Obama says managing Afghanistan exit is a priority

Four people who were on the ground the night of the Benghazi attacks last year are writing a book about their experience, and they're getting a $3 million advance from Twelve Books to do it. The authors are unnamed, according to New York Post's Keith J. Kelly, who describes them as "members of the elite security team from the annex of the US Embassy." That annex, we now know, was the CIA annex, which makes this book deal really fascinating. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-managing-afghanistan-exit-priority-111250278.html

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Extreme temperatures in the West trigger health concerns

Heat warnings or advisories are posted in parts of eight western states with temperatures of 120 degrees not out of the question for parts of California, Nevada and Arizona into next week. Residents are advised to protect themselves and their pets. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

By Tracy Jarrett, NBC News

A sizzling heat wave sent temperatures soaring and records tumbling in Western states on Saturday, leading to one suspected heat-related death and prompting officials to urge people to stay inside and take extra precautions.

Las Vegas' McCarran airport tied a record for the day at 115 degrees, and at a National Weather Service office in the southwest section of the city the thermometer spiked up to 118 degrees. In Death Valley, Calif., it was 124 degrees.?

A Las Vegas Fire & Rescue crew responded to a report of an elderly man in cardiac arrest at residence without air conditioning on Saturday. When paramedics arrived, they found the man was dead, NBC station KSNV reported. The man, who was not identified, did have medical issues but paramedics characterized his death as heat-related.

Another elderly man whose car air conditioner went out while on a road trip fell sick, stopped and called 911. He was admitted to the hospital and reported in serious condition.?

It was so hot in Nevada that rangers at Lake Mead persuaded tourists not to hike, according to the National Park Service, which posted the warning on its Facebook page.

In Phoenix, the temperature rose to 119 degrees?? the fourth hottest day in recorded history in the desert city.

Two cities in Texas ??San Antonio (108 degrees) and Houston (107 degrees)???set all-time highs for the month of June.

?Where it is hot now it it?ll stay hot,? said Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler.

Several records were also set in California, with Palm Springs hitting 122 degrees, beating the previous high from 1994, according to the National Weather Service.

---

While some states such as Colorado and New Mexico may be beginning to cool, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana will continue to experience all-time temperature highs at least for the next two weeks, Ressler said.

?The ridge doesn?t completely go away in the next 2 weeks, so temperatures will come down somewhat but there?s no time soon where it will turn into the east coast where they are experiencing below average ?temperatures, ? he said.

?The heat will stay west and there will be no great break in heat anytime soon.?

Such extreme weather was causing health concerns. On Friday, 200 people were treated for heat problems at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, where it was 115 degrees.

Dr. Kein Reilly with University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine told NBC News Tucson affiliate KVOA that Arizona residents should stay inside and drink plenty of water.

"If you get dizzy or light headed those are some signs of dehydration. If you become confused that's a real warning sign. That's someone who needs to come into the emergency department," Reilly said.

Julie Jacobson / AP

From left, Subrina Madrid, Sarah Hudak, Jennifer, Shackelford, all of North Las Vegas, Nev., sit in the shallow waters along Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, Saturday, June 29, 2013 near Boulder City, Nevada. The three planned to spend the day at the lake to escape the heat in Las Vegas.

Cooling stations were set up to shelter the homeless as well as elderly people who can't afford to run their air conditioners,? Phoenix, Ariz, Sheriff Joe Arpaio told NBC News affiliate KSNV.

Keeping people cool is not the only concern in the heat.

?If it?s hot for you it?s hot for your pet, and ultimately we are their voice so we are responsible for them. Use common sense,? said Bretta Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Humane Society.

Nelson suggests keeping your pets indoors and making sure they are hydrated. If you need to take your pet for a walk keep it quick, said Nelson. She also suggests foot booties for hot cement.

?It?s important to understand pets have to have shelter shade plenty of drinking water and if they don?t they can result in animal cruelty charges,? she said.

The same rules apply for people.

?As much as possible have constant water available and also stay inside in air conditioning those are two things I would suggest,? said Ressler.

Ressler said record highs are expected over the next few days, and record highs this time of year mean, ?it is extremely hot.?

NBC News' Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Related:

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Ivory Coast may seek Chinese financing for post-war recovery: Finance Minister

By Joe Bavier and Ange Aboa

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast may turn to China for more loans to finance a post-war recovery in French-speaking Africa's largest economy, the minister in charge of finance and the economy said, as President Barack Obama visited the region to revive U.S. engagement.

