Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's Relig...
Read more: Stephen King, Indiana, Indiana Anti Gay, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Mike Pence, Gay Rights, Gay Voices News
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Stephen King Explains What Indiana's Anti-LGBT Law Has In Common With A Dog Turd
Stephen King might be a man of many words, but he kept his response to Indiana's new anti-gay law short and sweet.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's Relig...
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's Relig...
Charter Bonds Rise on Merger News
Charter Communications (CHTR) announced Tuesday that it is buying privately-held cable operator Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion, sparking a rise in its bond prices. Charter CCO Holdings 5.75% notes due January 2024 gained about two points to 104.75 from 102.625, according to S&P Capital IQ LCD. Charter’s stock climbed more than 7% on on [...]
Guess What Happened When JPMorgan's CEO Visited Elizabeth Warren's Office
WASHINGTON -- A meeting between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jamie Dimon deteriorated almost immediately after the JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO vi...
Read more: Elizabeth Warren Jamie Dimon, Jamie Dimon, Jamie Dimon JP Morgan, London Whale, JP Morgan, Elizabeth Warren, Cfpb, A Fighting Chance, Politics News, Financial Regulation, Politics News
'Fun Home' Brings Lesbian Protagonist To Broadway For The First Time
Although recent years have seen a wealth of gay content on the New York stage, “Fun Home” breaks fresh ground as the first Broadway musical to feature a lesbian protagonist.
The advance buzz on the musical, which is currently in previews at Circle in the Square Theatre, has been quick to emphasize that fact. In reality, though, such a sound bite oversimplifies the show’s subversive qualities. Based on out artist Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir of the same name, “Fun Home” is actually a compelling look at two sides of the queer experience, with a complex, multi-faceted message about family relationships.
Keeping the non-linear structure of Bechdel’s novel, “Fun Home” pairs Alison’s adolescence and subsequent coming out story with the darker journey of her closeted gay father, Bruce, who commits suicide after a string of secret affairs with younger men. Three actresses -- Sydney Lucas, Emily Skeggs and Beth Malone -- portray Alison as a child, a college student and a middle-aged woman, respectively. Meanwhile, the show’s second act is a dramatic tour de force for Tony Award-winning actor Michael Cerveris (“Assasins”), who plays Bruce.
From left: Skeggs, Malone and Lucas in “Fun Home.”
The musical, which is directed by Sam Gold, played to sold-out audiences and nabbed sterling reviews when it opened Off Broadway at New York’s Public Theater in 2013; it was also a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
So while “Fun Home” couldn’t be further from the top hats and jazz hands of the traditional, feel-good Broadway musical, the cast and creative team are confident their work will find a captive audience, given the universality of the show’s coming-of-age themes.
“With any show you do, there’s a concern about whether or not an audience will embrace it,” Lisa Kron, who penned the book and lyrics, told The Huffington Post in an interview. “If we start to have nervousness around that question, it’s not going to do anything for us.”
Still, composer Jeanine Tesori admitted that she and Kron experienced some creative tension over how to initially portray a relationship between college-age Alison and her girlfriend (Roberta Colindrez) while the show was in development.
“There was a point when I said to Lisa, ‘These two young women, they have to kiss. They're in love, they have to be sexual,’” Tesori recalled. “And she was like, ‘I can’t bear it if people laugh at them.’ I realized then all she had been through, and it was so heartbreaking to me. It wasn't about her holding back; it was about her protecting the character.”
Aesthetically, “Fun Home” has been given a sizable upgrade since moving uptown, too. In a move that Cerveris says “strips away even more artifice,” the show is now being presented in the round in an effort to make the audience feel like they, too, are part of the action being presented onstage.
The Broadway cast of “Fun Home”
“The audience that finds this show is going to be a thinking audience, because it lives in such an emotional place,” Malone said. “As a culture, we’ve arrived at a place that is just aching for this show to be.”
Regardless of how the show ends up faring with Broadway audiences, Kron says she will forever see “Fun Home” as the ultimate extension of the work she was doing as part of the women's collective WOW Cafe Theatre in the 1980s.
“People often say to me, ‘This is so much bigger than just a story about a lesbian.’ And I say, ‘What has changed is your sense that a lesbian is an actual human being who can be as much of a prismatic reflection of the human experience as any other type of character,’” she said. “There’s no explicit explanation, justification or apology in this show, and to me, that’s a very exciting thing to put on stage.”
“Fun Home” is currently in previews at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre, with an opening night set for April 19. For more information, head here.
The advance buzz on the musical, which is currently in previews at Circle in the Square Theatre, has been quick to emphasize that fact. In reality, though, such a sound bite oversimplifies the show’s subversive qualities. Based on out artist Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir of the same name, “Fun Home” is actually a compelling look at two sides of the queer experience, with a complex, multi-faceted message about family relationships.
Keeping the non-linear structure of Bechdel’s novel, “Fun Home” pairs Alison’s adolescence and subsequent coming out story with the darker journey of her closeted gay father, Bruce, who commits suicide after a string of secret affairs with younger men. Three actresses -- Sydney Lucas, Emily Skeggs and Beth Malone -- portray Alison as a child, a college student and a middle-aged woman, respectively. Meanwhile, the show’s second act is a dramatic tour de force for Tony Award-winning actor Michael Cerveris (“Assasins”), who plays Bruce.
The musical, which is directed by Sam Gold, played to sold-out audiences and nabbed sterling reviews when it opened Off Broadway at New York’s Public Theater in 2013; it was also a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
So while “Fun Home” couldn’t be further from the top hats and jazz hands of the traditional, feel-good Broadway musical, the cast and creative team are confident their work will find a captive audience, given the universality of the show’s coming-of-age themes.
“With any show you do, there’s a concern about whether or not an audience will embrace it,” Lisa Kron, who penned the book and lyrics, told The Huffington Post in an interview. “If we start to have nervousness around that question, it’s not going to do anything for us.”
Still, composer Jeanine Tesori admitted that she and Kron experienced some creative tension over how to initially portray a relationship between college-age Alison and her girlfriend (Roberta Colindrez) while the show was in development.
“There was a point when I said to Lisa, ‘These two young women, they have to kiss. They're in love, they have to be sexual,’” Tesori recalled. “And she was like, ‘I can’t bear it if people laugh at them.’ I realized then all she had been through, and it was so heartbreaking to me. It wasn't about her holding back; it was about her protecting the character.”
Aesthetically, “Fun Home” has been given a sizable upgrade since moving uptown, too. In a move that Cerveris says “strips away even more artifice,” the show is now being presented in the round in an effort to make the audience feel like they, too, are part of the action being presented onstage.
“The audience that finds this show is going to be a thinking audience, because it lives in such an emotional place,” Malone said. “As a culture, we’ve arrived at a place that is just aching for this show to be.”
Regardless of how the show ends up faring with Broadway audiences, Kron says she will forever see “Fun Home” as the ultimate extension of the work she was doing as part of the women's collective WOW Cafe Theatre in the 1980s.
“People often say to me, ‘This is so much bigger than just a story about a lesbian.’ And I say, ‘What has changed is your sense that a lesbian is an actual human being who can be as much of a prismatic reflection of the human experience as any other type of character,’” she said. “There’s no explicit explanation, justification or apology in this show, and to me, that’s a very exciting thing to put on stage.”
“Fun Home” is currently in previews at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre, with an opening night set for April 19. For more information, head here.
3 Income ETF Ideas as Rate Hikes Loom
With the first Federal Reserve rate hike expected as soon as this summer, many investors are looking for a way to tweak their fixed-income portfolios to adjust to a rising rate environment, says Scott Eldridge, who directs fixed income product strategy at Invesco’s PowerShares family of exchange-traded funds. “I still think this is the year [...]
The Case for Letting States, Not Cities, Shape Development Near Transit
A bill circulating in the Connecticut legislature — HB 6851 — would give state officials greater control over development near transit stations. The measure has met with some resistance because it would weaken powers that have traditionally belonged to local government. But Sandy Johnson at Network blog Itinerant Urbanist says that in Connecticut’s case, that’s probably a […]
THE VOICES FOR CHANGE GROW LOUDER
Today, the Harper Competition Policy Review called for governments to introduce sensible, safety-based ridesharing regulations.
Monday, March 30, 2015
One person dead in shooting at gates of NSA headquarters
An undated aerial handout photo shows the National Security Agency headquarters building in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Two people were shot and one has died after a car tried to ram a gate at Fort Meade, the military installation that houses the National Security Agency, the Washington Post has reported.
The incident happened Monday morning at the base, which is located in Fort Meade, Maryland, between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The shooting scene has been contained.
A senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the two men were dressed as women.
