USA Today, February 2017

Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from Breitbart News, the far-right website where he was a top editor, after video surfaced in which the controversial figure appeared to condone sex between men and underage boys as young as 13.

“My employer, Breitbart News, has stood by me when others caved,” Yiannopoulos said during a news conference Tuesday. “They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have had them. I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important job, which is why I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately.”   Continue reading “Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart over child sex comments”

McClatchy DC – by Alex Daugherty

WASHINGTON – Marco Rubio has spent months pushing the White House to expand a temporary program that would allow Venezuelans who have fled Nicolás Maduro’s regime to stay in the United States, according to a previously unpublished letter from Rubio to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

The letter, dated March 20, asks Tillerson and Kelly to “review the existing conditions in Venezuela and consider granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to eligible Venezuelan nationals residing in the United States.”

“In light of the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, it is not in the best interests of the United States to deport non-violent Venezuelan nationals back to the country at this time,” the letter reads.
Continue reading “Marco Rubio calls for temporary protected status for Venezuelans”

Bloomberg – by John Follain

From his perch at a waterfront bar in the Italian port of Livorno, Marco Di Tanto sees far more despair than charm. Although the center of town—an area called New Venice—has scenic streets and winding canals similar to its namesake, the Tuscan city is still reeling from the shutdown of the vast Orlando shipyard in 2002 and the shift of most freight traffic to bigger container ports in Genoa and Naples over the past two decades. “There’s no real work in Livorno anymore,” says Di Tanto, 58, who in 2009 lost his job as a forklift driver at the docks and now picks up informal construction work when he can. “I’ve seen my old colleagues queuing at the soup kitchen.”
Continue reading “As Poverty Surges in Italy, Populists Propose a ‘Citizens’ Income’”

LA Times – by Michael Hiltzik

State and local officials in Iowa have been working hard to rationalize their handout of more than $208 million in tax benefits to Apple, one of the world’s richest companies, for a data facility that will host 50 permanent jobs.

The deal will help make Iowa an “innovation and technology” hub, Gov. Kim Reynolds gushed. It will ensure development of a big parcel of open land that otherwise would have remained fallow, local development officials said. It was a bargain, according to civic leaders in Waukee, the Iowa community that will host the data center — after all, Apple will be contributing up to $100 million to a local infrastructure fund, starting with money to build a youth sports center.   Continue reading “Iowa’s handout to Apple illustrates the folly of corporate welfare deals”

NPR – by Laurel Wamsley

Uber says it has ended its tracking of users after they complete their rides — a practice that caused immediate concern when the company added it in November.

A spokeswoman for Uber tells NPR that users will now have the option to share their location with the company only while using the app. That setting had been available before November’s change.   Continue reading “Uber Ends Its Controversial Post-Ride Tracking Of Users’ Location”

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Archive: TWFTT 8-30-17

Huffington Post

Pastor Joel Osteen can’t seem to get his story straight about why he didn’t offer his 16,800-seat megachurch in Houston as a shelter sooner for those displaced by Hurricane Harvey.

During an appearance on NBC’s “TODAY” show Wednesday, the head of Lakewood Church said its doors have “always been open.” Minutes later, he appeared to reverse course and admit that the church hadn’t initially encouraged victims to seek shelter there.

Continue reading “Joel Osteen Says Megachurch Didn’t Open Earlier Because Houston ‘Didn’t Ask’”

According to the statements of local authorities, Zabadani resort town in Damascus province, which is located 25 kilometers from the Syrian capital, is now fully liberated after the fierce clashes between Syrian Army and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants (ex. Al-Nusra front). Residents who left the city more than five years ago began to return homes and manage their further life.

It is worth noting that prior to the outbreak of hostilities Zabadani regarded as one of the flagship resort in Syria. The town was popular due to its favorable location near the Barada River (not far from the Syrian-Lebanese border) and attracted tourists with its extraordinary mountain scenery and picturesque landscapes.   Continue reading “Flagship Resort in Damascus Back to Peaceful Life”

The Weather Channel

More water rescues are underway now in Port Arthur, Texas, where Harvey evacuees thought they had escaped the storm’s worst.

Two senior care facilities in Port Arthur – Cypress Glen and Lake Arthur Place – took in water overnight, and residents are trapped as the buildings are inaccessible. Senior Care Centers said in a statement, “We will evacuate if rescue teams can make it to the buildings. We are notifying families this morning.”   Continue reading “‘No One Can Get In and No One Can Get Out’: 2 Port Arthur Nursing Homes Taking on Water”

New York Times – by Sabrina Tavernise

GEORGETOWN, Del. — One of the proudest moments of Robert Eldreth’s life was erecting a Confederate monument on a patch of grass behind the Georgetown Historical Society in 2007. It was the first monument to Delawareans who had served the Confederacy, and the fact that it came 142 years after the end of the war hardly mattered.

“It’s a lesson in history,” said Mr. Eldreth, who led the group that put it up. “It’s about our roots and the sacrifices that those citizens here in Delaware made. To me that’s so honorable.”

But amid the furor over Confederate monuments, touched off by the violence in Charlottesville, Va., two weeks ago, an unexpected reality has largely been overshadowed: While old monuments erected in bygone eras are coming down, new ones continue to go up.

Continue reading “A Boom in Confederate Monuments, on Private Land”

ABC News

A mysterious chemical haze that left scores of people on the English coast with streaming eyes, sore throats and breathing problems has dissipated, but its cause remains a mystery, police and emergency services said Monday.

The gas cloud appeared Sunday, sending people fleeing from the beach and cliffs at Birling Gap, a coastal beauty spot about 60 miles (100 kms) south of London.

Life boats were dispatched to help clear people from beaches, and Eastbourne District General Hospital said it had treated more than 130 people. Sussex Police said the injuries were mostly minor.   Continue reading “Scores treated after mystery ‘chemical haze’ hits UK coast”

Mail.com

CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) — The teenager suspected of killing two people and injuring four others in a public library had been searching for “inner peace” shortly before the shooting, the youth’s pastor said.

Nathaniel Jouett, 16, started attending Living Word Church of God three months ago and appeared to be turning his life around after having contemplated suicide several months earlier, Pastor David Stevens said.   Continue reading “Teen mass shooting suspect was searching for ‘inner peace’”