Niale Kaba said the world's top cocoa grower is also planning to relaunch a privatisation scheme that should see the state liquidate its stakes in a range of sectors, starting with several banks of which it is majority owner.

After winning a 2010 election and the brief civil war that followed, President Alassane Ouattara is pushing investment in critical infrastructure left neglected during Ivory Coast's decade-long political crisis.

"We have a lot of potential and a lot of ambition. And that ambition requires financing," said Kaba, who manages the finance and economy portfolio taken over by Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan in a November reshuffle.

A national development programme calls for investments of around $20 billion over the next five years and Ivory Coast is seeking financing for several large infrastructure projects from traditional donors and public-private partnerships.

However, Kaba said the conditions offered by China's Exim Bank made its loans particularly attractive.

Chinese financing could be used for projects including an expansion of Ivory Coast's main port, a plan to link up regional rail lines, and the extension of existing motorways, she said.

"I believe the loans from Exim Bank are loans that can finance in a relevant way certain sectors ... It's a good opportunity for Ivory Coast to make the structural investments necessary to sustain growth," she said in an interview.

"The rates are low, the time-frame is long, and we have grace periods of seven to nine years. So that allows you to make the investment and wait a bit for the investment to bear fruit before you start paying it back," Kaba said.

Ivory Coast has secured two loans totalling $615 million from Exim Bank to fund a motorway and hydroelectric power plant.

LONG WAY TO GO ON PRIVATISATIONS

Obama, the U.S.'s first African-American president, was in Senegal on Thursday on his second visit to the continent since taking office in 2008.

Administration officials say the trip is an opportunity to jump-start the relationship. Analysts say U.S. neglect of Africa's potential has left it to play catch-up with China.

During his own African tour earlier this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed an offer of $20 billion of loans between 2013 and 2015.

Ivory Coast adopted its first privatisation programme in 1990 well before most of its neighbours. However, the project slowed during the political crisis of the last decade.

"The prime minister has reactivated the privatisation committee," Kaba said. "We will look at which sectors the state can withdraw from. We're at the beginning of the process."

Kaba said privatisations were expected to begin with the banking sector. The Ivorian state holds majority stakes in five banks: Versus Bank, BNI, BFA, CECP and BHCI.

The government has commissioned an audit of the five institutions, with initial results due in late August.

"The banks from which the state will withdraw will be defined by the study ... And it will only be then that we will be able to make a financial evaluation of the expected earnings," Kaba said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ivory-coast-may-seek-chinese-financing-post-war-070906113.html

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Stones to play long-awaited Glastonbury gig

PILTON, England (AP) ? This could be the last time, as Mick Jagger once sang. For the Rolling Stones, it's definitely a first.

The veteran rock rabble-rousers play Britain's Glastonbury Festival on Saturday, their debut appearance at the country's most prestigious rock music event.

Many of the 135,000 festival ticket-holders are expected to cram the space in front of the Pyramid Stage for the gig.

Jagger wouldn't reveal details of the set list in a pre-show BBC radio interview, saying "it's nice to have a bit of a surprise."

Jagger, who turns 70 in July, also gave no clue about whether the band he started with Keith Richards in 1962 will ever call it quits. He said, "I've no idea," before telling an interviewer that he'd probably continue as long as he was wanted.

The band recently played a string of North American dates on its "50 and Counting" tour and is due to play two concerts in London's Hyde Park next month.

The Stones turned down offers to play Glastonbury for years, but appear to have embraced the down-to-earth spirit of the festival, held on a farm in southwest England. On Saturday Jagger tweeted a picture of himself outside a yurt, a Mongolian-style felt tent where he reportedly spent the night.

Guitarist Richards said the band was "destined to play Glastonbury."

"I look upon it as a culmination of our British heritage really," he said. "It had to be done and it's going to be done, and we'll see what happens, you know."

The Glastonbury Festival was founded by Michael Eavis in 1970 on his Worthy Farm near Pilton, 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of London. It is famous for its eclectic lineup ? and the mud that overwhelms the site in rainy years.

Other performers on Saturday include Elvis Costello and Primal Scream.

But for many festivalgoers, the Stones were the main event.

?"I know the festival organizers have been trying to get hold of them for a long time, so there will be a brilliant atmosphere," said Adam Robinson, 25. "I predict there will be a massive sing-a-long."

The three-day festival wraps up Sunday with a headlining set from Mumford & Sons.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stones-play-long-awaited-glastonbury-gig-095313641.html

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Clashes as Egypt leader's backers, foes rally

CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of backers and opponents of Egypt's Islamist president held competing rallies in the capital Friday and new clashes erupted between the two sides in the country's second largest city, Alexandria, in a prelude to massive nationwide protests planned by the opposition this weekend demanding Mohammed Morsi's removal.

