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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-09 06:00 1 SeaWorld: Orca that killed trainer is ill ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The killer whale responsible for the death of a SeaWorld trainer
(2.00/3) is very sick from a bacterial infection that may eventually kill him, S... 2016-03-09 00:12 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 2 3 Sponsors Cut Ties With Sharapova After Positive Drug Test (2.00/3) Three of Maria Sharapova's major sponsors are cutting ties with the Russian tennis star after she acknowledged failing a doping test at the Australian Open. Sportswear giant Nike, Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer and German luxury car company Porsche moved quickly to distance themselves from the... 2016-03-09 00:51 4KB abcnews.go.com 3 Aldermen say volume-based garbage fee could fund tax rebate Chicago's new flat garbage charge should be replaced by a volume-based fee structureto encourage recycling, a group of aldermen proposed Tuesday. 2016-03-09 02:39 6KB chicago.suntimes.com 4 Boris Johnson: EU referendum gag email was 'cock-up' Boris Johnson says a memo instructing his senior staff to back him over the EU referendum has been withdrawn, blaming a "cock-up". 2016-03-09 02:32 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 5 NYC mayor opens public facilities to transgenders Contact WND (FREE BEACON) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation Monday that requires individuals be granted access to public bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity. The executive order mandates that transgender and gender non- conforming individuals be allowed to use single-sex facilities consistent with their gender identity... 2016-03-09 02:30 1KB www.wnd.com 6 D. C. GOP extends primary hours for Sabbath-keepers Contact WND (WASHINGTON POST) — In D. C., where Republicans are scarce, Orthodox Jews actually are a large enough contingent to potentially affect the outcome of the GOP’s presidential primary that is scheduled for Saturday. And so when Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld learned the schedule, he was dismayed. The primary was scheduled for... 2016-03-09 02:30 1KB www.wnd.com 7 My Ballot — Michigan Voters Guide -- Presidential Primary There are no items in the voter guide that you can vote on at that address. Please enable cookies to use the voter guide. How do I enable cookies? 2016-03-09 02:35 582Bytes rssfeeds.freep.com 8 Trump, Clinton continue dominance in 2016 primaries LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican front-runner Donald Trump swept to victory in the Mississippi and Michigan presidential primaries Tuesday, deepening his gri... 2016-03-09 03:31 5KB www.dailymail.co.uk 9 Livonia - News Livonia - News 2016-03-08 21:29 2KB rssfeeds.hometownlife.com 10 13 Financial Tips For Newlyweds - In Photos: 13 Financial Tips For Newlyweds Congrats on your big day! As you begin to build your life together, you should talk about money. While it may not be easy, the number one rule is to be honest. “It’s all about a foundation for your relationship,” says Therese Nicklas, a certified financial planner with U. S... 2016-03-08 23:13 1KB www.forbes.com
11 Giant pumpkin seed sells for £1,250 A British firm bids £1,250 at auction to buy a single seed from a world-record breaking pumpkin. 2016-03-08 18:13 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 12 Interactive map: Maine's 2016 Democratic caucus results While Sen. Bernie Sanders won the majority of votes in most towns, races were more competitive in wealthy coastal communities and rural inland areas of central Maine. 2016-03-08 20:47 995Bytes www.pressherald.com 13 Recent Posts Recent Comments Archives Categories Meta Gusto, the fast-casual concept that started in Atlanta’s Brookwood Hills neighborhood, announced it will open its second Atlanta location at 782 Ponce De Leon Ave NE in early summer 2016. The restaurant was founded in 2014 by former NFL quarterback and Georgia native Nate Hybl. "As we begin our... 2016-03-08 18:16 2KB atlantarestaurants.blog.ajc.com 14 Anthony Kwan: Thailand withdraws charge against Hong Kong journalist Thailand withdraws criminal charges against a Hong Kong journalist detained last year for carrying body armour used in reporting on the Bangkok blasts. 2016-03-08 17:09 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 15 Michael Bloomberg will not run for president as independent Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg says he will not run in the US presidential election. 2016-03-08 17:09 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 16 Butler-Leonard II could be back on when the Bulls see the Spurs With Jimmy Butler's left knee improving, the two-time All-Star could be ready to face off against Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday 2016-03-09 00:26 3KB chicago.suntimes.com 17 This grandma joined twitter just to publicly bash Trump No, this isn't a drill VIDEO 2016-03-08 23:13 727Bytes www.salon.com
18 Tyshawn Lee: Second arrest over nine-year-old's murder A second man is charged with murder over the Chicago killing of a nine-year-old last year, apparently because of his father's gang ties. 2016-03-09 00:21 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 19 03/04/16: 'Mystery in Apartment 410' Check out 20/20: 20/20 03/04/16: Mystery in Apartment 410 on WATCH ABC 2016-03-09 01:40 631Bytes abc.go.com
20 Nobody trusts Mitt: The problem with making Romney the anti-Trump A new poll show that Mitt Romney's anti-Trump campaign is at best ineffective, and may actually be backfiring 2016-03-08 23:13 2KB www.salon.com 21 Tragic murder shows need for stronger gun laws The tragic murder of nine–year-old Tyshawn Lee described by Frank Main and Stefano Esposito once again highlights the urgent need for stiffer 2016-03-09 00:26 4KB chicago.suntimes.com
22 Total solar eclipse captivates crowds across Asia Crowds across Asia were treated to stunning views of a total solar eclipse on Wednesday morning. 2016-03-09 01:42 3KB www.cnn.com 23 US Embassy: Duterte invite nothing out of ordinary THE UNITED States Embassy on Tuesday explained that the invitation it had extended to presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was nothing out of the ordinary. “The Embassy 2016-03-09 02:30 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 24 ISIS leader possibly killed in U. S. strike The U. S. military and intelligence community is assessing whether a targeted U. S. airstrike killed a top ISIS leader, known as Omar "the Chechen. " 2016-03-09 02:30 2KB www.cnn.com 25 Authorities in quandary over seized Nokor ship SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Can the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) hold the seized North Korean cargo ship MV Jin Teng indefinitely at the free port? SBMA said it found nothing irregular 2016-03-09 02:27 3KB globalnation.inquirer.net 26 Aquino names Fallorina new Air Force chief PRESIDENT Aquino has appointed Lt. Gen. Edgar Fallorina commanding general of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), taking over from Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Delgado who is retiring today (Wednesday). Mr. 2016-03-09 02:25 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 27 MILF warning on IS just a bluff, says Gringo CLARKFIELD, Pampanga—Sen. Gregorio Honasan on Tuesday dismissed warnings by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of the presence of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) in Mindanao as “just 2016-03-09 02:20 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 28 Bongbong wants 4Ps widened VICE presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed to broaden the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) by covering more poor families and providing the 2016-03-09 02:16 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 29 Report: ISIS kids told to play 'soccer' with human heads Contact WND A London-based think tank’s new report details the depths of depravity Islamic terrorists will sink to brainwash children: Decapitated heads are given out to be kicked like soccer balls. Petition Congress to ‘halt Muslim immigration now’ The Quilliam Foundation released “Children of the Islamic State” on Monday, a comprehensive study... 2016-03-09 01:13 4KB www.wnd.com 30 'Show me your t---, or I'll kill your daughter' Contact WND (DAILYMAIL) — An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested and charged with stalking the mother of a missing 14-year-old online before threatening to kill her daughter if she didn’t send him nude pictures. Robert Krug, who attends Bonney Lake High School, in Washington state, was charged by the prosecutor’s... 2016-03-09 01:13 1KB www.wnd.com 31 Marcos Jr. told: Never again THE CATHOLIC Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), comprising more than 1,400 Catholic schools, has joined the clamor against Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s alleged attempt “to 2016-03-09 02:14 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 32 PP-Dem-Pres-All,100 737 of 4,830 precincts - 15 percent Bernie Sanders, 109,936 - 50 percent Hillary Clinton, 105,052 - 48 percent Uncommitted, 3,629 - 2 percent Martin O'Malley... 2016-03-09 02:05 875Bytes www.dailymail.co.uk
33 Metra expands system that drew 130 'close call' reports About 130 "close call" reports have been made in slightly more than six months since four Metra unions signed a confidential safety reporting pact. 2016-03-09 00:50 2KB chicago.suntimes.com 34 “Something happened to me” — Padma Lakshmi reveals childhood sexual abuse The "Top Chef" host opens up about a crime that "happens to a lot of girls" 2016-03-08 23:13 2KB www.salon.com 35 Peyton Manning is no hero: Would his troubling past be ignored if he weren’t white? What's going on when an alleged sexual assault gets swept under the rug amid tributes to the football "hero"? 2016-03-08 23:13 4KB www.salon.com 36 Satire is dead when France honors the theocratic Saudi monarchy for “countering extremism and fighting terrorism” E. U. and U. S. quietly admit Saudi Arabia is largest supporter of Islamic extremism, yet publicly pretend otherwise 2016-03-08 23:13 3KB www.salon.com 37 South Side hit men: White Sox at 12 homers and counting The White Sox are digging the long ball this spring. 2016-03-09 00:26 1KB chicago.suntimes.com 38 David Brooks keeps his head in the sand: GOP voters won’t make his fantasy of derailing Trump and Cruz reality The problem: The party conservative technocrats like Brooks aspire to is not the party Republican voters want 2016-03-08 23:13 2KB www.salon.com 39 News Guide: Eyes on Michigan as 4 states make 2016 choices WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton breezed to victory in Mississippi on Tuesday in part of a four-state round of voting that tested Donald Trump's staying pow... 2016-03-09 01:39 7KB www.dailymail.co.uk 40 “Activism is not terrorism”: Rights groups call on Congress to investigate the FBI and DHS for surveillance of activists On 45th anniversary of exposure of COINTELPRO, more than 60 orgs pen a letter to congressional judiciary committees 2016-03-08 23:13 3KB www.salon.com 41 Sources: Mario Williams to sign with Dolphins Mario Williams is staying in the AFC East, agreeing to a deal with the Dolphins on Tuesday after his release by the Bills last week, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. 2016-03-09 00:05 3KB espn.go.com 42 Women’s desks of police stations need more funds, says Robredo MORE funds should be funneled to the women’s and children’s desks of police stations to better address the needs of battered women, Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo 2016-03-09 01:25 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 43 New York City’s transgender residents can now use their bathroom of choice Access to bathrooms is a fundamental human right, Mayor de Blasio said VIDEO 2016-03-09 00:25 1KB www.salon.com
44 Debunking the latest lie about Hillary Clinton: No, she didn’t say she supports a 20-week ban on abortion It's not very dramatic, but it's true: Clinton and Sanders are identical when it comes to their views on abortion 2016-03-09 00:18 3KB www.salon.com 45 Camille Cosby says she never read complaint against husband Lawyers for Bill Cosby have released part of his wife's February deposition from a civil defamation suit brought by seven women against the comedian. 2016-03-09 01:21 3KB www.cnn.com 46 In pictures: Women making technology work for them On International Women's Day, leading women in technology around the world speak about opportunities for those looking to enter the sector. 2016-03-09 00:09 10KB www.bbc.co.uk 47 Bloomberg misses: His ad feels like yesterday Billing yourself like Trump without the edge is a tough way to go in 2016 2016-03-09 00:22 2KB www.salon.com 48 Almendras named DFA chief PRESIDENT AQUINO has appointed Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras ad interim head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Malacañang announced late last night. Almendras replaced 2016-03-09 01:20 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 49 American Taylor Force killed, 10 people wounded in Israel attack A stabbing attack carried out by a terrorist in Tel Aviv left an American tourist dead and 10 other people wounded not far from where U. S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Tuesday. 2016-03-09 01:16 5KB www.cnn.com 50 Dow, S&P snap 5-day win streak as energy drops 4% Contact WND (CNBC) — U. S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, as a reversal in oil prices weighed and after weaker-than-expected Chinese trade data renewed concerns about global growth. “It’s not collapsing but certainly profit-taking which is something markets should do when they’ve had a dramatic move higher,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist... 2016-03-09 01:15 1KB www.wnd.com 51 Rubio accuses Cruz of 'dirty tricks' in Hawaii Contact WND (POLITICO) Marco Rubio’s campaign is accusing Ted Cruz’s campaign of “using a bogus story from CNN to spread false rumors” that the Florida senator is dropping out of the race. “Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies. We won’t allow him to do... 2016-03-09 01:14 1KB www.wnd.com 52 Poll: Romney attack speech boosted Trump Contact WND Mitt Romney’s now-famous press conference attacking Donald Trump as an “absurd” candidate who provides little more than “third-grade theatrics” on the campaign trail has apparently had the opposite effect, sending even more voters into the campaign camp of the Republican front-runner. The ‘Stop Hillary’ campaign is on fire! Join the... 2016-03-09 01:13 3KB www.wnd.com 53 Teacher calls student 'dumbest girl he ever met' Contact WND (WSB-TV) — A Greene County teacher is in trouble after a girl recorded him allegedly answering her question by calling her “the dumbest girl I have ever met.” Shaniaya Hunter, a junior at Green County High School, has an eye condition that sometimes has kept her out of class. In... 2016-03-09 01:13 955Bytes www.wnd.com
54 Church's corruption can be traced to Mithraism Contact WND Discover Richard Rives’ books, “Time Is the Ally of Deceit” and “Too Long in the Sun,” at the WND SuperStore! Click here for reuse options! 2016-03-08 23:14 5KB www.wnd.com 55 Church collection plate goes digital Contact WND (BLOOMBERG) — Dylan Ciamacco, 25, first went to the Los Angeles outpost of international megachurch C3 as a teen. His mom thought a lot of the young people there —in skinny jeans, chunky sweaters, and leather jackets—dressed like him. He’d emerged recently from a “sick” (as in awesome) atheist phase, he... 2016-03-09 01:13 1KB www.wnd.com 56 Maxx2Racing Team Welcomes You To The 2015 SEMA Show Maxx2Racing Team Welcomes You To The 2015 SEMA Show - TriboDyn Performance Lubricants 2015 SEMA Show ‘Feature’ Vehicle The Maxx2Racing Team ’99 Firebird Pro Touring-Pro Street LSR Car This stunning example of... 2016-03-08 23:13 4KB worldnewsvine.com 57 Police search for suspect after grandmother found beaten to death inside Pontiac home Investigators at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office are looking for leads after a mother and grandmother is found beaten to death in her Pontiac home. 2016-03-08 23:28 1KB www.wxyz.com 58 Involving agency for adults leaves kids locked up too long On any given day, the state of Illinois has about 500 young people locked in six prisons where judges have sent them as a last resort, with the hope 2016-03-09 00:26 3KB chicago.suntimes.com 59 MH370: 'I don't want the search for my mother to end' Grace Nathan, whose mother was on board MH370, says she and other relatives desperately want the search to go on until it is found. 2016-03-09 01:02 680Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 60 Migrant crisis: Rights groups slam EU-Turkey proposal Humanitarian organizations have criticized an EU-Turkey proposal that would see Turkey take back all migrants who made it to Greece from its shores. 2016-03-09 00:57 10KB www.cnn.com 61 Pregnant Nicky Hilton Steps Out in Animal Print Celebrity Baby Boom 2016-03-08 23:13 812Bytes abcnews.go.com 62 WHO: Sexual transmission of Zika more common than thought Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing reports from several countries. 2016-03-09 00:48 4KB mynorthwest.com 63 ACE train car derails, falls into creek near San Francisco An ACE train car went off the rails and ended up in a creek in Northern California on Monday night, according to the Alameda County Fire Department. 2016-03-09 00:45 2KB www.cnn.com 64 Floyd Mayweather Jr. - In Photos: The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities 2015 Earnings: $300MAthlete, BoxingMayweather's $300 million year shatters the record for athlete earnings, which was previously held by Tiger Woods who banked $115 million in 2008. Mayweather's May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao crushed multiple boxing financial records, including PPV buys (4.4 million), total gate ($73 million) and sponsorships ($13 million)... 2016-03-08 23:13 1KB www.forbes.com 65 Testimony in Guatemalan fraud case implicates leaders The man who allegedly handled finances for a far-reaching corruption scheme in Guatemala has testified that the then-vice president's right-hand man told him that bribes were going to his boss and the president. 2016-03-09 00:32 1KB mynorthwest.com 66 Pakistani forces free Shahbaz Taseer, son of late Punjab governor Pakistan security forces on Tuesday freed Shahbaz Taseer, the son of a late governor of Punjab province, who was abducted in 2011 eight months after his father was assassinated. 2016-03-09 00:32 2KB www.cnn.com 67 Howard Stern - In Photos: Highest-Earning Radio Hosts Earnings: $95 million The off-beat and off-color Stern is dragging out his eight-digit contract battle with Sirius XM Radio, positioning himself as the main draw for the company's 27 million subscribers. Meanwhile, he's been co-hosting America's Got Talent since 2012. 2016-03-08 23:16 970Bytes www.forbes.com 68 Clues to why the 'sea dragons' died out A dramatic shift in the Earth's climate killed off marine reptiles that swam at the time of the dinosaurs, according to a new study. 2016-03-08 23:13 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 69 Wounded pastor regains consciousness; shooter sought COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho pastor who was shot six times last weekend has regained consciousness and is talking with his family, an associate said... 2016-03-09 00:27 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 70 Witness: Home Fire Killed 6 Was Heated by Space Heaters At a northwest Atlanta home where six people died in an early morning fire, neighbors said the heat was provided by space heaters and the homeowner regularly allowed people to stay when they were down on their luck. Four men and two women were killed in the blaze, which was... 2016-03-09 00:20 3KB abcnews.go.com 71 DIY abortions are on the rise in the U. S. VIDEO 2016-03-08 23:13 880Bytes www.salon.com
72 US Breaks Record for Hottest Winter Federal meteorologists say the winter that has just ended was the hottest in U. S. records, thanks to the combination of El Nino and man-made global warming. The average temperature for the Lower 48 from December through February — known as meteorological winter — was 36.8 degrees,... 2016-03-09 00:19 1KB abcnews.go.com 73 Texas’ war on reality: State’s next likely school board member believes Obama was a drug-addicted gay prostitute Mary Lou Bruner thinks Marx invented climate change, and she's likely to sit on the Texas state school board 2016-03-08 23:13 4KB www.salon.com 74 “Feeling strong is part of who I am now”: This women-only powerlifting competition is seriously badass The winner of the Iron Maidens Raw Open deadlifted 405 lbs. VIDEO 2016-03-08 23:13 1KB www.salon.com 75 A warning to the Supreme Court: The true lesson of Kermit Gosnell is that abortion restrictions get women killed During last week's hearing on a Texas anti-abortion law, some bad arguments were advanced based on the Gosnell case 2016-03-08 23:13 3KB www.salon.com
76 Gift Theatre's 'Richard III' — as you've never seen him before The premise that drives Shakespeare's "Richard III" is set out clearly very early in the play as the physically disabled and emotionally warped 2016-03-09 00:26 4KB chicago.suntimes.com 77 Estranged father's deathbed confession unites 2 families as 1 “It’s unbelievable and incredible that this person, a sister, makes contact with me after 36 years.” 2016-03-08 22:58 9KB www.wzzm13.com 78 FBI agents investigated over shots fired during standoff PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge are under in... 2016-03-09 00:11 5KB www.dailymail.co.uk 79 How ripple effect of doctor row could be toxic Ministers in England are hoping the furore over the junior doctor row will slowly seep away. They may be right, but in the long-term the risk is the dispute will have a toxic effect. 2016-03-08 18:13 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 80 Pat Fitzgerald: Lovie Smith hire won't change in-state rivalry Pat Fitzgerald considers Lovie Smith a friend. 2016-03-08 23:23 2KB chicago.suntimes.com 81 Some Starbucks sandwiches recalled A batch of breakfast sandwiches made for Starbucks is being recalled because they are possibly contaminated with Listeria. 2016-03-08 23:23 1KB chicago.suntimes.com 82 Second City, Slate launch live comedy show for election season Second City and Slate have announced a traveling stage co-production, "Unelectable You," set to play more than a dozen cities across the country just 2016-03-08 23:23 1KB chicago.suntimes.com 83 Jacob May making good impression at first big-league camp If anyone was born to play baseball, it’s Jacob May. 2016-03-08 23:23 4KB chicago.suntimes.com 84 Dark past that drove Maria Sharapova's obsession to win and get rich Sharapova’s childhood was troubled to the point of dysfunction, writes DAVID JONES. Her parents Yuri (pictured) and Yelena hail from Chernobyl, but they moved to Siberia shortly before her birth, in 1987. 2016-03-09 00:07 6KB www.dailymail.co.uk 85 O. J. Simpson's manager says he knows who committed the murders O. J. Simpson's former manager, Norman Pardo, said he knows who committed the 1994 murders and why. Pardo said he is still unable to disclose the information to authorities at this time. 2016-03-09 00:07 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 86 Vanderbilt University says student slain on trip to Israel NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The American stabbed to death in a series of assaults in Israel was a student at Vanderbilt University, the school said Tuesday. Chan... 2016-03-09 00:02 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 87 Merkel denies caving in to Turkish blackmail The German chancellor has denied she is giving into blackmail from Turkey over an EU deal that would pay it to stop the flow of migrants into Greece 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 88 No room for the humdrum at Chanel The clothes were crowd pleasers. Karl Lagerfeld riffed on the perennial house codes — tweed skirt suits, pearls, camellias 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 89 Want to eat less? Go on a fast run instead of a diet Tough bouts of exercise may make you eat less than dieting, according to a study that could help to explain why many weight-loss schemes backfire 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 90 Lawyer’s wife gets 20 years for stabbing him to death A solicitor was stabbed to death by his wife after suffering a year of domestic violence witnessed by police, lawyers and hospital staff 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 91 Merely a madness: the Bard’s best love scenes Continuing our ten-minute Shakespeare series, The Times’s former chief theatre critic picks the best of the Bard’s romantic liaisons 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 92 Cuts are severing lifelines for young and old Council budgets have been squeezed so tightly that daycare centres are being closed in a serious blow to community life 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 93 Queen gave actor tip to win at Ascot Damian Lewis who last met the Queen at a Bafta event at Windsor Castle, told her: ‘You gave me a simply fantastic tip for Royal Ascot’ 2016-03-09 00:01 1012Bytes www.thetimes.co.uk 94 Minister will brave teachers’ conference Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has astonished members of the NASUWT teaching union by accepting an invitation to speak at its conference 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 95 Strongmen are bringing Africa to its knees Across the continent autocrats are responsible for stalled economies and investors pulling out 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 96 Moaning about Project Fear is plain bonkers If you keep repeating your opponent’s message you just reinforce it in voters’ minds, making them even more risk-averse 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 97 TV review: The Aliens; The Last Seabird Summer? The new comedy thriller refused to get bogged down in politics, instead focusing on grit, guns and grunge 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 98 Those grey hairs mean you’re past your sell-by date My Week 2016-03-09 00:01 943Bytes www.thetimes.co.uk
99 Siblings fight over father’s £8m china he ‘loved more than them’ Four siblings are locked in a legal battle over a collection of Ming porcelain that was collected by their father, Sir Michael Butler, a diplomat 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk
100 Ex-Treasury minister to be Heathrow’s new chairman Protesters against a third runway at Heathrow have expressed dismay at the airport’s appointment of a former senior Treasury figure as chairman 2016-03-09 00:01 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk Articles
Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-09 06:00
1 SeaWorld: Orca that killed trainer is ill (2.00/3) ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The killer whale responsible for the death of a SeaWorld trainer is very sick from a bacterial infection that may eventually kill him, SeaWorld officials said Tuesday. In a post on the park's blog, officials said the infection in Tilikum's lungs has been resistant to treatment thus far. Tilikum has been lethargic, and veterinarians and trainers are just trying to manage the infection and make sure he is comfortable. "It's extremely difficult to treat," staff veterinarian Dr. Scott Gearhart said in a video posted to the blog. "I wish I could say I was tremendously optimistic about Tilikum and his future but he has a disease that is chronic and progressive and at some point might cause his death. " Tilikum has been at SeaWorld Orlando for 23 years and has been used many times for the park's breeding program. In 2010, he grabbed trainer Dawn Brancheau after a "Dine with Shamu" show and pulled her into a pool, killing her. Tilikum was involved in the deaths of two others. In 1991, a part-time trainer at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia slipped accidentally into a pool holding Tilikum and two other orcas. They submerged her and dragged her around the pool. The park closed a short time later, and Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld Orlando. In 1999, a man who had trespassed into SeaWorld Orlando after the park closed was found dead in Tilikum's pool. The documentary "Blackfish" chronicled Tilikum's life and argued that killer whales become more aggressive to humans and each other when in captivity. The documentary fueled criticism of SeaWorld by animal rights' activists. After the documentary's release in 2013, several entertainers pulled out of planned performances at SeaWorld parks, and Southwest Airlines ended its 25-year marketing partnership with the theme park company. cnn.com 2016-03-09 00:12 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
2 3 Sponsors Cut Ties With Sharapova After Positive Drug Test (2.00/3) Three of Maria Sharapova's major sponsors are cutting ties with the Russian tennis star after she acknowledged failing a doping test at the Australian Open. Sportswear giant Nike, Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer and German luxury car company Porsche moved quickly to distance themselves from the five-time Grand Slam winner after she announced the positive test at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday. "We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova," Nike said in a statement. "We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues. We will continue to monitor the situation. " TAG Heuer said its deal with Sharapova will not be renewed. The sponsorship expired at the end of 2015 and discussions had been taking place on how to extend it. "In view of the current situation, the Swiss watch brand has suspended negotiations, and has decided not to renew the contract with Ms Sharapova," TAG Heuer said in a statement. Porsche said in a statement Tuesday that it has "chosen to postpone planned activities" with Sharapova "until further details are released and we can analyze the situation. " Among other sponsors, water company Evian said it "will follow closely the development of the investigation. " Sharapova said she failed a doping test at the Australian Open in January for the little-known drug meldonium, which became a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency code this year. The former world No. 1 took full responsibility for her mistake and could face a lengthy ban from the International Tennis Federation, possibly ending her season and preventing her from competing for Russia at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. "I know that with this, I face consequences," Sharapova said. "I don't want to end my career this way, and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game. " The 28-year-old Sharapova said she has been taking meldonium, a blood flow-promoting drug, for 10 years for numerous health issues. Meldonium was banned because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance, and several athletes across international sports have already been caught using it. Sharapova and all players were notified of the changes in the WADA banned substances list in December. Sharapova claimed she simply missed the change, neglecting to click on the link. "I take great responsibility and professionalism in my job, and I made a huge mistake," Sharapova said. "I let my fans down. I let the sport down that I've been playing since the age of 4, that I love so deeply. " Sharapova is one of the top female players of her generation, with 35 career singles titles and over $36 million in career earnings. That earning potential is thought to be easily dwarfed by the earnings she generates from her commercial appeal. Sharapova is thought to be the world's highest-paid female athlete due to endorsement deals and her extensive business ventures, including a high-profile candy line, Sugarpova. Forbes estimated her earnings at $29.5 million for 2015. "She's a one-woman marketing machine," said Nigel Currie, an independent British-based sponsorship consultant. "There are lots of male stars in the world, but not many female stars. " Currie said it's "unbelievable" how such a mistake could have happened since Sharapova has such a big support network, adding that it's also "amazing" how quickly sponsors react. "They are paranoid about their image, and the slightest risk to their image, they run to the hills," he said. ——— Pylas contributed from London. AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed. money.cnn.com 2016-03-09 00:51 By abcnews.go.com
3 Aldermen say volume-based garbage fee could fund tax rebate Chicago’s $9.50-a-month garbage collection fee should be replaced by a volume-based, “pay- as-you-throw” fee for each container to encourage recycling and bankroll a citywide property tax rebate, aldermen suggested Tuesday. Tired of waiting for a deadlocked Illinois General Assembly to double the homeowners’ exemption, nine aldermen are moving to take matters into their own hands. They’re demanding City Council hearings on their fall-back plan for a citywide property tax rebate to shield owner-occupied households, whose annual incomes do not exceed $100,000, from an already-approved $588 million property tax increase for police and fire pensions and school construction. Plan B is similar to the widely ignored 2010 plan offered by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. Daley set aside $35 million for rebate checks, but only $2.1 million was distributed because most homeowners didn’t bother to apply. Budget Director Alex Holt has pegged the cost of a citywide rebate at $35 million to $40 million. She has challenged aldermen to come up with a funding source. At a City Hall news conference Tuesday, Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) did just that. “A pay-as-you-throw system that would encourage recycling. You would get charged for what you actually put in the garbage and not charged for what you actually recycle,” Moreno said. “The garbage fee was a big pill to swallow. But it’s not the right way to go. Just charging a fee. It doesn’t reduce waste in our landfills. And it doesn’t encourage recycling.” Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said he just returned from visiting family in the Pacific Northwest, where volume-based garbage fees have been in place for decades. “There’s no incentive to recycle in the city of Chicago. That’s a joke when other cities across this country have been doing this for decades now. It’s time for Chicago to step up to the plate,” Cappleman said. “It will hurt. It will hurt everyone. . . [But] when people do participate in this, people recycle more.” Molly Poppe, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Budget and Management, reiterated Emanuel’s pledge not to “burden those who can least afford it” with what she called a “necessary” property tax increase for police and fire pensions. Poppe did not comment on the pay-as-you-throw suggestion. “While the vity continues to work in Springfield to pass the doubling of the homeowners’ exemption, we are also aware of the logjam and current unwillingness of the governor to put policy ahead of politics, which is why the administration is also exploring with City Council balanced property tax rebate proposals that minimize the property tax increase on working- and middle-class families,” Poppe wrote in an emailed statement. To appease aldermen concerned that the garbage fee could escalate or be a prelude to privatization, Emanuel agreed to cap it at $9.50 per household until after the 2019 election and segregate the revenue generated in an enterprise fund. Even so, Holt told the Chicago Sun-Times last month that a volume-based garbage fee was still a possibility. She said the Emanuel administration would begin to examine how a volume-based system might work in Chicago later this year after a billing process scheduled to begin in April gets rolling. “That will require a lot of work and a lot of thinking. I know it works in a lot of communities. But we have some issues we need to work through. Sanitation is the primary issue. We want to make sure we continue to have clean neighborhoods,” Holt said then. “We also need to think about a fee structure. What size can? How much do you charge? All of those factors need to be considered. In some communities, it’s absolutely more fair. But we have to look at what a fair structure would look like in Chicago.” The $588 million property tax hike approved by the City Council in late October will be phased in over a four-year period. The first increase will total $318 million for police and fire pensions and $45 million for school construction. It will be reflected in second installment bills due to arrive in Chicago mailboxes this summer. Emanuel had hoped to persuade Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly to double the homeowners’ exemption — from $7,000 to $14,000 — so that homes worth less than $250,000 would be held harmless from the record property tax increase. But Rauner, who wants to freeze property taxes for two years, has made it clear he strongly opposes Emanuel’s plan. And like the rest of the mayor’s ambitious Springfield agenda, the property tax break has been held hostage by the state budget stalemate over Rauner’s demand for pro-business, anti-union reforms. On Tuesday, Moreno acknowledged that the homestead exemption is the “best option” because it would be an automatic discount taken off a homeowner’s property tax bill. That’s the opposite of a rebate that would require beleaguered low-income homeowners to lay out the money, apply and hope to get reimbursed. But Moreno said, “That’s a Springfield law that needs to be changed. And I don’t think any of us have any confidence that Springfield is moving forward.” Noting that Daley’s property tax rebate had paltry participation, Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) stressed the need for outreach and marketing. “If we move forward with a rebate program in order to make sure that it is implemented widely and deeply within the city, we’re going to have to spend the money and the time to make sure that families take advantage of this rebate offer,” Dowell said. “The last time we did that, it was not widely used, nor was it widely promoted. So, we need to make sure the promotion of this is done at the very beginning and goes to the very heart of our families and our communities.”
