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2019-10-31 20:56:00

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Tuesday already had extremely high stakes: It was the second day of a hearing to decide if the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis could keep the license that allows its providers to perform abortions. If Missouri revokes the license, it would become the first state in the country without an abortion clinic in more than 40 years. Then, the state health director admitted that the department kept a spreadsheet that tracked the menstrual cycles of people who visited the clinic. It’s a harrowingly Big Brother-ish move by anti-choice government officials that would seem unimaginable—if the federal government hadn’t already engaged in similar behavior last year. Randall Williams, the Missouri state health director, testified that the state’s main inspector made a spreadsheet to attempt to figure out which patients “had undergone failed abortions,” meaning they had to return to the clinic for an additional procedure, according to the Kansas City Star. While the spreadsheet did not identify patients by name, the document included medical ID numbers and procedure dates, as well as the gestational age of the fetus and day of the patients’ last period, the newspaper reported. The Missouri department of health issued a statement denying allegations that Williams himself created the spreadsheet but acknowledged that others in the department did create such a document. Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said Williams’ spreadsheet was an “outrageous and disgusting” practice. “As part of Gov. Parson’s effort to end abortion access in Missouri, Williams manufactured a solution in search of a problem,” Rodriguez said in a statement. The Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (a Democrat) called the tracking spreadsheet “deeply disturbing” and questioned Williams’ fitness for a role in the state health department. “Governor Parson must immediately investigate whether patient privacy was compromised or laws broken and determine if this is a person who Missourians can be comfortable behaving in a position of public trust,” Quade said in a statement on Tuesday. NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri is calling for Williams to resign. Despite the immediate dystopian visions conjured by this Missouri spreadsheet, it’s not the first time government officials have engaged in tracking the periods of menstruating people whose bodies or medical records they have access to. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and is in charge of the care of all unaccompanied minors, kept increasingly close tabs on the goings on of every girl’s uterus in their custody before the courts stepped in. In 2017, then-agency head Scott Lloyd started to receive weekly reports on every unaccompanied minor who was pregnant and the details of her pregnancy. (In May 2019, a government transparency group published the actual spreadsheet, which the agency still seemed to be tracking until at least March of this year.) ORR tracked pregnancy tests, gestational age, whether the pregnancy was the result of rape and if it was reported, whether an abortion was requested as well as other notes like who who the father was (for example, “with 22 yo ex-boyfriend in [country of origin]”). The data from the centralized spreadsheet was then used to restrict the girls' access to abortion care or coerce them into carrying to term, as VICE News reported exclusively in February 2018. Brigitte Amiri, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project who represented four abortion-seeking teenagers in the lawsuit against ORR, told VICE on Wednesday that it's critical to ask why this level of tracking is even taking place. “Why was this tracking happening with such a level of detail to include last menstrual period and information about how the minor got pregnant? We still don’t have a good answer,” Amiri said of the ORR spreadsheet, and calling the Missouri aggregation of such data “creepy” and “bizarre.” Amiri said the surveillance by ORR and the state of Missouri were invasions of privacy. "To have your intimate information in the hands of the government for whatever the government’s purpose is in both situations is concerning,” Amiri said. But knowing exactly what this data will be used for can be tricky, as Amiri hasn’t deposed Lloyd. “It’s a mystery, and that just reinforces the idea that there should be no reason to keep this level of detail on any individual," Amiri told VICE. "There is no legitimate reason to track this level of detail of any person by the government.” At least one of the girls Amiri represented was detained in Texas, which bans abortions after 20 weeks. After weeks of delays, a judge ruled that Jane Doe could obtain an abortion, and she was more than 15 weeks along when she had the procedure. The spreadsheet in Missouri was used to determine that four patients had had “failed abortions” that weren’t properly reported to the state, an infraction the state could try to use to deny the clinic its license to perform abortions. While the period tracking may have different ends, the tactics are incredibly similar. “It’s odd, and I wonder if the official in Missouri got the idea from Scott Lloyd,” Amiri said. “Given how much the Trump administration has given the green light to anti-abortion politicians in the states to infringe on people’s right to access abortion, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was something ripped out of the Trump administration’s playbook.” Roe v. Wade found that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the "right to privacy" as enshrined in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And while fighting to hold up the right to abortion, it looks like the Missouri clinic and its supporters have stumbled down an entirely new path along that right to privacy. The hearings before the state's administrative hearing commission will continue all week, but a ruling isn’t expected until at least February 2020, the Associated Press reported. The Missouri clinic remains open in the meantime. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. Follow Caitlin Cruz on Twitter.

2016-07-08

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The themes in place for the last few weeks continued into the shortened July Fourth week as the debate over the true impact of Brexit played out in the markets both here and abroad, hope rising and waning over potential remedial monetary and fiscal policy activity yet to come from the ECB and the U.K. The FTSE 100, a concentrated index of British multinationals that benefit from the weakened sterling, rallied to pre-Brexit highs while the broader FTSE indices reflected a much more somber outlook as did the other European markets. The FOMC minutes were released on Wednesday and while the U.K. referendum played a role in the Fed's decision to delay any tightening measures, May's disappointing payrolls report (38,000 new jobs) and concerns about a slowing U.S. economy kept the committee on hold and the markets in a narrow range pending Friday's payroll report for June. Then bang! 8:30 a.m. arrived and the nonfarm payrolls release showed the biggest snap back ever recorded with 287,000 new jobs, blowing past consensus of 180,000. Revisions lifted April's number while dropping May to 11,000. Put in perspective, May's revised number was so weak that it is surpassed by the average attendance of an NHL or NBA regular season game. But it was the fear trade that caught everyone's attention as gold reached higher and U.S. Treasury yields hit record lows with the 10-year hitting 1.367 percent and the 30-year at 2.098 percent. Crude, its minute-to-minute price no longer front-page news, experienced a drop of more than 7 percent as inventories reflected higher-than-anticipated levels.

2016-03-17

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In the first few months of the Republican presidential primary, many journalists likened Trump to a drunk uncle, including me, even though none of my 12 uncles are anything like Trump, and my family doesn’t really drink. I think the metaphor suggests there was something familiar about Trump’s affect, but also a feeling of being forced to listen to him—Be polite to the old crank your aunt forced on us. There was a sense that, like an unwelcome relative, his visit would be bearably brief. Then, as Trump climbed higher and higher in the polls, journalists and politicians started calling him a carnival barker. It suggested more power than the drunk uncle, and a bigger audience, plus a sense that he was conning people out of their money. I always thought this was an awfully dated metaphor—who even goes to carnivals anymore? Wasn’t that a thing people did before TV? On Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast, linked in Playbook on Thursday, Republican strategist Mike Murphy says, “On television it’s a ratings war and Trump is a carnival, and carnivals get ratings. If Trump started doing human sacrifices they’d probably think, ‘How many cameras to bring?’” The comment feels especially stale. Now that he’s on track to win the GOP nomination, and is threatening riots if he doesn’t get it, the Trump threat is way beyond mistreated circus elephants. He’s lost any quirky, loveable con man charm. Trump’s audience is now on a mass scale, and he threatens to do massively horrible things, like expel millions of people from their homes. There is no room for subtlety. The Trump metaphor of the moment is Adolf Hitler.  Out of curiosity, I found the first NYT reference to Adolf Hitler. Nov. 21, 1922. Amazing last three paragraphs. pic.twitter.com/VhBnlSsfNm

2017-01-20 22:12:52

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Gail Collins WASHINGTON — Except for the cold weather, Barack Obama’s first inauguration reminded me a lot of Woodstock. Throngs of revelers wandering around with no idea whatsoever of where they were going. The crowd was so big, you worried that there’d be a stampede. But no. People bumped into one another, smiled and bumped on. One big beaming community. Peace, love and thermal underwear. Kind of knew Donald Trump’s day would be different. One hint came when the inaugural committee’s communications director said, “We are not putting on Woodstock.” You cannot blame our new president for the demonstrators … a very small number of whom were violent. You can totally blame him for the crowd that shouted “Lock her up!” when Hillary Clinton appeared at the swearing-in. In between you had a ton of peaceful protesters and cheerful celebrators, doing their best to move forward with their respective missions. “Those are tears of joy coming from heaven,” one man in the inaugural audience announced when it started to rain the moment Trump began to speak. Other quarters envisioned the judgment of a depressed deity. And it’s hard to have a love fest when the central character can’t stop bragging about what a big winner he is. “I think I outworked anybody who ever ran for office,” he said on Thursday. Take that, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. We will stop here briefly to ask ourselves how many rallies Donald Trump would have made if he’d had to campaign on horseback. O.K., let’s move on. Not a time for small-minded carping. Big carps only. A number of Democratic members of Congress boycotted the inauguration. This is perfectly fine, but not exactly a big achievement. Boycotting is only impressive if you actually would have liked being at the event. Announcing that you’re refusing to sit out in the dank cold to listen to the runner-up in a TV talent show sing the national anthem is not so much an act of heroism as a reprieve. Hillary Clinton didn’t boycott, although you could certainly understand if she had just decided to announce she was staying home until somebody came up with a good explanation for the Russian thing. But this is a woman who has never failed to show up for unpleasant duties. And Bernie Sanders was there, getting booed when his face appeared on the Jumbotron. Poor Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, couldn’t even read a letter from a Civil War soldier without getting catcalls. So definitely not Woodstockian. “In the event we are needed, we certainly will form a wall of meat,” promised Chris Cox, the founder of Bikers for Trump, offering what may have been the most memorable image of the inauguration. Even in desperate times, we give credit for originality. The man of the hour was particularly thrilled by the Bikers for Trump. “Boy, they had a scene today,” said the president-elect, describing what he thought was their arrival. “They had helicopters flying over a highway someplace in this country. And they had thousands of those guys coming into town.” Actually, the picture he was describing appeared to be from a 2013 blog post on safe biking in large groups. However, in the spirit of new beginnings, we are going to attempt to get through this week without devoting any more time than absolutely necessary to things the 45th president of the United States made up. Trump also tweeted a picture of himself, allegedly hard at work composing his Inaugural Address. Do you think he really wrote it, people? Cynical minds noted that he seemed to be staring at a blank piece of paper while wielding a Sharpie. All we know for sure is that his impromptu remarks during the inaugural run-ups had … a different tone. “I made a speech tonight at the Lincoln Memorial. … I thought it was a very good speech. … They never give you credit,” he complained at a dinner for his donors. The Lincoln Memorial event was the one where he overestimated the crowd and suggested inaugural concerts at the memorial were his idea. He also complained that nobody ever gives him credit. There was also the moment when Trump announced that he had nominated “by far the highest I.Q. of any cabinet ever assembled.” In honor of the inauguration we will not dwell on the fact that the guy he wants to be secretary of energy had no idea until very recently what the Department of Energy does. But about the Inaugural Address. It was definitely what our new president thinks of as inclusive. Instead of yelling about Democrats, he yelled about other countries. (“America first!”) He still seems to think that all poor neighborhoods are terror zones and public schools are something out of “Oliver Twist” (“An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”) And then it was over. Donald Trump is president. Wow. OpinionThe Editorial Board Opinionvideo

2019-06-03

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(Reuters) - Box Inc on Monday cut its full-year forecast below analysts’ estimates, citing longer sales cycles from larger deals, sending its shares down 13% in extended trading. Box’s first-quarter billings - revenue plus the change in deferred revenue - grew at a moderate rate of 1.4% to $118.4 million, falling short of analysts’ estimates of $120 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. “We did get off to a bit too slower start in Q1 than we would have hoped as billings landed at the low end of the range we’d expected due to the $100,000-plus deal counts coming in a bit below our expectations,” Chief Financial Officer Dylan Smith said, referring to the billing revenue. For the current quarter, the company expects billings growth to be in the mid-single digit range but sees second half of the year to track more closely to revenue growth. The company now expects full-year revenue in a range of $688 million to $692 million, compared with its previous forecast of $700 million to $704 million. Analysts were expecting $702 million. D.A. Davidson analyst Rishi Jaluria said the last quarter was widely viewed by investors as a “reset” to numbers, “but that does not appear to be the case”. Last month, rival Dropbox Inc raised its full-year revenue forecast and reported better-than-expected quarterly results, as it added more paying subscribers. Box’s revenue rose 16% to $163 million in the first quarter, above analysts’ estimates of $161.4 million. Net loss narrowed to 3 cents per share in the quarter ended April 30, from 7 cents a year earlier. Analyst had expected a loss of 5 cents per share. Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

2017-03-31

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Malaysian state-owned Petronas [PETR.UL] will collaborate with Singapore’s Pavilion Energy in trading liquefied natural gas (LNG), the companies said on Friday. The subsidiaries of the two firms, Petronas LNG and Pavilion Gas signed a memorandum of understanding on March 30. The firms will “explore the supply and optimization of LNG including spot trading and cargo swaps” and look at efforts “relating to LNG receiving terminal and storage facilities”, according to a statement issued by Pavilion Energy. Reporting by Mark Tay; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

2019-05-08 02:18:33

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A bombing outside one of Pakistan’s most revered Sufi shrines killed at least 10 people, including five police officers, and wounded at least 20 other people, officials said, raising new concerns about militant violence targeting a moderate strand of Islam. The bombing took place Wednesday morning in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, near the shrine of an 11th-century Sufi saint, Abul Hasan Ali Bin Usman, more popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri. Police officials said it destroyed a van carrying police commandos who were providing security at the shrine. Investigators were trying to determine who was behind the attack, which they said was a suicide bombing. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. “There were no specific threat alerts to the shrine, but it is always considered to be a high-security zone,” said Ashfaq Ahmad Khan, the deputy inspector general for operations of the Lahore police. The bombing broke a brief lull in militant violence in the country. It took place on the second day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Militants often carry out attacks during the month in the belief that those who die in battle during Ramadan will get more blessings from God in the afterlife. The shrine, popularly known as Data Darbar, is one of the major monuments and cultural landmarks of Lahore and attracts hundreds of devotees daily. The shrine complex remains busy throughout the day and late evenings as visitors throng it for prayers and alms. Adherents of Sufi Islam believe in mysticism and nonviolence, and Sufi saints are credited with spreading Islam throughout South Asia. But the Taliban and other Muslim militant groups spurn Sufi shrines and have often attacked Sufi mosques and shrines, accusing devotees of being heretics or apostates. Punjab’s chief minister, Usman Buzdar, called an emergency meeting to review security measures in the wake of the attack, officials said. The province has been put on high alert. Video broadcast by local news media showed a person who appeared to be a teenager walking toward the police van. Seconds later, there was a large explosion. An initial police investigation found that two unidentified men accompanied the bomber, walking with him toward the shrine from a nearby busy street. Then they shook hands with the bomber and disappeared into the neighborhood. At first, the bomber headed toward one of the entrances to the shrine, the authorities said, but then he took a turn from a small side street and walked up to the police van. The explosion shook nearby buildings and left a trail of destruction. In a statement, the United States Embassy in Islamabad strongly condemned the attack. “Such cowardly attacks stand in stark contrast to the peaceful spirit of Ramadan, and we send our deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” it said.

2018-02-21

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A New York man pleaded guilty Tuesday to threatening to kill Rep. John KatkoJohn Michael KatkoRepublicans should get behind the 28th Amendment Student loan borrowers are defaulting yearly — how can we fix it? Overnight Defense: Woman accusing general of sexual assault willing to testify | Joint Chiefs pick warns against early Afghan withdrawal | Tensions rise after Iran tries to block British tanker MORE (R-N.Y.) if he didn’t support net neutrality. Federal prosecutors announced that 28-year-old Patrick Angelo, of Syracuse, N.Y., pleaded guilty to a charge of interstate communication of a threat after leaving Katko a threatening voicemail in October. Angelo now faces the possibility of five years in prison. “By making threats to the lives of Congressman Katko and his family, the defendant potentially faces not only a significant prison sentence but also, as a convicted felon, a loss of his right to vote,” U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Ironically, yet fittingly, by abandoning rationale discourse and resorting to threats against a public official, the defendant has essentially rendered himself a mute in the political process.” Officials say Angelo threatened to kill Katko and his family if he didn’t try to save the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. “Listen Mr. Katko, if you support net neutrality, I will support you,” Angelo said in a voicemail left with Katko’s Washington, D.C., office, according to prosecutors. “But if you don’t support net neutrality, I will find you and your family, and I will kill you all. Do you understand?” The FCC voted to repeal net neutrality rules in December, but the move faces legal and legislative challenges from Democrats and other net neutrality supporters. 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.

2017-05-05

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But if she pulls out a surprising win, the markets could go haywire. Le Pen seems to think that if she wins, the money crowd will panic: A few days ago she talked about implementing capital controls in France if elected, to prevent a run on the banks. But it's fair to argue the other way: Remember that after the Dow futures dropped 800 points on Election Night, the markets roared at the open on Nov. 9. And they haven't stopped. You could add that after a panic sale in British stocks on the heels of the Brexit shocker, the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWU) is up more than 18 percent. National Front leader Marine Le Pen is expected to lose to Emmanuel Macron in France's presidential runoff election this Sunday. But for investors who monitor the markets and allocate assets globally but don't want to overreact — or underreact — here's a few ways to think about what a Le Pen shocker could mean for your money. France's $2.4 trillion economy is the sixth-largest in the world and vital to the continued viability of the European Union. Le Pen has indicated a desire to leave the EU and drop the euro. "Macron's first-round victory sparked a 'risk-on' rally in the markets around the world," noted Neena Mishra, director of ETF research at Zacks Investment Research. "Investors are already betting that political risks have disappeared and have been pouring money into European ETFs." In the past one-year period through May 3, the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) has taken in more than $11 billion. Its taken in more than $6.5 billion already this year. The Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA) is above $6 billion this year as well. These ETFs are roughly 45 percent European developed markets stocks. These two ETFs have together taken in as much this year from investors as the No. 1 ETF, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). The EAFE index has outperformed the S&P 500 this year, 11.7 percent vs. 7.4 percent, according to Morningstar data. The much smaller, iShares MSCI France ETF (EWQ) is up 14.6 percent this year and 18.5 percent in the past year. This big move into European stocks could come back to haunt investors. "The rally we had following the first round of the French election on April 23 sets investors up for major disappointment if far-right leader Le Pen wins," said Mitch Goldberg, president of investment advisory firm ClientFirst Strategy. He said investors generally do well by brushing aside big events, mostly because either the bad event never comes to be or if it does, it isn't nearly as bad as anyone expected. "Brexit and the Trump presidential victory are two glaring examples of that," Goldberg said. But he added, "I'm concerned that investors are getting a little too used to whistling past these events, a little too complacent. Bear markets are a part of investing, but investors clearly aren't in the mood to prepare for one." Unlike Britain, which never adopted the euro and has long stood figuratively and literally apart from mainland Europe, France is integral to the EU. That means the "consequences of 'Frexit' would be far more severe than those of Brexit," Mishra said. "The European Union can survive without Britain, but not without France. France is a core member of the union. If Le Pen wins, markets around the world would start pricing in Frexit risks." A Le Pen victory is a more immediate threat to France's economic reforms than to the future of the euro, said Paul Christopher, head global market strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute. That's because Le Pen would need to get the French General Assembly to go along with her plans to leave the euro zone, but her party currently controls only two of its 577 seats. Rather, Christopher sees a more pressing concern in Le Pen's plans to curb immigration and hinder recent French labor market reforms that make it easier to hire and lay off workers. A Le Pen victory would also embolden anti-immigrant, anti-euro populists in Italy, Christopher said. "These markets (France and Italy) are trade-orientated, and such changes would be a setback for earnings and investors in both nations." The iShares MSCI Italy Capped ETF (EWI) is up 10 percent this year and 12.5 percent in the past one-year period. Both Mishra and Todd Rosenbluth, senior director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA, noted that investors could consider putting some money into safe haven ETFs like State Street's SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) a $35 billion ETF that holds physical gold. "Gold gets bid up in times of uncertainty," Rosenbluth said. Mishra also cited Guggenheim's CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) and the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) as likely to profit from the short-term chaos that could ensue right after a Le Pen victory. A destabilization of the EU would hurt not only companies based there but also those that do business on the European continent, Rosenbluth said. Investments that don't depend on Europe, such as U.S. telecom, utility and real estate holdings would be little affected by a Le Pen victory, Rosenbluth said. Vanguard's U.S. REIT ETF (VNQ), BlackRock's Dow Jones U.S. Telecommunications ETF (IYZ) and State Street's Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) may all seem attractive, he said. One broader headwind: a main attraction for investors is big dividend yields, which has been made less attractive as rates rise. Goldberg expects the usual "flight to safety" investments — gold, U.S. Treasury bonds and Japanese government bonds, the dollar, and the yen — will be immediate winners if the bears are unleashed after a Le Pen win. Some investors may also bulk up on safe havens today, the last chance to prepare ahead of time for a Le Pen upset. But one rule of thumb carries weight in the markets regardless of elections: "Buying on the rumor and selling on the news is literally part of Wall Street dogma," Goldberg said. "Once the event passes and investors see that the lights are still on, those assets will probably just sell off on a Macron victory, or have a quick pop up on a Le Pen win and then sell off," he said. —By Joe D'Allegro, special to CNBC.com

2018-07-21

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Jewell Loyd scored a season-high 31 points as the Seattle Storm increased their lead in the WNBA’s overall standings to three games with a 78-65 victory against the host Connecticut Sun on Friday night. Former UConn star Sue Bird added 17 points and five assists for Seattle (18-6), which won its third game in a row and its eighth in nine games. Loyd shot 11-for-15 from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range. She added five rebounds and a game-high four steals. She fell two points shy of her career-high of 33, set last Aug. 27 against Phoenix. The Storm overcame a rare off night from Breanna Stewart, the league’s leading scorer. The former UConn standout was held to 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting. Stewart did have six rebounds and three assists. Chiney Ogwumike almost single-handedly kept Connecticut (12-12) in the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds. She was the only Sun player in double-figures for either category. After trailing 33-29 at the half, the Storm outscored the Sun 23-15 in the third quarter to take a 52-48 lead into the fourth. The Sun pulled within 54-53 on Shekinna Stricklen’s 3-pointer with 8:27 left, but Loyd made a driving layup and then a 3-pointer to extend the margin to 59-54. Bird made two 3-pointers to give the Storm a 67-58 lead with 5:03 left. After Connecticut’s Jonquel Jones made two free throws to cut the margin to 67-60, Seattle used an 11-0 run to pull away. Loyd scored the first eight points of that streak, on two free throws and two 3-pointers. The Sun started the game hot, taking an 11-4 advantage in the opening 5:08 and leading 15-10 at the end of the first quarter. Ogwumike had 15 points and eight rebounds by the intermission, as the Sun built a 24-13 edge on the boards. Stewart was held scoreless in the first quarter and had five points and four rebounds by the half. Loyd scored 11 points in the first half to keep the Storm close, and her jumper with 3:06 left in the second quarter gave Seattle its first lead. —Field Level Media

2016-01-27 07:33:46

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Austin-based The Zebra, a startup that’s something of a “Kayak for auto insurance,” has been working to bring the process of shopping for insurance online, where consumers can more transparently compare quotes and understand how insurance companies determine rates. Now the company has raised an additional $17 million in Series A funding led by Ballast Point Ventures. The round also includes new investors Daher Capital, along with Mark Cuban, Mike Maples Jr. (Floodgate), Simon Nixon (Moneysupermarket), and Silverton Partners. Originally started in 2012 in Pittsburgh, The Zebra’s co-founder and CEO Adam Lyons had previously worked in the car insurance industry, where he learned first-hand how the underwriting and brokerage side of the business works. But he also knew that consumers often lacked that same understanding. With The Zebra, the idea is to offer a way for consumers to get real-time quotes from car insurance companies by filling out a simple online form. As the driver steps through this form, answering more questions about things like their age, driving record, and credit score, the quotes increase in accuracy. This process also helps to educate drivers, who may not have realized how the different insurance companies price their risk. And because The Zebra itself is not an insurance agency, it’s not biased toward sending customers to one company or another. Today, drivers who complete the process can compare side-by-side quotes in a matter of minutes from over 200 insurance companies across all 50 states. The technology on The Zebra’s back-end uses public state filing data and data from insurance companies, along with machine learning, to arrive at its quotes. Over the past year, The Zebra has expanded its direct relationships with over 40 of the top insurance companies in the U.S., says The Zebra co-founder and COO Joshua Dziabiak. In addition, the company delivered 3.5 million quotes last year, saving drivers an average of $368 per year, he notes, and has been growing at 35 percent month-over-month in 2015. In addition to offering quotes, The Zebra also lets drivers learn about the companies’ coverage, read customer reviews, and evaluate claims satisfaction, among other things. When the consumer is ready to buy, The Zebra facilitates that transaction on its own website. To date, insurers have been open to working with the startup, not just because of the lead gen possibilities, but because it’s helping to get them the risks they prefer. With the additional funding, The Zebra plans to increase its efforts around customer acquisition and business development, as well as expand its licensed agent call center in Austin. On the product side, the plan is to introduce new educational tools that will further explain to drivers what’s behind their rates. These will also show drivers how they can reduce their costs while increasing their coverage, notes Dziabiak. The company will focus on building out more direct integrations with brand-name insurers, as well, and add newer insurance products, like those that are usage-based (pay-per-mile). To date, The Zebra has raised over $21 million in outside investment.

2019-08-07 00:00:00

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Robert Durst got away with murder, according to his deceased wife's family, and he just beat them in court. A judge dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Kathleen Durst, who disappeared in 1982. Her body was never found, but a judge subsequently ruled in 2017 her date of death was the same day she disappeared -- January 31, 1982. Durst was widely suspected of killing her, but he was never charged. He has been charged with the murder of his good friend, Susan Berman, who prosecutors believe knew he murdered Kathleen. As for the wrongful death lawsuit, a judge just said the family waited too long to file it and the 2-year statute of limitations has long-since run. There's a twist in all of this ... the lawsuit could be filed -- even long after the statute of limitations had run -- if Durst were in criminal court over Kathleen's murder. Her family argued the criminal case did involve Kathleen's murder, because prosecutors believe Durst killed Susan Berman because she was going to blow the whistle on him over Kathleen's death. They felt that wasn't a direct tie ... or at least not enough to allow a wrongful death suit. Durst was arrested and charged with Susan Berman's murder after the show "The Jinx" aired on HBO. You hear Durst in the bathroom, thinking his microphone was off, saying, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."

2016-02-22 00:00:00

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In addition to the woodland caribou, the bighorn sheep, and the masked bobwhite, you can add this to America’s list of endangered species: the small credit union. Chalk up that threat to the same culprit: Humans. In this case, it’s death by a thousand paper cuts from Washington legislators and regulators who have been carving up small financial institutions with compliance costs since the Great Recession. Worse, the prognosis in the Capitol is for more of the same bad medicine. America’s credit unions were not the cause of the financial crisis. On the contrary, our not-for-profit, member-owned, cooperative business model guides us to serve our members with attractive rates on savings, loans and credit cards rather than piling on risk to please shareholders with a higher dividend or rising stock price on Wall Street. Yet, since passage of Dodd-Frank in 2010, which led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), regulatory costs for credit unions have risen by 39 percent. While this hits all of America’s credit unions regardless of size and impacts the financial benefits they extend to members, it hammers small credit unions and the communities they serve particularly hard. That’s because smaller financial institutions lack the scale to spread their regulatory costs across a larger base. Typically, they’re forced to dig out from the regulatory blizzard by adding costly staff or reducing services that benefit their members. And by comparison, even the largest credit unions are small when compared to the trillion-dollar mega banks that destroyed the American economy in the financial crisis. In response to growing concerns of credit unions across the U.S., our trade association commissioned a study to gather hard numbers from credit unions to quantify the damage and delivered the results this week to Congress. Our findings: The regulatory cost impact on the credit union industry was $6.1 billion in 2014 and the lost revenues to credit unions from services that were discontinued or reduced because of added regulation is at least an additional $1.1 billion. This total impact of $7.2 billion is equivalent to an astonishing 80 percent of credit union industry earnings and six percent of our credit unions’ net worth. The disproportionate impacts from Dodd-Frank, the Durbin Amendment, the CFPB and the bureau’s Qualified Mortgage Standard, and other regulations are borne by credit unions, particularly ones with assets of $100 million or less. These firms already face a significant challenge in keeping up with the rapid technological changes in the financial services industry. Add in the unnecessary burdens from Washington and the effects can be devastating, which is why industry-wide consolidation is picking up speed. Membership in credit unions has grown to a record 105 million member-owners, but the number of credit unions that serve those members has decreased by 25 percent since the beginning of the financial crisis. Among the 6,000 credit unions that remain, large and small, our study found they now spend over a quarter of their staff time dealing with the impacts of regulations. How did this happen, when the stated goal of financial reform was to rein in “big banks” and those considered too big to fail? In a bid to clean up a broken financial system, Washington rounded up more than the usual suspects. It threw in innocent entities like credit unions and community banks that played no role in the financial crisis and should have been held harmless. We recognize that we operate in a regulated industry and that there is a related cost of doing business. However, the recent increase has been excessive, and we would provide more benefit to our members and our communities if we spent less on compliance and more on member services: lower interest rates for consumers buying a house or a car, and higher interest rates on savings. That is why we ask for a pause in the promulgation of further regulation and the enactment of compromise legislation to roll-back laws that are causing the damage to credit unions and other smaller institutions, or to exempt them from these laws. For America’s small credit unions, regulatory restraint would offer more than relief in terms of costs and a boon to their members. It could be a lifesaver. Nussle served in the House from 1991 to 2007, and was director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2007 to 2009.  He is the president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). 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.

