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New US military guidelines have opened the way for service members to wear religious clothing such as turbans or skullcaps while on duty, the Department of Defense has announced.
The guidelines, published on Wednesday, also allow for facial hair, body art and other expressions of religious belief. It is not a blanket permission, however; requests for dispensation from stated uniform policy are to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The military counts thousands of Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Wiccans and members of other religious groups among its ranks. The groups have protested against the exclusion of religious apparel, saying it forces them to choose between their religious beliefs and a desire to serve.
To be approved, changes in apparel or presentation must not impair the operation of weapons, pose a health or safety hazard or interfere with other military equipment such as helmets, flak jackets or wetsuits, according to the guidelines.
“The new policy states that military departments will accommodate religious requests of service members, unless a request would have an adverse effect on military readiness, mission accomplishment, unit cohesion and good order and discipline,” said Pentagon spokesman Lt Cmdr Nathan J Christensen.
The Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund said the rules did not go far enough.
“This is an expansion of the waiver policy that is decided person by person,” its director, Jasjit Singh, told the Washington Post. “It does not open doors and say you can apply as a Sikh American and serve your country fully.”
The Sikh Coalition collects the stories of Sikhs who have won the right to wear turbans and beards on duty. The first was Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, a doctor and Afghanistan combat veteran who was granted a religious accommodation by the US army in October 2009. | Guidelines also allow for facial hair, body art and other expressions of religious belief |
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting draws some of the richest and most influential people in the world. In fact, close to 70 billionaires from 20 countries were expected to attend the invitation only event this year.
Forbes editor Luisa Kroll wrote in a blog post Tuesday that the event “may well be the greatest concentration of wealth in any one place” (see: Where The (Big) Money Is).
While Luisa’s group of almost 70 billionaires includes only those who have appeared on Forbes’ wealth lists, Kroll said that there are others in attendance who are expected to debut on the annual Forbes World’s Billionaires list in March.
We found out which of the wealthiest billionaires made it to the Swiss Alps for the elite conference, and we’ve compiled a list of the 14 richest men in Davos. (We are still waiting on confirmation of the attendance of 4 of these billionaires).
Click here for the complete photo gallery of The Richest Men In Davos.
With a net worth of approximately $54 billion, the richest man at the notable conference, according to Forbes’ wealth lists, is tech geek turned billionaire Bill Gates.
The billionaire offered his two cents in a discussion panel about sustainable development today in Davos. He said cutting energy isn’t the solution to sustainable growth, but rather maximizing and fostering innovation, specifically through investments in health should be the focus.
Gates and British Prime Minister David Cameron also announced in Davos that they will contribute $130 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Gates and his wife Melinda founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, and have since been considered two of America’s most generous philanthropists.
Last year, Gates and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett initiated The Giving Pledge, which is a campaign to encourage the wealthiest people in the U.S. to commit to donating a majority of their wealth to charity. Gates is extending his efforts to leaders all over the world this week. His mission in Davos is to persuade other billionaires to donate a chunk of their fortunes to charitable causes.
Another business tycoon who made billions in the technology industry is India’s Azim Premji. As the chairman of Wipro, one of India’s largest software development companies, Premji is worth an estimated $17.6 billion – making him the fourth richest man in Davos.
Premji, who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan this year, took over the family business at the age of 21 when his father suddenly died. Over time, Premji transformed Wipro from a toiletries and lighting company to a software giant. Like Gates, Premji is dedicated to charitable giving, and has recently pledged to donate $2 billion for improving education in India.
These men aren’t the only philanthropic billionaires in Davos.
Swiss entrepreneur Ernesto Bertarelli became CEO and co-owner of his father’s company, Serono, in the 1990s. Like Premji, he shifted the company’s focus, and saw sales tripple over the next 10 years. In the late 1990s, the billionaire established a foundation that encourages and supports infertility research – exactly what helped his company gain recognition just a few years earlier.
The father of three, who’s also an avid sailor, is worth an estimated $10 billion.
Bertarelli is the only Swiss billionaire to make the list of the top 14 richest people in Davos. The rest of the group is made up of five Indians, four Americans, and four Russians. | The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting draws some of the richest and most influential people in the world. Here are the 15 richest billionaires in Davos this year, based on Forbes’ wealth lists. |
The Pulp Fiction star, 57, parked his 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SL outside a Jaguar dealership for just ten minutes and when he returned it was gone.
The theft was reported to cops in Santa Monica, California, but it is understood there were no witnesses.
Travolta's Merc is part of a car collection that includes a Rolls Royce, a Jaguar XJ6 and a Ford Thunderbird similar to the one featured in his 1978 hit musical film Grease. | SCREEN icon’s £65k motor is nicked – as he looks at new cars in a California showroom |
Elon Musk laid out his long-promised vision for building a self-sustaining city on Mars, saying the next giant leap for humanity will require full rocket reusability, refueling the spacecraft in orbit and propellant production on the Red Planet.
“Refueling in orbit is one of the essential elements,” Musk told scientists, engineers and government officials gathered Tuesday at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a presentation called “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species.” Musk went on to say that producing propellant on Mars was key to driving down the cost, which he estimated one day could cost roughly $200,000 per ticket.
The gathering, which included Apollo-era astronaut Buzz Aldrin, drew men and women who have spent lifetimes studying our solar system, the galaxies beyond, and how to get there one day. Musk’s comments hold sway because of his rocket-launch company’s success and the steps he’s already taking toward the goal of helping humans move beyond Earth.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company he founded in 2002 with that intent, is already flying satellites into orbit and scheduling “Red Dragon” missions to explore the planet. Those missions will inform the design of the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System, a larger craft to ferry people to Mars and beyond.
SpaceX released an four-minute animated video shortly before Musk’s speech that revealed how the Interplanetary Transport System would work. The video begins with more than a dozen people walking into the spacecraft perched atop a rocket booster that lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Once in space, the spacecraft sits in a parking orbit while the booster returns to Earth to get a propellant tank. The rocket then reflies and refuels the spacecraft in orbit. With the additional fuel, the spacecraft then blasts off toward Mars thanks, in part, to solar arrays that deploy. At midjourney, it’s traveling at almost 62,700 mph toward the planet. | Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, laid out his long-promised vision for building a self-sustaining city on Mars. |
Updated SEP 15, 2014 1:30p ET
After taking its share of criticism for moving too slowly to discipline Ray Rice, the NFL is acting quickly to do some damage control and strengthen its programs for domestic violence and other social issues going forward.
In a memo to teams and staff this morning that was obtained by FOX Sports, commissioner Roger Goodell announced the addition of several staffers and advisors who will help shape programs, sharpen education and provide support for players and employees.
The moves come as criticism has mounted for the league's bungling of the Rice situation, as well as the controversies surrounding the Carolina Panthers' Greg Hardy, the San Francisco 49ers' Ray McDonald and the Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson.
"Last month, I wrote to you and our staff that our organization will continue to evolve and meet our challenges and opportunities," Goodell wrote. "We are committed to developing our talent and putting the best people behind our most important priorities."
Goodell promoted Anna Isaacson to a new, expanded role of vice president of social responsibility. Isaacson, currently the league's vice president of community affairs and philanthropy, will "oversee the development of the full range of education, training and support programs relating to domestic violence, sexual assault and matters of respect."
Goodell also announced the league has retained three senior advisors -- Lisa Friel, Jane Randel and Rita Smith -- "to help lead and shape the NFL's policies and programs relating to domestic violence and sexual assault."
Friel was the head of the sex crimes prosecution unit in the New York City DA's office; Randel is the co-founder of No More, a national initiative to raise awareness regarding domestic violence and sexual assault; and Smith is the former executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The league will also continue its work with two programs -- Coach For America and A Call To Men -- to educate players and coaches "about character, respect and professionalism," according to Goodell.
"We are continuing to develop our organization to strengthen our ability to address the wide range of issues we face and other changes in our office will be announced soon," Goodell said. "Our goal is to make a real difference on these and other issues. We know that we will be judged by our actions and their effectiveness."
Though many might continue to judge the league by its actions in the past few months, it's clear the NFL is trying to address the problem with these programs and its ongoing investigation into whether someone in the league office saw the video of Rice hitting his wife in an Atlantic City elevator.
While Goodell and other executives are expecting a thorough independent investigation from Robert Mueller, it has become clear they want the investigation completed as quickly as possible. Adding owners John Mara and Art Rooney II as overseers of the investigation was designed to help streamline the process.
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This will not be like last year when the investigation into the Jonathan Martin-Richie Incognito bullying scandal dragged out for months, with the findings being released after the Super Bowl. The NFL wants to get Mueller's findings into the hands of owners and fans as quickly as possible.
A source also told FOX Sports if Mueller uncovers evidence that reveals a high-ranking executive was negligent and/or viewed the Rice video, that information will be brought to Mara and Rooney immediately and Mueller won't wait until the end of the investigation to reveal it.
The NFL has surely noted October is just a few months away. That's when the players and coaches will wear pink to support breast cancer awareness. The investigation and the appointments Goodell has made come in advance of the expected criticism the league will receive for supporting women on the field despite recent events off it. | Women hired to strengthen NFL's domestic violence awareness, social programs |
Check out Bieber doing some pretty impressive solo juggling -- complete with a few spin moves ... NOT BAD!!!
Turns out, Bieber's actually a pretty impressive athlete ... he can play hockey, he boxes with Mayweather, he can skate ... and he can hoop (sorta).
Gotta respect it ... right? | Justin Bieber got skills!!! Check out Bieber doing some pretty impressive solo juggling -- complete with a few spin moves ... NOT BAD!!! Turns out,… |
Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive officer of Kraft, outlines her company's plan for the next few years.
Steve Forbes: And when you get a setback, I mean you had one in 2003, you left the company and then came back. Would you advise younger people, "Be prepared, you may have to move and see what turns up?"
Irene Rosenfeld: Yes. I think that at the root of that is you need to be happy, you need to feel you're making a difference. And if that's not playing out, you need to make a change. And I would stand behind that advice. My hope and my expectation is that at Kraft Foods ( KFT - news - people ) we are working hard to make sure that we are listening to employees, that we are encouraging them to speak up about what their career aspirations are, what they're looking for. Because I would hope that we can accommodate some of their needs without them having to leave.
But I certainly would advise that, if you've tried all that and it's not happening the way you need it to, you need to make a change.
Forbes: And in terms of shareholders, obviously, the stock market's not been conducive to any company, most of them, doing well. How would you tell investors, "Yes, Kraft is a big company, it's in certain categories, but here's what makes us top of the breed." You mentioned 44%, 70%.
Forbes: What else would you tell them?
Rosenfeld: Well, I think I've laid out our strategy for the next three years. What I've said is our first focus is to delight global snacks consumers. It's a growing category around the world. It's got very attractive margins. And we're advantaged within that category. Seventy percent of our business outside the U.S. is in snacks. Over half or our business globally is in snacks. So I feel good about the portfolio. I like the geographic footprint. We've doubled our position in developing markets and I think if we look out over the next three years, about close to a third of our business will be in the developing markets. And I like our position from a channel perspective.
The immediate consumption channels, where we've doubled our presence, is a fast-growing channel with very attractive margins. And all of that together are what give me great confidence that we will be able to deliver revenue in the top tier of our peer group in excess of 5% and EPS growth of nine to 11%. And I think that will be fairly strong performance by any standard. | CEO Irene Rosenfeld lays out her company's goals and gives advice to other businesspeople on when to make a change. |
Consider a few videos as Mitt Romney tries, in the last weeks of the campaign, to appear vaguely moderate.
The first shows Mr. Romney at CPAC calling himself “severely conservative.” The second, an Obama campaign ad from April, amounts to a greatest hits of his severely conservative statements. The third, from Daily Kos, compares what Mr. Romney said at last week’s debate with previous comments.
It’s impossible to say which Mitt Romney is the “real” Mitt Romney. But what we don’t know about Mr. Romney seems secondary to what we do know: He doesn’t think authenticity or consistency or conviction matter. It’s not just that he tweaks his message to suit his audience; he’s willing to change his message for his audience. (And if he’s president, his audience will be the Republican-dominated, Tea-Party-influenced House.)
It must be the case that many Americans recognize his contortions, and will vote for him regardless because they don’t like the president. That’s their right. But if Mr. Romney wins, he’ll set a nasty precedent. Candidates will be justified in assuming not only that they can lie, but that they can tell different lies to different audiences from week to week, and voters will actually reward them. | If Mitt Romney wins, candidates will be justified in assuming that they can tell different lies to different audiences, and that voters will actually reward them for it. |
Talk about big productions: the annual ''Messiah Sing-In'' of the National Choral Council, ringing out for the 14th year tonight at 8 P.M. in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, comes closest to a vocal version of an old-time Hollywood backlot.
The sing-in lends itself to exclamation points. Three thousand singers! That includes you in the audience, with your choice of section according to your voice or sociability. Directed by Martin Josman and 19 guest conductors! Kenneth Bowen, organist, in thunderous accompaniment! Plus soloists! Those are Lucy Shelton, soprano, and Ray De Voll, tenor, who come in to upstage the masses at regular intervals.
Did Handel ever envision such a massive execution of his mighty work? Possibly not, because he wrote it for a chorus of about 20 voices.
Admission: $9, for general seating in which you can take a seat anywhere in the house; $13.50 for reserved seats. You can bring your own ''Messiah'' score or buy one at the door. Information: 869-0970. SESAME OPEN
This is a reason for television watchers to go out and look at a tribute to what they may have been looking at at home since 1969. It is a photographic show called ''13 Years of Sesame Street'' in the Nikon House, 620 Fifth Avenue, along the Channel Garden mall that leads into Rockefeller Center between 49th and 50th Streets.
This exhibition is felicitously sited for the delectation of youngsters, what with the big Rockefeller Center tree in view above the skating pond, the angel-lined mall and the big tableaux in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue across the street.
Nikon House has a two-level gallery and its exhibitions usually represent camera work that is unusual in content and technique. In this show, the photos are the work of freelance and staff photographers and is the first such exhibition of scenes from the long-running children's program.
On the walls are seen Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, the Count, Oscar the Grouch, Kermit the Frog. If you have not had occasion to catch ''Sesame Street,'' faces that have made guest shots on the show may be more familiar to you: Lena Horne, Lily Tomlin, Dick Cavett, James Earl Jones, James Galway, Judy Collins, Itzhak Perlman and Cab Calloway. It is an easy and quick exhibition to breeze through on the gallery's two levels.
Open free, through Dec. 30, from 10 A.M. to 5:45 P.M. except for Thursday, Christmas Day and Saturday and next Monday. OPERA BENEFIT
The Israel National Opera was founded 33 years ago and has helped start the careers of many young singers from many places, among them Placido Domingo, Mignon Dunn and Joann Grillo. The Israel Opera, not too different from many opera companies elsewhere, may be in good artistic form but it is in bad financial shape, which is why there will be a benefit for it tonight at 8 in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
The threat of closure has been brought on by a cutback in the Israeli Government's subsidy. In an attempt to ameliorate the loss, singers of the Israeli company and of our own Metropolitan Opera will offer a program of operatic and musical-comedy songs. Among the 18 singers will be Miss Grillo, Atarah Hazzan, Nedda Casei, Richard Kness, John Durrenkamp and Nico Castel, all from the Met. In addition, Herman Malamood, also of the Met, will light the second candle of Hanukkah during the performance and will sing the traditional ''Ma'oz Tzur.''
Admission: $10. Information: 998-1061. ONE NIGHT STAND
John Monteith and Suzanne Rand are a comedy team who worked their way from clubs to Broadway and back to clubs, to wherever someone is in search of comedy. Monteith and Rand came out of Chicago's Second City, and they say their provenance lies in the turbulent era of social upheaval rather than the earlier one of neurotic introspection.
Their improvisitational wit, with planned material, too, will be the attraction, tonight only, at 8:30 and 11:30 P.M. at the Bottom Line, the club at 15 West Fourth Street (228-6300). The Bottom Line, where the team has visited before, is one of the longer-lived clubs in a business where easy-come, easy-go is a fact of life. It apparently plans to be around for some time longer: the place has been given a fresh painting and new carpeting. Otherwise, everything is the same.
Admission: $8. No cover or minimum at the tables. Drinks, $2.20 and up; menu items, $3.50 to $7.