2016-03-09 02:39 Fran Spielman chicago.suntimes.com
4 Boris Johnson: EU referendum gag email was 'cock-up' Boris Johnson says an email telling his senior staff to back him over the EU referendum has been withdrawn. The London mayor, who is campaigning to leave the EU, said the memo to deputy mayors and senior advisers was "a cock-up, and not something I agree with". It told them to "either advocate the mayor's position or otherwise not openly contradict it" when not at work. The email was sent 24 hours before Mr Johnson accused pro-EU campaigners of trying to gag opponents. It was sent by his chief of staff, Edward Lister. "Nobody has been gagged, I was only made aware of this edict very late last night and it ceased to be operative as soon as I was made aware of it," Mr Johnson said. "All I can say is it obviously hasn't been operative because my advisory team take a very different view from me. " He added "it's a cock-up and not something I agree with", saying he was in favour of allowing - in the words of former Chinese leader Chairman Mao - "a hundred flowers to bloom". The mayor said his staff were "producing all sorts of views completely different from my own", adding that the memo had been "wiped from the page of history". BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said while Mr Johnson was happy for his senior staff to argue for the UK's EU membership outside work, he was not able to withdraw statutory advice saying they cannot contradict him when carrying out official duties. David Cameron and the government are campaigning to remain in the EU in the 23 June referendum. Government ministers have been told they can back either side, but conditions apply and they are not allowed to use Whitehall resources to help their campaigns. The City Hall instruction, in an email sent on 4 March, was circulated before Mr Johnson accused pro-EU campaigners of trying to silence those arguing for Brexit who he claimed were being "crushed by the agents of Project Fear". The email, revealed by Laura Kuenssberg , says it includes an attachment offering formal advice from the City Hall management team on what the Greater London Authority (GLA) can and cannot do during the referendum. The email highlights that the advice says: "Boris is entitled, as mayor, to adopt a public position on this issue and then, as with all other mayoral policies, to receive support from GLA officers in relation to that policy position. "The advice also makes clear that GLA officers can, when not at work, express personal opinions (which be contrary to the mayor's views). Whilst this is the formal position for you also, I would expect, given your roles, you either to advocate the mayor's position or otherwise not openly contradict it. " The email also notes that because it is a referendum and not an election "you are all able to be involved in the campaign as you may wish (but without using the authority's resources for your personal activities). " The mayor's official spokesman said: "The mayor is relaxed about any of his team of advisers in a personal capacity campaigning for or supporting either side in the EU referendum. "He wants to see an open and inclusive debate, and recognises that some of his advisors have differing views to those he holds. "In his role as chief of staff Ed Lister advised the team that as official mayoral policy is now to support the case for leaving the EU they are requested to support that position when undertaking official City Hall business. " The mayor's office said the advice was "in line with that issued by the GLA's statutory officers". Although his deputy mayors and senior advisers are political appointees, they are technically officials of City Hall so not subject to the same rules as elected representatives. Stephen Greenhalgh, the deputy mayor for policing who backs the UK's continued EU membership, said allowing officials to campaign freely in their own time was right but the situation was "terribly confusing" for those working in City Hall. "There's an official mayoral policy that advocates Brexit and the London Assembly are advocating to remain so that means half the officials inside that building are supporting a contrary official position from the other," he said. The Britain Stronger in Europe campaign released a statement from London MPs Tom Brake and Chuka Umunna, accusing Mr Johnson and Leave campaigners of "trying to have their cake and eat it". "Boris and his staff should immediately release new guidance making it crystal clear that everyone has the right to campaign for Britain to stay in Europe because they believe that is best for London," they added.
2016-03-09 02:32 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
5 NYC mayor opens public facilities to transgenders Contact WND (FREE BEACON) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation Monday that requires individuals be granted access to public bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity. The executive order mandates that transgender and gender non-conforming individuals be allowed to use single-sex facilities consistent with their gender identity. Individuals will not need to show identification or any proof of their gender to use the facilities, the Associated Press reported. The order, effective immediately, applies to buildings owned by the city of New York, including city offices, public parks, pools, playgrounds, recreation centers, and some museums.
2016-03-09 02:30 www.wnd.com
6 D. C. GOP extends primary hours for Sabbath-keepers Contact WND (WASHINGTON POST) — In D. C., where Republicans are scarce, Orthodox Jews actually are a large enough contingent to potentially affect the outcome of the GOP’s presidential primary that is scheduled for Saturday. And so when Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld learned the schedule, he was dismayed. The primary was scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday — a brief six-hour window to vote, falling entirely within the Jewish Sabbath.
2016-03-09 02:30 www.wnd.com
7 My Ballot — Michigan Voters Guide -- Presidential Primary There are no items in the voter guide that you can vote on at that address. Please enable cookies to use the voter guide. How do I enable cookies?
2016-03-09 02:35 rssfeeds.freep.com
8 Trump, Clinton continue dominance in 2016 primaries LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican front-runner Donald Trump swept to victory in the Mississippi and Michigan presidential primaries Tuesday, deepening his grip on the GOP nominating contest despite fierce efforts to block his path. Democrat Hillary Clinton easily carried Mississippi but was locked in a close race with rival Bernie Sanders in Michigan. The primaries offered Trump and Clinton a chance to pad their leads and start turning toward the general election. But Sanders was hoping to prevent a Clinton coronation with a strong showing in Michigan, the night's biggest prize and the first Midwestern industrial state to vote in the 2016 race. With votes in Michigan still being counted, Clinton glossed over race with Sanders and jabbed at the Republicans and their chaotic nomination fight. "Every time you think it can't get any uglier, they find a way," she said. "As the rhetoric keeps sinking lower, the stakes in this election keep rising. " Trump, too, turned an eye toward the Democrats and November, emphasizing the importance of helping Republican senators and House members get elected in the fall. Having entered Tuesday's contests facing a barrage of criticism from rival candidates and outside groups, he reveled in overcoming the attacks. "Every single person who has attacked me has gone down," Trump said at one of his Florida resorts. In his typically unorthodox style, the billionaire was flanked by tables packed with his retail products, including steaks, bottled water and wine. While a handful of recent losses to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have raised questions about Trump's durability, Tuesday's contests marked another lost opportunity for rivals to slow his momentum. Next week's winner-take-all primaries in Ohio and Florida loom especially large as perhaps the last chance to stop him short of a long-shot contested convention fight. Ohio Gov. John Kasich was in a fight for second place in Michigan and hoping for a boost heading into next week's crucial contest in his home state. For Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a favorite of Republican elected officials, Tuesday marked the latest in a series of disappointing nights. He emerged from Michigan and Mississippi with no delegates. Rubio insisted he would press on to his home state's primary in Florida. "It has to happen here, and it has to happen now," Rubio told supporters Tuesday during a rally in Sarasota. If Rubio and Kasich can't win at home, the GOP primary appears set to become a two-person race between Trump and Cruz. The Texas senator is sticking close to Trump in the delegate count and with six states in his win column, he's argued he's the only candidate standing between the brash billionaire and the GOP nomination. During a campaign stop at a North Carolina church Tuesday, Cruz took on Trump for asking rally attendees to pledge their allegiance to him. He said the move strikes him as "profoundly wrong" and is something "kings and queens demand" of their subjects. "I'm not here asking any of you to pledge your support of me," Cruz said, to thunderous applause and cheers. "I'm pledging my support of you. " Republicans were also holding contests Tuesday in Hawaii and Idaho. GOP candidates were fighting for 150 delegates, while 179 Democratic delegates were at stake in the party's two primaries. The economy ranked high on the list of concerns for voters heading to the polls in Michigan and Mississippi. At least 8 in 10 voters in each party's primary said they were worried about where the American economy is heading, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks. Among Democrats, 8 in 10 voters in both states said the country's economic system benefits the wealthy, not all Americans. Sanders has sought to tap into that concern, energizing young people and white, blue-collar voters with his calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and making tuition free at public colleges and universities. Michigan, with big college towns and a sizeable population of working-class voters, should be a good fit for him. But Clinton has led in polling. The results in Mississippi underscored Clinton's overwhelming strength with black voters and Sanders' stunning inability to draw support from voters who are crucial to Democrats in the general election. Clinton carried nearly 9 in 10 black voters in Mississippi, mirroring her margins in other Southern states with large African-American populations. With Tuesday's wins, Trump leads the Republican field with 428 delegates, followed by Cruz with 315, Rubio with 151 and Kasich with 52. Winning the GOP nomination requires 1,237 delegates. Among Democrats, Clinton had accumulated 1,134 delegates and Sanders 502, including superdelegates. Democrats need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination. ___ Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Emily Wagster in Jackson, Mississippi, Kathleen Ronayne in Monroe, Michigan, and Steve Peoples in Sarasota, Florida contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace and David Eggert on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
2016-03-09 03:31 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
9 Livonia - News This feed's current articles are shown below. Subscribe for updates to all the content available in this feed, or click through here to see the original article. Redford’s 17th District Court will hold a Discount Day to clear as many tickets as possible. Over 60 percent of the voters turn down amendment proposal The final rates will be determined at a later date once more factors are included. Discussion on America’s opiate addiction scheduled for March 16 at Groves High School Don MacKinnon of Livonia is the American Legion’s Veteran of the Month. Neither city clerk had a solid guess at what turnout might be in Tuesday’s primary. Public education does better than ‘reformers’ would have you believe. This is the third and final month of the summer with a Supermoon. It's when a full or new moon coincides with the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit. Basically, the moon appears bigger and brighter than usual in the night sky. St. Baldrick’s Foundation once again seeks folks to shave their heads for cancer. Days before Michigan primary, some still undecided. Laurie Aren of the Plymouth Salvation Army was honored as a P-CCS volunteer. Sunday in the park: Sign of approaching spring The Canton Chamber of Commerce is ready to rock out at its biggest fundraiser Several dozen people are enrolled in the department’s academy through the end of April. Westland Wayne Relay for Life kicks off for 2016 Republicans largely disgusted with candidates, while Dems likelier to see success ahead. Police say driver was drunk, had foot on gas pedal He claims 4 men jumped him, but later admits it was his way to get driven home to Detroit More than $3,000 in fraudulent checks were cashed.
2016-03-08 21:29 rssfeeds.hometownlife.com
10 13 Financial Tips For Newlyweds - In Photos: 13 Financial Tips For Newlyweds Congrats on your big day! As you begin to build your life together, you should talk about money. While it may not be easy, the number one rule is to be honest. “It’s all about a foundation for your relationship,” says Therese Nicklas, a certified financial planner with U. S. Wealth Management in Boston. In particular, don’t hide any assets, income or debt; doing so is financial infidelity. Second, have an attitude of working together. “Don’t come from the mindset of ‘This is mine’ and ‘That is yours,’” she says (although there are sometimes reasons for separate accounts; see later slide). Schedule a discussion time in advance, and bring recent credit reports, pay stubs, insurance policies and statements for all financial accounts. Last rule: no blaming. Just as you should be honest about your situation, be open to what your partner says.
2016-03-08 23:13 Brian Luster www.forbes.com
11 11 Giant pumpkin seed sells for £1,250 A British firm has paid £1,250 for a single seed at auction. The seed is from a pumpkin which weighed 2,323lbs (1,054kg) - believed to be a world record. Ipswich-based seed company Thompson & Morgan won the auction which took place at the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth World Conference held in Hampshire. Paul Hansord, a company director, said: "Getting hold of this seed is the equivalent of buying Red Rum for stud use. " The 2,323lb pumpkin was grown in Switzerland in 2014 by Beni Meier and it holds the world record for weight, according to the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth organisation. Thompson & Morgan sponsored the conference which took place in Lymington. Read more on this and other stories at BBC Suffolk Live The company is now looking for a grower who can nurture the seed on its behalf. Mr Hansord said: "Our spend on the Swiss seed may seem a high price to pay, but it will boost the genetics of UK plants moving forward and give us the best chance of seeing the world title brought to the UK for the first time. "We're looking for someone with the passion, dedication and time to produce a giant specimen. " The firm said the world record holder needed feeding with 150 gallons (680 litres) of fertilized water each day at its peak.
2016-03-08 18:13 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
12 Interactive map: Maine's 2016 Democratic caucus results Find how your town's Democratic caucus participants voted. More than 46,000 Democrats flocked to about 400 caucus sites across the state Sunday to support presidential candidates Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. With 91 percent of caucus returns available, Sanders captured 64 percent of the statewide vote, compared to 36 percent for Clinton. The map below illustrates each town's allocation of local delegates who will attend the Democratic State Convention in May.
2016-03-08 20:47 www.pressherald.com
13 Recent Posts Recent Comments Archives Categories Meta Gusto, the fast-casual concept that started in Atlanta’s Brookwood Hills neighborhood , announced it will open its second Atlanta location at 782 Ponce De Leon Ave NE in early summer 2016. The restaurant was founded in 2014 by former NFL quarterback and Georgia native Nate Hybl. “As we begin our transition from a single restaurant to a multi-location brand, our team continues to draw inspiration from our mission to provide an exciting alternative to mainstream fast food,” Hybl said in an email statement, The order-at-the-counter concept asks customers to choose a grilled protein (including vegetarian options), a base of mixed greens, brown rice, or flatbread, and a “gusto”— sauces, vegetables and fruits or garnish including tahini cucumber feta and apple curry peanut. The space, which was formerly home to restaurant The Real Chow Baby, will feature exposed brick, concrete floors and indoor and outdoor seating. Gusto also has plans to expand to new markets in coming months. Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook , following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram . There are no comments yet. Be the first to post your thoughts. Sign in or register.
2016-03-08 18:16 atlantarestaurants.blog.ajc.com
14 Anthony Kwan: Thailand withdraws charge against Hong Kong journalist Thailand has withdrawn criminal charges against a Hong Kong journalist detained last year for carrying personal body armour to report on the Bangkok blasts. The court where Anthony Kwan was due to stand trial next month confirmed that the case is no longer going ahead. Mr Kwan was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport in August when officials found the body armour and a helmet in his luggage. It is illegal to use such items without a weapons licence in Thailand. Mr Kwan had faced a possible five-year prison sentence. Journalists regularly use body armour and helmets when reporting from dangerous locations. His detention was criticised by his employer, Initium Media, as well as the Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand. On Tuesday the club issued a statement saying it welcomed the decision, and reiterated that journalists "who need to work in dangerous areas... be able to use appropriate protective equipment legally in Thailand". Mr Kwan was allowed to leave Thailand shortly after he posted bail in August. 2016-03-08 17:09 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
15 Michael Bloomberg will not run for president as independent Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will not run as a third-party candidate for US president. He had recently considered running as an independent in November's election. Mr Bloomberg said he was concerned about the unconventional and insurgent campaigns of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders. The owner of the Bloomberg news organisation said his candidacy would risk letting in Mr Trump or his fellow Republican Ted Cruz. He set out his reasoning in an article on his website on Monday entitled: " The risk I will not take ". Mr Bloomberg said that his run would split the vote. If there was no clear winner in the popular vote, it would create a situation where Congress would choose the president, he said. "As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz," Mr Bloomberg wrote. "That is not a risk I can take in good conscience. " In the end media tycoon Michael Bloomberg had to acknowledge what seemed obvious to many political observers. If he launched an independent presidential bid, he would be likely to hand the White House to someone like Donald Trump or Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The New Yorker was overly optimistic about his ability to win enough states to throw a deadlocked election to the House of Representatives, but even if he did, outperforming almost every other third-party candidate in modern American history, the outcome would have been the same - a Republican president. Given the two leading candidates' extreme positions on immigration, he wrote, that was just too great a risk for him to take. Mr Bloomberg's decision can also be read as a tacit acceptance that Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic presidential pick. News that he was considering a bid first surfaced as the former secretary of state stumbled in early nominating contests. Now, however, she seems to be pulling away from Bernie Sanders, whose democratic socialism runs counter to Mr Bloomberg's big-business centrism. In his editorial, Mr Bloomberg criticised the Republican candidates' positions on immigrants and Muslims. "[Trump] has run the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears," Mr Bloomberg wrote. Mr Trump, the Republican front-runner, has pledged to deport nearly 11 million undocumented immigrant workers and called for a ban on Muslims entering the US. Mr Bloomberg said Mr Cruz held many of the same extreme positions but with less "bombastic" rhetoric. He has long sought the White House and saw a potential opening as Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton struggled against Mr Sanders in the early races. Mrs Clinton has since recovered after a series of wins in large southern states. Formerly a Republican, Mr Bloomberg holds pro-business positions typical of the party. However, he has broken with Republicans on social issues such as gun rights and gay marriage. He served as New York mayor for three terms from 2002 to 2013. He focused on boosting the business community and improving transport infrastructure.
2016-03-08 17:09 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
16 Butler-Leonard II could be back on when the Bulls see the Spurs That much hyped showdown between Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard? Well, it just might be back on. According to Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, the swollen left knee that kept Butler out of the Monday night win over Milwaukee, was “quite a bit better,’’ Tuesday afternoon. “We didn’t do much in practice,’’ Hoiberg said of Butler’s day. “We had a film session and then we walked through some different situations. His swelling has gone down and he feels a lot better than he did [Monday] night.’’ That also meant that no MRI was planned before the team left for San Antonio for the Thursday night meeting down in the Lone Star State. If Butler has no setbacks on Wednesday, Hoiberg said the hope would be the two-time All-Star would be a thumbs up in yet another must-win game. They’ll need him. The Spurs have an NBA-best 30-0 home record, while Leonard has been mentioned in the MVP argument, averaging 20.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, as well as considered the gold standard of two-way players in the game. By the way, the same description used for Butler. Like Leonard, Butler often guards the best scorer on the opposing roster, while averaging 22.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. In the first meeting between the two in early December, Leonard won the battle, outscoring Butler 25 to 14, but Butler won the war as the Bulls beat San Antonio, 92-89. “They’re so good,’’ Hoiberg said of the Spurs. “It’s all their players. One through 15, whoever is asked to step up goes out and makes a big impact on that team. They’ve been together so long; I think that’s the biggest thing when you look at that team. They know each other so well. They know where they’re going to be. A lot of times there are no- look passes. The ball moves so well. They make simple plays and benefit from that.’’ Besides complimenting the Spurs, Hoiberg also had further questions to answer on the handling of Butler and the left knee. After missing a month with the strain, Butler returned on Saturday in the win over Houston, played 34 minutes, and then was back on the shelf when the knee swelled up. According to Hoiberg, there was a process of steps that Butler had to take, including checking with the guard every timeout in that Rockets win. “I guess in talking to the doctors and the trainers, it’s not too unexpected to have a little bit of soreness after that, after the inactivity, but that’s what went into it,’’ Hoiberg said. “We didn’t just throw him out there and say, ‘All right, go see how you do.’ We put a lot of time and effort into seeing how he was going to feel going into that game and he responded well. He was exploding. He had no limitations. He had a couple dunks coming down in transition, he caught a lob from Pau [Gasol]. Everything went according to plan. “Then unfortunately, what happens sometimes in these situations is he got a little bit of swelling in it. Again, it feels much better [Tuesday]. It doesn’t look like there’s anything structurally wrong with the knee. We’ll see how he is these next couple days leading into Thursday.’’