2017-04-27 00:00:00

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“Do you want a coffee?” he asks, proffering the pot. “It’s still warm. Organic Costa Rican.” This is just how you imagined it would begin, your visit with Too Much Coffee Man. How could it be otherwise? You drink deeply. It’s your sixth cup of the morning, but no matter. You silently recite the prayer to the Maker: “You inspire me to rise from bed, sustain me through years of tortuous vapidity. You have filled my cup and so filled my soul. I can now endure the hardships of an otherwise banal and meaningless existence.” Ahhh. You may proceed now, telling the story of a cartoon character perfect for our cuticle-chewing times: Too Much Coffee Man. *** His comic books sell remarkably well, Hollywood and MTV are eyeing his work, he’s illustrating a book by punk rocker Henry Rollins, he’s even done a commercial for Converse sneakers -- but Shannon Wheeler hasn’t percolated yet into the general public’s consciousness. “I’m still totally marginal,” Wheeler says. In another era, he would have been called “underground.” But Wheeler’s creation, known by the abbreviation TMCM, has become a word-of-mouth sensation. An awkward anti-superhero with a huge cup of coffee fused to his skull, TMCM is an icon for the Starbucks generation -- following the tradition of the hippies’ “Mr. Natural” (drawn by Robert Crumb) and “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” (by Gilbert Shelton). Wheeler, the 30-year-old son of California commune dwellers, draws and writes in the same caustic, kooky and endearing style of his ‘60s forebears. His work appeals to all manner of java drinkers (including women, who usually don’t go in for comic books), but it’s not about coffee, actually. It’s about existential angst, mental imbalance and addictive personalities -- all the really funny stuff. “If I was trying to write a character about coffee, I’d run dry,” Wheeler says. “There’s about eight coffee jokes. But in terms of personal psychology, there’s gotta be at least 520 jokes.” He’s into his third lunch-time refill at a Lower East Side diner. “It’s metaphor,” Wheeler says of coffee. “It’s just a keyhole into what’s wrong with my own brain. Coffee is the same thing as being manic-depressive, or having any sort of mood swing, or emotional disorder.” For the record, Wheeler isn’t nuts -- he’s well scrubbed, upbeat and organized, as is required of a self-publishing cartoonist who even has his own line of merchandise (including TMCM mugs and, yes, coffee). But as is often the case with artists, the work may speak more eloquently than the creator. Bereft of superpowers, Too Much Coffee Man often attempts to salve his depressions with more coffee -- to no avail. He strives to “save the universe,” but ends up doing absolutely nothing. “My reality maintained,” he sighs, sinking into an armchair with a cup and a cigarette, “I am happy.” Besides ridiculously stretching the whole concept with sidekicks named Too Much Espresso Guy and Too Much German White Chocolate Woman With Almonds, the comic includes other self-absorbed story lines. There’s one about the romantic travails of a pathetic-loser coffee shop denizen in his twenties -- a TMCM reader, of course. And TMCM’s creator frequently appears: Wheeler draws himself as a square-toothed hulk straining for unique ideas and being taunted by his readers for becoming popular. “You lucked out with your gimmicky character,” one tells him. “You were smart to do a coffee character. Coffee is trendy.” Which brings us to why Wheeler is temporarily in New York instead of Austin, where he lives and sometimes hangs with the likes of director Richard Linklater (”Slacker,” “Suburbia”) and Mike Judge, who created “Beavis and Butt-head.” After several years of flying under the cultural radar, Wheeler has attracted the attention of TV animation developers on both coasts. He’s had meetings at the MTV animation division here, which is seeking projects to satisfy its ever-shifting standard of what’s cool. MTV nurtures artists who are up-and-coming but not overly exposed. If something’s being pitched as highly popular with the kids, forget it. “By being new,’ it’s old,” says Eric Calderon, 25, one of the network’s talent developers. He saw a TMCM comic and sought out Wheeler by e-mail (the cartoonist also has his own World Wide Web site, of course: www.tmcm.com). “We’re in the pre-commitment stage,” says John Andrews, vice president of MTV Animation. “But I do think that Shannon has a unique and intriguing view of human nature.” Viacom, which owns MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, has budgeted $420 million over the next five years for animation. One goal is to discover another cash cow like “Beavis and Butt-head,” which has spun off platinum albums and a movie. At InVision Entertainment in Sherman Oaks, Calif., the goal is to find another mainstream hit like “The Simpsons.” InVision, which develops cartoons for Saturday morning audiences, has optioned Wheeler’s characters for a possible animated series aimed at the 22- to-34-year-old prime-time sitcom audience. “I hate to use these pitch phrases, but we call it Seinfeld meets Dr. Katz,’ “ says InVision producer Michael Hack, referring to the hugely popular NBC series and Comedy Central’s lesser-known cartoon psychotherapist. Too Much Coffee Man doesn’t spout punch lines; he offers skewed aphorisms. Among them: Life is short, and getting shorter by the minute. If you’re going to do something to excess, you might as well go overboard. Unrequited love is like hitting your head against a wall that isn’t there. There is a fine line between sayings that make sense. The humor is based on conversation, banal experiences and lethargy. Which gives TMCM that magical “nonstory aspect of Seinfeld,’ “ Hack reasons. Another show about . . . nothing! Adult viewers tend to favor animation when the characters are comically troubled. Dr. Katz’s clients are obviously neurotic -- and the Simpsons, Hack points out, are a “classic dysfunctional family.” It’s also worth noting that “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening got his start in underground comics and still cranks out the “Life in Hell” panel for free weeklies. Wheeler’s stuff appears in a few alternative papers and also in his hometown newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. But he concentrates on his comic book -- “I write it, draw it, publish it, sell it, call up the stores” -- which first appeared in 1992. The market for edgy, self-published comics -- as opposed to the spandex superhero lines like Marvel -- is small. Few of today’s underground “comix” artists gain the exposure of, say, Charles Burns, whose work has appeared on the cover of the New Yorker. Most are lucky to sell 3,000 copies of their editions; Wheeler has sold as many as 30,000. Wheeler got his start drawing a strip for the student newspaper at the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied architecture. When he graduated in 1989, he decided against an architecture career because of the need to spend long years in dull apprenticeships. “I didn’t want to wait till I was 50 to begin expressing myself creatively,” Wheeler says. Both his mother and father are artists. Wheeler’s dad bought 300 acres of land in Northern California in 1962, after receiving a sizable inheritance. “He then declared open-land policy so anyone who wanted to could come and live on his land for free. They started a commune that way.” Wheeler says his father recently told him, “Son, it’s taken me my entire life but I’ve finally done it. I’m finally poor.” At a young age, Wheeler was exposed to one of the great lampoons of the hippie era, Gilbert Shelton’s “Freak Brothers.” An uncle in Austin knew Shelton, whose comic books featured dope jokes by the kilo, horny revolutionaries and a geeky reporter who transformed himself into an inept superhero named Wonder Wart-Hog. “The Freak Brothers’ were a big influence on me, obviously,” says Wheeler. “Those were some of the funniest comics ever.” Shelton now lives in France (Wheeler visited him a few years ago) along with Crumb, a brilliant satirist who grew to despise American culture and rue the popularity of his own creations. Unlike them, Wheeler embraces the notion of commercial success -- though he doesn’t bank on it. “Comics is a lot like the music business,” he says. “Except there’s no money, no women and no fame.” While visiting New York he stayed in a friend’s apartment near Tompkins Square Park, which isn’t exactly glamour central. Walking back one day from his favorite cyber-cafe on Avenue A, Alt.Coffee, he saw his first corpse -- a man so obviously deceased that the paramedics were lollygagging around. Sensing potential material, the cartoonist stopped to observe. “He was face-down and had nice tennis shoes on, $70 Nikes,” Wheeler recalls. “I assumed it was a gunshot and I was looking for the big pool of blood -- I’m like a foot away from the dead guy! I sort of angle around him and walk down the block thinking, Oh, a dead guy in New York.’ “And I walked about three blocks and I realized, I wasn’t shocked. And I wasn’t in shock. I’m like, Hmmm. Look at that.’ “ Hmmm. A real superhero might have charged off in search of the bad guy. But Too Much Coffee Man is only human. *** Wheeler lightens his coffee with some cream. Takes a satisfying sip. “A slow boil,” he says. That’s what modern life has become. “Every year they have to raise the volume on the sirens a little bit.” And another thing: “There are all these invisible rays bouncing off of us constantly; all the television channels are going all the time, and they’re constantly bouncing off us or shooting through us -- an invisible barrage of media.” “That’s a weird thing to think about,” Wheeler admits. “You can be a stoner and think about it, or you can just be a philosopher. Or you can be a mental patient.” Or you can be a cartoonist who’s had a bit too much coffee.

2019-05-15 00:00:00

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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) broke from his fellow conservatives on Tuesday, voting against President Trump's federal judge nominee, Michael J. Truncale, after he vilified former President Obama, calling him an "un-American imposter" in 2011, reports the Washington Post. Why it matters: Romney was the only voting senator to break from the party line and vote against the nomination. He has been one of the more vocal Republicans to come out against the president consistently since Trump entered the White House, commenting that Trump has "not risen to the mantle of the office," and in April, saying he was "sickened" by the findings of the Mueller report. Details: Truncale was confirmed by the Senate by a 49-46 vote to the Eastern District of Texas, per the Washington Post. He claimed his comments about Obama were "merely expressing frustration by what I perceived as a lack of overt patriotism on behalf of President Obama," reports Politico.

2016-03-10 00:54:56

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world briefing Defiant in her closing statement on Wednesday to a Russian court, a Ukrainian pilot, Nadezhda Savchenko, brandished her middle finger, burst into the Ukrainian national anthem and declared her trial in the death of two Russian journalists to be “the farce of Kremlin puppets.” Ms. Savchenko was detained under murky circumstances in 2014 while she was fighting as a member of a volunteer brigade against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia claims she was acting as a spotter and called in the coordinates for a mortar attack that killed the journalists and several other civilians. Ms. Savchenko denies the allegation, and the Ukrainian government says she was abducted by Russia and should be treated as a prisoner of war. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany are among those who have called for her release. The verdict is expected on March 21. Ms. Savchenko’s lawyers say that conviction is a foregone conclusion; the only question is whether the court will impose the 23 years in prison sought by prosecutors.

2018-09-18 00:00:00

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military on Tuesday blamed Syria for the downing of a Russian plane, saying that Syrian anti-aircraft batteries “fired indiscriminately” and “did not bother” to ensure that no Russian planes were in the air. A statement issued by the Israel Defence Forces said its fighter jets had “targeted” a Syrian facility that it said was about to transfer weapons to Hezbollah on behalf of Iran, but that when the Russian plane was downed the Israeli jets “were already within Israeli airspace.” Reporting by Stephen Farrell

2016-08-31 21:11:29

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From the player’s box at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Piotr Wozniacki was desperately trying to calm his daughter down below. His signals were nothing fancy or too intricate. Just palms down: Take it easy. Hands pushing forward: Move up toward the baseline during rallies. His daughter, Caroline, did not seem to notice. It all seemed hopeless. She was down, 0-4, in the first set to a searing Svetlana Kuznetsova, and was at 0-30 in the fifth game after muffing a backhand. But then everything changed. Up was down. Wide was on the line. In one of the most acute U-turns ever seen at the United States Open, Caroline Wozniacki captured that fifth game and the next six games in a row on the way to a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory Wednesday over Kuznetsova, the No. 9 seed. “Five minutes ago I was up, 4-0, and then I’ve lost the set,” Kuznetsova said. “One or two points, then she started to believe.” It happened that quickly, yet it had taken a long time for Wozniacki to get here. Her season had been something of a disaster, wrecked by injury and unexpected defeat. Wozniacki was stuck at home for three months recovering from a severe ankle problem. She was knocked out early or forced to withdraw from the hardcourt prep tournaments this summer. Six years ago, she sat atop the world rankings. This year she came to Flushing Meadows at No. 74, a number that did not seem to fit the name. “I always believe in myself, and I always think that in my head I belong to the top of the game,” Wozniacki said. “I’m going to have tough draws because of my ranking, but at the end of the day I’m healthy, and that’s the main thing. Then I can start building from that.” Wozniacki is an open book of sorts, and a celebrity. She had a very public romance and breakup with the golfer Rory McIlroy, and along the way she has dallied with modeling, run the New York City Marathon and become close friends with Serena Williams. When Wozniacki caught a braid in a tennis racket at this tournament two years ago, losing the point, she smiled at herself. The fans loved that, as well as all the off-court news, even if she might have been spreading herself too thin. Lately, though, Wozniacki was throwing her racket around, not having nearly as much fun. There were rumors of retirement. “I wasn’t thinking about quitting,” she said. “I mean, I know that I have a lot of opportunities, I have a lot of other interests, and my life is going to be good regardless. But I’m still young. Hopefully I have a few more years in me.” So Wozniacki, 26, dug in when she was losing, and of course she knew that with Kuznetsova anything could happen. They had played these seesaw matches 12 times before, splitting the results, as Kuznetsova went up and down in her own indecipherable fashion. Early in the match on Wednesday, Kuznetsova looked very much like the player who captured the Open title in 2004. Clothesline shots whizzed from her racket and struck paint, and she was very much in control. “At first, every big point, Svet won,” Piotr Wozniacki said after the match. “But Caroline was very strong mentally. She made her hit extra shot, extra shot, extra shot.” Caroline Wozniacki was at her best again, a human backboard. Those extra shots by Kuznetsova, even easy overheads to close out long rallies, found the net. By the end, Kuznetsova had committed 31 unforced errors in 20 games. Wozniacki became confident enough to go more often for the lines and struck 24 winners altogether, 11 of them with her renowned backhand. “I’ve had matches against Svet where she’s been killing me on court, 6-1, 4-1, and I came back to win in three sets,” Wozniacki said. “I had to make her run, play to my strengths.” And, yes, she absorbed at least one aspect of her father’s marginally illegal counsel. “I was running too far behind the baseline,” Wozniacki said. “As the match went on, I tried to step up.” She stepped up, literally and figuratively. She desperately wanted to win here, and now the brackets have opened wide for her. “My favorite court, my favorite fans,” she said of Ashe Stadium. Her opponent obliged a little, too.

2017-10-19 00:00:00

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Team USA gymnastics stars Nastia Liukin and Laurie Hernandez say they did NOT experience abuse at the hands of former team doctor Larry Nassar -- but they feel horrible for those who did. "We feel for them," Liukin said on the way to a charity event in NYC ..."Our hearts and prayers go out to all that were affected." One of those affected is McKayla Maroney -- who says Nassar repeatedly sexually abused her during her gymnastics career ... beginning at age 13. Maroney's 2012 Olympics teammate Gabby Douglas was also out in NYC last night -- and says she has not spoken with McKayla since she went public with the allegations ... but insinuated that she would be reaching out. Besides Maroney, more than 120 women claim they were victimized by Nassar. For his part, he claims he was just performing routine medical procedures.

2019-07-02

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A former sheriff suspended over his office’s response to the Parkland, Fla. high school shooting is looking to get his old job back, CBS News reports. Scott Israel, who was suspended in January, reportedly filed paperwork on Monday to run for reelection as Broward County sheriff in the 2020 Democratic primary. "I want to get back to working with the incredible men and women of the Broward County Sheriff's Office," Israel said, according to CBS. "I want to get back to my communities." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisRonald Dion DeSantisFlorida first lady to miss Women for Trump event due to planned execution Florida governor orders criminal investigation into handling of Jeffrey Epstein case Groups ask court to block ex-felon voting law in Florida MORE (R) announced Israel’s suspension in January, nearly one year after a gunman charged Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 people. Israel was suspended for “repeated failures, incompetence and neglect of duty,” as well as his “pattern of poor leadership,” DeSantis said. “Our training was industry-standard training,” Israel told CBS. “The same training as many other sheriffs and police departments.” The former sheriff faced backlash over reports that his office received 18 tips about the suspect before the massacre, and that deputies did not confront the shooter during the attack. Two Broward County deputies were fired after the shooting, and the department lost its accreditation in the aftermath of the incident. Sheriff Gregory Tony, who replaced Israel, plans to run again in 2020, CBS reports. 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.

2016-09-20

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SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The following is a list of key elements of a new five-year capital spending plan unveiled by Brazil’s state-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Tuesday. It supersedes an earlier investment program for 2015-2019. ** The company known as Petrobras pledges to invest $74.1 billion between 2017 and 2021, 25 percent less than it budgeted for the 2015-2019 plan. ** Of the total for the five years ending in 2021, 82 percent - or about $60.8 billion - will go to exploration and production; about 17 percent, or $12.6 billion, is earmarked for refining and natural gas; the remaining 1 percent, or about $700 million, is allocated to other areas. ** The company set a goal of reducing debt to the equivalent of 2.5 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in 2018 from 5.3 times EBITDA in 2015. ** Under the new plan, Petrobras plans to produce 2.77 million barrels a day of crude oil in Brazil in 2021. Its total domestic and international oil and natural gas production would be equivalent to 3.41 million barrels a day. ** Petrobras also targeted about $19.5 billion in asset sales, partnerships and joint ventures for the 2017-2021 period, up from $15.1 billion in the prior plan. ** The Rio de Janeiro-based company expects to generate, under those assumptions, an operational cash flow worth $158 billion, after dividends, for the five-year period. ** Petrobras also pledged to reduce the rate of registered accidents by 36 percent by 2018. Following is a table with comparisons with the prior five-year investment plan: 2017-2021 2015-2019 Period Period E&P Investments $60.8 bln $79.7 bln Share (%) 82 pct 81 pct Refining, Gas $12.6 bln $16.7 bln Investments Share (%) 17 pct 17 pct Other Investments $0.7 bln $2 bln Share (%) 1 pct 1 pct TOTAL $74.1 bln $98.4 bln Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Jeb Blount; Editing by W Simon

2016-06-13 00:00:00

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Jacob Gal burst into tears as he recalled waking up Sunday morning to news of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest in US history. Hundreds of people walked past him inside Toronto's Barbara Hall Park, in the heart of the city's LGBT district, for a candlelight vigil that evening to show solidarity and mourn the deaths of 50 people, and the more than 50 others who were injured. "It happened far away, but it affects us all," Gal, a community organizer for York Pride Fest in Toronto, said as he wept. "It strikes us here at home." Other LGBT communities around the world also gathered in the aftermath of the Sunday attack to show their support. Shots were fired between 2 and 5 am Sunday morning into a crowd of people drinking and dancing at Pulse, a popular club in downtown Orlando. Gunman Omar Siddiqui Mateen was eventually shot and killed following an hours-long standoff with police. Mateen's father told NBC News that his son became angry upon seeing two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago. According to news reports, Mateen pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State in a 911 phone call just before the attack took place. Law enforcement are treating the incident as an act of terrorism. Jacob Gal burst into tears as he recalled waking up Sunday morning to news of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest in US history. Hundreds of people walked past him inside Toronto's Barbara Hall Park, in the heart of the city's LGBT district, for a candlelight vigil that evening to show solidarity and mourn the deaths of 50 people, and the more than 50 others who were injured. "It happened far away, but it affects us all," Gal, a community organizer for York Pride Fest in Toronto, said as he wept. "It strikes us here at home." Other LGBT communities around the world also gathered in the aftermath of the Sunday attack to show their support. Shots were fired between 2 and 5 am Sunday morning into a crowd of people drinking and dancing at Pulse, a popular club in downtown Orlando. Gunman Omar Siddiqui Mateen was eventually shot and killed following an hours-long standoff with police. Mateen's father told NBC News that his son became angry upon seeing two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago. According to news reports, Mateen pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State in a 911 phone call just before the attack took place. Law enforcement are treating the incident as an act of terrorism. The night after the attack, dozens of impromptu vigils were held in cities across the US, including in Newtown, Connecticut, the scene of the mass shooting at a children's school in 2012, and at the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar in New York City considered the birthplace of the gay rights movement, where a rally for victims turned into a march on Union Square. Photos from the vigil for victims of the Pulse hate crime happening this evening at the historic Stonewall Inn NYC — Common Gay Boy (@CGBPosts)June 12, 2016 In Paris, about 100 people — many wearing rainbow and American flags and carrying signs that said "Proud" and "To Orlando, we have love" — came together at Place Igor Stravinsky to light candles for those who lost their lives. On Monday, Londoners will hit the streets of Soho to pay their respects. The group's Facebook page, London Stands with Orlando, urges people to donate to LGBT rights group Equality Florida. Nearly 400 people showed up in Sydney Australia for a vigil Monday night, as the Sydney Harbor Bridge glowed with rainbow lights. "Particularly when you go to a venue like a gay club, you expect that to be one of the places where you feel safe and supported," said one attendee. In — Raphael Satter (@razhael)June 12, 2016 The Orlando attack has served as a stark reminder of the ongoing discrimination and violence faced by LGBT people in the US and abroad — including LGBT Muslims. It's disturbing how practiced our queer communities are in holding vigils. The vigil in Toronto comes as the city kicked off its first-ever Pride month, ahead of the Pride parade in July, one of the biggest LGBT festivals in the world. "Someone asked me 'Why Pride?" Ontario's premier Kathleen Wynne, the first woman and openly gay premier elected in Canada, told the audience. "Because, Orlando." "What happened in Orlando happened to all of us," Wynne continued. Before candles were lit, many prominent local and federal politicians and LGBT Muslim activists spoke to the crowd about Islamophobia, and what the events in Orlando mean for the community. Pride organizers have said there will be heightened security and police presence at events throughout the month. Lighting candles — Rachel Browne (@rp_browne)June 13, 2016 "Last night was a moment of hatred," one of the organizers told the crowd, before someone read out the first verses of the Quran in Arabic. "Tonight, we have to say that do not give into hatred and fear." One Toronto city councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam, introduced her "queer Muslim fiancée" Farrah Khan to the audience — speaking publicly about their engagement for the first time. "When people hate queers, they hate us. When people hate Muslims, they hate us," Wong-Tam added. "We will never be silent or be silenced." Khan, a well-known sexual violence activist in Toronto, later told VICE News it's more important than ever for queer Muslims to come out of the shadows in the wake of the events in Orlando. "We have been in fear for so long ... Queer Muslims exist and we are going to be a part of our community," she said. "We need everyone to address Islamophobia, that [the gunman] does not define our community." After most of the crowd has dissipated, two young women, Sophie and Kristina sat on a ledge holding hands. Two flickering candles sat on the rainbow flag they placed near their feet. Sophie and Kristina say they're here for all of their friends who were too scared to come tonight — Rachel Browne (@rp_browne)June 13, 2016 "We're here for all of our friends who were too scared to come here because they thought it was too dangerous," said Sophie. "Everyone is worried about what could happen, because it could happen here or anywhere at any time. You never know." "Having pride is being open about who you are. And we have worked so very hard to get here, and we cannot give into fear, because that means we've lost." Related: America's LGBT Community Is Reeling After the Orlando Nightclub Massacre Follow Rachel Browne on Twitter: @rp_browne

2017-12-18 00:00:00

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Dec 18 (Reuters) - Benchmark Electronics Inc: * BENCHMARK ELECTRONICS APPOINTS ROOP K. LAKKARAJU AS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER * BENCHMARK ELECTRONICS INC - LAKKARAJU REPLACES DON ADAM, WHO WILL BE RETIRING FROM COMPANY AT END OF YEAR Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2019-01-14

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(CNN)Stormy Daniels is suing several members of the Columbus, Ohio, police department's vice unit for civil rights violations over her arrest last year at a strip club in the city. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing for false arrest, malicious prosecution, conspiracy to violate the Fourth and 14th amendments and two accusations of abuse of process violating Ohio law. She's asking for more than $1 million in compensatory damages, more than $1 million in punitive damages and costs and fees associated with the case. She is accusing the vice officers of targeting her in a July operation because they were avowed supporters of President Donald Trump and "believed that Ms. Clifford was damaging President Trump and ... entered into a conspiracy to arrest her" in retaliation for embarrassing the President, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. Police said at the time that Daniels was arrested for allegedly violating a no-touch law during her striptease performance at the Sirens Strip Club in Columbus. Three undercover police officers reported touching or being touched by Daniels. Charges against the adult-film actress were dropped 12 hours after the arrest. In the months before the arrest, Daniels had been speaking out about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump in 2006, and the $130,000 in hush money she had been paid days before the 2016 presidential election through a shell company set up by then-candidate Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen. In her lawsuit against the Columbus officers who arrested her, she mentions pro-Trump Facebook posts by one of them. The posts were subsequently taken down. She also mentions emails sent by other officers, which Daniels' attorney argues shows she was targeted. "We look forward to exposing the facts relating to the outrageous conduct of these rogue officers, who abused their power and the badge to further a political agenda against Stormy," Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, told CNN. Daniels named four officers in her federal lawsuit: Shana Keckley, Whitney Lancaster, Mary Praither and Steven Rosser, all of whom were involved in arresting her in July 2018 for allegedly violating the no-touching law. In police reports, several officers say they touched Daniels in the strip club. Keckley wrote Daniels "did put her breast ... in detectives (sic) face and pushed her breast, squeezing Det. Keckley (sic) face in-between her breasts." But instead of arresting Daniels for allegedly violating the touching laws after that first instance, two other officers also touched her. Under an Ohio law passed in 2007, an employee who regularly appears nude or seminude at a sexually oriented business is prohibited from touching patrons, except for family members. Social media posts detailed in Monday's lawsuit indicated that the investigators involved in the operation knew Daniels was not from the area and was on a nationwide tour of strip clubs. One of them was Lancaster, according to the suit and Lancaster's police report. Lancaster's report said Daniels "did put her breasts, squeezing the detective's face in between her breasts." Praither was the other police department member who touched Daniels, according to the suit and Praither's own police report. Praither wrote Daniels "did put both hands on officers (sic) buttocks, both hands on officers (sic) breast, then put her breasts in officers (sic) face." "We've been made aware of the lawsuit filed by Stephanie Clifford. The Columbus Division of Police Internal Affairs Bureau continues its investigation therefore it would be inappropriate for us to comment on this matter at this time," Columbus Division of Police Spokesperson Denise Alex-Bouzounis told CNN. After being arrested and detained for 12 hours, Daniels posted $6,054 bail and was released. The charges were dropped because the law did not apply to Daniels as she was a guest performer and did not regularly appear at the club, the Columbus city attorney said. "I've determined that these crimes were not committed, based on the fact that Ms. Clifford has not made regular appearances at this establishment as required under the law," Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement at the time. Columbus Chief of Police Kim Jacobs called the arrest a "mistake" in a July statement. "Vice personnel working last night believed they had probable cause that the state law regulating sexually-oriented businesses was violated; however, one element of the law was missed in error and charges were subsequently dismissed," Jacobs said in a statement at the time, which was included in Monday's filing.

2016-09-16 19:30:00

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The blockbuster film Straight Outta Compton mesmerized music fans last summer with its vivid look behind the scenes of the pioneering hip hop collective N.W.A. Now get ready to hear a shocking new side of their story. This October, Lifetime will air Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le, which tells the tale of Michel’le Toussaint, who rose to fame in the early days of rap as the so-called “First Lady of Ruthless Records.” Surrounded by industry titans like Eazy-Z , Tupac Shakur, and obviously Suge Knight and Dr. Dre, she achieved major chart success – only to have it tarnished by betrayal and corrupt business dealings. Her romantic relationship with Dre lasted for nearly a decade, during which time she veered further into a world ruled by substance abuse and crime. A blossoming affair with Knight, Dre’s friend and business partner, would offer temporary salvation, but ultimately complicate all of their lives. Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le will premiere on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime. Watch an exclusive sneak peek above!