For today's Entertainment Events, listing see page C16. For Sports Today, see page B14. Richard F. Shepard | BIG SING Talk about big productions: the annual ''Messiah Sing-In'' of the National Choral Council, ringing out for the 14th year tonight at 8 P.M. in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, comes closest to a vocal version of an old-time Hollywood backlot. The sing-in lends itself to exclamation points. Three thousand singers! That includes you in the audience, with your choice of section according to your voice or sociability. Directed by Martin Josman and 19 guest conductors! Kenneth Bowen, organist, in thunderous accompaniment! Plus soloists! Those are Lucy Shelton, soprano, and Ray De Voll, tenor, who come in to upstage the masses at regular intervals. |
She was the fastest rabbit in town, taking just 11 seconds to jump all the hurdles in the round. Cherie, a 2-year-old Swedish bunny, left the competition in the dust at the U.K.'s Rabbit Grand National, held in the dignified Yorkshire town of Harrogate in late January.
The lop-eared speed demon, who also won the competition last year, elicited gasps from the audience as she jumped hurdles close to 28 inches high. But she faced no competition from upstart locals. While the British bunnies were invited to "showcase" their skills, they didn't compete in the main event because the organizers felt the Swedes were in a league of their own. "It's like the English Premier League versus L.A. Galaxy," says Jason Madeley, one of the promoters of the event, finding a soccer analogy.
See the bunnies of Britain compete with champion Swedish jumping rabbits. Javier Espinoza reports from the Rabbit Grand National in Harrogate, England.
"It's really new in England and they can't jump as high as we can," says 24-year-old nursery-school teacher Magdalena Åhsblom, owner of the champion. "I don't think they can compete against us yet."
The competition is run along the lines of an equine show-jumping contest. The rabbits enter the ring one by one and try to jump every obstacle with as few mishaps as possible. Each time a rabbit knocks over or dislodges a bar on a hurdle, it gets a time penalty. Also frowned upon are a crooked liftoff, crawling between the bars and, for the trainers, walking ahead of the rabbit, jerking its leash or lifting it over the jump. The fastest rabbit wins.
Local bunny jumpers are well aware of their limitations. After all, most of the British owners—exclusively female—are still at school and train their rabbits in their spare time. "We are only 15 or 16 and we are doing it as a hobby. But we hope it gets bigger here," says 16-year-old Charlotte McLatchey, as she clutched her brown-and-white Dutch rabbit, Russell. Female rabbits compete along with males.
Cherie, a two-year-old Swedish bunny, and owner Magdalena Åhsblom competed at the Rabbit Grand National Jan. 28 in Harrogate, England.
She is full of admiration for the visitors. "The Swedes are amazing. They have done it more and have better facilities," says Ms. McLatchey, who keeps her four rabbits in a hutch in the back garden. She is keen to emulate the Swedes' success. "I started training Russell when he was 10 weeks old. I put him in a harness and started playing with him so he would associate wearing the harness with having fun."
"After a small jump, I would give him a stroke or give him a treat like a bit of cabbage or carrot, which he loves," she says. On a good day, she says, Russell can now jump up to 50 centimeters, or about 20 inches. But today, he has stopped at one of the jumps and doesn't seem interested in moving.
"Bunny jumping in the U.K. looks like when it started in Sweden," says Mathilda Hedlund, who has been training rabbits for 13 years and whose bunny, Dilba, has taken part in major international competitions.
But there are some promising rabbits rising through the British ranks. Nicole Barratt, owner of Rukia, says her rabbit is catching up. "We are hoping he will jump higher, but we can't push him," she says.
The odds were always going to favor the Swedes; after all, the sport originated in the small southern town of Varalov in the 1970s, and Swedes have been breeding show-jumping rabbits since the 1980s. Today, close to 1,000 active bunny jumpers can find at least one competition somewhere in the country most weekends, and there are two national championships a year. The U.K., on the other hand, hosts just a handful of competitions a year and is home to only about 10 rabbit jumpers.
In Sweden, where the fluffy competitors train for up to two hours a day, there is an established network of breeders who are always looking for talent. "Our bunnies are so used to competing, so they know what to do," Ms. Hedlund says.
Choosing the right breed of rabbit is also important. Sweden's 200 or so breeders are experimenting widely, and charge more—up to 1,500 kronor ($225)—for a rabbit with prizewinning parentage.
"You want mini lop for the cool and positive attitude and hare for the bigger size and long back legs," Ms. Hedlund says. "But you don't want too much temperament; you'd want a mix of a cool and a competitive attitude."
Years ago, the Swedish sport consisted mostly of kids and teenagers jumping pets in their backyards. But owners soon organized local clubs that arranged competitions using small, homemade hurdles. In 1994, these clubs—about 20 nationwide today—were affiliated under the Swedish Rabbit Jumping Federation, a move that allowed them to organize at a national level and establish common rules. The federation even trains its judges. The sport also has a small following in other Nordic countries, the U.S., Germany and France. In the U.K., there is just one, recently formed club.
Bunny-jumping enthusiasts say it is good for the rabbits. A domestic rabbit that is allowed to exercise can live 10 or 12 years, compared with five years at most if kept in a cage, says Lisbeth Jansson, who has written two books on rabbit jumping and, with her husband, Lars, runs Libra Arctic, the world's only professional maker of rabbit jumps.
"These bunnies develop psyche, heart, lungs and muscles, so they live longer and the vets have more to do," she says. "Some [owners] even take out life insurance on renowned jumping rabbits."
At Agria Djurförsäkring, one of Sweden's biggest pet insurers, the number of rabbit insurance policies—the majority of which are intended to cover veterinary bills—has soared.
Trainers say Libra Arctic's tailor-made jumps, which range in price from 500 to 5,000 kronor, have set the standard for the sport. This year, the Harrogate organizers spent about 10,000 kronor on a complete set of jumps to pimp up the Rabbit Grand National. "You could say we own this market," Ms. Jansson says.
Despite their dominance of the sport, Swedish bunnies are bested by their Danish neighbors when it comes to world records. In 1999, a Danish rabbit called Yaboo set the world long-jump record when he flew over a three-meter, or nearly 10-feet, hurdle, while his compatriot Tösen bounced 99.5 centimeter, or about 40 inches, to nab the high-jump record in 1997.
So, how will the British bunnies fare in future? Ms. Hedlund, the owner of Swedish veteran Dilba, says she was disappointed the Brits couldn't compete against the Swedes this year. "It would be really fun if they started breeding proper rabbits, too. But they are getting better and better with more training."
Write to Javier Espinoza at [email protected] and Anna Molin at [email protected] | Rabbit jumping is a new hobby among young women in England, but they are no match for the Swedes, who are champions at the sport. |
Talk about a long download time. Scientists on Earth have finally received the last data package from the New Horizons spacecraft’s Pluto flyby last year, NASA reported on Thursday.
The data had to travel an astounding 3.4 billion miles, taking over five hours to cover the distance between the craft and Earth before being received at a Deep Space Network site in Australia. The space agency said that it took so long for them to receive all of the data from Pluto because the probe was designed to collect as much information as possible during its flyby, then transmit it back by priority level.
SCIENTISTS TO STUDY STRANGE STAR FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE
“The Pluto system data that New Horizons collected has amazed us over and over again with the beauty and complexity of Pluto and its system of moons,” Alan Stern, the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission, said in a statement. “There’s a great deal of work ahead for us to understand the 400-plus scientific observations that have all been sent to Earth.”
First launched in 2006, New Horizons was designed to study Pluto and its moons, which it did during a historic flyby on July 14 of last year. Its discoveries on Pluto include a huge nitrogen glacier, a giant mountain range, and the reason the dwarf planet’s moon Charon has a red patch on it.
Scientists will erase the data on New Horizons to make space to gather more information as it continues zooming away from Earth, NASA said. Its next destination is a distant object called 2014 MU69, and the probe’s scheduled arrival there is January 1, 2019.
Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger | Talk about a long download time. |
Defense attorneys for accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan are racing to collect evidence that could show their client is insane before a psychiatric evaluation is completed.
Accused Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, in a 2007 photo.
The Army on Wednesday evening told Maj. Hasan's defense lawyers that it had convened a so-called sanity board to evaluate whether Maj. Hasan is fit to stand trial. The three-person panel is expected to make a recommendation by the end of February, a timeline that has defense attorneys frustrated.
Maj. Hasan is accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and one civilian in a Nov. 5 rampage at the Texas Army base. Prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty.
Maj. Hasan's mental status is shaping up to be a central issue in the case. John P. Galligan, the retired Army colonel leading the defense team, has said he was considering pursuing an insanity defense, and the Army has appointed a prosecutor with experience in such cases.
Legal experts said an insanity defense could be Mr. Galligan's best chance of winning an acquittal for his client, or at least avoiding the death penalty. But it wouldn't be easy. Defendants, both in civilian and military trials, rarely are found not guilty on the basis of their mental state. A 2006 study by three Army psychiatrists found that in the more than 21,000 courts-martial between 1990 and 2006, only six defendants were found not guilty by reason of insanity.
"It's just a hard sell," said Hugh Overholt, a North Carolina attorney specializing in defending military clients. "I've had a case where I was absolutely convinced the guy was nuts," and still couldn't win an acquittal, he said.
When Maj. Robert Martin, an Army attorney, got caught passing bad checks and defrauding his clients of about $100,000, the evidence against him was overwhelming. Mr. Martin's lawyers argued that he was insane.
The attorneys brought in mental-health experts, including the chairman of Duke University's Psychiatry Department, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. They dug up evidence of his erratic behavior, including a bizarre get-rich-quick scheme involving selling honey-baked hams in Mexico. They argued their client committed his crimes while in a manic state during which he didn't know the difference between right and wrong.
The strategy didn't work. Mr. Martin was convicted, kicked out of the Army and sentenced to two years' confinement. "To this day I'm satisfied that all of his misconduct occurred during his manic states," said Mark Waple, the lead defense attorney in the case. Mr. Martin couldn't be reached for comment.
Defense attorneys faced a similar challenge in the case of Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant accused of killing two U.S. soldiers in a grenade attack in the early days of the Iraq war. Sgt. Akbar's lawyers argued he had a history of depression and was too mentally ill to be capable of premeditation.
In 2005, an Army jury found Sgt. Akbar guilty and sentenced him to death. The defense is appealing the verdict. Col. Michael Mulligan, the officer who prosecuted Sgt. Akbar, recently joined the team that will prosecute Maj. Hasan.
In the case of Maj. Hasan, former colleagues and others who knew him have said he acted oddly in the months leading up to the shootings. While posted at the Fort Hood Army base, he lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, a place far smaller than he could have afforded on his salary. In the days before the shootings, he gave away many of his belongings.
Mr. Galligan said he was looking into such reports for evidence that his client was mentally unstable. But he said he hasn't yet been given access to reports or records from before the Nov. 5 shooting, and the Army's investigation into that period isn't completed.
The legal standards for an insanity defense are similar for civilian and military courts. In both, defendants can't be held responsible for their actions if mental illness prevented them from knowing the difference between right and wrong. They also can't be forced to stand trial if mental illness prevents them from participating in their defense.
The major difference between the civilian and military systems is the sanity board. This ad hoc panel, which generally includes at least one psychiatrist or psychologist, evaluates the defendant, looks at past behavior and makes a recommendation.
If the board rules the man is fit to stand trial, the defense can still introduce evidence of insanity. However, experts say that it is then difficult to get an acquittal, because the board's findings can be introduced at trial.
Mr. Galligan, Maj. Hasan's lawyer, accused the Army of rushing to evaluate his client before he has had time to do the necessary research to show "clear and convincing evidence" of insanity. He said he was looking into ways of appealing the decision to convene this board now.
Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway wrote in an email to The Wall Street Journal that there was "no intent on the part of the government to 'rush' the sanity board process."
Adding to the complexity of the Fort Hood case is the fact that Maj. Hasan is a psychiatrist and may have had contact with the sanity-board members. Neither the Army nor Mr. Galligan would release the names or backgrounds of the people appointed to the board, but all of them are military medical professionals. Mr. Galligan had asked for civilian experts to serve on the board to avoid such conflicts.
"I remain very, very skeptical that he could ever get a fair sanity hearing if the board is composed of Department of Defense members," Mr. Galligan said.
Military justice experts said that even if Mr. Galligan can't get an acquittal for his client on insanity grounds, evidence of mental illness can help win defendants a reduced sentence.
Write to Ben Casselman at [email protected] | Accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan's defense attorneys are racing to collect evidence to show their client is insane before a psychiatric evaluation is completed. |
Voltron, the massive robot warrior who remains a pillar of 1980s kids-cartoon nostalgia, is coming back, albeit in a thoroughly 21st century format.
“Voltron Legendary Defender,” an all-new series created by DreamWorks Animation, is coming to Netflix, where the show’s creative overseers hope it will appeal not only to its young target audience but also to adults who grew up on the 1980s cartoon.
“We’re absolutely making a show we think they can appreciate,” Joaquim Dos Santos, one of the showrunners, says about adult audiences.
But Dos Santos and fellow showrunner Lauren Montgomery, who previously worked together on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and several other animated projects, aren’t interested in creating a simple remake of the original “Voltron: Defender of the Universe.” They wanted to keep certain things like the teamwork theme (five people piloting five different robots to form one giant robot warrior) and the basic look.
“Beyond that, we just wanted to start this show over anew and really expand upon all the lore and stories and the things we felt didn’t get a fair shake in the original,” says Montgomery.
The show so many American kids watched in the mid to late 1980s — particularly the episodes that featured five lion robots combining to form a huge, sword-wielding anthropomorphic robot — wasn’t even the original version. Rather, it was the product of producers cobbling together parts of a Japanese cartoon called “Beast King GoLion” while slapping together a story to make it all fit. There have been other “Voltron” series along the way, too, including a syndicated late 1990s computer-animated series and 2011′s “Voltron Force,” which aired on Nicktoons, an offshoot of the Nickelodeon cable channel.
With “Voltron Legendary Defender,” Montgomery and Dos Santos are looking to tell a richer, more detailed story than the original. The setup goes like this: Five teenagers from Earth find themselves on the trail of a mysterious power source, and they end up transported to the distant planet Arus, where they encounter Princess Allura, a character from the original series, and discover they are the chosen ones who will pilot Voltron amid an intergalactic war.
The exclusive clip above features Allura (veteran voice performer Kimberly Brooks) piloting a castle-like spaceship off Arus as the Voltron team prepares to defend the universe from villainous King Zarkon.
As the clip demonstrates, the animation style of “Voltron Legendary Defender” is very much in the spirit of the original and anime in general. It’s intentional, but not because the show’s animators are merely copying from their predecessors, the showrunners say. They grew up on anime and shows like “Voltron,” so it’s in their DNA. Much of the look of the show stems from design supervisor and artist Christie Tseng (“The Legend of Korra”), who brought her personal style to “Voltron Legendary Defender.”
“Since it feels genuine to her, it feels genuine to the show,” Montgomery says.
The first season of “Voltron Legendary Defender” premieres Friday, June 10, on Netflix. The first installment is about an hour long, while the remaining 10Â are about a half-hour long. | "Voltron Legendary Defender" updates the 1980s cartoon classic for the 21st century. |
No major American cultural force is more opposed to examination and more active in suppressing it today than Silicon Valley. So when it was revealed this week that Facebook board member Peter Thiel had been secretly bankrolling a lawsuit to inflict financial ruin on the news and gossip site Gawker, Silicon Valley cheered.
The investor Vinod Khosla wrote on Twitter that the “press gets very uppity when challenged”. And that these bad journalists need “to be taught lessons”.
Khosla has suffered a great deal of negative press since buying a beachfront community and blocking off public access to the historic surfing beach, an illegal move that has garnered him unflattering stories in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times – a news organization that Khosla says also does “clickbait journalism” and deserves some “lessons” as well.
Investor and bellicose Silicon Valley personality Jason Calacanis wrote that, though he disagrees with Thiel on some things, in this fight against Gawker, Thiel “is a hero, 100% in the right fighting against evil”.
Shark Tank TV show host and Twitter investor Chris Sacca wrote: “My one regret is that [a Valleywag writer at the time] isn’t personally liable for any of that money owed.”
Each of these investors – and many of those writing in a wave of local support for Thiel – add caveats that they’re happy to see “clickbait” or “gossip” journalists suffer but that they fully support “real” journalists. As Khosla made clear by putting the New York Times on the side of clickbait, many Silicon Valley investors see most press as suspect.
After six years as a reporter in Silicon Valley, I’ve found that a tech mogul will generally call anything unflattering I write “clickbait” and anything flattering “finally some real journalism”.
