Tag Archives: street

Bruce Springsteen to North Carolina: No Rock for You

by ThaliaMercado Posted on April 8, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Add Bruce Springsteen to the growing list of people who are not fans of North Carolina’s new anti-LGBT law. On Friday, just two days before a scheduled show in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Boss announced that he was canceling his appearance in a gesture of protest against the legislation.

“Some things are more important than a rock show and the fight against prejudice and bigotry—which is happening as I write—is one of them,” the rock star wrote in a short statement on his website. “Canceling the show is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.”

Springsteen described the law as “an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.”

North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, known as HB-2, sailed into law two weeks ago. It is best known for striking down all LGBT nondiscrimination statutes across the state and for requiring transgender people to use public restrooms according to the gender listed on their birth certificate. But as ProPublica‘s Nina Martin has reported, the bill’s language also bars workers in the state from suing under a key North Carolina anti-discrimination law, meaning its impact could be even broader than expected.

Here is Springsteen’s statement in full:

“As you, my fans, know I’m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the “bathroom” law. HB2—known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act—dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Sunday April 10th show is canceled. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.”

Visit source: 

Bruce Springsteen to North Carolina: No Rock for You

Posted in alternative energy, Anchor, bigo, Citizen, FF, GE, LG, ONA, ProPublica, PUR, Radius, solar, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bruce Springsteen to North Carolina: No Rock for You

Law School Named After Scalia Deals With Awkward Acronym

by RooseveltKeeney Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

RIP #ASSLaw. RIP #ASSoL.

Last week, George Mason University announced that it was renaming its law school in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Henceforth, students would attend the Antonin Scalia School of Law or, as the internet quickly (and gleefully) pointed out, ASSLaw—or ASSoL

It didn’t take long for the school to tweak the name. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University” will be the official name, but the school’s website and promotional materials will refer to the Antonin Scalia Law School. Take that, snarky acronym-mongers!

The decision to rename the school came after it received two major donations: an anonymous donor, who requested the name change to commemorate Scalia, gave $20 million, and the Charles Koch Foundation gave $10 million.

Visit site – 

Law School Named After Scalia Deals With Awkward Acronym

Posted in alternative energy, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Law School Named After Scalia Deals With Awkward Acronym

In Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders Turns up the Heat on Hillary Clinton

by Maryjo97I0205 Posted on April 2, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t mince too many words during a campaign stop in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon. Midway through his typical stump speech railing against the millionaires and billionaires, he broke off to explicitly contrast himself with Hillary Clinton for her history of taking money from fossil fuel interests and giving highly paid speeches to financial firms, among other topics.

“As many of you may know, Secretary Clinton has given speeches on Wall Street for $225,000 per speech,” Sanders said to boos from his crowd. “You know what I think? If you’re going to give a speech for $225,000, it must be a really fantastic speech, don’t you think? Why else would you get $225,000? It must be written in Shakespearean prose. It must be a speech that solves most, if not all, the problems facing humanity.” Clearly pleased with his quips, Sanders then called for Clinton to share the speech transcripts with the rest of the world.

Sanders ticked off a number of other points of disagreement, lingering after the punchiest statements to allow his supporters time to boo his opponent. Sanders faulted Clinton for associating with a super-PAC, and supporting trade deals that he said harmed Wisconsin manufacturing. He said she couldn’t be trusted on foreign policy, since “she voted for the war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of America.” Nor could she be trusted on the environment. “Secretary Clinton and I disagree on the issue of fracking. It may not seem like a sexy issue, but it is an enormously important issue,” Sanders said, pointing to her record pushing shale gas extraction abroad when she led the State Department.

But his most pointed criticism came when Sanders discussed the hubbub over fossil fuel donations that has enveloped the campaign over the past day. At a campaign event in New York on Thursday, a Greenpeace activist asked Clinton if she’d reject donations from those industries in light of her stance on climate change. “I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I’m sick of it,” Clinton responded, visibly angry as she jabbed her finger at the activist and argued that garnering support from individuals who work for fossil fuel companies isn’t the same as being supported by gas and oil companies.

Sanders was having none of that Friday. “Secretary Clinton, you owe our campaign an apology: We were telling the truth,” Sanders sternly said. He pointed to research from Greenpeace that highlights $4.5 million in donations to Clinton’s campaign from people tied to the fossil fuel industry. The figure lumps together contributions to Clinton’s campaign from employees of such companies (some of whom have also donated to Sanders) and donations from lobbyists working for the industry, along with money from individuals tied to fossil fuels that has gone to her super-PAC, Priorities USA. The Clinton campaign has pointed out that, as is legally required, it is not coordinating with the super-PAC, though Clinton and her staff have recruited donors for the organization.