2018-12-13 00:00:00

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TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Chorus.ai, a U.S.-Israeli provider of analytics for sales teams, said on Thursday it raised $33 million in a funding round led by Canadian investment firm Georgian Partners. Returning investors Redpoint Ventures and Emergence Capital also participated in the round, bringing the total raised to date to $55 million. The funding will be used to accelerate customer acquisition and continue product innovation. Chorus.ai CEO Roy Raanani said his company’s technology provides visibility into video conferencing platforms and phone calls to understand how top performers sell and coach the rest of the team. The company has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv and customers include Adobe and Zoom Video Communications. Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Steven Scheer

2016-09-14 00:00:00

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Among the Trump campaign staffers and VIPs mingling in a back room at the Manchester Radisson on the last Thursday in August was one blast from the past who is reasserting himself inside Trump world: former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Just six days later, on his home turf in New Hampshire, Lewandowski was back offering advice to Trump insiders behind the scenes at an afternoon campaign rally. Lewandowski and Mike Biundo, Donald Trump’s New Hampshire-based senior national adviser, stepped aside to confer about the campaign, according to four people with knowledge of the meeting. Later, they were joined by the campaign’s New Hampshire state director, Matt Ciepielowski, and its state political director, Mark Sanborn. Lewandowski wanted a briefing on the current state of the New Hampshire operation. Two months into the job, Biundo wanted help navigating a campaign organization that remained chaotic. Lewandowski apparently was eager to help Biundo coordinate with Trump Tower: “Anything you need, you go through me,” he told Biundo, according to one New Hampshire Republican. Lewandowski was fired as Trump’s campaign manager in June after manhandling a reporter and in the face of concerns that he encouraged the candidate’s reckless statements. He was effectively replaced by Paul Manafort, his chief rival in Trump’s orbit, who himself resigned under fire on Aug. 19. Lewandowski declined to comment. But now, with the departure of Manafort and the installation of a regime much friendlier to him, Lewandowski’s engagement with the Trump campaign appears to once again be on the rise, not just in the swing state of New Hampshire but also nationally. Even in exile, Lewandowski maintained a close relationship with Trump. But in recent weeks, with the absence of a leadership team actively committed to boxing him out, he has reengaged with the operation more broadly, listening in on morning conference calls and conferring regularly with campaign CEO Stephen Bannon and deputy campaign manager David Bossie — an old friend who persuaded Trump to hire Lewandowski last year — according to Republicans close to the campaign. Ironically, despite Lewandowski’s reputation for encouraging Trump’s impulses and the elevation of fellow outsiders like Bannon at the expense of Washington veteran Manafort, the resurgence of Lewandowski’s influence coincides with the most disciplined, on-message stretch of Trump’s candidacy. Trump Tower Kremlinologists see in Lewandowski’s reengagement signs that Trump’s adult children and son-in-law Jared Kushner — who engineered his ouster and urged Manafort on their father — are ceding ground as Trump turns to a bevy of aides loyal to his influential megadonors Bob and Rebekah Mercer. The Trump campaign emphasizes that Lewandowski has no decision-making authority, and those who work with Lewandowski describe his role as informal and advisory. “He weighs in particularly on issues that involve Trump directly,” said an activist involved in the campaign. “Where he should be going and not going. What he should comment on and not comment on.” While critics see a conflict of interest between Lewandowski’s engagement with the campaign and his new gig as a paid commentator on CNN, the activist, at least, took the opposite view. “Corey is doing his job as a CNN correspondent to get insider information just like anyone in the journalism business,” said the activist. “Corey’s a journalist now.” A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment. And campaign staffers describe him as a valuable source of institutional knowledge and New Hampshire expertise. “Corey remains a supporter of the campaign, and we're glad to receive any help he may offer,” said senior communications adviser Jason Miller. Following Manafort’s departure, the time for a Lewandowski resurgence was ripe. After a summer marked by unforced errors, reports that Trump has one eye on a post-campaign media venture and a general sense of dismay, even staffers who clashed with their old boss were beginning to feel pangs of Lewandowski nostalgia set in. “He was an a--hole,” said one former staffer, expressing the sentiment of colleagues who remain on the campaign. “But at least you know he wanted to win.” In late August, ABC News reported that the Secret Service had been ordered to restore Lewandowski’s access to restricted areas at campaign rallies. In early September, not long after the meeting with Biundo, a state-level campaign official said he was warned that Lewandowski was listening in on the regular morning conference call that includes communications and political staffers. “His name is popping up more and more and more,” said a Republican official who works with the campaign. “He was not around, and then all of a sudden he was around again.” Even top campaign staffers who are less than thrilled about the bombastic operative’s enduring presence see little point in resisting it. “They’re aware of it and they’re like, ‘What the hell are we going to do about it? Trump likes him,’” said one New Hampshire Republican who recently conferred with a Trump Tower official about it. In New Hampshire, the campaign remains staffed with Lewandowski loyalists who stay in touch with their old boss, even as they remain reluctant to highlight the involvement of an operative whose tendency to attract controversy is dwarfed only by that of the candidate himself. “Corey’s a longtime close friend, and I talk to him on a regular basis as a friend,” said Trump’s New Hampshire co-chair Steve Stepanek. Another New Hampshire co-chair for Trump, state Rep. Fred Doucette, continues to talk politics with Lewandowski over breakfast when his old boss is not in New York, where CNN provides him with a hotel room. “Do I ask him for advice? Absolutely,” said Doucette. “But is he intimately involved in the Trump campaign? No.” Bob Burns, the campaign’s youth coalition chair, said he continues to regularly seek political advice from Lewandowski. Most recently, Burns was slated to drive Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Trump surrogate, during a swing through the state last weekend but was stripped of the duty at the last minute. Burns blamed the sudden change of plans on the machinations of a rival faction of New Hampshire Republicans and turned to Lewandowski’s counsel. “He just told me it was bullsh-- and those guys are a--holes,” Burns recounted. The view of Lewandowski as Trump’s representative in the North extends beyond the campaign to the rest of New Hampshire’s political class. “He’s still a trusted resource and a go-to guy,” said Aaron Day, a libertarian running for Senate as an independent. “When I’m trying to get access to Trump, I still go through Corey or through Corey’s guys because otherwise there’s a vacuum. How else do you get to Trump? There’s no legacy political apparatus that Trump has."

2016-07-06 00:00:00

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The western Pacific Ocean had been building up heat for a record 200 days without the churning from a single typhoon. The ocean basin that spawns the strongest storms on Earth had been oddly quiet, but it's making up for its slumber in a big way with Super Typhoon Nepartak.  This storm, which had maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour as of Wednesday morning, is a beast. At that time, it was as close to a textbook case of an intense typhoon as one typically sees in any season, or even multiple seasons, and it illustrates how these storms grow and sustain themselves by feasting on the energy drawn from a deep reservoir of warm ocean waters.  Based on satellite imagery, Super Typhoon Nepartak has struck many meteorologists as a near-perfect storm, to use the cliche phrase.  "There is a visual symmetry factor that goes into what makes a tropical cyclone appear as what we might call "perfect,"" said Anthony Sagliani, a meteorologist at Earth Networks in Maryland. "A small round eye in the center of the storm surrounded by a ring of massive, deep convection. Certainly Nepartak has that look. But to maintain that look the storm actually needs several parameters to coincide for several days," he said. #Nepartak's last 30 hours, every 150 seconds #Himawari IR pic.twitter.com/Ds6NsHSNff — Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) July 6, 2016 Hurricanes and typhoons (these are the same type of storms, but located in different parts of the world and called different things) are essentially giant heat engines, powered by the latent heat release from evaporating warmth and moisture from mild ocean waters as well as humid air masses.  Warm waters are present in abundance in the northwest Pacific Ocean at this point. Water temperatures in the Philippine Sea are above 86 degrees Fahrenheit, or 30 degrees Celsius.  "This is partly because the region had previously been untouched by a tropical cyclone for a record length of time," Sagliani said.  STY #Nepartak traversing high ocean heat content into Taiwan. Eyewall replacement temporary brake on intensity pic.twitter.com/KYu3jko6xQ — Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) July 6, 2016 "Another parameter a storm like this needs in place is very low wind shear. From the get-go, Nepartak has been impacted by no more than 6-12 mph shear. Its convective towers have no problem sustaining themselves in that environment," Sagliani said in a Twitter message. "Nepartak has a massive set of lungs" The warm waters plus low shear helped the storm catapult from Category 1 to Category 5 intensity within a 24-hour period. "The upper-level conditions were perfect for rapid/explosive intensification," said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist for the private weather firm WeatherBell Analytics, in an email. "Ocean heat content is anomalously high along the track of Nepartak as well, likely contributing to the extreme intensification rates," Maue said. The heat goes into fueling massive thunderstorms that are tightly packed around the center of the storm, in an area known as the central dense overcast, or CDO.  Through Wednesday morning eastern time, such a feature was readily apparent with Super Typhoon Nepartak. At the center of the CDO is the storm's eye, where the air is descending and the air pressure is the lowest. Nepartak features a relatively small eye, but that could change over time. The storm has also taken on the appearance of a so-called "annular" tropical cyclone, with an absence of multiple spiral bands and the presence of a large, dense area of thunderstorms extending well out from the storm's center. Also evident with this storm is its extraordinary "outflow channels" of air at upper levels of the atmosphere.  Tropical cyclone schematic, showing airflow within the storm. According to Sagliani, the healthy outflow from this storm has been particularly noteworthy.  "I think what impresses me the most about Nepartak, is its ability to breathe. Nepartak has a massive set of lungs, with dual outflow channels stretching both poleward and equatorward through almost 30 degrees of latitude from northern edge to southern edge," he said.   Essentially, at upper levels of the atmosphere, there is an area of high pressure flowing counterclockwise, evacuating air from the storm. Tropical cyclones lift a huge volume of air into the upper levels of the atmosphere, where the air cools and dries. It is therefore necessary for this air to be evacuated from the storm for hundreds to more than 1,000 miles away from the storm's center.  Cat-5 Super Typhoon Nepartak (knee-PAR-tack) a pure monstrosity. Some of the best outflow channels I've ever seen. pic.twitter.com/HzBM71ITCg — Anthony Sagliani (@anthonywx) July 6, 2016 Infrared satellite image of Super Typhoon Nepartak on July 6, 2016. Reconnaisance aircraft are not flying into this storm as is the case for storms in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, so we don't know exactly what the storm's intensity and minimum central air pressure is. The intensity most likely peaked on Wednesday morning eastern time, likely to be disrupted by internal dynamics prior to its arrival in Taiwan.  Meanwhile, meteorologists are using multiple methods using satellite imagery in order to estimate the storm's strength. "Its near-perfect visual display should be taken as a warning like the gorgeous colors and intricate patterns we see on venomous snakes and fish," Sagliani said.  "While beautiful from the comfort of our computer screens, [it] is a real, life-threatening typhoon that should be met with utmost concern and preparation by those in its path." Typhoon Nepartak is forecast to make landfall along the eastern coast of Taiwan on July 8 or 9 as a Category 4 or 5 storm, capable of causing extensive damage.

2019-06-04

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restructuring -sources@ (Adds source familiar with Odebrecht strategy, background) SAO PAULO, June 4 (Reuters) - Odebrecht SA's failure to sell its controlling stake in petrochemical company Braskem SA to LyondellBasell Industries NV and lack of cash are complicating the task of restructuring 80 billion reais ($20.67 billion) in debt owed by the corruption-ensnared conglomerate, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. The three people requested anonymity to disclose private discussions. The conglomerate was counting on Braskem dividends to service its debt. But a court order in April related to environmental damages by the petrochemical company's operation's in the Brazilian northeastern state of Alagoas froze dividend payments. LyondellBasell said on Tuesday it ended talks with Odebrecht SA to buy Braskem "after careful consideration" but did not elaborate further. Shares in the Brazilian petrochemical producer were down 17% in late afternoon trading in Sao Paulo. A deal to sell its stake in Braskem could also have provided a cash windfall to the conglomerate. In a statement, the conglomerate said a bankruptcy protection filing "is not Odebrecht's goal." A fourth source, familiar with Odebrecht's strategy, said the conglomerate believes the Braskem deal failure will give an incentive to creditors to engage in a more organized way in a debt restructuring. After concluding the restructuring, the construction group would be able to organize a new process to sell its stake in Braskem. Odebrecht is Braskems controlling shareholder with a 38% stake and the majority of voting stock. Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA holds a 36% stake. Currently, Odebrecht has few streams of revenue. It relies on Braskem's dividends, which are blocked, and asset sales. Some creditors, specially Brazilian state banks, that have avoided going to court to give Odebrecht time to restructure in recent years are not willing to wait longer. Odebrecht has been restructuring its debt with local banks for the last three years. Two of Odebrecht's units are restructuring debt with creditors. Ethanol unit Atvos filed for bankruptcy protection last week and Odebrecht construction unit OEC is in talks with bondholders after defaulting earlier this year. The deal to sell Braskem to LyondellBasell, which had been in discussion for a year and a half, could have provided a windfall to creditors and to Odebrecht. Initially, the conglomerate wanted to trade its full stake in Braskem, which is now pledged as collateral to some Brazilian banks, for Lyondell shares. But pressured by creditors, Odebrecht agreed to trade part of its stake for cash to repay them. A year ago, Brazil's two largest private banks, Banco Bradesco SA and Itau Unibanco Holding SA, reached an agreement with Odebrecht to give it a joint loan of 2.6 billion reais in what was expected to give the group a two-year relief. At the same time, both banks improved collaterals to their debts. Currently, Odebrecht's stake in Braskem is pledged entirely as collateral to some local banks. According to Brazilian bankruptcy law, its stake would have to be excluded from a bankruptcy protection proceeding. If the collateral is not challenged, Braskem will be owned by the local banks if Odebrecht files for bankruptcy. The debt finance also involved Banco do Brasil SA , Banco Santander Brasil SA and development bank BNDES, which agreed to changes to collateral but did not agree to extend new loans. Under the terms of the agreement, Odebrecht also used 100 million reais from the new loan to repay Banco do Brasil. In the last two years, Brazilian banks have been increasing provisions to tackle problems with struggling Odebrecht, but not all banks improved their collateral. ($1 = 3.8709 reais) (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

2019-10-24 00:00:00

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A senior government official appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned Thursday, saying the current student loan system is "fundamentally broken" and calling for billions of dollars in debt to be forgiven. A. Wayne Johnson was hired as the chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid, which manages the country's $1.6 trillion outstanding student loan portfolio. He later worked in a strategic role, directing how student loans are serviced for borrowers. Just last week, DeVos called Democrats' plans to erase student debt "crazy." "Who do they think is actually going to pay for these?" DeVos said in an interview on Fox News. Indeed, five years into repayment, half of student loan borrowers haven't paid even $1 toward their debt's principal, according to the Education Department's own data. And 40% of student loan borrowers could default by 2023, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. "We run through the process of putting this debt burden on somebody … but it rides on their credit files — it rides on their back — for decades," Johnson, who wrote his dissertation at Mercer University on student debt, told the Journal. "The time has come for us to end and stop the insanity," he added. Johnson proposes forgiving $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers, about $925 billion, according to the newspaper. For people who've already repaid their debt, he suggests offering them a $50,000 tax credit. The plan would be paid for with a 1% tax on corporate earnings. At the same time, Johnson announced he'd be running for an open Senate seat in Georgia. "Wayne Johnson got an inside look at how student loans are hurting borrowers, and he could not deny the evidence: America's student loan program is a massive failed experiment that is hurting borrowers and our economy," said Julie Margetta Morgan, a fellow at the liberal Roosevelt Institute. Johnson joins a chorus of government officials and presidential contenders calling for student debt cancellation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has proposed canceling $640 billion of the debt. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he'd erase all $1.6 trillion of it. At a recent campaign event, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., hinted that she'd be rolling out a plan to forgive the student loan debt of families who earn less than $100,000 a year. "Johnson's plan is more expensive than Warren's but less expensive than Sanders,'" said Mark Kantrowitz, a higher education expert. Yet Johnson stands apart from the others in a more critical way. "It's the first Republican support for widespread student loan forgiveness," Kantrowitz said. "That makes it a bipartisan issue."

2017-04-04 00:39:00

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Zoey 101 star Matthew Underwood saved a 4-month-old baby boy from a serious car accident on Thursday night in Port St. Lucie, Florida, after the infant’s mother and father passed out from suspected drug use. According to a March 30 police report, Underwood, 26, observed a 2003 white Saturn fail to stop at a stop sign and swerve across six lanes of traffic, before crashing into a tree. After observing the crash, Underwood ran over to the vehicle, where he found a female and male unconscious in the car and the unharmed infant in the back seat, TMZ first reported, while his brother, Joshua, called 911. Port St. Lucie police arrived at the “intersection of SE Port St. Lucie Boulevard and SE Glover Street for reports of a car crash” at around 8:30 p.m., where they found the crashed vehicle. At the scene, Jessica Ruth Hand, 34, was found “unconscious behind the wheel of the car with a syringe in her arm” and John Jacob Rodriguez, 34, was found “unconscious in the back seat with a syringe next to him and an infant boy in an unsecured car seat alongside him,” according to a press release. “I heard a baby cry and that’s when I immediately ran around the other side of the car and looked for the baby,” Underwood told WPTV.com. “[Underwood] removed the infant boy and placed him next to the officer on scene,” the press release reads. Both Hand and Rodriguez were removed from the car and first aid was administered to them before all three persons were transported by St. Lucie County Fire Rescue to St. Lucie Medical Center. “While at the hospital police found Rodriquez to be in possession of an unmarked bottle containing 38 pills, which turned out to be Alprazolam (a controlled substance). A broken pipe, suspected to be used for smoking narcotics, was also found on Rodriguez,” the press release reads. According to the police report, Hand confessed to purchasing heroin that evening and “decided to try heroin” on the night of the accident. Hand was arrested for child neglect and possession of drug paraphernalia, and Rodriguez was arrested for child neglect, possession of controlled substance without prescription, possession of drug paraphernalia, and violation of probation warrant after both passed out while driving with their infant boy in the car. The child was turned over to a family member. “I hope they can get rehabilitated,” Underwood told WPTV. “I hope they can wake up and want their child back so much, want their life together, that they’ll get clean.” A rep for Underwood did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

2019-05-08 15:31:00

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Katherine Heigl is going to celebrate Mother’s Day in style – and she wants you to do the same! The actress and her mom Nancy, with whom she is famously close, have collaborated with social shopping platform Poshmark to host a Posh Closet for Charity, listing 85 items from both of their closets to benefit the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, which supports animal advocacy and helps provide medical care and placement assistants for shelter animals. Among the listings? Shoes in a size 9 from brands including Valentino and Jimmy Choo; a Cushnie et Ochs shirt (below, top left) worn by the actress on a promotional tour for her film Jackie & Ryan; and clothes from Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren and St. John. Though both women are passionate about supporting the JDHF, named for Katherine’s late brother, the actress said she’s a dedicated closet-purger even without a good cause. “I’m incredibly ruthless when it comes to cleaning out,” she tells PEOPLE. “If I haven’t worn something for a long time or have never worn it at all, it goes. Of course, now that I’m seeing it all beautifully photographed and up for sale on Poshmark, I’m second guessing my decisions!” The hardest for her to let go? The three pairs of Valentino “Rockstud” flats, which she can’t wear after welcoming son Joshua. “I was forced to let go of all my beloved Valentino flats because my feet grew half a size after pregnancy, but I used to wear them all the time!” she says. “They were my go-to shoe for every look and outfit and it still breaks my heart to let them go!” Buy It! Katherine and Nancy Heigl’s Posh Closet for Charity, prices vary; poshmark.com Nancy adds that she had an attachment to some of the pieces because of the special time she spent with her daughter acquiring them: “A lot of these clothes and shoes are from our special mother-daughter shopping days. When we were having a great year and wanted to splurge, we would plan a day at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City and would start out at the top floor, have lunch, and then slowly head down.” Buy It! Katherine Heigl’s snakeskin Jimmy Choo flats, $173; poshmark.com With Mother’s Day coming up, the Heigls say that instilling the values of charity and giving back are key to their family life. “For generations, our family has always believed in supporting causes we are passionate about, have always been huge animal lovers, and believe we all need to do whatever we can to improve the world we live in,” Nancy says. Adds Katherine, “I simply lead by example. I include them on days my mother and I are welcoming a new batch of high-risk dogs to our ranch in Utah. We transport the dogs in and are able to shelter and care for them until we find them forever homes. The girls get to meet the dogs and see the work my mother and I are doing. Soon they’ll be old enough to volunteer their time to help care for the dogs we’ve rescued which will not only encourage and support their inherent compassion, but will also be a big help to Nancy and me!” And there are a few things they’re hanging onto for their children, for sentimental purposes; Nancy mentions her own wedding dress, while Katherine says, “I’m keeping my prom dress which I still adore and think is timeless enough one of the girls could wear it to something, though they’ll probably disagree! I’m keeping my wedding dress, of course, whether they will want to wear it or not. I’m also keeping a gorgeous custom made gown I wore to present at the Emmys one year — it was made especially for me and I can’t bear to part with it.”

2016-05-18

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Highmark Inc. is suing the federal government over about $220 million it claims it is owed under ObamaCare. The insurer filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing the Obama administration has yet to pay up the money that is intended to help insurers make up for losses under the law.   Highmark is the second high-profile insurer to fight back in court against the administration’s risk-corridor program, a pool of money intended to help cushion insurers against the volatility of the new healthcare marketplace.   The administration announced last fall it would not pay insurers back the full amount of money owed under that risk-corridor program in 2014, the first year it went into effect. Insurers were given only 12.6 percent of the money they claimed in 2014 because losses had been deeper than expected across the marketplace. That decision came partly because of Republicans in Congress, who inserted a policy rider into a 1,603-page spending bill passed at the end of 2014. Under the provision, which is still in effect, the Department of Health and Human Services can no longer tap other accounts, such as its overall appropriations or its Medicare funding, to fund the risk corridors program. 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.

2017-11-06

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ZURICH/KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Swiss engineering conglomerate ABB is putting its turnkey projects arm for the oil and gas industry into a joint venture majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering & Construction, as ABB seeks to “optimise” its business portfolio, the company said on Monday. In the past the ABB oil and gas EPC unit has won projects such as the engineering, procurement and construction contracts for a $100 million gas pumping station in Algeria, a gas treatment plant in Tunisia and a gas compressor station in Thailand. ABB, which did not give financial details of the transaction or say how many employees it affects, is among engineering companies whose oil and gas businesses have been suffering from cutbacks in spending by producers hit by low oil prices. ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer has been shunning the risks of taking on the prime contractor role in a range of markets since being hit by hundreds of millions in losses on big engineering projects, including North Sea wind parks in 2013. In 2014 the company abandoned taking the lead on turnkey renewable energy projects, while last year it teamed up with U.S. engineering company Fluor for the construction of large electricity substations. “While our oil & gas EPC business will be transferred to the new JV, ABB will continue to serve the oil, gas and chemicals sector globally with its industry-leading automation, electrification and digitalization solutions,” ABB Industrial Automation unit head Peter Terwiesch said. Headquartered in Khobar, Saudi Arabia close to headquartes of State oil giant Saudi Aramco, Arkad has 9,000 full-time employees. It is active in oil and gas EPC projects in the region and said the combination with ABB’s business unit will help it access new markets. After completion of the deal on Dec. 1 the joint venture business will be rebranded as Arkad-ABB and is due to start operations on Jan. 1 2018. Arkad, which did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, has a current order backlog of around $2 billion and said the deal will not affect its current projects for Saudi Aramco, which include pipeline work related to the second phase of the Master Gas Programme and the Fadhili gas project. “This transaction is a major milestone for Arkad as we seek to expand our global footprint,” Hani Abdulhadi, Arkad’s managing director, said. “It gives us access into exciting new markets, including Algeria, Kuwait, Italy and Abu Dhabi.” Reporting by John Miller and Reem Shamseddine; editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, Greg Mahlich

2019-03-12

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Oil rose on Tuesday, supported by Saudi Arabia's plan for further voluntary supply curbs in April and by a cut in oil exports from Venezuela due to a power outage. Saudi Arabia, seeking to drain a supply glut and support prices, plans in April to keep its oil output well below the level required of it as part of an OPEC-led supply cutting deal, a Saudi official said on Monday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose by 12 cents to $66.70 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude added 8 cents to $56.87. "This shows Saudi Arabia's resolve to keep the oil market balanced by keeping oil supply tight," said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank. "Additional buoyancy has come from news that the massive power outage in Venezuela is also hampering the country's oil exports." Crude has rallied this year after the Organizaton of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, returned to supply cuts as of Jan. 1. Saudi Arabia has voluntarily cut its supply by more than the deal requires and in April will keep output "well below" 10 million bpd, the Saudi official said - below the 10.311 million bpd that the kingdom had agreed to pump. "We see a tightening underlying physical crude balance as a key pillar of support for outright prices at this point in the year," said analysts at JBC Energy in a report. A host of involuntary supply curbs in OPEC members caused by unrest in Libya, and U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, have also helped to boost prices. Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA has been unable to resume crude exports from its primary port since a power outage last week, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Offsetting these developments is the surge in U.S. supply, which the International Energy Agency said on Monday would continue to 2024, probably requiring OPEC and its allies to keep up their policy of market management. In the near term, the latest reports on U.S. inventories are expected to show a rise in crude stocks. Six analysts polled by Reuters estimate they rose 2.9 million barrels. The first report, from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, is due out 2030 GMT, followed by the government's official supply report on Wednesday.

2018-02-01 00:00:00

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Not a Bitcoin millionaire? You goofed! This, at least, is the opinion of Erik Finman, a 19-year-old Bitcoin investor fresh out of childhood and fresh into being pompous about cryptocurrency.  According to a profile of Finman from Business Insider, the teen bet his parents that if he became a millionaire by age 18, he wouldn't have to attend college. And — thanks to investment money from his grandmother — he invested in Bitcoin and pulled it off.  Well, technically, he and his grandmother pulled it off. But who cares about the details? Today, Finman "still believes" in cryptocurrencies, even in the wake of their recent decline. "The area is still relatively small; the market capitalization is just over half a trillion dollars," he said. "Therefore, I say if you do not become a millionaire in the next 10 years, then it’s your own fault." This, of course, is not... necessarily... true. We are happy for his success, though, and pleased that he was able to make a speech at TEDxTeen in 2014. (We are not being facetious. The speech is actually nice.) Anyway, this dude also plans to launch Taylor Swift's 1989 into space, so at least he has a consistent brand.

2019-09-25 00:00:00

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NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.S. President Donald Trump pledged this week to help end the criminalization of homosexuality globally, but LGBT+ rights advocates took a dim view of his speech at the United Nations, accusing him of rolling back protections at home. Trump, in his address to world leaders on Tuesday, said: “We stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people who live in countries that punish, jail or execute individuals based upon sexual orientation.” Gay sex is illegal in 69 countries, almost half of them in Africa, where homosexuality remains largely taboo and persecution is rife. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and parts of Nigeria impose the death penalty for gay sex, while Botswana decriminalized same-sex relations in June. Rights advocates in the United States said Trump’s administration has done little to support LGBT+ people and has in several cases reversed some hard-fought rights. Trump’s administration has banned transgender people from the U.S. military, cut funding for HIV and AIDS research and supported the right of medical providers and adoption agencies to deny services to LGBT+ people. “Donald Trump’s words at the U.N. do not just ring hollow - they are an unadulterated lie. His administration has done nothing to protect LGBTQ people at home or abroad,” said Zeke Stokes of the U.S. gay rights group GLAAD in an email. Trump has not challenged the views of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a self-proclaimed “proud homophobe,” nor responded to allegations that LGBT+ people in Chechnya are detained and tortured, he said. “He was silent,” Stokes said. Trump said in a tweet marking LGBT+ Pride Month in June that his administration had launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invited other nations to join. But rights advocates note his administration has argued in three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that a law barring companies from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex does not cover LGBT+ people. Vice President Mike Pence is a social and evangelical conservative who in 2015, as governor of Indiana, signed into law a religious freedom bill that would have allowed businesses to deny services to LGBT+ people. The law was later revised. “It is abundantly clear the Trump and Pence do not care about LGBTQ people,” Charlotte Clymer, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT+ group, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She pointed to the murders of at least 18 trans people this year in the United States, saying: “That continues to go unaddressed by the Trump administration.” The president still gets support from the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT+ group that endorsed his reelection campaign in August. “President Trump’s leadership on this issue is heartening during a time when our LGBTQ brothers and sisters abroad still face life-threatening discrimination,” the group’s chairman Robert Kabel said in an email. In its endorsement, the Log Cabin Republicans applauded Trump for “removing gay rights as a wedge issue from the old Republican playbook.” “Since taking office, President Trump has followed through on many of his commitments to the United States, including taking bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community,” the group said. (Reporting by Rachel Savage @rachelmsavage; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

2020-03-23 00:00:00

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday fell below 18,332, its closing level the day President TrumpDonald John TrumpNorth Korea asking for aid, while denying any coronavirus cases: report Iranian official maintains Tehran has 'no knowledge' of American hostage's whereabouts Unemployment claims surge to 3.2 million as coronavirus devastates economy MORE was elected, amid worries about the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. With a fall of more than 850 points, or 4.5 percent, on Monday alone, the stock index wiped out all the gains made since the election. Just a month ago, the index hit a record high of more than 29,500. Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 fell below its inauguration day level of 2,271, though at around 2,200 it remained above its Election Day level of 2,140. The falls came despite the Fed's announcement it would take aggressive additional action, including buying an unlimited amount of Treasury bonds, after investors were spooked when a stimulus package stalled in the Senate. The news of the further falls in shares will be a blow to Trump, who has frequently touted the stock market's gains as an indication of his successful economic stewardship. The economic collapse surrounding the the coronavirus pandemic and the public health steps taken to contain it have reportedly begun to wear on Trump. On Sunday night, he suggested that he might lift some restrictions if the economic pain becomes too deep. “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump wrote in a late-night tweet on Sunday. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” The economy has ground to a halt as people stay home and practice social distancing and businesses that attract groups of people have shuttered. Major banks have forecasted that the United States has already fallen into a recession, and that unemployment rates could surpass those seen at the height of the Great Recession in 2009. 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.

2019-03-07 00:00:00

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Huawei said Wednesday night that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government, challenging the constitutionality of a law that keep it from selling its telecommunications gear here. Why it matters: The U.S. has launched an all-out blitz aimed at stopping the Chinese equipment vendor from selling its current and future products throughout the world. Details: Huawei is seeking an injunction as well as a declaration that the law being used to limit its sales, Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act, is unconstitutional. That part of the law specifically prohibits government entities, government contractors and those receiving federal funding from buying equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom gear maker. What they're saying: Huawei says the NDAA violates the constitution in several ways, including unfairly singling out the Chinese companies and violating Huawei's right to due process. "It is an abuse of the lawmaking process," said Guo Ping, Huawei's rotating chairman, during a webcast. "The U.S. congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence supporting its restrictions on Huawei products." He added that security concerns are misplaced, saying Huawei has never and will never install "backdoors" in its products, nor will it allow others to do so. The big picture: This is the latest in a series of battles between Huawei and the U.S. government. In addition to banning sales of the company's gear in the U.S., the Trump Administration has been seeking to get allies to also pledge not to use Huawei gear. The administration has also filed criminal charges against the company for trade secrets theft and for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran. It's seeking to have the company's CFO extradited from Canada to face charges. Go deeper: Read the lawsuit.

2020-02-02 00:00:00

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The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will play for Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. In addition to bringing home the coveted Vince Lombardi trophy, the players from the winning team will each earn a six-figure bonus check: $124,000. That's according to the 2011 collective bargaining agreement the NFL signed with the NFL Players Association, which will be in effect until the 2020 season. Both the Chiefs and the 49ers have already earned $87,000 per player in postseason play. That number includes $31,000 for winning the divisional playoff round and $56,000 for the conference championship. Each winner could go home with a total of $211,000 in bonus pay. Players on the losing team will receive $62,000 for making it to the final game, putting their total at $149,000. Postseason pay is egalitarian, meaning the starters, backups, and injured players all earn the same amount, as long as they've spent a certain number of games on their team's active or inactive list. Players who were traded at some point during the season and aren't on the team's active or inactive list at the time of the game can still earn a postseason bonus if they were on the list for at least eight games that season. For example, during the 2017-2018 season, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo started with the New England Patriots and was traded mid-season to the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners didn't make the playoffs, but the Patriots did, and since Garoppolo was on the Patriots roster for eight games, he qualified for a postseason bonus. He earned $28,000 when the Patriots won the divisional round, $51,000 when they won the AFC championship game and another $56,000 when they lost in the Super Bowl, for a total of $135,000. Not bad for watching from the sidelines in SF. This year, of course, Garoppolo takes center stage as the starting quarterback for the 49ers. For the highest-earners on the field, including Garoppolo, whose average annual salary is $27.5 million, the Super Bowl bonus feels like pocket change. But for the players earning $495,000, the league minimum, the $211,000 bonus would be roughly a 43% boost to their annual earnings. Players will be paid within 15 days after the game has been played, the collective bargaining agreement notes.