A macabre parlor game among reporters here now is to guess which billionaire will, as Thiel did, wait 10 years with a grudge before seizing an opportunity to bankrupt you and exact maximum revenge. It’s a paranoia that seems more fitting for reporters covering characters like Vladimir Putin than the latest startup.
In America today, almost no one wields the concentrated wealth and power that the new rulers of Silicon Valley have. As the prodigies grow up, they’re realizing just how much they can flex that power.
To be fair, by no means is everyone supporting Thiel. Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder, is now backing Gawker’s appeal, launching what looks like will become a proxy war. “First Look Media is looking into organizing amicus support for Gawker in its legal fight and appeal against Hulk Hogan,” Lynn Oberlander, First Look’s general counsel, told the New York Post.
Jason Mandell, co-founder of the startup PR firm LaunchSquad, whose client list includes Facebook, Coursera and Munchery, said he thought Silicon Valley generally had a healthy relationship with the tech press, less so with the broader press.
“People like Peter Thiel are used to being able to tell an engineer ‘this is broken – fix it’,” Mandell said. “They don’t understand the unique dynamic between the press and the public. They don’t understand the first amendment and free speech as it relates to the media.”
“Tech guys love tech reporters because they’re often rooting for them to succeed but when reporters go off that script and do something that’s more combative I think it’s jarring.”
Mandell said there’s a “unique relationship” between tech entrepreneurs and the press because while other industries might be doing bad things, Silicon Valley thinks it is doing good for the world.
“Everybody here is part of this revolution and everyone agrees it’s a good thing in general. People want Tesla to succeed,” he said. “If you’re covering finance you can’t be enamored with the CEO with Bank of America … But aside from companies like Uber, what companies in our world are doing bad things?” | Some in Silicon Valley have been threatening the ‘uppity’ press with rhetoric about journalists needing ‘to be taught lessons’. That’s not how it works |
There are two kinds of people in Burlington, Vermont: those who believe there are no Hillary supporters here, and those who believe there must be, somewhere, but that they’re all in hiding.
Inside Dobra Tea Parlor yesterday, incense was burning at the foot of a bronze bodhisattva. Two customers were drinking tea and writing somberly in their journals. In a corner, a pair of young women discussed alternative high schools. I leaned across the counter and asked, softly, where I might be able to find someone who was voting for Clinton.
The tea barista, Sam Hughes, looked shocked. “I don’t know anyone who would admit to being a Hillary supporter,” the 25-year-old told me, as I paid for a gluten-free tea cake.
Burlington is where Bernie started his political career, as a socialist mayor who wrote strongly worded dispatches to world leaders about the importance of military disarmament, and it’s still his home base. In the downtown shopping district, where insistent classical music is piped out over the street, passers-by laughed or stared when I asked about Hillary Clinton. Where could I find a Hillary supporter? “Try Georgia,” said a white-bearded man in a fleece vest.
In The Bern Gallery, a smoke shop that had not been named in honor of the Vermont senator, 24-year-old Molly Rhoads shook her head. She pulled up her sleeve to bare her elbow, which sported a Bernie tattoo. She had gotten it at a local parlor that has been giving away free tattoos in support of the candidate. “He has started a revolution for sure,” she said.
Several Burlingtonians told me they believed local Hillary supporters existed. They just didn’t know where to find them.
Outside of city hall, I thought I had finally struck gold. Seventy-six-year-old Sunny Long told me she was a Hillary supporter. “We all love Bernie, but we think Clinton has the global experience that’s lacking in Bernie,” she said.
I asked her how long she had lived in Burlington. “Ten days,” she said. She had just moved here from Florida.
Feeling discouraged, I headed to the town’s independent bookstore, the Phoenix. Maybe the booksellers would have a deeper network of sources. At first, Phil Clingenpeel was stumped. By a Hillary supporter, he asked, did I mean someone who liked Hillary, or someone who supports her more than Bernie?
The latter, I told him.
He thought for a while. He did know someone who knew someone who supported Hillary, but he wasn’t sure if that person actually lived in Burlington. His coworker had a better idea: she had a friend who had actually hosted a Hillary event at his house last week.
“I’ve sort of come out of the closet, as it were, within the past month,” Nate Orshan told me, when I drove out to the renovated woolen mill where he works to interview him.
Orshan, 48, is a web analyst who has lived in Burlington most of his life. “I think I’ve voted for [Bernie] every singe election I could up until now,” he said.
Being a Hillary supporter here is “tough,” he told me. “Sometimes I feel like that boy in the story, ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes.’” There’s a lot of love for Bernie, and and I understand it, and I feel it, too…I just feel that he doesn’t have the support nationally that he’s going to need.”
Many Bernie supporters, he said, “fail to see that a lot of the country is indeed very conservative, and, in fact, very religious. It’s not a question of his Judaism, it’s a question of his secularism, that I think is going to be such a nonstarter for so many voters across the country.”
Orshan promised to put me in touch with his small network of local Hillary fans.
Burlington is “a lonely place” for them right now, his friend Mattison told me, when I met her later that afternoon at a local brewery.
“It’s interesting, being out, having friends who aren’t, who are closeted Hillary supporters, who will message me on Facebook, or text me or email me, to say, ‘Thank you.’ Well, yeah, we have to speak up.”
The 50-year-old believes Hillary is the politician who will actually be able to move a progressive agenda forward.
Bernie “definitely speaks to the truth that the system is rigged, but I also think the truth of the matter is, Vermont is a very special place, and Bernie has never had to work through complicated changes in a complicated political sphere,” she said.
“When you see the people who are coming to [Trump’s] rallies, and the things that they’re saying—that’s the real America.”
While she loves living here, she said, “I know it’s not real.” | Five Republicans and two Democrats await the verdict of voters in a dozen states (and one territory) – with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton leading the polls |
Dramatic videos have emerged from the torrential downpour in Louisiana where more than 20,000 people have been rescued from floodwaters that are expected to continue rising in some areas of the state. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Southern Louisiana is under water after three days of record-breaking rain. The historic and deadly flooding began to take shape Friday and continued through the weekend as wave after wave of moisture pummeled the Baton Rouge region.
The disaster was caused by two weather-related features — extreme humidity and near-stationary low pressure that hovered over the Gulf Coast for days.
Precipitable water — a measure of how much moisture is in the air over a certain location — was off the charts. Day after day, weather balloons relayed precipitable-water data that came close to or exceeded any other weather event on record in the region. On Friday morning, the precipitable-water reading was 2.8 inches.
[The news: Six killed, thousands displaced]
“Obviously we are in record territory,” the National Weather Service wrote.
Moisture values this large increase the likelihood of major flooding when there’s a sufficient trigger mechanism, like a low pressure cyclone. However, much more water vapor can be injected into the air when the flow converges. This is why rainfall totals can be far greater than the total precipitable water measured by weather balloons.
The low pressure system that triggered the storms was not particularly strong, but it was more than enough to scour the moisture from the overly saturated atmosphere. The system had many of the same atmospheric features seen in tropical storms, and it sprawled across the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
[‘Oh my god, I’m drowning': Video captures woman’s rescue]
Satellite imagery depicts how thunderstorms blossomed day after day, pulsing as the sun came up and fading as it sank below the horizon. The massive area of low pressure crawled west and then seemed to stop and linger over Louisiana for three days.
5-day GOES-13 water vapor loop showing day after day of convection resulting in #laflood pic.twitter.com/IK8UYlOhXe
— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) August 14, 2016
All-told, over 20 inches of rain fell in less than 72 hours around Baton Rouge. Rainfall rates peaked at six inches per hour. A flood warning remains in effect for the rivers around Baton Rouge.
72-hour preliminary rainfall totals. (National Weather Service)
Nine rivers crested at record levels as the water drained into the Louisiana Delta, but river height readings will be difficult to carry out amid the flooding. Many locations along the Amite River are measured manually, and the observers are likely to have evacuated. The National Weather Service is warning that rivers will experience a “long crest,” meaning they will stay in flood stage for days, not hours.
A Louisiana family is pulled to safety after rising flood waters nearly submerged their home. Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday, Aug. 15 that at least 20,000 people have been rescued from unprecedented flooding and at least 10,000 people have been moved to shelters. (Reuters)
The Amite River levee system was built after the historic floods of April 1983. Now that system is being inundated with much more water than it was designed to withstand.
“The flood control system was designed to handle a recurrence of the 14.6-foot crest observed in that record [1983] event,” Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters wrote. As of Monday morning, the Amite River at Port Vincent was at 17.5 feet.
East of Baton Rouge, the Amite River at Denham Springs crested at 46.2 feet on Sunday, which breaks the record of 41.5 feet on March 8, 1983. Records at this location date back to 1921.
950a- Amite @ Denham Springs officially above 1983 record, still rising. #Flood pic.twitter.com/8o5XeweUiF
— NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) August 13, 2016
The rain has tapered off since the weekend in southern Louisiana, but the flooding will continue for days. Backwater flooding, which occurs when water backs upstream because of blockage downstream, could occur well away fay from the main rivers.
“This event remains in full swing,” the National Weather Service wrote on Monday morning. | All-told, over 20 inches of rain fell in less than 72 hours around Baton Rouge. |
BALTIMORE—President Barack Obama Thursday night worked to fire up Democrats for the coming elections, punctuating his calls for an emphasis on the party’s values with a pointed shot at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
“Democrats will win in November,” Mr. Obama told House Democrats at their annual retreat. “The reason I can say that with confidence is because we focus on the things that matter in the lives of the... | President Barack Obama worked to fire up House Democrats for the coming elections, punctuating his calls for an emphasis on the party’s values with a pointed shot at Republican Donald Trump. |
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the central Philippines on Tuesday, causing roofs and buildings to collapse.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A 7.2-magnitude earthquake collapsed buildings, cracked roads and toppled the bell tower of the Philippines' oldest church Tuesday morning, killing at least 20 people across the central region.
The quake sent people rushing out of homes and buildings, including hospitals, as aftershocks continued. At least five died in a stampede in Cebu, said Neil Sanchez, provincial disaster management officer.
Offices and schools were closed for a national holiday, which may have saved lives.
The temblor, which struck at 8:12 a.m., was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) below Carmen town on Bohol Island and did not cause a tsunami.
RELATED: LARGE EARTHQUAKE ROCKS PAKISTAN DAYS AFTER OTHER DEADLY QUAKE
Four people were killed in Bohol and 15 died in Cebu province, a more urban and densely populated region across the strait from the earthquake's epicenter, said Civil defense spokesman Maj. Reynaldo Balido. Another person died on Siquijor Island, southwest of Bohol. A total of 33 were injured.
In Cebu, a boat ride from Bohol, five were killed when a fishing port collapsed. Two more people died and 19 were injured when the roof of a market in Mandaue in Cebu province fell on them. Elsewhere in the city, a woman died after being hit on the head when the quake toppled a building.
Photos from Cebu broadcast on TV stations showed a fallen concrete 2-story building, and reports said an 8-month-old baby and a second person were pulled out alive.
"It's fortunate that many offices and schools are closed due to the holiday," said Jade Ponce, the Cebu mayor's assistant.
RELATED: PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL HITS 348, WITH 552 INJURED
He said patients at the city's hospitals were evacuated to basketball courts and other open spaces "but we'll move them back as soon as the buildings are declared safe."
Historic churches suffered the most damage, including the country's oldest, the Basilica of the Holy Child in Cebu, which lost its bell tower.
A 17th-century limestone church in Loboc town, southwest of Carmen, crumbled to pieces, with nearly half of it reduced to rubble. Other old churches dating from the Spanish colonial period, which are common in the central region, also reported damage.
Cebu province, about 570 kilometers (350 miles) south of Manila, has a population of more than 2.6 million people. Nearby Bohol has 1.2 million people and is popular among foreigners because of its beach and island resorts and the Chocolate Hills.
RELATED: LARGE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES FUKUSHIMA IN JAPAN
Vilma Yorong, a Bohol provincial government employee, said she was in a village hall in Maribojoc town when "the lights suddenly went out and we felt the earthquake."
"We ran out of the building, and outside, we hugged trees because the tremors were so strong," she told The Associated Press by phone. "When the shaking stopped, I ran to the street and there I saw several injured people. Some were saying their church has collapsed."
She said that she and the others ran up a mountain fearing a tsunami would follow the quake. "Minutes after the earthquake, people were pushing each other to go up the hill," she said.
Tuesday is a national holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, and that may have reduced casualties. The earthquake also was deeper below the surface than the 6.9-magnitude temblor last year in waters near Negros Island, also in the central Philippines, that killed nearly 100 people.
Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda said that he recalled soldiers from the holiday furlough to respond to the quake. He said it damaged the pier in Tagbilaran and caused some cracks at Cebu's international airport but that navy ships and air force planes could use alternative ports to help out.
Passenger flights were put on hold until officials check runways and buildings for damage.
Earthquakes are common in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire." | The earthquake struck the central Philippines on Tuesday, collapsing roofs and cracking walls and roads. An 8-month-old baby was one the people pulled out alive from a fallen building. |
The summer job of a second-year law student has traditionally been one of the cushiest around. The associates hired by corporate firms for the season between their second and third years of law school could depend on being wined and dined at the fanciest restaurants, taken to concerts and ballgames and invited to schmooze with partners at lavish cocktail parties. Many days, the hardest part of the job would be choosing what five-star restaurant to go to for lunch.
All this at the salary of a first-year attorney, the equivalent of more than $100,000 a year.
This was always done in the name of wooing top-performing law students to say yes to the job offer they were almost sure to receive at the end of the summer. The top law firms competed so hard to land the best and the brightest that they'd pull stunts like renting out Fenway Park so attorneys and summer associates could play a friendly game of baseball. That's an actual annual event at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray.
This summer will look very different. More than 2,200 attorneys have been laid off since last fall. Some firms are asking their lawyers to take pay cuts while doing pro bono work for a year instead of coming into the office. The lavish life of the summer associate is a thing of the past--at least for now.
Some firms have canceled their summer associate programs altogether, while others have hired smaller classes or shortened the season. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld had to rescind some of its offer letters this year.
Spokespeople for all the law firms contacted for this article declined to comment. But career center directors at law schools and legal recruiters say they're all hearing the same thing: The party is over.
"Firms have been up front about the fact that it's not summer camp anymore," says Abbie Willard, associate dean for career services and policy initiatives the University of Chicago Law School. "The emphasis will be on the work and productivity. Not that they don't want them to enjoy their summer, but it will be more like the real life of a first-year employee." Or maybe not. How can there be that much for interns to do when many first- and second-year attorneys are themselves fighting to get enough work to make their required billable hours?
Law firms do need to keep up at least some hiring, since they, like other corporations, need to have a certain number of lower-, middle- and senior-level employees to do the work, particularly once the economy bounces back.
In years past, the job offer was the summer associate's to lose. Virtually every summer intern was offered a full-time job unless he or she was clearly a poor fit or screwed up. This year, not everyone will get an offer. That means that showing you're a quality employee is the only way to stand out from the crowd.
But that can be a problem.
"Firms don't even have work for their associates, let alone for their summer associates," says T.J. Duane, a principal at the legal recruiting firm Lateral Link. "They have partners who aren't giving work to senior associates, so that they themselves have work. There's a trickle-down effect." And if the interns at a firm don't do much actual work, Duane says, the partners might resort to looking at their schools and grade-point averages to decide who to offer a real job to.
Meanwhile, law schools are teaching their students to take responsibility. Stanford Law School holds an annual seminar on how to make the transition from student to associate, and this year's was more serious than before. The students were instructed to volunteer for work instead of waiting for it to fall into their laps. They were advised about law-firm etiquette, like not signing up for social events and then failing to show up.
"We wanted to make clear that regardless of what the firm told them, it would be a very competitive summer," says Susan C. Robinson, the school's associate dean for career services. "In past years, firms' partners would put up with behavior they might not tolerate from their own kids, because they wanted to get those top students. This year, the students need to earn their offers."
Robinson says firms are being explicit about what they won't tolerate now. "One complaint firms had in the past two years was that the students had a sense of entitlement," she says. "Around lunchtime, they would start trolling for associates to take them out to eat. I tell the students that should be the least of their worries. In no way, shape or form should they focus on lunch." | All of a sudden, it's not just wining and dining and going to ballgames. |
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. inspectors said Monday there is “clear and convincing evidence” that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people.
The findings represent the first official confirmation by scientific experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s civil war, but the report left the key question of who launched the attack unanswered. The rebels and their U.S. and Western supporters have said the regime of President Bashar Assad was behind the Aug. 21 attack, while the Syrian government and its closest ally, Russia, blame the rebels.