2016-03-09 00:26 Joe Cowley chicago.suntimes.com
17 17 This grandma joined twitter just to publicly bash Trump Topics: Twitter , Donald Trump , Suzanna Carpenter , original video , Social News , Media News , Life News , Entertainment News , News Suzanne Carpenter is the 71-year-old woman who joined Twitter just to use the hashtag #NeverTrump. Her first tweet even got over 47,000 retweets and likes. Take a look.
2016-03-08 23:13 Asha Parker www.salon.com
18 Tyshawn Lee: Second arrest over nine-year-old's murder A man has been charged with murder over the fatal shooting of a nine-year-old boy in Chicago, apparently because of his father's gang ties. Dwright Boone-Doty, 22, was arrested on Monday night in connection with the death of Tyshawn Lee in November. He is the second suspect to be charged over the killing, which caused an outcry in Chicago. Corey Morgan, 27 - said to be one of two men who lured Lee from a playground - was arrested in November. On Tuesday a prosecutor said the murder was symptomatic of an "unprecedented crisis" of gang violence in the city. More than 450 people were killed in Chicago in 2015. The city police department faced intense criticism and a murder charge for one of its officers over the shooting of a 17-year-old black teenager Laquan McDonald. Police says Boone-Doty was being held on unrelated gun charges when investigators linked him to the child's death. Then-Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy described the shooting as the "most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime" he had ever seen. Police officials and prosecutors echoed that language on Tuesday. "In my nearly 30 years of policing, I have never witnessed such a hateful act of treachery," said Police Superintendent John Escalante. State's Attorney Anita Alverez said Boone-Doty had been looking for family members to kill - including Tyshawn's grandmother - as part of escalating gang retribution. He allegedly lured Lee to the alley where he was killed by promising to buy him something. Boone-Doty's original plan, Alverez said, was to torture the young boy by cutting off his fingers. 2016-03-09 00:21 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
19 03/04/16: 'Mystery in Apartment 410' College Student Found Dead in Army War Veteran’s Apartment; Teen Says Local Actor Asked Him to Use Missing Veteran’s ATM Card; Actor Admits to Killing Student to Cover Up Veteran’s Murder
2016-03-09 01:40 abc.go.com
20 Nobody trusts Mitt: The problem with making Romney the anti-Trump Topics: Mitt Romney , Marco Rubio , Donald Trump , 2016 GOP primary , 2016 Republican primary , Elections 2016 , ELECTIONS NEWS , POLITICS NEWS , Elections News , Politics News One of the many problems with making Mitt Romney the face of the anti-Trump movement is that, no matter what he says or how correct he is about Donald Trump’s brand of sleazy fascism, he is still Mitt Romney. You can appreciate Mitt’s blistering critique of Trump’s fitness for the office of the presidency, but you can’t wash away the memory of Romney gladly accepting Trump’s endorsement of his own presidential campaign. You can agree with Mitt’s flensing of Trump’s scammy business practices, but you can’t shake the recollection that he also once praised Trump for being a more successful businessman than Mitt Romney. The message may be right on the merits, but the messenger is all wrong. That’s why it’s no real surprise to learn Tuesday morning that Romney’s big speech inveighing against Trump, which received BREAKING NEWS coverage and dominated the weekend’s political discussion, doesn’t appear to have done much to sway Republicans away from their party’s 2016 frontrunner. Morning Consult published a poll Tuesday morning that found just 20 percent of GOP voters were less likely to vote for Trump after hearing Romney’s speech, compared to 31 percent who were more likely and 43 percent who said it made no difference. Among Trump supporters, the impact of Romney’s speech was to strengthen their conviction to support their candidate, with 56 percent reporting that they’re more likely to cast a ballot for Trump now. Morning Consult also found that Romney actually has a lower net favorability rating than Trump. So the cumulative effect of Romney’s anti-Trump broadside was either a collective shrug or a gentle boost for the pro-Trump forces. The problem here is that no one has a reason to actually listen to Romney. He’s not running for president, and he’s not backing a candidate – he’s just urging Republicans to abandon the candidate that has won the plurality of votes. With no champion to assume the anti-Trump mantle, and no candidate emerging as the obvious Trump alternative, Romney is instead proposing crazy Hail Mary ideas that involve strategic voting and an unrealistic détente among the non-Trump candidates. 2016-03-08 23:13 Simon Maloy www.salon.com
21 Tragic murder shows need for stronger gun laws The tragic murder of nine–year-old Tyshawn Lee described by Frank Main and Stefano Esposito once again highlights the urgent need for stiffer penalties for convicted felons who choose to ignore our laws and terrorize our communities. The accused murderer of Tyshawn had no fewer than three arrests for carrying an illegal weapon and was released on parole at the time he lured a child into an alley and executed him. Regrettably, this is just one in a long line of heartbreaking instances of horrific violence that can be prevented if the General Assembly and Governor choose to strengthen our gun laws. House Bill 5714 expands the definition of “armed habitual criminal” (an an offense that carries a severe penalty) to include people caught twice possessing illegal guns. House Bill 6193 permits a judge to determine whether a gun offender should be subject to Illinois’ truth-in-sentencing laws when imposing a sentence. Your article demonstrates that, once again, our criminal justice system remains unacceptably flawed by rigid rules that punish defendants who need rehabilitation while turning a blind eye to the true threats to our communities. I will keep fighting for a balanced approach that aims to truly serve a state in need of comprehensive criminal justice reform. Earlier this year the Governor’s Task Force on Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates released its final report providing 27 recommendations on how to lower property taxes through consolidating layers of government and reducing the number of financially burdensome unfunded mandates. While many of these proposals are well intended and appear clear cut, we believe that the elimination of Townships would only lead to potentially higher taxes and stretch the already strained resources of municipalities. In our communities, the loss of the services provided by Hanover Township would have a negative impact on the quality of life for many of our most vulnerable residents. We do not believe our residents would be better served if each municipality expended the resources to create their own food pantry, senior center with the transportation, or youth after school programs and therapy, among other needed services. If Hanover Township was consolidated into Cook County, many of our residents have concerns regarding the county’s ability to deliver these services in a cost effective and responsive manner. The years of mismanagement from our leaders in Springfield have left too many of our residents out in the cold when it comes to taking care of their needs. Local government, like Hanover Township, is reliable and efficient in ensuring there are no gaps and that no one falls through the cracks in service delivery. We have worked hard to create cooperative programs, increase efficiencies and in the past, reduced redundancies. We will continue to work with our local governments to serve our residents in the most cooperative way possible. Local government consolidation deserves serious consideration but losing the high quality services provided by Townships that our residents need would be a disservice to the taxpayers and would not be in the best interest of our communities. I totally disagree with Laura Washington’s March 7 column blaming the GOP for creating the so-called Trump monster. The American voters are responsible for Mr. Trump’s popularity. I will further state my opinion that Trump has bifurcated the Republican party to a point of no return for this coming election. Turned on the hopeless little screen yesterday to see former Bears coach Lovie Smith being introduced as the new University of Illinois football coach in a special live news event. The thought occurred to me if we’d see a live news event of the fabled Land of Lincoln flagship school introducing a great scholar or researcher. Nah. The United States doesn’t value scholarship or research. That’s why Lovie gets a $21 million deal (before incentives) while the professors who do the real work of the institution and society get the scraps. Maybe we should change Lovie’s job title to “Professor of Future Concussions.” 2016-03-09 00:26 chicago.suntimes.com
22 Total solar eclipse captivates crowds across Asia Share your best photos and videos of the eclipse by tagging #CNNSpace on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. (CNN) Crowds across Asia were treated to stunning views of a total solar eclipse on Wednesday morning. Those in Indonesia had the best vantage point. The moon blacked out the sun in totality over Indonesia's main western island of Sumatra, before moving across Sulawesi and Borneo, and then over to the Maluku Islands. The eclipse was also partially visible in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hawaii and northern Australia, NASA said. The phenomenon, which occurs when the moon moves directly between the earth and sun, began at 6:20 AM Wednesday, March 9 local time (5:20 p.m. ET Tuesday, March 8). World events that'll shake up your 2016 vacation By dawn, a few thousand residents of Jakarta had flocked to the city's planetarium on Wednesday to view the total solar eclipse. Long lines snaked through the compound, as volunteers distributed special viewing glasses. Families, many with small children, and groups of friends lined up as early as 2 a.m. 8 minutes out from totality! A prominence is visible at the top of the disk! #SolarEclipse https://t.co/PuDu67LbcW pic.twitter.com/wMQlJwmjaq Sixty-five year old Sunaryo brought his grandchildren to see their first eclipse. He was overseas and missed the last total solar eclipse when it occurred in Indonesia in 1983. "We heard from the news that they were distributing glasses. We got them because we arrived at 3 a.m.," he said. "We're seeing stars" Totality is here! https://t.co/PuDu67LbcW #Eclipse2016 #SolarEclipse #Eclipse pic.twitter.com/Z9zhTx9jcR Skywatch: Your guide to space Forty-year old Hary Mulyarakman surprised his three young children at 3 a.m. and roused them to come here. "I want my children to witness it. It only happens every what, 30 years? I want them to learn about the science behind it but also to see the beauty of God's creation," he said. The diamond ring is back! "Everything is lightening up even with that tiny bit of sun" https://t.co/PuDu67LbcW pic.twitter.com/bp2BvmFTtA He witnessed the 1983 total solar eclipse with his family in Jakarta but heard stories about many people, especially on the island of Java, who didn't because the government said it was too dangerous and could cause blindness. "There were so many myths around it then but now it's different. I want my children to see this. I may not be around for the next one," Mulyarakman said. He and his family are few of the lucky ones. The glasses soon ran out and many decided to watch live streaming of the eclipse from monitors in and around the planetarium building. The next total solar eclipse is on August 21, 2017 , and will be visible from a narrow corridor across the United States.
2016-03-09 01:42 Tiffany Ap www.cnn.com
23 US Embassy: Duterte invite nothing out of ordinary THE UNITED States Embassy on Tuesday explained that the invitation it had extended to presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was nothing out of the ordinary. “The Embassy routinely meets with a full cross- section of Philippine society and politics to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest,” press attaché Kurt Hoyer said in an e-mail when asked to confirm if the Davao City mayor had indeed been invited to a meeting. “At this time, no meeting with Mayor Duterte is scheduled,” Hoyer said. Duterte had disclosed in a speech in Antipolo City that he received an invitation from an “emissary” of the US Embassy to discuss his position on the South China Sea dispute. Vocal in opposing Edca The candidate has been vocal in his opposition to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) that the Aquino government concluded with the United States, saying that he was “lukewarm towards the United States.” Duterte has said that he would honor the Edca but that he would put the country’s national interest first before that of the Americans’. The 10-year-military agreement, which is now being implemented, allows the United States to rotate its troops here and access Philippine military bases. In return, the United States will help in the country’s defense modernization program. International trade route The United States has a significant interest in keeping the navigation routes open in the South China Sea where $5.3 trillion worth of international trade passes. The Philippines has brought an arbitration case to the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration against China’s “indisputable sovereignty” claim over the entire South China Sea.
2016-03-09 02:30 Niña P. newsinfo.inquirer.net
24 ISIS leader possibly killed in U. S. strike Washington (CNN) The U. S. military and intelligence community is assessing whether a targeted U. S. airstrike killed a top ISIS leader, known as Omar "the Chechen," several U. S. officials told CNN. The strike took place on Friday near the Syrian town of al-Shaddadi. A Defense Department official said Shishani was "likely killed. " Abu Omar al-Shishani, the ISIS leader targeted in the strike, has a reputation as one of ISIS' most capable commanders. There has been a $5 million reward on his head from the U. S. State Department. Shishani is a former member of an elite Georgian military unit. "Batirashvili is a battle-tested leader with experience who had led ISIL fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement, using another name for ISIS. READ: U. S. claims to have killed 150 fighters from Al- Shabaab in Somalia "His potential removal from the battlefield would negatively impact ISIL's ability to recruit foreign fighters -- especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions -- and degrade ISIL's ability to coordinate attacks and defense of its strongholds like Raqqah, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq," he said. The defense official said 12 additional ISIS fighters were likely killed along with Shishani. Shishani joined ISIS in 2013, the same official said, and later was in charge of a prison near Raqqa where the terror organization might have held foreign hostages. Shishani instructed the group to transport vehicles and weapons to Syria from Iraq in June 2014, and he was eventually named ISIS' northern commander by leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, overseeing military operations in northern Syria, the defense official said.
2016-03-09 02:30 Barbara Starr www.cnn.com
25 Authorities in quandary over seized Nokor ship SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Can the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) hold the seized North Korean cargo ship MV Jin Teng indefinitely at the free port? SBMA said it found nothing irregular about the port call of the impounded Jin Teng, which had been docked here since arriving on Feb. 28. The ship’s crew finished unloading a cargo of palm kernel expeller meant for Filipino consignees on Sunday. Jin Teng’s captain, Han Thae-hwan, had threatened to hold SBMA officials liable for the expenses they incurred when his ship was impounded, according to a source from SBMA’s seaport department who asked not to be identified in the report. Han had written concerned government agencies that it would also sue them for holding the vessel, the source said. Lawyer Randy Escolango, SBMA deputy administrator for legal affairs, said the agency has no legal reason to detain or impound the 4,355-ton ship, and it must be the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which should take charge of holding the foreign vessel and deporting its 21 crew members. UN sanctions The PCG impounded the ship on Saturday on orders from the DFA to enforce a new round of United Nations sanctions against North Korea in response to its Jan. 6 nuclear test and recent missile launch. The ship was loaded with a cargo of palm kernel expeller, a by-product of palm oil production which has many uses, including as ingredient for farm animal feed.“The ship’s documents are complete and we didn’t find any violations. As part of the regular process, we would release the ship,” said Escolango. “The ship already paid port fees and obtained clearances from the Bureau of Custom and Bureau of Immigration. It was also issued a quarantine clearance,” he added. On Tuesday, Jin Teng’s crew appealed to the Philippine government to release the vessel, asserting that they were just doing business with local importers. Speaking through South Korean reporter Ku Bon-kuk, the crew said they had not been contacted by the China-based owner of the ship since it was impounded at the Naval Supply Depot here on Feb. 28. Ku said the ship’s crew insisted that they were working for a Chinese company and that they were just unloading the cargo for distribution to Filipino importers. Based on documents obtained by the Inquirer from SBMA’s seaport department, the crew declared Glory Shipping Marine Company Limited as the ship’s owner. “The crew wanted to leave the Philippines since they have already finished unloading their cargo. They don’t understand why they have to be prevented from returning to China,” Ku said. He said the crew members said they had been informed by immigration officials that they would be repatriated soon. A PCG vessel, BRP Pampanga, was deployed to Subic on Tuesday to closely watch the cargo ship. An official of the Bureau of Customs at the Port of Subic said the ship would not be given clearance since the DFA directed agencies concerned to prevent the ship from leaving the free port. globalnation.inquirer.net 2016-03-09 02:27 Allan Macatuno globalnation.inquirer.net
26 Aquino names Fallorina new Air Force chief PRESIDENT Aquino has appointed Lt. Gen. Edgar Fallorina commanding general of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), taking over from Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Delgado who is retiring today (Wednesday). Mr. Aquino, as the Commander in Chief, will preside over the turnover ceremonies at Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas. Delgado is turning 56, the mandatory military retirement age, on March 20 but opted to step down early due to the election ban on government appointments that starts today. Delgado will be honored with a fly-by by the PAF’s two new FA-50 jet fighters, the first time in 10 years the Air Force commander will be accorded such honor, after the PAF in 2005 decommissioned the last of its F-5 jets that relegated the service back to the subsonic age. Under the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program, 12 FA-50 lead-in jet fighters were purchased from Korean Aerospace Inc. for P18.9 billion, bringing the PAF back into the supersonic age. Fallorina, a proficient helicopter pilot, is a member of Philippine Military Academy “Matikas” Class of 1983. In May last year, he was appointed AFP deputy chief of staff by President Aquino. According to the PAF website, Fallorina served as flight commander, instructor pilot and test pilot of the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing; group commander of the Tactical Operations Group Sanga-Sanga; Air Force internal auditor; chief, Air Force Resource Management Office; wing commander, 520th Air Base wing; deputy commander, 3rd Air Division; commander, 1st Air Division; chief of Air Staff and vice commander, Philippine Air Force. In his last press briefing at Villamor Air Base Tuesday, Delgado announced the PAF was acquiring two Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft from the United States to boost its troop transport, humanitarian assistance and disaster response capabilities. The first of the second-hand refurbished aircraft will arrive in the country on March 15, Delgado said, adding that the Air Force bought the aircraft at the discounted price of P1.6 billion. “Our technical working group is in the United States right now to inspect the aircraft prior to delivery,” he said. The second C-130 is scheduled to arrive in September. Both came from an Arizona air base in the United States. With the latest acquisitions, the PAF will have five operational C-130 aircraft. With a report from Julie M. Aurelio
2016-03-09 02:25 Nikko Dizon newsinfo.inquirer.net
27 MILF warning on IS just a bluff, says Gringo CLARKFIELD, Pampanga—Sen. Gregorio Honasan on Tuesday dismissed warnings by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of the presence of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) in Mindanao as “just psy-war.” Honasan, who is running for Vice President under the United Nationalist Alliance, said MILF chief Murad Ebrahim “had to make such a warning because the MILF has been pushing for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL),” which Congress failed to pass. “You don’t expect them to be happy because the BBL was (not passed),” he said. Honasan, a former military officer, said the MILF had a political objective in making the statement that IS was setting up base in Mindanao. “They have to up the ante and rattle their sabers a little,” he said, adding that the MILF has to “play that game otherwise they lose their leverage,” the senator said. Don’t engage until validated The MILF was engaging in a psy-war with the government and “unfortunately to my mind… is we are playing their game,” according to Honasan. He said the armed forces and law enforcement agencies should not engage the MILF on this “until we can analyze, confirm, validate and say the MILF was right and we are ready for it.” He said IS was “an idea” that was in the country now and if there would be any recruitment, there may be a few who will be enticed to join if the government was unable to deliver basic services in the South. It has been the stand of the government and military forces to deny or refuse to confirm persistent reports of the presence in Mindanao of the jihadist IS, an extremely violent Islamist group, a development that could complicate peace efforts in Mindanao. “We maintain that there is no IS [presence here], and we await the pronouncement of the Anti- Terrorism Council regarding that matter,” PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez had said earlier. Brig. Gen. Allan Arrojado, commander of the Mindanao-based 501st Infantry Brigade, when asked about the IS presence had said: “I don’t see one and I will not confirm any because it will only enhance their propaganda.”
2016-03-09 02:20 Christine O. newsinfo.inquirer.net
28 Bongbong wants 4Ps widened VICE presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. vowed to broaden the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) by covering more poor families and providing the beneficiaries the skills and capacity to improve their lives. In a statement, Marcos said the 4Ps, which is the government’s direct intervention for poor families, should cater to more qualified households. Under the program, conditional cash grants are given to the poorest of the poor through the Department of Social Welfare and Development to improve the health, nutrition and the education of children. “The 4Ps program is a package intervention of the government to help the poor. It should reach out to more qualified families,” he said. Marcos said that if he wins the vice presidential race, “aside from expanding the coverage of 4Ps, we can implement other programs like ‘cash for work,’ ‘cash for reforestation,’ ‘cash for community service.’” He pointed out that beneficiaries of the 4Ps should be given employment packages that would complement the program by teaching them new skills. Complementing the 4Ps Capacitating the 4Ps beneficiaries, he said, would enable them to find a new sense of purpose and eventually stand on their own. “The 4Ps should be expanded but we also have to complement it by teaching them new skills to enable them to improve their lives more, find better jobs so that eventually they need not depend on it,” Marcos said. He stressed that the government should focus on helping poor families who try every possible means to survive. The vice presidential candidate added that “more programs should be implemented to help those who languish in extreme poverty.” Environmental regulations Marcos also sought over the strict regulation on the construction of resorts and other buildings in tourist hubs to preserve ecological balance. In a statement, Marcos said that taking a tough stance in enforcing environmental regulations will protect the natural beauty of tourist spots and ensure a steady livelihood for residents engaged in tourism-related businesses.
2016-03-09 02:16 Jeannette I. newsinfo.inquirer.net
29 Report: ISIS kids told to play 'soccer' with human heads Contact WND A London-based think tank’s new report details the depths of depravity Islamic terrorists will sink to brainwash children: Decapitated heads are given out to be kicked like soccer balls. Petition Congress to ‘halt Muslim immigration now’ The Quilliam Foundation released “Children of the Islamic State” on Monday, a comprehensive study of strategies and tactics employed to fuel jihad for generations to come. Letting children play with human heads after executions is one of several ways ISIS normalizes murder. “The filming of such events is an attempt to promote the idea that the general public support executions. Children have been seen to eagerly seek a front row seat, demonstrating that they are not shy to watch such killings in public,” the report reads. “Additionally, children in [ISIS] regularly witness stonings, crucifixions and beheadings. Children not only get desensitized to violence, but they also deem these practices as normal, and eventually defend them. Children have been seen accompanying prisoners to their death and, in one example, distributing knives to adults before a mass beheading.” The group’s research lends further credence to reports of children playing with decapitated heads last year. “In Palestine Street, I saw two members of [ISIS] playing with a severed head as if it was a football,” Amjad Yaaqub, a 16-year-old refugee, told Agence France-Presse on April 6, 2015, from Damascus, Syria. Nikita Malik, a senior researcher at Quilliam , told Newsweek on Monday that ISIS has used children at least 254 times in propaganda between August 2015 and Feb. 9. “Thirty-one percent of these pictures and videos show children involved in state-building events, such as in schools, and participating in outreach events. This demonstrates how the group is attempting to portray itself as a legitimate state, showing the programs put in place for entire families looking to make hijra [migration] to the so-called caliphate,” she said. Malik added in her report that children are targeted because they are a “blank slate” without the cognitive abilities to understand what their abusers are doing. The terror group values these “blank slates” so much that roughly 31,000 women have been impregnated as a result of recruitment efforts. “ISIS is recruiting these women in order to be baby factories,” Mia Bloom of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell said in September 2014, Breitbart News reported. “They are seeing the establishment of an Islamic state and now they need to populate the state.” ISIS, which President Obama infamously referred to as a “J. V. team” during a January 2014 interview with the New Yorker, now controls large swathes of the Middle East and North Africa. Malik warned the magazine that some of these children will make their way into Western countries. Sign up for free news alerts from WND.com, America’s independent news network. “Children emerging from the Islamic State will not know anything about the world around them,” she said. “They will not have learned the proper social skills needed in order to be a contributing member in a Western society and women will not have the education required for any sort of job. What they will know, the boys at least, is how to operate small arms and light weaponry. They will know how to fight. They will know violence, bloodshed and loss. … We need to prepare our communities in order to reintegrate them into society.” RELATED: Islamic terror sends Christian persecution soaring Islamic rage erupts over Christian march
2016-03-09 01:13 Douglas Ernst www.wnd.com
30 'Show me your t---, or I'll kill your daughter' Contact WND (DAILYMAIL) — An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested and charged with stalking the mother of a missing 14-year-old online before threatening to kill her daughter if she didn’t send him nude pictures. Robert Krug, who attends Bonney Lake High School, in Washington state, was charged by the prosecutor’s office on Friday after sending the messages on January 29, Q13 Fox reports. Krug had contacted the mother of missing schoolgirl Hailey Anne Gregory, 14, after seeing her pleas for information about her daughter’s whereabouts on Facebook.
2016-03-09 01:13 www.wnd.com
31 Marcos Jr. told: Never again THE CATHOLIC Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), comprising more than 1,400 Catholic schools, has joined the clamor against Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s alleged attempt “to canonize” his father’s dictatorial regime. “The Trustees of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, representing the 1,425 CEAP member-schools, colleges and universities, support the faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University in their call against the attempt of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to canonize the harrowing horrors of martial rule,” the CEAP said in a statement. CEAP issued the statement after professors of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University expressed strong opposition to the younger Marcos’ “willful distortion of history,” denouncing the vice presidential aspirant’s continuous denial of the abuses committed during the repressive regime of his late father, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Ateneo faculty members were reacting in particular to a statement of the Senator that the assessment of his late father’s leadership must be left to teachers and students of history. “With the same fervor, we cry our hearts out, ‘Never Again!’ ” the CEAP said in the statement titled, “CEAP Supports Call Against Marcosian Snares and Imeldific Lies.” The CEAP said it remained committed to teach the truth, calling upon the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education to have “the same level of introspection.” However, the association also acknowledged some possible shortcomings. “It seems that we have been remiss in instilling in the youth’s consciousness the regime’s brutal savagery. Instead, they have been drowned by the Marcosian snares and the Imeldific lies,” it said. “The revolution, however, is unfinished. The fullness of democratization, especially the creation of a social order which respects the dignity of all Filipinos, has yet to be achieved. It is our responsibility now as a people to continue and complete this unfinished struggle. We must start with the truth,” it added.