2018-10-30

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Pharrell Williams reportedly sent President TrumpDonald John TrumpFacebook releases audit on conservative bias claims Harry Reid: 'Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list' Recessions happen when presidents overlook key problems MORE a legal warning after his song, “Happy,” was played at a rally just hours after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.  According to the New York Daily News, a lawyer representing the musician filed a cease and desist letter against Trump on Monday. "On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged 'nationalist,' you played his song 'Happy' to a crowd at a political event in Indiana," reads a letter obtained by the newspaper. "There was nothing 'happy' about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose,” the letter continued. The musician also reportedly said that the president is not permitted to play any of his music without his permission.  Eleven people were killed and more wounded when a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday morning, just hours before Trump’s political event in Indiana. Robert Bowers faces 29 charges, including 11 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder and 11 counts of obstruction of the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, for the attack. A number of other musical artists have also called for their songs to no longer be played at Trump's public events, including Prince, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Twisted Sister and Elton John. 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.

2018-01-05 10:00:29

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Written by Christopher Nolan At a pivotal moment in World War II, Allied forces are stranded on a French beach at Dunkirk. After a call goes out to British civilians across the channel to help rescue troops, Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance), piloting his yacht, the Moonstone, with the help of Peter and George, comes across a soldier (Cillian Murphy) shivering amid wreckage in the water. EXT. Moonstone — day The Shivering Soldier steps up to Mr. Dawson — SHIVERING SOLDIER What is it you think you can do out there?! On this thing?! MR. DAWSON Not just us. The call went out — we won’t be the only ones to answer. SHIVERING SOLDIER YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE GUNS! MR. DAWSON Did you have a gun? SHIVERING SOLDIER Course. A rifle — 303. MR. DAWSON Did it help you against the dive bombers? Or the U-boats? The Shivering Soldier glares at Mr. Dawson. SHIVERING SOLDIER You’re an old fool. And you’re going to die if you don’t turn around. The booms echo. Closer now. SHIVERING SOLDIER We’re turning around, now! The Shivering Soldier steps towards Mr. Dawson, screaming at the top of his lungs — SHIVERING SOLDIER TURN IT AROUND! TURN IT AROUND! TURN IT AROUND! Peter, hearing this, makes his way back from the bow. The Shivering Soldier grabs the wheel. George grabs his shoulder — The Shivering Soldier smashes his elbow into George’s face, sending him flying backwards down the companionway — Peter pulls the Shivering Soldier away from the wheel. PETER Calm it down, mate. The Shivering Soldier looks at him, shocked. Confused. Written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) is a struggling stand-up comedian in Chicago who has hidden his interest in a non-Muslim woman from his Pakistani immigrant parents, Sharmeen and Azmat (Zenobia Shroff and Anupam Kher). They expect him to enter into an arranged marriage, and after Kumail rejects their latest prospect, they go to his apartment to confront him. SHARMEEN Kumi, if you don’t want to be a lawyer, fine. If you want to do the stand-up comedy and embarrass us as a family, fine. There is only one thing that we have ever asked from you: that you be a good Muslim and that you marry a Pakistani girl. That is it, one thing! KUMAIL Can I ask you something that has never made sense to me? Why did you bring me here if you wanted me to not have an American life? We come here but we pretend like we’re still back there? That’s so stupid! AZMAT Don’t you talk to your mother like that! KUMAIL You don’t care what I think. You just want me to follow the rules. But the rules don’t make sense to me. I don’t pray. I don’t. I haven’t prayed in years. I just go down there and I play video games. AZMAT You don’t believe in Allah? KUMAIL I don’t know what I believe, Dad! I don’t know. And I can’t marry someone you find for me. Written by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor In a government laboratory in the middle of the Cold War, a mute janitor, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), has made a connection with the strange Amphibian Man being held captive there. When she learns of plans to kill the creature, she pleads, via sign language, with her neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins) to help free him. But Giles refuses. She runs in front of him. Stops him: Signs. Giles translates. GILES Alone? What if he’s alone? What about it? We’re all alone! If I — If I took you to a Chinese restaurant — would you save every crab? (beat) “It’s the loneliest thing you’ve ever seen …” Well there you go, you just said it. It’s a thing — a freak — She signs. GILES I understand what you’re — Pushes him. Signs. GILES O.K., O.K., calm down — I’ll repeat it — to you. (repeating out loud) “And what am I? I move my mouth — like him — and I make no sound — like him. What does that make me?” (beat) “All that I am, all that I’ve been ever — brought me here — to him.” (beat) “Him??” What are you talking about? That thing? It’s a “him” now? She pushes him and re-signs, violently: “HIM” GILES Hey! Watch it! (beat) “The way he looks at me. He doesn’t know what I lack … Or how I am incomplete. He just sees me for what I am. As I am. And he is happy to see me, every time. Every day.” (beat) “And I can either save him now or let him die. Never see his eyes, see me again. I will not let that go.” Written by Martin McDonagh Enraged by the lack of progress in the investigation of her daughter’s murder, Mildred Hayes (played by Frances McDormand) rents three billboards demanding action from the Ebbing police chief, Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). EXT. Mildred’s garden — day Mildred sitting on a creaky swing set, Willoughby with hat in hand. WILLOUGHBY I’d do anything to catch the guy who did it, Mrs. Hayes. But when the DNA don’t match no-one who’s ever been arrested, and when the DNA don’t match any other crime nationwide, and when there wasn’t a single eyewitness from the time she left your house to the time we found her, well, right now there ain’t too much more that we can do, except … MILDRED Could pull blood from every man and boy in this town, over the age of 8. WILLOUGHBY There’s civil rights laws prevents that, Mrs. Hayes, and what if he was just passing thru town … MILDRED Pull blood from ever’ man in the country, then. WILLOUGHBY And what if he was just passing thru the country? MILDRED If it was me, I’d start up a database, every male baby what’s born, stick ’em on it, cross-reference it, and as soon as they done something wrong, make a hundred percent certain it was a correct match, then kill ’em. WILLOUGHBY Yeah, well, there’s definitely civil rights laws prevents that.

2017-10-13 00:00:00

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Airbnb would like to sell you a time share in Florida. Yes, really.  The home-rental company is working in partnership with a property developer on a branded 300-unit rental complex in Kissimmee, Florida that will bear a new name: "Niido powered by Airbnb." The apartment building will come with extra services to help you rent out your apartment on Airbnb for up to half the year.  “This is something that philosophically matches with our long-term strategy,” Airbnb's head of multi-family housing projects, Jaja Jackson, told the Financial Times.  The complex will be built in partnership with Newgard Development Group, a property developer in Florida that will actually build and own the apartment building. Airbnb is slapping its name on the project.  This is a hotel. You're building a hotel. https://t.co/A1Ud3AqURa — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) October 13, 2017 The developer told the Financial Times that it plans to build 2,000 Airbnb-branded units in the next two years, or about five more buildings. Airbnb is focusing on the Southeast for its time share-adjacent complexes.  "Niido powered by Airbnb" tenants sign annual leases and then can list them on Airbnb for up to 180 days a year. The apartment complex comes with extra hotel-like features that make renting out apartments through Airbnb easier.  Like a hotel, the building will offer short-term rental-friendly features like a cleaning service, keyless doors and in-room secure storage. A "master host"—or hotel concierge?—will be on site at the building. Tenants even get their own app tailored to this kind of landlord-supported Airbnb rental.  When the apartments are listed on Airbnb, the property developer gets 25 percent, Airbnb gets 3 percent, and tenants get the remaining 72 percent.  The Florida apartment building/time share is set to open in early 2018.

2019-08-11 00:00:00

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On Saturday, the president of the United States retweeted a conspiracy theory video claiming Bill and Hillary Clinton had a hand in the death of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The big picture: The news media did not treat this as a major story; the Sunday New York Times editors found a few inches for it on page 21. Times' columnist Ross Douthat captured the collective shrug in his tweet: "Dear God, next thing you know the president will accuse a political rival's family of being implicated in the JFK assassination!" (A reference to Trump's 2016 smear of Ted Cruz's father.) Behind the scenes: I asked a senior White House official whether anybody internally did anything about the Clinton tweet. "I think we're beyond the point of trying to control these things," the official said. White House officials, including press staff, say they rarely receive any forewarning before the president tweets something incendiary. On the occasions they do get a heads-up, it's from Dan Scavino, the White House social media director who manages Trump's Twitter account. Two sources familiar told me that on at least a few occasions, Scavino has taken dictation on an incendiary tweet from Trump, saved the tweet to drafts and given a small number of his colleagues advanced warning that this particular tweet might be coming. But it's just a heads-up. Two and a half years into his presidency, Trump has kept his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account entirely his own.

2018-02-13 00:00:00

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The lineup for Roulette’s 2018 Mixology Festival, titled “Circuit Breakers,” features an enticing series of improbable audio-visual pairings. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads The 2018 edition of Roulette’s Mixology Festival, titled “Circuit Breakers,” features four nights of provocative performance pairings, kicking off with Tuesday tonight’s tribute to French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey by Wally De Backer (aka Gotye, of “Somebody That I Used to Know” fame). Though that may be the festival’s most improbable combination, its program promises many fertile musical and performative cross-pollinations. On Wednesday night, for instance, the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist (and video artist) Rachika S will follow a collaboration between experimental music singer Daisy Press and musician and composer Nick Hallett. Thursday’s lineup features the collective Causings — which experiments and improvises using electronic devices and other non-musical instruments — sharing the marquee with Bushwick-based group Plan 23, which pairs dark-ambient and psychedelic, electro-acoustic sounds with fluid, abstract video projections. The most intriguing evening program, for my money, is the festival’s final night on Friday. The Tokyo-based duo GAIAMAMOO will perform live, improvised noise music accompanied by projections of Japanese Noh theater performances. They will be followed by the Bushwick collective Jantar, which specializes in ambient and improvised “experimental easy listening music” based on film and background music. When: Tuesday, February 13–Friday, February 16 (times and prices vary) Where: Roulette (509 Atlantic Avenue, Downtown Brooklyn) More info at Roulette.

2017-02-16 15:32:37

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According to Loom founder Chase White, there’s a familiar cycle that tech entrepreneurs go through: When they’re first getting started, they sell equity to angel investors, then they use the money to hire developers to actually build the product. At a certain point, White (formerly the co-founder and head of product at Localeur) wondered, “Why not cut out the middleman?” In other words, why not just offer that equity directly to developers? White said this allows startups to build a basic product, check if it can get any traction and then try to raise funding. And that’s what he’s trying to enable at Loom. Entrepreneurs can post their ideas on site (the sensitive stuff doesn’t get posted on the public profile), then they get bids from freelancers who want to participate in the project. They can review the bids, browse freelancer profiles (those freelancers can verify their skills through developer tests on the site) and send a few initial messages. Then, if an entrepreneur wants to hire a freelancer, they pay Loom $99 for the connection, which means they have access to unlimited messaging, unlimited file sharing and can exchange contact info. The developers don’t have to be paid in equity alone. In fact, White said that 80 percent of the bids on Loom are for a combination of cash and stock. He added that Loom leaves it up to the entrepreneurs and developers to decide what the compensation should look like — though this could potentially lead to some acrimonious situations. “The goal right now is to facilitate the connections,” he said. “In the future, we’ll have a lot more conflict resolution and mitigation efforts, but that’s more of a long-term goal.” The development-for-stock model isn’t an entirely new one. In fact, there’s a firm called CoVenture that specifically offers development and design work in exchange for equity. You might also remember the “crowdcoding” site Late Labs, whose founder Justin Johnson is now an advisor with Loom. Johnson said that one of the problems at Late Labs was its attempt to build a broader suite of collaboration tools: “We tried to do that and manage the process and it broke down a lot. Chase is laser-focused on the actual value creation in helping people meet each other.” White admitted that, initially, Loom was also trying to charge an ongoing fee for these projects. After it launched in August, users “were essentially stealing the product — making successful connections and then jumping off the platform without paying fees.” To avoid this situation, Loom moved to its current model of just charging for the initial connection. “Entrepreneurs are savage individuals and they will do anything to protect their runway, which I don’t blame ‘em for,” White added. And just to be clear, he’s not opposed to the idea of raising outside funding, either. Loom, after all, raised a $600,000 seed round to hire its first employees.

2017-08-03

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White House adviser Sebastian GorkaSebastian Lukacs GorkaPlayboy White House correspondent says he'll sue over suspended credentials Playboy plans to appeal after reporter says his White House credentials were suspended Gorka criticizes reporter after heated Rose Garden exchange MORE said Thursday that the administration can use President Trump's Twitter feed to encourage China to act against North Korea.  "We have, you know, the president's Twitter feed," said Gorka on Fox News when asked what the administration can do to urge China to act on the increasing threat. "If you can win a U.S. election with it, I think it's pretty powerful."  Following an North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test in July, Trump voiced his frustration with the Chinese on Twitter, saying "I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet... they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"  I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet... ...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem! "We have the most powerful man in the world making it very clear that we came out of the Mar-a-Lago summit with very high hopes," Gorka said of Trump's tweets.  Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in April seeking to improve relations with the leader and work to persuade China to toughen up on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. "Trump is wrong in his assumption that Beijing can single-handedly handle the matter," according to Chinese state media this month. "As Beijing has said, repeatedly, it does not have the kind of 'control' over Pyongyang that the U.S. president believes it does." 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.

2018-03-19 00:00:00

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March 19 (Reuters) - Giglio Group Spa: * ITALIAN STOCK EXCHANGE AUTHORIZED LISTING OF ITS ORDINARY SHARES ON MTA MARKET AS OF MARCH 20​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)

2019-06-03

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday he hoped scope for cooperation with Guatemala on containing migrant flows from Central America to the United States would improve after the election of the country’s next leader. Mexico faces the risk of a severe economic shock due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger over a surge in migrants trying to enter the United States from Mexico. Most of the migrants are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Guatemala holds presidential elections on June 16 to pick a replacement for conservative incumbent Jimmy Morales. Polls suggest that none of the candidates in the race will secure enough votes to win outright, which would mean the top two contenders face off in a second around on Aug. 11. Trump said last week that he will impose tariffs on all Mexican imports from June 10 if Mexico did not halt the flow of migrants reaching the U.S. border.. Mexican senior officials are meeting in Washington this week to discuss the tariff plan. Lopez Obrador said his government was in permanent contact with Central American governments when asked during a news conference what conversations he was having with leaders from the region to address the problem. “In Guatemala there will be elections soon ... and this gives us hope that better conditions will arise,” he said. Trump wants to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to halt illegal immigration. By contrast, Lopez Obrador has argued the two sides must work together to address the violence, poverty and lack of opportunities that has fueled the exodus of people. Last week, the Morales government signed an agreement with the United States aimed at containing migration. Under it, U.S. officials are due to train their Guatemalan counterparts and step up security on the Guatemala-Mexico border. The next Guatemalan president takes office in January 2020. Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Alistair Bell

2016-12-14 00:00:00

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Dubuque, Iowa (CNN)Once a week, a dozen or so grandmothers trickle into an elementary school to spend an evening enjoying one of their favorite hobbies: Basketball. They're members of the Dubuque Courtside Cuties, a team in the Granny Basketball League, open to women over 50, with 24 teams across Iowa and seven other states. Every week they practice in the school gym, where they shoot around, run drills and play a scrimmage. These women are on the same team when it comes to basketball. But off the court, they're on all sides of the political debate. Many were stunned by the results in their historically Democratic-voting county. The school where they practice is aptly named after President Dwight Eisenhower, the last Republican nominee to win Dubuque County — until Donald Trump. "I was horrified. I was depressed for days. And I think we're all going to hell in a handbasket," said Micki Marlof, a member of the team who was so distrustful of Trump and Hillary Clinton that she voted for Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Many political analysts predicted Trump would carry Iowa, but until the results came in, few experts saw it as part of a Midwest wave that would propel him to the White House. He won here with a surge in support from white working-class communities like Dubuque, which was one of nearly 100 counties in the Midwest that flipped from blue to red this year. Counties flip red along the Mississippi As he barnstormed across Iowa before the February caucuses, Trump held a rally at the Dubuque Regional Airport and told a cheering crowd of thousands, "This is a movement." Few agree more than Pamelape Gantz, who was raised in Dubuque and still lives there. A registered independent, she attended one of Trump's first rallies in Dubuque and supported him from the start. She proudly wears Trump buttons and "deplorable" shirts around town. "I walk my dog six miles every morning, and I walk around Dubuque all over so I don't get bored, and I notice all these Trump signs up," Gantz said. "It was the first time I'd ever seen Republican signs up. I came home to my husband and I said, 'Something's going on here. I'm seeing these Trump signs all over Dubuque.' I never saw Republican signs up before." Even as political pundits ridiculed the notion that yard signs could meaningfully measure support, the anecdotal sightings along Iowa highways and front yards proved true. Trump finished with a 9-point win in the Hawkeye State, a wider margin than in 16 other states, including places that weren't considered battlegrounds, like Texas, Georgia and Minnesota. "I started pinching myself," Gantz said, recalling election night. "When finally, they called it. I just screamed in delight. I still can't believe it. It's just unbelievable. It's fantastic." Trump clinched the Iowa victory with a two-pronged approach. First, he outdid past GOP nominees in rural western Iowa, the base of Iowa's evangelicals and conservatives. Then he flipped traditionally Democratic areas in the east like Dubuque County, where he beat Clinton by about 1%. That's a small yet impressive margin, considering its 60-year Democratic streak, and that President Barack Obama won by 14% in 2012 and a whopping 21% in 2008. What happened in Dubuque was part of a regional trend: Counties up and down the Mississippi River that voted Democratic for generations switched this year to vote for Trump. Looking on a map, the wave is clear, and it extends into Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Obama twice carried all 10 counties on Iowa's eastern border. Clinton barely held onto one. That means Obama-Trump voters -- a bloc few saw coming -- played a decisive role. "I voted for Obama twice because he was new blood, and I thought he'd bring new things to the county, but I'm not sure if he did all that he needed to do," said Paula Welter, a member of the Granny Basketball team who voted for Trump. "I'm looking at Trump the same way. He's new, he's different. Yes, his mouth is horrible, but he's not a politician, and I really think the country is telling us something with electing him. They're tired of the politicians." Looking out for the little guy Dubuque is an industry town. For generations, workers built everything from buttons to ships, even some of the earliest automobiles. The timber industry came and went, too. These days, Deere & Company leads the way, with a factory that manufactures agricultural equipment. But the plant, like many in the region, is shrinking. Employment peaked in 1980 with 8,300 workers. Jobs started leaving gradually, the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified in the 1990s, and today the plant only employs 2,400 people. Those workers are represented by the United Automobile Workers, which endorsed Clinton. But that endorsement didn't seem to resonate among the rank-and-file. According to exit polls, Clinton beat Trump among union households nationwide by 9%, the smallest Democratic advantage since 1984, when Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan. "There didn't seem to be anyone speaking for the small person anymore," Randy Lyon, the unofficial dean of Dubuque history and a retired educator and historian. "The decline of unions in town has left many people up in the air not knowing who is going to look out for them." It was the Democratic Party that "looked out for the little guy" in Dubuque, Lyon said, pointing out that after devastating floods in the 1960s, Democrats championed efforts to build a flood wall along the Mississippi River so Dubuque homes and businesses would be protected. Holding their noses, hoping for change The election has come and gone, but Dubuque is still divided. On one side, Trump voters are hopeful that the man they sent to Washington can deliver. Not necessarily on his most brazen promises -- like building a wall on the US border with Mexico, or throwing Clinton in prison -- but on pocketbook issues that matter. "I would hope he could bring jobs back into the community -- he's a businessman," said Paula Welter, from the Granny Basketball team. "My husband works very hard, probably 16 hours a day. He's a farmer, and we don't make a ton of money. We have beef, and the prices were in the cellar about a month ago. I just hope that we can get a hand on it." Many voters in Dubuque, a predominantly Catholic community, are also counting on Trump to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices. Even some of the Clinton voters on the basketball team said they only want Trump to consider justices who oppose abortion rights. Diehard Democrats in town are lost: Their one-time stronghold went Republican. They're represented in Congress by Rep. Rod Blum, a Republican who was just re-elected to a second term. Their senators are both Republicans, and so are the governor and lieutenant governor. "I've been agonizing over this result, and I never really did expect it," said former Dubuque Democratic Party chairman Terry Stewart. "It's very disappointing that it also happened here in Dubuque. Apparently, Americans are very gullible, and that's disappointing to me." But most voters, on both sides, want to move on and see some progress. "They have to give Trump a chance now that he's been elected," said Deb Kipper, of the Granny Basketball team, a lifelong Republican who voted for Clinton. "They have to give him a chance. Let's see if his actions speak louder than his words, see if he follows through."

2019-03-14

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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Thursday the European Union may offer Britain to delay its exit from the bloc by up to 21 months in what may lead to a “fundamental rethink” of British policy on the matter. “If you have a long extension of Article 50, that opens up the debate in a much broader way to the overall approach that the United Kingdom takes to Brexit. That may facilitate a fundamental rethink, it may not, we just don’t know,” Coveney told RTE radio in an interview. “If you have a long extension of, say 21 months to the end of 2020 - whatever the period would be - then Britain has a legal entitlement to have representation in the European parliament” and so must take part in EU elections, he said. Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Alison Williams

2018-09-12

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ATHENS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A Greek court on Wednesday extended by two months an injunction protecting jewellery maker Folli Follie’s assets from creditors, a judicial source said. Folli, which employs about 5,000 people, had obtained a temporary court injunction to protect its assets. The group of creditors has sought the lifting of the injunction to recoup loans. Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou

2018-09-13 21:35:00

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Long live the feud between Cardi B and Nicki Minaj! On Thursday, the rappers each posted on their social media accounts and encouraged their New York City-based followers to get out and vote in the democratic governor primaries. The only problem? The women endorsed different candidates and posted their messages less than two hours apart. At 1:19 p.m., Nicki shared a message on her Twitter telling New York residents “its time to get JUSTICE.” “VOTE Thur. Sept. 13 for Gov. Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Hochul & Tish James,” the 35-year-old “Barbie Dreams” rapper wrote in support of the two-term incumbent. “They know how to work for the people to make NY even GREATER. Spread the word. See you at the Polls.” ‼️‼️‼️New Yorkers & all NYCHA residents its time to get JUSTICE, VOTE Thur. Sept. 13 for Gov. Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Hochul & Tish James. They know how to work for the people to make NY even GREATER. Spread the word. See you at the Polls‼️‼️‼️ — QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) September 12, 2018 Adding fuel to the already-burning fire, Cardi, 25, chose to share a message of her own, this time on Instagram. Endorsing Democratic candidate Cynthia Nixon, Cardi wrote, “Polls close around 8PM .NEW YORKERS VOTE NOW !!!!!! #cynthia#jumaane” In the photo posted around 2:30 p.m., the former Sex and The City actress-turned-politician can be seen at a rally with her running partner, Jumaane Williams. The duo is proudly holding their hands together high above their head, while their supporters hold signs behind them. The “I Like It” rapper joins several other famous faces to show support for Nixon’s office run, including Nixon’s former SATC co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catttrall, and Kristen Davis. Like Cardi, the women have encouraged New Yorkers to vote for the new activist via social media. Cardi and Nicki — both New York natives — have been no strangers to the headlines in the past few weeks. On Sept. 8, the rappers got into an argument at the Harper’s Bazaar ICONS party for New York Fashion Week. During the altercation, Cardi screamed and lunged at Nicki. The evening ended with a barefoot and bruised Cardi getting escorted out by security. Following the incident, both rappers spoke out. In a scathing Instagram post that did not mention Nicki by name, Cardi suggested that the “Ganja Burns” rapper made negative comments about her infant daughter. “I addressed you once in person, I addressed you a second time in person, and every time you copped the plea!! But when you mention my child, you choose to like comments about me as a mother, make comments about my abilities to take care of my daughter is when all bets are f—ing off!!” Cardi wrote. Three days later, Nicki spoke out on a new episode of her Queen radio show on Apple Music’s Beats 1. “The other night I was part of something so mortifying and so humiliating to go through in front of a bunch upper echelon… people who have their life together,” Nicki explained, denying claims that she spoke poorly of Cardi’s new daughter. “I just want people to know that Onika Tanya Maraj has never, will never… speak ill on anyone’s child. I am not a clown. That’s clown s—.”

2017-02-08 07:52:05

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California Today Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Calling California “out of control,” President Trump recently threatened to withhold federal funds from the state. In response, the State Senate leader, Kevin de León, said California was creating jobs faster than any state in the nation and paid more annually in federal taxes than it gets back. So what exactly do Californians get back per dollar paid in federal taxes? “There isn’t really a simple answer, unfortunately,” said Ann Hollingshead, a fiscal and policy analyst for the California Legislative Analyst’s Office. Part of the difficulty stems from the tangled web of money that flows between individuals, the state and the federal government. Perhaps the most cited figure comes from the Tax Foundation, a conservative group that found Californians got back about 78 cents in services per federal tax dollar paid in 2005. State analysts pointed out that the foundation’s figure is adjusted to include California’s share of the federal deficit. That, in effect, widens the gap between money out and money in. Over the years, other groups have used differing criteria to reach their own numbers: • The New York State Comptroller: $0.99 • The National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group: $1.06 • And a computation using data from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office and I.R.S.: $0.91 In all, the federal government spent about $368 billion in California during the 2015 fiscal year, or roughly $9,500 per resident, according to state analysts. The bulk went toward health care and retirement. How does that compare to other states? Researchers at the Pew Charitable Trusts crunched the numbers for the 2014 fiscal year and found that California ranked 41st in per capita federal spending among the states. The low ranking has been attributed in part to California’s younger population — fewer retirees means less Social Security spending. Ultimately, it may not be possible to reach a consensus on precisely how much California is getting back from its federal taxes, said Ms. Hollingshead. But, she added, “What we can say is that if you look at where California ranks, it is certainly on the low end.” (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • Judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco expressed skepticism over arguments in favor of President Trump’s travel ban. [The New York Times] • In Richmond, generous retirement benefits for public safety workers have pushed the Bay Area city to the brink of bankruptcy. [Los Angeles Times] • Emails showed that San Diego area officials knew a sales tax forecast was wrong. But they pushed it anyway. [Voice of San Diego] • Milo Yiannopoulos may have intended to out undocumented students at U.C. Berkeley. Does that change the debate? [California Magazine] • Richard Lyon has died at 93. He was the first Navy SEAL to be promoted to admiral and was later elected as mayor of Oceanside. [San Diego Union-Tribune] • Employment in the solar sector grew by 25 percent last year, as California led the way with nearly 25,000 new jobs. [The Mercury News] • This month will mark 50 years since the country’s first gay rights demonstration. It happened not in New York City, but in Los Angeles. [LA Weekly] • After a miracle shot by LeBron James, it’s looking more and more like another Cavaliers-Warriors finals. [The New York Times] • “It’s not what you would call a conventional hosting gig”: What James Corden is plotting for the Grammy Awards. [The New York Times] • The Griffith Observatory, Pasadena and palm trees — the director of “La La Land” talks about why he loves Los Angeles. [The New York Times] • Which beers belong on the Mount Rushmore of Northern California beer? [San Francisco Chronicle] • Photos: Dorothea Lange’s rarely seen images of Japanese internment. [The New York Times] Northern California was once again hammered by rain on Tuesday. By nightfall, parts of the region had been deluged by as much as six inches of rain in 24 hours, causing widespread flooding and numerous mudslides. In Santa Cruz County, the San Lorenzo River swelled over its banks in several places, flooding homes. A landslide swept onto Highway 17, flipping a pickup truck (the driver was O.K.) and shutting the vital artery across the Santa Cruz Mountains for much of the day. In Marin County, mudslides tore into several homes, the Marin Independent Journal reported. And farther inland, heavy rain pounded the Sierra foothills, the Sierra Star reported, leading to flash floods and evacuations. Meteorologists said to expect additional rounds of rain through Friday. Some scenes from the wild weather: Want to submit a photo for possible publication? You can do it here. California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.

2020-03-04 00:00:00

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL.O) and JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) are cutting flights and implementing cost controls in the most drastic actions by U.S. airlines to get ahead of depressed travel demand due to the spreading coronavirus. The United measures, announced by executives in a letter to employees on Wednesday, include a 10% reduction in U.S. and Canadian flights and a 20% reduction in international flying in the month of April, with similar cuts planned in May. JetBlue said in a memo Wednesday seen by Reuters that it was cutting capacity by approximately 5% “in the near term to address the fall in demand” as a result of the coronavirus and said it assessing if more cuts are needed. JetBlue is taking other steps “aimed at preserving cash” including “delaying or canceling upcoming events and meetings” and “reducing hiring for frontline and support center positions.” It is also considering voluntary time-off programs and is “limiting non-essential spending.” United is freezing new hiring except for critical roles, delaying 2019 merit salary increases for management and administrative employees and offering all U.S.-based workers the option of a voluntary unpaid leave of absence. “We sincerely hope that these latest measures are enough, but the dynamic nature of this outbreak requires us to be nimble and flexible moving forward in how we respond,” United CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby said in the letter. The coronavirus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has spread globally with more than 94,000 cases and 3,220 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. Conferences and gatherings around the world have been canceled, and companies have changed work and travel plans. Plane maker Boeing Co itself on Wednesday said it was taking precautions including restricting travel to essential trips. Chicago-based United’s announcement followed a meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and the heads of major U.S. airlines at the White House where they discussed the effect of the virus on the industry and demand. Concerns over the effect of reduced travel demand on airlines have hit airline shares and stoked fears of a financial bailout for the sector, an idea that the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday moved quickly to dismiss. Trump also said on Wednesday that the airline executives had not asked for a bailout. After emerging from bankruptcy in the last decade and with new business models that include fees for everything from baggage to boarding, the U.S. airline majors are in a better financial position to weather a crisis, analysts have said. The rapid, global spread of the virus has forced airlines to abandon their usual strategies for crisis management, which in the past have included lowering fares and redirecting flights to trouble-free areas. Until now, United and other U.S. carriers had only reduced flying to the areas most hit by coronavirus cases, though international rivals Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK) and British Airways recently announced broader reductions. Leaders of the unions representing United’s pilots and flight attendants called the move a “responsible approach” to addressing the impact of COVID-19 on air travel. In one effort to win over hesitant travelers, U.S. airlines have suspended rebooking fees for new ticket reservations. Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman

2016-09-24 00:00:00

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(CNN)Scores of passengers were injured when two trains collided in Algeria on Saturday. The crash happened around 4 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) near the city of Boudouaou, according to the state-run Algeria Press Service. It occurred at the Boudouaou station when a train headed for the province of Setif, 300 km (186 miles) east of Algiers, caught up with a train ahead that was headed for the town of Thenia, according to the National Rail Transport Company. At least 78 people were injured in the collision, two of them seriously, the news agency said. CNN's Merieme Arif contributed to this report.