For the past several days, Morsi's opponents and members of his Muslim Brotherhood have battled it out in the streets of several cities in the Nile Delta in violence that has left at least five dead. The latest died Friday from injuries suffered in fighting the day before, security officials said.

Many fear the clashes are a sign of more widespread and bloodier battles to come on Sunday, the anniversary of Morsi's inauguration, when the opposition says it will bring millions into the streets around the country.

"We must be alert lest we slide into a civil war that does not differentiate between supporters and opponents," warned Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, a senior cleric at Al-Azhar, the country's most eminent Muslim religious institution.

The Cairo International Airport was flooded with departures, in an exodus airport officials called unprecedented. They said all flights departing Friday to Europe, the United States and the Gulf were fully booked with no vacant seats.

Many of those leaving were families of Egyptian officials and businessmen and those of foreign and Arab League diplomats ? as well as many Egyptian Christians, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the press.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on Friday, scuffles erupted between Morsi's supporters and opponents, near the local headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The fighting began when thousands of anti-Morsi protesters marched toward the Brotherhood headquarters, where up to a 1,000 supporters of the president were deployed, protecting the building. Someone on the Islamist side opened fire with birdshot on the marchers and the two sides began to scuffle, according to an Associated Press cameraman at the scene.

Nine people were wounded by birdshot, Deputy Health Minister Mohammed al-Sharkawi told AP.

Security forces fired tear gas at the Brotherhood supporters, but when the two sides continued battling, they withdrew.

Each side insists it is and will remain peaceful on Sunday ? and each has blamed the other for the violence so far.

Tamarod, the activist group whose anti-Morsi petition campaign evolved into Sunday's planned protest, said in a statement it was opposed "to any attack against anybody, whatever the disagreement with this person was," and accused the Brotherhood of sparking violence to scare people from participating Sunday.

Tamarod says it has collected nearly 20 million signatures in the country of 90 million demanding Morsi step down.

The Brotherhood says the five killed in the Delta clashes were its members. Some people "think they can topple a democratically elected President by killing his support groups," Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, wrote on his Twitter account.

In Cairo, thousands of Morsi backers filled the street outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, not far from the presidential palace. The palace ? one of the sites where the opposition plans to hold rallies Sunday ? has been surrounded by concrete walls.

In his Friday prayer sermon, the cleric of Rabia el-Adawiya warned that if Morsi is ousted "there will be no president for the country" and Egypt will descend into "opposition hell."

Outside in the street, the Islamists chanted religious slogans. "It is for God, not for position or power," they shouted. "Raise your voice strong, Egyptian: Islamic Shariah." Many wore green headbands with the slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Across the city, thousands of Morsi opponents massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, shouting for the president to "leave, leave."

Violence erupted in several parts of the Delta, north of Cairo.

At least six people were injured when an anti-Morsi march was attacked by the president's supporters in the city of Samanod, according to a security official. Attackers fired gunshots and threw acid at the protesters as they passed the house of a local Brotherhood leader, the official said.

In the Delta city of Tanta, four unidentified men believed to be Morsi supporters tried to attack a mosque preacher during his sermon, in which he called on worshippers to stand with Al-Azhar's calls to avoid bloodshed.

Hundreds of protesters in the nearby city of Bassioun hurled stones at the local headquarters of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. They tore down the party's sign and crushed it, security officials said.

Security officials say three people have died in the past three days in Nile Delta city of Mansoura, along with two others in the nearby province of Sharqiya.

In Sharqiya on Thursday, an Islamist march encountered an anti-Morsi march, leading to scuffles that evolved into full-fledged battles, the officials said. The two sides hurled stones at each other and fired gunshots, and at least 70 were injured.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

___

Mohammed Khalil of Associated Press Television News contributed to this report from Alexandria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-egypt-leaders-backers-foes-rally-143955240.html

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Stay at Home Mom with Regrets and Rebuttals - Grown and Flown

Lisa writes: After pondering for 17 years my decision to be a stay at home mom, I put my thoughts on paper. ?At no point did it occur to me that I would not work outside our home or that one decade or even nearly two would pass before I returned to the workplace. ?But days turned into months, months into years and suddenly nursery school applications became college applications and I would be hard pressed to say where the time went.

I was asked if this post?was hard to write. ?It was hard to face, but easy to write.