2016-03-09 02:14 Tina G. newsinfo.inquirer.net
32 PP-Dem-Pres-All,100 737 of 4,830 precincts - 15 percent Bernie Sanders, 109,936 - 50 percent Hillary Clinton, 105,052 - 48 percent Uncommitted, 3,629 - 2 percent Martin O'Malley, 447 - 0 percent Rocky De La Fuente, 154 - 0 percent 17 of 1,811 precincts - 1 percent x-Hillary Clinton, 886 - 81 percent Bernie Sanders, 186 - 17 percent Martin O'Malley, 8 - 1 percent Willie Wilson, 5 - 0 percent Rocky De La Fuente, 4 - 0 percent
2016-03-09 02:05 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
33 Metra expands system that drew 130 'close call' reports About 130 reports of Metra “close calls” have been made in slightly more than six months since four unions signed a confidential safety reporting agreement, officials said Tuesday as they announced an expansion of the program. Nine other unions signed on to the “Confidential Close Call Reporting System” on Tuesday, making Metra the nation’s first commuter railroad to have all its unions agree to report close calls anonymously, without fear of discipline. The addition of the new unions gives Metra the most comprehensive safety reporting system in the nation, officials said. Under the program, union workers are protected from discipline when they self-report incidents involving safety concerns such as speeding trains, missed signals or passenger doors that open on the wrong side, union and Metra officials said. Not covered are drug and alcohol violations, which cannot be exempt from discipline by Metra or the Federal Railroad Administration. Although some have called the system a “get out of jail free card,” the FRA views it as a chance to prevent injuries or death, FRA Associate Administrator Robert Lauby said before Tuesday’s signing ceremony. “The FRA sees those 130 [Metra] reports as safety issues we never would have known about,” Lauby said. Recommendations on what to do about roughly 130 Metra close-call reports that have been made since Aug. 17 are to be discussed with Metra management for the first time this week. The anonymous safety reporting system started in the aeronautics industry with the FAA, Metra CEO Don Orseno noted. Currently, a third party — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — accepts “close call” railroad reports, redacts identifying information, then forwards them to a “peer review” team of labor, Metra management and FRA officials for recommendations. Orseno said the anonymous reporting system encourages a culture of safety and has built greater openness between unions and management in discussing safety issues. “The safer we can be, the better off we’ll all be,” Orseno said.
2016-03-09 00:50 Rosalind Rossi chicago.suntimes.com
34 “Something happened to me” — Padma Lakshmi reveals childhood sexual abuse Topics: Padma Lakshmi , Top Chef , Sexual abuse , Lady Gaga , gabrielle union , Life News , Entertainment News Something happened to me,” Padma Lakshmi explained, “that happens to a lot of girls.” Unfortunately, she’s right. And unfortunately, not just girls. On the publication day of her new memoir, “Love, Loss And What We Ate,” the former model, “Top Chef” host and cookbook author sat down with People and Entertainment Weekly’s editorial director Jess Cagle to discuss one aspect of her life that hasn’t before shared: childhood sexual abuse. As Lakshmi reveals in her book, when she was seven, she and her mother and stepfather were living in a two bedroom apartment in Queens, where she would occasionally share her bed with a friend of her stepfather. She now describes the situation as “a state of affairs that, to people like us, who were used to living far too many to an apartment in India, seemed relatively normal.” And she recalls that “One night, I woke up to his hand in my underpants. He took my hand and placed it inside his briefs. I don’t know how many times it happened before, since I suspect I slept through some incidents.” When her mother noticed signs that her daughter was distressed, Padma tells Cagle that “Once you take a girl’s innocence, you can never get it back. What I remember more is telling my mother what happened and her believing me, and then she and I telling someone else and that person not believing me. And then the next week I was sent to India.” It marked the end of her mother’s marriage. Lakshmi is now the mother of a six year-old daughter herself. “I think of all those girls I pass on the street who are in elementary school,” she tells Cagle. “I think about my daughter’s classmates or my daughter. And it happens. It happens a lot. It happens more than we think. It happens to seven out of ten girls or women at some point in some way in their lives.” Lakshmi’s statistics are hard to prove — the RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, estimates that “1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.” RAINN also estimates, it should be noted, that 18% of juvenile sex abuse victims are male. And a controversial 2007 report declared that one in five female college students have experienced some form of sexual abuse — though it defined it broadly to include “sexual harassment, stalking, and intimate partner violence… nonconsensual penetration and nonconsensual touching.”
2016-03-08 23:13 Mary Elizabeth www.salon.com
35 Peyton Manning is no hero: Would his troubling past be ignored if he weren’t white? Topics: Peyton Manning , ray rice , Football , Race , Media News , Life News , News After 18 years in the NFL, Peyton Manning is hanging up his helmet. As was widely expected, the 39-year-old quarterback announced his retirement on Monday, followed by the requisite tributes that follow a two-time Super Bowl champ calling it quits. The respectful send-offs focused on his many accomplishments—including Manning’s Heisman trophy and his record- breaking five NFL MVP awards. The stats speak for themselves: Peyton Manning amassed more touchdowns and overall passing yards than any other quarterback in history. In the Guardian, Paolo Bandini remembers Manning as an “everyman and superman” whose presence in the league, as well as his “charm and the goofball wit,” will be sorely missed. “His cheesy jokes and self-deprecating sense of humour made him relatable to audiences in a way that few others could be,” Bandini writes . “Where Tom Brady, with his supermodel wife and (until recently) LA mansion, has been the perfect pitchman for upscale brands like Movado and Gláceau Smartwater, Manning has hawked Oreo cookies and Papa John’s Pizza.” ESPN notes that Manning “changed the game.” But what gets reduced to a footnote and an afterthought in these teary-eyed hagiographies is that Peyton Manning was no hero, despite his Boy Scout public image. On Dec. 28 of last year, Al Jazeera reported that Manning took human growth hormone back in 2011, following the quarterback’s neck surgery; it’s currently the subject of an ongoing NFL investigation. But even more damning are the allegations that Manning sexually assaulted a female trainer while he was a student at the University of Tennessee. The report doesn’t appear until the 19th paragraph of Bandini’s Manning tribute. It escapes mention by ESPN at all. In February, Shaun King of the New York Daily News released documents from a 1996 investigation into a case involving Dr. Jamie Naughright, the former director of health and wellness for the Men’s Athletic Program. According to court reports, Manning assaulted Naughright while she was inspecting his foot for a potential stress fracture. “Manning allegedly then proceeded to scoot down the training table while Naughright examined his foot,” King writes. “At that point, she said, he forcefully maneuvered his naked testicles and rectum directly on her face with his penis on top of her head.” Peyton Manning has said that Naughright’s recollection of the incident is false and that he was merely attempting to moon a teammate, Malcolm Saxon. Saxon, however, has repeatedly denied Manning’s account and specifically wrote a letter to Manning following the altercation, telling him to “come clean.” “You might as well maintain some dignity and admit to what happened,” he said. “Your celebrity doesn’t mean that you can treat folks this way.” With Saxon unwilling to corroborate, two Tennessee faculty members asked Naughright if “she would consider blaming the entire incident not on Manning, but on another athlete—a black one.” Dr. Naughright would eventually leave the university, finding another position with Florida Southern as the school’s program director for the Athletic Education Training Program. Five years after the initial incident, Naughright received a Xerox copy of “Manning: A Father, His Sons and a Football Legacy” in an envelope taped to her door. The manuscript—a ghostwritten biography of Peyton Manning’s father, Archie—testified to the Mannings’ version of what transpired in that locker room. After Naughright’s supervisor read the documents, she was unceremoniously fired from her position. She later sued the family for libel. If this is the first you’re hearing about the case, color this writer unsurprised. Aside from King’s exposé, the incident has received strangely little coverage in the media; the allegations disappeared from the news cycle shortly after they surfaced. King’s story was published on Feb. 13, when Google Trends show that search terms for “Peyton Manning sexual assault” peaked. Just six days later, interest in those terms dropped from a perfect 100 (the definition of “breaking the Internet”) to a zero. When a reporter asked Manning about the incident during his retirement speech, ESPN cut the feed.
2016-03-08 23:13 Nico Lang www.salon.com
36 Satire is dead when France honors the theocratic Saudi monarchy for “countering extremism and fighting terrorism” Topics: France , Saudi Arabia , Islamic Extremism , wahhabism , Terrorism , News , Politics News French President François Hollande “ discreetly ” awarded his country’s highest honor to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia’s theocratic absolute monarchy last week. Prince Mohammed bin Nayef received France’s Legion of Honor “for his great efforts in the region and the world in countering extremism and fighting terrorism,” the Saudi Press Agency revealed on March 6, two days after he and Hollande met at Élysée Palace. This is fascinating, considering the E. U. has quietly admitted that Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s leading sponsors of Islamic extremism. “Saudi Arabia has been a major source of financing to rebel and terrorist organisations since the 1970s,” writes the European Parliament in a 2013 report , adding, “c ountries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait do too little to stop rich and conservative donors from financing terrorist organisations through charitable and religious institutions.” “The United States is well aware about the financing network starting from Arab countries and reaching terrorists organisations through charitable institutions,” the European Parliament report points out, drawing attention to similar statements made in secret by the U. S. government. A classified 2009 State Department memo signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton openly admits that “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” “Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups,” reveals the U. S. government cable, which we only have thanks to whistle- blowing journalism organization WikiLeaks. (LeT refers to Lashkar-e-Taiba, an extremist group based in South Asia that has its origins in U. S. support for Islamic extremists in Afghanistan in their war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.) “It has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority,” the State Department adds. Once again, then, it is quite strange that the leader of France — a country with the long and proud secular tradition of Laïcité — is bestowing its highest honor upon one of the leaders of a tyrannical theocratic regime that has been described as the “ fountainhead of Islamist terrorism .” Because it is not just donors in Saudi Arabia that fund extremist groups; the Saudi regime itself has spent more than $100 billion in the past three decades exporting its fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism throughout the world, funding schools, mosques and charities in poor Muslim-majority countries.
2016-03-08 23:13 Ben Norton www.salon.com
37 South Side hit men: White Sox at 12 homers and counting GLENDALE, Ariz. — The White Sox are digging the long ball this spring. Avisail Garcia homered to deep left field against David Goforth and Jimmy Rollins hit an opposite field blast in the second inning against starter Chase Anderson, giving the Sox 12 homers in five-plus Cactus League games and leading them to a 10-6 victory Tuesday at Camelback Ranch. What’s more, the Sox are spreading the power surge around as 12 different players have accounted for the dozen homers: Garcia, Rollins, Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier, Adam LaRoche, Adam Eaton, Brett Lawrie, Dioner Navarro, Tyler Saladino, Jason Coats, Steve Lombardozzi and Matt Davidson. Garcia was 3-for-4 with a triple to right in the first inning and four RBI, and Rollins was 3-for-4. Carlos Sanchez tripled and singled, raising his extra-base hit total for the spring to five. The Sox, who lost their opener to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, improved to 4-1-1. “We’ve been winning and scoring runs so that’s a good thing,” said Rollins, 37, the former National League MVP who was signed to a one-year contract last month. “That’s a good way to start. Get in a groove and try to make it a common thing around here.” Eaton was 3-for-4, raising his average to .538. “The focus was to get it going early on,’’ manager Robin Ventura said. “It’s nice to get off in the first inning and we’re happy with the approaches and the work the guys have put in.’’ Athletics at Sox, Glendale, Wednesday, 2:05 p.m. (890-AM, whitesox.com). Sonny Gray vs. Jacob Turner in a matchup of first-round draft picks.
2016-03-09 00:26 Daryl Van chicago.suntimes.com
38 David Brooks keeps his head in the sand: GOP voters won’t make his fantasy of derailing Trump and Cruz reality Topics: David Brooks , Ted Cruz , Donald Trump , Marco Rubio , Republican Party , Elections 2016 , Elections News , News , Politics News David Brooks knows the GOP is in a bad way, but he’s not worried. And he doesn’t want Republicans to worry either – for there is still hope. In his latest column , Brooks warns the party not to give itself over to Ted Cruz, a man whose only virtue is that he’s not Donald Trump. “It’s 2 a.m.,” Brooks writes, “The bar is closing. Republicans have had a series of strong and nasty Trump cocktails. Suddenly Ted Cruz is beginning to look kind of attractive. At least he’s sort of predictable, and he doesn’t talk about his sexual organs in presidential debates!” Brooks beseeches his Republican readers to recall how lovely the landscape looked a couple of years go when they entered this campaign “with such a deep bench of talented candidates.” Back then it was obvious that Trump was a loon and that “Ted Cruz would be a terrible general election candidate.” After all, Cruz is the most extreme and least liked member of Congress. As Brooks puts it, his “political profile is a slightly enlarged Rick Santorum but without the heart.” I’d say he’s being charitable here, but the point is well taken. After delicately painting Cruz as an unlikable hack, Brooks gets down to business: I admire his feigned optimism, but this isn’t a plan. First, there is absolutely no evidence that Romney’s “assault on Trump” is working. Yes, Cruz scored a couple of minor victories over the weekend in Kansas and Maine, but those are caucus states, where Cruz’s organizational prowess gives him a distinct advantage. In Kentucky and Louisiana, where actual elections were held, Trump won easily, as he has in most states. Furthermore, a new poll suggests that Romney’s speech had virtually no effect on Trump, and if anything it may have helped him. After hearing Romney’s attack , 31 percent of GOP voters “said they were more likely to vote for Trump, while 20 percent said less likely, and 43 percent said it had no impact either way.” Indeed, Trump is now more popular among GOP voters than Romney.
2016-03-08 23:13 Sean Illing www.salon.com
39 News Guide: Eyes on Michigan as 4 states make 2016 choices WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton breezed to victory in Mississippi on Tuesday in part of a four- state round of voting that tested Donald Trump's staying power at the top of the Republican pack and Bernie Sanders' dwindling chances to upset the Democratic front-runner. The night's top prize was Michigan, the big industrial state that will speak loudest on the contours of the race in both parties. Mississippi was up first and delivered for Clinton as expected, as have other Southern states will substantial black populations. The GOP race in Mississippi defied an early call, with Trump and Ted Cruz contending for advantage. Republicans also held contests in Idaho and Hawaii. ___ VOTERS SAY... — "I think she's the most qualified for the job. That's really what we need — not some clown. " — Carter Brown, 69, an appliance store assistant manager in Dearborn, Michigan, on why he voted for Clinton. He considers Trump a clown. — "He doesn't say wrong things. He says them incorrectly. " — Jim Owen, 74, outside Bay St. Louis church where he voted for Trump. A writer of the country song "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man," he says Trump "has the best interest of America at heart. " —"I found him to be the least annoying candidate. " — Nancy Singleton, one of only a few voters at a Boise, Idaho, polling place, on why she cast her ballot for Marco Rubio. ___ ILL TRADE WINDS Most voters in Michigan and Mississippi, regardless of party, are worried about the direction of the economy, and many consider trade to be a negative influence on jobs. According to early results of exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks Tuesday, at least 8 in 10 voters in each primary said they are very or somewhat worried about where the economy is headed. More than half of Democratic and Republican voters in Michigan, along with Republicans in Mississippi, say trade takes jobs. In Mississippi, Democratic primary voters are more closely divided on the subject, with 4 in 10 saying it takes away jobs and nearly as many thinking it has a positive impact. ___ COUNTDOWN TO THE HALF Going into Tuesday's contests, Clinton was 58 delegates short of halfway to the 2,383 delegates needed to claim the Democratic prize. At stake Tuesday: 179 Democratic delegates. Of more consequence is her more than 2-to-1 delegate lead over Sanders: 1,134 to 502. Trump's got a longer climb in the splintered GOP affair. He went into Tuesday with 384 delegates to 300 for Texas Sen. Cruz, 151 for Florida Sen. Rubio and 37 for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Trump or any resurgent rival needs a total of 619 to slip past the halfway mark, and 1,237 to clinch the nomination. ___ 2 TWISTS Clinton's lead in delegates is cushioned by her lopsided advantage with the party insiders known as superdelegates, who can support anyone. They can change their mind before the convention, though that is unlikely to happen short of a meltdown of the Clinton campaign. (Minus the superdelegates, she had a smaller lead over Sanders, 673-477, in delegates won through primaries and caucuses, before Tuesday night.) Republicans will soon turn to a series of winner- take-all contests, and that's where the numbers can change in a hurry. Two big states, Florida and Ohio, vote next week, and each will give all their delegates to the winner. All GOP contests so far have been proportional, divvying up delegates among the contenders (with some extra allocation rules added to make it really complicated). All Democratic contests through the nomination race are proportional. ___ THE ANTI-TRUMPS Cruz, the conservative firebrand, has put up the toughest fight against Trump, staying within range in the delegate hunt and aiming to become the last challenger standing against the billionaire if Rubio and Kasich can't win their home states March 15. With the Michigan primary, the race came to Kasich's region. Rubio also campaigned in the state and hoped to show enough strength to give him something to brag about headed into Florida. He's been the mainstream Republican hope in recent weeks, but has only won two contests in 20: Minnesota and Puerto Rico. ___ MICHIGAN (59 GOP delegates, 130 Democratic delegates) Michigan, as well as Missouri next week, should offer clues about whether Sanders is making any progress in expanding his base of support beyond his devoted followers in the under-30 crowd, and making any progress with black voters, who have overwhelmingly favored Clinton. His time is getting short to catch Clinton in the delegate chase and he must broaden his appeal to do so. In the last Democratic debate, in Flint, Michigan, Clinton hit Sanders hard for opposing a 2009 bill that provided billions to rescue the auto industry. The Vermont senator is stressing that he opposed the provision because it was part of a large bailout package for Wall Street. He said he supported an earlier, separate bill to aid the carmakers. Should Trump win the GOP nomination, his path to the presidency could be through the Rust Belt. Michigan offers a window into the industrial Midwest as Trump reaches out for the economically disaffected and the angry with a message that has engaged Republican voters more broadly than the party and his rivals expected. ___ MISSISSIPPI (40 GOP delegates, 36 Democratic delegates) Rubio didn't campaign in the state; the other Republicans did. Neither Clinton nor Sanders made it there. In achieving victory, Clinton again benefited from a heavy lift from black voters, exit polls found. Trump has scored well in Southern states despite the appeal of Cruz's conservatism. ___ IDAHO (32 GOP delegates) Rubio and Cruz made quick campaign stops over the weekend and both have received notable endorsements, as has Kasich. Billionaire Frank VanderSloot, a GOP mega-donor, backs Rubio. Rep. Raul Labrador endorsed Cruz. Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter said he'd only support a governor, so Kasich is his man. ___ HAWAII (19 GOP delegates) None of the Republican candidates made the long trip to campaign for the small delegate prize in Hawaii's GOP caucuses. But the Trump-centered debate raging on the mainland played out on the islands, too. "If candidates are looking to win over the state, then I think they need to be a little bit more open to diversity and a little more centrist about their approach," Beth Fukumoto-Chang, Republican leader in the state House, said recently. Nathan Paikai, a minister who led Trump's campaign efforts in Hawaii, differed with that opinion. "There's many people out there who say, 'I don't like the way he talks," Paikai said. "My response is, if it's a soft tone and it's a lie, do you believe it? What does it matter about tone? " ___ Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus and Kevin McGill in Mississippi, Kimberlee Kruesi in Idaho, David Eggert and Jeff Karoub in Michigan, and Cathy Bussewitz in Honolulu contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 01:39 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
40 “Activism is not terrorism”: Rights groups call on Congress to investigate the FBI and DHS for surveillance of activists Topics: Surveillance , FBI , Department of Homeland Security , School of the Americas Watch , Occupy Wall Street , black lives matter , Keystone XL pipeline , cointelpro , News , Politics News More than 60 legal, civil rights and activist groups sent a letter to the chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, asking them to launch an investigation into the FBI’s and Department of Homeland Security’s surveillance and repression of political protests and social movements. The letter, which was initiated by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation, expresses “concern over Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security abuse of counterterrorism resources to monitor Americans’ First Amendment protected activity.” It notes that the FBI “has a well-documented history of abuse of First Amendment rights,” adding that in “recent years that abuse has continued.” School of the Americas Watch, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and anti-Keystone XL Pipeline activism are all big targets of this surveillance and repression, the rights groups indicate. Their letter thoroughly documents the evidence showing how the FBI and DHS have surveilled, infiltrated and repressed these movements, treating peaceful activists and terrorists. The FBI continues to send undercover agents and informants to infiltrate peaceful activist groups and use “counterterrorism” authorities and laws to surveil lawful political activity. “That the FBI cannot discern between activism and terrorism shows us that they think dissent is still the enemy,” said Chip Gibbons, a legal fellow at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation. “There have been multiple attempts at reform but after each and every one we see the same thing happening again,” Gibbons explained. “The FBI claims to no longer investigate groups for their political beliefs, but look at who the FBI investigates under its counterterrorism authority — peace groups, racial justice groups, economic justice groups — the very same types of organizations that were targeted during the heyday of J. Edgar Hoover,” he said, referring to the former head of the FBI. The groups released their letter on 45th anniversary of the break-in that exposed COINTELPRO, the secret program in which the FBI was spying on and infiltrating dissident groups, and even assassinating activist leaders like Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton. COINTELPRO infamously blackmailed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and tried to pressure to him to kill himself.
2016-03-08 23:13 Ben Norton www.salon.com
41 Sources: Mario Williams to sign with Dolphins Defensive end Mario Williams has agreed to a two-year contract with the Miami Dolphins , sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. Editor's Picks Are Dolphins taking on too many reclamation projects at once on D? By signing Mario Williams to a two-year deal, the Dolphins are betting on yet another defensive player regaining peak form. Dolphins counting on return to form for Mario Williams Williams had a disastrous 2015 season for the Bills -- his Pro Football focus pass-rush grade dropped to -19.1 -- but he's a solid schematic fit in Miami if he plays like he did from 2007-2014. 1 Related By signing Mario Williams to a two-year deal, the Dolphins are betting on yet another defensive player regaining peak form. Williams had a disastrous 2015 season for the Bills -- his Pro Football focus pass-rush grade dropped to -19.1 -- but he's a solid schematic fit in Miami if he plays like he did from 2007-2014. It is unclear what Williams' addition means for the futures of Olivier Vernon and Cameron Wake in Miami. Vernon received the Dolphins' transition tag last week, giving the team the right to match any offer he receives in free agency. Wake, 34, is coming off a season-ending Achilles injury and is scheduled to make $8.4 million in 2016. The Dolphins appear to be intent on retooling their defense this offseason. The addition of Williams comes a day after Miami agreed to a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for cornerback Byron Maxwell and linebacker Kiko Alonso. Williams, 31, was released by the Buffalo Bills on March 1 with two years remaining on his six- year contract. He was the Bills' highest-paid player in every season since 2012 and was set to count $19.9 million against the salary cap this season before he was released. Starting all 15 games in which he appeared last season, Williams was considerably less effective in first-year Bills coach Rex Ryan's scheme than he was in his first three seasons in Buffalo, recording 19 tackles and five sacks, both of which were the second-lowest totals in his 10-year NFL career. The Bills' sack totals dropped from an NFL-high 54 in 2014 to 21 last season, the second-lowest total in the league. Williams was the first overall pick of the 2006 draft by the Houston Texans and a four-time Pro Bowl selection, earning trips with the Bills in 2013 and 2014. In his first three seasons with the Bills, from 2012 through 2014, Williams had 38 sacks, the fourth-most in the NFL over that span. ESPN Bills reporter Mike Rodak contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 00:05 Michael Rothstein espn.go.com
42 Women’s desks of police stations need more funds, says Robredo MORE funds should be funneled to the women’s and children’s desks of police stations to better address the needs of battered women, Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo said on International Women’s Day on Tuesday. “To address the problems (of battered women), we need to give additional training to (police) personnel assigned to the women and children’s desks with the help of experts,” said the Camarines Sur congresswoman who cited her experiences lawyering for victims of violence against women (VAW) in her hometown of Naga City. In many cases, Robredo said, the women would withdraw their complaints against their abusive partners because they had no way of supporting themselves and their children. There should be more focus on women’s economic empowerment to give them greater control over their own lives, said the widow of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. Empowered Robredo said she was pushing for economic empowerment to spare women from violence resulting from poverty and lack of financial capacity. “When you say ‘empowered,’ there should be economic empowerment first, because women who are dependent on other people would not be able to fight for their own rights,” she added. Robredo stressed the urgency of giving special care and attention to women victims of abuse and their children and said they should be provided economic, psychological and emotional support. The CamSur representative cited Republic Act No. 9710, or the Magna Carta of Women, that mandates local government units (LGUs) and national government agencies to set aside 5 percent of their funds for gender and development (GAD) programs. “But many government agencies and LGUs do not follow the law, while others do not use the funds in the right way,” Robredo said. “If you scan the environment, and look at where the 5 percent really goes, you’d be disappointed to see where the money is spent: printing materials that will only be used during Women’s week, or parties where (a woman speaker) is invited just to comply (with the law),” she added. VAW-responsive Robredo recalled how her late husband, during his term as Naga City mayor and upon her prodding, allocated 10 percent of the city’s budget for the GAD fund. “That was used by the Naga City Council of Women, which is composed of civil society, the private sector and women government employees, which planned on how to use the fund well,” she said. These efforts led the Philippine Commission on Women, in 2009, to recognize Naga City as the first Outstanding VAW-Responsive Local Government Unit, Robredo said.