Secretary of State John Kerry briefed U.S. allies on a broad agreement reached over the weekend with Russia to end Syria’s chemical weapons program, pressing for broad support for the plan that averted U.S. military strikes. Kerry met in Paris with his counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia before seeking a U.N. resolution that would detail how the international community can secure and destroy Syria’s stockpile and precursor chemicals.
As a sign of possible difficulties ahead, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sparred Monday over possible military action if Syria doesn’t abandon its chemical weapons.
And in Geneva, the chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel said it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically escalating the stakes. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the panel had not pinpointed the chemical used or who is responsible.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented the U.N. inspectors’ report to a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council before its release.
“This is a war crime and a grave violation of … international law,” Ban told the council in remarks distributed to the press. “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves.”
The inspectors’ report said “the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used … in the Ghouta area of Damascus” on Aug. 21.
“The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,” the inspectors said in their report to Ban.
“This result leaves us with the deepest concern,” the inspectors said.
The inspectors were mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones — not on who was responsible.
The rebels and their Western and Arab supporters blame President Bashar Assad’s regime for the attack in the rebel-controlled area of Ghouta. The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. The U.N. report mentions the Ghouta areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka, all of which were featured in the videos of victims that emerged shortly after the attack.
The report cited a number of facts supporting its conclusion:
— Rocket fragments were found to contain sarin.
— Close to the impact sites, in the area were people were affected, “the environment was found to be contaminated by sarin.”
— Blood, urine and hair samples from 34 patients who had signs of “intoxication” by a chemical compound provided “definitive evidence of exposure to sarin by almost all of the survivors assessed.”
— More than 50 interviews with survivors and health care workers “provided ample corroboration of the medical and scientific results.”
The inspectors described the rockets used to disperse the sarin as a variant of an M14 artillery rocket, with either an original or an improvised warhead. The report said the origin of the rockets was from the northwest, but gave no specific location and didn’t point a finger at the perpetrator.
The inspectors cautioned that the five sites they investigated had been “well traveled by other individuals prior to the arrival of the mission.”
“During the time spent at these locations, individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being moved and possibly manipulated,” the report said. The areas were under rebel control, but the report did not elaborate on who the individuals were.
The Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as the U.N. inspection team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs.
In the report, chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom said the team was issuing the findings on the Ghouta attacks “without prejudice” to its continuing investigation and final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons in three other areas. The letter said it hoped to produce that report as soon as possible.
Under an Aug. 13 agreement between the U.N. and the Syrian government, Sellstrom’s team was scheduled to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the village of Khan al Assal outside Aleppo and alleged attacks on two other sites which were kept secret for security reasons.
The inspectors’ report for the first time identified the two sites still to be investigated as Sheik Maqsood and Saraqueb.
The report also thanked the four laboratories designated by the Office for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to examine the samples from Syria, disclosing their locations for the first time — in Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
Kerry and his French and British counterparts worked on a two-pronged approach to Syria. They called for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition.
An ambitious agreement reached with the Russians calls for an inventory of Syria’s chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014.
France and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 attack remained on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution reflecting that in coming days.
“It has to be strong, it has to be forceful, it has to be real, it has to be accountable, it has to be transparent, it has to be timely. All of those things are critical. And it has to be enforced,” Kerry said. “We will not tolerate avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime.”
Kerry said the agreement “fully commits the United States and Russia to impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter in the event of non-compliance.” Chapter 7 resolutions allow for military enforcement.
Russia’s Lavrov said Chapter 7 was the subject of “fierce debate” during the U.S.-Russia talks but stressed that “the final document … doesn’t mention it” and that the Security Council resolution being negotiated will not be under Chapter 7. He said if Syria fails to cooperate, the Security Council can pass an entirely different resolution “which may employ Chapter 7.”
Lavrov stressed that ongoing attempts to threaten the use of force against Syria would provoke the opposition and disrupt a chance for peace negotiations in Geneva that the U.S. and Russia have been trying to organize.
In London, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Syria will comply with all Security Council resolutions and will facilitate the mission of the U.N. inspectors in line with the Russian-U.S. agreement. The comments were carried by state-run SANA news agency, which said al-Zoubi made the comments in an interview with Britain-based ITN TV on Sunday.
Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition — the main umbrella opposition group — for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, French officials said. | UNITED NATIONS — U.N. inspectors said Monday there is "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria… |
This photograph may seem to show President Harry Truman, behind closed doors, playing poker while pondering the future of the Cold War world.
But in fact, as president, Truman almost never let himself be photographed during poker. The Truman in this picture is several years beyond his 1953 retirement.
Unaware of the photographer, Truman is playing his regular game at Kansas City’s exclusive 822 Club; his partners are mostly Republican businessmen. (With his old instinct for constructing ethnically balanced political tickets, Truman also played poker with friends at a predominantly Jewish country club.)
Truman was not the only president who loved poker. Warren Harding convened his “poker cabinet” twice a week over cigars and bootlegged whisky, in defiance of Prohibition, sparking rumors that he once gambled away some of the White House china. (One of Harding’s poker chums, Albert Fall, secretary of the interior, went to prison in the Teapot Dome scandal.)
Franklin Roosevelt employed poker varieties like nickel-ante stud to take the measure of appointed officials and members of Congress. One participant noticed that Roosevelt “studied the players as much as he did the cards.”
One night upstairs at the Executive Mansion, when the Senate and the House were about to adjourn — or so legend has it — F.D.R. ordained that whichever player was on top when it happened would be victorious. But when the call from Capitol Hill came, around 9:30 p.m., Roosevelt was behind and was said to conceal the news until he could take the lead.
Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, dismissed poker as unseemly for a president (he had taken up bridge), but in the Army, he played such an effective game — he called poker his “favorite indoor sport” — that his winnings paid for his dress uniform and an engagement ring for the woman who became his wife, Mamie. In time Ike spurned poker because he felt he was taking so much of his fellow officers’ cash.
During World War II, although he belonged to the Society of Friends, which opposed gambling, Richard Nixon cleaned up in five-card stud and other forms of poker while serving in the Navy in the South Pacific, reputedly earning the king’s ransom of about $8,000 (nearly $98,000 today).
Sporting a pith helmet, Nixon observed that “whoever is talking the loudest is pretty sure to be bluffing.” Still, one Navy friend watched the quiet player they called “Nick” relieve a senior officer of $1,500 (almost $20,000 now) with only two deuces.
Harry Truman was the president most publicly identified with poker, which seemed natural for a product of the Kansas City political machine led by the back-room Democratic boss Tom Pendergast.
Truman preferred what was described as a “frantic” high-low poker, which he called Vinson, after his favorite partner, Fred Vinson of Kentucky (whom he later named chief justice), playing with poker chips he had ordered specially embossed with the presidential seal. Truman’s famous motto, “The Buck Stops Here,” which was emblazoned on a sign atop his Oval Office desk, was a poker expression.
In March 1946, on the night before the Cold War started in earnest, Truman sat down to poker with Winston Churchill, who was wearing his zippered siren suit. The two men were riding aboard the presidential train, which was rushing across Missouri.
Churchill had played poker for decades. “This man is cagey and is probably an excellent player,” Truman had quietly warned his advisers. “The reputation of American poker is at stake, and I expect every man to do his duty.”
“Boss, this guy’s a pigeon,” scoffed Truman’s roguish aide (and World War I Army pal) Gen. Harry Vaughan, who added, “If you want us to give it our best, we’ll have his underwear.” By the time the game stopped at 2:30 a.m., the former British prime minister had indeed lost about $250.
Later that day, in a milestone address in Fulton, Mo., Churchill declared that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe. Had there been any question before, Harry Truman was now the first Cold War president.
As the confrontation with Moscow accelerated, it was only partly by coincidence that the language of Truman’s beloved pastime — bluff, gamble, hidden cards, showdown — was adopted by political leaders, generals and strategists.
The metaphor of poker ran through Cold War history. For instance, in 1953, President Eisenhower deliberately bluffed his way toward an armistice in the Korean War, which remains in force today, by sending a message, through channels intended to be intercepted by the enemy, that he was weighing the imminent use of nuclear weapons.
When President John F. Kennedy, in 1962, faced down the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who thereupon reluctantly agreed to remove missiles from Cuba, Vice President Lyndon Johnson privately summarized J.F.K.’s performance by saying, “He plays a damn good hand of poker.”
In 1971, President Nixon sought to end the American estrangement from China, hoping that this gamble would unnerve the Soviets into pressuring the North Vietnamese to end the Southeast Asia war. Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, boasted to a reporter that his boss “wasn’t the best poker player in the Pacific for nothing.”
But the shrewdest player of all may have been a president who had never especially favored poker. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan upped the ante against the Soviets by increasing defense spending and devising his Strategic Defense Initiative (S.D.I.), both of which, he hoped, would spur the Kremlin, feeling outgunned, to sue for peace.
Historians will argue for decades over how much Reagan’s strategy encouraged it, but on a weekend in November 1986, inside a little house in Reykjavik, Iceland, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed to destroy both countries’ nuclear arsenals if Reagan would pledge to shut down S.D.I. and trim the United States defense budget.
At that moment, the end of the Cold War came into view. Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, pronounced the private bargaining “the highest stakes poker game ever played.” As both poker aficionado and champion of freedom, Harry Truman would have been delighted.
Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, is the author of nine books and a contributor to NBC News and “PBS NewsHour.” Follow him on Twitter at @BeschlossDC.
The Upshot provides news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
A version of this web log appears in print on September 20, 2014, on page D5 of the New York edition with the headline: Presidents, Poker and the Cold War. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe | The metaphor of poker was used by many presidents, but Truman was the one most publicly identified with the game. |
KABUL — Combat operations in the province of Helmand officially ended on Sunday for the American Marines and British troops stationed there, bringing an end to a decade-long struggle to keep a major Taliban stronghold and the region’s vast opium production in check.
Officials commemorated the handover during simultaneous ceremonies at Camp Leatherneck for the Marines and Camp Bastion for the British forces, conjoined bases that made up the coalition headquarters for the region.
The Afghan Army’s 215th Corps will assume full control of the camps, a 6,500-acre parcel of desert scrubland in Southwest Afghanistan — and with it responsibility for securing one of the most violent provinces in the country.
While some American combat troops will remain in Afghanistan through the end of the year, the closing of Camp Bastion signified the end of all British operations in the country. During the nation’s long tenure in Helmand, which began in 2006, British forces lost 453 servicemen in the conflict.
The handover came amid the deadliest period on record for Afghan forces. In the six months since March, more soldiers and police officers have died than any period since the start of the war, evidence of the fact that the Afghan forces are truly in the lead, and of the grinding battle that lies ahead. Played out this summer, areas once deemed relatively secure grew problematic, while trouble spots became engulfed in violence.
Nowhere has that fight been more apparent — or deadly — than in Helmand.
Helmand was the first site of the United States’ 2010 troop surge, when thousands of military personnel were dispatched into Afghanistan to beat back a resurgent Taliban. Hundreds of coalition troops lost their lives to ambushes and roadside bombs in the bleak deserts and verdant valleys of Helmand.
Districts like Sangin and Marja, home to some of the most violent fighting of the past 13 years, became household names as the United States wound down its war in Iraq and accelerated its involvement in Afghanistan.
For the British forces, Helmand was the centerpiece of a multiyear counternarcotics effort that largely failed to stem poppy cultivation. The province, which is home to more than 80 percent of the nation’s opium production, remains the heart of the illicit drug trade. According to a United Nations report, 2013 saw more land used to cultivate the crop than any year since the international community began recording the figure.
Still, officials on Sunday expressed cautious optimism that the Afghans would be ready to handle the fight on their own. While the Taliban tested districts throughout northern Helmand, claiming checkpoints, causing hundreds of casualties and sowing fear into the local population, the movement failed to claim any district centers from the government.
“Because of the competence, resolve and combined skills of the A.N.S.F., insurgent networks have become ineffective in Helmand Province,” said a statement from the International Security Assistance Force, referring to the Afghan National Security Forces.
In reality, locals say, the Taliban have never been stronger in the province. In the face of Western assertions, they added, the Taliban have claimed stretches of area surrounding the government centers and have dominated rural areas, as well as the flourishing drug trade.
Perhaps more worrisome are the trends that developed in northern Helmand over the past five months. Unlike years past, the Taliban massed in large groups to contest government forces, a previously unthinkable dynamic given the presence of coalition air support.
“Their departure will have an impact on people’s lives and security in Helmand,” said Muhammud Fahim Musazai, the governor of Helmand’s Greskh district. “We will face some problems, like other areas of Afghanistan where the foreigners have left and the Taliban entered afterward.”
Sangin district, in particular, became a weather vane of the changing war. Reports of hundreds of Taliban attacking police check points surfaced early in the district. Whispers of cease-fire deals between local army commanders and Taliban militants also emerged in Sangin, causing a stir in Kabul, where officials denied the accounts and doubled efforts to quell the insurgency.
“The bases that are closing down in Helmand Province will definitely pave the ground for the Taliban to hold the power in the area,” said Haji Ibrahim, a tribal elder from Sangin. “Our security forces are not able to kick out the Taliban.” | The handover signified the end of all British operations in the country, and the Afghan Army assumed full control of the camps, bringing an end to a long struggle to keep a Taliban stronghold in check. |
The emotional storyline was too much for audiences so Channel 4 cut the scenes from the popular TV fly-on-the-wall show
PRODUCERS of the popular Channel 4 TV show Gogglebox cut Peggy Mitchell’s suicide scenes from the show after families were left traumatised.
Millions of viewers tuned into watch the uncomfortable exit of the nation’s favourite landlady as she bid goodbye to years of traumatic drama in Albert Square.
But the storyline involving Peggy’s overdose after learning she had terminal cancer was too much for some of the families.
In the show Peggy, played by Barbara Windsor, had an emotional discussion with her son Grant, in which he begged his mother not to take her own life. But the intervention was futile and the story played out.
Now Gogglebox cast members have revealed the whole concept was too much for them.
And that it hit close to home.
Foster carer Lynne McGarry who is a regular on the show with her husband Pete and her son George Gilbey has revealed the family’s reaction to the harrowing scenes was not shown to audiences.
Lynne told the Daily Star: “Pete broke down because he thought of how him and his brother felt when they lost their mum.
“The producers said it was too sad to show.
“He said to me, ‘When that happens you don’t want to accept it. You want to hold on for as long as you can. You don’t want them to go.
“All three of us were sitting there and one by one we broke down.”
Each of the families who signed up to appear on Gogglebox watch a mandated amount of television every week and their reactions to the show are recorded and aired on television.
But an insider said the reaction to Peggy’s suicide was deemed to be too much.
The source said: “But the reactions to Peggy committing suicide were really raw.
“It felt like their responses were too personal to be aired so the decision was made to cut them from the edit.” | PRODUCERS of the popular Channel 4 TV show Gogglebox cut Peggy Mitchell’s suicide scenes from the show after families were left traumatised. Millions of viewers tuned into watch the uncomfort… |
Japan Airlines planes park on tarmac of Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
Japan Airlines planes park on tarmac of Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
TOKYO -- Japan Airlines is raising 663 billion yen ($8.5 billion) in its initial public offering, pricing its shares at the top of its range at 3,790 yen ($48 a share). That makes it the world's second biggest IPO this year after Facebook.
The Tokyo-based carrier, which went bankrupt in 2010, will be nearly doubling the money the government-backed bailout body pumped in. It announced the pricing Monday, the highest in a range that started from 3,500 yen ($45), underlining healthy investor demand for the shares.
The company posted a profit 187 billion yen ($2.4 billion) profit for the fiscal year ended March 2012, an impressive feat considering the beating that global carriers have taken with price competition and surging oil prices.
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Six rivals to Apple's 'iWatch'
(CNN) -- It's been a while since we've heard anything concrete on Apple's rumored "iWatch" device, but Bloomberg now reports that Apple has filed on June 3 to trademark that name in Japan.
This doesn't necessarily mean anything -- companies file for protective trademarks all the time -- but it's one more indication that Apple is dabbling in wearable computing.
iWatch rumors have been flying for most of the year, but we still don't have a clear idea of what the gadget might look like (or what it would do) if it ever comes to market.
One report said that the watch would run a version of iOS but suggested that battery life issues could be holding it back. The watch might also include a pedometer and other sensors to help it compete with fitness gadgets like Nike's FuelBand and the Fitbit.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said that "amazing new hardware" would be coming out this fall and throughout 2014, but whether he meant new product categories like an iWatch or simply refreshes of Apple's existing products (like the new Mac Pro) is anyone's guess.