2018-08-22

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(CNN)Mollie Tibbetts' family expressed grief and gratitude for those who have supported them during the search for the student, which ended Tuesday when a body was found in an Iowa corn field. Authorities believe the remains are hers. The statement reads: Our hearts are broken. On behalf of Mollie's entire family, we thank all of those from around the world who have sent their thoughts and prayers for our girl. We know that many of you will join us as we continue to carry Mollie in our hearts forever. At this time, our family asks that we be allowed the time to process our devastating loss and share our grief in private. Again, thank you for the outpouring of love and support that has been shared in Mollie's name. We remain forever grateful. No additional press conferences are scheduled at this time.

2016-08-03

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* Unconvincing data dims U.S. rate hike prospects, hurts dollar * ADP labour market data eyed * Dollar/yen seen heading towards break of 100 yen threshold * Bitcoin slides after Hong Kong exchange hack By Jemima Kelly LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The dollar struggled to break away from six-week lows against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, kept under pressure by the view that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later rather than sooner. The greenback had been on its best run of weekly gains in 1-1/2 years until last week, when expectations that the Fed would clearly signal a near-term rate hike were disappointed, and U.S. growth data came in much weaker than expected. The dollar index inched up 0.2 percent on Wednesday but at 95.284 remained close to Tuesday’s low of 95.003 and was down 2 percent compared with a week ago, before the Fed’s policy statement. U.S. labour market data from ADP due at 1215 GMT will be watched by currency traders ahead of the all-important non-farm payrolls report on Friday. “The ADP report today should indicate continued labour market strength, and ease concerns over the health of the U.S. economy,” said Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UJF macro strategist Derek Halpenny, in London. UBS Wealth Management currency strategist Geoffrey Yu said the dollar had been boosted by a risk-off mood in U.S. trading on Tuesday, when indexes suffered their worst day in a month on lower oil prices and lacklustre inflation data. But he said any gains on risk-aversion would be capped. “We’re caught in this kind of trap where every time we get nervous about something, the dollar rallies, but then the next thing to think about is: is the Fed going to react to that by pushing out their rate views?” Yu said. “And then you can’t afford to be long dollars that aggressively any more. So that’s why we have these turns, quite rapidly.” The dollar was up 0.2 percent at 101.08 yen. It slid 1.5 percent the previous day when it fell to a three-week trough of 100.680, amid some disappointment that a meeting between Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda did not result in steps to weaken the yen. Junichi Ishikawa, currency analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo, said it was a matter of time before the dollar breaks below 100 yen. The dollar briefly slipped below the watershed level in the stormy markets that followed Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June, but it has managed to stay above ever since. “The break below 100 yen after Brexit was an irregular move. But this time, the yen is gaining steadily on fundamental factors like Japan’s improving current account balance and the fading impact of BOJ’s multi-dimensional easing,” Ishikawa said. The Japanese central bank eased monetary policy on Friday by upping the amount of its exchange-traded fund purchases, but underwhelmed the markets by holding off from increasing the amount of government bonds its buys every month. Bitcoin steadied at around $545 after sliding by as much as 25 percent in early trading on Wednesday after a Hong Kong digital currency exchange said it had suspended trading on its exchange after almost 120,000 bitcoin - worth almost $65 million at the current rate - was stolen. For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets (Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

2019-08-14 00:00:00

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(CNN)Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Alyssa Farah is expected to move to the Pentagon, CNN has learned. Farah worked in Pence's office for nearly two years after being poached from her post as the spokesperson for the House Freedom Caucus. She is expected to start next month. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Washington Post first reported the move. Dana White, the Pentagon's last spokeswoman, left the Defense Department in December amid then-Secretary James Mattis's departure and an internal Defense Department investigation into her conduct. The Pentagon has not held a regularly scheduled press briefing with a press secretary since last year, a significant departure from previous administrations that held weekly televised briefings by a department press secretary, though there have been on-camera briefings with subject matter experts. White's last televised briefing was May 31, 2018. The White House has also not held a press briefing since March 2019. The Senate voted in late July to confirm Mark Esper as the new defense secretary, ending a period of turmoil that engulfed the Pentagon since Mattis resigned over his differences with President Donald Trump, and Patrick Shanahan, the acting secretary, withdrew his name from consideration amid reports of incidents of family violence. Farah's exit marks the latest significant departure in the vice president's office in recent months. His chief of staff Nick Ayers resigned in December 2018 after turning down an offer to become West Wing chief of staff. His communications director Jarrod Agen resigned in June to take a position with Lockheed Martin. And his director of media affairs left that same month to become the director of communications for Juul, an e-cigarette company.

2018-06-14

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The Boring Company scored a surprise victory in Chicago today with the announcement that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had selected Elon Musk‘s tunneling venture to design, build, and operate a rapid transit link between O’Hare International Airport and the city’s central business district. Even more surprising: Emanuel is adamant that the project will require no taxpayer money. The Boring Company has promised to pay for it. The project will cost less than $1 billion, sources told the Chicago Tribune. But the civil engineers, infrastructure executives, and mass transit experts we spoke to are extremely skeptical of that figure. Musk has said tunnels are the only way to "solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic.” And his promise to dig these tunnels faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods is what has attracted so much municipal interest. The city of Chicago hasn’t released the bid, so it’s hard to say specifically what will happen if that estimate is too low. But we do know, generally, that the project will take longer and require more borrowing if the Boring Company’s projections are off base. That could mean more financial problems for Musk, more scrutiny for Emanuel and his administration, and another failed transportation project for the city of Chicago. According to the Tribune: In exchange for paying to build the new transit system, Boring would keep the revenue from the system’s transit fees and any money generated by advertisements, branding and in-vehicle sales, Rivkin and the company said. Ownership of the twin tunnels has not been determined, but the Emanuel administration plans to seek a long-term lease to Musk’s company, a source familiar with the proposal said. Later in the article, Chicago Deputy Mayor Robert Rivkin is quoted saying the city will negotiate to ensure it “will share in any significant profits that are made” from the Boring Company’s project. Rivkin declined to offer a timeline for when the project might get built but said Boring was “very forward-leaning and optimistic about its timeline.” At a press conference in Chicago on Thursday with Mayor Emanuel, Musk sounded optimistic about being able to cover the daily costs of running the rapid transit line, but he was more circumspect about the debts he was likely to accrue by building it. “I think it’s very unlikely that it wouldn’t be able to make up for its operational costs. Basically it’s certain to cover its operational costs.” He added, ”Whether it provides a good return on capital is a separate question.” Asked what he personally gets out of the project, Musk said, “First of all, I should preface this by saying... what I would ask is that... this is a difficult thing that we’re doing. It’s a hard thing. It’s a new thing. And I’d hope that you would cheer us on for this. Because if we succeed, it’s going to be a great thing for the city. And if we fail, well, I guess me and others will lose a bunch of money.” Consider the immense costs associated with transportation projects in the world, especially those that require tunnel boring: the Second Avenue Subway in New York City cost about $2.5 billion per mile, while the Line 14 Extension in Paris ran about $450 million per mile. The Boring Company claims it can dig 18 miles of tunnels for a fraction of those prices. “What’s going to drive down costs below the subway in Paris by a factor of 10?” said Constantine Samaras, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “I’m looking forward to finding out.“ Samaras noted that the Boring Company has been selected as what’s called a D-BOM contractor, which stands for design, build, finance, operate, and maintain. According to the Federal Highway Administration, a private entity in a D-BOM contract “is responsible for design and construction as well as long-term operation and/or maintenance services.” The public sector secures the project’s financing independently and retains the operating revenue risk. “So they’re on the hook to making sure this system performs well over time,” he said. Others view these projections with more skepticism. Yonah Freemark, an urbanist and journalist who has worked in architecture, planning, and transportation, said he was shocked to read about the costs associated with Musk’s proposal. “The first is that a construction cost of $500 million to $1 billion would already be remarkably low — effectively $29 to $59 million per mile of tunneling — if you exclude the cost of the stations themselves and the vehicles,” Freemark wrote in an email. “But the stations are likely to be expensive.” The Boring Company has said it would rehabilitate the Chicago Transit Authority high-speed rail ”superstation” beneath Block 37, which was mothballed in 2008 due to $100 million in cost overruns and limited interest in private operator of the express service. That rehabilitation will cost at least $50 million, and building a massive new station under O’Hare would likely cost even more. The transit system’s O’Hare station will be located near the new global terminal Emanuel has announced as part of an $8.5 billion overhaul of the airport. Then there are the vehicles, or “skates” as Musk calls them. The Boring Company says it will use modified Tesla Model X car chassis as an underpinning for its so-called Loop public transportation system. These vehicles would be transported on “autonomous electric skates” traveling at 125–150 mph. Electric skates will carry between eight and 16 passengers or a single-passenger vehicle, according to the company’s website. According to the Tribune: The Chicago system is expected to be able to handle nearly 2,000 passengers per direction per hour, with cars leaving every 30 seconds to two minutes, city officials said. How much a ride will cost is subject to final negotiations, but Boring has stated a goal of charging between $20 and $25 — or half the cost of a typical ride-share or cab ride to O’Hare, a source familiar with the talks said. By comparison, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority can squeeze about 2,000 people on a single subway train. That raises the question: why is the Boring Company limiting the size and capacity of its vehicles? Freemark figures that Boring would need about 61 vehicles in an active fleet. Using some back-of-the-envelope calculations, he figures they’d want 75 vehicles total, with a few extras for backup. Buses are each a minimum of $300,000 to make; trains cost at least $2.7 million per car. So if Musk is making his vehicles at bus prices, that’s about $22 million for the fleet. And the fleet will likely need a maintenance facility, which will cost a minimum of $30 million, Freemark says. “Add those things together, and suddenly Musk is projecting only spending $348 to $848 million to build those 17 miles of tunnel — shockingly less than any similar project,” he says. A more realistic estimate, Freemark says, is two stations for $100 million apiece, the vehicles for $500,000 each, and a maintenance facility for $50 million. “That would leave $213 to $713 million for the tunnels,” he says. “I’m quite skeptical, especially since to meet safety and ventilation requirements, this tunnel can’t just be bored straight from downtown. It will have to have emergency exists, exhaust valves, etc. throughout its route. Where will these go and what will their cost be? Given the very high frequency of vehicles Musk is proposing (30-second headways), these exits are essential.” All that aside, an airport-to-downtown connection in Chicago is “a good way to demonstrate the approach and costs of the Boring Company,” Samaras said, “with a lot less risk than building out a multi-stop system with car elevators as shown in the Boring Company’s original pitch video.” On its website, the Boring Company says it can lower the costs associated with tunneling through two methods: reducing the size of the tunnel diameter and increasing the efficiency of tunnel-boring machines. That includes using automation, increasing the amount of power to the boring machine, and replacing diesel fuel with electric power. Our first glimpse of the Boring Company was from a short video tweeted by Musk in April 2017 that depicted individual vehicles being lowered below ground via car elevators that were seamlessly installed in the street. From there, it’s a high-speed ride through Musk’s tunnels on electric skates. After another short elevator ride, the car is back on street level. The Chicago plan is certainly a deviation from that original vision, but large infrastructure products are difficult to do in the US. It took nearly 100 years to get any traction on the Second Avenue Subway in New York; across town, costs associated with the massive East Side Access project under Grand Central Station have ballooned to $12 billion. California’s bullet train project lumbers ahead, despite having no prospects for adequate funding to complete an initial segment with a chance of attracting riders. “It is very difficult to build anything new in the US of scale,” Dean Wise, former vice president for network strategy at BNSF Railway, told The Verge. “And as someone who’s primarily privately funded, we have a billion dollars of hot money in our hand, ready to build some facilities on the West Coast. And we saw the five-year delays, the eight-year delay, and now nothing happens... When projects don’t get built at all, why should someone engage in that effort?” So why is Musk engaging in that effort, when the possibility of failure is so high? At the press conference Thursday, the billionaire addressed it directly: “You know I do think that there is a role for doubters. People should question things, and it shouldn’t be taken as a given that things are going to work because often things do not work.”

2017-03-07

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March 7 (Reuters) - Otkritie FC Bank: * Says to issue 10 billion rouble ($172.35 million) BO-P03 series bonds * Maturity period is six years Source text: bit.ly/2lY7d3u Further company coverage: ($1 = 58.0200 roubles) (Gdynia Newsroom)

2019-08-23 00:00:00

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian authorities said on Friday that a doctor who treated those injured in a mysterious accident this month had the radioactive isotope Caesium-137 in his body, but said it was probably put there by his diet. The deadly accident at a military site in northern Russia took place on Aug. 8 and caused a brief spurt of radiation. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said it occurred during testing of what he called promising new weapons systems. U.S.-based nuclear experts suspect the incident occurred during tests of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Russia’s state nuclear agency said five of its staff members were killed and three others injured in the blast involving “isotope power sources”, which it said came during a rocket test on a sea platform. Putin said this week that there was no risk of increased radiation and the Kremlin has repeatedly told reporters there is no threat to people’s health. Some Russian media reports have cited unnamed doctors as complaining that they were not warned they were treating people with possible radiation exposure however. Authorities in Arkhangelsk region, the site of the accident, said on Friday that an unnamed doctor, one of more than 110 people it said had been tested, had been found to have a small amount of Caesium-137 in his soft tissue. Caesium-137 is a product of nuclear fission. “However, (medical) specialists are not linking this fact with his participation in the operation to deal with the incident’s consequences,” authorities said. “According to specialists from Russia’s Federal Medical and Biological Agency, Caesium-137 ... can build up in fish, mushrooms, lichens or seaweed. We can say with a fair degree of probability that it got into his body via food products which he’d eaten.” Norway’s nuclear test-ban monitor said on Friday that there had been two explosions and that the second blast two hours later was the most likely source of the spike in radiation. Editing by Larry King

2019-02-14

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New York (CNN)The Democratic National Committee's head of cybersecurity is warning presidential primary candidates that the best time for hackers to target their campaigns is right now -- in the early days of the cycle. "The best time to attack is before a (candidate's campaign) has their sea legs, before they've put a security plan in place," Bob Lord, the DNC's chief security officer, told CNN. Lord also warned that those who have not yet announced they are running are also at risk. "The trick is the adversaries are already at work, whether a candidate has announced or not. They know the list of plausible candidates; so does everybody else," he said. Lord said the DNC is available to support all Democratic candidates. A former Silicon Valley executive, Lord was hired by the DNC last year in an attempt to improve the Democrats' cybersecurity, after the DNC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign staff were hacked in 2016. The DNC provided CNN with a copy of a "Device and Account Security Checklist" that it is encouraging presidential campaigns to follow. The checklists include instructions on encrypting a computer hard drive. "The message we are sending out is that we are here to help and that we are here to assist them in the creation of an overall security program that is tailored to their current landscape and interest and challenges," Lord added. Lord, who formerly held security roles at Twitter and Yahoo, is one of a number of hires the DNC made from Silicon Valley in light of the hacking of the party in 2016. Hacking isn't only a problem for Democrats. In December, it emerged that the National Republican Congressional Committee had been hacked during the 2018 midterm election cycle. Ian Prior, a spokesman for the committee, told CNN at the time, "The cybersecurity of the committee's data is paramount."

2017-09-20

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STOCKHOLM, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Deliveries of the six biggest categories of white goods (AHAM 6) in the United States rose 2.5 percent year-on-year in August, data from industry body Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) showed late on Tuesday. Shipments in the country, a major market for companies such as Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux, were up 3.9 percent in the year through August. (Reporting by Helena Soderpalm; Editing by Johannes Hellstrom)