2016-03-09 01:25 DJ Yap newsinfo.inquirer.net
43 New York City’s transgender residents can now use their bathroom of choice Topics: New York City , Bill de Blasio , Transgender , gender identity , bathroom , original video , Social News , Media News , Life News , News New York City mayor Bill de Blasio just signed a bill that allows transgender people to access the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, in all public facilities. NYC is one of the first places to do so, and the ruling comes after South Dakota’s republican governor vetoed a bill that would have prevented transgender students from using school restrooms and locker rooms. Watch for more information.
2016-03-09 00:25 Asha Parker www.salon.com
44 Debunking the latest lie about Hillary Clinton: No, she didn’t say she supports a 20-week ban on abortion Topics: Hillary Clinton , Bernie Sanders , late-term abortion , 20 week abortion , Democratic primary , Elections 2016 , Pro-choice , Elections News , News , Politics News The Democratic primary is getting really heated, so I shouldn’t be too surprised, though I will remain eternally disappointed, to see someone try to assert that Bernie Sanders is more pro- choice than Hillary Clinton. Monday night, Fox News had a town hall for the Democratic candidates. Both were asked about abortion, though Bret Baier used exponentially more misleading and loaded language with Clinton than he did with Sanders. “Can you name a single circumstance at any point in a pregnancy in which you would be OK with abortion being illegal?” is the question Sanders got. Meanwhile, Clinton was given a trick question: “Do you think a child should have any legal rights or protections before it’s born? Or do you think there should not be any restrictions on any abortions at any stage in a pregnancy?” The first question is straightforward. The second question is based on a false premise, that a fetus is a “child” and that its rights include the right to live off another person’s body against her will, a right that no actual child that is actually born has. Sanders gave a lot more clear-cut of an answer, as is his habit, saying, “I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to do with her own body.” Clinton, for better or for worse (and this is a time it’s for worse), tried to be nuanced. Here is the transcript : Quoted, at length, to make it clear that there’s a lot of context here. My take is that she was saying that she is for “late-term” restrictions as they are currently defined under Roe v. Wade, which means that she is OK with restricting abortions in the third trimester, which even the most conservative estimate only starts at 24 weeks. She only mentioned the 20-week abortion ban in an ill-advised bid to turn the subject towards how severe the Republicans have become on this subject, before righting the ship and bringing it back to the I-agree-with-Roe position. Which, again, would mean restrictions at 24 weeks (or later), not 20 weeks. Or you could ungenerously try to argue that she was saying she’s for a 20 week ban if it has exceptions. That’s what Eric Levitz at New York magazine tries to do :
2016-03-09 00:18 Amanda Marcotte www.salon.com
45 Camille Cosby says she never read complaint against husband (CNN) Lawyers for Bill Cosby have released part of his wife's February deposition from a civil defamation suit brought by seven women against the comedian. Camille Cosby revealed in the deposition, which was released Monday in court filings, that she has never read a criminal complaint brought late last year against her husband. Cosby is charged in Pennsylvania with aggravated indecent assault, a felony. The charge stems from an alleged sexual assault reported in 2004 by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, according to her attorney. Cosby has described the encounter as consensual. Constand initially pursued civil action against Cosby, which was settled in 2006. A deposition that he gave in 2005 was obtained by CNN last year. It reveals that Cosby, who is now 78, admitted that he gave sedatives to women he was planning to have sex with and that he tried to hide affairs from his wife. In addition to not reading the criminal complaint against her husband, Camille Cosby revealed she hasn't read her husband's admissions made in that 2005 deposition. The 15-page excerpt of Camille Cosby's deposition were released in a motion to delay the defamation suit against Bill Cosby. Cosby's team says the deposition of Camille Cosby is proof that the Massachusetts civil suit should be delayed until after Cosby's Pennsylvania criminal trial is finished. The women are represented by attorney Joseph Cammarata, who agrees that the Pennsylvania criminal case should precede the lawsuit. Cammarata, however, would like to continue interviewing witnesses. Cosby's team argues that doing so would cause its client to have the "unfair burden of simultaneous defense" -- or defending himself in two related cases at the same time. "I'm not working for that team," Cammarata said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. "The only team I got is the seven ladies that asked me to work for them. I don't work for anybody else, nor do I do anybody else's bidding. The criminal case is separate from our case. " Cosby was charged December 30 in Montgomery County with aggravated indecent assault against Constand, one in a long line of accusers and the first to go to authorities in 2005. The part of the deposition that was released is a small excerpt of the February deposition of Camille Cosby that took place in a Springfield, Massachusetts, hotel. The excerpt shows that Camille Cosby, who was represented by four attorneys at the deposition, said she only became aware of Constand's suit through her husband.
2016-03-09 01:21 Sonia Moghe www.cnn.com
46 In pictures: Women making technology work for them To mark International Women's Day, photographers at Panos Pictures have teamed up with the Internet Society as part of the Shine the Light campaign to document women from 11 countries who are using technology to make things happen for their communities, families and themselves. Here the women offer an insight into how they use technology to shape their lives. Founder of ReDi School of Digital Integration, Berlin Peace Innovation Lab and Kids Have a Dream "I studied peace studies for two years, looking specifically at innovation and technology, so how you can leverage the power of technology in order to create better collaboration between people, and ultimately come up with solutions that can be implemented to create a better society. "I think peace is such a fluffy term to many people. And my question during my studies was, how do you make peace tangible? "So if you could quantify peace by using technology, I thought that would be really interesting, and very helpful to come up, essentially, with the argument and the right data, that peace is more profitable than war. "If we could show, in a very, very concrete financial way in financial terms, how peace is profitable, I hope that would lead to a much better society. " Human rights activist and social entrepreneur who founded ChunriChoupaal in Amsterdam, and the award-winning Community Technology Center for Women project in rural Pakistan "I escaped a forced marriage in Pakistan, and one of the biggest reasons was because I was economically empowered. That's what I'm advocating for. "It's very important for women, especially those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, that they are economically empowered. And I think technology provides tremendous opportunities to be able to do that for women. "It's just impossible to stay away from technology, because it's become such an integral part of our life now, and the fact that we are lagging behind and there are less women who are comfortable with technology, or less women in the technology field and into coding, that's really taking a toll on the whole of humanity. " International Women's Day has been held on 8 March every year since 1913, and has been recognised by the United Nations since 1975. The UN says it's a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. The theme of this year's day is "Planet 50-50 by 2030" - aiming to achieve global equality in areas such as education and end all forms of discrimination. 'Little improvement' for women in work Five images that reveal how women are treated BBC Trending: Are Saudi women really that oppressed? Why women can thrive in science-fiction What will Michelle Obama's legacy be? After training with AfChix (a network of African Women in Computer Science), she has experimented with digital design practices in Uganda and would like to move into app development "I wasn't interested in web stuff, or computer stuff. But then my school was invited for the girls in ICT Day, and those ladies of Afchix Uganda told us about their professions, how they were web developers and engineers. They said someone can do a mobile app that can change the world and that maybe, one day, I'll wake up and do the same thing. "The reason I chose graphic design is that when I was young we used to watch cartoons like Power Rangers. And I was like, one day, I want to make my own animation. That's what I told my siblings. That's why I want to do graphic design, to make my dream come true. " A Finnish computer programmer, children's writer and programming instructor "Computing, as an industry, is such a young field, that we're still building this body of work to explain and communicate it to the rest of the world. I think the very thing that I want to show is how coding can be as creative a tool as music or drawing or words. "You create something out of nothing, with pure words and thought structures. Learning programming teaches you to look at the world in a different way. "Our kids are going to live in a world where everything around them is a computer. One skill to navigate that world is definitely coding, but it's also about developing the imagination, attitudes and approach towards technology. " A change consultant in ICT in Mexico, working with groups such as Unicef on youth projects "I was 10 years old when the computer arrived at my home, and basically that day, I started using the internet for hours at a time. This was in the 1990s, when parents didn't really care if you were spending too much time online, because they didn't understand what it was. "And so I had, unmonitored, unrestricted access to the internet, maybe just filtered by how dial- up connections were at the time. And I just saw how my life truly changed because of that, because of the content I was exposed to, the friendships I made, how I learned about things that I would have never learned about otherwise. "My aim is to give people working with youth the tools to use technology as a pretext to have more important conversations. So for example, sexual and reproductive rights organisations that teach people how to use condoms. "Let's have a workshop where kids find out how a Wiki article is produced, and why the Wiki article on Aids might be totally difficult to understand for them, and understand how it came to be. "Or how to assess results when you Google if you're pregnant or not, and how to take things with a grain of salt. Like you always tell people that they should be critical of information, so I want to give adults who work with youth special and concrete ways to give youth the tools to do that. " A multi-disciplinary Canadian artist and composer living in London "I went to school for pure math and computer science, but even then, I was always really an artist. "When I started studying math and computer science, I immediately started thinking about ways I could apply it to sound. Programming is like a secret power for me, that I can whip out and apply to my art in all sorts of ways. " An engineer in the Collaboration Technology Group at Cisco Systems "My main advice would be to blaze your own trail. "Don't assume that the only options available to you are kind of the ones that get pitched in the career fair brochure. "That the main thing is to focus on what you like to do, what you're interested in, what makes you tick, and think about how your skill set can come together with those interests. "And the technology industry is so dynamic that there are so many opportunities for anyone to blaze their own trail, that people should always think that's a possibility for them. " Responsible for the introduction of the internet to Thailand "I had to leave my home town and had to move to the capital city, and then eventually move to another country for my education. So the moment I could see that my students could share resources with people in other countries, I was very happy, and I thought, 'This is means a lot for education.' "My students will not have to travel that far, and can do whatever they'd like to do. At that moment I thought, 'The world's going to change.'" A computer scientist, chief executive and founder of Openworld Ltd and founder of the regional organistion AfChix, a mentorship and capacity building initiative for women in computing across Africa "When I was doing my first job I realised I was the only woman in the organisation at this time. So at one point, I kind of wished myself to find a girl that we could intern, just to make sure that I could see more girls in the workplace. "And as I was thinking, 'Where are these girls, and why are they not joining this career?', I realised that it's about lack of information when making their career choices. "So I just thought that maybe we could start to do some workshops to get awareness to the high school girls, that if you study computer science that is still a good point, and that will probably build you up well. "I always tell girls, 'Even if you get into design, get into medicine, get into whatever it is, you're going to need some well-detailed computer skills. Whatever you want to be, you want to be a doctor, you want to be a lawyer, you'll need technology.'" Animator and film-maker and founder of Respect Girls on the net, which campaigns to protect women and girls from harassment online "My mom is an ICT teacher and my dad is an IT professional, so I was in touch with technology from the day I was born. I got to know about the world before my peers and how women were making change and it empowered me to go pursue my dreams. "I want to be a film director to talk about social issues, through film. That's my dream now. "Next week, I have a shoot about bullying. The Internet Governance Forum is happening in Sri Lanka, so we thought we'd do a short film at the same time. So it is about how a group of kids bully a girl through WhatsApp. It happens a lot here. " Founded Digital Rights Foundation and in 2015 was named in Time magazine's list of next- generation leaders, for helping Pakistani women fight online harassment "Persevere. Stay at it. It's a field that has so many opportunities, but also so many frustrations that will come about because you're 'just' a girl. "It's a field that has had women be involved in it from the get-go - Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, to name just a couple. " The Shine The Light campaign aims to highlight the work of women using technology via the hashtag #ShineTheLight. All photographs © Internet Society / Panos Pictures.
2016-03-09 00:09 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
47 Bloomberg misses: His ad feels like yesterday Topics: Michael Bloomberg , Donald Trump , Election 2016 , Bernie Sanders , Entertainment News After a long buildup, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday dropped out of a presidential race that he never quite entered. But the ad his campaign passed to the New York Times gives us a sense of how his campaign might have rolled: It shows that Bloomberg’s team has not really woken up to how American politics has changed over the last few election cycles. It’s decent, well-intended, and pitched to another era. Whether Bloomberg would have been a credible candidate or a good president is hard to say. (FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver agrees with the reason Bloomberg gave for dropping out of the game: Silver’s data shows that Bloomberg entering the race would have taken Michigan Oregon, and most of New England from Hillary Clinton, handing the election to Trump.) Part of what’s odd about the ad is the way it bills Bloomberg as being a lot like… Donald Trump. Bloomberg, we’re reminded, is “a business leader,” whose company created “tens of thousands of jobs.” This has been part of Trump’s pitch from the beginning, and before that, Mitt Romney’s. It’s perfectly reasonable for business people to campaign on their ability to generate work, but a second New York CEO talking about the jobs he created seems a little bit redundant. “Now, with our political process broken and Washington gridlocked,” the voiceover says, “Bloomberg is running for president. He won’t take a dime in political contributions, never has, because he finances his own campaigns. He will be totally independent to take on the special interests, and push both parties to get things done.” The first part of that eerily resembles a now- debunked claim Trump made. The second part could come from Trump’s “The Art of the Deal,” which emphasized the mogul’s pragmatism, drive, and can-do spirit. Trump, incidentally, sent this out on Tuesday:
2016-03-09 00:22 Scott Timberg www.salon.com
48 Almendras named DFA chief PRESIDENT AQUINO has appointed Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras ad interim head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Malacañang announced late last night. Almendras replaced Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario whose resignation took effect on March 8, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement sent to reporters on Tuesday night. Citing health reasons, Del Rosario resigned from the Cabinet last month. This is the third Cabinet post for Almendras, one of President Aquino’s closest friends. Almendras first served as energy secretary before being appointed secretary to the Cabinet. The interim DFA head takes over the post amid the pressing security problem in the Korean Peninsula, where the UN Security Council recently imposed harsh sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear program. The Philippines was the first country to impound a North Korean vessel following UN Resolution No. 2270, which states that these ships should be inspected to ensure they had no dangerous cargo from North Korea. The Philippines is also awaiting the decision of the UN arbitral tribunal on its protest against China’s so-called nine-dash line that claims almost the entire South China Sea. The decision is expected in May. Foreign Undersecretary Laura del Rosario sent her congratulations to Almendras and said she was “looking forward to working closely with him in implementing the country’s foreign policy.”
2016-03-09 01:20 Nikko Dizon newsinfo.inquirer.net
49 American Taylor Force killed, 10 people wounded in Israel attack (CNN) A stabbing attack along a popular oceanfront boardwalk around Tel Aviv left an American tourist dead and 10 other people wounded not far from where U. S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Tuesday. "In these moments, terror attacks are taking place in streets adjacent to us," said former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres during a meeting with Biden at the Peres Center for Peace. Biden "condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal attack" that took the life of one of his countrymen at the same time, and around the same area, that he was meeting with Peres. "There is no justification for such acts of terror," the vice president's office said in a statement. " (Biden) expressed sorrow at the tragic loss of American life. " Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tweeted that one person was slain and 10 were taken to the hospital after the attack along the Mediterranean Sea. 1 person murdered in Jaffa stabbing attack. 10 people taken to hospital being treated. Knife used by attacker found. pic.twitter.com/Cv3DG2ns36 The "terrorist in Jaffa (was) shot dead by police," said Rosenfeld, adding the attacker was a Palestinian from the West Bank. Luba Samri, also with Israel police, told CNN that at least four people were stabbed near the Jaffa port and another three or more were stabbed as the attacker moved north on the boardwalk, a popular spot with shops and restaurants along the waterfront. Police shot and killed the attacker as he tried to run away, according to Samri. An American who lives in Tel Aviv told CNN that she was walking home from work when she saw people running toward her. "They were shouting, 'The terrorist, he's stabbing people,'" said Emily Young, who is originally from Scarsdale, New York. Young went to help a victim who had been stabbed in the eye. She put something on the wound to stop the bleeding and tried to communicate, but the Russian tourist cannot speak Hebrew or English. Young rolled him over to check for more wounds and found one in the man's back. Young, who had some first-aid training while in the Israeli military, applied pressure to the wound. She waited with him until emergency workers took them to the hospital. Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, announced that Taylor Force, a graduate student, was killed in Tel Aviv. He was on a university-sponsored trip to Israel, and the school's chancellor said he was in the school of business management. "This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world," Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos said. All the other trip participants from Vanderbilt are safe, the school said. According to Force's LinkedIn page, he graduated from West Point in 2009 and was a field artillery officer in the U. S. Army until 2014. He started MBA school in 2015. At the time, he told the website Poets and Quants that he went to Vanderbilt because of the support for veterans, the diversity of students and the quality of education. "In addition to learning the skills needed to be successful in business, I want to establish life-long connections and friendships with my fellow students from the U. S. and around the globe," he said. The U. S. State Department confirmed Force's death and condemned the attack. "We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Taylor and all those affected by these senseless attacks, and we wish a speedy recovery for the injured," spokesman John Kirby said. "As we have said many times, there is absolutely no justification for terrorism. " Tuesday's incident is among a spate of terrorist attacks that Israeli authorities have blamed on Palestinians, be they from the West Bank or elsewhere. A large number of these attacks have been stabbings, though guns and cars -- used to run over people -- also have been used. Israeli authorities have responded, at times, with crackdowns in Palestinian areas. Also on Tuesday, Rosenfeld reported that a "terrorist with (an) automatic weapon" opened fire in Jerusalem. Two Israeli policeman were seriously injured before the attacker was killed. Authorities shot and killed a female terrorist behind an "attempted stabbing" in Jerusalem's Old City, Rosenfeld tweeted. CNN's Greg Botelho, Brian Walker and Diane Ruggeiro contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 01:16 Oren Liebermann, www.cnn.com
50 Dow, S&P snap 5-day win streak as energy drops 4% Contact WND (CNBC) — U. S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, as a reversal in oil prices weighed and after weaker-than-expected Chinese trade data renewed concerns about global growth. “It’s not collapsing but certainly profit-taking which is something markets should do when they’ve had a dramatic move higher,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “The question is how much was built on short covering versus new money coming in,” she said.
2016-03-09 01:15 www.wnd.com
51 Rubio accuses Cruz of 'dirty tricks' in Hawaii Contact WND (POLITICO) Marco Rubio’s campaign is accusing Ted Cruz’s campaign of “using a bogus story from CNN to spread false rumors” that the Florida senator is dropping out of the race. “Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies. We won’t allow him to do to Marco Rubio in Florida what he did to Ben Carson in Iowa,” Rubio spokesman Joe Pounder said in a statement. “Floridians and voters across the country will reject Senator Cruz’s campaign of disgusting tactics because they know a vote for Cruz is a vote for Donald Trump.”
2016-03-09 01:14 www.wnd.com
52 Poll: Romney attack speech boosted Trump Contact WND Mitt Romney’s now-famous press conference attacking Donald Trump as an “absurd” candidate who provides little more than “third- grade theatrics” on the campaign trail has apparently had the opposite effect, sending even more voters into the campaign camp of the Republican front-runner. The ‘Stop Hillary’ campaign is on fire! Join the surging response to this theme: ‘Clinton for prosecution, not president’ As Breitbart reported , a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday showed 31 percent of Republican voters who heard Romney’s attack, and his accusation of Trump as a “phony,” are now more likely to vote for him than before. And “30 percent of the voters who supported Romney in 2012 [against President Obama, for the White House] said they are more likely to vote for Trump,” wrote Alex Swoyer , for the news outlet. Only 20 percent of those who self-identify as a Republican voter said they’re less likely to vote for Trump, post-Romney speech. Another 43 percent said Romney’s press conference didn’t impact voters at all â that the same number who supported Trump before the speech supported him after the speech. Do you support Donald Trumpâs no-nonsense candidacy? Tell the world with this brand new magnetic bumper sticker: âDONALD TRUMPS THE RESTâ The poll, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus two percentage points, was conducted between March 4 and March 6, via an online survey of 2,019 registered voters. “The survey also shows GOP voters slightly prefer Trump to Romney,” the poll stated. “The brash New Yorker has a 55-42 favorability rating, compared to a 51-41 split for the former Massachusetts governor.” As WND reported , Romney last week went on national television at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and told voters to pick Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. John Kasich, or Sen. Marco Rubio for president â anybody but Trump. “Here’s what I know,” he said then. “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.” Earlier in the speech, he also referred to Trump as dishonest, “absurd,” and capable of only bringing “third-grade theatrics” to the campaign trail.
2016-03-09 01:13 Cheryl Chumley www.wnd.com
53 Teacher calls student 'dumbest girl he ever met' Contact WND (WSB-TV) — A Greene County teacher is in trouble after a girl recorded him allegedly answering her question by calling her "the dumbest girl I have ever met. " Shaniaya Hunter, a junior at Green County High School, has an eye condition that sometimes has kept her out of class. In December, she was trying to catch up right before a test and asked the teacher a question.
2016-03-09 01:13 www.wnd.com
54 Church's corruption can be traced to Mithraism Contact WND Discover Richard Rives’ books, “Time Is the Ally of Deceit” and “Too Long in the Sun,” at the WND SuperStore! Exclusive: Richard Rives returns to Ostia, ancient seaport of Rome Exclusive: Richard Rives delves into fascinating history of 'Easter' Exclusive: Richard Rives explains early Christians never believed commandments were 'nailed to cross' Exclusive: Richard Rives explains from Noah the 'door' of salvation Exclusive: Richard Rives tells us the sign by which our Creator can be positively identified Exclusive: Richard Rives urges listeners to pay attention to Creator's Sabbath commandment Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us sin is still 'the transgression of the law' Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us there's no room for compromise in Great Commandment Exclusive: Richard Rives warns against rejecting commandments in order keep man-made traditions Exclusive: Richard Rives warns against religious leaders causing followers to 'stumble in the law' Exclusive: Richard Rives warns against practicing faith in a manner displeasing to God Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us of great benefits from keeping God's commandments Exclusive: Richard Rives urges people not to adopt pagan rituals in name of Christ Exclusive: Richard Rives warns about believing 'lies of the theologians' purposefully withholding the truth Exclusive: Richard Rives notes 'time is ally of deceit' for celebrating pagan holiday Exclusive: Richard Rives notes those who attack messenger when they hate the message Exclusive: Richard Rives remembers wisdom of Solomon to keep commandments Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us it is to those who 'keep His covenant, remember His commandments' Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us Jesus' sacrifice doesn't negate laws written in stone Exclusive: Richard Rives refutes relativism's sales pitch Exclusive: Richard Rives discusses man's aversion to God's commandments Richard Rives recounts Mediterranean history during era bracketing Jesus' life Exclusive: Richard Rives urges us: 'Be not deceived, those 10 commandments will never change' Exclusive: Richard Rives recounts how Constantine's compromise made it easy for pagans to embrace his version of Christianity Exclusive: Richard Rives warns about questioning reliability of Scripture when there is no compromise among those of other faiths Exclusive: Richard Rives argues each are necessary for salvation Exclusive: Richard Rives returns to Ostia, ancient seaport of Rome Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews healing prophetic minister Rich Vera Exclusive: David Rives urges listeners to put their belief in the right place Exclusive: Richard Rives delves into fascinating history of 'Easter' Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews speaker, author, minister Clarice Fluitt Exclusive: David Rives urges us to view celestial bodies with the awe they deserve Exclusive: Richard Rives explains early Christians never believed commandments were 'nailed to cross' Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews world-famous trumpet player Phi Driscoll How has the Christian church inherited a distorted version of biblical hope? Exclusive: David Rives offers 2nd look at Sir William Herschel's discoveries Exclusive: Richard Rives explains from Noah the 'door' of salvation Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews evangelist Rebecca Greenwood Could Bible prophecy reveal the next major war to unfold across the Middle East? Exclusive: David Rives urges us not to ignore author, designer of the cosmos Exclusive: Richard Rives tells us the sign by which our Creator can be positively identified Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews prophetic minister Hank Kunneman Exclusive: David Rives highlights absurdity that celestial bodies influence human destiny Exclusive: Richard Rives urges listeners to pay attention to Creator's Sabbath commandment Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews author, missionary, pastor Shane Wall Exclusive: David Rives offers scientific reasons not to believe in cosmic evolution Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us sin is still 'the transgression of the law' Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews pastor James Durham Find out why terrorists put multi-million dollar bounty on Coptic priest Exclusive: David Rives explains why molecules-to-man evolution takes too much faith Exclusive: Richard Rives reminds us there's no room for compromise in Great Commandment Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews author, television host, entrepreneur Gary Keesee Exclusive: David Rives urges us to get out into nature and enjoy God's creation Exclusive: Richard Rives warns against rejecting commandments in order keep man-made traditions Exclusive: Sid Roth interviews author, speaker, pastor Kynan Bridges
2016-03-08 23:14 Richard Rives www.wnd.com
55 Church collection plate goes digital Contact WND (BLOOMBERG) — Dylan Ciamacco, 25, first went to the Los Angeles outpost of international megachurch C3 as a teen. His mom thought a lot of the young people there—in skinny jeans, chunky sweaters, and leather jackets—dressed like him. He’d emerged recently from a “sick” (as in awesome) atheist phase, he says, mocking himself, and was looking to go back to church. A typical service, Ciamacco says, opens with a band that would fit in at the Coachella festival, were it not for the Jesus lyrics: “What a savior, my Redeemer/Friend of sinners, one like me.” (In one podcast, a pastor, sermonizing about society’s obsession with markers of achievement, uses an Internet-approved term of endearment to channel his audience, asking, “When am I going to get my own bae?”) At the end, a member of the “worship team” will call on parishioners to tithe and pass the collection plate. But not all people reach into their wallet. Many take out their phone instead.