A spokeswoman for the FBI said the incident is not believed to be linked to terrorism.
The FBI and NSA Police are investigating the matter.
The post One person dead in shooting at gates of NSA headquarters appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Easy Cheese 3D Printer Not Yet Viable, Tests Show (VIDEO)
Futurists everywhere, brace yourselves: The technological singularity is postponed until further notice.
Robots can do amazing things. They can pole dance. They can virtually masturbate us -- and by us, we mean this guy. More importantly, they can solve complex, boring problems that only computers have the bandwidth or focus to deal with.
But what they can't do (yet) is build a simple structure out of Easy Cheese. And for that reason, we believe its unlikely that the machines will rise, take over humanity and end history anytime soon.
You call that a cheese fort? Pathetic.
Critics may be inclined to blame the medium. Clearly, Easy Cheese lacks the tensile strength to build even a basic four-sided structure. But that's besides the point, because a true AI overload would solve that problem.
Thank you, Andrew Maxwell-Parish, for demonstrating that puny humans aren't out of time just yet.
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Robots can do amazing things. They can pole dance. They can virtually masturbate us -- and by us, we mean this guy. More importantly, they can solve complex, boring problems that only computers have the bandwidth or focus to deal with.
But what they can't do (yet) is build a simple structure out of Easy Cheese. And for that reason, we believe its unlikely that the machines will rise, take over humanity and end history anytime soon.
You call that a cheese fort? Pathetic.
Critics may be inclined to blame the medium. Clearly, Easy Cheese lacks the tensile strength to build even a basic four-sided structure. But that's besides the point, because a true AI overload would solve that problem.
Thank you, Andrew Maxwell-Parish, for demonstrating that puny humans aren't out of time just yet.
Like Us On Facebook | Follow Us On Twitter | Contact The AuthorAP: NSA weighed ending phone program before Snowden leak
Video still by PBS NewsHour
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency considered abandoning its secret program to collect and store American calling records in the months before leaker Edward Snowden revealed the practice, current and former intelligence officials say, because some officials believed the costs outweighed the meager counterterrorism benefits.
After the leak and the collective surprise around the world, NSA leaders strongly defended the phone records program to Congress and the public, but without disclosing the internal debate.
The proposal to kill the program was circulating among top managers but had not yet reached the desk of Gen. Keith Alexander, then the NSA director, according to current and former intelligence officials who would not be quoted because the details are sensitive. Two former senior NSA officials say they doubt Alexander would have approved it.
Still, the behind-the-scenes NSA concerns, which have not been reported previously, could be relevant as Congress decides whether to renew or modify the phone records collection when the law authorizing it expires in June.
The internal critics pointed out that the already high costs of vacuuming up and storing the “to and from” information from nearly every domestic landline call were rising, the system was not capturing most cellphone calls, and the program was not central to unraveling terrorist plots, the officials said. They worried about public outrage if the program ever was revealed.
After the program was disclosed, civil liberties advocates attacked it, saying the records could give a secret intelligence agency a road map to Americans’ private activities. NSA officials presented a forceful rebuttal that helped shape public opinion.
Responding to widespread criticism, President Barack Obama in January 2014 proposed that the NSA stop collecting the records, but instead request them when needed in terrorism investigations from telephone companies, which tend to keep them for 18 months.
Yet the president has insisted that legislation is required to adopt his proposal, and Congress has not acted. So the NSA continues to collect and store records of private U.S. phone calls for use in terrorism investigations under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Many lawmakers want the program to continue as is.
Alexander argued that the program was an essential tool because it allows the FBI and the NSA to hunt for domestic plots by searching American calling records against phone numbers associated with international terrorists. He and other NSA officials support Obama’s plan to let the phone companies keep the data, as long as the government quickly can search it.
Civil liberties activists say it was never a good idea to allow a secret intelligence agency to store records of Americans’ private phone calls, and some are not sure the government should search them in bulk. They say the government can point to only a single domestic terrorism defendant who was implicated by a phone records search under the program, a San Diego taxi driver who was convicted of raising $15,000 for a Somali terrorist group.
Some fault NSA for failing to disclose the internal debate about the program.
“This is consistent with our experience with the intelligence community,” said Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. “Even when we have classified briefings, it’s like a game of 20 questions and we can’t get to the bottom of anything.”
The proposal to halt phone records collection that was circulating in 2013 was separate from a 2009 examination of the program by NSA, sparked by objections from a senior NSA official, reported in November by The Associated Press. In that case, a senior NSA code breaker learned about the program and concluded it was wrong for the agency to collect and store American records. The NSA enlisted the Justice Department in an examination of whether the search function could be preserved with the records stored by the phone companies.
That would not work without a change in the law, the review concluded. Alexander, who retired in March 2014, opted to continue the program as is.
But the internal debate continued, current and former officials say, and critics within the NSA pressed their case against the program. To them, the program had become an expensive insurance policy with an increasing number of loopholes, given the lack of mobile data. They also knew it would be deeply controversial if made public.
By 2013, some NSA officials were ready to stop the bulk collection even though they knew they would lose the ability to search a database of U.S. calling records. As always, the FBI still would be able to obtain the phone records of suspects through a court order.
There was a precedent for ending collection cold turkey. Two years earlier, the NSA cited similar cost-benefit calculations when it stopped another secret program under which it was collecting Americans’ email metadata — information showing who was communicating with whom, but not the content of the messages. That decision was made public via the Snowden leaks.
Alexander believed that the FBI and the NSA were still getting crucial value out of the phone records program, in contrast to the email records program, former NSA officials say.
After the Snowden leaks, independent experts who looked at the program didn’t agree. A presidential task force examined NSA surveillance and recommended ending the phone records collection, saying it posed unacceptable privacy risks while doing little if anything to stop terrorism. The task force included Michael Morell, a former deputy CIA director, and Richard Clarke, a former White House counter terrorism adviser.
“We cannot discount the risk, in light of the lessons of our own history, that at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking,” the report said. Times, dates and numbers called can provide a window into a person’s activities and connections.
A separate inquiry by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded the same thing.
David Medine, chairman of that board, said the concerns raised internally by NSA officials were the same as theirs, yet when NSA officials came before the privacy board, they “put on a pretty strong defense for the program. Except their success stories didn’t pan out,” he said.
The post AP: NSA weighed ending phone program before Snowden leak appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Make No Mistake: Vancouver Gets a Lot for Its Transit Dollar
Vancouverites go to the polls in May to decide whether to raise sales taxes to fund a slate of transit improvements. But polls show the measure is headed for defeat. Other arguments aside, Jarrett Walker at Human Transit says one supposed “con” — that transit provider TransLink is incompetent and wasteful — ought to be nipped in the […]
Trevor Noah To Replace Jon Stewart As The New 'Daily Show' Host
"The Daily Show" finally has its new host: Trevor Noah.
Noah, a South African comedian and one of the newest "Daily Show" correspondents, was mentioned Friday as the front-runner to replace Jon Stewart on the Comedy Central show. On Monday, The New York Times reported that Noah would officially take over hosting.
Since Stewart announced in February that he'd be stepping down from the show after hosting for over 15 years, a handful of possible replacements have been considered. Lists of the potential next host have included Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Tina Fey and Jessica Williams, who said she was under-qualified for the position.
Noah is a new name to many people because he is one of the most recent additions to the Comedy Central show, having joined in December 2014. Since then, he has appeared in only three segments with Stewart, including ones about Ebola, Boko Haram and a game of chess.
“You don’t believe it for the first few hours,” Mr. Noah told The New York Times, reacting to the news from Dubai. “You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”
Beyond "The Daily Show," Noah is also well-known in South Africa from hosting his own late-night talk show, a handful of radio programs and the South African Music Awards. The 31-year-old also headlined a Showtime stand-up special last year and was the first South African comedian to appear on "The Tonight Show" and "The Late Show with David Letterman."
Stewart is expected to step down from the hosting gig sometime between July and the end of the year, according to Variety.
For more, head to The New York Times.
Noah, a South African comedian and one of the newest "Daily Show" correspondents, was mentioned Friday as the front-runner to replace Jon Stewart on the Comedy Central show. On Monday, The New York Times reported that Noah would officially take over hosting.
Since Stewart announced in February that he'd be stepping down from the show after hosting for over 15 years, a handful of possible replacements have been considered. Lists of the potential next host have included Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Tina Fey and Jessica Williams, who said she was under-qualified for the position.
Noah is a new name to many people because he is one of the most recent additions to the Comedy Central show, having joined in December 2014. Since then, he has appeared in only three segments with Stewart, including ones about Ebola, Boko Haram and a game of chess.