Either way, there's no need to worry if the iWatch doesn't pan out -- you can always rely on the Pebble watch or the rumored devices from Samsung, Google, or Microsoft to cover your unsightly naked wrists. | Bloomberg now reports that Apple has filed on June 3 to trademark the name "iWatch" in Japan. |
''Congress shall make no law,'' says the First Amendment, ''abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.'' But an angry, flag-waving Congress is making it a crime to print names the Government doesn't want published, even when they are derived from public sources. Last week the Senate refused to be outdone by the House in making the Intelligence Identities Protection Act offensive to the Bill of Rights.
We understand, indeed share, much of the anger. It is engendered by Philip Agee, a former C.I.A. agent, and Louis Wolf, an ally who never worked for the Government. They have published lists of covert agents in efforts to hobble American intelligence. They claim a journalistic mission but their listings, about as journalistic as a phone book, expose the nation's undercover agents with little regard for possible illegalities.
Some response to such irresponsibility was warranted. Congress properly set out to declare it a crime for Mr. Agee to misuse information acquired in his work for the Government. But despite warnings that it would be constitutionally impossible to prohibit the activities of Mr. Wolf, a private citizen, the House tried anyway last fall and the Senate has now followed suit.
The results are bills that would remedy irresponsibility of one sort with irresponsibility of another. Any legislation aimed at Mr. Wolf was fraught with danger for all journalists, but the Senate and House rejected measures that were at least arguably closer to constitutional standards. They refused to require strict proof of deliberate intent to impair or impede American intelligence through exposure of agents' identities. Without that, they leave no room for important journalism that necessarily names names.
The C.I.A. held out for an easier burden for prosecutors, proof only of a ''reason to believe'' the exposure would harm intelligence. The Reagan Administration went so far as to make this relaxed rule a test of loyalty; fearing that they would be called soft, many senators melted.
''Reason to believe'' that a published fact will somehow damage Government is too easily charged. It amounts to saying a reporter should have known that some official would think an article harmful, as some official always does. It's a standard better suited to negligence cases than criminal law. Indeed, Senator Chafee of Rhode Island, a leading advocate of reason-to-believe for news organizations, persuaded the Senate last year that reason-to-know was too tough a test in prosecuting corporate officials for tolerating bribery abroad.
What happens when Congress thus ignores the Constitution? Courageous members will continue to fight the issue in House-Senate conference. Resourceful journalists will maintain their vigilance against official secrecy. Government can forbear and use its illegitimate power sparingly. All should hope the courts will wipe the law from the books. | ''Congress shall make no law,'' says the First Amendment, ''abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.'' But an angry, flag-waving Congress is making it a crime to print names the Government doesn't want published, even when they are derived from public sources. Last week the Senate refused to be outdone by the House in making the Intelligence Identities Protection Act offensive to the Bill of Rights. |
The Obamas will move to a nine-bedroom home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington D.C. after leaving the White House in 2017, according to reports.
The family will rent the 8,200-square-foot home while President Obama’s daughter Sasha finishes high school in the nation’s capitol. The home is owned by Joe Lockhart, a Democratic Party insider who now serves as an executive at the National Football League, and his wife Giovanna Gray Lockhart, a Glamour editor.
The location in Kalorama is a popular spot for many of the city’s wealthy and already features a large security presence to protect the many diplomats who call it home.
The news, first reported by Politico, comes less than a month after the White House announced that the Obama’s oldest daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall after taking a gap year. | They're staying in Washington so Sasha can finish high school |
Dear Annie: Help! One of our top IT people just left to go work for a competitor, giving us only a week’s notice, and we just realized that we never asked him to sign anything regarding the proprietary information he has had access to for the past several years. We don’t use non-compete agreements because they’re illegal here, but ordinarily we do ask senior people to sign a document promising that they won’t reveal confidential data.
This person—who knows so much it’s making us frantic, frankly—never signed anything because he started from a lower-level job and then, when he got promoted (twice), nobody thought about it. Is there anything we can do now to make sure he doesn’t spill the beans to his new employer, or is it too late? — Kicking Ourselves in California
Dear K.O.C.: Yikes. It’s easy to see why you’re in a tizzy about this. For companies built on proprietary intellectual property, “the thought of losing employees who have access to those assets is an absolute nightmare,” says Silicon Valley IP attorney and author James Pooley. “After all, HR can take back a departing employee’s keys and company laptop, but how do you erase the valuable knowledge in his or her head?”
You can’t, of course, but take a deep breath and relax. Pooley thinks you may be able to contain the damage. Pooley recently finished a five-year stint as deputy director general at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, where he was in charge of the international patent system. He is also the author of a new book, Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage.
The main thing working in your favor is that you ordinarily ask people with access to company secrets to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). “If you have taken formal steps to protect information, including things like training employees in security procedures, most courts will back you up” if a dispute over confidential data ever gets that far, Pooley says. “A judge is unlikely to find against you based on this one oversight.”
More to the point, you can probably avoid a courtroom altogether. “In my experience, it’s usually enough to remind the person who quit that he is under an obligation not to reveal trade secrets, which are protected by law in most states, as well as by your company policy,” says Pooley.
“Have a lawyer write a letter emphasizing that you expect your former employee to abide by that,” he suggests. “Then send a letter to his new employer, saying essentially the same thing. You do have rights here, and you can often get the result you want just by asserting them.” Since your competitor is, without doubt, well aware that you could sue them for making commercial use of anything confidential your ex-employee may reveal, a little bit of legal saber-rattling usually works.
The larger question, of course, is how you’re going to stop anything like this from keeping you up at night in the future. It’s probably no consolation, but you’re far from alone in having promoted your ex-employee without considering how much you were increasing his exposure to trade secrets. Most employers don’t think about asking people to sign NDAs when they move up the chain and into sensitive jobs, notes Pooley.
“It’s a hassle to make an NDA part of your checklist every time you’re thinking about promoting someone,” he says. “The easier way is to have everyone in the whole company sign one.” After all, even the most junior staffers might come across proprietary information, perhaps by accident, while doing their jobs.
What’s more, Pooley adds, employers should ask everyone to sign another document, called an assignment of invention, which clearly states that the company owns any new intellectual property someone creates using company resources.
Why? “Let’s say you hire someone who is not a programmer and whose job doesn’t include writing code,” says Pooley, who has seen this situation more than once. “Nonetheless, he or she writes a valuable piece of software. Without a written invention-assignment agreement, a court may well question who owns it, the company or the employee.” If the latter, there’s nothing you can do to stop him or her from taking it elsewhere or selling it to the highest bidder.
One more way to increase the chances that confidential information stays safely locked up in departing employees’ heads, Pooley says, is to “never skip an exit interview. Even if there’s no reason to believe that the departing employee has any plans to breach company confidentiality, an exit interview is a good opportunity to reiterate your concerns, and emphasize that you’re determined to protect the company’s intellectual property.”
This conversation should include a review of what exactly the employee knows that you consider off-limits to outsiders, since “the potential for harm isn’t limited to deliberately stolen data,” observes Pooley. “Simple misunderstandings about what’s confidential or proprietary, and what isn’t, can also lead to distracting, expensive litigation.” And nobody wants that. Good luck.
Talkback: Would you sign a nondisclosure agreement if your employer requested it? What about an invention-assignment agreement? Leave a comment below.
Have a career question for Anne Fisher? Email [email protected]. | Maybe. But without a written nondisclosure agreement, it's dicey. |
A cruise ship with thousands of passengers safely docked in Sydney Harbor on Wednesday morning after suffering damage in 40-foot seas during a dangerous storm that caused officials to close the area’s commercial shipping wharfs, according to the Port Authority of New South Wales.
The Carnival Spirit ship arrived in the overseas passenger terminal at around 9:30 a.m. local time, roughly 24 hours after its originally scheduled arrival, officials said. Harbour Master Captain Phil Holliday had shut down the ports just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning due to winds of around 57 mph and waves approaching heights of 42 feet, he noted in an announcement.
The ship’s 2,500 passengers and 1,500 crew members remained offshore on Tuesday at the end of a 12-day tour of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, Carnival officials told ABC News.
The ship took on water on a fourth-level deck and elsewhere and the squall shattered glass panels during the trying ordeal, Fairfax Media reporter and happenstance passenger Rachel Browne reported in an eyewitness account in the Sydney Morning Herald. Teacups and other drinking vessels in Browne’s quarters fell to pieces when they “blew off the table and hit the wall,” she wrote.
But there were no reported injuries when passengers disembarked Wednesday morning, other than a few cases of seasickness, 9 News reported.
Carnival representatives didn’t immediately respond to request for the extent of the damages on the massive ship.
One relieved passenger, however, noted that patio furniture outside her room had smashed through a glass partition and closet doors in her cabin had rocked off their hinges in an interview with 9 News at the port on Wednesday.
“It was scary, there wasn’t a lot of sleep the past two nights,” she told the TV channel, while praising the crew. “They probably have a lot of work to do but the staff was awesome.”
The Carnival Spirit ship may have escaped the worst of the storm, though. Three people reportedly died and at least one home washed away in floods in the hard-hit town of Dungog about 125 miles to the north of Sydney, the Associated Press reported. Around 200,000 homes and businesses lost power as the storm pummeled New South Wales with over a foot of rain and gusts up to 60 m.p.h., according to AP.
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With With News Wire Reports | The cruise ship with thousands of passengers survived 40-foot seas and storm damage off the Sydney coast, officials said. |
Why is it that whenever a politician is found guilty of corruption, liberals use it as an excuse to reduce everyone else’s freedom? Friday’s conviction of former New York Senate leader Dean Skelos and his son had barely been announced when the Brennan Center declared that the verdict “isn’t a permanent solution to Albany’s systemic rot.”
A jury took only eight hours to convict Skelos, a Republican, and son Adam on all eight counts of... | Another guilty politician in Albany is not an excuse to limit political speech, writes the Wall Street Journal in an editorial. |
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" came in first place, but far behind expectations.
(EW.com) -- Well, that didn't go as planned. Two high-profile films, the 3-D fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and the romantic thriller "The Tourist," registered inauspicious openings as the overall box office trailed last year for the fifth weekend in a row.
Fox's "Dawn Treader," the third film in the franchise based on C.S. Lewis' beloved children's novels, led with $24.5 million, according to studio estimates.
That's a disappointing opening for a series whose first two entries, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian," debuted to $65.6 million and $55 million, respectively. "Dawn Treader's" opening gross puts it in a league that includes such other fantasy clunkers as "Eragon" and "The Golden Compass."
While box-office prognosticators were predicting a decline from prior "Narnia" movies, no one foresaw "Dawn Treader" stumbling this much. It's hard to decipher what went wrong.
According to a rep for a rival studio, Fox's marketing sold the $140 million movie as more of the same, instead of as a fresh take on the "Narnia" universe. But the film's outlook may not be as dreary as it initially seems.
For one thing, "Dawn Treader" scored an encouraging "A-" from CinemaScore audiences. And with the holiday season, Fox is quick to point out that the film is positioned for a marathon, not a sprint. "Its best days are ahead of us," says a studio rep.
"The Tourist" arrived via a Venetian gondola instead of a speeding water taxi.
Despite the star presence of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, this remake of the 2005 French movie opened to a modest $17 million. With a budget north of $100 million, Sony now must hope the PG-13 thriller performs significantly better overseas.
In third place, Disney's animated musical "Tangled" slipped only 33 percent for $14.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $115.6 million.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" didn't hold up as well, dropping 50 percent for $8.5 million. The PG-13 fantasy film has grossed a potent $257.7 million to date, although it trails all other Potter entries in estimated attendance. And the Denzel Washington runaway-train thriller "Unstoppable" dipped 37 percent for $3.8 million.
While many of the major Hollywood films were floundering, the indie scene thrived this weekend.
Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" expanded to 90 theaters and leaped to sixth place with $3.3 million, for an astounding per-theater average of $37,000. The psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman will expand to at least 800 theaters next weekend.
And the boxing drama "The Fighter," starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, slugged $320,000 from four theaters. That's an $80,000 per-theater average. Julie Taymor's "The Tempest," however, stirred as much interest in the moviegoing public as the Shakespearean play commonly stirs in ninth-graders. It took in just $45,000 from five theaters.
Check back next weekend as three new films -- "TRON: Legacy," "How Do You Know" and best picture-contender "Yogi Bear" -- open nationwide for your moviegoing consideration.
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© 2010 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. | Well, that didn't go as planned. Two high-profile films, the 3-D fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and the romantic thriller "The Tourist," registered inauspicious openings as the overall box office trailed last year for the fifth weekend in a row. |
MEXICO CITY — A missing Honduran beauty queen, María José Alvarado, and her older sister, Sofía, have been found dead, their bodies buried in the sand of a riverbank near where they disappeared, the police in Honduras said on Wednesday.
The sisters had not been seen since Thursday, after they attended a birthday party for Sofía Alvarado’s boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, at a resort near their home in western Honduras. He was arrested Tuesday, and the police told local news media that he was the leading suspect in their investigation.
The search for the missing sisters had riveted Honduras, the small Central American country that has the highest peacetime murder rate in the world. Their mother, Teresa Muñoz, made daily televised appeals for their safe return this week from her home in the western region of Santa Barbara.
María José Alvarado, 19, had been scheduled to leave for London on Wednesday to compete in the Miss World contest. She had worked as a hostess on a popular television variety show and was finishing a technical degree in computing.
Sofía, 23, was a teacher and had been dating Mr. Ruiz for about three months, according to Ms. Muñoz.
A second man, Aris Maldonado, was also arrested on Tuesday, and the police said they expected to make additional arrests.
The director of the National Police, Gen. Ramón Sabillón, said during a news conference that Mr. Ruiz had shot Sofía during an argument after she danced with another man at the party.
María José was shot twice in the back as she tried to flee, said General Sabillón, according to The Associated Press.
Leandro Osorio, the director of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, told local news media that the police had found a gun they suspect was used in the shooting in Mr. Ruiz’s possession. His white Toyota pickup truck had been used to move the women’s bodies and then sent to a nearby garage to be painted, Mr. Osorio said. | The Honduran police said María José Alvarado and her older sister, Sofía, had been shot and buried on a riverbank. |
To help decorate our younger daughter’s new apartment, my husband and I offered any item in our basement. She took a painting. A few days later, she phoned to say that she had researched the artist, and his work averages $11,000 at auction.
We had no idea! Now she plans to sell the painting. Our older daughter is upset and has urged her to return it. My husband and I have remained silent. What should we do?
It’s just like that song by Irving Berlin: “Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the sister who comes between me and my Man(et)!”
We all know clans who have waged the Wars of Inheritance. And while their squabbles over the silver service may look mercenary from the outside, to the family, all that stuff represents love and acceptance — not to mention cold, hard cash.
So take the bull by the horns (and the painting by the frame) and speak to your girls. Try: “We had no idea the painting was so valuable. You’re welcome to hang it at your place, Susie, but you may not skip off to Sotheby’s with it.”
From the sound of it, both daughters could use a gentle reminder that their parents are still alive — thank you very much! — and they needn’t worry about Mommy’s and Daddy’s assets until the day you keel over. Assure them that you will be fair with them, and with any other children or charities close to your hearts.
Then get some estate-planning advice — and an appraiser into that basement!
A friend is having terrific success in a career that is beneath her intellect and doing more harm than good to society. Worse, she revels in others’ misfortunes when it translates to an opportunity for her employer. She doesn’t seem aware of her personality change. May I express my misgivings?
Problem is, careers in the Mother Teresa trade are not terribly lucrative. So we start walking down a rent-paying road, and the next thing you know, we’re the chairman of Goldman Sachs, doing “God’s work” and making friends queasy with our good fortune (and indoor swimming pool).
But even ugly jobs need someone to do them. So, just how is your pal “reveling” in others’ misfortune? If she’s a foreclosure agent, gleefully tossing people out of their homes, chime in, “Wow, Janie, you’re enjoying this too much.”
If she’s an editor for TMZ, poring over failed romances of movie stars and pro athletes, let it slide. She’s more likely to pick up the tab that way.
Mind It? I Certainly Do
Am I wrong to blanch when strangers in coffee shops ask me to watch their laptops while they step away? When I say I am uncomfortable taking responsibility for their things, they are offended. Often, the favor is an opening for further conversation, and I must do my work. How do I politely turn them down?
Well, blanching seems a bit much, Blanche. Annoyed? Sure. Blood rushing from your face? Not so much.