2016-03-09 01:13 www.wnd.com
56 Maxx2Racing Team Welcomes You To The 2015 SEMA Show This stunning example of a late model car, aptly named ‘Stealth’ , will again be featured at the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world, featuring many of the top automobile builders, and 150,000 industry leaders from more than 100 countries. Highly reconfigured and upgraded from the 2013 show, she shows off the ‘Race Bred’ features now incorporated into the car. This ‘Build’ is dedicated to the home shop builder, the gals and guys who have a passion for car building, not just buying that special car they have always dreamed of. The innovative ideas applied to this ‘stunning’ example, while not a trailer queen, do in fact show that one can build that dream car on a set budget, using only the best parts available from the aftermarket industry. Those include our sponsors: Covercraft Industries Inc, Axalta Coating Systems, Jet-Hot Performance Coatings, Dynamat, K&N, Spectre Performance, MagnaFlow, Accel Performance Group, Continental Tire, ARP Fasteners, Ron Francis Wireworks, Auto Meter, RideTech, OPTIMA Batteries, Wilwood, Design Engineering Inc, Brandmotion, Auburn Gear, US Gear/AxleTech International, Strange Engineeering, Dynotech Driveshafts, DJSafety, Deist Safety, Rocket Racing Wheels, SoffSeal, Ultra Shield Race Products, Mechman Alternators, H3R Performance, Inc, Comp Cams, Total Seal, Mahle/Clevite, Hellwig Products, Carillo, BowTieOverdrives, UMI Performance, RedLine LumTronix, CAVALLINOS Collision Center, CMF Fabrication, Tony Taylor- Distributor/Performance Lubricants, Graphics Unlimited, Total Flow Products, Applied Racing Components (ARC), ProSystemsRacing, OBPltd(UK), Made For You Products, GB PERFORMANCE LTD, Schoenfeld Headers, Wings West, Casazza Oil Company-VP Racing Fuels, Reno Buick/GMC/Cadillac, OldIron Media Blasting and Powder Coating, Shawn Natenstedt Racing, Zech Pursley/Twisted Metal Fabrication, City Auto Parts/Napa, Renner Equipment/Northern Nevada. Maxx2Racing Team Members/Sponsors/Drivers Tony Taylor, Ric Donofrio, James MacPherson, Steve ‘Hodgeman’ Hodge, Tony Nacewicz/TN Racing, Bob Lucas, Dane Buckley, Brian Lucas, Troy ‘The Toy Man’ Hancock, Ray Garcia A Very Special Thanks to Grafics Unlimited for their ‘Professional’ Rear Wing Wrap, Logos, and Car Hauler Wrap A Very Special Thanks to Valerie Thompson and Ray Garcia A Very Special Thanks to David Haas A Very Special Thanks to Chris and Sumer Gardner MEDIA COVERAGE: WorldNewsVine (WNV), BonnveilleRacing.com, Thom Bell/PSVideo, Auto Mutt Productions, Wally Cahill/President of G2G Productions, Russell Lovett/ Lovett’s Speed Shop, Ellen Richardson Exclusive Media Coverage Provided By WorldNewsVine Robert Grone, Owner/Editor, Brenda Hyatt, Chief Editor Don Scelzo, Photographer/Video Photographer TriboDyn Performance Lubricants Mooresville, NC 859-750-6299 [email protected] http://www.tribodyn.com/ TriboDyn on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/TriboDyn TriboDyn Performance Lubricants Facebook Page The Maxx2Racing Team [email protected] http://maxx2racing.com/ Follow us on WorldNewsVine, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn, GoFundMe, and over 50 social media and racing related sites. Type in Maxx2Racing, and follow the links. 2015 SEMA Show https://www.facebook.com/events/1626513050959931/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/NascarBodiedLandSpeedRaceCars/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/408137802673551/ https://www.facebook.com/TheMaxx2RacingTeam https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maxx2Racing/216999411661610 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000228045787 https://www.facebook.com/groups/301988883341461/ http://www.gofundme.com/Maxx2Racing
2016-03-08 23:13 maxx2racing worldnewsvine.com
57 Police search for suspect after grandmother found beaten to death inside Pontiac home PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) - Investigators at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office are looking for leads after a mother and grandmother is found beaten to death in her Pontiac home. Jacqueline Shelton, 53, was found murdered inside her bedroom on Putnam Ave. in Pontiac on Sunday afternoon. Her daughter, Nakashia Jones, said she remembers her mother as full of fun. "Dancing everywhere she goes, she's snapping her fingers, she's popping, hey! You know, that was just her,” said Jones. Now Jones is left wondering why. "I feel like I've been gut punched,” said Jones. Jacqueline Shelton was fondly known as Bunny to those who loved her. She leaves behind two daughters and five grandchildren. Jones has not been able to tell her kids yet. "I don't know what to tell my babies. I don't know what to tell them to make it okay, because it's not okay,” said Jones. Monday night, dozens of friends and family members gathered to light a candle in Bunny’s memory. Her sister LaVonna Bender helped organize the vigil. She said Bunny lived on her own and did not have enemies. She wants answers. "We want the public to know that she was loved by many. She had family that loved her dearly. We want the public to know this a crime that needs to be solved,” said Bender. If you have any information call the Oakland County Tip Line, 1 (888) TURN-1-IN.
2016-03-08 23:28 Breanne Palmerini www.wxyz.com
58 Involving agency for adults leaves kids locked up too long On any given day, the state of Illinois has about 500 young people locked in six prisons where judges have sent them as a last resort, with the hope that they’ll return home rehabilitated and more likely to grow up to become responsible adults. These kids are wards of the state, meaning they are our responsibility. They spend their days in counseling, doing schoolwork and wondering when they might be able to go home. There are no fixed sentences for youth. They don’t cross off days on a calendar or have any idea when they might leave prison. Unless they have committed the most violent of crimes (and very few have), they only know they will leave prison sometime before they turn 21. Too often, these youths stay locked behind bars unnecessarily long because the state is asking the wrong agency — the Illinois Prisoner Review Board — to review their cases. We’re sponsoring legislation to change that, for these kids’ futures. Our legislation would turn review and release decisions for youths to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, to bring Illinois in line with the rest of the nation. Unlike sentencing of adults, youth sentences here and across the country are indeterminate, meaning youth remain in juvenile prisons until the state determines rehabilitation has been successful. Indeterminate sentencing makes sense, but the release decision method in Illinois does not make sense and is at odds with decision-making in every other state. More than three-fifths of the states allow the release decision to be made by the government entity that knows the children best – the state agency in charge of youth prisons and rehabilitation. Other states entrust juvenile court judges and parole board members who work exclusively with juveniles. In Illinois, youth prison release decisions are controlled by the IPRB, whose 15 members spend the bulk of their time on adult prisoners and adults charged with parole violations. Prisoner Review Board members are asked to make decisions about youth they are meeting briefly for the first time and based largely on information provided by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. Illinois’ release process is delayed by adding the extra step of IPRB review. Delay has consequences for the youth and public safety. Spending too much time in a prison can cause a child to regress or interrupt the rehabilitation process that must continue when finally released. The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice is the agency whose staff has spent the most time with the youth and knows them best. This will lead to better results. Let the IPRB focus solely on adults, and let’s put youth cases where they belong. //
2016-03-09 00:26 Rep Elaine chicago.suntimes.com
59 MH370: 'I don't want the search for my mother to end' The search for flight MH370, which disappeared two years ago, is expected to draw to a close later this year. Grace Nathan, whose mother Anne Daisy was on board, says the thought the plane might never be found is harrowing for relatives.
2016-03-09 01:02 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
60 Migrant crisis: Rights groups slam EU-Turkey proposal (CNN) Turkey and the European Union say they have agreed on key points of a "bold" proposal to help resolve the migrant crisis, aimed at deterring migrants from attempting the perilous journey to Europe. Under the proposed deal, Ankara would agree to take back all migrants who leave Turkey's shores for Europe in the future, including those intercepted in its territorial waters, on the condition that one legitimate Syrian refugee is resettled in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey. READ: EU-Turkey migrant deal in 5 questions -- how would it actually work? But international humanitarian organizations have harshly criticized parts of the agreement, with a senior official from the U. N. refugee agency saying Tuesday that sending back refugees en masse would not be "consistent with European law. " "An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return to a third country is not consistent with European law, not consistent with international law," Vincent Cochetel, Europe regional director of the Office of the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. The EU-Turkey plan, which still requires details to be hammered out before it is sent for approval by EU leaders in nine days, would also see the EU provide Turkey with billions in additional funding to provide for refugees, speed up talks on Turkey joining the EU, and accelerate the lifting of visa requirements for Turkish citizens in Europe. "The days of irregular migration to the European Union are over," said Donald Tusk, president of the European Council -- as the group of 28 EU leaders is known -- at the end of Monday's emergency summit in Brussels, Belgium. He said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had "confirmed Turkey's commitment to accept the rapid return of all migrants coming from Turkey to Greece that are not in need of international protection. " "The EU will support Greece in ensuring comprehensive, large scale and fast-track returns to Turkey," Tusk said. A statement from EU heads of government released at the end of the summit said they agreed that "bold moves were needed" to break the business model of the smugglers, highlighting the importance of a NATO anti-trafficking mission in the Aegean Sea that has just expanded into Greek and Turkish territorial waters. "We need to break the link between getting in a boat and getting settlement in Europe," read the statement. Davutoglu said that his country, which hosts more Syrian refugees than any other, was motivated to enter into the arrangement primarily out of humanitarian concern. "We don't want to see women and children dying in the Aegean Sea," he told reporters, according to Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency. European leaders have been grappling with the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere having entered EU territory since the start of 2015. Most of the migrant flow is from Syria, where the civil war has created more than 4 million refugees and displaced a further 6 million within the country. The majority have come by using trafficking networks to cross the Aegean Sea, which separates Turkey and Greece, before heading overland through the Balkans to Germany and other northern European destination countries. The crossing is dangerous, with more than 400 migrants having died making the journey so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. Recently, a number of countries along the Balkan migration route agreed to all but close their borders, leaving a growing bottleneck of desperate migrants stranded in Greece, a country already struggling with a debt crisis. More than 11,000 people are stuck in a backlog at Idomeni on the Greece-Macedonia border, in a transit camp designed for 1,500, according to Doctors Without Borders. Thousands of refugees stuck on Greece-Macedonia border as new rules take hold Tusk confirmed at the end of Monday's summit that EU leaders had decided to "end the 'wave- through approach'" through countries along the overland route to Western Europe. "Irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end," the EU heads of government said in a joint statement. Underlining the fact that this route is now closing, Serbia closed its southern borders -- with Macedonia and Bulgaria -- at midnight local time (6:00 p.m. ET). Serbia had been informed by Croatia that another EU member farther north on the Balkan route, Slovenia, would begin implementing the entry regime into the Schengen zone from midnight, and that it will not receive migrants without valid visas and passports, which effectively closes the "Balkan route. " "Taking into account the new regime, which was implemented by a member of the European Union, Serbia cannot afford to become a collection center for refugees, so it will consolidate all measures with the European Union, and reciprocally apply them in its southern and eastern borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria," Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs told CNN in an email. In Slovenia, the director of the Government Communications Office confirmed to CNN that Slovenia would close its borders at midnight. "People who don't have proper documents -- i.e. people who don't have papers for Schengen -- cannot enter the Schengen area," Kristina Krajnc Plavsak told CNN. "We are strictly implementing Schengen rules. " She said the closure comes in coordination with Slovenia's neighbors and with other countries on the Balkan route, and this was not a unilateral decision. Tusk said the EU would deploy "massive humanitarian assistance" to Greece to help it respond to the effects of the route's closure, and would also offer further assistance for it to manage its external border, and help facilitate the "comprehensive, large scale and fast-track" return of migrants to Turkey. Migrants had been sent back from Greece to Turkey last week, Tusk said, in what he described as the "first visible step" of a Greek-Turkish bilateral agreement on the swift return of migrants not in need of international protection "becoming more operational and effective. " Other humanitarian organizations were quick to join the U. N. refugee agency, or UNHCR, in criticizing the proposal -- in particular, the mass return of refugees to Turkey. Amnesty International said that the plan showed an "alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane attitude" to the migrant crisis and would deal a "death blow to the right to seek asylum. " The statement said Amnesty opposed "the concept of a 'safe third country' in general, as this undermines the individual right to have asylum claims fully and fairly processed," and that there was "huge cause for concern" about sending migrants to Turkey in particular, "given the current situation and treatment of migrants and refugees. " The statement attacked the "horse trading" concept of resettling a Syrian refugee in Europe for every compatriot sent back to Turkey, saying the proposal would effectively make "every resettlement place offered to a Syrian in the EU contingent upon another Syrian risking their life by embarking on the deadly sea route to Greece. " "The idea of bartering refugees for refugees is not only dangerously dehumanizing, but also offers no sustainable long term solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis," said Iverna McGowan, head of Amnesty's European Institutions Office. It also expressed concern about the closure of the Balkan migration route, which would "lead to thousands of vulnerable people being left in the cold with no clear plan on how their urgent humanitarian needs and rights to international protection would be dealt with. " The International Rescue Committee lauded the meeting Monday but warned that "closing all of Europe's borders without offering alternative routes to safety will not work. " "In fact," the organization said, "the only winners will be the smugglers, as people take more elaborate and more dangerous routes to safety. " UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said refugees should be returned to a third country only if certain safeguards were in place, such as a protections against "refoulement," a legal term used to describe returning asylum seekers somewhere they would be at risk. Spindler called for the details of these safeguards to be clarified before the proposal was next put to EU leaders at a crisis meeting scheduled for March 17. Late last year, the European Union and Turkey agreed to a joint action plan in response to the migrant crisis, in which European leaders agreed to pay Turkey €3 billion ($3.3 billion) to support its refugee population and target people-smuggling networks -- a mission that has seen NATO warships deployed to the eastern Mediterranean this year. Tusk said that "despite good implementation" of that plan, it had failed to sufficiently reduce the migrant flow, and extra steps were necessary. The new proposal would focus on speeding up the disbursement of the €3 billion already pledged to Turkey, as well as providing new funding to alleviate the crisis. Turkey requested an extra €3 billion at the summit on Monday, according to European Parliament President Martin Schulz. The European Union would bear the cost of returning the migrants to Turkey under the proposal. Syrian refugees settled in the European Union under the terms of the deal would be distributed among member states "within the framework of the existing commitments," a joint statement from the EU heads of government said. UK sends boats to Aegean Sea ahead of summit Last year, the European Union agreed to resettle 160,000 refugees, but less than 1,000 have been processed so far. CNN's Arwa Damon, Laura Perez Maestro, Karen Smith and Don Melvin contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 00:57 Tim Hume, www.cnn.com
61 Pregnant Nicky Hilton Steps Out in Animal Print Nicky Hilton, who is pregnant, ran some errands in New York, March 3, 2016. Hilton is expecting her first child with her husband, James Rothschild, and she is due this summer.
2016-03-08 23:13 ABC News abcnews.go.com
62 WHO: Sexual transmission of Zika more common than thought GENEVA (AP) -- Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing reports from several countries. After a meeting of its emergency committee on Tuesday, the U. N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects and neurological problems are caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites. When WHO declared the explosive outbreak in the Americas to be a global emergency last month, it said that the evidence that Zika was responsible was only circumstantial. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said "reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed. " The U. S. is investigating more than a dozen possible cases of Zika in people who may have been infected through sex. Dr. Bruce Aylward, who is directing WHO's response to Zika, said the cases seen so far of sexual transmission of Zika have been from men to women. He doubted sex would play an important role in the disease's spread. "The mosquito is undoubtedly still the main driver of transmission," he said. Chan also said nine countries have now reported increasing cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that may be linked to Zika and can cause temporary paralysis and death in people of all ages. She said that problems connected to Zika, including Guillain-Barre syndrome, are now being seen not just in women of child-bearing age, but children, teenagers and older adults. Zika is also now spreading to new countries, WHO said. It noted local transmission has now been reported in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. "All of this news is alarming," Chan said. Despite the lack of definitive evidence proving that Zika causes birth defects and neurological problems, Chan said officials shouldn't wait for definitive scientific proof before making recommendations. "Microcephaly is now only one of several documented birth abnormalities associated with Zika infection during pregnancy," she said, adding that it can cause growth problems, injuries to the central nervous system and fetal death. WHO's emergency committee called for "intensified" research into the relationship between new clusters of babies born with abnormally small heads and other neurological disorders. It said particular attention should be given to studying the genetics of the different Zika virus strains and establishing studies to determine if there is a causal relationship. The agency also noted it was important to continue studying whether other factors could be responsible for the jump in microcephaly and neurological problems, including whether several causes combined might be to blame. Aylward explained that scientists were focusing on diseases as the main suspect, noting the evidence seems "really compelling that you're looking at an infectious process here. " So far, cases of babies born with small, deformed heads linked to Zika have only been confirmed in Brazil and French Polynesia, though officials say they expect reports from other countries once the virus has been circulating there long enough to affect pregnant women. Colombia has reported several suspected cases of microcephaly. "Women who are pregnant in affected countries or travel to these countries are understandably deeply worried," Chan said. WHO recommends pregnant women avoid travel to areas with ongoing Zika outbreaks and that if their partners travel to affected countries, they should practice safe sex or abstain from sex for the duration of their pregnancy. ___ Cheng reported from London. Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2016-03-09 00:48 Associated Press mynorthwest.com
63 ACE train car derails, falls into creek near San Francisco (CNN) A train car went off the rails and ended up in a creek in Northern California on Monday night, according to the Alameda County Fire Department. The train derailment was likely caused by a mudslide, with a "pretty significant big" tree being a secondary cause, Union Pacific spokesman Francisco Castillo said. Nine people were hurt; four suffered injuries that were described as serious but not life-threatening. Authorities earlier reported that 14 people had been injured. "The train flipped over, and then I saw people, you know, falling over from the other side," passenger Jay Vijayen told CNN affiliate KGO. "The next thing we knew, we started seeing water coming into the bottom of the train. It was rising fast. " All the passengers from the derailed train have been removed, authorities said. "I've never seen anything like this," said Sgt. J. D. Nelson with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. "It was absolutely chaotic. " VIDEO: Train derailment in #Sunol. Rescue in progress. @FremontFire @AlamedaCoFire @CHPDublin @ParamedicsPlus pic.twitter.com/LBKgQLWFWB The ACE train, which runs from Stockton to San Jose, derailed near Niles Canyon, the company said. Train service has been canceled for Wednesday. According to Steve Walker, a spokesman for Altamont Corridor Express, the lead car on the train derailed and ended up in the Alameda creek after the initial crash. The second car also derailed but remained upright, he said. There were 214 passengers on board. "ACE Train's No. 1 priority is passenger safety," Walker said. The Fremont Police Department said it expected roads in the area to remain closed for several hours. CNN's Shane Deitert and Wayne Sterling contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 00:45 Joshua Berlinger www.cnn.com
64 64 Floyd Mayweather Jr. - In Photos: The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities 2015 Earnings: $300M Athlete, Boxing Mayweather's $300 million year shatters the record for athlete earnings, which was previously held by Tiger Woods who banked $115 million in 2008. Mayweather's May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao crushed multiple boxing financial records, including PPV buys (4.4 million), total gate ($73 million) and sponsorships ($13 million). The fight is expected to gross more than $600 million once everything is counted. Mayweather has typically shunned endorsement deals, but inked agreements with Hublot, FanDuel and Burger King ahead of the May fight. The Pacquiao fight marked the fifth bout in the blockbuster 30-month, six fight deal he signed with Showtime in 2013. Mayweather, whose record stands at 48-0, plans to fight in September to complete his Showtime deal and then retire. Photo: AP Photo/John Locher
2016-03-08 23:13 Natalie Robehmed www.forbes.com
65 Testimony in Guatemalan fraud case implicates leaders GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- The man who allegedly handled finances for a far- reaching corruption scheme in Guatemala has testified that the then-vice president's right-hand man told him that bribes were going to his boss and the president. Salvador Estuardo Gonzalez Alvarez appeared to tie together various actors in the scam, in which importers paid bribes rather than import taxes. Gonzalez said Tuesday he was told to pass bribes he received to Juan Carlos Monzon, private secretary to then vice-president Roxana Baldetti. He said Monzon told Gonzalez that the money was for Baldetti and then-President Otto Perez Molina. Gonzalez said half of the money received was designated for Baldetti and Perez Molina. More than 100 people have been tied to the scam and at least 30 are jailed, including Baldetti and Perez Molina. Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2016-03-09 00:32 Associated Press mynorthwest.com
66 Pakistani forces free Shahbaz Taseer, son of late Punjab governor Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) Pakistan security forces on Tuesday rescued Shahbaz Taseer, who was kidnapped in 2011 eight months after his father, the governor of Punjab, was assassinated. The Pakistani military said in a statement that Taseer was found around Kuchlak, a town in western Pakistan in Balochistan province. On August 26, 2011, militants abducted him from his car on his way to his office in Lahore, senior police official Abdul Razaq Cheema said then. Authorities said Taseer had been provided with 16-member security contingent, but none of those guards were with him when four armed men blocked Taseer's car in Lahore's Gulberg neighborhood and took him. Shahbaz Taseer's father, the late Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, was assassinated in January 2011 after speaking out against a blasphemy law that makes insulting Islam a crime punishable by death. Speaking to CNN in 2010, the governor said he didn't want to abolish the law but change it so that insulting "any prophet, no matter who he is ... is a criminal offense ... not punishable by death. " The man who killed Salman Taseer -- Mumtaz Qadri, his former bodyguard -- was treated like a hero afterward , with supporters showering him with rose petals and putting a garland around his neck. Late last month, these backers turned out en masse on the streets of Rawalpindi after Qadri was hanged at a jail in that Punjab province city just south of Islamabad. According to Govt that #MumtazQadri was wrong ok fine,how about millions of people in his pic.twitter.com/r8v3VGB7Rw ﻣﻤﺘﺎزﻗﺎدری_ﺷ ﯿﺪ# ?Janaza It was not clear whether anyone was detained, wounded or killed in the process of rescuing Shahbaz Taseer. CNN'S Sophia Saifi reported from Islamabad, and CNN's Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Adeel Raja contributed to this report.
2016-03-09 00:32 Sophia Saifi www.cnn.com
67 Howard Stern - In Photos: Highest-Earning Radio Hosts Earnings: $95 million The off-beat and off-color Stern is dragging out his eight-digit contract battle with Sirius XM Radio, positioning himself as the main draw for the company's 27 million subscribers. Meanwhile, he's been co-hosting America's Got Talent since 2012. Photo: 2015 Invision
2016-03-08 23:16 Hugh McIntyre www.forbes.com
68 Clues to why the 'sea dragons' died out A dramatic shift in the Earth's climate killed off marine reptiles that swam at the time of the dinosaurs, according to a new study. About 100 million years ago, the oceans warmed up, polar ice melted and sea levels rose to unprecedented heights. Scientists say the ichthyosaurs, or "fish lizards", could not adapt to the new conditions, spelling their demise. The research is the latest twist in the mystery of how and why the predators disappeared. Evidence suggests their extinction about 100 million years ago was driven by intense climate change and their inability to adapt to the changing world. "Our results support a growing body of evidence revealing that rising sea levels and sea temperatures profoundly reorganised marine ecosystems about 100 million years ago," said lead researcher Dr Valentin Fischer of the University of Liège, Belgium, and the University of Oxford, UK. "The ichthyosaurs were unable to adapt. They were evolving very slowly during the last 50 million years of their reign. "When the environment changed very rapidly they couldn't keep up with this change. " During the age of the dinosaurs, the ocean was home to many types of ichthyosaur. The marine predators evolved a streamlined body like a dolphin and were built for speed, feeding on fish and squid. Ichthyosaurs endured for millions of years. They appeared in the Triassic, reached their peak in the Jurassic, then disappeared in the Cretaceous - several million years before the last dinosaurs died out. Past explanations for their disappearance have focussed on their food supply, which may have dwindled as other marine animals such as sharks and bony fishes appeared. The researchers - from the UK, Belgium, France and Russia - think this was just one factor in the animal's demise. After drawing up a detailed family tree of the evolution of ichthyosaurs and analysing the causes of their extinction, they believe many factors were to blame. "Although the rising temperatures and sea levels evidenced in rock records throughout the world may not directly have affected ichthyosaurs, related factors such as changes in food availability, migratory routes, competitors and birthing places are all potential drivers, probably occurring in conjunction to drive ichthyosaurs to extinction," Dr Fischer added. Dr David Martill of the University of Portsmouth, who was not involved with the study, said the move to a "super greenhouse world" would have had a huge impact on the habitats of animals on land and in the sea. Ichthyosaurs shared the ocean with other great groups of large marine reptiles such as the plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, however, which managed to outlive them. "They [the ichthyosaurs] just disappear while a lot of animals living alongside did alright," Dr Martill told BBC News. "Some mysterious thing was involved. I think it's still an enigma. " The famous fossil hunter Mary Anning discovered the first complete fossil of an ichthyosaur in the cliffs near Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1810. Her discovery shook up the scientific world and provided evidence for new ideas about the history of the Earth. Follow Helen on Twitter . 2016-03-08 23:13 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
69 Wounded pastor regains consciousness; shooter sought COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho pastor who was shot six times last weekend has regained consciousness and is talking with his family, an associate said Tuesday. The search continued Tuesday for Kyle Odom, 30, the man suspected of shooting Pastor Tim Remington, a day after Remington led the prayer at a weekend campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Authorities say there's no indication Remington's appearance with Cruz had anything to do with the shooting, as they work to figure out what motivated the attack outside his church in broad daylight. "However, it does appear that this was a pre-planned attack," Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said Monday. "And I will tell you that some details surrounding Mr. Odom's planning are disturbing. " He did not elaborate. Meanwhile, several news outlets in Spokane received letters on Tuesday that purported to be from Odom, Coeur d'Alene police Detective Jared Reneau said. The letters, postmarked Monday, contained a sheet of paper that read "The Truth About Kyle Odom," but had nothing else written on them, Reneau said. "We are trying to confirm their authenticity," Reneau said. Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur d'Alene hospital, said John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor. "He's whispering and talking to his family a little bit," Padula said Tuesday. "He's doing absolutely amazing. He gave me a thumb's up last night when I went in. " Remington, who is married and has four children, has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said. Remington and his wife have been with The Altar Church for nearly two decades, and they have specialized in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, Padula said. The church has extensive programs, including in-patient rehabilitation, for addicts, Padula said. Padula was a meth addict for 17 years before going through the church's program seven years ago, he said. Police said Odom drove to the Spokane, Washington, area on Interstate 90 after the Sunday afternoon shooting, according to information from traffic cameras. He then turned south before they lost his trail. Odom had no connection with the church before showing up before services early Sunday morning, Padula said. Odom, a former Marine from Coeur d'Alene, could be in one of several western states by now, police said. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department has issued a warrant of attempted first-degree murder for Odom, who has no criminal record but does have a history of mental illness. White said Odom was armed when he attended services in the church earlier Sunday, and that the violence could have been much worse. Odom served in the Marines from 2006-2010, winning an Iraq Campaign Medal and other awards. He rose to the rank of corporal. Odom later graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry.