“You don’t believe it for the first few hours,” Mr. Noah told The New York Times, reacting to the news from Dubai. “You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”
Beyond "The Daily Show," Noah is also well-known in South Africa from hosting his own late-night talk show, a handful of radio programs and the South African Music Awards. The 31-year-old also headlined a Showtime stand-up special last year and was the first South African comedian to appear on "The Tonight Show" and "The Late Show with David Letterman."
Stewart is expected to step down from the hosting gig sometime between July and the end of the year, according to Variety.
For more, head to The New York Times.
Drei gute Gründe uberTAXI zu fahren
Viele Wege führen an's Ziel, mit uberTAXI bist du aber besonders clever unterwegs.
CALLING ALL OFFICE HEROES OF AHMEDABAD
Let us help spice up your work-week. Here is your chance to be an #UberOfficeHero and win up to ₹20,000 Uber credits. Sounds like a sweet deal, right? Read on to find out how! Get your colleagues and friends riding Uber for free while earning double the reward.
1,000 Lies And Counting: A Husband Who Can't Tell The Truth (VIDEO)
Melisa claims her husband Chris, 27, is a pathological liar. He admits he's had a problem with lying since he's been a kid. But now she's 16 weeks pregnant with their second child, they're separated, and she's desperate for help.
She tells Dr. Phil, "If I could guess how many times Chris has lied to me over five years, you would laugh. There's no number. Literally, insanely, every day all day."
Looking back, Melisa says, "In the beginning of our relationship, I was so smitten by our chemistry." But now she realizes, "There were so many red flags in the beginning, but I was very oblivious. Love is blind."
Now she is struggling to put an end to their marriage. "I am in a scary, vicious cycle with him because I just get sucked in," she says. "I can't get out."
Chris understands Melisa's frustration. "I do not blame Melisa for not trusting me," he says. "I've lied about basically everything with her."
After pointing out that he wishes she didn't have a temper, and claiming that if she calmly confronted him he might own up to his lies, he adds, "Ultimately, I want Melisa to be proud of me. I want her to be respect me and to be her Prince Charming."
Dr. Phil confronts Melisa: "What the hell are you thinking? This guy's been lying to you since day one minute one, right?"
Watch the video above to see what happens when Dr. Phil steps in, and view more clips from this show here.
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She tells Dr. Phil, "If I could guess how many times Chris has lied to me over five years, you would laugh. There's no number. Literally, insanely, every day all day."
Looking back, Melisa says, "In the beginning of our relationship, I was so smitten by our chemistry." But now she realizes, "There were so many red flags in the beginning, but I was very oblivious. Love is blind."
Now she is struggling to put an end to their marriage. "I am in a scary, vicious cycle with him because I just get sucked in," she says. "I can't get out."
Chris understands Melisa's frustration. "I do not blame Melisa for not trusting me," he says. "I've lied about basically everything with her."
After pointing out that he wishes she didn't have a temper, and claiming that if she calmly confronted him he might own up to his lies, he adds, "Ultimately, I want Melisa to be proud of me. I want her to be respect me and to be her Prince Charming."
Dr. Phil confronts Melisa: "What the hell are you thinking? This guy's been lying to you since day one minute one, right?"
Watch the video above to see what happens when Dr. Phil steps in, and view more clips from this show here.
Like Dr. Phil | Follow Dr. Phil | Be on Dr. Phil | Ask Dr. PhilSunday, March 29, 2015
Bikini-Clad Britney Spends Spring Break With Her Sons
Britney Spears' spring break vacation was family-friendly.
The pop icon hit the beaches of Hawaii with her sons, 9-year-old Sean Preston and 8-yea...
The pop icon hit the beaches of Hawaii with her sons, 9-year-old Sean Preston and 8-yea...
Read more: Britney Spears Bikini, Britney Spears Sons, Britney Spears Photos, Britney Spears Kids, Britney Spears Children, Britney Spears Boys, Britney Spears Bikini Photos, Britney Spears Twitter, Entertainment News
Carrie Underwood Shares Adorable Photo Of Baby Isaiah Michael
Does Carrie Underwood have a future athlete on her hands?
The country singer gave her 1.7 million Instagram followers an adorable first look at her baby boy, Isaiah Michael, on Sunday. In the sweet shot, Underwood showed her support for her hockey player husband, Mike Fisher, and his team, the Nashville Predators, by placing a hockey stick in their sleeping newborn's tiny hands:
The "Before He Cheats" singer and Fisher welcomed their first child together on Feb. 27. The new mom announced the baby news earlier this month, sharing a precious photo of her baby's little hand:
The country singer gave her 1.7 million Instagram followers an adorable first look at her baby boy, Isaiah Michael, on Sunday. In the sweet shot, Underwood showed her support for her hockey player husband, Mike Fisher, and his team, the Nashville Predators, by placing a hockey stick in their sleeping newborn's tiny hands:
The "Before He Cheats" singer and Fisher welcomed their first child together on Feb. 27. The new mom announced the baby news earlier this month, sharing a precious photo of her baby's little hand:
What’s your media diet? See how you compare to the NewsHour team
Credit: Lisa Overton/NewsHour Weekend
On NewsHour Weekend Sunday, we explore how some of the biggest players in television are looking beyond cable by offering services that bundle and stream programs for consumers without a cable or satellite hookup.
As we reported the story, we had a number of conversations around the newsroom about this topic, which brought up a variety of questions:
Is it ethical to use a friend’s Netflix password? How long is it reasonable to use your parents’ HBO GO login before you should purchase your own subscription? Are live stream options sufficient or is cable still worth the cost?
Some members of the NewsHour Weekend team share how they consume media. Photo credit William Brangham/ NewsHour Weekend
All of the back and forth got us thinking: How do each of us consume media, and how do our habits that compare to those of our online community?
Here’s a selection of media habits from a few of our newsroom team members.
Hari Sreenivasan, PBS NewsHour Weekend anchor
Cable? Yes.
Favorite shows: Sherlock, Black Mirror, Top Gear and many others that get me through flights when I stay offline.
What does your media diet look like? I have cable, but reluctantly so. I’ve thought seriously of cutting the cord and the obnoxious bill for hundreds of channels I never care to watch, but realize that my provider makes unbundling to just have internet almost as expensive as keeping the cable box. I tried Aereo for a quick minute but the bandwidth was not ready for primetime. I have an Apple TV at home, and use it to access Netflix, PBS and HBO (which I pay for) because the interface, while far from perfect, is infinitely better than the cable box from the company that shall not be named. I’m watching video almost as much on my laptop as on a large screen.
Beth Ponsot, Online News Editor
Cable? No.
Favorite shows: Broad City, Shameless, Top Chef, House of Cards
What does your media diet look like? I have a TV, but I don’t pay for cable. I use an HDMI cord to hook my laptop up to my TV, turning it into a giant computer screen. I share logins for streaming services like Netflix and HBO GO and then watch on my ‘TV’ (or my phone if I’m on the go). If I want to watch a particularly cinematic show and be sure the quality won’t be interrupted — Downton Abbey or Mad Men, for example — I’ll download the season in HD from iTunes. I watch PBS NewsHour on YouTube and Frontline documentaries on pbs.org.
William Brangham, Producer/Correspondent
Cable? Yes.
Favorite Shows: The Walking Dead, Mad Men, Sherlock, Louie
What does your media diet look like? I have an older TV (720p!) and grudgingly pay for a bundled cable service. I’m a family of five, so the variety cable affords with all those channels is helpful. For example, my wife loves Downton Abbey and Modern Family, we all watch 60 Minutes, and my kids range anywhere from The Simpsons and Brooklyn Nine-Nine to Premier League Soccer and Disney’s Jessie. We have an Apple TV through which we watch a lot of Netflix and HBO GO, though we’re increasingly watching more and more on a laptop or tablet.
Andrew Mach, Multimedia Editor
Cable? Notta.
Favorite shows: Portlandia, Sherlock, The Leftovers, Broad City
What does your media diet look like? I rock a Roku and mainly watch movies and series at my leisure on a television, but occasionally I’ll use my iPad or iPhone. Most often, it’s via the Netflix and HBO GO apps (for which I share passwords), and sometimes it’s on YouTube or iTunes. I can’t remember the last time I watched something on cable, and I find it annoying when award shows or other big events aren’t available to stream online.
Hannah Yi, Producer
Cable? Nope.
Favorite shows: Broad City, House of Cards, Last Week Tonight, The Jinx, The Mindy Project
What does your media diet look like? I don’t own a television so I’m watching everything on either my iPad or laptop. I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu Plus and use a friend’s HBO GO password. I’m also able to watch 60 Minutes or PBS shows like NewsHour and Frontline documentaries through their apps. So even without cable, I feel fully connected and able to comfortably watch from my smaller screens.