Many times, folks just want to nip into the restroom or buy another scone without lugging their stuff or losing their seats. It doesn’t bother me, as it affords an excellent opportunity to rifle through their bags. But if minding a laptop feels like too much responsibility or unleashes a prolix Pandora from her box, just say: “Gosh, I was about to leave myself.”
Be prepared for an icy glare or stony silence when your neighbor returns and finds you still sitting there. But that’s almost what you were after in the first place, right?
Two Legs, Yes. Four, No.
I’m not sure how to handle houseguests who bring their dogs. Allergies are a factor, but we also would rather not have animals indoors. What to do?
Dogs are beasts — unless we’re speaking of mine, who is more refined than Lady Astor and better company than the Lifetime Movie Network when you’re at home with the flu.
I think most people feel this way, so tread lightly. People’s pooches are members of the family, and you don’t want to offend them with your perfectly reasonable preference. Lay it on thick with the allergies: ka-choo! For guests on extended travels, book space at your local vet — or on a featherbed at an overpriced doggie spa on which your friends will probably be all too happy to splurge.
For help with an awkward social situation, send queries to [email protected] or Social Qâs, The New York Times Style Department, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018. Please include a daytime telephone number. | This week, answers to readersâ questions about what happens when daughters fight over heirlooms, houseguests who bring their dogs and other issues. |
The Marine Corps’ long, sometimes twisted, relationship with the M16 rifle is slowly coming to an end.
On Monday, the Marine Corps Times reported that the rifle is only a few signatures away from being phased out from front-line units and relegated to a support role. The move, which follows a similar one by the Army, comes as the Marine Corps implements its new small-arms modernization strategy.
“The proposal to replace the M16A4 with the M4 within infantry battalions is currently under consideration at Headquarters Marine Corps,” Maj. Anton Semelroth, a Marine spokesman, told the Marine Corps Times in an e-mail.
The weapon replacing the M16, the M4, is a smaller, carbine variant of the M16. Aesthetically the M4 looks only slightly different, with a collapsible stock and shorter barrel. And while the M4 also shoots the same sized bullet as the M16 — 5.56mm — the real benefits come from its reduced weight and portability.
[Why the Marines are looking at a new sniper rifle]
At 7.5 pounds — a pound lighter than the M16 — the M4 fits nicely with the age-old infantry adage: “ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain.” Additionally, the M4’s smaller size is ideal for close quarters combat and vehicle operations.
U.S. Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force advance on their targets while firing M4 carbine rifles on the flight deck of the USS Essex during training off the coast of San Diego in February 2015. (U.S. Marine Corps)
The Marine infantry’s adoption of the M4, however, is not completely new. The weapon has been fielded for quite some time, just not every Marine has been lucky enough to have one. In the past M4’s were generally issued to leadership while the average rifleman carried an M16.
Issuing the remaining Marine infantrymen with M4s will not cost the Marines a dime, as the Marines have the needed 17,000 M4s in stock, according to the Marine Corps Times.
The only drawback to using a M4 over the M16 is that the M4’s shorter barrel sacrifices accuracy out towards the maximum effective range of the rifle—500 meters. That is largely a moot point because at 500 meters the 5.56mm bullet fired by both the M16 and M4 is next to useless.
U.S. Marines from the Black Sea Rotational Force run a small arms range with Georgian Armed Forces using the M4 carbine rifle during Exercise Agile Spirit 15 at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia, July 10, 2015. (U.S. Army)
During the Vietnam war, when the M16 was first issued to U.S. troops, the Marines were some of the late adopters. In the early part of the war, Marine grunts hefted the M14, a grandson of sorts of the M1 Garand that was used in World War II and Korea.
The M16 of the Vietnam-era, though aesthetically similar, is not the M16 of today. The rifle of the 1960s was plagued with malfunctions due to issues with ammunition, corrosion resistance and other factors, as detailed in this excerpt from the book “The Gun.” Today, the M16 is not without its skeptics, however after various upgrades and modifications it is vastly more reliable and generally well-liked among current troops.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff is a staff writer and a former Marine infantryman. | Marine infantryman likely will soon carry only the M4 carbine. |
As Rick Santorum fights off efforts to label him extreme or "ultraconservative" for discussing faith and family on the campaign trail, the White House is taking a new tack against the Republican candidate and his presidential primary rival Mitt Romney -- accusing them both of driving up the deficit in their budget proposals.
In a memo on the "deficit-exploding budget and tax plans" by Romney and Santorum, Obama campaign Policy Director James Kvaal argues that while both candidates "champion spending cuts deep enough to cut taxes and balance the budget," they have, in fact, "proposed irresponsible and reckless tax plans that would drive up the deficit by trillions of dollars."
Saying their claims to balance the budget through spending cuts "are completely unrealistic," Kvaal argues that Romney's plan "would increase the deficit by at least $175 billion a year." That's in contrast to the president's plan released last week that doesn't see less than $600 billion in deficits for nine of the next 10 years.
"In total, Romney's tax plan would increase the deficit by $188 billion in 2016. The tax cuts are worth $146,000 a year to individuals earning more than $1 million a year. A typical middle-class family with children would actually pay $34 more," Kvaal wrote.
"Romney's budget would require cutting all non-defense spending by nearly 25 percent in 2016, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and by 48 percent if Social Security and Medicare are spared. Santorum's claims are even less realistic," he continued.
The Obama team's focus on both candidates suggests a shift in approach as Santorum gains nationally on Romney in polls ahead of the Arizona and Michigan primaries next Tuesday. The two candidates, as well as Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, are expected to debate Wednesday night in Arizona. The votes in those two states are followed by Super Tuesday on March 6.
But the redirect toward economic issues come after days of sniping over Santorum's comments about Obama's energy policy, in which Santorum referenced the "phony theology" of radical environmentalists that he says Obama has embraced.
While the language used by Santorum is similar to that long purveyed by conservatives to label believers of global warming and other environmentalist movements as wing-nuts, the president's campaign called it an attack on Obama's Christian faith and said Santorum was "over the line."
On Monday, Santorum defended his remarks, saying that he's being attacked because he has moral values, not because he wants to impose them on anyone else.
"This makes it, you know, really a war on people of faith, particularly the Catholic faith, which again, I mean, it's very clear what the Obama administration is doing on that front," Santorum told Fox News. "For them to continually distort -- this is the kind of stuff that I think is actually, I think, one of the reasons we're doing well in the polls because people see it for what it is. They see a national media trying to destroy conservatives."
A Real Clear Politics average of polling shows Santorum is up in the polls, with 33.8 percent on average compared to Romney's 28 percent.
University of Virginia Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato said that Santorum winning three contests in early February pushed the headlines toward him, but his success isn't based just on buzz.
The way he speaks "is coming across as authentic," Sabato told Fox News. "He's very blunt, he's very forthright. He speaks as though he doesn't care about the political consequences."
But Santorum is walking a fine line. While he tries to focus on topics like Iran, budgets and energy policy, he has also questioned the usefulness of public schools, criticized prenatal testing and doubted whether women are physically able to keep up in combat.
That contrasts sharply with Romney, who has avoided social issues for the most part, and has been accused of not being passionate enough or conveying a reason for his being in the race. Instead, the former Massachusetts governor sells himself as the efficient CEO who will fix the economy.
A Mormon, Romney speaks about ensuring "religious liberty" and preventing a contraception mandate being imposed by the Obama administration on insurers, including those morally opposed to birth control, but his target audience is largely fiscal hawks.
"One of the people I'm running against, Senator Santorum, goes to Washington, calls himself a budget hawk then, after he's been there a while, says he's no longer a budget hawk. Well, I am a budget hawk," Romney said Monday.
"When Republicans go to Washington and spend like Democrats, you're going to have a lot of spending, and that's what we've seen over the last several years," Romney added.
With the primary race unlikely to wrap up soon, the two candidates offer a stark choice to represent the GOP in the November election against Obama. Romney maintains a massive organizational and fundraising advantage over all his rivals, while Santorum gets to the social soul of the conservative wing of the party.
A pro-Santorum PAC, the Red, White & Blue Fund, announced Tuesday it's all-in in Michigan, as Romney closes the gap in his home state. The super PAC is pouring $600,000 into Michigan for a statewide ad buy in the week ahead of the Republican presidential primary, a sum that the Romney team could easily match and best. | As Rick Santorum fights off efforts to label him extreme or ultraconservative for discussing faith and family on the campaign trail, the White House is taking a new tack against the Republican presidential primary candidate and his rival Mitt Romney, accusing them of driving up the deficit in their budget proposals. |
By Jeff Leeson2015-04-02 00:19:13 UTC
Photographer Seph Lawless has been traveling around the U.S. photographing abandoned race tracks and other sites of urban decay. He recently traveled to northeast Ohio for his latest project, which centers around the deserted Variety Theater. Closed in 1986, the theater was originally one of the first single screen movie theaters in the country, and later became an iconic venue for some of rock and roll's biggest names.
With the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony right around the corner, it's a nice ode to the venues that helped bring music stars to fame.
In his photo series book, Lawless remembers one of the historic theater's final shows:
"During a performance by Motörhead on December 2, 1984, the music was so loud it actually cracked the theater ceiling and plaster fell down on the crowd. The power was cut off to stop the band from playing. A judge ordered the theater closed in 1986."
The theater had kept its vintage style for decades and left everything untouched when it was sealed up in 1986.
"The most interesting thing I saw was just how original everything was ... everything was [virtually] the same as when it was built. The ornate ceilings and the architecture is just so beautiful even after all these years. There was art everywhere you looked. It was hauntingly beautiful to witness," Lawless writes.
To see more of Seph Lawless's work, check out his Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr pages. | Photographer Seph Lawless, known for his urban decay photo series, received access to shoot the Variety Theater which has sat abandoned for more than 30 years. |
A 101-year-old man has been pulled alive from the rubble of his house in Nepal seven days after an earthquake hit the country, police said on Sunday.
Related: ‘No one has come’: one week on, Nepal quake victims help themselves
Funchu Tamang was rescued on Saturday with only minor injuries and airlifted to a district hospital in Nuwakot district around 50 miles north-west of Kathmandu, said a local police officer, Arun Kumar Singh.
“He was brought to the district hospital in a helicopter. His condition is stable,” said Singh.
“He has injuries on his left ankle and hand. His family is with him.”
Police also rescued three women from beneath rubble on Sunday in Sindhupalchowk, one of the districts worst hit by the quake, although it was not immediately known how long they had been trapped.
One had been buried by a landslide while the other two were under the rubble of a collapsed house.
“They are being taken to hospital for treatment,” said Suraj Khadka, an officer with the Armed Police Force in Kathmandu.
Nepal’s government had on Saturday ruled out finding more survivors buried in the ruins of the capital, Kathmandu.
Teams of rescuers from more than 20 countries have been using sniffer dogs and heat-seeking equipment to find survivors in the rubble.
But outside the city search and rescue work has largely been carried out by local police and troops. | Man found with minor injuries in collapsed home seven days after earthquake, as government rules out finding more survivors in Kathmandu |
When jewelry designer Stacey Papp learned that some of her closest friends from the fashion world were among those killed and injured in the
she immediately wanted to help their families.
Her longtime friend, Javier Jorge-Reyes, was murdered that night. Another longtime friend, Leonel Melendez, is in a coma fighting for his life. Says Papp, who owns the Orlando-based Bay Hill Jewelers: "I kept calling their best friend, saying, 'What can I do?'"
As a jewelry designer and a philanthropist who started the
in 2004 to help at-risk children and foster kids, Papp became friends with the two men because they worked at Gucci, with whom she has longstanding ties. "We have a very tight community here," she says.
The day after the shooting, Papp and other like-minded friends in the fashion and jewelry industry gathered together at the Orlando home of philanthropist Sam Azar of Azar Diamonds to start raising awareness that the victims' families needed everything from help with funeral planning to food and water.
A dedicated group of industry professionals who knew some of the victims "ended up pulling together this sort of command station," Papp says. (The group included Azar; Jorge Cruz of Longines Swiss, who worked with the victims for ten years at Gucci; Amy Figueroa of the Longines Watch Company; Jason Hoskinson of David Yurman; Ben Arroyo of Wells Fargo Bank; Beatrice Carmen Miranda of Metro City Realty and Edith Colon from Mainframe Real Estate.)
"Everybody had their Smart phones and computers and we sat around a table and just made a list of what needed to be done immediately for the victims and their families," Papp says.
After they put the word out on social media, they were flooded with do-gooders who provided the victims' families and close friends with items ranging from gift cards to food.
"Everyone was willing to donate blood," she says. "Restaurants jumped on board and said, 'What can we do?' They each chose a night to feed a family involved in the tragedy. Other people were running around making deliveries.
"It was just the most unbelievably cohesive thing that happened so effortlessly and so quickly."
Papp adds, "At the end of the day, we felt like we accomplished something."
Melendez is the father to a six-year-old girl, Bella. When the group began discussing who wanted to take Melendez's six-year-old daughter out for a special day at Universal Studios or Walt Disney World while her dad remains in a coma, fighting for his life, "a light bulb clicked," Papp says.
They started talking about other children who had lost parents in the attack, including children of
who left behind his five-year-old son, Kelvyn, and
49, a mother of 11, who died after getting shot, telling her 21-year-old son, who was with her that night, "Run, just go."
Says Papp, "What struck me about all of this is: What are we doing for the children? These children are the ones who are going to be forgotten."
In the aftermath of the shooting, she says that "everyone has been so generous and wants to help so badly, but I thought, there is maybe a missing component for follow-ups for the future."
Since she had already founded a successful charity for children and youth, she decided to set up a fund to raise money for educational expenses and college tuition for the victims' children: the
"We already work with at-risk, homeless and foster youth in our community and have been doing that for years," she says, explaining that the foundation pays for tutoring and focuses on one-on-one attention.
"When we give them a glimpse of what life could be like and show them what's out there, they soar. Education is what we live at Bridges of Life, so this made so much sense," she says.
Papp set up a team to manage the funds, with the president of Wells Fargo Bank, whom she knows, offering to open up bank accounts for the funds within hours: "Everyone has just been doing what they could to make it happen," she says.
Papp's goal, she says, is "to ensure the bright educational future of the children who were affected by this tragedy. We will not allow their futures to become another casualty in this time of suffering and grief."
The fund is also working toward partnering with Florida Pre-Paid, which provides tuition at many local colleges.
"Our goal is to raise a full four years of college tuition for each child, through generous donations from our local, national and global community," she says. Papp also wants to raise money to pay for room and board for each student.
"We know of 14 children in need so far, but are hoping that other families will reach out to us," she says.
Like other victims' families, Melendez's relatives are grateful for what Papp and her friends have done for the future of the victims' children.
"When she told us about the scholarship, I got the chills because I thought it was so amazing," says Melendez's brother-in-law, Rudy Garay, who has been helping to care for Bella, while her father is in the hospital.
"Her foundation is really going to benefit all the kids directly. It will be one less thing for the parents or whoever is taking care of the kids."
Papp is happy to help – "I am super-passionate about helping children," she says – and she encourages others to help if they can.
"We hope that everyone, including corporations who haven't yet decided where to donate for the victims and might want to partner with Bridges of Light, can give whatever is comfortable and put it towards this unbelievable fund to make a difference for the future of these children. It would mean so much," she says.
She adds: "I just know that when you do good things, good things happen."
To donate, please visit the | 'When you do good things, good things happen,' says Stacey Papp Bridges of Light Foundation Education Fund founder Stacey Papp |
05/22/2016 AT 09:35 PM EDT
made a statement in more ways than one during her performance at the
Taking the stage to perform her 2015 hit "
," the 23-year-old wore a T-shirt with an inclusive bathroom symbol, taking a stand against North Carolina's controversial HB2,
that bans cities and local governments from passing rules to allow transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identity.
The special T-shirt will be available for Lovato's fans during she and
' Honda Civic Tour: Future Now, with the proceeds going to LGBT organizations in North Carolina, GLAAD said in a statement on Sunday.
"Demi Lovato continues to be a fearless ally for LGBT equality and acceptance," GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in the statement. "By wearing her support for the transgender community, Lovato is raising critical visibility for vulnerable LGBT North Carolinians and sending an invaluable message of support to transgender people everywhere."
in Raleigh and Charlotte last month in support of the LGBT community.
"It's incredibly difficult for everybody and the situation there is unfortunate," Jonas told PEOPLE in April. "But Demi and I and our team, we talked about how we could make the biggest impact. We felt that this was the right choice." | Lovato wore a T-shirt featuring an inclusive bathroom symbol during her Billboard Music Awards performance |
MOSCOW — The retribution against one of Russia’s most popular independent online news organizations, Lenta.ru, was as swift as it was unexpected. And to many it served as an ominous warning about the state of the media today as the conflict over Ukraine deepens.