HuffPost Parents put up ?I Regret Being a Stay-at-Home Mom? and the Today show and Fox and Friends asked me to come speak about it. ?The thrilling part was the hundreds, now thousands, of comments that have been generated by readers reflecting on their own experiences.

Since posting my confession, women, and a few men, have told us how much it has meant to them to hear these thoughts laid out publicly. Then, and this has to be the very best part of the internet, they have shared their stories and their lives with us.

We have heard from women on maternity leave and women nearing retirement. Some have been mothers reflecting, as I have done, but many have been young moms with infants and toddlers who have the question of returning to work still swirling in their minds. Below we share their voices.

Readers wrote articulate, thoughtful rebuttal posts, and we have gathered them here?or they can be found above under the tab ?Discussion: Stay-at-Home Mom.

Lest this look like a love fest, a few comments were venomous, as readers suggested I should not have had kids. ?A few were a bit touchy, suggesting I just needed to grow up. ?And many vehemently disagreed with me, with one particularly astute writer (mom of five, physician, and thought leader) offering up what she felt were more important family issues that should focused upon. ?I have tried to reflect their voices as well.

Rather than describing what some incredibly articulate women have said, I offer up their heartfelt insights?

Sharon Greenthal: Here?s the thing I finally have figured out ? the regret I would have had if I had NOT stayed home would have been far greater than the regret I?ve experienced by being a stay at home mom.

Melissa Auger: Feminism is not about working 50 hours a week, it?s about having a choice to do what you want. So whether that is working full-time, or staying at home with your kids, it?s about deciding what?s best for you and your family at the time-without being judged for it.

Nancy: You have 9 reasons for regretting you stayed at home but I bet there are hundreds of reasons you?re happy you did!

jfmckenna: Is there an example of anyone on her deathbed wishing she had spent more time at the office?
Dazed not Confused: There is now.

Lora: Lisa I saw you on Fox News this morning and you said everything I am feeling. When I wanted to go back to work part-time when my daughter entered high school my ex said supportively ?What would you do??. I am still looking for myself 5 years later and my divorce during the recession added to my dilemma of now trying to support myself at 50 with no specialize work skills.

SDpianomom: We are considering selling our home and leaving California just so I can be a stay-at-home mom. I?m losing precious time with my 4 kids, time that can never be replaced. My mom didn?t start working until I was 14 and she has had a very rewarding 25-year career. Careers can be put on hold or replaced; children can?t.

Ginger Kay:?Do you feel that way about others who choose to stay at home with their children? Or are you only this hard on yourself? [author note: I am speaking only, and I mean only, for myself]

Woodsjt: Lisa, I don?t know you. And I do want to respect that there is a real person at the other end of my comment and that you have real and valid feelings to consider, but this post makes me so mad I am seeing red! This post comes across as incredibly selfish. You?re outdated? You did too much volunteer work? You didn?t use your degree like you originally intended? Your (intact) marriage took on clich?d roles that worked for your family, but still caused you shame? First world problems, my friend.

Drakkos: Ah, all that wasted time spent on your offspring and contribution to the human race, when you could have been out chasing worthless money!

Cheryl: Wow! Powerful. I think you said exactly how I felt staying home (as well as being a trailing wife). Staying home was never on my radar ever in my life so when I became the primary caregiver, everything about who I was challenged. Women who stay home for the good of their kids development are looked at so differently than the person they used to be. Now I find myself hustling that much harder now that I am building a new career. When I look at how amazing my kids are, I do not have regrets; when I look at my career and passions I have only regrets. ?[Emphasis mine]

Kleyen: I am saddened by your regret to stay home and raise your children. As a stay at home mom?with both a Bachelor?s & Master?s degree, I worked 8 years before choosing to stay home to raise my 3 children. I too read the Feminine Mystique and was schooled by the women of the 70?s. However, as I look back over my 20?s and 30?s, I realize the feminine movement did all women a disservice. On the one hand, women are more educated and able to obtain greater paying jobs. But for those who prioritized families first over a career, we have been hurt as perfectly expressed in your op piece. ?The feminist movement failed me, and others like me, because it made my choice to stay at home a conflict, a statement against women?s rights, when in reality, it is MY choice. My education is used in countless ways every day. I will have it when I choose to go back to the workforce. I feel I?m a shining example to my children?I can have it all, a home, a family, a job I love?just not all at the same time.