Zachary Green, Associate Producer:
Cable? Yes.
Favorite shows: The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, Better Call Saul, New Girl, Kroll Show, Community, The Americans, Justified, Broad City, Archer (the list goes on…)
What does your media diet look like? There’s a weekly line-up of shows that my wife and I watch on cable, like New Girl and Broad City. Cable shows that are on later at night, like The Daily Show, I’ll DVR and watch in the morning before I go to work. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime accounts that we use to watch shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Orange is the New Black, The Americans or Justified. We use a friend’s HBO GO password to watch shows like Game of Thrones or HBO movies like Behind the Candelabra.
Now we want to know — what does your media diet look like?
Share yours in the comments section below or join the conversation on Facebook.
The post What’s your media diet? See how you compare to the NewsHour team appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Bikini-Clad Britney Spears Spends Spring Break With Her Sons
Britney Spears' spring break vacation was family-friendly.
The pop icon hit the beaches of Hawaii with her sons, 9-year-old Sean Preston and 8-year-old Jayden James. Spears shared adorable snapshots from the trip with her 41 million Twitter followers over the weekend:
The "Perfume" singer and her boys shared their own People magazine cover last week, and the proud mom spoke lovingly about watching her children grow up.
“Preston is very opinionated, very expressive, and if he doesn’t like something, he’s going to tell you, But he has a huge heart, he’s a good kid and he has manners," she told People. "Jayden is sweet, very soft-spoken, kinda funny. He’s adorable -- a momma’s boy,” she said.
Too cute!
The pop icon hit the beaches of Hawaii with her sons, 9-year-old Sean Preston and 8-year-old Jayden James. Spears shared adorable snapshots from the trip with her 41 million Twitter followers over the weekend:
AL-O-HA! pic.twitter.com/s6l13q7d4g
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) March 27, 2015Missing vacay already... Best week with the boys. Back home and back to work! #GoTime pic.twitter.com/c2UHe0B41O
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) March 28, 2015The "Perfume" singer and her boys shared their own People magazine cover last week, and the proud mom spoke lovingly about watching her children grow up.
“Preston is very opinionated, very expressive, and if he doesn’t like something, he’s going to tell you, But he has a huge heart, he’s a good kid and he has manners," she told People. "Jayden is sweet, very soft-spoken, kinda funny. He’s adorable -- a momma’s boy,” she said.
Too cute!
Mike Pence Dodges Questions On Anti-Gay Discrimination In Indiana
WASHINGTON -- Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) refused to say on Sunday whether it should be illegal under state law to discriminate against gays and lesbians.
Pence appeared on ABC's "This Week" to defend his decision to sign a controversial piece of legislation intended to protect religious liberties that critics say will enable discrimination in the state. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act would allow individuals and corporations to cite religious beliefs in private litigation. Pence's decision to sign the bill into law has sparked backlash against the state.
In the interview, Pence dodged a question from George Stephanopoulos about whether the law would allow florists and bakers to deny their wedding services to gay couples by citing their religious beliefs. He also twice dodged a yes-or-no question on whether he believed it should be legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians under state law.
Pence defended his decision to sign the legislation, saying it was "absolutely not" a mistake to sign the law.
"If the general assembly in Indiana sends me a bill that adds a section that reiterates and amplifies and clarifies what the law really is and what it has been for the last 20 years, then I'm open to that," the governor said. "But we're -- we're not going to change this law."
He said there has been misinformation about the law and insisted it was intended to protect religious liberty.
"This is not about discrimination," Pence said, adding that tolerance is "a two-way street" and that there had been a lot of "shameless rhetoric" against the state law.
Pence said earlier this weekend that passing legislation to protect the rights of gays and lesbians is "not on my agenda."
Pence appeared on ABC's "This Week" to defend his decision to sign a controversial piece of legislation intended to protect religious liberties that critics say will enable discrimination in the state. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act would allow individuals and corporations to cite religious beliefs in private litigation. Pence's decision to sign the bill into law has sparked backlash against the state.
In the interview, Pence dodged a question from George Stephanopoulos about whether the law would allow florists and bakers to deny their wedding services to gay couples by citing their religious beliefs. He also twice dodged a yes-or-no question on whether he believed it should be legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians under state law.
Pence defended his decision to sign the legislation, saying it was "absolutely not" a mistake to sign the law.
"If the general assembly in Indiana sends me a bill that adds a section that reiterates and amplifies and clarifies what the law really is and what it has been for the last 20 years, then I'm open to that," the governor said. "But we're -- we're not going to change this law."
He said there has been misinformation about the law and insisted it was intended to protect religious liberty.
"This is not about discrimination," Pence said, adding that tolerance is "a two-way street" and that there had been a lot of "shameless rhetoric" against the state law.
Pence said earlier this weekend that passing legislation to protect the rights of gays and lesbians is "not on my agenda."
Can The Country's First Junk Food Tax Reduce Obesity And Diabetes On The Navajo Nation?
On long drives across the Navajo Nation, a remote and, unpaved territory spanning 27,000 square miles and three states, procuring healthy food is nearly impossible.
8 Facts That'll Change How You View 'The Breakfast Club'
In the same way that people are more than just a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess or a criminal, "The Breakfast Club" is more than just a ...
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Dreamy Summer Shoes Are The Best Accessories Of The Week
We're sick of our winter boots. They're covered in salt stains, the heels are worn down and they just make us feel sad. But you know what doesn't make us feel sad? Summer sandals.
This week, a few of our favorite bloggers rocked some pretty adorable footwear that is getting us inspired for spring. Whether you love slides, metallic heels or lace-up suede sandals, we've got a great pair for you.
Behold, the best footwear we saw on Instagram all week:
Natalie Joos' wooden heels: Yes, they are insanely high but the thick heels would make them a breeze to walk in.
Danielle Bernstein, Athena Calderone and Kate Foley's Isabel Marant sandals: We'll take all three.
Kate Brien's Brunello Cucinelli sandals: Coachella is just around the corner...
Pandora Sykes's sandals: If summer 2014 was all about slides, summer 2015 is all about lace-up sandals.
Arielle Noa Charnas's Manolo Blahnik heels: Tassel heels, where do we sign up?
Frédérique Tietcheu's ASOS heels: Until it gets warm enough for open-toed shoes, throw on a pair of socks to keep your feet from freezing.
This week, a few of our favorite bloggers rocked some pretty adorable footwear that is getting us inspired for spring. Whether you love slides, metallic heels or lace-up suede sandals, we've got a great pair for you.
Behold, the best footwear we saw on Instagram all week:
Natalie Joos' wooden heels: Yes, they are insanely high but the thick heels would make them a breeze to walk in.
Danielle Bernstein, Athena Calderone and Kate Foley's Isabel Marant sandals: We'll take all three.
Kate Brien's Brunello Cucinelli sandals: Coachella is just around the corner...
Pandora Sykes's sandals: If summer 2014 was all about slides, summer 2015 is all about lace-up sandals.
Arielle Noa Charnas's Manolo Blahnik heels: Tassel heels, where do we sign up?
Frédérique Tietcheu's ASOS heels: Until it gets warm enough for open-toed shoes, throw on a pair of socks to keep your feet from freezing.
Raw video & radio traffic from Cheektowaga, NY house fire
Evacuation ordered at fire on Calla Way on Saturday
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Kentucky, Wisconsin Head To Final Four
CLEVELAND (AP) — Pushed to the brink, Kentucky's still perfect and still playing.
Andrew Harrison made two free throws with six seconds remaining, and the top-seeded Wildcats kept their unbeaten season and national title hopes intact with a 68-66 win over Notre Dame on Saturday night in the Midwest Regional final.
The Wildcats (38-0) advanced to the Final Four in Indianapolis next week, where they will meet Wisconsin.
It took everything Kentucky had to hold off the Fighting Irish (32-6), who came within seconds of shocking the tournament's overwhelming favorite. Notre Dame, which has a history of stunning upsets in football and basketball, wasn't done until Jerian Grant's double-clutch 3-pointer from the left corner was long.
Kentucky's bench stormed the floor and the Wildcats, who only had one other two-point game this season, celebrated knowing they had ducked a major challenge and are now just two wins from becoming the first team to go undefeated since Indiana in 1976.
"We didn't play very well and Notre Dame, I thought, controlled the whole thing, but we made the plays," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We figured out a way to win it. We're just saying one more game, play our best. We've had other tests, but we have a will to win."
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 25 to lead Kentucky, which trailed for most of the second half.