2019-12-19 15:08:34

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This story was co-published with ProPublica and the Texas Tribune. In the middle of the night, her oldest daughter, Diana, found her on the couch, clutching her belly and moaning. Diana half-carried her to the bathroom, offering her some Alka-Seltzer and a sip of Gatorade to wash the antacid down. Rosa started to shiver and cry. “Let me drive you to the emergency room,” Diana urged. “No, I don’t have insurance,” Rosa protested. “I just want to go to sleep. I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.” Rosa, a 43-year-old Mexican immigrant who became a US citizen in the 1990s, rarely saw doctors. She was employed through temp agencies, mostly working in factories and cleaning schools — jobs that didn’t offer insurance or pay enough to let her afford her own policy. Without realizing it, she’d become pregnant, and the fertilized egg had attached itself to her fallopian tube, instead of her uterus. The condition, an ectopic pregnancy, is extremely dangerous if not treated immediately. Diana tucked a blanket around her mother and sat with her for a while, then went back to bed. Around 3 am, she heard her mother scream. Rosa’s fallopian tube had exploded, and three liters of blood — almost two-thirds of her total volume — was gushing into her abdomen. By the time paramedics delivered her to the Baylor University Medical Center emergency room in Dallas, her heart had stopped. When Diana thinks back on the night her mother died, and what was most on her mind, she still gets angry — “because instead of wanting to feel better, she was more worried about the cost.” From 2012 through 2015, at least 382 pregnant women and new mothers died in Texas from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to the most recent data available from the Department of State Health Services; since then, hundreds more have likely perished. While their cases reflect the problems that contribute to maternal mortality across the United States — gross medical errors, deeply entrenched racism, structural deficiencies in how care is delivered — another Texas-size factor often plays a significant role: the state’s vast, and growing, problem with health insurance access. About one in six Texans — just over 5 million people — had no health insurance last year. That’s almost a sixth of all uninsured Americans, more than the entire population of neighboring Louisiana. After trending lower for several years, the Texas rate has been rising again — to 17.7 percent in 2018, or about twice the national average. The numbers for women are even worse. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured women of reproductive age in the country; a third were without health coverage in 2018, according to a State Health Services survey. In some counties, mainly along the Mexico border, that estimate approaches 40 percent. Public health experts have long warned that such gaps can have profound consequences for women’s health across their lifespans and are a critical factor in why the US has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the developed world. Texas’s maternal mortality numbers have been notably troubling, even as errors in key data have complicated efforts to understand what’s going on and led skeptics, including the governor, to question whether there’s really a crisis. Hardly anyone outside the policy world has taken a deep look at how these insurance gaps play out for women in the second-largest state in the US — at how, in the worst-case scenarios, lack of access to medical care endangers the lives of pregnant women, new mothers, and babies. ProPublica and Vox have spent the past eight months doing just that — combing through government data and reports, medical records and research studies, and talking with scores of women, health care providers, policymakers and families of lost mothers around the state. We learned about Rosa Diaz and dozens of others, mostly women of color, by scouring medical examiner’s databases for sudden, “natural” deaths, then inspecting investigator and autopsy reports for clues about what went wrong. The picture that emerges is of a system of staggering complexity, riddled with obstacles and cracks, that prioritizes babies over mothers, thwarts women at every turn, frustrates doctors and midwives, and incentivizes substandard care. It’s “the extreme example of a fragmented system that cares about women much more in the context of delivering a healthy baby than the mother’s health in and of itself,” said Eugene Declercq, professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. Most of the mothers whose cases we examined were covered by Medicaid for low-income pregnant women, a state-federal health insurance program that pays for 53 percent of the births in Texas, more than 200,000 a year, and 43 percent of all births nationwide. In Texas, the program covers OB-GYN visits, medications, testing, and nonobstetric care, from endocrinologists to eye exams. But the application process is so cumbersome that women in the state have the latest entry to prenatal care in the country, ProPublica and Vox found. It can take months to be seen by regular providers and even longer to access specialists. This poses the greatest danger for high-risk mothers-to-be — as many women on Medicaid are, having had no medical care for significant parts of their lives. Then, roughly two months after delivery, pregnancy Medicaid comes to an end, and the safety net gives way to a cliff. For many new mothers, the result is a medical, emotional, and financial disaster. More than half of all maternal deaths in the US now occur following delivery, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with as many as 24 percent happening six or more weeks after a woman gives birth. In Texas, the proportion of late-postpartum deaths is closer to 40 percent, with black women bearing the greatest risk. “To lose health care coverage really has a tremendous potential to worsen outcomes,” said Dr. Lisa Hollier, chief medical officer for obstetrics and gynecology for Texas Children’s Health Plan and chair of the state’s maternal mortality review committee. Brittney Henry’s case shows the toll. A few weeks after delivering her fourth child, the 28-year-old Houston resident suffered a heart attack, a catastrophic complication that can be associated with pregnancy. Henry went home from the hospital with a stent in her left coronary artery and a fistful of prescriptions, all paid for by pregnancy Medicaid. But after two months, those benefits lapsed and her family was left scrambling to get her the medications she needed, her husband said. On a January morning in 2016, when she was about five months postpartum, Henry begged a neighbor in her apartment complex to drive her to the emergency room. She collapsed on the sidewalk and died. If not for her insurance struggles, her husband, Raphael Martin, asserts, the outcome might have been very different. “No bullshit,” he said, “she’d still be alive.” How Texas came to have the worst insurance gaps in the country is no mystery: It was an accumulation of deliberate policy choices by state lawmakers going back decades, driven largely by an aversion to government-mandated insurance and a desire to keep taxes low. “The design of our entire system is to be very limited, and historically we are very distrustful of government in general,” said Texas Rep. Sarah Davis, a Houston Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. Dr. Amy Raines-Milenkov, a University of North Texas Health Science Center professor and member of the state’s maternal mortality review committee, believes the state’s culture of personal responsibility leads it to abandon its most vulnerable. “We don’t have the belief here that people should have access to health care,” she said. Even the safety nets “are built on keeping people out rather than pulling people in.” That attitude is epitomized by Texas’s approach to Medicaid. The program was established by Congress in the mid-1960s to provide access to basic medical services for the poorest of the poor; in the five decades since, it has broadened to cover 75 million Americans, many of them in the working and middle class. States have wide discretion to set income-eligibility levels for different categories of residents who receive benefits. Texas’s “traditional” Medicaid program — the one that covers nonpregnant, nondisabled adults — is the least generous in the country. People who don’t have children or disabilities can’t receive Medicaid, no matter how poor they are. A single mother with two children only qualifies if she earns the equivalent of 17 percent of the federal poverty level or less — $230 to $319 per month, depending on who’s doing the calculation. That’s so little, says Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, that she could work 11 hours a week at a minimum wage job “and she would still make too much.” Every other state — even those more politically conservative than Texas — allows a larger portion of its residents to receive benefits. In Oklahoma, for example, the income threshold is 42 percent of the federal poverty level. In Tennessee, it’s 95 percent. By contrast, the income threshold for pregnancy Medicaid in Texas is 12 times more generous — up to 198 percent of the federal poverty level, or $3,520 a month for a family of three. Under federal law, pregnancy Medicaid offers a two-month postpartum off-ramp before benefits expire. But when their coverage runs out, tens of thousands of new mothers in the state go back to being uninsured every year. The disparity between pregnancy and traditional Medicaid is a stark measure of larger social priorities, contends Alison Stuebe, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “If a woman’s value is 198 percent of the federal poverty level when she’s pregnant and 17 percent of the federal poverty level when she’s not, that means we’re saying a nonpregnant woman is worth 91 percent less than a pregnant woman.” Eliminating such discrepancies, and improving maternal health coverage more broadly, were key goals of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA envisioned expanding Medicaid to all adults who earned up to at least 138 percent of the federal poverty level, regardless of whether they have children or a disability. That’s currently about $29,435 per year for a family of three. But after the US Supreme Court ruled that states couldn’t be forced to accept the Medicaid expansion, Texas became one of 14 states that opted not to — a decision that has denied coverage to 1.4 million Texans who would have otherwise qualified for insurance. The health law’s latest court challenge, Texas v. Azar, originated in Texas. On December 18, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ACA’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and punted the decision of whether the rest of the law could stand without the mandate back to a lower court in Texas. It’ll likely be months before the case is settled. Meanwhile, coverage for some 20 million Americans remains in danger, as does Medicaid expansion. But even expanding Medicaid wouldn’t address the other huge contributor to the Texas insurance crisis: Private insurance costs have also soared, and they are increasingly out of reach for everyone from Lyft drivers to public school teachers. Texans bear among the highest cost burden in the US for their insurance, the Commonwealth Fund reports, spending 12 percent or more of their income on premiums and deductibles. Amy Beckmann, a certified nurse-midwife who splits her time between the Texas Hill Country and the Rio Grande Valley, said that she and her husband pay $1,500 a month for their medical insurance, plus a $13,000 annual family deductible: $31,000 a year. “My clients can’t afford that,” she said. For uninsured and underinsured teenagers and women, family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood have been a crucial source of preventive care screenings as well as birth control. In 2011, Texas lawmakers gutted that system, part of a push to block abortion providers from receiving any government funding in the state. As the sweeping impacts of that decision became clear, policymakers raced to construct a new program, Healthy Texas Women, to replace some lost services. Now, the program is only serving a fraction of the women who qualify, and many doctors have stayed away, too. A vast patchwork of other workarounds has arisen over the years to fill in the gaps left by the lack of insurance: Sliding-scale hospital systems at the county level. Free federally funded clinics. Major philanthropic initiatives and small nonprofits that subsidize everything from medications to diapers. As vital as these services are, their reach is limited, especially in rural areas, and they have the unintended effect of making the system seem even more disjointed. “The fragmentation is so huge,” Raines-Milenkov said. “On paper you can cobble services together, but in practice, you really can’t.” And when things go wrong, when women run into an insurmountable hurdle or fall through the cracks, the sense of futility and abandonment can be overwhelming. “When you really, really, really need it, you’re denied,” one Houston mother, Krystol Allen, said. “That makes you feel so defeated as a human being.” Tiffany Revilla didn’t know she was 13 weeks pregnant when she went to the emergency room in Fort Worth this past spring; all she knew was that something in her belly wasn’t right. The pain felt like a dull knife, carving her insides. As the doctor moved an ultrasound wand near one of her C-section scars, he sounded frightened: “It’s very cloudy in there. Please get help as soon as you can.” By help, he meant an OB-GYN with the expertise to care for someone with five previous pregnancies, two preterm births, a preexisting heart condition and a uterus at high risk of rupturing or bleeding out. But Revilla’s job — the night shift at Taco Bell — didn’t come with insurance. So instead of calling a doctor, she went to McDonald’s, pulled out her phone, and used the free wifi to sign up for pregnancy Medicaid. Then, like tens of thousands of expectant mothers in Texas every year, she waited. Texas has the worst record of first-trimester care in the country. About 21 percent of women who give birth in the state — some 80,000 annually — don’t see a doctor or midwife until the second trimester, according to the CDC; another one in 10 doesn’t start until the third trimester or receive any pregnancy care at all. Such delays can increase the risk of premature birth and infant mortality as well as maternal complications. In Texas, almost 11 percent of babies are born premature. That’s what happened with Revilla’s fourth pregnancy in 2016. She’d barely started prenatal care at around 29 weeks when her placental sac had begun to slip out of her vagina, necessitating an emergency caesarean section; her son was in the neonatal intensive care unit for three and a half months. The type of incision doctors had been forced to make, from the top of the uterus to the bottom, put her at significant risk for future complications. But even with her medical history and knowledge of the Medicaid system, Revilla couldn’t make the sign-up process go any faster with her most recent pregnancy. It wasn’t until she turned up at the ER again at about 18 weeks, her panties soaked in blood, suffering from what doctors feared was a placental disorder or a miscarriage, that a caseworker finally helped push through her paperwork. She didn’t have her first real prenatal appointment until 22 weeks, more than halfway through her pregnancy. Though her baby was ultimately healthy, the process Revilla had to go through to achieve that outcome was “terrible,” said her OB-GYN, Dr. Shanna Combs. “The onus is really on the patient to do everything she can to take care of her baby, yet the system doesn’t do everything that it needs to do to help her.” The biggest driver of Texas’s prenatal delays is lack of insurance. Women can’t sign up for Medicaid until they find out they’re pregnant, and because nearly half of births are unplanned, this often doesn’t happen until the second or third month — in Revilla’s case, when she started bleeding and cramping. “I just thought it was my period,” she said. Then some women need to get their pregnancies verified by an approved provider. The Medicaid application itself is 16 times longer than a 1040 tax form. Any glitch — a forgotten document, a change of address — might cause a delay in approval or force a redo. During Revilla’s pregnancies, there were various holdups: no computer at home, applications lost in the mail, questions about why her fiancé had quit his job (they’d lost their child care, so he had to stay home with the kids), difficulties getting around when he did have a job because they only had one car. Other states have made it a priority to drastically reduce or eliminate sign-up delays. Oklahoma, where 100 percent of applications by pregnant women are approved instantly, verifies income after enrollment. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia consider applications within 24 hours by linking them to electronic sources, such as quarterly wage data. Texas is among the handful that still require potential enrollees to send in proof before getting care. According to a Texas Medicaid spokesperson, 92 percent of applicants are currently approved within 15 days. That’s “certainly progress,” said Georgetown University health policy expert Tricia Brooks, “but the vision of the ACA is to have a majority of determinations made in real time or within 24 hours.” Even when an application is approved, simply finding a provider can present a new series of challenges. That’s largely because of another Medicaid-related problem: how little doctors and midwives are compensated. In Texas, as in other parts of the US, providers are paid only about half as much for Medicaid patients as for privately insured ones. The going rate for an uncomplicated vaginal birth is about $1,500, the Texas Medical Association reports; that sum typically covers all of a patient’s normal care — a dozen or so prenatal exams, labor and delivery, and a single postpartum checkup. For a privately insured patient in Dallas, the fee is closer to $2,700, the American Medical Association says. At the same time, Medicaid patients often are more medically and socially complex — less likely to have transportation and family support, more apt to miss appointments or be otherwise “noncompliant.” Revilla was forced to switch providers midway through an earlier pregnancy because the Medicaid-paid van she relied on was usually late and her midwife got fed up: “I kept on explaining to them that this is not my fault.” It’s a system that many Texas OB-GYNs in private practice choose to avoid, capping the total of Medicaid patients they accept, limiting the number of high-risk women or opting out altogether. The result: more delays in initiating routine care and accessing specialists. Under Texas Medicaid rules, low-risk patients are supposed to get their first prenatal appointment within two weeks of being approved; for high-risk women, it’s supposed to be five days. But a 2016 study found much longer lag times: Only 71 percent of low-risk providers and 44 percent of high-risk ones met the state standard. Even in large urban areas like the Dallas-Fort Worth region, where Combs practices, “If I have a seizure disorder patient and I refer them to neurology, the wait time is six months.” So the shortages lead to a vicious cycle, one that explains why prenatal care in Texas often starts so late: The harder it is for a woman to find a doctor, the later she enters care — and the harder it becomes for her to secure a doctor. Most private providers won’t take on new patients beyond the 28th week of pregnancy because of the medical and legal risks; some set the cutoff as early as 20 weeks. By then, said Dr. Erica Giwa, medical director for OB-GYN services at the Center for Children and Women in Houston, “when you see a patient … with no prenatal care, with multiple comorbidities, that looks like a ticking time bomb.” In the past few years, maternal health researchers in the US have seen a dramatic shift in what kills, or nearly kills, pregnant women and new mothers. Historically, the leading medical causes were acute crises: hemorrhages, severe infections, blood clots. These days, the greatest risks come from chronic conditions — diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease — that can escalate during pregnancy. According to the most recent report of the Texas maternal mortality review task force, preexisting health problems are the most common contributing factor to maternal death in the state. These chronic diseases pose risks to women and their babies at every step of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Women with preexisting high blood pressure, for example, are more likely to develop preeclampsia, one of the most devastating complications of pregnancy. The condition can limit the flow of nutrients to the fetus and cause the placenta to tear away from the uterus, putting the baby at risk of prematurity or death. The immediate dangers to the mother include hemorrhage, seizures and postpartum stroke — and in the longer term, heart disease. Ideally, high blood pressure would be brought under control before a woman conceives. If that doesn’t happen, managing her hypertension during pregnancy becomes much trickie­r and requires careful monitoring. More and more women in Texas need this kind of medical attention: Hypertension jumped 20 percent in Texas women from 2005 to 2014, according to the Department of State Health Services. At the same time, prepregnancy diabetes rose 45 percent and obesity 25 percent. But even as chronic illnesses have become more prevalent, Texas’s staggeringly high uninsurance rate means many women aren’t getting treated, or even diagnosed, until they become pregnant. A few months of Medicaid, especially when prenatal care is delayed, often can’t counter years of neglect, said Dr. Sean Blackwell, the obstetrics and gynecology chair at UTHealth’s McGovern Medical School. He and his colleagues are often left “trying to prevent our train-wreck patients from having a train wreck,” he said. The challenges multiply when women have more than one serious health problem, as 34-year-old Krystol Allen well knows. Back when she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in her late 20s, Allen was working as a teacher’s aide for special-needs kids near Houston, with decent-enough insurance to pay for her insulin and glucose test strips. But after she got married to a high school English teacher and left her job to help with a family crisis, they couldn’t afford the extra $700 a month it would have cost to cover her on his high-deductible, high-premium plan. So Allen joined the ranks of Texas’s uninsured — and quit seeing doctors and taking her meds. By the time she found out she was expecting her older son, in 2014, she was overweight and suffering from uncontrolled high blood pressure. An extremely challenging pregnancy ended in a severe case of preeclampsia and a “really scary” emergency C-section, Allen’s OB-GYN, Giwa, recalled. Allen knew she probably wouldn’t be able to pay for her diabetes care when her pregnancy Medicaid ended. “I did not want to get pregnant again,” she said. So she opted for an IUD, a form of birth control that was supposed to last for five years. Then Allen confronted another insurance-related problem that plagued many of the women we spoke to for this story: difficulties with contraception. The IUD caused unbearable cramping and bleeding, so after a year and a half, she had it removed. A few months later, she was pregnant again — but she hadn’t been taking her diabetes or blood pressure medications. The possibility of what that might mean for her baby made her frantic. Poorly controlled diabetes is strongly associated with birth defects in the brain, spine, and heart, miscarriage, and stillbirth — especially during the critical early weeks when organs are developing. As she waited for her Medicaid to begin this time, Allen was desperate to do the right thing for her baby, whatever that might be. Finally, she and her husband went to the emergency room for advice, where a doctor told them about an option they’d never heard of: nonprescription insulin from Walmart for around $25 a vial. Allen tried it, but given her insidious combination of preexisting conditions, self-administered insulin wasn’t enough to stabilize her health. When she was finally seen by providers toward the end of her second month, Giwa recalled, “her blood sugars were terrible.” At 22 weeks, Allen received the news she’d been dreading: an ultrasound showed that the baby had a hole in her heart. Two years later, Allen is still waiting to find out what effect the hole will have on her daughter’s long-term health or whether it will resolve naturally; doctors won’t know until the girl, Alexis, turns 3. Uncertain about how she’ll be able to manage her health in the future, Allen recently opted to have her tubes tied. “Not only for me, but for my family, my babies,” she explained. “Being pregnant with diabetes, it could have took me out.” Meanwhile, she’s reminded every day of the implications of her untreated diabetes. Her father passed away this spring from complications of the disease after having his leg amputated, the same way her maternal grandfather died. Allen has started experiencing her own symptoms — nerve pain, blurred vision, a hangnail that took forever to heal. “What’s most scary is you’re planning for a future,” she said, “that you may not be there for.” There is one category of patients who pose a particular conundrum for obstetric providers in Texas: immigrants. The state has the highest number of births to noncitizens outside of California, and many of those women are low-income. The large majority can’t access pregnancy Medicaid, even though most other states allow longtime legal residents to participate. Texas does have a prenatal care program for noncitizens. There’s a huge caveat, however: It doesn’t actually cover the mother, just the fetus she is carrying. It may be the ultimate example of the state’s fragmented maternal care system and how that system prioritizes babies. The program dates back to President George W. Bush, who extended the Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover unborn babies. At the time, the idea — the fetus is a child and a future citizen and should therefore receive prenatal care — attracted more attention for its anti-abortion origins than for its potential to help immigrant mothers. In many of the 16 states that have adopted it, the type of care women receive isn’t much different than what they would get under pregnancy Medicaid. In Texas, though, the differences are vast. CHIP Perinate provides benefits to about 33,000 women a month, regardless of their immigration status, up to 202 percent of the federal poverty level. But the program’s narrow focus on the fetus ignores critical aspects of a mother’s care, doctors complain, treating her “like she’s the carrier for the baby,” as Giwa put it — or a “vessel,” as Raines-Milenkov said. For example, CHIP Perinate only covers labor if the result is an actual delivery (the cost is usually borne by another program, emergency Medicaid). Premature or “false” labor — when the mother goes to the hospital with contractions that turn out to be nothing — isn’t covered. Nor does CHIP pay for a mother’s nonobstetric emergencies, like a rotten tooth in danger of turning septic or hospitalization for a serious illness. The gap extends to care for cardiac conditions, the leading cause of maternal death in Texas and across the US. “If a woman has a history of high blood pressure or diabetes, there could already be heart damage,” said Tania Lopez, a certified nurse-midwife at the JPS Health Network’s high-risk OB-GYN clinic in Fort Worth. One way to check is a maternal echocardiogram, a sonogram of the heart that private insurance and Medicaid would cover — but not CHIP Perinate, Lopez and numerous other providers said. Some of the program’s biggest limitations come after the baby has been delivered. While new mothers get two routine checkups, those whose needs are not routine must fend for themselves. “Post-delivery services or complications resulting in the need for emergency services for the mother of the perinate are not a covered benefit,” Christine Mann, a spokesperson for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which administers the program, confirmed. Even life-threatening postpartum conditions like preeclampsia or blood clots are excluded under the program’s rules, though a woman might be able to get coverage under emergency Medicaid, Mann said. The greatest postpartum need is for mental health services and contraception, according to numerous providers, neither of which CHIP covers. In Shanna Combs’s practice, it is not uncommon for CHIP Perinate patients who don’t want any more children to beg her for an unnecessary C-section, so she can do a tubal ligation at the same time, an approach that turns what would otherwise be an unaffordable sterilization into “just a small add-on cost,” Combs said. For Dr. George Saade, chief of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the cancer patients stand out. He recalled a case in which a CHIP Perinate patient was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant. She needed surgery and chemotherapy. “We had a difficult time finding care for the breast cancer,” he said, “because it wasn’t the baby and [CHIP] only covers the baby.” Eventually, “we found a place that was willing to take care of her. But that’s not ideal. That’s not the way it should work.” The health system Saade works for will absorb some costs that CHIP Perinate won’t reimburse; other clinics said they often do the same. But many private providers said they simply refuse to deal with CHIP Perinate patients at all. Perinatal CHIP is better than nothing, Saade said. But “the fetus can’t exist or survive without the mother being healthy. … It puts us in untenable situations, because we are, as physicians, obligated to give the patient full care, not just care for the baby.” Despite how complicated her pregnancy had been, Tiffany Revilla’s C-section this October at 37 weeks went smoothly. Back at home, though, she was in excruciating pain and so nauseated and debilitated that she could barely eat or sleep or take care of her newborn daughter. Another trip to the ER confirmed the source of her agony: gallstones, including one the diameter of a large coin. Pregnancy can wreak havoc on the gallbladder, and Revilla’s pregnancy had done just that. Revilla’s doctors worried that the stones could cause blockages and ultimately a serious infection. Removing her gallbladder so soon after her C-section “was not the perfect situation,” her OB-GYN, Combs, said. “In the ideal world, if we could space them out, we would.” But Revilla was also facing the Medicaid deadline so many women in Texas stare down after giving birth: Her benefits would expire two months postpartum. Her doctors scrambled to squeeze in her surgery. “My insides are not even healed yet,” Revilla lamented. “I don’t know how my body’s going to react. It’s very scary.” To understand why women like Revilla are dropped from pregnancy Medicaid so soon, it helps to know the history of the program. It was a 1980s infant mortality crisis, not concern about mothers’ health, that turned pregnancy into a mandatory coverage category for states. With research aimed largely at improving outcomes for babies, 60 days of postpartum coverage seemed adequate to address a woman’s health needs. Four decades later, for most women in the US, regardless of their insurance status, postpartum care still amounts to a single checkup at four to six weeks after delivery. But the scientific understanding of pregnancy and postpartum has changed fundamentally in the past few years. The three months after birth are now recognized as a critical time in the health of mothers and infants, complete with a new name: the fourth trimester. Even normal healing from childbirth can be a lengthy process, researchers are finding. Some of the most dangerous pregnancy-related complications, including preeclampsia, blood clots and heart problems such as cardiomyopathy, may not surface until weeks or months after delivery. Depression, substance-use disorders, and heart conditions — three of the leading postpartum causes of maternal mortality in Texas and across the US — often worsen under the economic and social stresses of new motherhood. Instead of being a typical benchmark for recovery, the two-month mark can be a “tipping point … on the margin between illness and wellness,” said Neel Shah, an OB-GYN and assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. “That’s when you’re getting the least amount of sleep, you’re feeling the most socially isolated. Adding a gap in insurance on top of that not only seems that it’s in the wrong direction, but it’s also cruel.” Medicaid benefits expire even for women who suffer health complications, like Revilla’s gallstones, that are directly related to their pregnancies or deliveries. Pregnancy Medicaid can’t be extended under any circumstances; instead, as coverage ends, women are assessed “to determine eligibility for our other products,” such as traditional or disability Medicaid, said Mann, the agency’s spokesperson. Low-income new mothers who don’t qualify for Medicaid are automatically enrolled in the Healthy Texas Women program, she added. But many women told us that in practice, the end of pregnancy Medicaid results in insurance freefall. The urgent need to fix the gaps in postpartum care has captured the attention of national reformers, who see it as a critical step toward narrowing racial disparities in maternal mortality. Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have proposed federal legislation to extend pregnancy Medicaid to a full year postpartum, and state lawmakers have introduced a wave of similar bills. Missouri passed a limited extension last year and Illinois a far more sweeping one this past July; both plans are awaiting federal approval. The enthusiasm extended to Texas, where a broad coalition, led by the maternal mortality review task force, came together this past legislative session to support a full-year extension. The effort passed the House but stalled in the Senate. “All the oxygen in the room this session was taken up by school finance reform,” the legislative priority of the state’s top Republicans, said Tim Schauer, an Austin-based lobbyist on women’s health issues. The five-year cost of extending postpartum coverage was estimated at nearly $1 billion in state and federal funds, according to Politico. Rep. Shawn Thierry (D-Houston), who introduced one of the extension bills, had to counter skeptics who thought that the state’s alarming maternal mortality numbers were, as she said, “kind of a hoax” and that increasing benefits for new mothers was just a stealth tactic aimed at expanding Medicaid more widely. It’s an attitude Thierry’s Republican colleague, Rep. Sarah Davis, has also had to contend with. “Medicaid expansion — that’s like a four-letter word [here],” Davis said. For a lot of Republicans who dominate the statehouse, women’s health issues trigger a similar reaction, she added: “Women’s health has become so synonymous with Planned Parenthood, that in an effort to sort of punish Planned Parenthood, women in general get punished.” Thus, when Davis and her Senate allies managed to pass legislation in 2017 mandating one year of postpartum depression screening for new mothers, she used the strategy she knew would work best: focusing on the baby. The benefit is part of children’s Medicaid and mothers are screened by their kids’ pediatricians. “I think [framing the issue this way] did make that more palatable to people,” Davis said. The Texas governor’s office declined to comment for this story. Mann said in an emailed statement, “Texas is working toward better health outcomes for women, mothers and babies by offering an array of services and initiatives to help women live healthier lives and build strong families.” The state’s 2020 business plan includes worthy goals, such as expanding access to long-acting contraceptives and prenatal care. But instead of changing policy, it aims to achieve them through a series of “deliverables,” like developing informational materials and plans for reducing barriers to access. In the absence of broader policy change, women and families find their own stopgaps, doing what they have to do to get by. Several of the dozens of women we spoke with for this story had a secret they were too ashamed, or afraid, to reveal on the record, but felt compelled to share nonetheless. One mother with Type 2 diabetes rationed insulin while pregnant, endangering her baby’s health, just so she’d have medicine left over when her Medicaid ran out. Another was in danger of going blind after being diagnosed with a pituitary tumor brought on by pregnancy hormones. She begged Medicaid officials for an extension: “I said, ‘I’m losing my eyesight.’ … And they told me, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do.’” Editors: Eliza Barclay, Alex Zayas/ProPublicaPhoto editors: Kainaz Amaria, Jillian Kumagai/ProPublicaPhotographer: Callaghan O’Hare for ProPublica/VoxGraphics: Christina Animashaun Copy editor: Tim Williams Contributor: J. David McSwane/ProPublica

2017-05-25 00:00:00

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WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s finance minister said on Thursday that the 2017 budget deficit will be lower than the planned 59.4 billion zloty, but its size depends on how many people take advantage of a lower retirement age in the autumn. Finance minister Mateusz Morawiecki also said in an interview at the Reuters Central & Eastern Europe Investment Summit that he expects no changes to taxation next year and the deficit forecast for 2018 is likely to be lower than 2017. The central budget deficit reached 1.5 percent of the full-year plan in the January-April period, the finance ministry said earlier this week. In comparison, in the corresponding period of 2016 the deficit reached 20.3 percent of the full year plan. “Such a low deficit is not sustainable (in coming months), as there are a number of expenditures,” Morawiecki said referring to planned spending on infrastructure projects and pensions. “There is one big uncertainty. New pension bill (cutting the retirement age) comes into life in October and because of that 330,000 people get a right to retire,” Morawiecki said. This means Poland, with a population of 38 million, may see up to 550,000 new pensioners, Morawiecki added. He expects 80 percent of those that are eligible to retire. Every 10 percent will cost the state 1 billion zloty, he added. “If it is 70 percent, then the deficit might be really significantly lower. This is why we are working with labor minister (Elzbieta) Rafalska on incentives for people who refrain from retiring,” he said. This factor will also determine the 2018 budget deficit forecast, Morawiecki said. Analysts expect the full-year deficit may be lower than the full year plan by up to 15 billion zloty this year. Morawiecki said budget forecasts will not be impacted by recent announcements from a number of state-run firms such as Energa (ENGP.WA), PGE (PGE.WA), and KGHM (KGH.WA) to sharply cut their dividend payout plans. He also did not envisage any change in the VAT tax rate next year and thinks the copper tax could be maintained in some form. “We’re continuing what we’ve inherited in terms of (VAT) rates levels,” he said. The copper tax, or levy on mining income, eats into profit at KGHM, which is Europe’s second biggest copper producer as well as the world’s largest silver miner. The recent strengthening of the local currency, zloty, which rose against the euro five percent since beginning of the year to 4.18 zloty, is not yet a concern. “I would say that the range 4.0-4.5 is a range which doesn’t worry me,” Morawiecki said. Reporting by Marcin Goclowski, Pawel Florkiewicz, and Pawel Sobczak; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle

2017-09-17 00:00:00

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Trump has also retweeted accounts encouraging violence against CNN journalists in the past. Last month Trump retweeted Jack Posobiec, a notorious alt-right personality known for creating fake scandals and stirring up conspiracy theories, including the time he made a "rape Melania" poster as a hoax to make anti-Trump supporters look violent. BuzzFeed News has reached out to the White House for comment.

2018-08-29 14:49:11

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Tesla’s chief people officer Gaby Toledano, and one of the few female executives at the automaker, is on leave of absence 15 months after taking the senior management position. The company confirmed she was on leave and did not provide a timeline of when she might return or if this move was more permanent. “Gaby previously asked to go on leave to spend time with her family, and we support that. The HR team has been sharing her responsibilities,” the company said in a statement. Toledano joined Tesla in May 2017 after 10 years on the executive team at video game publisher Electronic Arts. She has also held HR leadership positions at Siebel Systems, Microsoft and Oracle. She replaced Arnnon Geshuri, who left the company after eight years amid complaints about work conditions at its Fremont factory. Unlike the company’s public CEO Elon Musk, Toledano was one of the many in Tesla’s senior management team who rarely made public appearances, if any. The company has long eschewed attention on its executives, with the occasional exception of chief designer Franz von Holzhausen and CTO JB Straubel. Toledano and several other executives made a rare public appearance in June when Musk pulled them on stage at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting. Toledano’s leave follows the departure of Sarah O’Brien, who headed up Tesla’s communications team. Laurie Shelby, who heads the company’s environmental, health and safety efforts, and Cindy Nicola, head of global recruiting, are the last remaining female executives at the company. Doug Field, senior vice president of engineering, took what the company described as a leave of absence from the company in May. At the time, the company said “Doug is just taking some time off to recharge and spend time with his family. He has not left Tesla.” Field left the company for good in July.

2020-03-04 00:00:00

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(Adds comments on rates and inflation) CHAMPAIGN, Ill., March 3 (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak will likely have only a "short-lived" impact on the U.S. economy, with a hit to growth in gross domestic product limited to perhaps a few tenths of a percentage point, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said on Tuesday night. "The expectation is that it is going to be a relatively short-lived imprint on economic activity in the U.S.," Evans said in remarks at the University of Illinois, just hours after the Fed announced a half-percent interest rate cut in an emergency move in response to the virus. Evans said the rate reduction should help sustain business and household confidence and guard against any economic fallout from the fast-spreading virus. The outbreak of the virus in China and its rapid global spread have disrupted supply chains and curbed travel. Some economists believe it has the potential to cause a sharp economic downturn. The Fed's action -- which came in an emergency meeting held just two weeks ahead of a regularly scheduled policy meeting -- was in part aimed at assuring the public that the central bank was prepared to move "as part of a team," Evans said, in a global effort that has seen economic officials from major nations pledge to offset any economic damage from the virus outbreak. Evans said that while such events are unpredictable and the virus could become a more serious economic threat, he expected it to "play out" in perhaps six months. "We do expect it is going to be transitory. ... There is uncertainty," he said. "But you do expect, that unless it is much more virulent, that there should be a bounceback when people get back to work, the supply chains catch up." Importantly, he said he did not expect a permanent hit to consumer confidence or behavior. The rate cut, however, did little to dent an ongoing drop in global equity markets, which fell sharply in the hours after the Fed announced the reduction in its overnight target interest rate to a range between 1% and 1.25%. Evans said that while he would have liked a more positive reaction after the emergency move, "there's a lot going on" for investors to respond, including uncertainty about the ultimate course of the disease. Where the Fed goes next, he said, is uncertain. Many analysts expect further interest rate reductions, and Evans said the Fed was "monitoring the situation and we are going to respond" if conditions worsen. What is clear, he said, is that there is little reason to contemplate reversing the cuts that were made, with inflation weak and the central bank's need to prove it can meet its 2% target. "I am comfortable with where we are," Evans said, with little risk of excessive inflation even if rates remain at this level "for some substantial period of time." (Reporting by Howard Schneider Editing by Leslie Adler)

2017-09-16 18:21:57

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Autoplay audio can be annoying or convenient depending on the situation. Luckily Instagram has found a happy medium between defaulting autoplay video sound on or off. This weekend TechCrunch spotted that some Instagram videos in the feed were autoplaying with audio. Now Instagram has confirmed to us “this new update rolled out recently” and here’s how it works for all organic videos and ads. When you open Instagram, videos will still autoplay with the sound off. But if you tap to turn one video’s sound on, indicated with a speaker icon in the bottom left, all other videos will autoplay with sound too for the rest of your Instagram session. You can still tap to toggle a video and all subsequent ones back to silent. And when you close the app, the autoplay audio resets to off for next time you use Instagram. So basically, Instagram still defaults to audio off when opened, but applies your last toggle on or off for the rest of your session. This is a smart compromise. If you’re home alone or have headphones on, and you turn on a video’s sound, it’s safe for Instagram to assume it can play more videos with audio without disturbing anyone. But next time you open the app, if you’re in public or somewhere quiet without headphones, it won’t embarrass you. Instagram admits that previously having to turn on video audio for each video individually could be frustrating. Instagram Stories videos will still adhere to your device’s settings, only playing with sound if it’s unmuted. But that makes sense since you can assume you’ll see video in these Snapchat clone-style slideshows. Facebook experienced backlash earlier this year when it announced it would be moving from silent autoplay video to going by you’re device’s current mute status. That roll out has moved slowly, though, signaling that Facebook understands that sound could surprise some users. Instagram’s move could be a boon to businesses and advertisers, who will see more of their videos play with sound now. That makes Instagram more akin to television or Snapchat where sound always plays, and could boost spend on its video ads. Video is clearly becoming a larger and larger focus for Instagram. Launched in 2013 as an add-on to the photo sharing network, video has grown in popularity as cameras, screens, and mobile networks improve. While Instagram doesn’t want to annoy it’s users, it can’t be a social network of the future if it stays silent.

2016-03-07

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BIRMINGHAM, England, March 7 (Reuters) - This year’s All-England Championships is likely to mark the final appearance of five-time champion Lin Dan at the sport’s oldest event, as the garlanded Chinese player bids for a berth at the Rio Olympics before a possible retirement. For the first time since 2012, Lin will appear in the men’s draw alongside compatriot Chen Long, the world and defending champion, and Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, the Asian triumvirate who have lifted 11 of the last 12 All-England titles between them. World number one Chen, 27, has underlined his top seed status by virtue of his six Superseries wins on tour last year. Meanwhile Lee has surged back up the world rankings, from 182nd, to sit behind Chen after his eight-month suspension for doping ended last year. However the participation of fifth-seeded Lin, who missed the All-England in 2013 and 2014 to take time out from the sport, is the most eagerly anticipated this week. Lin’s win at the German Open on Sunday was his opening event of the year as he bids to win a hat-trick of Olympic singles’ titles, the 32-year-old having hinted that the Rio Games could be his final event before retirement. But with two automatic places available and Chen currently top of the Race to Rio standings, Lin currently sits in seventh place, two places ahead of compatriot Tian Houwei. “I would say that this is probably the last chance to see these three best players together at the top,” Poul-Erik Hoyer, Badminton World Federation president, told Reuters. “Possibly a few may retire while Lee has said that he may continue.” Of Lin’s quest to win an unprecedented set of golds, Hoyer added: “It would certainly be the story of the Olympics. If he’s in the final it would be very interesting to follow.” Asian domination is less certain in the women’s singles, with world champion Carolina Marin of Spain aiming to become the first European to retain the All-England title in the modern era. Her main rival and last year’s runner-up, India’s second-seeded Saina Nehwal, has been dogged by a foot injury which has seen her withdraw from a number of recent events. Li Xuerui, the Olympic champion who also landed the German Open women’s singles title, is seeded third and offers China its best hope of usurping Marin’s current dominance. In all, China have won at least two All-England titles across singles and doubles since 2000, but with rivals jostling for bragging rights in Olympic year, the powerhouse nation’s record will come under threat this week. Japan achieved its finest success in badminton history at the year-end Superseries finals in December when Kento Momota and Nozomi Okuhara captured the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively. (Reporting by Rod Gilmour; Editing by Alison Williams)

2016-07-25 00:00:00

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If you've worked a full day at the office before, you know what 3 p.m. feels like.  3 p.m. is when your hands fall slack off your keyboard and you mope to the nearest coffeemaker or soda machine, desperate to find a kick that will help you through the final hours of the day. It's also when hours of emailing, social media posting and hunting for digital monsters catches up with a normal phone.   We're using our phones more than ever, and that means the threat of a low battery — worse yet, a devastatingly long charging period — is a daily reality. It's been reported that the vast majority (upwards of 66%) of Brits suffer from low battery anxiety, and average New Yorkers charge their phones more than twice every day.   The good news? There's a superb new smartphone that makes that 3pm feeling a thing of the past. Well, for your phone, at least.     OnePlus just released the most innovative charging technology on the market, Dash Charge, available on its flagship OnePlus 3 device.    On the surface, Dash Charge has all the flashy numbers that you might expect to hear when talking about an advanced quick charge system, like how 60% of the phone's 3,000 mAh battery can regenerate in just 30 minutes of charging time, granting the user over seven hours of HD video playback.    However, there's one crucial component of the Dash Charge story that sets it apart from other, comparable technologies: Reimagined power management.    When electrical current flows into your phone from a charging cable, your phone has to channel that current to the battery. Some of the current reaches its intended destination, but the rest turns into heat inside your phone. Heat dispersion can severely damage your phones electrical components over time, and is a leading reason why phones perform poorly while charging.    With Dash Charge on the OnePlus 3, that process looks a little different. Instead of directing the electricity into the phone itself — leaving room for heat dispersion to muck up the device's performance — the Dash Charge adapter manages the current before it reaches the handset.    Inside the adapter, the current is processed and heat is dispersed, sparing the phone's electrical systems and creating the most efficient charging process the tech world has ever seen.    This new take on power management keeps the phone cooler while charging, which allows the battery to quickly recoup without burning off energy as heat. What's more, it allows users to play games and stream HD content while charging without sacrificing performance.    Just take a look at how quickly the OnePlus 3 reached a full charge during a 3D gaming test against top peers.   OnePlus 3 reaches a full charge faster than peers in a 3D gaming test Dash Charge may not be the first entrant in the quick charging contest, but it's different in all the right ways.    In the handful of weeks since Dash Charge's debut inside the brand new OnePlus 3, the technology has received rave reviews.    OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei, says that among many positive reviews, some early customers even claim that Dash Charge has allowed them to change their charging habits entirely — moving away from the time-honored overnight charge in favor of periodic quick charges, like at breakfast.   Dash Charge may very well be the greatest thing that's ever happened to phone batteries, but there's only one way to get your hands on the awesome new technology. All you have to do is put down the phone you're holding, and upgrade to something better.    The brand new OnePlus 3 is the only phone on the planet to offer Dash Charge technology, and it's already selling like mad. Some people even waited 13 hours in line to get one.    Don't risk missing out on the most exciting phone of 2016. Simply click here to order the device for yourself.