SCAtty: As a divorce lawyer, I can tell you this author is correct that the decision to stay home for the length of your children?s schooling can be a huge mistake. Courts in my area are moving away from large alimony awards. Women who are abandoned later in life are NOT automatically taken care of financially. It is super risky for young women not to make some effort to stay in the game. My own mother stayed home (I?m 40) and she warned me that I did not know what life had in store and I had better be able to support myself. Have I missed stuff? Yes. And I completely admire and recognize the choice (or no choice) to stay home. There are drawbacks to each path.

Stephanie Barnes Edwards: Shame on you for not teaching your boys that you WERE working. You invested in something eternal ? your boys? souls ? yet all you can see are the temporary things you sacrificed. There are plenty of at-home job opportunities for mothers who want to keep their foot in the working world. Blaming this on your status as a SAHM is offensive. I feel sorry for you.

Itellifran: Doing laundry is not investing in souls

JTHC75: Alright, I?ll be gentle because I think you still have a lot of growing up to do.
?I let down those who went before me.? No, you didn?t. Their sacrifices gave you *choices.* And you made your choices and those choices didn?t lead to perfect happiness. Welcome to life. But damn, what an oppressive burden that is, to think that you must ?dream big? to satisfy the expectations of a bunch of faceless foremothers.
Also, I really do think this is a case of the grass being greener. You?re upset about leaving your glamorous and fulfilling career as a securities trader? Huh? What am I missing here?
Finally, get used to the idea of your kids thinking you do nothing. Welcome to humanity. They won?t get it until they?re adults. But then again, if you don?t respect what you do, why should they?

Kathy: You are never obsolete as a mom. The job changes. At almost 60, my mom is still an important part of my life.

Wheredoigofromhere: This post speaks to me in a way I never imagined anything or anyone could. My three children are wonderful, productive, well-adjusted young people and I am filled with boundless love and tremendous pride. Concurrently, I find myself consumed by the virtually all of the points which Lisa articulates. And the loss of confidence looms largest.

Alexis: ?Stop. Reading. My. Mind.

Beth: This is a really interesting perspective. I just had my second child and have taken an extended period of time off of working. Then I will be faced with the decision to resign or go back to work. Right now I have no idea what I want to do.

Katy: Thank you for this honest perspective. It really made me think, and, to be honest, gave me a little encouragement as I continue to work part-time while my 6yo constantly begs me to be a helping parent in her classroom (I work while she?s in school).

Barbara Shallue:?Lisa, sitting here in my empty nest, desperately trying to find a lucrative job/career at 54 to get us out of debt, I find myself drifting back to that moment when I said ?I quit? and walked out the door of my high-paying job, too, and wondering ?what if??

Helene Cohen Bludman: I stayed home until my youngest was in middle school and then went back full-time. Yes, I was professionally happy, but wracked with guilt with every school play or softball game missed, and every time my kids had to wait at school to be picked up. Rushing from work to school to home and then cooking dinner and dealing with homework, etc. did not make for a relaxed and happy family. And it was exhausting.

Lisa: I could have written this word-for-word myself. I?ve lived an almost identical parallel existence! I too don?t regret the time I spent with my kids, but wish I would have understood the reality I was setting for myself 23 years ago.

Johanna: How was I so blind sided? A decade later and I am not able to get any work in my field. Even unpaid internships are only offered to recent graduates. I have become obsolete and it feels incredibly lonely. I realize I was present at every decision up to this point. I own the choices. I can?t blame anyone else but myself. I thought I was doing the right thing. ?I took care of my kids. I was putting out the every day fires and did not have the time or the energy to even think about next week. What gets me the most is that I did not have the vision or the understanding of what I was really doing. You slowly lose your identity little by little. It is so gradual you don?t even realize it.

Tanya: I left my well-paying job earlier this month to stay home with my kids. While the plan is that I will only stay home for a couple of years until my preschooler starts Kindergarten, who knows what will happen. I am sure I will wonder at some point if I made the right choice, I think as moms we feel guilty about the choices we make either way.

Stacy:?Staying at home with your children is a luxury and one I feel fortunate enough to share with you. ?My mother was a working woman and always told me it was quality time over quantity time. Unfortunately she died when I was 12. I will never get back that ?quantity time? that I still crave.

Nina: It?s very interesting to hear from someone with older children state this especially since you usually hear the debate among new mothers who still haven?t experienced the results that far ahead.

Carpool Goddess: And even with all the child referring, chauffeuring, home organizing, volunteering, etc?on more than one occasion was told by my ambitious adolescent offspring that I wasn?t doing anything with my life in terms of my education and talents. Ouch.