On Tuesday morning, the country’s media watchdog formally cautioned the website after it published an interview with the leader of a Ukrainian nationalist organization that Russia has denounced as fascist. By afternoon, the site’s editor for the last decade was ousted and replaced by another editor viewed as more loyal to the Kremlin.
Lenta.ru, known for aggressive coverage in a media dominated by state-owned or controlled news outlets, announced the departure of its editor, Galina Timchenko, without explanation, but it soon posted a letter of protest signed by 79 members of the site’s staff, blaming “direct pressure” from the Kremlin for her dismissal.
“Over the past couple of years the space for free journalism in Russia has decreased dramatically,” the statement said. “Some publications are controlled directly from the Kremlin, others through curators, still others by editors who fear losing their jobs. Some media outlets were closed. Others will be closed in the coming weeks.”
The statement read like a mass resignation, though it remained unclear how the organization’s staff — or its editorial policy — would be affected.
Lenta.ru is owned by a media company called Afisha-Rambler-SUP, controlled in part by Aleksandr Mamut, a Russian billionaire. The company also owns the country’s most popular blogging site, LiveJournal, which was soon filled with laments about the editorial shake-up. An official at the company declined to comment.
The government’s efforts to control the media under President Vladimir V. Putin are hardly new, but as the turmoil in Ukraine unfolded in recent months, a series of decisions have raised fears that the Kremlin intends to tighten its grip beyond the dominant television networks that shape its message.
In December, Mr. Putin dissolved the official state news agency, RIA Novosti, and now is reorganizing a new one under a television executive and host, Dmitry K. Kiselyov, who is best known for virulent commentary on various foreign conspiracies he and others say are threatening Russia.
In January, the independent online television network, Dozhd, or Rain, was dropped by most of the country’s cable providers, ostensibly for conducting a poll that asked if the Soviet Union would have been better off surrendering Leningrad during World War II, rather than enduring the siege by Nazi Germany. It is now struggling to survive.
A month later, the long-serving executive director of the radio station Ekho Moskvy, perhaps the most prominent opposition news outlet, was replaced by a senior editor of the state radio network, Voice of Russia.
“The problem is not that we have nowhere to work,” the statement by Lenta.ru’s staff said. “The problem is that it seems you have nothing more to read.”
Russia’s media watchdog, known as Roskomnadzor, warned Lenta.ru that it had violated Russia’s laws against promoting extremism in the media. Two warnings are grounds for repealing its license. It cited an interview with Andriy Tarasenko, the leader in Kiev of the nationalist coalition, Right Sector, which played a prominent and, some have charged, violent role in the protests against the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych.
The interview, published Monday, carried the headline “We are Not Armed Forces.” It has since been removed from the site. The reporter who conducted the interview, Ilya Azar, said a telephone interview that he intended to quit rather than to work under the new editor.
Lenta.ru was also warned for linking to remarks by the group’s leader Dmitro Yarosh. A court here effectively indicted him in absentia on Wednesday for promoting extremism in Russia itself and said it would seek an international arrest warrant.
Mr. Yarosh and others have been denounced as fascists, radicals and anti-Semites by a relentless media campaign on state television networks that has sought, in keeping with Kremlin policy, to discredit the new government in Ukraine. | A popular independent online news site, Lenta.ru, got a warning from the government about its Ukraine coverage, and then a new editor. |
Fishing oysters and lobsters is hardwired into the Hardy bloodline. Leslie Hardy, owner of Leslie Hardy and Sons Oysters, his father, brothers, four sons and one of his daughters are hooked on the family business, established over four generations on Lennox Bay in East Bideford, Prince Edward Island. Many of Hardy’s 36 grandchildren are also involved in the farming of Malpeque oysters, some of the most sought after PEI oysters.
“My father passed the farm onto my older brother. But after a while he wasn’t interested in it anymore, so I bought it from him,” recalled Hardy. “I was a school teacher once, and so was Shirley [his wife], but I gave it all up for this, the adventure of being on the water, the freedom of doing my own thing.”
In this age of automation and mechanically-processed foods, oysters are still a hands-on operation (albeit gloved hands). For the Hardy family, there is no “tonging,” a method of scooping oysters from the bay floor with a hand-operated dredging basket. Instead, the Hardys sort each and every oyster by hand.
The family has also have developed a method for raising higher-quality oysters in less time. The traditional ready-for-market oyster matures at seven years, but the Hardys can grow them to full size in three years and with a rounder shape, which is an attractive quality for raw bars. Their oysters are shipped all over North America, from PEI to Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, Montreal and Maryland.
Gordon Hardy is the youngest of Leslie’s eight grown children who, in addition to being an integral part of the oyster business, also farms mussels on the other side of the bridge that divides the bay. “On this side we kill the mussels, and [we] grow them on the other,” explains Gordon. In discussing his life as an oyster farmer he says: “[I] never did anything else; only made it to the 10th grade, but I like [farming oysters]. Some folk ’round here go out west, Alberta ways, working oil. I wouldn’t want to be that far from home. This is where I want to be, with my family.”
— Text by European Press Agency
Nicole Crowder is the photo editor for the Washington Post’s photography blog, In Sight. | Off Lennox Bay on Prince Edward Island, a small family operation has been farming oysters for over four generations. |
Woodrow Wilson, who enjoyed moralizing about the mundane, called paying taxes a “glorious privilege.” In 1865, when there was a Civil War income tax, one taxpayer shared this sensibility, sort of. Mark Twain said that his tax bill of $36.82 (including a $3.12 fine for filing late) made him feel “important” because the government was paying attention to him. Today, Rep. Kevin Brady wants to change the way government pays attention to taxpayers.
Congress is like a Calder mobile: Something jiggled here causes things to wiggle over there. When conservatives toppled House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), they inadvertently propelled Brady into the House’s most important chairmanship, that of the Ways and Means Committee. Because revenue bills must originate in the House, Brady now wields Congress’s most important gavel, all because the committee’s previous chairman, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), now sits in Boehner’s chair.
George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977. He is also a contributor to FOX News’ daytime and primetime programming.
If there is going to be growth-igniting tax reform — and if there isn’t, American politics will sink deeper into distributional strife — Brady will begin it. Fortunately, the Houston congressman is focused on this simple arithmetic: Three percent growth is not 1 percent better than 2 percent growth, it is 50 percent better.
If the Obama era’s average annual growth of 2.2 percent becomes the “new normal,” over the next 50 years real gross domestic product will grow from today’s $16.3 trillion (in 2009 dollars) to $48.3 trillion. If, however, growth averages 3.2 percent, real GDP in 2065 will be $78.6 trillion. At 2.2 percent growth, the cumulative lost wealth would be $521 trillion.
Brady, however, would like to start with the approximately $2 trillion that U.S. corporations have parked overseas. Having already paid taxes on it where it was earned, the corporations sensibly resist having it taxed again by the United States’ corporate tax, the highest in the industrial world. “[The $2 trillion] won’t just naturally fly back to us,” Brady says. Measures should be taken to make it rational for corporations to bring money home. And to make it rational for corporations such as Pfizer, which recently moved its headquarters to Ireland for tax purposes, to remain here.
In the past 30 years, Brady says, more and more taxes have been paid by fewer and fewer people. And fewer and fewer businesses have been organized as corporations: Three-quarters of job-creating entities are not paying corporate taxes.
“You can’t,” Brady says, “ask people to make big changes, leapfrogging our global competitors, just to get to average.” But making big changes “is why we all came to Congress.” And the benefit that comes from something unfortunate — the fact that there are so few (perhaps fewer than 40) competitive House seats — is that members can take risks. Presidential engagement is necessary for tax reform, and Brady says that will require a new president who understands that “just a little respect goes a long way up here [on Capitol Hill].”
All Republican presidential candidates have tax reform proposals, but only one candidate proposes increasing the cost of government for every American. Here, at last, Donald Trump actually resembles a Republican. Unfortunately, it is a Republican from 125 years ago, when the party stood for big government serving crony capitalism with high tariffs.
As Steven R. Weisman demonstrates in his splendid history of American taxation, “The Great Tax Wars,” the GOP’s tariffs were indirect, hidden sales taxes that crimped consumption by Americans with small incomes. In 1913, the first year of Wilson’s presidency and the year the 16th Amendment and the income tax arrived, the glorious privilege of paying taxes was enjoyed primarily through tariffs: They provided nearly half of federal revenues, with most of the rest coming from tobacco and liquor taxes, which also were hardest on people of modest means.
Trump, who works himself into a lather because Nabisco is making some Oreo cookies outside the country, is obsessed with the United States’ trade with China. “We’re going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country,” he says, aiming to raise the price Americans pay for Apple products that today are assembled in China, which, according to trade attorney Scott Lincicome, makes about $6 by assembling an iPhone from parts (many of which China has imported).
Trump favors a 45 percent tariff to protect customers of Walmart and similar retailers from the onslaught of inexpensive Chinese apparel, appliances and food. He can explain the glorious privilege of paying taxes-as-tariffs when he makes his next visit to a Walmart, perhaps the one in Secaucus, N.J., just seven miles from his Fifth Avenue penthouse.
Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook. | Seemingly small differences in annual growth add up to hundreds of trillions of dollars. |
The Afghan capital Kabul has suffered a series of attacks this month that have left dozens of people dead.
The Taliban says it is behind most of the violence, and it is believed to be linked to the current splits within the group after the death of their leader Mullah Omar.
The violence has raised questions about the ability of Afghan security forces to stop such attacks after the majority of coalition forces withdrew last year.
The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil met the people affected by the recent bloodshed. | Shaimaa Khalil meets Afghans trying to lead "a normal life" in Afghanistan where a series of attacks this month has left dozens of people dead. |
While there are undoubtedly strong political (and financial) reasons for U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to set a firmer timetable for a change in mission of US forces in Afghanistan, they are probably not the whole story behind NATO’s evolving “end-game.”
French President Nicholas Sarkozy has already announced that his country's 3,600 troops deployed in Afghanistan will leave by the end of 2013 - a year early. That may have something to do with the fact that he is trailing badly in the polls ahead of presidential elections in April. But he is not alone. In Washington, London and Paris, Afghanistan is an unpopular war.
Panetta's suggestion that Afghan security forces can be capped now at just over 300,000 rather than the 350,000 target originally set is another indication of the prevailing mood. Money and popular support for the Afghan mission are in short supply. There's also an air of exasperation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai creeping in.
Sarkozy expressed it when he announced his sudden decision to get French troops out early - following the killing by an Afghan soldier of four French servicemen two weeks ago. The United States, too, has plenty of frustrations with Karzai, not least his recent attempts to stifle Washington's efforts to engage the Taliban in talks.
U.S. diplomats have long been criticized for not standing up to what are perceived as Karzai's wrong-headed policies, as well as his tantrums and whims. His latest plan to ignore the U.S. track for talks with the Taliban in Qatar and develop his own Saudi-hosted path is an effective slap in the face for President Barack Obama.
The United States wants many things out of these talks, not least a stable Afghanistan allowing an honorable exit for combat forces. But it also needs to set the conditions for what it was unable to agree to in Iraq - and that is to maintain a strategic regional foothold with large airbases and a troop presence. Iran is on one side of Afghanistan, Pakistan the other; and resource-hungry China also shares a border with Afghanistan.
So talks with the Taliban are not just about ending the war, they are about recognizing the Taliban's future political influence. They are, if the right conditions are set, about accepting the Taliban as political representatives of at least part of Afghanistan's majority Pashtoon population.
When Panetta talks about transitioning from combat to training operations by the end of 2013 he is also signaling to the Taliban U.S. combat forces will leave, and soon. For a long time the Taliban demanded foreign troops leave as a precondition for talks, a goal that is now in sight.
Panetta may be lowering other hurdles to a political settlement - although one at least appears inviolable: that the Taliban must renounce ties to al Qaeda.
Last year after much consideration, Obama signed off on exploring talks with the Taliban. Mullah Omar signed off on his side. A serious commitment had been made although there was (and still is) absolutely no guarantee of the outcome.
Now Karzai appears set to pursue his "alternate" Taliban talks track - at the very least, to muddy the waters and slow the talks process, and at worse scupper it altogether. If he successfully sabotages U.S.-Taliban talks, Washington can forget long-term strategic bases. The Taliban will make them unviable.
When NATO's combat forces pull out, the Taliban will, by talks or by fighting, expand their influence. Without some sort of political understanding, the Taliban will be able to obstruct resupply and every other part of the remaining U.S. and NATO mission.
A recently leaked NATO intelligence estimate that the Taliban are waiting to take power by force begins to look like a well-timed effort to undermine the transition that Panetta is in Brussels to discuss.
A western diplomat who talks directly to the Taliban told me recently "they [the Taliban] haven't made up their mind yet" whether to go for the "grand [political] bargain" or wait and "fight for control of the country." That view is echoed by Sherard Cowper Coles, the former British ambassador to Kabul.
The reason the Taliban may not want to fight for power could be pragmatic. When they took control of 95% of Afghanistan in the 90's they did it as much with Pakistani money - buying off enemy commanders - as they did in battle.
Mullah Omar's Taliban, the largest Taliban group also known as the Quetta Shura, the former Afghan government, the ones talking to the United States will not get that money now because Pakistan's military intelligence service, the ISI, does not trust them.
Sources say the ISI trusts and prefers to fund the much smaller Haqqani Taliban force. The Haqqanis have pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar publicly - but would likely be an adversary were he ever back in government.
Also the Taliban's ethnic foes in the North are far richer, better equipped and trained than the last time they fought, thanks to the North's close ties to the U.S. military. They pose a bigger challenge to Taliban (Pashton) hegemony than before.
So the question for these aging gray haired leaders who have been at war in some cases for up to 30 years is: Can they get better terms at the negotiating table?
Part of that calculation will be based on their assessment of the sincerity of the people sitting across the table from them.
Karzai may have cut across U.S. interests one time too many. Tough love is what some diplomats have advocated for his intransigence. An end to combat missions in 2013 will certainly be that, and the great unanswered question is: Will that be a bone the Taliban prefer to chew or bury? | By Nic Robertson While there are undoubtedly strong political (and financial) reasons for U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to set a firmer timetable for a change in mission of US forces in Afghanistan, they are probably not the whole story behind NATO’s evolving “end-game. |
Israel has responded furiously to a UN security council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, recalling two of its ambassadors to countries that voted for the motion and threatening to cut aid.
The security council adopted the landmark resolution demanding Israel halt all settlement building and expansion in the occupied territories after Barack Obama’s administration refused to veto the resolution on Friday.
A White House official said Obama had taken the decision to abstain in the absence of any meaningful peace process. The resolution, which passed by a 14-0 vote, was met with loud applause in the packed chamber when the US ambassador, Samantha Power, abstained.
The move was immediately condemned by the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as “shameful”. A spokesman pointedly referred to Israel’s expectation of working more closely with the US president-elect, Donald Trump.
The security council last adopted a resolution critical of settlements in 1979, with the United States also abstaining. The United States vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, which was the sole veto cast by the Obama administration at the security council.
Amid emerging criticism of the handling of the vote by Netanyahu, whose manoeuvres were seen as an attempt to sideline Obama and his administration, Israel ordered steps against a number of countries.
Those steps included the recall of the Israeli ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal, who voted for the resolution, cancelling a planned visit by the Senegalese foreign minister to Israel in three weeks and cancelling all aid programmes to the African country.
The two countries voted along with the UK, France, Russia and China in favour of the resolution describing Israeli settlement building as a “flagrant violation” of international law.
Responding to the Israeli moves, New Zealand’s foreign minister, Murray McCully, said the decision should have been no surprise to Israel, which knew Wellington’s position long before the UN vote.
“We have been very open about our view that the [security council] should be doing more to support the Middle East peace process and the position we adopted today is totally in line with our long-established policy on the Palestinian question.”
The vote has sharply underlined the extent of Israel’s international isolation under Nentayahu.
In particular the vote – in which 14 of the 15 countries on the Security Council vote in favour – dramatised the hollowness of Netayahu’s boast at the UN general assembly in the autumn over Israel’s purported diplomatic advances at the UN, not least among African members.
Russia and China too, both permanent members of the security council with veto rights who have been heavily courted by Israel, also voted in favour.
While Israel may expect a much easier ride after the inauguration of Donald Trump, support of the motion from countries like the UK and France underlines the deep frustration in Europe with the policies of Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition over settlements and the moribund peace process.