Zach Auguste scored 20, Steve Vasturia 16 and Grant 15 for the third-seeded Fighting Irish, playing in their first regional final in 36 years.
There was no doubt Notre Dame belonged. The ACC tournament champions controlled the tempo and weren't intimated by the Wildcats and their collection of high school All-Americans and soon-to-be NBA millionaires.
Calipari insisted on Friday his team was not perfect, only unbeaten and that any team left in the tournament was capable of toppling the top Cats.
Andrew Harrison made two free throws with six seconds remaining, and the top-seeded Wildcats kept their unbeaten season and national title hopes intact with a 68-66 win over Notre Dame on Saturday night in the Midwest Regional final.
The Wildcats (38-0) advanced to the Final Four in Indianapolis next week, where they will meet Wisconsin.
It took everything Kentucky had to hold off the Fighting Irish (32-6), who came within seconds of shocking the tournament's overwhelming favorite. Notre Dame, which has a history of stunning upsets in football and basketball, wasn't done until Jerian Grant's double-clutch 3-pointer from the left corner was long.
Kentucky's bench stormed the floor and the Wildcats, who only had one other two-point game this season, celebrated knowing they had ducked a major challenge and are now just two wins from becoming the first team to go undefeated since Indiana in 1976.
"We didn't play very well and Notre Dame, I thought, controlled the whole thing, but we made the plays," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We figured out a way to win it. We're just saying one more game, play our best. We've had other tests, but we have a will to win."
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 25 to lead Kentucky, which trailed for most of the second half.
Zach Auguste scored 20, Steve Vasturia 16 and Grant 15 for the third-seeded Fighting Irish, playing in their first regional final in 36 years.
There was no doubt Notre Dame belonged. The ACC tournament champions controlled the tempo and weren't intimated by the Wildcats and their collection of high school All-Americans and soon-to-be NBA millionaires.
Calipari insisted on Friday his team was not perfect, only unbeaten and that any team left in the tournament was capable of toppling the top Cats.
BREAKING: UK cutting nets pic.twitter.com/hQ3vyqnnLC
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 29, 2015Gov. Mike Pence To Push For Clarification Of ‘Religious Freedom' Law
Gov. Mike Pence, scorched by a fast-spreading political firestorm, told The Star on Saturday that he will support the introduction of legislation to “clarify” that Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not promote discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Calvin Harris Once Said Taylor Swift Was Not His Type
Before dating rumors started swirling about Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris, he actually revealed if he would date her!
WATCH: Nebraska Man Asks Oil Commission Just One Question: 'Would You Drink It?'
James Osborn has just one question: "Would you drink it?"
"It" being a mysterious brown sludge -- allegedly fracking fluid -- that Osborn brought in a foam cup to a public hearing in Sidney, Nebraska, in front of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday.
And no, it wasn't a hypothetical question.
Osborn, the first of more than 50 people to speak out Tuesday on a proposed fracking wastewater storage well in the western part of the state, chatted amiably to the commissioners as he produced three plastic cups and poured a little bottled water into each. He then topped off each of the cups with a healthy portion of the mystery fluid, and offered them to the commissioners to drink.
"You told me this morning when I was in here... that you would drink this water," Osborn can be heard saying in a video posted to YouTube. He then gestures to the cups and calmly asks, "So, would you drink it?"
A pregnant silence follows, broken only when one of the commissioners cautions, "Sir, we [can't] comment on this."
Osborn spoke for several more minutes, then thanked the commissioners and the audience for their time and left the room.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, the three cups sat "untouched" for the remainder of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting.
(h/t Reddit)
"It" being a mysterious brown sludge -- allegedly fracking fluid -- that Osborn brought in a foam cup to a public hearing in Sidney, Nebraska, in front of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday.
And no, it wasn't a hypothetical question.
Osborn, the first of more than 50 people to speak out Tuesday on a proposed fracking wastewater storage well in the western part of the state, chatted amiably to the commissioners as he produced three plastic cups and poured a little bottled water into each. He then topped off each of the cups with a healthy portion of the mystery fluid, and offered them to the commissioners to drink.
"You told me this morning when I was in here... that you would drink this water," Osborn can be heard saying in a video posted to YouTube. He then gestures to the cups and calmly asks, "So, would you drink it?"
A pregnant silence follows, broken only when one of the commissioners cautions, "Sir, we [can't] comment on this."
Osborn spoke for several more minutes, then thanked the commissioners and the audience for their time and left the room.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, the three cups sat "untouched" for the remainder of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting.
(h/t Reddit)
Gay Love On A Montana Ranch
In case you needed a reminder, love between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people exists everywhere.
While stories surrounding the struggle...
While stories surrounding the struggle...
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How Will Syria's Assad Be Held Accountable For Crimes Against Humanity?
Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. Today, we speak with David Crane, a Syracuse University professor involved in the impartial effort to catalog Syrian war crimes.
The conflict in Syria has entered its fifth year. The death toll tops 220,000 and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. In addition to fighting among rebel groups, Islamic State militants and government forces, there is proof of systemic killing of detainees by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The most tangible and shocking evidence of mass murder was presented last year in a report that included thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a former military policeman who has been dubbed "Caesar." A report on these photos by top international lawyers and forensic scientists verified his account, and said there had been "industrial-scale" killing.
One of the authors of the Caesar report was David Crane, who acted as chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone that indicted Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president now imprisoned for war crimes. Crane is now a professor at Syracuse University, where he is involved in the Syrian Accountability Project, an impartial body documenting crimes in the Syrian war. The WorldPost spoke with Crane about his work and the future of efforts to hold those responsible accountable.
Can you speak to the scope of the crimes and the evidence that you’ve witnessed?
The international crimes, which are still going on, are war crimes and crimes against humanity. We see no evidence of genocide, which is a specific-intent-crime, and you literally have to have a smoking gun to prove that. But war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed across the board by all parties.
When I co-authored the Caesar report, we highlighted to the world that the Assad regime has been conducting a long-term industrialized killing of their own citizens for decades. The pictures coming out from Caesar -- that he smuggled out in his shoe -- these are high-definition, forensic photos that he took as a military forensic photographer of the deceased. The good thing about the photos is that they’re all numbered and verifiable, and we have the very person who took the photos able to verify them.
We have Caesar safely ensconced in a country that is protecting him. We were able this time last year to capture as much as 50 percent of the original photos and put them in an evidence locker. In addition, we have a chain of custody, so we can establish legally the verifiable aspects of all these horrific photos.
Something that was mentioned in your report was an estimate of 11,000 detainees that were killed.
That’s correct. How we established that was we had a great team of very experienced individuals: two former chief prosecutors, the lead prosecutor for the [Slobodan] Milosevic case, chief forensic pathologist, forensic anthropologist and a photograph expert. We were able to determine scientifically that these 54,000 photographs probably showed about 11,000 deceased.
The scariest part about this was that this was only from three detention facilities in and around Damascus, but the Syrian Accountability Project has found as many as 52 detention facilities. So what we may be looking at is the tip of a horrific iceberg.
We have no idea how bad this is and I suspect that it’s going to be far worse than imagined.
How does the Syrian Accountability Project get its evidence?
We get our data from many sources. Open-source information gives us a sense of what’s happening, and then we also have agents in place on scene, including human rights and victims groups that are reporting directly to us.
Our crime base matrix is now over 2,100 pages of Excel spreadsheet. The way we organize it is by listing the time, date, incident and alleged perpetrator. We also list specific violations of the Geneva Convention and specific violations of the Rome Statute. In addition, we translated the Syrian criminal code into English and list specific violations of Syrian law as well. This allows a future local or international prosecutor to take this and review which crimes they may charge or investigate.
It's fascinating, 10 years ago we didn’t have any of this concept of social media. We used to have to go out and get all our evidence the old-fashioned way. Now it’s gone completely in reverse, and there is so much information that it’s a tsunami. In most cases, it’s important information, but useless in court due to legal issues such as verification and chain of custody. Our challenge now is building a case against all these parties, and we’re very careful about not putting anything on the crime base matrix unless it’s verifiable two or three times over.
Is there a precedent for how social media might be used in court?
The information that’s coming on social media is just information, it’s not evidence yet. It becomes evidence when it’s verifiable. We’re confronted with a new phenomenon, and the legal rules of evidence require us to do certain things to verify it. It can be done, but it’s just a function of having to go back to the source -- just because it’s on YouTube means nothing to a court of law. It has to be authenticated.
A lot of the data that is useless in a court of law is still important historically and for truth-telling, of course. It’s just not usable. As much as 98 to 99 percent of all the data coming out of Syria has no legal significance.