Carol McLeod: You said, ?My world narrowed.?? Au contraire, Lisa Endlich Heffernan, my world expanded and exploded!? Who knew that a grin on the face of a baby would be more beatific than Victoria Falls or the Grand Canyon?!? Who knew that the giggle of a two-year old would hold more rich substance than the London Symphony Orchestra?!

Marci RIch: What I did do while my son was young was return to school. I had summers at home with him and a fairly flexible schedule during the academic term. I suppose I had the best of both worlds in that respect; I was doing something that would?and did?pay off well in the ensuing years. But I cannot imagine what it would be like to have started out with a fabulous career only to leave it in midstream?

Kathy Schneider: All of my thoughts, exactly. What, now?

Source: http://grownandflown.com/stay-at-home-mom-with-rebuttals-and-regrets/

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Jezebel 'Black Babies Cost Less': The Racial Realities of Adoption in America | io9 How does spaceti

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Source: http://lauren.kinja.com/jezebel-black-babies-cost-less-the-racial-realities-of-599036790

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Portuguese unions hold major anti-austerity strike

LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? A national 24-hour strike against austerity measures by Portuguese labor unions on Thursday brought public transport to a virtual standstill and depleted staffing levels at government offices, state-owned companies and public hospitals.

Most services operated by the national train company CP, the Lisbon subway and city bus companies ? all of them state-run ? were cancelled, forcing commuters to use their own vehicles and congesting traffic in the capital Lisbon and Porto, the second-largest city.

Airport management company ANA reported that 22 flights were cancelled by 10 a.m. (1000 GMT), 17 of them at Lisbon airport.

Some health centers around the country stayed shut, Portuguese media reported, while hospitals rescheduled operations and medical appointments. Few private companies reported walkouts, however.

The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers and the General Workers' Union, which together represent about 1 million workers in this country of 10.6 million people, want the center-right government to ease off its spending cuts and take more steps to create jobs and growth. Thursday's walkout was only their fourth joint protest in 25 years.

Public sector pay cuts and hikes in taxes on sales and private and corporate income have contributed to the economy's downward spiral, with the jobless rate growing to 17.8 percent and a third straight year of recession forecast in 2013.

But Portugal is locked into its deficit-reducing austerity program, which creditors demanded in return for a 78 billion euros ($102 billion) bailout two years ago.

Unions are angered by the government's latest plans, which include increasing the working time of state employees to 40 hours a week from 35; increasing their monthly pension deductions while lowering their pension entitlements; and laying off some 50,000 government workers out of the total of about 583,000.

The government made no immediate comment on the strike's turnout, though Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told Parliament on Wednesday that Portugal "needs fewer strikes and more work and discipline."

The economic slowdown, with the bailout creditors predicting a contraction of 2.3 percent this year after the economy shrank 3.2 percent in 2012, has made it harder for the government to reduce its debt load.

The budget deficit stood at 6.4 percent of annual GDP in 2012 ? higher than the 5 percent target for that year though much lower than the 10.1 percent recorded in 2010.

Given the difficulties in generating growth, the bailout creditors ? Portugal's European partners and the International Monetary Fund ? have shifted the country's deficit target for this year to 5.5 percent from 4.5 percent.

At the same time, they have insisted that the government continue with its cost-cutting drive.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/portuguese-unions-hold-major-anti-austerity-strike-105439422.html

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Republican battles over Medicaid turn to God and morality

By David Morgan

(Reuters) - Ohio's Republican governor, John Kasich, is no fan of President Barack Obama's health reform law. But he has become an unlikely proponent of one element of Obamacare - expansion of Medicaid healthcare coverage for the poor - and he has a warning for his fellow party members about the moral consequences of blocking it.

"When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small, but he's going to ask you what you did for the poor. You'd better have a good answer," Kasich, a Christian conservative, says he told one Ohio lawmaker last week.

"I can't go any harder than that. I've got nothing left."

Most Republicans oppose Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a costly, ineffective and unnecessary expansion of government. But some Republican governors, like Arizona's Jan Brewer and Michigan's Rick Snyder, have broken ranks to embrace the law's Medicaid expansion as a practical way to help the poor while infusing their state budgets with billions of dollars in federal funding to pay for it.

Kasich has gone further. His message of morality goes straight to the Republican Party's allegiance to traditional American values including charity, and should resonate with religious conservatives within its influential Tea Party faction.

"Those groups are important to the Republican Party these days, and thus religious appeals may well help GOP governors win approval from their colleagues in the legislature," said John Green, political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

The visibly frustrated Ohio governor offers no evidence that his fellow Republicans are responding to his comments. But political analysts say moral arguments by Kasich and others could eventually help them win over Republican lawmakers who otherwise fear an electoral backlash for propping up part of Obama's health reforms.