Original link: 

In Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders Turns up the Heat on Hillary Clinton

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on In Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders Turns up the Heat on Hillary Clinton

Turkish President’s Arrival Brings Chaos to Downtown Washington

by RosemarFrierson Posted on March 31, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Skirmishes between protesters, police, and Turkish security personnel broke out in the streets of downtown Washington, DC, shortly before Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ&#159;an was set to give a speech at the Brookings Institution.

ErdoÄ&#159;an traveled to the Washington metro area to open a cultural center in Lanham, Maryland, attend the Nuclear Security Summit, and to meet with Vice President Joe Biden. His speech on Thursday, however, was overshadowed by what happened in the streets beforehand.

More – 

Turkish President’s Arrival Brings Chaos to Downtown Washington

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Turkish President’s Arrival Brings Chaos to Downtown Washington

Chipotle aims for a Better Burger (without making anyone sick)

by UlrichFocken Posted on March 31, 2016

Chipotle aims for a Better Burger (without making anyone sick)

By on 31 Mar 2016commentsShare

Stop the presses: Your favorite purveyor of burrito bowls and foodborne illness is branching out into burgers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Chipotle Mexican Grill is developing a new burger chain. The name? Better Burger.

Better Burger will continue Chipotle’s existing model of providing fresher fast food than the classic preservative-laden slop you find at most American chains. Chipotle currently has around 2,000 burrito joints around the U.S., but sales and stocks plummeted last year after roughly 500 people in 13 states contracted food poisoning from the eatery.

The great E. coli, salmonella, and norovirus outbreaks of 2015 also forced the chain to close several stores around the country, and led to at least one lawsuit. In February, Chipotle closed all its stores for a day to discuss the crisis and proper food-handling protocol with employees. It also gave away a whole lot of burritos.

Diversifying the revenue stream could be a wise move, according to the WSJ, as the fresher fast food market has gotten increasingly crowded by competitors like Shake Shack and Five Guys. As to whether or not Better Burger will actually be a better burger, stay tuned, but it certainly can’t be any worse than the 14-year-old McDonald’s hamburger that looks the same as the day it was made. Or can it?

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.

Get Grist in your inbox

More:  

Chipotle aims for a Better Burger (without making anyone sick)

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chipotle aims for a Better Burger (without making anyone sick)

Hillary Clinton’s Trust Gap Is Killing Her With Millennials

by MelissaEOLV Posted on March 10, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Earlier today I was musing over a tweet from a guy who said that his daughter’s friends all loathed Hillary Clinton. Just really, really couldn’t stand her. This is obviously a fairly common sentiment. Bernie Sanders didn’t win 80 percent of the millennial vote in Michigan just because he’s an idealistic liberal. The only way you get to a number like that is against an opponent who’s pretty seriously disliked.

But why? The most obvious reason millennials dislike Hillary so strongly is that they think she’s too slippery. “I feel like Clinton lies a lot,” a college student told PBS a few weeks ago. “She changes her views for every group she speaks to. I can’t trust her.” Quotes like that litter the internet, and in tonight’s debate Karen Tumulty asked about it yet again. “Is there anything in your own actions and the decisions that you yourself have made that would foster this kind of mistrust?”

People of my age find all this a little peculiar. After all, we’re the ones who experienced the full storm of the 90s. There was a new Hillary “scandal” on practically a monthly basis back then, and even if you later learned there was virtually nothing to any of them, that kind of nonstop mudslinging leaves a mark. It’s hard to hear this stuff over and over and not think that maybe there’s something there. Smoke and fire, you know. But millennials went through none of that. So why do they distrust her?

Unfortunately, Hillary has fostered a lot of this mistrust herself. I’m going to be wildly unfair here and cherry pick a bunch of quotes from Hillary and Bernie Sanders. First up, here’s Bernie:

On whether he supports fracking: “My answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking.”
On reforming Wall Street: “If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist….Within one year, my administration will break these institutions up so that they no longer pose a grave threat to the economy.”
On whether there’s even a “single circumstance” in which abortion should be illegal: “That is a decision to be made by the woman, her physician and her family. That’s my view.”
On prison reform: “I promise at the end of my first term we won’t have more people in jail than in any other country.”