2017-12-12

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Dec 12 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp: * TOSHIBA SAYS HAS NOT REACHED AGREEMENT NOW WITH WESTERN DIGITAL ON ENDING LEGAL DISPUTE Further company coverage: (Reporting By Chris Gallagher)

2019-06-17

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MOSCOW, June 17 (Reuters) - Russian export prices for the new wheat crop, due to arrive on the market this summer, remained broadly stable last week, with analysts forecasting a possible rise on continued dry and hot weather in the Black Sea region. Black Sea prices for the new Russian wheat crop with 12.5% protein content were $195 per tonne on a free on board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, unchanged from a week earlier, Russian agricultural consultancy IKAR said in a note. SovEcon, another Moscow-based consultancy, quoted FOB new crop for July delivery as rising by $1 to $196 per tonne, supported by stronger futures markets and concerns about the Black Sea crop. "The market continues to watch the Black Sea weather closely where hot and dry weather continues to threaten the new crop," SovEcon said. It added that the last two weeks in the European part of Russia and Eastern Ukraine had been "significantly drier" than the norm. Across almost all regions, rainfall was at 50%-60% of the norm, with some areas - including Rostov, Voronezh and Eastern Ukraine - receiving less than 20%-30% of the precipitation normally expected at this time, according to SovEcon. "The weather is expected to remain very dry in (the) next two weeks," the consultancy said, adding that this could affect wheat crop estimates in the Russian Volga Valley and in parts of the Center. Russia exported 41.5 million tonnes of grain from the start of the current 2018/19 marketing season to June 13, down 17% from the previous season, according to SovEcon. That included 34.2 million tonnes of wheat. Domestic prices for third-class wheat fell again last week, down by 25 roubles to 11,800 roubles ($183.49) a tonne at the end of last week in the European part of Russia on an ex-works basis, according to SovEcon. Ex-works supply does not include delivery costs. By June 13, farmers had sown spring grains on 28.8 million hectares, compared with 28.1 million hectares a year ago, SovEcon said. Sunflower seed prices continued to rise, up 100 roubles to 19,025 roubles a tonne, SovEcon said. Domestic sunflower oil prices rose by 100 roubles to 42,850 roubles a tonne, while FOB export prices for sunflower oil rose $5 to $680 a tonne, SovEcon said. IKAR said its white sugar price index for southern Russia was $399.20 a tonne on June 14, down $7.05 from a week earlier. ($1 = 64.3080 roubles) (Reporting by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Tom Balmforth and Ed Osmond)

2018-01-22 00:00:00

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Jan 22 (Reuters) - Three USA Gymnastics board members resigned on Monday in the wake of a sex abuse scandal involving its former team physician, the organization said in a statement. (Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Richard Chang)

2019-01-30

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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie ThompsonBennie Gordon ThompsonHillicon Valley: House panel subpoenas 8chan owner | FCC takes step forward on T-Mobile-Sprint merger | Warren wants probe into FTC over Equifax settlement | Groups make new push to end surveillance program House Homeland Security Committee subpoenas 8chan owner What Mississippi ICE raids mean for vulnerable workers MORE (D-Miss.) on Wednesday left the door open to subpoenaing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen NielsenKirstjen Michele NielsenTop immigration aide experienced 'jolt of electricity to my soul' when Trump announced campaign Trump casts uncertainty over top intelligence role Juan Williams: Trump, his allies and the betrayal of America MORE to appear before his committee if she does not agree on a date to testify in the coming weeks. Thompson, who wrote in a letter Tuesday that Nielsen had denied a request to testify before the committee next week, told reporters that he will give the secretary until the end of February before taking further action to require that she testify. “I’m not reluctant to issue the subpoena,” Thompson said. “I’m going to give the secretary the opportunity to look at her calendar, work it out and come to the committee, but I'm not reluctant to use it.” The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. The chairman said he had sought the secretary’s testimony on Feb. 6, but that his staff was told that she was not available for that date. And Thompson said that as lawmakers work in the coming weeks to pass a government funding bill to avoid another shutdown over border security, it’s important for members to hear from Nielsen about the situation at the border. “I can think of no better person to come before the committee to talk about that than the secretary because the majority of the conversation that a lot of members are having — both on the committee, off the committee — is around those issues,” Thompson said, referring to border security. “So we need to hear from the principal in charge of the agency to see how we're doing,” he added. Other cabinet members have also refused to testify at the request of Democratic chairpersons. The Treasury Department earlier this month refused to have Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin testify before the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing on the impact of the government shutdown. And House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) also said last week that the Department of Health and Human Services isn't allowing secretary Alex Azar testify before the committee about the Trump administration’s migrant family separation policy. 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.

2016-06-28

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(Adds comment from the advisory group chair, additional information on recommendations) By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER, June 28 (Reuters) - British Columbia’s real estate agents and brokerages should be fined dramatically more than they currently are for misconduct and face more stringent regulatory oversight, an advisory board recommended on Tuesday. The final report by the provincially appointed Independent Advisory Group follows a four-month review of the sector, which has come under scrutiny after media reports of predatory practices by some agents and brokers in red hot markets. Housing prices have skyrocketed in British Columbia, jumping 30 percent in Greater Vancouver over the last year, prompting concerns that speculators and foreign investors are driving the market rather than local housing needs, and posing regulatory challenges. “The regulatory regime for real estate was designed for people who buy and sell homes, not people who are buying and selling investments,” advisory group chair Carolyn Rogers told reporters. “That is a different market, it requires different regulatory rules, approaches and power.” That shift drove the group to urge numerous changes to strengthen the Real Estate Council of British Columbia’s oversight of the industry, including ensuring that the Council is the only body responsible for investigating misconduct. There was previously some confusion as to whether regional real estate boards, which are industry groups, or the provincially appointed Council was the de facto regulator. But the most striking of 28 recommendations was that maximum penalties levied by for misconduct by individual licensees be boosted C$250,000 ($191,703) from a current C$10,000, and to C$500,000 from C$20,000 for brokerages. It also recommended raising maximum administrative penalties to C$50,000 from C$1,000. “Large commissions and low penalties for licensee misconduct combine to create the perception that regulatory penalties are simply a transaction costs for otherwise profitable behavior,” the advisor group said in its report. “This significantly undermines the effectiveness and credibility of the regulator.” The report also recommended that agents no longer be able to represent both buyer and seller in a transaction, and that they be prohibited from having a financial interest in a transaction, beyond getting a commission. Seven of the recommendations, including changes to monetary penalties, are subject to approval by the British Columbia government. The remainder will be implemented by the Real Estate Council, which has accepted the recommendations. The advisory group said it does not expect the stricter rules to have a material impact on scorching real estate markets in the province or housing affordability, noting the focus was on rebuilding consumer trust. $1 = 1.3041 Canadian dollars Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Sandra Maler

2017-09-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The lead Brexit negotiator for the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, said on Thursday that a Brexit withdrawal agreement could be reached with Britain. “That’s the assumption that I have and it is towards that that we work,” Verhofstadt said after a speech to students at the London School of Economics. “And that a withdrawal agreement be done in March 2019 means that there has to be an agreement in fact in October or November because then the agreement will go to the European Parliament and we need four or five months,” he said. (Reporting by Polina Ivanova; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

2019-05-22 00:00:00

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Washington, DC (CNN Business)Ford, best known for its cars, pick-up trucks and SUVs, is experimenting with something totally different: a package-carrying robot. The automaker announced Tuesday it's testing a robot to carry deliveries from its self-driving cars to customers' doorsteps. Ford is already piloting deliveries with self-driving cars inspired by the popularity of online shopping. But the company found it was sometimes inconvenient for people to walk outside their homes and take a package from a self-driving car waiting at the curb. So it partnered with Agility Robotics, an Albany, Oregon-based startup that makes a human-like robot capable of carrying 40-pound packages. Ford said the robot, called Digit, can climb steps, walk on uneven terrain or stay balanced even if it's bumped. In a video, Ford showed Digit navigating around an e-scooter blocking its path on a sidewalk. Ford declined to say if it plans to run a delivery service or if it expects to make deliveries for partners. Previously, it worked with Domino's to test pizza deliveries in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Customers had to walk to the vehicle and enter a code on a touchpad before a back-seat window would open to reveal the pizza. Ford made the announcement two days after it said it would lay off 10% of it salaried staff as part of a cost-cutting effort. Automakers such as Ford and GM (GM) have announced job cuts as they struggle to adapt to the changing economy, which is increasingly focused on AI-powered technologies including self-driving vehicles. Ford (F) plans to focus more on electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. But it faces intense competition from companies such as Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA). Autonomous vehicles are expected to revolutionize logistics and transportation and threaten millions of driving jobs. But some experts say driving jobs focused on delivery will remain safe. While cars and trucks may drive themselves, they can't walk up steps and place a package on a doorstep. But that's where Digit could change things. Ford showed in a video how Digit could fold itself up in the back of vehicle, get out, and carry a package to a front door. If Digit gets confused while carrying a package, it will communicate with Ford's vehicles for guidance. Ford declined to say if or when it will launch a commercial delivery program with Digit.

2020-02-14 00:00:00

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Jacobin writer, Branko Marcetic, discusses the impact labor unions will have on the 2020 election. Hill.TV host Saagar Enjeti on Friday ripped into the media's coverage of the 2020 Democratic candidates, pointing to the amount of airtime and attention given to former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Any Klobuchar. HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson is calling the vote to unionize by employees of tech crowdfunding company Kickstarter a “shot in the arm for labor.” Hill.TV host Krystal Ball on Friday slammed the rise of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a recent Morning Consult poll. Despite Bloomberg's rise in th Hill.TV host Saagar Enjeti on Thursday ripped into the failed campaign of Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patric Virginia House Delegate Lee Carter (D) said Wednesday there are some frustrations within the party making it difficult for more progressive bills to move forward despite Democratic control.  HuffPost reporter Daniel Marans said Tuesday there is a possibility that no Democratic presidential candidate will win the majority of delegates needed heading into the party's nominating convention in July. Thom Hartmann, the author of a new book on voter suppression, said Tuesday the barriers to voting are getting increasingly difficult because of what he called a “made up” issue over concerns of non-citizens voting with fake IDs.  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.

2017-05-03 05:30:27

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Footsteps Before he achieved Revolutionary War glory, or became a founding father and an author of the Federalist Papers; before he established a sophisticated financial system, served as the nation’s first Treasury secretary or engaged in the type of petty political feud that would lead to his death in a duel at 49; before the $10 bill immortalized his beaked profile; and over two and a half centuries before a Broadway musical about his life would weave itself into the cultural spirit of the early 21st century, Alexander Hamilton was an orphan struggling to survive on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. Though he left as a teenager — and never returned — Hamilton’s tragic West Indian childhood informed his entire life, shaping his views on government, economics, slavery and much more. Today, visitors to St. Croix, the largest of the United States Virgin Islands, are mostly in search of a tropical vacation. Residents speak of Hamilton’s West Indian roots with passing affection, as a tidbit of trivia. Visible evidence of his history with the island is minimal; the airport, which once honored him, was renamed in 1996 for the Tuskeegee airman Henry E. Rohlsen, a native son. But beyond the windswept beaches and luxurious resorts lurk the vestiges of a dark, sugar-fueled 18th-century heyday. As I discovered during a visit last summer, retracing Hamilton’s footsteps on the island illuminates both the complex and tarnished history of St. Croix and the ghosts that haunted a deeply ambitious, flawed and brilliant man. Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis, an island in the British West Indies about 140 miles southeast of St. Croix, in either 1755 or 1757. (Lost documents and his own subterfuge have obscured the true date, but historians generally agree on 1755.) While he was not quite “the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar” — as John Adams once acidly described him — the circumstances surrounding his out-of-wedlock birth were certainly infelicitous. His father, James Hamilton, the dissolute fourth son of a Scottish laird, had washed up on the island of St. Kitts. He met the beautiful and spirited Rachel Faucette Lavien and the two embarked on an ill-fated romance. By the time she met James in her mid-20s, Rachel had experienced her share of scandal. After her French Huguenot father died in 1745, leaving her a modest inheritance, she and her British mother moved to St. Croix, then the capital of the Danish West Indies, where her married sister lived on a successful plantation called the Grange. “A handsome young woman having a snug fortune,” as Hamilton described her, Rachel soon attracted the attentions of a debauched fortune-hunting Dane named Johann Michael Lavien, at least a dozen years her senior. With her mother “captivated by the glitter” of Lavien, the 16-year-old Rachel quickly found herself pressed into “a hated marriage” that would cast the rest of her life in misery. The union, unhappy from the start, bore a son before she left the home around 1750. A furious Lavien accused her of adultery and invoked Danish law to have her thrown into a cell at Fort Christiansvaern, the thick-wall stronghold that served as both military post and prison for the town of Christiansted. Completed in 1749, Fort Christiansvaern is a national historic site today, an impenetrable yellow structure overlooking the glittering turquoise waters of Gallows Bay. I repressed a shiver as I wandered alone through its labyrinth of whitewashed rooms. Though primarily used as military barracks and storage, the fort also served as the colony’s prison for runaway slaves and criminals. In the west wing, I paused inside a cell to examine a small exhibition devoted to Hamilton and his family. Here in this cramped space, Rachel Lavien spent several squalid months, with only a narrow window offering paltry light and air, and a slivered view of the water. I shook off the claustrophobia with a stroll through the sleepy, sunbaked center of historic Christiansted, on the north shore of the island. With its cobblestone streets and 18th-century Danish-style architecture, the town seemed almost forgotten by time — especially when contrasted with the strip malls and beach resorts scattered across the rest of St. Croix’s tropical landscape. In 1765, abandoned by James Hamilton, Rachel moved with their two sons to 34 Company Street where the three scratched out a meager subsistence operating a small dry goods store that sold provisions like rice, flour and salted fish. Though the home has long since disappeared, replaced by the garden of a Catholic church — a structure at 23 Company Street, where the family briefly resided in 1767, is also gone — the area retains a faded colonial charm with bilingual English-Danish street signs and low buildings with pastel columns. As I lingered on the sidewalk, a rooster’s crow pierced the heat-induced lethargy of midday and cast a melancholy air. In 1768, Rachel succumbed to a vicious fever and died here, leaving her sons essentially orphaned. Eighteen months later, their guardian cousin committed suicide. Penniless and alone, the brothers separated; James became an apprentice to a carpenter and, in an operatic twist, Alexander found himself living in the Christiansted home of a wealthy merchant’s family, and working for the import-export firm Beekman and Cruger. “Christiansted was Hamilton’s venue,” said William Cissel, a St. Croix historian and former park ranger at Fort Christiansvaern. “It was this busy, bustling, vibrant place filled with ships of various nationalities. A great deal of what he later propounded, he absorbed from his time here.” On stately King Street, I found the site of Beekman and Cruger’s office, where Hamilton, laboring diligently as a young clerk, absorbed the principles of international trade, credit and foreign exchange. A few blocks away, the Customs House sprawled in neoclassical grandeur, a monument to the wealth that once fueled the West Indies. A few yards beyond stretched a dainty wharf — shockingly small by modern standards — where Hamilton would have inspected cargo for his employers. They imported all of the necessities for a planter’s daily life (cider, bricks, lumber, corn and other staples), while exporting just a few products made from sugar cane — sugar, rum and molasses; that single-crop reliance may have led Hamilton to favor a diversified marketplace. My stroll ended at the Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse, a stocky two-story building. A staircase extends into the enclosed courtyard, replacing the long platform where slaves were once auctioned. While it’s unclear if he was a regular attendee, Hamilton almost certainly witnessed some of these brutal transactions; his boyhood exposure to plantation culture left him with a lifelong antipathy toward slavery. “These were basically killing fields for the people who worked there,” said George Tyson, another St. Croix historian. We were on the lush grounds of Estate Cane Garden — a former sugar plantation owned today by the financier Richard Jenrette — gazing at the 18th-century ruins of sugar cane mills and other farm buildings. Though it was barely midmorning, the sun beat down with a merciless heat, lending a particular inhumanity to Mr. Tyson’s descriptions of the grueling sugar-making process. “Ninety percent of the population was black slave labor,” he said. “Hamilton saw himself caught up in those social dynamics. He had no future here because of his background. Perhaps he felt some solidarity with other marginalized people.” The luxurious interiors of the estate’s Great House, built in 1784, were a stark contrast to the blistering misery of the former cane fields. Perched on a hill overlooking the sea, cooled by the trade winds, the airy high-ceiling rooms were filled with the trappings of planter wealth, including a large collection of island mahogany furniture. Though Hamilton never set foot here, similarly showy displays would have ignited his teenage ambition. Hamilton wrote to his friend Edward Stevens in 1769 that he “would willingly risk my life, tho’ not my character, to exalt my station,” adding, “I wish there was a war.” Fortune brought him first a hurricane. In 1772, a fierce storm devastated St. Croix. Hamilton described to his father the “prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the falling houses, and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed”; it was a letter of such marked literary skill that it was published by the local newspaper, The Royal Danish American Gazette, where it attracted the attention of several prominent businessmen. They began a subscription fund for his education, and a few months later Hamilton was on a ship bound for Boston. “Men are generally too much attached to their native countries to leave it and dissolve all their connexions, unless they are driven to it by necessity,” Hamilton wrote in 1775. By the time he wrote these words, he was a student at King’s College in New York and an ardent supporter of the American cause, his ignominious West Indian beginnings so far behind him that they had almost become a source of shame. He had managed to escape his past — and he never looked back. Along the waterfront, Christiansted National Historic Site is a public park encompassing seven of the town’s oldest buildings, including the Customs House, the Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse, and Fort Christiansvaern ($3). Though Hamilton’s residences at Nos. 23 and 34 Company Street no longer exist, Christiansted’s historic quarter evokes his era with neo-Classical architecture and wandering wild chickens. The offices of his employer, Beekman and Cruger, stood at 7-8 King Street. Outside of Christiansted, the Grange was the plantation of Hamilton’s aunt, where his mother was married — and buried. Today, the grounds and Great House, both changed from Hamilton’s period, are open by appointment. Estate Whim Museum offers a glimpse of the Caribbean’s dark history through its reconstructed plantation buildings and Great House. Estate Cane Garden, another former sugar plantation, is open by appointment. What to Read “Alexander Hamilton,” by Ron Chernow, is the founding father’s definitive biography. It was also the inspiration for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning musical. A picture caption accompanying an article last Sunday about St. Croix misidentified a former plantation on the island. It is Estate Whim Museum, not Estate Cane Garden.

2019-10-30 18:48:56

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On Comedy Tony Woods has never broken into the mainstream the way his protégé did, but a recent set shows why he has been so influential. WASHINGTON — On Sunday, when Dave Chappelle accepted the Mark Twain Prize, the most prestigious honor in comedy, the first person in the star-packed audience (Jon Stewart, Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Silverman) he singled out in his speech was Tony Woods, a stand-up whom few outside comedy circles had heard of. Comparing his influence to that of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie on Miles Davis, Chappelle spoke directly to Woods: “I was trying to play like you,” he said. “You were the first person I ever saw do it absolutely right.” Tony Woods, the dean of Washington comedy, one of the finest, most underrated incubators of stand-up talent in the country, has never starred in a movie or headlined his own sitcom or talk show. He hasn’t even released an hourlong special. But few comics today are more naturally funny or have been as influential. Two days before Chappelle paid tribute to him at the Kennedy Center, Woods, who is in his 50s, ambled onstage across town at the basement space of the DC Improv, took his fedora off and placed it delicately on the microphone stand. In the middle of one of his many digressions, Woods asked a question from the side of his mouth. “Do you know I can’t go to Jamaica?” He paused to let imaginations wander, then he leaned back, as if he had changed his mind about letting us know the answer. But he smiled and explained how he got into trouble with the tourism board there for a joke about how much pot people smoke. Woods said: “The guy said: ‘You want to smoke?’ And I said, ‘Land the plane first.’” Then he hit the microphone with his hand, his version of a rim shot. Listen closely to Tony Woods and you can hear echoes of Dave Chappelle. There’s the low-key style, the conspiratorial glances, the shift from meditative mosey into explosive punch line, the peculiar and emphatic pronunciation of the word “man.” But the most obvious link might be the way they punctuate a punch line by hitting the microphone. Chappelle drops it on his leg and runs away, while Woods taps it, but the effect is the same. The similarities imbue Woods with a certain mystique in comedy; he’s the Rosetta stone for one of the most significant stand-up careers of the past couple decades. In August, the standup Hampton Yount joked on Twitter: “Dave Chappelle always does a fake run off the stage after a joke, not because it’s good but because he sees the ghost of Tony Woods career every time.” But there’s a difference between the sincerest form of flattery and the anxiety of influence. Over the years, Chappelle has become a far more political and philosophical comic than Woods, a defiant violator of norms and wager of cultural wars. When he started doing standup at 14, the most influential comic in America was Eddie Murphy, whose fast-talking profane swagger was widely imitated and amplified when “Def Comedy Jam” (originally hosted by Martin Lawrence, another D.C. product) brought black club comedy to a national audience on HBO. In interviews, Chappelle worried that the expectations set by this show pigeonholed black comedians. “It’s limiting everyone,” he told The Washington Post in 1993. Woods, who would often drive Chappelle home from shows, offered an alternative model. He had a laid-back, meditative style, a mellow brand of cool that Chappelle shared. Today, this conversational approach, so different from the tight observational humor or aggressive ranting popular in the first comedy boom, has become more common. In the old divide between comics who say funny things and those who say things funny, Woods has always belonged firmly in the second camp. He toys with language, favoring malaprops and mispronounced words (he has a ball with “ferret”). He also spins yarns about sex or Mister Rogers (even mixing the two a bit), and specializes in benign lies, introducing white comics as N.A.A.C.P. award winners and describing himself as a 92-year-old sharecropper born during the Depression. His comedy has a silliness that veers close to pure nonsense. “So, we’re down here,” he said, soon after taking the stage at the Improv, eyes at half-mast, downshifting into a sigh, before sputtering into nonsense: “Yeah, for real, you know?” Then he pointed out that the door by the stage was not really a door and the D.J. in the back was actually just a guy pressing buttons. Folding his arms, he glanced left and right and leveled with us: “We’re in the pantry.” Woods was hosting the show, introducing a handful of local comics, but taking the most stage time. One local comic, Rahmein Mostafavi, ribbed him from the stage: “Tony did a tight 45.” Woods said he knew he was supposed to hype up the crowd and goose them into applause, but he waved his arms in a parody of enthusiasm. When he asked where audience members were from and someone yelled, “Chicago!” Woods responded, “O.K., calm down.” There’s one version of the career of Tony Woods that sees him as essentially tragic. On an episode of Marc Maron’s podcast, Wanda Sykes, who is also from D.C., seemed exasperated that he hadn’t broken through to the mainstream. “You have all the pieces to the puzzle,” she said. “Just put it together.” But watching Woods perform in his hometown made me wonder about our definitions of success. As the night wore on, his oddball delivery became quirkier, as he added whistles and guffaws and mimed a kangaroo. “When God came to Australia, he started playing jokes,” he said. “He gave them pockets but arms that couldn’t reach them.” As his show stretched past 12:30 a.m., the comic Rod Man, who was headlining upstairs, made a surprise drop-in, looked at the crowd and described it as a “hostage situation.” No one else seemed to feel that way. Woods certainly looked comfortable just lingering, the most relaxed man in the room. When a comic walks offstage, the show is over. In live stand-up, you have to be there. But this is even truer with Woods, since his act doesn’t really translate fully outside the room, and you can’t find a slick version of him on HBO or Netflix. And yet, if Tony Woods proves one thing, it’s that you don’t need to be captured on tape to stand the test of time. A joke told in a club may be an ephemeral thing, but it can stick with people for a long time and even inspire some to tell more.

2017-01-21 00:00:00

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President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day went off relatively calmly from a security perspective, despite anarchist protests in the streets of Washington and authorities' grim assessments beforehand about the risks of a "lone wolf" terrorist attack. Federal officers and local law enforcement were busy anyway, arresting more than 200 people Friday and using chemical spray and concussion grenades on anti-Trump protesters who smashed storefront windows, blocked a stretch of Interstate 395, started fires in the street and attempted to mount human blockades near the new president's parade route. But those incidents fell far short of the potential terrorist strikes that federal officials had prepared to confront. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson — the Obama administration's designated survivor during Trump's swearing-in — noted last week that lone attacks by self-radicalized Islamic State sympathizers had been on the rise since the nation's last inaugural ceremony. "The global terror environment is very different even from 2013,'' Johnson told reporters. “We have to be concerned about individual acts of violent extremism.'' Johnson later promised an "enormous" security presence, despite the absence of any specific credible threats against the inauguration. With that in mind, security officials took extra steps both to deter would-be terrorists and to stifle them if they tried to attack. Security officials set up a more fortified system of barriers than those that had been constructed for previous inaugurations, buttressing the area around the Capitol with miles of Jersey barriers, dumpsters and construction equipment. That was meant to prevent the kind of attack that Germany and France witnessed last year, when men killed nearly 100 people by driving trucks through crowds of pedestrians. That was on top of the standard precautions set up for the inauguration's secure perimeter on Friday, requiring pedestrians to submit to bag checks, metal detectors and prohibitions on items such as drones, selfie sticks and large bags. Between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration instituted flight restrictions to keep the skies clear around the Capitol. DHS dedicated about 10,000 security officers to the inaugural events — including from the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. Also deployed were 7,800 National Guard troops and several thousand more backups from the FBI, U.S. Park Police and U.S. Capitol Police. Officers from states such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington state traveled to the capital to assist. Soon after Trump delivered his inaugural address, D.C. police announced that they were checking out a suspicious vehicle just outside the security perimeter. But law enforcement efforts were otherwise focused on the protests breaking out throughout the city, including one particularly destructive incident in which a limousine was torched, filling the sky with black smoke as the president paraded to the White House. Security precautions continued for Friday night's inaugural balls, as well as the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people expected to descend on the National Mall again on Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington. Some street closures will remain in effect Saturday, and the event’s organizers have hired security forces.

2017-08-07 00:00:00

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Aug 7 (Reuters) - Uniqure NV * Uniqure announces leadership team appointments and nominations to its board of directors * Uniqure NV - ‍Jeremy Springhorn and Madhavan Balachandran nominated to board of directors​ * Uniqure NV - ‍Scott Mcmillan named chief operating officer; Christian Klemt promoted to chief accounting officer​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2019-07-10 00:00:00

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MILAN (Reuters) - French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA), an investor in Mediaset (MS.MI), criticized on Wednesday a plan by Italy’s top commercial broadcaster to set up a Dutch holding company to pursue a pan-European growth project. Mediaset, controlled by the family of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has said a Dutch shell company would carry out a reverse takeover of both Mediaset and Madrid-listed Mediaset Espana (TL5.MC), issuing shares to the owners of both. In its first comment about the plan unveiled in early June, Vivendi said the price offered to shareholders who wished to exercise their withdrawal rights was too low and that the plan damaged the interests of minority investors. “Vivendi denounces Mediaset’s real goal ... which is to sidestep the fundamental principles of shareholder democracy,” it said in a statement. It was not immediately possible to reach Mediaset for a comment. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Crispian Balmer

2019-10-29 17:02:00

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On Monday, her voice at times choked with emotion, California Rep. Katie Hill said in a videotaped statement that her “difficult” decision to resign was made to spare supporters from “the pain inflicted by my abusive husband and the brutality of hateful political operatives” after nude photos of her were published along with allegations that she had an affair with a staffer. Hill, described as a rising Democratic star after her election to represent a Los Angeles-area district last year, was little known nationally until last week. But cascading articles in conservative media outlets — which mixed naked photos of Hill along with purported text messages and other personal details about her life, all anonymously sourced — put a spotlight on her romantic relationships and called her professional judgment into question. Last week, the House Ethics Committee said it was investigating her following these reports, which claimed that she had been involved with her legislative director, Graham Kelly. She denies this. In early 2018, in the shadow of the rise of the #MeToo movement, Congress passed new rules forbidding relationships between lawmakers and their staffers as a way to combat sexual harassment and misconduct on Capitol Hill. Hill is one of the first openly bisexual members of Congress and was given a top position on the House Oversight Committee after flipping a district in Republican control for more than 20 years.” Separately, Hill did admit to an “inappropriate” relationship with an aide on her congressional campaign. “Clearly there is an inherent power differential between Congresswoman Hill and a young campaign staffer who worked for her, but there’s nothing unlawful about having a relationship with people who work for you as long as it is consensual,” outside attorney Debra Katz told The New York Times. “But clearly this shows bad judgment.” The initial articles about Hill, which began with posts on the conservative website RedState, wove claims about her relationships with both Kelly, the staffer, and the campaign worker together with compromising photos of Hill, alleged text messages between her and her husband and others and descriptions of her personal life. The sources of this information have been not identified, though Hill maintains that her estranged husband, Kenny Heslep, is responsible. According to RedState, Hill had allegedly been in a three-way relationship with both the campaign worker and Heslep, who filed for divorce from Hill this summer, citing “irreconcilable differences.” They married in 2010. Following RedState reports, The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, published further intimate photos and details about Hill’s relationships. On Monday, Hill again suggested Heslep was behind what she called a “coordinated campaign carried out by the right wing media and Republican opponents.” “Enabling and perpetuating my husband’s abuse by providing him a platform is disgusting and unforgivable and they will be held accountable,” she said. In a separate letter released Sunday about her resignation, Hill said she was “pursuing all … available legal options” over the “illegal” release of “private photos.” Her attorneys reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Mail demanding the photos be taken down. She said last week that police were also investigating, according to the Times. On Monday, Hill vowed that now she would move into a “new fight” against “revenge porn” and “digital exploitation.” “Since the smear campaign began, the Congresswoman has continued to receive threats from both her husband and Republican political operatives, who have said they were far from done releasing private, potentially obscene photographs,” an aide to Hill tells PEOPLE. Hill said in her Monday video statement that she resigned to avoid allowing such attacks to distract from the work of her colleagues. Once she formally leaves office — which Politico reports could be as soon as Nov. 1 — she said she would work to “ensure no one else has to live through what I just experienced.”  Hill’s case underscores the changing attitudes in Congress toward sex, in response to numerous stories of sexual misconduct and power abuses there, prompted by #MeToo. As noted by USA Today, some Hill defenders argue that while her downfall was swift, the same hasn’t always been true of male lawmakers, who have faced varying consequences. California Rep. Duncan Hunter, for example, will go on trial next year after being accused of using campaign money to carry on affairs and for other personal expenses. He pleaded not guilty and has not left office. The spread of Hill’s deeply personal photos highlights changing laws, too: In recent years, more and more governments have taken steps to criminalize the nonconsensual release of sexually explicit material. “Some people call this electronic assault, digital exploitation. Others call it revenge porn,” Hill said in her Monday video. “As the victim of it, I call it one of the worst things that we can do to our sisters and our daughters. … I will not allow my experience to scare off other young women or girls from running for office.” Forty-six states now have revenge porn laws, including California. A first offense, considered a misdemeanor, is punishable with up to six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.  California Sen. Kamala Harris, who has sponsored a bipartisan bill which would make the publication of revenge porn a federal crime, told BuzzFeed News that she while she “respected” Hill’s decision to leave office, she added: “Let’s also speak the truth that men and women are not held to the same standards. I mean — look at who’s in the White House.” (She was referring to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against President Donald Trump, which he denied.) Harris also told BuzzFeed News that the release of the photographs was “public shaming” that could discourage other women from running for public office. Heslep did not respond to PEOPLE’s call seeking comment. Kelly told PEOPLE last week he had no comment. Representatives with The Daily Mail and RedState did not respond to messages.

