some kind of rolling migration. Instead, r/CoonTown users tended to move to other forums where “racist behavior has either been noted or is prevalent,” including r/The_Donald, r/homeland and r/BlackCrimeMatters. Former r/fatpeoplehate users migrated to “qualitatively different” subreddits like r/RoastMe, or those dedicated to video games or TV shows.As the researchers explained:We observed no change in the hate speech usage of migrants in the invaded subreddits postban (p-value≥ 0.122; the lower-bound in Table 6), nor did we see any significant change in the hate speech usage of preexisting users in these subreddits (p-value≥ 0.136). In simpler terms, the migrants did not bring hate speech with them to their new communities, nor did the longtime residents pick it up from them.In short, the team concluded, the ban worked. They theorized that although hordes of people in the banned communities flooded through other parts of the site, administrators were successful in shutting down duplicate subreddits and moderators were able to maintain control of the other places they ended up.Beyond the initial bursts of anger, the site did not enter some kind of permanent rage spiral. By removing the communities driving the worst behavior on the site, Reddit purged part of the problem.The team did find evidence the bans sent racist, fat-shaming Redditors searching for other sites—making them “someone else’s problem.” But the places they ended up tended to be “darker corners of the internet” like “Voat, Snapzu, and Empeopled.”Shifting the buck doesn’t end the underlying problem, you say? That’s not the point of a moderation policy. From Reddit’s perspective, it doesn’t matter where Nazis are if they’re not ruining the site—and it probably doesn’t matter to other Redditors, either. Weeding your garden has a negligible impact on the worldwide population of weeds, but without weeding you don’t have a garden at all. You just got weeds.Moreover, there’s only so many places to shift the buck to. After an alleged neo-Nazi terror attack at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last month, tech companies have raced to enforce policies against hate speech, driving prominent neo-Nazi sites like Stormfront and the Daily Stormer off the public face of the web entirely. At some point, like when crowdfunding services like Patreon decided racists were no longer welcome, this has an impact on the far right’s ability to recruit and organize.Unfortunately, as Gizmodo reported last year, if the strategy worked in 2015, Reddit has not been consistent in its application—especially in the era of Donald Trump, when subreddits like r/The_Donald have seemingly become untouchable due to fears of another uprising or attacks Reddit is politically biased.There’s always the omnipresent and uncomfortable feeling that a number of web giants increasingly control access to the public sphere and could abuse that power, of course. But on the other hand, as has become repeatedly apparent with sites like Facebook, the powers that be are often disinterested in policing what goes on at all or set up bare-bones moderation that doesn’t protect users from harassment. This report is just a little more evidence that if they cared, they could try a little harder.[TechCrunch]