There’s no nuance here, no shading. Bernie has simple, crowd-pleasing answers to every question. He’s for X, full stop. He’s against Y, end of story.

At this point I should compare these answers to the more gray-shaded responses Hillary gives on policy questions. But I’m not being fair, so instead you get this:

On whether she lied to the Benghazi families (from tonight’s debate): “You know, look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi….”
On releasing transcripts of her speeches: “Let everybody who’s ever given a speech to any private group under any circumstances release them—we’ll all release them at the same time.”
On her private email server: “Everything I did was permitted. There was no law. There was no regulation. There was nothing that did not give me the full authority to decide how I was going to communicate.”
On getting money from big Wall Street donors: “I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.”
On her super PAC: “You’re referring to a super PAC that we don’t coordinate with….It’s not my PAC.”

These are terrible answers. Tonight, Jorge Ramos brought up allegations by the Benghazi families that Hillary had deceived them, and asked, “Secretary Clinton, did you lie to them?” The only answer to this question is “Of course not.” But Hillary started by expressing her sympathy for the Benghazi families and only then said of her accuser, “She’s wrong.” Maybe this seems like nitpicking, but it’s not. Unless the very first words out of her mouth are “Of course not,” she’s going to leave an immediate impression that she’s about to tap dance around the whole thing. I like Hillary, and even I sighed when she began delivering that answer.

The other quotes are similar. It doesn’t even matter if they’re the truth. They don’t sound like the truth. People my age might forgive Hillary a bit of this lawyerlyness because we remember the 90s and understand the damage that even a slightly misplaced word can cause. But millennials don’t. They just see another tired establishment pol who never gives a straight answer about anything.

Life isn’t fair. Politics isn’t fair. I think Hillary Clinton is careful, a little bit paranoid, and, ironically, congenitally honest on policy issues. She just can’t bring herself to give simple-minded answers when she knows perfectly well the truth is more complicated. But especially this year, when her competition is a guy like Bernie Sanders, this just makes her look evasive and insincere.

After 40 years in the public eye, I don’t know why Hillary is still so bad at this. But she is. For a long time, liberals mostly forgave her wary speaking style because they were keenly aware of the Republican smear campaign that birthed it. Now, for the first time, there’s a generation of liberals who don’t care about any of that. And an awful lot of them loathe her.

Original link:

Hillary Clinton’s Trust Gap Is Killing Her With Millennials

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Oster, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hillary Clinton’s Trust Gap Is Killing Her With Millennials

Meet Bernie’s Ragtag Band of Congressional Supporters

by LatoshaCaro Posted on February 29, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Following his decisive loss to Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders landed a mixed bag of surprise endorsements: one from a notoriously volatile hedge fund manager-turned-congressman, who is under investigation for potential ethics violations, and the other from a rising star of the Democratic party.

On Monday morning, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) announced his support online in a blog post titled “I Feel the Bern.” Grayson, a super-delegate who is serving his third term in the House, said that a recent online poll he conducted showed 86 percent support for Sanders (this number is at odds with national polls, which show Sanders down 7.5 percent against Hillary Clinton as of Monday).

While the Sanders campaign thanked Grayson, his support may not be doing it any favors. Grayson has been in favor of regulating Wall Street, but raised eyebrows with his decision to continue running a hedge fund while he served in the House of Representatives. That decision prompted an ongoing House Committee on Ethics inquiry and a searing New York Times investigation published earlier this month, which alleged that during difficult economic times he paid attention to the hedge fund at the expense of his congressional duties. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has urged Grayson to drop his bid for the Florida Senate seat. Grayson denies any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Sunday resigned as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sanders (as chairwoman, she was not allowed to support a candidate). In a filmed speech posted to her official YouTube account, Gabbard said, “I cannot remain neutral any longer. The stakes are just too high…We can elect a president who will lead us into more interventionist wars of regime change, or we can elect a president who will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.”

Gabbard’s decision follows a public squabble with DNC leadership last year after she appeared on MSNBC calling for more Democratic presidential debates. The DNC had faced criticism for limiting the number of televised debates, which was seen as a ploy to protect Hillary Clinton’s candidacy from the insurgent Sanders’ campaign.