"They're trying to appeal to the more conservative side of that community of primary voters," said Robert Blendon, who tracks the politics of healthcare for the Harvard School of Public Health.

"These state legislators are going to face primaries in less than a year, and on the Republican side, many of the people who turn out to vote will be very anti-Obamacare but also deeply religious," he said.

In neighboring Michigan, Governor Snyder's voice breaks a little when he talks about the potential human toll of not expanding Medicaid to more residents.

"How are you going to feel if you have to go into an emergency room?" he asked after fellow Republicans who control the state Senate left for the summer last week without a vote. "You'll walk in there, and see chair after chair of working poor people - hard-working people - knowing that's their healthcare system, when we could have given them a better answer."

MILLIONS MAY GET SHUT OUT

Allowing Medicaid to cover nearly everyone with incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line is central to Obama's goal of providing health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans. On those terms, the effort is failing: Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court gave each of the 50 states the choice of opting out of the Medicaid provision, only 23 have committed to expand, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

As a result, more than 6.3 million people living below the poverty line - $11,490 for an individual and $23,550 for a family of four - are in danger of losing the opportunity to have health coverage next year, according to a Reuters analysis of data from states and the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group. That's because they live either in 21 states, which have failed to move forward with the Medicaid expansion on ideological or financial grounds, or in six others that are still debating the issue: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

The health reform law allows people with incomes at or above the poverty line to purchase federally subsidized private insurance through new online marketplaces in each state. But the Supreme Court left the law with no provision for helping those below the poverty line.

Analysts say Americans tend to believe falsely that most poor people are covered by the current Medicaid program, which was created in the 1960s and is jointly funded by states and the federal governments with oversight from Washington. But Medicaid covers only 29 percent of working-age people living below the poverty line, according to the Urban Institute. In many states, benefits are restricted to narrowly defined groups including pregnant women, children and the severely disabled.

Arizona's Brewer raised hopes for the Medicaid expansion to go forward in "red states" after overcoming opposition from her own party members by calling a special legislative session and threatening to veto other bills until lawmakers approved the expansion.

Some states have sought to overcome impasses by striking political agreements that would impose new costs on would-be beneficiaries. But negotiations have not always borne fruit, and the federal government has yet to approve any innovations. In Michigan, Senate Republicans declined to vote on a compromise measure that would require new Medicaid enrollees to pay 5 percent of their income on medical expenses, rising to 7 percent after four years.

Other states have considered proposals to make the expansion temporary or use federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance plans that could require the poor to meet deductibles and co-pays.

The Obama administration is leaving the door open for states to reconsider their Medicaid position on a quarterly basis in hopes that more will sign on.

2014 PROSPECTS SLIPPING

Meanwhile, Kasich and Snyder are struggling to make sure healthcare benefits are available for more than 820,000 people who live below the poverty line in their states - 474,000 in Ohio and 350,000 in Michigan, according to state estimates.

But the prospects for coverage in 2014 are slipping. Ohio lawmakers nixed Kasich's Medicaid expansion proposal from the new state budget. Snyder says a decision for Michigan needs to come within the next few weeks, but the state's Senate Republican leader, Randy Richardville, has said lawmakers will spend the summer reviewing the issue.

Kasich acknowledges that the Medicaid expansion may have to wait but believes his message will get through. "I will not give up this fight until we get this done, period, exclamation point," he recently told reporters in a hallway briefing in Columbus. "This is not a support of Obamacare. This is a support of helping our communities, our healthcare systems - the poor, the disabled, the addicted and the mentally ill."

The real change may come only after midterm elections for Congress next year, as state leaders wait to see whether Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives and gain control of the Senate.

"If Republicans get control of the Senate and the House, they'll dramatically try to limit this bill. If they don't get control, many of the states saying no to Medicaid will actually start saying yes," said Harvard's Blendon.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Peter Henderson Douglas Royalty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republican-battles-over-medicaid-turn-god-morality-051235647.html

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IRS delayed action on progressive groups, too

This undated handout photo provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. The Internal Revenue Service long has resisted efforts by an internal watchdog to help groups seeking tax-exempt status, creating a culture that enabled agents to improperly target such organizations for additional scrutiny, the National Taxpayer Advocate reported Wednesday. Olson, who runs the independent office within the IRS, said in her annual report to Congress that culture continues today, despite the scandal that has rocked the tax agency for more than a month. (AP Photo/Christopher Germano, IRS)