What are the step-by-step processes of bringing accountability to these crimes when the conflict in Syria finally ends?
Once the geopolitical aspect of this is solved, if it ever is, we can prosecute heads of state and henchmen for what they’ve done. We’ve done it before in the Charles Taylor case. It will be an international court -- probably not the International Criminal Court because of likely Russian and Chinese objections -- but we can create a hybrid international court like the special court I helped found in 2002. You may also see an internationalized Syrian domestic court or even just a Syrian domestic court. We’ve been building this trial package with the anticipation of any of that happening.
I’ll leave you with this: 10 years ago, President Charles Taylor of Liberia was the most dangerous warlord in Africa and never thought he’d be held accountable. Ten years later, he has been convicted in an open court. His appeals have been run and now he’s spending the rest of his life in her majesty’s maximum-security prison in the northeast of England.
It may seem that justice is slow, but justice is justice. The people of West Africa can look at this monster that destroyed over 1.2 million of them having been held accountable and serving the rest of his life in jail. Patience is important, and we need to keep moving forward.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The conflict in Syria has entered its fifth year. The death toll tops 220,000 and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. In addition to fighting among rebel groups, Islamic State militants and government forces, there is proof of systemic killing of detainees by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The most tangible and shocking evidence of mass murder was presented last year in a report that included thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a former military policeman who has been dubbed "Caesar." A report on these photos by top international lawyers and forensic scientists verified his account, and said there had been "industrial-scale" killing.
One of the authors of the Caesar report was David Crane, who acted as chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone that indicted Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president now imprisoned for war crimes. Crane is now a professor at Syracuse University, where he is involved in the Syrian Accountability Project, an impartial body documenting crimes in the Syrian war. The WorldPost spoke with Crane about his work and the future of efforts to hold those responsible accountable.
Can you speak to the scope of the crimes and the evidence that you’ve witnessed?
The international crimes, which are still going on, are war crimes and crimes against humanity. We see no evidence of genocide, which is a specific-intent-crime, and you literally have to have a smoking gun to prove that. But war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed across the board by all parties.
When I co-authored the Caesar report, we highlighted to the world that the Assad regime has been conducting a long-term industrialized killing of their own citizens for decades. The pictures coming out from Caesar -- that he smuggled out in his shoe -- these are high-definition, forensic photos that he took as a military forensic photographer of the deceased. The good thing about the photos is that they’re all numbered and verifiable, and we have the very person who took the photos able to verify them.
War crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed across the board by all parties.
We have Caesar safely ensconced in a country that is protecting him. We were able this time last year to capture as much as 50 percent of the original photos and put them in an evidence locker. In addition, we have a chain of custody, so we can establish legally the verifiable aspects of all these horrific photos.
Something that was mentioned in your report was an estimate of 11,000 detainees that were killed.
That’s correct. How we established that was we had a great team of very experienced individuals: two former chief prosecutors, the lead prosecutor for the [Slobodan] Milosevic case, chief forensic pathologist, forensic anthropologist and a photograph expert. We were able to determine scientifically that these 54,000 photographs probably showed about 11,000 deceased.
The scariest part about this was that this was only from three detention facilities in and around Damascus, but the Syrian Accountability Project has found as many as 52 detention facilities. So what we may be looking at is the tip of a horrific iceberg.
We have no idea how bad this is and I suspect that it’s going to be far worse than imagined.
We have no idea how bad this is and I suspect that it’s going to be far worse than imagined.
How does the Syrian Accountability Project get its evidence?
We get our data from many sources. Open-source information gives us a sense of what’s happening, and then we also have agents in place on scene, including human rights and victims groups that are reporting directly to us.
Our crime base matrix is now over 2,100 pages of Excel spreadsheet. The way we organize it is by listing the time, date, incident and alleged perpetrator. We also list specific violations of the Geneva Convention and specific violations of the Rome Statute. In addition, we translated the Syrian criminal code into English and list specific violations of Syrian law as well. This allows a future local or international prosecutor to take this and review which crimes they may charge or investigate.
It's fascinating, 10 years ago we didn’t have any of this concept of social media. We used to have to go out and get all our evidence the old-fashioned way. Now it’s gone completely in reverse, and there is so much information that it’s a tsunami. In most cases, it’s important information, but useless in court due to legal issues such as verification and chain of custody. Our challenge now is building a case against all these parties, and we’re very careful about not putting anything on the crime base matrix unless it’s verifiable two or three times over.
Is there a precedent for how social media might be used in court?
The information that’s coming on social media is just information, it’s not evidence yet. It becomes evidence when it’s verifiable. We’re confronted with a new phenomenon, and the legal rules of evidence require us to do certain things to verify it. It can be done, but it’s just a function of having to go back to the source -- just because it’s on YouTube means nothing to a court of law. It has to be authenticated.
Just because it’s on YouTube means nothing to a court of law, it has to be authenticated.
A lot of the data that is useless in a court of law is still important historically and for truth-telling, of course. It’s just not usable. As much as 98 to 99 percent of all the data coming out of Syria has no legal significance.
What are the step-by-step processes of bringing accountability to these crimes when the conflict in Syria finally ends?
Once the geopolitical aspect of this is solved, if it ever is, we can prosecute heads of state and henchmen for what they’ve done. We’ve done it before in the Charles Taylor case. It will be an international court -- probably not the International Criminal Court because of likely Russian and Chinese objections -- but we can create a hybrid international court like the special court I helped found in 2002. You may also see an internationalized Syrian domestic court or even just a Syrian domestic court. We’ve been building this trial package with the anticipation of any of that happening.
I’ll leave you with this: 10 years ago, President Charles Taylor of Liberia was the most dangerous warlord in Africa and never thought he’d be held accountable. Ten years later, he has been convicted in an open court. His appeals have been run and now he’s spending the rest of his life in her majesty’s maximum-security prison in the northeast of England.
It may seem that justice is slow, but justice is justice. The people of West Africa can look at this monster that destroyed over 1.2 million of them having been held accountable and serving the rest of his life in jail. Patience is important, and we need to keep moving forward.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
More from The WorldPost's Weekly Interview Series:
- Have We Got ISIS All Wrong?
- What Is The State Of Political Islam Today?
- Was The Libyan Intervention A Mistake?
- What Palestinian Membership In The ICC Really Means
- Anguish In Argentina After Prosecutor's Mysterious Death
- Could The New Syriza Government Be Good For Greece's Economy?
- Naming The Dead: One Group's Struggle To Record Deaths From U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan
US rescues Saudi pilots from waters near Yemen
A CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter launches from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde during preparations for a field exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, October 24, 2011. US forces rescued two Saudi pilots from waters south of Yemen. Photo by US Navy/Josue L. Escobosa/Reuters
WASHINGTON — A Defense Department official says U.S. forces rescued two Saudi airmen after they ejected from an F-15 fighter jet over waters south of Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading airstrikes against Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
The official says a U.S. helicopter flew Thursday from neighboring Djibouti to the Gulf of Aden and rescued the airmen. Initial reports said the rescued airmen were “ambulatory.”
The destroyer USS Sterett took lead of the situation after Saudi Arabia requested U.S. assistance Thursday afternoon, coordinating assets from the U.S. naval base in Djibouti and the amphibious transport dock USS New York.
The official, who was not authorized to discuss the operation by name and requested anonymity, had no information on the two airmen’s status or why they ejected from their plane.
This report was written by Lou Kesten of the Associated Press.
The post US rescues Saudi pilots from waters near Yemen appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Deputy Spots Pit Bull On The Loose, Ends Up Befriending Goofy Pup
One policeman made a pretty unlikely pal while on the job.
Deputy Mark Elsaid of the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida was on patrol earlier ...
Deputy Mark Elsaid of the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida was on patrol earlier ...
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Kenyans Sweep Races At World Cross Country Championships
GUIYANG, China (AP) — Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor outsprinted teammate Bedan Karoki to capture the men's title at the world cross country championships on Saturday, while 19-year-old Agnes Tirop of Kenya became the youngest winner in the women's race in 30 years.
Kamworor and Karoki led for much of the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) race before Kamworor pulled away in the last 300 meters to win in 34 minutes, 52 seconds. Karoki finished second in 35:00, while Ethiopia's Muktar Edris was third in 35:06.
In the women's race, Tirop outpaced Ethiopia's Senbere Teferi over the final 200 meters to win the 8-kilometer (5-mile) race in 26:01 to become the youngest champion since Britain's Zola Budd in 1985, who was 18.
Teferi was second in 26:06 and teammate Netsanet Gudeta was third in 26:11.
Despite Kenya's individual victories, Ethiopia took the team titles in both the men's and women's races.