These two unexpected endorsements nearly double the ranks of elected lawmakers supporting Sanders—he still only has 5. Clinton, meanwhile, has racked up more than 200, including 12 governors and a host of former Congressional colleagues.

Sanders thanked both Grayson and Gabbard for their endorsements.

Continue reading:  

Meet Bernie’s Ragtag Band of Congressional Supporters

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, Gandhi, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Meet Bernie’s Ragtag Band of Congressional Supporters

A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

by freereportcredit Posted on February 18, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The big campaign news of the day is a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing that Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump nationally, 28-26 percent. But this seems unlikely: Four new national polls have been released since yesterday, and three of them continue to show Trump with about 38 percent support compared to 17 percent for Cruz.

So what’s going on with the NBC poll? If it’s an outlier, it’s a hell of an outlier. I couldn’t even find a table extensive enough to tell me how unlikely it is to be just a sample error. One in a million, maybe? So maybe it’s a problem with NBC’s likely-voter filter? Could be. Or maybe there’s been an enormous negative response to Trump’s debate performance last Saturday? The NBC poll is the only telephone poll done entirely after the debate, so if that were the case it would show up most strongly there.

Very odd. I guess we wait and see.

View this article:  

A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

by Matthia76J Posted on February 9, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting look today at the costs and benefits of immigration across the Southern border. After Arizona cracked down on illegal immigration in 2007, their population of undocumented workers dropped by a whopping 40 percent—and it’s stayed down since then:

Arizona is a test case of what happens to an economy when such migrants leave, and it illustrates the economic tensions fueling the immigration debate.

Economists of opposing political views agree the state’s economy took a hit when large numbers of illegal immigrants left for Mexico and other border states, following a broad crackdown. But they also say the reduced competition for low-skilled jobs was a boon for some native-born construction and agricultural workers who got jobs or raises, and that the departures also saved the state money on education and health care. Whether those gains are worth the economic pain is the crux of the debate.

You should read the whole thing if you want all the details, including the fact that wages increased about 15 percent for a small number of construction workers and farmworkers—though Arizona’s unemployment rate more generally has been no better than its neighbors’. Beyond that, though, the Journal provides only a graphic summary that doesn’t really summarize much. So I’ve helpfully annotated it for you. It sure looks to me like Arizona has a very long way to go before the benefits of reducing illegal immigration will come anywhere close to the costs.

See original article here:

Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

Is Academic Science Hopelessly Corrupt?

by TemekaSaxton84 Posted on February 7, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech scientist who uncovered the lead poisoning in Flint, is absolutely brutal about the way funding priorities have corrupted academic science:

We’re all on this hedonistic treadmill — pursuing funding, pursuing fame, pursuing h-index — and the idea of science as a public good is being lost. This is something that I’m upset about deeply. I’ve kind of dedicated my career to try to raise awareness about this. I’m losing a lot of friends.

….Q. Do you have any sense that perverse incentive structures prevented scientists from exposing the problem in Flint sooner?

A. Yes, I do. In Flint the agencies paid to protect these people weren’t solving the problem. They were the problem….I don’t blame anyone, because I know the culture of academia. You are your funding network as a professor. You can destroy that network that took you 25 years to build with one word. I’ve done it.

….Q. Now that your hypothesis has been vindicated, and the government has its tail between its legs, a lot of researchers are interested.

A. And I hope that they’re interested for the right reasons. But there’s now money — a lot of money — on the table….The expectation is that there’s tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars that are going to be made available by these agencies….I hate to sound cynical about it. I know these folks have good intentions. But it doesn’t change the fact that, Where were we as academics for all this time before it became financially in our interest to help? Where were we?

….Q. When is it appropriate for academics to be skeptical of an official narrative when that narrative is coming from scientific authorities? Surely the answer can’t be “all of the time.”

I grew up worshiping at the altar of science, and in my wildest dreams I never thought scientists would behave this way….Science should be about pursuing the truth and helping people. If you’re doing it for any other reason, you really ought to question your motives.

Unfortunately, in general, academic research and scientists in this country are no longer deserving of the public trust. We’re not.

In academia these day—and especially in the hard sciences, which are expensive to support—funding is everything. To a large extent, at big research universities faculty members basically work on commission: they have to bring in enough money to pay their own salaries and bankroll their own labs. And when was the last time a salesman on commission badmouthed his own product?

See original article here: 

Is Academic Science Hopelessly Corrupt?

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Is Academic Science Hopelessly Corrupt?