2018-05-15 00:00:00

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COLOMBO, May 15 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares ended firmer on Tuesday, edging up from a near five-week closing low hit in the previous session, led by Ceylon Cold Stores Plc, while the recent fuel price hike weighed on sentiment, stockbrokers said. The day’s turnover slumped to near one-month low as investors stayed on the sidelines, they said. State-run fuel retailer Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC) raised retail prices for gasoline and diesel on Thursday midnight in response to the hike in oil prices, while Lanka IOC, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corp, increased fuel rates the same day. “It was a slow day and market participation was very low as the investors are still awaiting to see the real economic impact of the fuel price hike,” said Hisham Haniffa, assistant manager, Softlogic Stockbrokers (pvt) Ltd. The Colombo stock index ended 0.18 percent firmer at 6,456.32, snapping six straight sessions of declines. “Market is hovering near its psychological barrier of 6,450 level.” The day’s turnover stood at 325.4 million rupees ($2.06 million), its lowest since April 19, and well below this year’s daily average of 1.02 billion rupees. Foreign investors net bought 6.3 million rupees worth of equities on Tuesday, but they have been net sellers of 662.3 million rupees worth of equities so far this year. Shares in Ceylon Cold Stores Plc ended 1.5 percent higher, while Lanka ORIX Leasing Co Plc closed 2.5 percent firmer and Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc ended 0.3 percent up. The market shrugged off the central bank’s policy decision on Friday as it was widely expected, brokers said. The central bank kept its key policy rates steady, a little more than a month after it unexpectedly cut the main lending rate, forecasting a modest recovery in the economy this year after growth slumped to a 16-year low in 2017. Analysts said the depreciation of rupee also weighed on investor sentiment as it is likely to hit profits of some listed firms that rely heavily on imports. The rupee hit a fresh low of 158.00 per U.S. dollar on Monday on importer demand for the U.S. currency. Analysts said concerns over political instability following President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to suspend the parliament last month after 16 legislators from his ruling coalition defected also weighed on sentiment. Last week, Sirisena urged his own coalition government and the opposition to end a power struggle in order to achieve ambitious goals including anti-corruption measures. $1 = 158.1500 Sri Lankan rupees Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

2018-10-17 00:00:00

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Mischa Barton's already sliding into the reality TV world with an assist from her new pals, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag -- the new 'Hills' amigos are kicking off their reboot season with raised glasses in hand. The trio grabbed dinner and drinks Tuesday night for what appears to be the start of filming for "The Hills: New Beginnings." Cameras were rolling while they dined at Bottlefish in Brentwood. Spencer was still holding a bottle of white wine as they continued chatting outside. Only time will tell what follows from this meetup ... fingers crossed for juicy drama -- or whatever the producers dream up for 'em. Not too much drama though, for little Gunner's sake. Remember, Speidi are parents now. As we reported ... Spencer says he's thrilled to have Mischa cross over to the reality of "The Hills" from "The O.C." scripted world -- something he's apparently been wanting for a long time.

2016-04-10 15:15:00

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President Barack Obama gave his opinion on Hillary Clinton's personal emails in an interview on Sunday. But they didn't sound much different then they did last October, when he first addressed the issue.In his first interview with Fox News Sunday since being elected president, Obama said that he continues to believe that Clinton, who used a private server for her emails while acting as secretary of state, "has not jeopardized America's national security." "I can tell that you this is not a situation in which America's national security was endangered," Obama said.But the president did say that both he and Clinton have admitted that "there's a carelessness, in terms of managing e-mails, that she has owned, and she recognizes."Clinton's use of her private email is currently under investigation by the FBI. It's been reported that over 2,000 of her emails contained classified material, with 22 containing top-secret information.However, President Obama warns the American people that the phrase "top secret" can mean a number of things. "There’s stuff that is really top secret top secret," he said, "And there’s stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state, that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get in open source."Despite the fact that Clinton is running for president, Obama assured Fox News that there will be no "political influence" on her side. She will be treated like anyone else under investigation."Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department," Obama said, "because nobody is above the law."That being said, Obama continued to make it clear he does not think Clinton broke any laws. "Here’s what I know," Obama said. "Hillary Clinton was an outstanding secretary of state. She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy."

2017-07-25 00:00:00

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar edged up on Tuesday after falling to a 13-month low against a basket of major currencies as investors gained hope U.S. President Donald Trump could push through his expansionary fiscal agenda but remained wary of the short-term U.S. economic outlook. The euro EUR= rose to its highest since August 2015 and was just a hair below a 2-1/2-year high, boosted by a stronger-than-expected German business survey. The Ifo business sentiment index reached a record high, showing that Germans were "euphoric" about the country's business climate. The dollar regained some ground against the euro and other major currencies as U.S. Treasury yields rose along with U.S. equities in afternoon North American trading, reducing demand for safe-haven bonds. The dollar further rebounded as the U.S. Senate passed a motion to proceed on a repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which Trump and Republicans have vowed to undo. Uncertainty about the healthcare vote, as well as an investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and its possible collusion with the Trump campaign, has cast a cloud over the Republican president’s pledges to cut taxes and ramp up spending, analysts said, weakening expectations for U.S. growth and inflation. The market had also started to get a “little complacent” ahead of an announcement from the Federal Reserve following the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, said Scotia Capital currency strategist Shaun Osborne. “With the Fed on the horizon it seemed prudent of the markets to cover some of the dollar shorts,” he said. The Fed began its meeting Tuesday with no change to interest rates expected. However, investors will be looking for the U.S. central bank’s outlook on trimming its $4.5 trillion in bond holdings, said Eric Nelson, currency strategist at Wells Fargo. The dollar index .DXY had fallen to its lowest since June 2016, to 93.638. It has fallen nearly 4 percent over the last month and more than 8 percent this year. It was last up 0.15 percent at 94.095. The euro had risen more than half a percent to $1.1711, matching its high from Aug. 24, 2015, and just below its highest since January 2015. That represented an important technical level, Nelson said. The euro was last up 0.1 percent at $1.1647. The dollar rose 0.7 percent against the Japanese yen JPY= to 111.86 yen. Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Editing by Paul Simao and Steve Orlofsky

2017-09-13 00:00:00

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Sept 14 (Reuters) - Australia’s biggest department store operator Myer Holdings Ltd said on Thursday underlying annual net profit fell 1.9 percent as intense competition and soft retail spending took a toll. Underlying net profit was A$67.9 million ($54.20 million) for the year to July 26, down from A$69.3 million the previous year, Myer said in a statement. The result was at the lower end of the company’s earlier guidance of A$66 million to A$70 million. Sales fell 2.67 percent for the year. ($1 = 1.2528 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Hanna Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Byron Kaye and Stephen Coates)

2019-07-08 00:00:00

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ATHENS, July 8 (Reuters) - Outgoing Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday handed over power to his successor Kyrikos Mitsotakis who swept to a landslide victory in snap elections with a pledge to boost investments, cut taxes and create jobs. Mitsotakis, who will likely face an uphill battle squaring his promises with fiscal targets agreed with lenders, was sworn in as the country’s new premier earlier on Monday. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by George Georgiopoulos)

2019-06-16 00:00:00

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish observation post in Syria’s Idlib region was attacked with mortar fire and shelling from an area controlled by Syrian government forces, causing damage but no casualties, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Sunday. The ministry said its forces immediately retaliated with heavy weapons and it made representations to Moscow over the incident, the second attack of its kind within a week. “It is impossible for us to tolerate the regime’s harassment targeting our soldiers. We will put them in their place,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a televised speech in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, bordering Syria. The ministry did not specify when the shelling occurred, but said the attack was launched from what it named the Tall Bazan area and it was assessed to be deliberate. Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s civil war, and Turkey, long a backer of rebels, co-sponsored a de-escalation agreement for the area that has been in place since last year. But the deal has faltered in recent months, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee. Idlib is the last remaining bastion for anti-government rebels after eight years of civil war. Cavusoglu said the latest “aggression” was contrary to the Idlib agreement which Turkey signed with Russia. “It is the responsibility of Iran and Russia, with which we have worked in close cooperation on Syria, to halt the regime,” he added. On Thursday Russia and Syria gave sharply conflicting accounts of a previous attack on a different Turkish outpost. Turkey blamed Syrian government forces for that earlier attack but Moscow said it was carried out by Assad’s rebel enemies. Russia said on Wednesday that a full ceasefire had been put in place in the area, but Turkey denied this. The latest incidents highlighted the erosion of the de-escalation deal, agreed last year to shield Idlib from a government assault. The region is home to hundreds of thousands of people who fled other parts of Syria as government forces advanced through the country since Moscow joined the war on the side of Assad in 2015, tipping the conflict in his favor. Since April, government forces have increased their shelling and bombing of the area, killing scores of people. The rebels say the government action is part of a campaign for an assault that would breach the de-escalation agreement. The government and its Russian allies say the action is in response to rebel violations, including the presence of fighters in a demilitarized zone. Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jane Merriman

2018-10-24

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Beijing (CNN)The Chinese government is trying to hijack one of this year's hottest social trends for its own propaganda purposes. For months, young people across China have been posting images of themselves pretending to fall out of cars or trip, spreading their expensive belongings in front of them, as if they've just casually fallen out of their pockets. It's called the "flaunt your wealth" challenge and, although it isn't clear where it started, it has taken Chinese social media by storm. It isn't just huge in China -- people across the world including Russia and Australia have taken the opportunity to show off, under the hashtag #fallingstars. Originally popular among wealthy Chinese women, the trend rapidly spread across all parts of society. "It is no longer just the rich people who are falling off their yachts or planes. It's people from all professions -- doctors, lawyers, workers, even babies. It's hilarious," Haiqing Yu, Chinese digital media expert at Melbourne's RMIT University, told CNN. But as the viral craze spread from wealthy to ironic posts by regular internet users, the Chinese government saw an opportunity to hijack the meme for its own means. Employees of local government organizations across the country posted photos of themselves lying on the ground, surrounded by their simple work tools or the honors they had received for their hard work. "This is the real positive energy of the people," China's Ministry of Emergency Management posted alongside pictures of firefighters taking the challenge. "It is too painful to see that the pursuit of money and power affects young people now. Only when we support the hardworking young people will our motherland have hope." One student at Hainan University lies on the floor surrounded by books by Karl Marx and Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, compiled a selection of students and government employees "flaunting their wealth," praising them for knowing what was truly valuable in life. "These pictures may seem posed, but they show that the young generation dare to express themselves ... they flaunt their love and commitment for work. If everyone is hardworking at the work at hand, it will be the biggest wealth for the society," the publication's social media post said. Yu said the government was using the meme to spread "positive energy," a propaganda catch phrase used by the Chinese Communist Party to ensure content on the Chinese internet adheres strictly to "socialist values". "The flaunting the wealth trend is seen as corrupting by the government to Chinese society, (so instead now) you see a variety of people from different professions, age groups and of course male and female doing the same sort of thing," she said. "Chinese propaganda is no longer as sharp as it used to be, but soft."

2019-08-06 19:31:30

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EL PASO — After 22 people were shot to death at a Walmart in El Paso over the weekend, a Florida retiree found herself imagining how her grandchildren could be killed. A daughter of Ecuadorean immigrants cried alone in her car. A Texas lawyer bought a gun to defend his family. For a number of Latinos across the United States, the shooting attack in El Paso felt like a turning point, calling into question everything they thought they knew about their place in American society. Whether they are liberal or conservative, speakers of English or Spanish, recent immigrants or descendants of pioneers who put down stakes in the Southwest 400 years ago, many Latinos in interviews this week said they felt deeply shaken at the idea that radicalized white nationalism seemed to have placed them — at least for one bloody weekend — in its cross hairs. “At least for Latinos, in some way, it’s the death of the American dream,” Dario Aguirre, 64, a Mexican-American lawyer in Denver and a registered Republican, said about the impact of the killings on him and those around him. Mr. Aguirre moved to San Diego from Tijuana when he was 5, and was raised by his grandmother in poor Mexican neighborhoods. He enlisted in the Air Force, and later became an immigration lawyer — a classic American success story. “Many clients tell me, ‘We’re the new Jews, we’re just like the Jews,’” Mr. Aguirre said. “It’s quite a transition from being invisible to being visible in a lethal way. It’s something new to my community. We are used to the basic darkness of racism, not this.” There were about 59.9 million Latinos in the United States as of July 2018, accounting for 18 percent of the population — nearly one in five people in the country. That was up from 14.8 million in 1980, or just 6.5 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly two-thirds of Latinos were born in the United States. From Miami to Los Angeles, many said in interviews that evidence of racism had become much more prevalent since President Trump was elected pledging to end what he called “an invasion” across the southern border of people he often characterizes as violent criminals. But the seeds of anti-Hispanic sentiment have been apparent in the country for years, they said. [From Pittsburgh to Christchurch, and now El Paso, white men accused of carrying out deadly mass shootings have cited the same paranoid fear: the extinction of the white race.] Daniel Alvarez, 66, who was born in Cuba but has lived in the United States since he was 13, said that talking about the shooting took him back to when he was in high school and he tapped a young woman, another student, on the shoulder. He had not yet learned that some people in the United States can be uncomfortable with being touched unexpectedly. “The woman turned around and said, ‘Get your dirty hand off me, you goddamn spic,’” recalled Mr. Alvarez, now a senior instructor in religious studies at Florida International University. His voice caught and he paused as he choked back tears. “I was totally paralyzed, because I could not fathom what had just happened,” he said. “I could not figure out why somebody would refer to me in such ugly language, and I’m 66 and this happened so long ago, and it still gets me.” Here in El Paso, a border city of about 680,000 that is about 80 percent Hispanic, the massacre has felt uniquely personal. Chris Grant, 50, a witness to the El Paso attack who was wounded by the gunman, told The El Paso Times that he had seen the gunman allowing white and African-American shoppers out of the Walmart but was spraying Latinos with bullets. In an online post, the attacker complained about a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Residents now talk about how it feels dangerous to go out to eat or to the movies. Gun shops in the city are bustling with customers, many of them Latino. “It’s basically out of the instinct of not wanting to be a victim,” said Zachary Zuñiga, 32, a lawyer in El Paso who signed up for a shooting course and is planning to buy his first gun. “I want to be able to protect my family if people like this are going to come here thinking they can shoot up places where my family and friends go,” said Mr. Zuñiga, who grew up in a home where his parents never had guns. G. Cristina Mora, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in immigration and race politics, said the attack was likely to have generated a deep sense of unease for Hispanic Americans no matter how long they or their families have lived in the country. “This has impact beyond the first generation, the immigrant generation,” Professor Mora said. “It reverberates. It doesn’t have to be you who crossed the border. It just has to be you who are not Anglo.” Suzanna Bobadilla, 28, learned about the shooting while she was on vacation in Connecticut with friends from college. She tried to avoid reading about the episode in detail for the first couple of days because it was too devastating, but could not avoid the story any longer when it surfaced on her social media accounts. Ms. Bobadilla’s father came to the United States from Mexico as a graduate student in the 1980s and married her white American mother. Since open hostility toward Latinos has grown more common over the past few years, she said she spent a lot of time avoiding the news in order to look out for her own mental health. She either reads or listens to the president’s statements, but avoids watching him on TV because it is too upsetting, and even scary, to see crowds of people chanting behind him when he talks about immigrants. “As a child of the ’90s, I was taught that if we just share and come together and be collaborative, we’ll have this harmonious society,” said Ms. Bobadilla, who has worked for Google in San Francisco since she graduated from Harvard University. But lately, she said, that has begun to feel like “really hard work that is exhausting.” In Los Angeles, Kenia Peralta, 18, has been glued to Twitter and news sources reading about the shooting. It has prompted her to question her own identity as an American. “If this is what America is supposed to be, only white, then I guess I am not American,” said Ms. Peralta, the daughter of immigrant parents from El Salvador. She and her 15-year-old brother live with their parents in a one-bedroom apartment near downtown Los Angeles. “I will always be seen first as Hispanic, no matter if I was born here,” said Ms. Peralta, who will enroll at the University of California, Irvine, this fall. Bertha Rodriguez, a 73-year-old retiree who was born in Cuba and grew up in the Midwest and in Mexico, where her father worked as a jockey, said she had a hard time talking about the El Paso shooting without breaking into tears. “I live in this terror for my grandkids,” said Ms. Rodriguez, who now lives with her mother in Century Village, a large retirement community in Pembroke Pines, Fla. She said two of her grandchildren happened to be at a Walmart in Louisiana when the El Paso massacre unfolded. “This is not the United States that I grew up in,” she said. In Connecticut, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, 30, said she felt physically sick when she learned that the gunman in El Paso had seemed to have targeted Latinos. She and her parents came to the United States from Ecuador without papers when Ms. Cornejo Villavicencio was 5. She is temporarily protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and is applying for a green card through her spouse, but her parents are still undocumented. Now finishing up a Ph.D. at Yale in American Studies, Ms. Cornejo Villavicencio was out to dinner with her partner when she heard the news about the attack in El Paso. She briefly cried in the car but then stopped herself. Crying is considered a sign of weakness in her family and she was scolded for doing it as a child. To her, the shooting felt like the culmination of a lifetime of fear, one that used to be about her parents getting deported, but now included the possibility that they could be targeted in a terror attack. “It’s really hard to be alive as an immigrant right now and to not be sick and exhausted,” she said. “It feels like being hunted.” An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Latinos in the United States. There were about 59.9 million as of July 2018, not 56.5 million now.

2018-08-22 00:00:00

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A fire in India’s financial hub of Mumbai killed four people and injured 16 on Wednesday, authorities said, as the blaze spread quickly through a tall, residential building. The fire started on the twelfth floor of a 17-storey building in the Parel suburb in Mumbai. “Criminal offense will be declared ... The building will be labeled as unsafe and it will be evacuated. The fire sprinklers were not working at all,” said Mumbai’s chief fire officer, Prabhat Rahangdale. A fire department official said efforts to douse the blaze were still going on, but the situation was under control. The 16 injured people were taken to hospital and were in stable condition, a hospital official said. It was third deadly fire in Mumbai in seven months. Last December, fire swept through a rooftop restaurant in Mumbai, killing more than a dozen people, most of them women. Reporting by Malini Menon and Neha Dasgupta in NEW DELHI and Rajendra Jadhav in MUMBAI

2018-06-05

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Vanita Gupta is the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. (CNN)The words "equal justice under law" are engraved on the outside of the Supreme Court. In the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the justices decided -- once again -- that those words are more than an engraving but also a true reflection of our highest values. The Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling Monday in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop bakery owner Jack Phillips, who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple due to the shop owner's religious beliefs. Notably, the court limited its decision to the specifics of this case -- mainly how the Colorado Civil Rights Commission handled Phillips' claim. The court did not rule that the Constitution grants the right to discriminate but maintained the longstanding principle that business owners cannot deny equal access to goods and services. The court stated that it may face the constitutional question in future cases that present different circumstances -- Monday's ruling is likely not the final word. The case did, however, unearth a question decided half a century ago: Can business owners in America use their religious beliefs as a justification to discriminate? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in public accommodations based on race, color, religion or national origin. The landmark legislation embodied our country's collective sense of right and wrong. Several years later, in the 1968 Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises decision, the Supreme Court upheld the law by rejecting a barbecue restaurant owner's claim that his religious beliefs justified discrimination against African-American customers. Masterpiece Cakeshop raised a similar -- and equally troubling -- claim: whether Phillips could ignore state nondiscrimination laws because of his religious beliefs. In recent years, the Supreme Court recognized that discrimination against LGBTQ individuals violates our constitutional principles. In the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision establishing full marriage equality in America, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the following words about the same-sex couples who brought the lawsuit: "Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right." And yet our nation falls short of fully realizing that right. And because of those who insist on challenging equality for LGBTQ people, the Supreme Court in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case was once again faced with the question of whether the law of the land recognizes equal dignity for same-sex couples. Freedom of religion is a cherished and well-protected constitutional right in the United States, and the civil rights community is dedicated to safeguarding religious liberty for everyone. But religion must not translate into a license to discriminate -- nor trample people's protections under the law. Requiring companies to abide by nondiscrimination laws does not require business owners to abandon their religious beliefs. It merely requires them to honor the clear constitutional rights of others. Some people might dismiss the principles at stake in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case by arguing that a gay couple can simply purchase their cake elsewhere. But Masterpiece Cakeshop is no more about cake than Piggie Park was about barbecue. The court acknowledged that "it is a general rule that (religious) objections do not allow business owners and other actors in the economy and in society to deny protected persons equal access to goods and services." Otherwise, the door to widespread discrimination will open, undermining the legal foundation for equal rights and justice. Consider the consequences had the Supreme Court given Phillips a sweeping victory. If a company can refuse to sell wedding cakes to a gay couple on the basis of religious convictions, can a restaurant also then refuse to serve food to a divorcée or an unmarried couple with a child? Can a taxi driver deny a ride to an interracial couple? Through much of our nation's history, the concept of sincerely held religious beliefs excused legalized discrimination against African-Americans -- including at restaurants and schools, and in marriage. Those policies tore apart families, devastated futures and relegated communities, including immigrants and people of color, to second-class citizenship. Piggie Park marked the beginning of our courts acknowledging and enforcing America's obligation of equality under the law when it comes to public accommodations. Fifty years later, the Masterpiece Cakeshop case posed the same question, and the court affirmed the underlying principle that our nation's businesses should be open to all. But make no mistake: Monday's decision makes clear that our fight for equal rights and dignity for all must continue. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the 1964 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public accommodations based on sex.

2017-05-29 19:12:51

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Mets Manager Terry Collins has a strong stomach. That was evident in an answer he gave on Monday about how he deals with criticism — from the news media, from Mets fans, and even from within the team — concerning his heavy use of his bullpen. “It’s part of the job,” he said. “You take the body blows; that’s what this job’s all about. I do my ab work every day so I can get through them.” Collins showed more fortitude during the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field. With two outs, the bases loaded and the Mets clinging to a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning, starting pitcher Robert Gsellman’s spot in the batting order came up. Collins had two unenviable choices: Should he send Gsellman up to hit in an important spot? Or should he go to his bench? He had Neil Walker available, which would have given the Mets a chance to break the game open, but it also would have forced Collins to use his erratic bullpen earlier than he would have preferred. In possibly his last start as a Met for the foreseeable future, Gsellman was also having his best start of the season. He had even helped himself to a 2-1 lead with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Still, Collins was risking more than an opportunity to put some breathing room between his team and the Brewers, the fourth-highest scoring team in the majors. He was also risking more criticism over his bullpen strategy. In this case, however, he would potentially draw heat for underusing his bullpen — the opposite of the usual criticism. But with Jerry Blevins, the most-used relief pitcher in the majors this season, unavailable after having either pitched or warmed up in each of the last four games, Collins had already made his decision: He needed one more inning out of Gsellman. And that meant Gsellman would bat. “Once he told me I was going out for the seventh, I told him, ‘Don’t worry, I got this,’” Gsellman said. Six pitches later, the Mets had an insurance run, Gsellman had a career-high second R.B.I. in one game, and Collins had saved himself from another figurative kick in the ribs. After falling behind by 1-2, Gsellman carefully allowed three borderline pitches from Brewers reliever Rob Scahill to go by, drawing a walk that forced in the final run. “Hey, we needed another inning out of him,” Collins said. “We were a little short because of the past couple of nights. And certainly, he rose up and got us where we needed to be.” Gsellman worked seven innings and allowed two runs — one unearned — on three hits, one of them a solo home run by Domingo Santana in the sixth inning. Despite the effort, Gsellman’s future on the Mets staff remained unchanged; Collins said that when Steven Matz and Seth Lugo came off the disabled list, possibly after each had one more minor-league rehab start, Gsellman would return to the bullpen. “In my opinion, you go way down the road and this kid’s going to be a quality starter in this league,” Collins said. “But when he goes to the bullpen, he will give us a better bullpen, legitimately.” The Mets’ bullpen, which came into the game with a 4.90 E.R.A., fifth worst in the majors, is probably the main reason the Mets sit five games below .500 and eight and a half games behind the first-place Washington Nationals in the National League East. Before the game, General Manager Sandy Alderson disputed news media reports that some in the Mets’ front office were critical of how Collins has managed his relief pitching this season, but the vote of confidence he gave his manager could best be described as lukewarm. “I’m happy with the job that Terry has done under the circumstances,” Alderson said. “We’re not where we want to be. Nobody is happy with the won-loss record that we have. I think there are reasons for the record that we have that have nothing to do with Terry.” Alderson mentioned inconsistent starting pitching and injuries, notably the hamstring strain that has kept Yoenis Cespedes out of the Mets’ lineup since April 28, as other factors that have kept his team from performing up to expectations. The Mets were coming off a relatively successful weekend trip to Pittsburgh in which they won two out of three games over the last-place Pirates, but once again, their bullpen failed them on Saturday when Addison Reed, who has assumed the closer’s role in place of the injured Jeurys Familia, blew a save in the ninth inning. The rookie Tyler Pill, who had been called up a day earlier to replace the demoted Rafael Montero, took the loss an inning later. Because of the shortage of starters, Collins plans to start Pill on Tuesday against the Brewers. But on Monday, the Mets’ bullpen did its job. Paul Sewald followed Gsellman and pitched a clean eighth inning, and Reed earned a shaky save despite giving up hits to the first two Brewers in the top of the ninth. When Alderson’s words of support were relayed to Collins, he seemed to accept them in the spirit they were offered. “Well, I appreciate that,” he said, with a laugh. “Some decisions work and some don’t. Right now, I’m not looking at yesterday or the day before. I’m looking at today and tomorrow.” It appears to be the only way Collins — whose 68th birthday was Saturday — can reconcile being the longest-tenured manager in Mets history (as well as the oldest manager in the majors) while also having his job security questioned. And it helps to have an unusually strong stomach. An article on Tuesday about the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers misstated, in some editions, pitcher Tyler Pill’s role in the Mets’ extra-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates last Saturday. He was the losing pitcher; he did not allow the winning single. (After Pill put the winning run on base, Josh Edgin replaced him and gave up the winning hit.)

2018-03-03

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Oscar weekend is here, which means Razzie weekend is too. The Golden Raspberry Awards winners were announced Friday, with the star-studded Emoji Movie nabbing the impressive trifecta of worst screenplay, director, and film. Other winners included Fifty Shades Darker, Baywatch, and The Mummy, with surprisingly few wins for the highly-nominated Transformers: The Last Knight and mother! Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales also escaped unscathed, so prepare for those movies to outlive you significantly. The full winners list is as follows: WORST PICTURE The Emoji Movie    WORST ACTRESS Tyler Perry / BOO! 2: A Medea Halloween    WORST ACTOR Tom Cruise / The Mummy  WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR Mel Gibson / Daddy's Home 2    WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Kim Basinger / Fifty Shades Darker    WORST SCREEN COMBO Any Two Obnoxious Emojis / The Emoji Movie    WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL Fifty Shades Darker    WORST DIRECTOR Anthony (Tony) Leondis / The Emoji Movie    RAZZIE/ROTTEN TOMATOES AWARD: THE RAZZIE NOMINEE SO BAD YOU LOVED IT! Baywatch    WORST SCREENPLAY The Emoji Movie, Screenplay by Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel & Mike White    Many current and former Razzie winners will take the stage Sunday for the 90th Academy Awards, where none of these films are nominated but, in one, a woman did hook up with a fish.

2016-06-21 00:00:00

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that if Republican rival Donald Trump wins the White House, it will be a disaster for the U.S. economy, predicting a “Trump recession.” “Now I don’t say this because of typical political disagreements - liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous,” Clinton said. “Economists on the right, the left and the center all agree Trump would throw us back into recession.” Clinton’s speech in Columbus, Ohio, a state that will be a battleground in the Nov. 8 election, was the second in which she has argued the wealthy businessman is “temperamentally unfit” to lead the country. The first was on foreign relations and national security. “Donald Trump has said he is qualified to be president because of his business record,” Clinton said. “So let’s take a look at what he did for his businesses: He’s written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11; go figure,” Clinton said, in a jab referring to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Clinton then said Trump, a self-described “king of debt,” had allowed businesses to amass huge debts and declare bankruptcy, leaving hundreds of people without jobs and wiping out shareholders. Allowing the United States to accrue similar debt would rattle investors and could lead to economic catastrophe, she added. On Twitter during Clinton’s speech, Trump said, “I am ‘the king of debt.’ That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix U.S.” Clinton also said the likely Republican nominee’s tax plan - which aims to simplify the tax code, along with slashing the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent - would benefit the wealthy over working families. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated the plan would increase the federal deficit by $9.5 trillion over the next decade. The former secretary of state also said Trump’s plan to scrap trade deals could start “trade wars” and that the agreements should instead be renegotiated if they do not benefit American workers. Clinton said Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants would shake the workforce and prove disastrous for the U.S. economy, creating a “Trump recession.” The tussle over the economy came as the two continued preparing for what is expected to be a fierce campaign. Trump was slated to give a speech criticizing Clinton in New York on Wednesday. As the presumptive Democratic nominee spoke on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign tested what appeared to be a more active rapid-response operation, sending emails saying Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had backed bad trade deals and that her immigration plan would lower wages. Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Jonathan Oatis