For its part the Obama administration made clear that the US decision to abstain was in direct response to choice made by Netanyahu on settlements.
The resolution also serves as a warning to the incoming Trump administration over its policies following the appointment by Trump of a far right pro-settler ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
While the US and EU have worked closely together in coordinating foreign policy on the Israel-Palestine question, there has been growing support among European governments for tougher steps against Israel, which has already resulted in a directive on the labelling of settlement products.
The strength of the language in the resolution reiterating the illegality of Jewish settlements built on land intended for a Palestinian state, occupied by Israel in 1967, is also likely to have an impact on multinational companies operating in the occupied territories or working with Israeli enterprises with links to the occupied territories, underlining the risk of legal action against them.
While the resolution is not binding in legal terms it will, however, have other practical impacts, not least in the impact it may have on the Palestinian complaint to the international criminal court, which includes Israeli settlement.
The resolution also includes language calling for differential treatment of Israel within the pre-1967 borders, calling on states to “distinguish[ing], in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”, which could potentially pave the way for future sanctions.
Israeli supporters in the US – both senators and lobby groups – used even stronger language. Morton Klein, president of the right wing Zionist Organization of America, railed in unequivocal terms: “Obama has made it clear that he’s a Jew hating, antisemite.”
Leading pro-Israel Republicans also weighed in including House Speaker Paul D Ryan, who denounced the US abstention as “absolutely shameful,” and promised that “our unified Republican government will work to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance with Israel”.
In Israel, however, questions were already being asked about Netanyahu’s handling of the vote. Writing in Haaretz, columnist Chemi Shalev was particularly scathing about Netanyahu’s diplomatic failure.
“Resolution 2334 shatters the [Israeli] government-induced illusion that the settlement project has been normalised, that it passed the point of no return, that it is now a fait accompli that will remain unchallenged.
“In recent years, after President Obama desisted from efforts to advance the peace process, Netanyahu, his ministers and settler leaders had behaved as if the battle was over: Israel built and built, the White House objected and condemned, the facts on the ground were cemented in stone.
“You can have your cake and eat it too, the government implied: thumb your nose at Washington and the international community, build in the West Bank as if there’s no tomorrow and still get $38bn in unprecedented [US] military aid.” | Israel orders steps against a number of countries that backed motion calling for halt to building of settlements in occupied territories |
Safety officials on Cape Cod want you to think of caution, not "Jaws" music when you visit their famous beaches.
Several Massachusetts towns are taking steps to beef up their protocol to inform lifeguards and protect swimmers against possible shark attacks on their shores, the Cape Cod Times reports.
The Cape Cod National Seashore officials met last week with local police, fire and beach department representatives from the Massachusetts towns of Provincetown, Wellfleet, Eastham and Truro to discuss beach safety after a shark bit a man in the leg at a Truro beach.
Denver resident Christopher Myers, 50, was released Friday from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after receiving 47 stitches for bites on his legs, from what might have been a great white shark. Myers was swimming at Ballston Beach in Truro, which has no lifeguards and had no shark warning signs. Witnesses said they saw a large, black dorsal fin emerge near Myers, according to the paper.
Although it's been nearly 80 years since the last confirmed great white shark attack on a human, the possibility of an attack along the Cape's Atlantic coastline has increased with the growing seal population. In Truro, seals gather along sandbars near Ballston Beach.
The Cape Cod towns responded quickly to the incident, coming up with several strategies to inform beachgoers and promote safe swimming practices on their beaches. One tool is a marine animal picture book, filled with photos and information from the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game's Division of Marine Fisheries. The books -- available at lifeguard stands -- aim to help lifeguards and witnesses identify sea animals when they see them in the water.
The Cape Cod Times reports there also will be a shark witness questionnaire to keep track of beachgoers' incident accounts. Witnesses can provide details about shark fins or other physical characteristics, as well as the location of the sighting.
Improved communication also will be key in coordinated shark response on the Cape. There will be immediate email notification among the town beach officials when a shark incident occurs. The seashore also has posted warning signs alerting beachgoers to recent shark sightings, asking them to be cautious.
A Truro town meeting is expected this week to discuss adding lifeguards at Ballston Beach for the last weeks of summer. The town eliminated guards during budget cuts in the early 1980s.
Click for more from the Cape Cod Times. | Several Cape Cod, Massachusetts towns are taking steps to beef up their protocol to inform lifeguards and protect swimmers against possible shark attacks on their shores. |
These stars make 40 (and even 50!) look like the new 20. Check out who's been drinking from Hollywood's fountain of youth.
They grew up on screen, but sometimes fall off the map. See what your favorite pint-sized celebs look like as adults.
Think the stars are just like us? Guess again! It's always sunny in Hollywood, and these celebs love flaunting their picture-perfect beach bodies almost as much as they love getting all dressed up for...
Axel Foley means business when he sets out to avenge his best friends murder. Catch back up with the stars of 'Beverly Hills Cop'. | Hot air balloons are taking over the skies in New Jersey. The QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning swings into full gear in Readington, N.J. from July 26-28. Take a ride with the Daily News high above the festival ... Here, Horton the Elephant (in balloon form) sits face first in the grass alongside other amazing hot air balloons, like Humpty Dumpty. |
Many experts, analysts and venture capitalists have largely exaggerated the possibility that a valuation bubble exists among today's start-ups, Y Combinator's President Sam Altman said Wednesday.
"I think people talk about a bubble because it's an easy way to get on TV, … but I think these companies are doing incredible work, and by and large the valuations are reasonable," Altman said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Alley."
"I don't think most VCs believe we're in a bubble. ... If they do, then they shouldn't invest in start-ups," said Altman, whose company provides seed money to start-ups like Airbnb, Twitch and Disqus.
Several start-ups now have multibillion-dollar valuations, including Uber, valued at over $40 billion, and Snapchat, which was valued at about $10 billion last August.
Altman said some of the venture capitalists who have made the most noise regarding these high valuations are also the ones who are pumping the most money into them. "The VCs that are investing the most money ever in start-ups, at least in the last 10 years, are the ones that are saying there's a bubble."
He also said these venture capitalists are exaggerating the possibility of a bubble because of their lack of control over the companies. "I think what's going on is that VCs have sort of less and less of the power in this sort of company dynamic, and so, people are like, 'Oh, [start-ups] are hugely overinflated.'"
Read More Pessimism reigns as investors weigh valuations
Another reason start-up valuations are this high is because of the a long-standing low interest rate environment, Altman said.
"Yeah, valuations are high, and interest rates are zero, so that's to be expected, but I don't think valuations have become wildly disconnected from [actual values]." | Sam Altman, Y Combinator's president, says the recent talks of a bubble forming has been overblown. |
And it was a day, of course, when the Belgian capital -- indeed, the European capital -- was more than ever acutely aware of its vulnerability.
Two explosions Tuesday at the city's main airport, and then another at a downtown subway station, killed 31 people and injured 270 others.
"You can feel the fear on the streets today," said Souheil, 21, who was taking the train Wednesday morning to his internship at the European Commission, near where the explosion at the Maelbeek metro station detonated Tuesday. "But you can also see that people want to fight it. It's a good thing."
"We know these things can happen," she said, "but we must go on."
Both commuters declined to give their last names.
As Belgium mourned and Brussels struggled back toward some semblance of normality, new details emerged about the attacks.
as one of the airport suicide bombers, and his brother, Khalid El Bakraoui, as the man behind the suicide blast near the metro station.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Brussels and Paris attacks -- raising concerns that the terrorist group is gaining more traction in Europe.
Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz was moments from boarding a plane to New York, where she and her family were looking forward to reuniting for Easter.
Her husband and 3-year-old twin girls had just stepped away from the boarding area at the Brussels Airport. Then an explosion ripped the family apart, Peruvian state media said.
Ruiz, a Peruvian living in Brussels, was killed, reported Andin, a Pervian news agency. Her husband and daughters escaped serious injury.
The 36-year-old mother was one of at least 10 people killed at the airport. About an hour later, 20 people were killed at the Maelbeek subway station.
"We were fearing terrorist attacks," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Tuesday. "And that has now happened."
The Bakraoui brothers are suspected of having ties to
, which left 130 people dead. Khalid El Bakraoui rented a Brussels apartment that was raided last week, a senior Belgian security source told CNN.
The brothers were known to police for involvement in organized crime but not for terrorism, Belgian state broadcaster RTBF reported.
As officials try to learn more about the Bakraoui brothers, investigators are scrambling to find a third suspect believed to be at large.
That man, shown in surveillance footage wearing a light-colored jacket and black hat, was seen pushing a luggage cart along with Ibrahim El Bakraoui and another apparent suicide bomber.
"The third left a bomb in the airport but it didn't explode," Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said. "We are now looking for this guy."
Two people were arrested Tuesday in connection with the attacks -- one in Schaerbeek and the other in Haren -- though one of them was released later that day, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said. Another person was detained Wednesday, according to Belgian state broadcaster RTBF.
Despite the determination to carry on, train platforms remained largely empty Wednesday save for a smattering of soldiers. People who did venture forth felt an eerie calm.
"Like walking through a ghost town," said 28-year-old Apelonia.
And as she rode the nearly empty metro into central Brussels, she kept imagining the train exploding and herself dying.
On the trains and in the streets, Brussels appears to be a city shaken yet defiant.
Lynn, who works at a communications firm, passed by Maelbeek station 30 minutes before the Tuesday's explosion.
"It's tough, but we knew it would happen," she said as she rode a replacement bus to work Wednesday.
"We have to go on," she said. "We can't stay home. We have to hope security can protect us."
About an hour after the explosion in the subway station, the city was virtually paralyzed, with most public transport shut down and residents terrified of more attacks.
Some metro lines partially reopened Wednesday, but the city's transit system announced that subway stations would be closed and the trains wouldn't be running from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Outside those hours, security forces are controlling all access to the stations.
Some cafes and shops in surrounding streets are still closed.
Military personnel, carrying automatic weapons and wearing scarves against the early morning chill stood guard in the area, where many European Union institutions are based.
The airport remained closed and will be shut down Thursday as well.
The country will observe three days of mourning, the Prime Minister announced.
And King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium will visit the Erasme Hospital in Anderlecht and the military hospital Reine Astrid on Wednesday, the royal household said in a statement.
Belgium has been a concern for counter-terrorism officials for years because of the large number of Belgian fighters who have traveled to join ISIS and other terror groups in Syria and Iraq. Many have later returned home.
"The Belgians have been sitting on a ticking time bomb," a U.S. counterterrorism official said.
A Twitter post circulated by prominent ISIS backers Tuesday said, "What will be coming is worse."
The notion that the two suspected suicide bombers were known to authorities yet still carried out attacks shows how thinly spread intelligence authorities are, said CNN producer Tim Lister, who has reported extensively about terrorism.
"Even people like these brothers, who have criminal records, who have fired AK-47s at police, are still out there pretty much undetected," Lister said.
"It's estimated that just to follow one person 24/7 requires 25 officers or agents. There are just too many suspects to follow."
But the interior minister said Belgians refuse to be defeated.
"Our police services and our investigation services are very professional people, but we are also convinced that also the terrorists ... are professionals too -- and well-trained and well-formed," Jambon said.
"So it's a difficult battle against them. But I'm convinced that we will win."
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reported from Brussels; Holly Yan and Catherine E. Shoichet wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Max Foster, Nima Elbagir, Joshua Berlinger, Nick Thompson, Arthur Brice, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Shimon Prokupecz contributed to this report. | Day broke Wednesday on a Brussels facing a new reality, and a new identity as a city contorted by grief but sustained by a shared determination to carry on. |
Editor's note: Roland Martin is a syndicated columnist and author of "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House." He is a commentator for the TV One cable network and host/managing editor of its Sunday morning news show, "Washington Watch with Roland Martin."
(CNN) -- When was the last time you heard someone say it's important to hire a qualified white person for a job? No, seriously, I really want you to think about that question.
Whenever there is a discussion about diversity, inclusion or affirmative action, we always hear folks say, "We do a great job of trying to find qualified minorities."
That always tickles me, because when it comes to hiring whites, the assumption is that all are qualified, so there's no need for the qualifier "qualified."
That was the first thing that came to mind when former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu gave his opinion on "Piers Morgan Tonight" on Thursday regarding Gen. Colin Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama.
Booker: Sununu's comment was 'unfortunate'
"Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu said.
When Morgan asked him what that reason is, Sununu said, "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him."
Oh, John, you're such a charmer to say you applaud Colin Powell for being a righteous brother and supporting his brother from another mother.
All I could do was laugh at how incredibly stupid and asinine Sununu's remark was.
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But Sununu isn't alone. He's like the many idiots who have e-mailed and tweeted me over the years, suggesting that comments perceived as favorable to Obama boil down to our skin color. Accomplishments? Oh, no. Intellect? Forget about it. It's always a black thing.
News: Obama and the white vote
See, I'm not one of these black folks who are quick to deny that anyone voted for Obama because he's black. Actor Samuel L. Jackson has made it clear that he backs Obama because he's black, and he doesn't give a damn what any white person thinks.
But it really is Sam's responsibility to tell us exactly why he supports the president. It's not our job to automatically assume that skin color is the reason during this season.
For instance, in 2004, the Rev. Al Sharpton ran for president of the United States. Now, we know he's black, but a ton of black folks didn't even think of supporting him during his run or send him a dime. I recall betting a black New York media executive a big steak dinner that Sharpton would not win the primary in South Carolina, where nearly half of the voters are black. He was adamant it would happen, citing the Rev. Jesse Jackson's win there in 1988. Sharpton didn't win.
During that same primary, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun also ran for the Democratic nomination. Her campaign was about as ineffectual as Sharpton's, and few people, even black folks, backed her.
Opinion: Why isn't Colin Powell a Democrat?
Amazing. Two black folks running for president -- one a prominent civil rights activist and the other a former U.S. senator -- and black America as a whole didn't even give their candidacies a thought.
So if in Sununu's mind a Powell endorsement comes down to race, how does he explain the many times a black candidate runs for office, and black support isn't guaranteed? What about all of the years black folks voted for white candidates? Was one whiter than the other?
Since Sununu thinks it's about race, I need him to explain to me how Mitt Romney's whiteness has been the deciding factor behind his being a major surrogate for the Romney campaign.
Please tell us, John, why you think Romney is the Great White Hope who will take down Soul Brother No. 1 at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Turnabout is fair play, right? If Powell is backing Obama because he's black, I need all of Romney's white supporters who are backing him because of the color of his skin to step forward. Please, don't hold back.
Powell is an American hero. He has served as national security adviser, head of the U.S. Army Forces Command, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state.
Opinion: Both parties have a huge race problem
As a distinguished military man who has worked for four U.S. presidents, he has witnessed up close and personal what it takes to be president of the United States and commander in chief. It is ridiculous to assume Powell would be so shallow as to think race is the only determinant for him. The suggestion is beneath him.
So, why did Sununu say it? Because it's easy to dismiss an accomplished black man who just praised another accomplished black man. By boiling it down to race, it's easy for others who think such a thing to say, "Oh, that's it!"
Unfortunately, we see this type of thinking in America all of the time.
I crack up when someone white e-mails me, saying I owe my job to affirmative action. Their bigotry and racial animus is obvious, and I e-mail them back saying, I'm laughing at them. Why? Because it must hurt more to have a black man they can't stand laugh at them.
My accomplishments are clear and many. I owe no one an explanation for my success, and Powell owes Sununu and no one else an explanation other that what he said on CBS's morning show, citing Romney's confusing foreign policy views and Obama's steady leadership.
"When he took over, the country was in very, very difficult straits. We were in one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression," Powell said. "We were in real trouble.
"I saw over the next several years stabilization come back in the financial community. Housing is now starting to pick up after four years. It's starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising. So I think generally, we've come out of the dive, and we're starting to gain altitude. It doesn't mean we are problem solved. There are lots of problems still out there. The unemployment rate is too high. People are still hurting in housing. But I see that we are starting to rise up."
Ain't nothing like a critically thinking brother, right, John?
This issue will not get a rise out of President Obama or Gen. Colin Powell. They won't even dignify Sununu and others who think like them. They'll just keep laughing all the way up the ladder to the next successful step, marveling at the childishness of some whites to reduce black support of another African-American to just the color of their skin and not the content of their character.
The opinions expressed in this country are solely those of Roland Martin. | Roland Martin says Sununu's suggestion that Powell backs Obama because of race implies that blacks don't critically evaluate candidates on content of character. |