Kamworor and Karoki led for much of the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) race before Kamworor pulled away in the last 300 meters to win in 34 minutes, 52 seconds. Karoki finished second in 35:00, while Ethiopia's Muktar Edris was third in 35:06.
In the women's race, Tirop outpaced Ethiopia's Senbere Teferi over the final 200 meters to win the 8-kilometer (5-mile) race in 26:01 to become the youngest champion since Britain's Zola Budd in 1985, who was 18.
Teferi was second in 26:06 and teammate Netsanet Gudeta was third in 26:11.
Despite Kenya's individual victories, Ethiopia took the team titles in both the men's and women's races.
Yemen's President: Houthis Are 'Stooges Of Iran'
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Yemen's embattled president on Saturday called Shiite rebels who forced him to flee the country "stooges of Iran," directly blaming the Islamic Republic for the chaos there and demanding airstrikes against rebel positions continue until they surrender.
Other leaders, including the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, obliquely referenced Iran earlier at the opening session of an Arab summit held in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. They blamed Shiite, non-Arab Iran for meddling in the affairs of Arab nations, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi saying, without mentioning Iran by name, that it was "spreading its ailment in the body."
Yemeni President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi directly challenged Iran in his remarks. He also called for his supporters to rise up in peaceful protest against the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. He said the airstrikes staged by Saudi Arabia and its allies against the Houthis must not stop before they surrender and return medium and heavy weapons they looted from army depots across much of the country.
Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement. Officials there had no immediate comment on Hadi's remarks.
Hadi fled Yemen earlier this week, making his way to Saudi Arabia after leaving the southern coastal city of Aden in the face of a push into southern Yemen by the Houthis and their allies, including forces loyal to ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Also addressing the summit, Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Salman, said the military campaign in Yemen would not stop before security and stability are restored in Yemen.
El-Sissi also endorsed a resolution adopted by Arab foreign ministers on Thursday for the creation of an Arab military force, saying the Arab world was currently facing unprecedented threats.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday that its navy had evacuated 86 diplomats and others from Aden on Wednesday. It did not identify the nationalities of all those it evacuated in the operation, though it said diplomats from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were on hand Saturday when those evacuated arrived at a Jiddah naval base.
Pakistan also announced Saturday it had two planes standing by to evacuate its citizens.
Dozens of foreign diplomats, including United Nations staff, still were awaiting evacuation Saturday by air in Sanaa, airport officials said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
___
Al-Haj reported from Sanaa, Yemen.
Other leaders, including the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, obliquely referenced Iran earlier at the opening session of an Arab summit held in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. They blamed Shiite, non-Arab Iran for meddling in the affairs of Arab nations, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi saying, without mentioning Iran by name, that it was "spreading its ailment in the body."
Yemeni President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi directly challenged Iran in his remarks. He also called for his supporters to rise up in peaceful protest against the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis. He said the airstrikes staged by Saudi Arabia and its allies against the Houthis must not stop before they surrender and return medium and heavy weapons they looted from army depots across much of the country.
Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement. Officials there had no immediate comment on Hadi's remarks.
Hadi fled Yemen earlier this week, making his way to Saudi Arabia after leaving the southern coastal city of Aden in the face of a push into southern Yemen by the Houthis and their allies, including forces loyal to ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Also addressing the summit, Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Salman, said the military campaign in Yemen would not stop before security and stability are restored in Yemen.
El-Sissi also endorsed a resolution adopted by Arab foreign ministers on Thursday for the creation of an Arab military force, saying the Arab world was currently facing unprecedented threats.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday that its navy had evacuated 86 diplomats and others from Aden on Wednesday. It did not identify the nationalities of all those it evacuated in the operation, though it said diplomats from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were on hand Saturday when those evacuated arrived at a Jiddah naval base.
Pakistan also announced Saturday it had two planes standing by to evacuate its citizens.
Dozens of foreign diplomats, including United Nations staff, still were awaiting evacuation Saturday by air in Sanaa, airport officials said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
___
Al-Haj reported from Sanaa, Yemen.
Two Of Madonna's Dancers Re-Create 'Vogue' In Honor Of Iconic Song's 25th Anniversary
It's hard to believe it, but Madonna's seminal smash, "Vogue," was released 25 years ago this month.
Jose Xtravaganza and Salim "Slam" Gauwloos, two dancers who appeared in the iconic "Vogue" video and subsequently toured with Madonna, reunited in Los Angeles to re-create the famed choreography in this short video honoring the anniversary -- and the results are pretty amazing.
Jose Xtravaganza and fellow dancer Luis Camacho Xtravaganza are often credited with introducing Madonna to the Harlem House Ball community which, in turn, inspired her to write the song and feature the dance style in her music videos and tours.
Below, watch Madonna's original "Vogue" video, featuring Jose and Slam, from 1990:
Jose Xtravaganza and Salim "Slam" Gauwloos, two dancers who appeared in the iconic "Vogue" video and subsequently toured with Madonna, reunited in Los Angeles to re-create the famed choreography in this short video honoring the anniversary -- and the results are pretty amazing.
Jose Xtravaganza and fellow dancer Luis Camacho Xtravaganza are often credited with introducing Madonna to the Harlem House Ball community which, in turn, inspired her to write the song and feature the dance style in her music videos and tours.
Below, watch Madonna's original "Vogue" video, featuring Jose and Slam, from 1990:
Cardinal Raymond Burke: Gays, Remarried Catholics Are Just As Sinful As Murderers
(RNS) When Pope Francis last year effectively demoted U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke by moving him out of a senior post in the Vatican to a largely cerem...
Read more: Christianity, Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church, Catholics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Raymond Burke, Gay Catholics, Remarried Catholics, Religion News
Beginners' Workshop Series Continues in Lodi
San Joaquin Genealogical Society returns to the Lodi Public Library this Saturday with our next session on the beginners' genealogy series, "Grow Your Family Tree." The afternoon session, covering the basics of pursuing your own family history, will be held in the library's Community Room. In addition, the topic for this session will include how to find free resources online, and will introduce the Society's new program, First Families of San Joaquin.
Lodi Public Library is located at 201 West Locust Street in Lodi, California. Come join us this Saturday afternoon, from 2:00 to 4:00, and explore which resources will help you with your own family tree.
For more information, email the Lodi Public Library or call them at (209) 333-5503.
Ellen Pao Disrupts How Silicon Valley Does Business
Silicon Valley is enamored of “disrupters,” those shrewd, brave men — it is almost always men — who are hailed for enduring years of ridicule and risking everything to shake up the conventional order.
Now, in Ellen Pao, the Valley has found its newest disrupter.
Now, in Ellen Pao, the Valley has found its newest disrupter.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Little vetting of pilots for mental health, U.S. experts say
A pilot sits inside the cockpit of Airbus A321 during boarding for the Germanwings flight 4U9441, formerly flight 4U9525, from Barcelona to Dusseldorf March 27, 2015. The German pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps killing 150 people broke off his training six years ago due to depression and spent over a year in psychiatric treatment, a German newspaper reported on Friday. Photo by Albert Gea/Reuters
The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 into an Alpine mountain, which killed all 150 people aboard, has raised questions about the mental state of the co-pilot. Authorities believe the 27-year-old German deliberately sought to destroy the Airbus A320 as it flew Tuesday from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
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In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots receive a physical exam from a flight surgeon annually or every six months depending upon the pilot’s age. The International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency that sets global aviation standards, also requires that pilots receive a periodic medical exam including a mental assessment.
Technically, doctors are supposed to probe for mental problems, but pilots said Thursday that’s usually not how it works.
“There really is no mental health vetting,” said John Gadzinski, a captain with a major U.S. airline and former Navy pilot. In 29 years of physicals from flight surgeons he’s never once been asked about his mental health, he said.
Bob Kudwa, a former American Airlines pilot and executive who maintains his commercial pilot’s license, said: “They check your eyes, your ears, your heart — all the things that start going bad when you get older. But they don’t do anything for your head, no.”
There also is no confidential reporting, Gadzinski said. “If you had a mental health issue, you certainly wouldn’t tell your flight surgeon about that because it goes right to the FAA,” he said.
Pilots are also required to disclose existing psychological conditions and medications on health forms they fill out themselves for the FAA. Failure to do so could result in a fine of up to $250,000. The forms include questions about whether a pilot is depressed or has attempted suicide, Gadzinski said.
“Is this really the best way? Ask the guy who is mentally ill if he’s mentally ill and if he says ‘no’ then, hey, we’re good to go?” he said.