2016-03-09 00:27 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
70 Witness: Home Fire Killed 6 Was Heated by Space Heaters At a northwest Atlanta home where six people died in an early morning fire, neighbors said the heat was provided by space heaters and the homeowner regularly allowed people to stay when they were down on their luck. Four men and two women were killed in the blaze, which was reported before dawn Monday. The fire's cause does not appear suspicious, though investigators are considering all possibilities, authorities said Tuesday. Autopsies were being conducted by the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office, which had not yet released the victims' identities early Tuesday. Investigators have spoken with a key witness — a woman who was in the home about 30 minutes before the blaze began, Atlanta Fire Rescue Sgt. Cortez Stafford said Tuesday. Jannett Ragland said she arrived at the home around 4 a.m. Monday and left around 5 a.m. — very close to the time the fire was reported. Ragland said she believes the home was unsafe for people staying there. "It needed to be shut down. It needed to be closed down, condemned or whatever," Ragland told an Associated Press photographer at the scene of the fire on Monday. She added, "I feel blessed — very blessed — because it could have been me. " There were two space heaters in the home, which always ran because it was cold in the house, Ragland told the AP. She said a lamp in the living was "leaning to the side like it would catch something on fire. " The man who lived in the home allowed people into the house when they were down on their luck and needed a place to stay, said a neighbor, Kimberly Wise. "It does not appear to be a suspicious fire or arson at this time, but of course they're looking into everything they can to find out what started this fire," Stafford said. When fire crews arrived, the blaze had already spread through the roof and throughout the building, making it impossible for firefighters to reach some areas of the home, Stafford said. "We got on scene and did the best job we could to try to get inside — there was just too much fire," Stafford told reporters at the scene. He said the single-level structure with a basement had "collapsed in on itself. " Five of the victims were found in the rear of the home and one was found in a front bedroom, he said.
2016-03-09 00:20 By abcnews.go.com
71 DIY abortions are on the rise in the U. S. Topics: Video , original video , Abortion , Social News , Media News , Life News , News , Politics News Anti-abortion laws are continuing to rise in the U. S. including internet searches for DIY abortions. The New York Times released an article examining the link between limited abortion facilities and increased online searches for self- induced abortions. In 2015, there were over 119,000 searches for “how to have a miscarriage,” and these types of searches are continuing to rise. Watch our video to find out more.
2016-03-08 23:13 Patrice Waite www.salon.com
72 US Breaks Record for Hottest Winter Federal meteorologists say the winter that has just ended was the hottest in U. S. records, thanks to the combination of El Nino and man-made global warming. The average temperature for the Lower 48 from December through February — known as meteorological winter — was 36.8 degrees, 4.6 degrees above normal. It breaks the record set in 1999-2000. Last month was the seventh warmest February. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate scientist Jake Crouch said a super-hot December pushed the winter to record territory. The fall of 2015 also was a U. S. record. All six New England states had their warmest winters. Every state in the Lower 48 had winters at least 1.7 degrees warmer than normal. Alaska was 10.6 degrees warmer than normal. Records go back to 1895.
2016-03-09 00:19 By abcnews.go.com
73 Texas’ war on reality: State’s next likely school board member believes Obama was a drug-addicted gay prostitute Topics: mary lou bruner , texas state board of education , texas school board , texas textbooks , Elections 2016 , Barack Obama , Climate Change , Elections News , News , Politics News Donald Trump and Ted Cruz may be dominating national headlines, but there are other elections going on this year, and the level of nutty of many Republican candidates running for state office actually, as hard as it may be to believe, makes those two look like pretenders. Take, for instance, Mary Lou Bruner, a wild-eyed right-wing conspiracy theorist who runs a very good chance of winning a seat on the Texas State Board of Education. She got 48 percent of the vote in a three person Republican primary, which means she’ll be competing in May in a run- off against fellow Republican Keven Ellis, who only got 31 percent of the vote. Bruner’s particular brand of battiness and the fact that she’s winning with it tells us a lot about how much the conservative movement has become beholden to magical thinking and unvarnished bigotry. You can get an eyeball of Bruner’s particular brand of wingnuttery from this 2010 video where she argued that “Middle Easterners” secretly bribing textbook publishers to inject pro-Islam propaganda into textbooks, presumably to convert hapless Christian schoolchildren. Since then, she’s decided that what’s needed to stop the imaginary Muslim conspiracy is to run for the statewide school board, which is already a den of Bible-thumpers , grifters , and people who think Moses should be considered a Founding Father. But even by the appallingly low standards of the Texas state school board, Bruner is out there. The Texas Freedom Network (TFN), an organization that fights the attempts by the religious right to turn the state into a de facto theocracy, has been on the case. In early February, they raised the alarm about some off-the-wall statements that Bruner had made. Bruner has all the standard issue right wing nut beliefs — the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, climate change is an international hoax, dinosaurs lived with people — but she also has some interesting twists on the standard nonsense, including this lovely theory she posted on her Facebook page back in October. She also argued that Karl Marx had come up with the idea of climate change as a hoax to overturn capitalism. (In case you’re wondering: Marx died in 1883. Even if you’re stretching, the earliest suggestion of human-caused global warming was offered in 1896 , but didn’t really coalesce into a theory until the 1950s.) She definitely thinks that Obama is conspiring with the U. N. to genocide people , using Obamacare to do it. After TFN exposed Bruner’s extremism, she appears to have deleted basically all of her Facebook feed , though she has caved to temptation and ranted on Feb. 25 that, “You are very naive if you believe a tiny river carved out the Grand Canyon.” But, unsurprisingly, she’s acting like she’s the victim of some kind of anti-Christian conspiracy and getting very weaselly when asked about her wacky views by reporters. “I don’t know, I guess I’m assuming it was true; you’re assuming some people assume that it’s false, I mean, who knows,” Bruner told a local news station when asked if she really believes Obama spent his youth as a gay hustler raising funds for his supposed drug habit. But TFN was not going to just let Bruner start kicking dirt over the looniness. On Friday, they published another post with even more screenshots of deleted Facebook rantings from this woman who wants to determine what schoolchildren in Texas learn. Wherein we learn that Bruner thinks Planned Parenthood is to blame when right wing terrorists attack it:
2016-03-08 23:13 Amanda Marcotte www.salon.com
74 “Feeling strong is part of who I am now”: This women-only powerlifting competition is seriously badass Topics: Iron Maidens , original video Early Saturday morning 65 women — aged 25 to 70 — arrived at a 5,000-square-foot former garage space in Brooklyn to compete in a female-only weightlifting competition. The Iron Maidens Raw Open was founded five years ago at Crossfit South Brooklyn to give women a place to compete in three powerlifts: the deadlift, squat and bench press. “Iron Maidens is at its heart a celebration of women who prioritize strength training,” Margie Lempert, the events founder, said. And the weights these women are pulling are astounding. Sherine Marcelle, who came in first in her weight group, deadlifted 405 lbs., squatted 305 lbs.and bench pressed 135. The competition’s oldest participant Linda Lempert squatted 60 lbs., bench pressed 62.5 and deadlifted 105lbs. Check out our video — these women are truly badass.
2016-03-08 23:13 Janet Upadhye www.salon.com
75 A warning to the Supreme Court: The true lesson of Kermit Gosnell is that abortion restrictions get women killed Topics: The Supreme Court , Abortion , Reproductive Rights , Kermit Gosnell , News , Politics News Doctor Kermit Gosnell preyed on poor Philadelphia women in obscurity until 2011 — until a grand jury report disclosed allegations that Gosnell had used dangerous methods to perform illegal late-term abortions in a cat-urine-soaked clinic that doubled as a pill mill, killing delivered babies and injuring and murdering women. State regulators had looked the other way, failing to enforce strong laws on the books, despite repeated complaints. And so the national media, along with anti-abortion activists, suddenly turned their eyes upon my old West Philadelphia neighborhood. Residents locked into segregated rowhouse blocks had suffered uninterrupted impoverishment for years. That hasn’t changed. After all, that wasn’t the point. Instead, anti-abortion activists used these women’s stories to launch an unprecedented push for laws nationwide, known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, or TRAP, which use the pretext of protecting women’s health to shut down abortion clinics. And it is working: At least 162 providers have closed in the United States since 2011, according to Bloomberg. One such law, which would shut down the majority of Texas’ clinics, was argued over last week before the Supreme Court. And Gosnell’s ghastly specter was present: “Justice Kagan, this bill was passed in the wake of the Kermit Gosnell scandal that prompted Texas and many other States to reexamine their abortion regulations,” Texas Solicitor General Scott A. Keller argued. An amicus brief filed by groups including the Texas Eagle Forum—the state chapter of an organization whose leader has said that unmarried women voted for Obama because “when you kick your husband out, you’ve got to have big brother government to be your provider”—contended that “the Gosnell prosecution and the accompanying revelations about the abortion industry not only for murdering live-born, viable infants but also for endangering and even killing abortion patients.” Gosnell, according to anti-abortion advocates, revealed the true face of a profit-hungry industry that brutalizes women and their unborn children in what Justice Scalia once called “abortion mills.” The reality, however, is the opposite: Poor women were driven to Gosnell precisely because anti-abortion advocates have denied them access to affordable procedures. In a United States where abortions were available free and on demand, and where comprehensive sexual education and contraception were prevalent, Gosnell’s business model would have been a bust. Thanks to the Hyde Amendment, federal Medicaid funds are mostly barred from helping poor women pay for abortions. Some states pay out of their own funds. Pennsylvania does not.
2016-03-08 23:13 Daniel Denvir www.salon.com
76 Gift Theatre's 'Richard III' — as you've never seen him before The premise that drives Shakespeare’s “Richard III” is set out clearly very early in the play as the physically disabled and emotionally warped Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who is hellbent on becoming King of England, declares: “And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover… I am determined to prove a villain.” In other words, because he cannot live as most normal men, and experience love, he will turn to acquiring power, by any and all means, no matter how evil. And watching the play’s unique production by The Gift Theatre (which is celebrating its 15th anniversary with this “guest” staging at the Steppenwolf Garage), you cannot help but think of the slew of real-life characters now in pursuit of the American presidency, or suppress the impulse to engage in a bit of Shakespearean-style psychoanalysis of the contenders. But there is far more in this lean yet volcanic production directed by Jessica Thebus in a nearly-in-the-round space. For playing the title role here is actor Michael Patrick Thornton, whose own “disability” becomes an intrinsic element in the storytelling. (The actor suffered a spinal stroke in 2003 that left him paralyzed from the neck down, although he subsequently has regained some mobility after extensive work at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.) As Thornton moves about in a wheelchair, rises with great effort to grab hold of a walker, dramatically strides through the play’s climactic scenes with the aid of a state-of-the-art ReWalk exoskeleton (a wearable mobile apparatus powered by a system of motors), and finally collapses to the ground, all memories of other Richards with their limps, humped backs and crippled arms fade from memory. Through May 1 The Gift Theatre at Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted $30 – $40 (312) 335-1650; 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission This is the real thing. But of course it would be nothing were Thornton not also a superb actor — a master of the acerbic, the slyly twisted, the blackly comic and the chillingly manipulative, who fearlessly steers clear of sentimentality. He also is surrounded by a fire-breathing cast, whose female characters, in particular, play their roles to withering effect. There are, to be sure, any number of impediments to Richard reaching the throne. He must find a way to have his brother, Clarence (the excellent Thomas J. Cox), murdered. In the most perverse of all wooing scenes, he must convince Anne (the enigmatic Olivia Cygan), who knows he is responsible for the death of her husband, to marry him. He has only to bide his time briefly before the frail Edward IV (Adrian Danzig) dies of grief. And then, most hideously of all — he sets his murderous sights on Prince Edward, the boy who is immediate heir to the throne. (The prince and his younger brother, both destined for death, are played winningly by actresses Hannah Toriumi and Brittany Burch.) Left to rage and mourn is their mother, King Edward’s widow, Elizabeth (Jennifer Avery), who must eventually make a horrific deal with “the devil” (Richard). And Avery’s mix of repulsion, strength and ultimate impotence is thrilling to watch. With most of the impediments out of the way, Richard, in league with the Duke of Buckingham (a deft turn by Keith Neagle), is in line for the throne. But shrewdly hiding his lust for coronation, he plays it so that he must be begged to accept the crown. Making a couple of blistering appearances during the play is Margaret (Shanesia Davis, spewing a bravura stream of curses, burns up the stage), exiled widow of King Henry VI, who knows Richard’s machinations all too well. And as the young Richmond, who ultimately silences Richard, and sets the kingdom right again, Gregory Fenner delivers a bristling, fully heroic speech with admirable intensity. Thebus’ minimalist concept creates a white heat with the simplest means: The use of poles, beaten rhythmically, to suggest every sort of mortal weapon (powerful work by fight choreographer John Tovar), and the use of gauzy scarves to suffocate the young princes. A frame of bare branches (by set designers Jacqueline and Richard Penrod) is just enough to suggest the “winter of our discontent,” along with dramatic lighting by JR Lederle, fittingly gray costumes trimmed with ruffs and fur by Sully Ratke, and ominous music by Kevin O’Donnell and Aaron Stephenson. To be sure, you leave “Richard III” thinking that despite our current situation, electoral politics might indeed be the best option.
2016-03-09 00:26 Hedy Weiss chicago.suntimes.com
77 Estranged father's deathbed confession unites 2 families as 1 MUSKEGON, MICH. (WZZM) - Many people are into the science of genealogy, which is the study of family lineage and history. There’s an element of thrill to be able to go back and literally connect the dots, locating and communicating with as many family members as you can, with the hope of ultimately tracing the connections all the way back to the origins of your family. (Mobile/app users: watch the video) Web communities, like Ancestry.com, have evolved in recent years to help people find lost relatives and build a comprehensive back story of their respective family histories. A Muskegon woman and her brother recently found out they had relatives overseas, but they didn’t receive the news by way of a website. The method by which the revelation was conveyed to them was just as shocking as the revelation itself. Jessica Fairbanks says that she and her brother, Bryan, had a turbulent childhood while growing up in Muskegon. “My dad was very abusive to our family,” Fairbanks said. “He was addicted to drugs, and would often disappear and not come home for extensive periods of time.” The family would break apart in the mid-1990s. Seventeen years would pass before either Jessica or Bryan would see their father, Bryan Brewer Sr., again, but their reason for seeing him wasn’t because they wanted to make up for all the lost years. It was because they found out he was dying. “In February [2016], we received a phone call that our father was in the hospital,” Fairbanks said. “He has congestive heart failure, and we were told his health was declining. “My brother and I were asked if we wanted to go visit him one last time.” Jessica and Bryan drove to Meijer Heart Center in Grand Rapids for their visit. A few days later, Jessica received another call from the hospital, asking if she would come back again to sign some paperwork because she’s co-executor of her father’s affairs. “I decided to visit him again while I was there the second time, and when I went into his room, he wasn’t in good shape,” Fairbanks said. “I asked him if there was anything he wanted to say to me; anything I should know about.” The words he began sharing with Jessica were shocking. “He said, ‘you need to know about your half-brother in Germany.’” Jessica says she asked her father if he remembered anything about him. In what felt and seemed like a deathbed confessional, Bryan Brewer began giving Jessica as much information as he could remember about his son. “He told me his name [Bryan Anthony Steven Bekmann], what he believed was his birthday, his mother’s name, and the part of Germany that they were in,” Fairbanks said. “I pulled an envelope out of my purse, and began scribbling all the information down he was telling me.” Jessica said she was overwhelmed with all the information her father was revealing to her. As a child, Jessica remembered learning of her father being in the Army and stationed in Germany. She says she left her father’s bedside with one mission on her mind. “I’m going to try and find him,” she said. Jessica returned to Muskegon and began creating a large poster. On it, she wrote all the information her father was able to tell her about her half-brother. She even created an email account, though at the time, she wasn’t aware she was spelling her half-brother’s last name wrong: [email protected]. “This all happened 36-years-ago, so who knew if [Bryan/Steven] had moved out of Germany, or wanted to know anything about his real father, or even wanted to connect with any of his father’s relations,” Fairbanks added. Once the poster was finished, she had somebody take a picture of her holding it, then she uploaded that photo to her personal Facebook page, hoping the power of social media could aid in her search. “I posted the picture on Saturday afternoon [February 20], and honestly, I wasn’t expecting a lot to come of it,” Fairbanks said. It didn’t take long for her post to catch fire. “Jessica tagged me in her post, and I watched the ‘shares’ explode,” Bryan Brewer Jr. said, Jessica’s brother, who lives in Holland. “I had to turn my Facebook notifications off because there were so many shares.” “All of my friends started sharing the picture, and then their friends were sharing it,” Jessica said. “There were even people tagging people who live in Europe and Germany.” It didn’t take long before Jessica’s original post was shared on Facebook nearly 3,000 times. “My mother came up with a suggestion for me to post the picture of me holding the sign on some public German Facebook pages, so I did that, too,” Fairbanks added. When she woke up Sunday [February 21] morning, Jessica noticed she’d received a Facebook message from a German newspaper. “The message said, ‘We saw your post, and we wanted to let you know that we would like to help you find your brother,’” Fairbanks said. Jessica said the rest of Sunday went by without much else happening, other than her original post being shared several more times. “Monday [February 22] morning when I woke up, I had another message from the German newspaper saying, ‘Congratulations; you found him; we heard you’ve been in contact; we just spoke with him,’” Fairbanks said. “At first I was thinking this was a joke because I hadn’t talked with him. " “Then it occurred to me to check my email, with the email address I had on the sign.” Jessica said she started shaking, and signed into that email account as quickly as she could. “Sure enough, there was an email from Steven Bekmann in that email account,” Fairbanks said. “His initial correspondence with me was asking a few questions. Jessica says Steven wanted to know what cities her father lived in during his time in Germany, and if the birthday could possibly be July 12 instead of July 19 (which is the birth date her father told her in his confession, and the date she put on the poster). “I emailed him back immediately, told him what I knew about our father, and the whole story he had told me,” added Fairbanks. “After a few more email exchanges, before long, we knew this was legitimate.” Once Jessica and Steven confirmed they were half-siblings, a deluge of dialogue between the two began, and also included other unknown family members. “Through the course of the morning, I was talking to him [Steven] on Facebook messenger, with his 13-year-old son, whose name is also Bryan, and with his mother, Angelika,” Fairbanks said. During a Skype interview with WZZM 13, Steven Bekmann shared his surprise and reaction to having a long-lost sibling contact him after 36 years. “It’s incredible,” said Bekmann, from his home in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, which is about 100 miles southwest of Frankfurt. “It’s unbelievable and incredible that this person, a sister, makes contact with me after 36 years.” Steven details how he first found out that Jessica had launched a search for him. “I first heard about it that Monday [February 22] morning around 5:30,” Bekmann said. “That’s when a friend called me and said I needed to go check my Facebook right away because there was a post, with somebody claiming to be my sister. “I logged on and when I first saw the picture of Jessica, I thought it was a fake,” Bekmann added. “I saw the email address on the poster, and decided to message her.” Bekmann says he never met or had any communication with his biological father [Bryan Brewer Sr.], so Jessica’s email was a monumental moment for him. “This was the first contact I had to my father in 36 years,” Bekmann said. “Jessica and I talked about our dad, about her mom, my family, her family. “It’s very emotional for me, and I’m very happy,” Bekmann said One day, both Jessica and Steven say all their messaging will lead to a meeting. “My husband and I have already looked up plane ticket prices,” said Jessica, with a big smile on her face. “We won’t be traveling to Germany right away, but I’m hoping someday in the near future we can.” “Coming to the United States would be difficult for me at this time, but I really hope we can meet,” Bekmann said. “Knowing I have family in America will make me brush up on my English speaking skills, so I can learn to communicate better with Jessica and my new family.” If their father’s [Bryan Brewer Sr.] dying wish was to somehow get his entire family connected before he passes, his wish was granted. “Everyone seems pretty excited and happy,” Fairbanks said. “I know I definitely am.” If you know of a story that you’d like to share in Our Michigan Life, please send an email to Brent Ashcroft: [email protected] Our Michigan Life airs weeknights on WZZM 13 News.
2016-03-08 22:58 TEGNA www.wzzm13.com
78 FBI agents investigated over shots fired during standoff PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge are under investigation for not disclosing they fired shots that missed Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, authorities said Tuesday. Oregon State Police troopers fired the three rounds that killed the Arizona rancher during a confrontation on a remote road, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Bend. An independent investigation by Oregon authorities found the troopers were justified in shooting Finicum because he failed to heed their commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said. The investigators discovered members of an FBI hostage rescue team who were at the scene failed to disclose they fired two rounds. As they looked into how many shots were fired during the confrontation and by whom, the investigators found a round in the roof of Finicum's truck. "We could not explain the fourth shot into the roof of the truck, or its trajectory given the placement of the Oregon State Police troopers at the time," Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said. The U. S. Justice Department's Office of Inspector General said it is investigating the FBI team's actions, working with Oregon officials. During the news conference, Oregon officials played videos showing Finicum and others in his truck Jan. 26 during the initial stop by law enforcement. Finicum was driving one of two vehicles that were pulled over while carrying key occupation figures. Video taken from the phone of one of his passengers shows the occupants panicking after authorities stop the truck. With his window rolled down, Finicum shouts at the officers: "Shoot me, just shoot me! Put the bullet through me. Do as you damn well please. " After a conversation with others in the truck, Finicum drives off, leading authorities on a short chase. The song "Hold Each Other" by a Great Big World was on the vehicle's stereo. Finicum was driving over 70 mph when the truck came to a roadblock, Nelson said. A trooper fired three shots at the truck as it approached because it was a threat to law enforcement, he said. The truck plowed into a snowbank. Finicum got out, and someone from the FBI team fired two more shots, Nelson said. As Finicum stood in the snow, authorities told him multiple times to lie on the ground. Instead, he reached into the inside of his jacket. The troopers fired three rounds, all of which hit Finicum. A loaded pistol was found in his jacket pocket. Oregon investigators said Finicum posed a threat to officers by nearly running over one of them at the roadblock, and by reaching for a gun. Occupation members in the other vehicle, including leader Ammon Bundy, surrendered. Finicum was a high-profile part of the weekslong standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, launched Jan. 2 by a small armed group demanding the government relinquish control of public lands and objecting to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. His death became a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and led to protests of what they called an unnecessary use of force. Finicum's widow, Jeanette Finicum, on Tuesday rejected authorities' conclusion that her husband's shooting was justified and said she is talking with attorneys about taking her family's fight to court. Speaking to reporters in St. George, Utah, Jeanette Finicum said she believes her husband was shot with his hands in the air trying to surrender. She argued he was reaching to his side as a reaction to the pain of being shot. Revelations that FBI agents at the scene failed to disclose their own shots may continue to fuel debate about Finicum's death. "Now we know why a video with sound wasn't released immediately," said Lissa Casey, Bundy's attorney. "If it was, the public would have heard the shots that the government didn't want them to hear. " After Finicum's death and the arrests during the traffic stop, most occupiers cleared out of the wildlife preserve. A few holdouts extended the occupation to nearly six weeks before they surrendered Feb. 11. Bundy and more than two dozen others with ties to the standoff have been charged with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers. Finicum and his wife raised dozens of foster children, though social workers removed them from the couple's home a few days after the occupation began. Finicum had said the foster kids were the family's main source of income.
2016-03-09 00:11 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
79 How ripple effect of doctor row could be toxic The ante has certainly been upped in the increasingly acrimonious dispute between junior doctors and the government in England. Wednesday sees medics stage a walk-out for the third time - with two more stoppages to follow next month - while lawyers prepare a legal challenge to fight the imposition of the new contract. But while the medical profession busies itself, the government's tactic is relatively simple: it's hoping the whole thing will just go away. Now that may seem pretty far-fetched given the row has dominated the headlines in recent months. But there's good reason to think it will succeed. Firstly, the chances of the judicial review the British Medical Association is pursuing actually stopping the imposition is, by all accounts, slim. And with Europe dominating the media's attention, the government's spin doctors seem pretty confident the issue won't be given the airtime it has had to date. There's also a belief that as the strikes continue and the backlog of patients waiting for operations rises, public support and the appetite of doctors to continue will drop away. What is more, behind the scenes, efforts are being made to get the other two key pillars of the medical profession onside in the drive for more seven-day services. An announcement on more support for GPs to help pave the way for seven-day services is expected soon, while renewed attempts are being made to reach an agreement with consultants about weekend working (talks have been going on since the autumn). Of course, the government's chances of success in both areas is by no means guaranteed. But it's not that much of a stretch of the imagination to see how this dispute could slowly fizzle out bit by bit over the coming months before the new contract starts being rolled out from the summer. But even if that happens, the government's strategy is incredibly risky. Why? By winning this battle, ministers could well end up undermining their long-term strategy as the ripple effect of the dispute could be toxic. It is a point made by Mark Britnell, a man who knows a thing or two about health systems. He worked in the NHS for 20 years, rising to become one of its most senior executives before leaving in 2009, going on to become head of global health for KPMG. "It makes no sense," he told me. "Junior doctors will be crucial in making the changes the NHS needs to cope with all the challenges it faces, but they will be demoralised. "You can't improve services without bringing the staff with you. This could really set the NHS back. " But it is not just about intangible things such as morale and attitude. There is a risk this dispute could have a real impact on the numbers staying in the NHS in England. Already many junior doctors' posts are not being filled. Last year one in 10 GP trainee posts went unfilled. The situation was little better for A&E and paediatrics. Even a small increase in these numbers prompted by medics choosing locum work, the pharmaceutical industry or working abroad (or just elsewhere in the UK as the contract is only being introduced in England) has the potential to cause havoc when more and more is being asked of the health service. Read more from Nick Follow Nick on Twitter
2016-03-08 18:13 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
80 Pat Fitzgerald: Lovie Smith hire won't change in-state rivalry Pat Fitzgerald considers Lovie Smith a friend. Now he’s a rival, too. One day after the former Bears head coach said Monday he wanted to lock down the state, the Northwestern coach said that sounded familiar. “Not the first person I’ve heard that from,” Fitzgerald said Tuesday at the Wildcats’ pro day. Fitzgerald went on to tout the Wildcats’ lack of turnover — and with good reason. Since he began as a Wildcats assistant in 2001, Illinois has employed six head coaches, counting a one-game interim boss and, now, Smith. “I’ve been here now for a number of years, had staff consistency,” Fitzgerald said. “We know who we are, we embrace who we are, and we believe we win with consistency because of who we are. “Do we need to get better? Yeah, in a lot of ways. But that’s what we’re doing right now seven practices into spring. Like I said, happy for Lovie and his family, but our focus is on us.” He said he wishes Smith “nothing but the best of luck in every game but one, as you would suspect.” The Wildcats are 9-6 against the Illini since 2001. Fitzgerald, though, expressed sympathy for fired head coach Bill Cubit, who was fired Saturday, two days before Smith’s official announcement. “It’s one of those situations where you hat to see what happened to Bill and his staff, but this is an amazing, amazing profession,” he said. “We get to impact so many great kids and help them take the next step in their lives, but it’s a pretty darn tough business, too. “Ecstatic for Lovie, but your heart goes out to Bill. He did a great job there through some turbulent times.” Asked how the hiring would affect the rivalry, Fitzgerald kept mostly mum — “Any questions about them, you can ask them,” he said — though his former players sounded intrigued. “I think (Smith) and coach Fitz will have a great relationship with one another and kind of build up that rivalry with one another as well,” said “superback” Dan Vitale, who is expected to be drafted in the middle rounds. “I’d like to see that rivalry grow, especially being the in-state one.” The Wheaton-Warrenville South alum, who grew up watching Smith coach the Bears, said the move was exciting for the Illini. “I’m a big fan of him,” he said. “I feel like that’s awesome for him.” It was a “great hire,” said Wildcats receiver Miles Shuler, who ran a blazing 4.39-second 40-yard dash Tuesday. “Lovie Smith is a legendary coach, a great coach,” he said. “Illinois got a great head coach over there. “Coach Fitz, he’s a legendary coach too. It’s going to be a great matchup in the future, so I’m excited for that.” Follow me on Twitter @patrickfinley Email: [email protected]
2016-03-08 23:23 Patrick Finley chicago.suntimes.com
81 Some Starbucks sandwiches recalled A batch of breakfast sandwiches made for Starbucks is being recalled because they are possibly contaminated with Listeria. Progressive Gourmet is recalling its 6 ounce packages of Sausage, Egg and Cheddar Cheese on English muffin breakfast sandwiches. The sandwiches were possibly sold March 3 and 4 in Starbucks stores in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, the company said. The recall affects 250 stores in those three states. Starbucks said it removed the sandwiches from those stores when it became aware of the recall. No illnesses have been reported in connection with the sandwich. Consumers who bought the recalled sandwich are urged to return them for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact Progressive Gourmet at 1-800-224-7630 (9:00 am-5:00 pm Monday through Friday EST). 2016-03-08 23:23 Bill Ruminski chicago.suntimes.com
82 Second City, Slate launch live comedy show for election season
Second City and Slate have announced a traveling stage co-production, “Unelectable You,” set to play more than a dozen cities across the country just in time for the upcoming presidential election. The tour will begin its Chicago run in August. The full tour schedule will be announced soon. “Unelectable You’ will utilize scripted and improv to explore topics from campaign trail scandals to how voters consumer political news and everything in between. Writers for both Slate and Second City will collaborate on the show, to be directed by Second City vet Matt Hovde. More info about the Slate/Second City comedy circuit can be found at.
2016-03-08 23:23 Miriam Di chicago.suntimes.com
83 Jacob May making good impression at first big-league camp GLENDALE, Ariz. – If anyone was born to play baseball, it’s Jacob May. May’s father, Lee May Jr., was a Mets first-round draft pick who never made it to the majors but stayed in professional baseball as a coach. His grandfather, Lee May, hit 354 major league homers. And May’s uncle Carlos has a White Sox pedigree – a two-time All-Star on those good red-striped White Sox teams starring Dick Allen and managed by Chuck Tanner during the early 1970s. “Any time you’re around someone who has been in the game you soak it all in,’’ May, a switch-hitting center fielder, said. “Even the little things you’re comprehending.’’ A third-round draft pick out of Coastal Carolina in 2013, May, who is experiencing his first major league camp, doesn’t carry himself like a privileged prospect. He knows his dad was expected to make it to the majors but came up short. He knows baseball is tough to master. “I’m grateful and blessed to be here,’’ May said. May is grateful and blessed to have survived a scary collision in the outfield with shortstop Tim Anderson, the organization’s top position-player prospect [and his roommate at the time] while playing for AA Birmingham last summer. A concussion shelved him for six weeks, and he doesn’t remember the crash. “It was a freak accident,’’ said May, who had opened the season with a .311 batting average and 25 stolen bases in 52 games. His numbers flattened out when he returned, not a shocking development considering the severity of the injury, and he finished with a.275 average, .329 on base percentage and 37 stolen bases. The Sox, who haven’t drafted and developed nearly enough position players to stock their major league roster for years, need prospects like May – who will likely start the season at AAA Charlotte — to pan out. They’ve filled his position like every other, trading for Adam Eaton and, most recently, signing Austin Jackson to a one- year, $5 million contract. Bullish on his skill and feel for the game, they think they might have a keeper in May. “This kid knows how to play the game,’’ Sox director of player development Nick Capra said. “He’s a real good defender with good range and a good arm. He has a chance to be a table setter with on-base potential. He bunts well and is a threat on the bases.’’ He has looked good in Arizona, making two starts in center and going 3-for-8 with two doubles, two RBI and two stolen bases in two attempts. May, 24, who was born in Williamsport, Pa., home of the Little League World Series, was raised to be a ballplayer. “Growing up I was always in dugouts and clubhouses with my dad as he coached,’’ he said. “I was always blessed to be around the game. “He pushed me to work hard, established my work ethic and that nothing is going to come easy to you. “The White Sox have done a great job establishing my foundation to utilize my speed. They do a great job to make sure we’re always thinking the game. We’re always learning, growing. You never stop growing in this game, or in life.’’ With center fielder Adam Eaton restricted to designated hitter as he builds strength in his throwing shoulder, May got a second start in center field with the Sox regulars Sunday. Batting left-handed, he laid down a sacrifice bunt and lined a double down the left-field line to drive in two runs. Then he stole third base. “He’s got a lot of tools and one of the biggest things is he’s not afraid,’’ manager Robin Ventura said. “He’s stealing bases, smart, heady player, puts the bat on the ball, run the bases well.’’ May is more of a small-ball guy than his kin, but the Sox can probably find a place on their roster for an outfielder who can cover gaps, handle the bat, and run. “They were bigger guys had some thunder,’’ May said. “We all bring our own type of game. My dad, he had some wheels. I’m a little hybrid of those guys. ‘’Everyone has their own talents.’’
2016-03-08 23:23 Daryl Van chicago.suntimes.com
84 Dark past that drove Maria Sharapova's obsession to win and get rich She had chosen a suitably mournful black outfit, wore minimal make-up and kept her pretty head bowed. She spoke in self-admonishing and slightly bewildered tones, and clasped her hands penitently on the lectern. But let no one be fooled. Every apologetic sigh, every remorseful toss of her bottle-blonde tresses would have been cynically choreographed with the aim of keeping sponsorship deals worth £20million a year. The act was, as we now know, to no avail. And as a host of companies – from sportswear giant Nike to watch-maker TAG Heuer and Porsche – suspended their relationship with Maria Sharapova , one question above all remained. Why, with the eyes of the world on her, and her multimillion-fortune at stake, did she risk everything by taking the pills? Having reported on her career since she was 17 years old, and watched as she caused one of the biggest upsets tennis has seen by demolishing the seemingly invincible Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final, I can offer some clues. Let’s start with her childhood. Sharapova’s was troubled to the point of dysfunction. Though her parents Yuri and Yelena hail from Chernobyl, they moved to Siberia shortly before her birth, in 1987. According to the Sharapova legend, they were fleeing the fall-out from the nuclear disaster the previous year. But relatives and friends say Yuri, then a builder, was driven by money, and moved to boost his salary by working in the oil fields. He tried and failed to become a professional cyclist and skier before spotting his only daughter’s exceptional co-ordination as they knocked a tennis ball about on a rutted court. She was just three years old – and while he was to make considerable sacrifices for her talent, he quickly surmised she could provide his passport to riches. Within a year the family were moving again, this time to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the climate and facilities were far better suited to tennis. Then, when Sharapova was six, he scraped enough money together to move with her to Florida, where many of the world’s best coaches are based. They couldn’t afford to take Yelena (who in any case couldn’t obtain a permit to travel outside the old Soviet Union) so mother and daughter were wrenched apart, and would not see one another for two years until Yelena was able to join them. Sharapova was deeply unhappy during those early years in America. Jealous of her ability, wealthy girls at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy – where she won a scholarship – teased her over her accent and because her father worked as a restaurant dishwasher. However, Yuri drove her with a ruthless single-mindedness. One of Sharapova’s coaches likened him to an Eastern Bloc spy who would lurk beside the courts, snooping on other girls’ training sessions and taking notes. He made her practise until her hands were blistered, and berated her when she fell short of his standards. He would doubtless argue that his methodology paid dividends. Aged nine, Sharapova won an under-16s tournament, and the riches were on their way. Soon after she won Wimbledon, Yuri swapped their modest house in Florida for a mansion. The Honda was replaced with a limo. With marketing executives drooling over her looks and talent, Sharapova appeared to be living the dream. She shopped with her mother on Fifth Avenue, featured on the cover of Vogue and was propositioned by the most eligible men. There were romances with the US tennis ace Andy Roddick and basketball giant Sasha Vujacic (to whom was fleetingly engaged) not to mention a reported fling with Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine who allegedly likened her silent, lifeless lovemaking to that of a ‘dead frog’. He later denied the remark, and Sharapova insisted they never slept together. Even as she was living out this fantasy existence, however, I glimpsed an uglier reality. The grasping Yuri, who assumed the role of his daughter’s business manager, milked his daughter for all her worth – once demanding a fee of £100,000 to fix me up for an interview. And on the circuit there was much disquiet about his overbearing domination of her. Since her quiet, undemanding mother was his antithesis, no wonder their marriage fell apart. Perhaps this constant pressure helps to explains why, as her fortunes rose, Sharapova changed; and not for the better. The obliging, starry-eyed waif became a sullen, self-absorbed – and loudly grunting – queen-bee who would curtly decline to sign autographs for fans at the courtside. There was, however, another crucial factor in Sharapova’s demise: her failure to come to terms with the superior strength and ability of Serena. Though she won two of their first three matches, including that momentous 2004 final (and has earned almost twice as much money as Serena by dint of her commercial deals) she has since been routinely crushed by her American nemesis, failing to win any of their 18 subsequent encounters. Williams seems to exact particular pleasure from beating her – perhaps because her former boyfriend, Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, famously dumped her for Sharapova a few years ago. The romantic tangle prompted a vicious volley of insults. A heartbroken Serena accused Dimitrov of having a ‘black heart’. Sharapova countered with the sardonic suggestion that Serena should talk about her own new relationship – with a married father-of-two who was then her coach. Harsh words could not prevent Williams humiliating her on court, however. She handed out her most recent thrashing in January, in the quarter finals of the Australian Open – the tournament at which Sharapova failed the test. And Williams, who described Sharapova as ‘courageous’ for the way she handled her announcement, couldn’t resist mischievously posting a picture of a taxi bearing an advert of herself – as it drove past a pharmacy. For the fallen ice-queen this was the final indignity.
2016-03-09 00:07 David Jones www.dailymail.co.uk
85 O. J. Simpson's manager says he knows who committed the murders O. J. Simpson 's former manager said he knows who murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in 1994. Norman Pardo said during an interview on KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that, 'I know who did it and I knοw why they did it'. 'I just can't disclose it right now.' Pardo said that he and Simpson neglected to disclose the information to authorities because when they tried to speak with police, 'they took all my stuff regarding the incidents'. He said that there were people working on it and when they talked to police, 'they raided my office and took it all'. Last week Los Angeles police announced that they were testing a knife believed to have been recovered nearly two decades ago by a construction worker working on the demolition of Simpson's home. In an interview with People Magazine , Pardo said Simpson, who is in prison for an unrelated robbery conviction, 'isn't losing any sleep'. In fact, Simpson burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter when he heard the news that the LAPD was testing a knife as the murder weapon that was found at his former Brentwood mansion. 'It's complete bulls**t. But this is all they got. It's pathetic, really pathetic,' Simpson told a prison source. 'Let me tell ya'll something, I'm not that stupid, I got on a plane that night going to Chicago, that's all I'm gonna say.' Police are investigating this knife - found at the disgraced athlete's home and kept hidden by a traffic cop for up to 18 years - as the possible weapon they believe OJ used to murder his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman in 1994. Nicole, 35 at the time of her death, had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck and she was nearly decapitated. There were also defensive wounds on her hands. Ron, just a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday, was also stabbed multiple times, including a gaping wound in his neck. Since the murder weapon was never found, police believe that it could contain crucial evidence. Pardo told People that Simpson is ignoring the LAPD's investigation and 'not talking about it'. It's not immediately known when the LAPD will announce the results of its investigation. If the knife is identified as the murder weapon, Simpson will not be retried for murder due to double jeopardy, which prevents people from being tried for the same crime twice.
2016-03-09 00:07 Valerie Edwards www.dailymail.co.uk
86 Vanderbilt University says student slain on trip to Israel NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The American stabbed to death in a series of assaults in Israel was a student at Vanderbilt University, the school said Tuesday. Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos wrote in a letter to students, faculty and staff that graduate student Taylor Force was killed in a stabbing attack. All other students and faculty on the trip are safe and unharmed, Zeppos said, calling the incident a "horrific act of violence. " Force was seeking to learn more about global entrepreneurship and startups in Israel while on the trip, Zeppos wrote. He was a student at the school's Owen Graduate School of Management. Stuart Force, Taylor's father, spoke briefly with the Associated Press by phone from his home in Texas. "He was a great kid," he said before he received a call from family and ended the conversation. Zeppos said university resources are being made available for students, faculty and staff who may seek counseling.
2016-03-09 00:02 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
87 Merkel denies caving in to Turkish blackmail Angela Merkel has denied that she is giving into blackmail from Turkey over an EU deal that would pay it to stop the flow of migrants into Greece. In the early hours of yesterday, an EU summit rejected proposals, backed by the German chancellor, to double funding for Turkey to €6 billion and grant 75 million Turks visa-free European travel by the end of June. Any agreement will be delayed until after Sunday’s regional elections, in which Mrs Merkel’s ruling coalition faces anti-immigrant populists. Putting a brave face on one of her least successful EU summits in five years, marred 2016-03-09 00:01 Bruno Waterfield www.thetimes.co.uk
88 No room for the humdrum at Chanel How to keep everyone in fashion happy? By staging a show where everyone has a front-row seat. That was what Chanel did in Paris yesterday, the penultimate day of fashion week, with all 2,500 members of the audience sitting in the best seat in the house. The clothes were crowd pleasers, too. Karl Lagerfeld riffed on the perennial house codes — tweed skirt suits, pearls, camellias. The first incarnations of the former were in pink and might be spliced with denim or spangled with lurex. Then came red, black, cream and grey combinations: less Barbie, more real world. There was a
2016-03-09 00:01 Anna Murphy www.thetimes.co.uk
89 Want to eat less? Go on a fast run instead of a diet Tough bouts of exercise may make you eat less than dieting, according to a study that could help to explain why so many weight-loss schemes backfire. Long runs appear to trigger chemical changes in the body that curb the appetite, while eating less food than you need seems to have the opposite effect. Researchers at Loughborough University say that exercise should be an integral part of any attempt to shed weight as it lowers levels of an important hunger hormone and boosts another linked to feelings of being full. They asked 12 young women to run on a treadmill at
2016-03-09 00:01 Oliver Moody www.thetimes.co.uk
90 Lawyer’s wife gets 20 years for stabbing him to death A solicitor was stabbed to death by his wife after suffering a year of domestic violence witnessed by police, lawyers, court officials and hospital staff. David and Sharon Edwards were driven home by police on the night of his death — despite an officer hearing her threaten him. The solicitor’s brother said yesterday that his death highlighted the need for male victims of domestic violence to speak out. Mrs Edwards, 42, was jailed for at least 20 years after she was convicted of murder. Legal colleagues and friends told Manchester crown court that Mr Edwards, 51, would arrive at work covered
2016-03-09 00:01 Russell Jenkins www.thetimes.co.uk
91 Merely a madness: the Bard’s best love scenes Continuing our ten-minute Shakespeare series, The Times’s former chief theatre critic picks the best of the Bard’s romantic liaisons 1. Much Ado About Nothing Act IV, Scene One Top quote: “I do love nothing in the world so well as you” (Benedick) The pitch: A quarrelsome duo discover they don’t hate each other. Happy ever after? Benedick and Beatrice share an improbable love, but one more likely to succeed than most. Those former foes Beatrice and Benedick have been conned into believing they adore each other, and now he openly admits that he does. She’d clearly reciprocate but for the crisis that has just brought them together. Her cousin Hero has been wrongly accused of promiscuity and cruelly abandoned
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
92 Cuts are severing lifelines for young and old Council budgets have been squeezed so tightly that daycare centres are being closed in a serious blow to community life Twice a week a white minibus picks up my 84-year-old father, immaculately dressed in a tie and tweed jacket, at 9am. He always brings a few photos or a book on Alpine birds in a plastic bag and returns six hours later clutching some rose-scented talcum powder or strawberry creams. Neither of which he particularly likes (he prefers toffees) but he thinks he may have won them somewhere. His mornings at the daycare centre are spent playing competitive Scrabble, doing team quizzes and competing at armchair curling matches. If he is feeling “a bit peckish” there is tea and toast;
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
93 Queen gave actor tip to win at Ascot For all her knowledge of horses, the Queen is famous for never placing a bet herself. However, as the actor Damian Lewis disclosed yesterday, she is not above passing on the occasional tip. Her skills in this area were revealed as she joined the Prince of Wales on a tour of one of his Prince’s Trust centres to mark the charity’s 40th anniversary. The star of Homeland , who last met the Queen at a Bafta event at Windsor Castle, told her: “You gave me a simply fantastic tip for Royal Ascot”. Lewis, an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, was at
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
94 Minister will brave teachers’ conference
One of Britain’s oddest trade union traditions will come to an end at Easter when teachers are addressed by a real Conservative cabinet minister rather than staring at a cardboard cutout. Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has astonished members of the NASUWT teaching union by accepting an invitation to speak at its conference. Not since 1997, when Baroness Shephard of Northwold faced hisses, boos and jeers as she declared she would not tolerate teachers who went on strike, has a Conservative education secretary spoken at its conference. When Michael Gove refused an invitation four years ago, Chris Keates, the union’s
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
95 Strongmen are bringing Africa to its knees Across the continent autocrats are responsible for stalled economies and investors pulling out When Robert Mugabe celebrated his 92nd birthday last month, the focus was on his cakes. There was a six-storey cake crowned with his official portrait, with a sugar-icing crocodile snaking round its base. There was also an edible map of Africa at least a metre square. More striking, however, was the way he ate his slice. Slowly, with the bowl held close to his mouth. His eyes gazed into the food but his mind seemed miles away. It was a scene familiar to anyone who has visited an old people’s home: Africa’s inveterate strongman looks very frail indeed. Mr Mugabe
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
96 Moaning about Project Fear is plain bonkers If you keep repeating your opponent’s message you just reinforce it in voters’ minds, making them even more risk-averse Strokes cause almost twice as many deaths as all accidents combined and asthma causes twenty times more deaths than tornados. For both of these reasons I believe the EU Leave campaign is making a strategic error. I suppose I’d better explain. All of us are vulnerable to what is known as the availability error. That is, we assign a particularly high value to the most vivid and most recent information that we are exposed to. Pollsters are well aware of this. For example, people liked Ronald Reagan but didn’t like his policies. The order in which you asked questions about
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
97 TV review: The Aliens; The Last Seabird Summer? The Aliens E4 ★★★☆☆ The Last Seabird Summer? BBC Four ★★★★☆ About 40 years ago Saturday Night Live ran sketches about a family of space aliens so integrated into America that their neighbours excused their conical heads with the misapprehension that they were French. The comedy thriller The Aliens , which began on E4 last night, is no tribute to the evolution in western attitudes to immigration. The Brits here call the extraterrestrials among them Morks. That’s an insult rather than a tribute to their fast-talking comedy skills. These aliens crash-landed in Britain 40 years ago. A teaser “news bulletin” (available
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
98 Those grey hairs mean you’re past your sell-by date My Week Hearing last week’s news about a possible “grey gene” that switches on the greying process in our hair, my mind moved to a different question. Nobody’s glad to be grey. Few benefit from it. So why has natural selection landed us with this dispiriting consequence of getting older? Letting us keep our natural hair colour would not damage our chances of surviving or breeding (indeed it might enhance them) so why has the God of Evolution been so unkind? I’ve done some research on the internet and concluded that scientists don’t really know. Many, though, comment that fertility is likely 2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
99 Siblings fight over father’s £8m china he ‘loved more than them’ Four siblings are locked in a legal battle over an unrivalled collection of Ming porcelain that was collected by their father, a trusted adviser to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Sir Michael Butler built up the 800-piece hoard of 17th century “late Ming” Chinese ceramics over five decades of globetrotting as a diplomat. It is worth £8 million. Experts have described it as “unique in the world” and “the finest and most extensive collection of its kind”, the High Court in London heard yesterday. Sir Michael, the principal architect of Mrs Thatcher’s victory in cutting the UK’s contribution to the
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
100 Ex-Treasury minister to be Heathrow’s new chairman Protesters against a third runway at Heathrow have expressed dismay at the airport’s appointment of a former senior Treasury figure as chairman, which they claim shortens the odds on ministers choosing it for expansion. Heathrow confirmed that Lord Deighton, who stepped down as commercial secretary to the Treasury in April, will succeed Sir Nigel Rudd when he steps down in September. “It really does raise the eyebrows that a former senior Treasury minister would take a directorship at Heathrow at the very time that the Treasury will be most influential in the decision on where a new runway will be
2016-03-09 00:01 www.thetimes.co.uk
Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-03-09 06:00