Europe has a single standard for pilot medical exams. “These medical assessments are done by doctors with a specialty in aviation health. … They know what to look for, physically and mentally,” said Richard Taylor, a spokesman for the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Lufthansa, which owns the regional airline, has no knowledge about what have might have motivated co-pilot Andreas Lubitz “to take this terrible action,” said Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa.
Airlines typically ask pilots to take mental health screening exams when they apply for a job, but follow-up after hiring is cursory at best, experts say.
“If you’ve got 12,000 or 15,000 pilots like American Airlines has … every now and then you’re going to get a crackpot no matter how hard you try,” Kudwa said.
Video by PBS NewsHour
When that happens, other pilots who fly with the unstable pilot “sooner or later (are) going to let the boss know and then a check airman will be flying with him” to see if there is a problem, he said.
A check airman is an airline pilot who monitors the skills of other pilots by flying with them and watching how they perform. Still, check rides prompted by mental health concerns are rare, Kudwa said.
“You try to get these guys who are on the edge out of the program, but even in my career I ran into guys where I thought, ‘How did he get through the system?'” said Kudwa, who was with American for 28 years. “Or people change. Or, as we see in today’s environment, people get radicalized by social media.”
U.S. airline pilots generally receive training from their airlines about every six months to keep flying skills sharp. At that time, the chief pilot or check pilot monitoring their performance often asks pilots a few questions about their emotional stability, said John Goglia, a former National Transportation Safety Board member and aviation safety consultant.
“It’s very, very loose,” Goglia said. “It’s easy to get around that because it’s not a mental health professional who is asking the questions … ‘Is everything all right at home? Are you fighting with your wife? Are you kicking the kids and dog?’ It’s not much. It’s usually pilots looking at pilots.”
Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this report from London.
The post Little vetting of pilots for mental health, U.S. experts say appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Al Jazeera demands release of two journalists ‘without conditions’ before Nigerian election
A schoolgirl walks past campaign posters in support of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan along a road in Ikoyi district in Lagos February 13, 2015. Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Al Jazeera is calling for the immediate release of their two Nigerian journalists who were detained early Tuesday while on special assignment to cover Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election.
According to military statements, journalists Ahmed Idris and Ali Mustafa worked without proper ”protection, accreditation or due clearance” and suspicion of “loitering.” Al Jazeera issued a statement late Wednesday, saying that both journalists received accreditation from the Independent Electoral Commission in Abuja to report anywhere during election period and call for their release “without conditions.”
We call on the Nigerian authorities to release Ahmed Idris and Ali Mustafa; they have all the relevant paperwork to report on the Nigerian elections and stories related to the election. Both men had just finished filming a story on the military with their cooperation. They were not ‘loitering’, but were in the hotel room and had only passed through the restricted areas of Yobe and Borno State to get to Maiduguri.
Both journalists were detained in Maiduguri in Borno State and currently remain in their hotel room, contrary to military statements of the journalists “loitering.”
Prior to the March 28 election, Nigeria has imposed increased security measures, sealing the country’s inland and coastal borders in response to the threat of Boko Haram.
The post Al Jazeera demands release of two journalists ‘without conditions’ before Nigerian election appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Car Storage for a Few Trumps Safe Streets for All in San Diego
A major street safety campaign in San Diego is running up against the fierce territorial instinct that only on-street car parking can instill. After a two-year public process, a plan to create safe biking and walking access to Hillcrest and other neighborhoods reached a local advisory group called Uptown Planners. The plan calls for adding […]
MEET THE TEAM - LINA
Som Marketing Manager är Lina ansvarig för Ubers tillväxt på kundsidan. Det innebär att hon jobbar med allt från samarbeten med spännande varumärken, planerar aktiviteter för att generera nya kunder och ta väl hand om de existerande kunderna. “Första gången jag hörde talas om Uber hade vi precis lanserat i Stockholm. Jag skulle föreläsa på en konferens i Stockholm och där träffade jag en representant från Uber som bjöd mig på en gratis första resa. Testade redan samma kväll och det var mind blowing. Sen den dagen har jag varit hooked på Uber.”
Is bureaucratic red tape hindering how special ops can do its job?
An Associated Press investigation reveals that government bureaucrats have blocked several requests by Army special operations troops for software they say they need.
WASHINGTON — The military has been trying to force special operations troops heading to war zones to use flawed government software for intelligence analysis instead of a commercial alternative they say they need, according to government records and interviews.
Over the last four months, six Army special operations units about to be deployed into Afghanistan, Iraq and other hostile environments have requested software made by Palantir, a Silicon Valley company that has synthesized data for the CIA, the Navy SEALs and the country’s largest banks, among other government and private entities.
But just two of the requests have been approved, in both cases by the Army after members of Congress intervened with senior military leaders. Four other requests made through U.S. Army Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida-based Special Operations Command have not been granted. The Army says its policy is to grant all requests for Palantir, while special operations officials say they are working through the requests on a case-by-case basis.
Email messages and other military records obtained by The Associated Press show that Army and special operations command bureaucrats have been pressing troops to use an in-house system built and maintained by traditional defense contractors. The Distributed Common Ground System, or DCGS, has consistently failed independent tests and earned the ire of soldiers in the field for its poor performance.
Special operations units have used Palantir since 2009 to store and analyze intelligence on information ranging from cultural trends to roadside bomb data, but has always been seen by top Pentagon officials as an interim solution until their in-house system is fielded. Those who have used the system say DCGS has yet to deliver on its promise of seamlessly integrating intelligence.
Pentagon officials say DCGS, despite its flaws, has broader capabilities than Palantir, and that in some cases it complements Palantir.
Intelligence officers say they use Palantir to analyze and map a variety of intelligence from hundreds of databases. Palantir costs millions, compared to the billions the military has been pouring into DCGS.
Special operations officials, in a statement to AP, said Palantir had been “extremely successful” in Iraq and Afghanistan and they are working to expand access to Palantir for units deployed in the fight against the Islamic State group. But records and interviews show a history of internal pressure against making and approving such requests.
One veteran special operations intel analyst, who is on his seventh deployment in 12 years, said his recent request for Palantir for a unit heading to Iraq had met with “pushback” both from his own headquarters and from bureaucrats who favor DCGS’s analytical component at the Pentagon, special operations command headquarters in Tampa, and Army special operations in Fort Bragg. Another special operations officer also used the term “heavy pushback” in an email about his request for Palantir.
Like most active duty Army personnel interviewed for this story, they declined to be quoted by name because they feared speaking out could put their careers at risk.
In their statement, special operations officials said their questions about Palantir requests should not be interpreted as resistance.
The failings of the Army’s version of DCGS has received significant public attention in recent years. The version tailored to special operations troops has even less capability, special operations command acknowledges in its records. Another version being offered to special operations troops working in remote areas, called DCGS-Lite, has received mediocre reviews from intelligence analysts, Army records show.
Intelligence officers say Palantir is easier to use, more stable and more capable than DCGS, which sometimes doesn’t work at all.
The Pentagon system is difficult to master, the veteran intelligence analyst said, while it takes him about 30 minutes to train a new analyst on Palantir.
Another officer wrote in an email that with Palantir, his analysts were able to easily mix open-source intelligence gleaned from social media or Web searches with classified reporting. DCGS makes that much harder, he said.
In February, an intelligence officer for the 5th Special Forces Group wrote in an email, “We still want Palantir because we think it is the best tool to meet the needs of our mission,” which includes operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and training rebels in Syria.
The only reason the unit is using DCGS, the officer wrote, was because it came with much-needed laptops. “We do not plan to use any of the DCGS apps or tools for our mission,” the officer wrote. The person who provided the email asked that the author not be identified to spare him or her from retaliation.
All the commercial interests in the dispute have political clout. Palantir employs a bevy of lobbyists to press its case in Washington, as do the defense companies behind DCGS, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Booz Allen Hamilton, which have longstanding relationships with Pentagon buyers.
In addition to the professional lobbying, some members of Congress have been contacted by special operation officers who complained that they were being denied the tools they needed to do their jobs.
One of the lawmakers, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., grilled Army chief of staff Gen. Ray Odierno over the issue at a recent budget hearing. She asked about a request for Palantir by 1st Special Forces Group based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Murray’s office had been lobbying behind the scenes for months.
“It’s been approved,” Odierno said, to Murray’s surprise.
In December, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., wrote to Gen. Joseph Votel, the special operations commander, raising concerns that special operations command “has yet to provide tools to the warfighters in Afghanistan and Iraq despite spending six years and nearly $150 million to develop” the special operations version of DCGS.
In January, Votel responded to the congresswoman that the system was delivering “critical” capabilities through “numerous, highly capable components.”
Ken Dilanian is the AP’s intelligence writer.
The post Is bureaucratic red tape hindering how special ops can do its job? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
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