This undated handout photo provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. The Internal Revenue Service long has resisted efforts by an internal watchdog to help groups seeking tax-exempt status, creating a culture that enabled agents to improperly target such organizations for additional scrutiny, the National Taxpayer Advocate reported Wednesday. Olson, who runs the independent office within the IRS, said in her annual report to Congress that culture continues today, despite the scandal that has rocked the tax agency for more than a month. (AP Photo/Christopher Germano, IRS)

FILE - This March 22, 2013 file photo shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. The Internal Revenue Service long has resisted efforts by an internal watchdog to help groups seeking tax-exempt status, creating a culture that enabled agents to improperly target such organizations for additional scrutiny, the National Taxpayer Advocate reported Wednesday. Nina E. Olson, who runs the independent office within the IRS, said in her annual report to Congress that culture continues today, despite the scandal that has rocked the tax agency for more than a month. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Leaders of progressive groups say they, too, faced long delays in getting the Internal Revenue Service to approve their applications for tax-exempt status but were not subjected to the same level of scrutiny that tea party groups complained about.

Several progressive groups said it took more than a year for the IRS to approve their status while others are still waiting as IRS agents press for details about their activities. The delays have made it difficult for the groups to raise money ? just as it has for tea party groups that were singled out for extra scrutiny.

But even with the delays, leaders of some progressive groups said they didn't feel like they were being targeted.

"This is kind of what you expect. You expect it to take a year or more to get your status because that's just what the IRS goes through to do it," said Maryann Martindale, executive director of Alliance for a Better Utah, a small non-profit that advocates for progressive causes. "So I don't know that we feel particularly targeted."

The IRS has been under siege since the agency revealed last month that agents had improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups for additional, often burdensome scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

This week, the IRS released documents showing that progressive and liberal groups may have been singled out as well.

On Wednesday, Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, issued a report saying the IRS long has resisted efforts by her office to help groups seeking tax-exempt status, creating a culture that enabled agents to improperly target such organizations. The IRS responded by promising to work more closely with Olson's office.

J. Russell George, the agency's inspector general, released a widely-read report on the targeting of conservative groups last month. A day later President Barack Obama forced acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller to resign.

George is now coming under fire from congressional Democrats because his report made no mention of progressive groups being targeted.

"There is increasing evidence that the May 14, 2013, audit was fundamentally flawed and that your handling of it has failed to meet the necessary test of objectivity and forthrightness," Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote in a letter to George on Wednesday.

Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, defended the audit.

The inspector general "was asked to look at the treatment of organizations known to be affiliated with the tea party in its review, and was asked to audit the way those organizations were being treated when they applied for tax-exempt status," Kraushaar said.

George's audit was requested by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, and Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a senior member of the committee.

The IRS was screening the groups' applications because agents were trying to determine their level of political activity. IRS regulations say tax-exempt social welfare organizations may engage in some political activity but the activity may not be their primary mission.

To help flag groups for additional scrutiny, agents in a Cincinnati office developed lists of terms to look for in applications. These "be on the look-out" lists were commonly called BOLOs.

George's audit discovered a list from August 2010 that included the terms "Tea Party," ''Patriots" and "9/12 Project." The report said these conservative groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues, resulting in delays averaging nearing two years for applications to be processed.

On Monday, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released 15 BOLO lists, which changed over time and were dated between August 2010 and April 2013. The lists included the terms "Progressive," ''Medical Marijuana," ''Occupied Territory Advocacy," ''Healthcare legislation," ''Newspaper Entities" and "Paying National Debt."

The revelation that such a wide array of groups may have received extra scrutiny is threatening to undercut the narrative of some Republican lawmakers that the IRS targeted enemies of the president during last year's presidential election.

Kraushaar, however, noted that the term "tea party" included instructions to forward such cases to other agents for additional review. There were no such instructions accompanying the term "Progressive," she said.

"So what if anything was done with this progressive BOLO. I don't know. We don't know that," Kraushaar said.

The new acting commissioner of the IRS, Danny Werfel, said he has ordered agents to stop using all BOLO lists.

James Salt, executive director of the liberal group, Catholics United, said it took a total of seven years for his group to get tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (3) of the tax code. The designation is more valuable than the one for social welfare groups because donations to these groups are tax-deductible. However, there are greater restrictions on political activity.

Salt said Catholics United first applied in 2005 but eventually withdrew its application after an extensive back-and-forth with the IRS. The group applied again in April 2010 and was approved in July 2011, he said.

Salt said the most onerous question from the IRS was for copies of all information the group planned to disseminate to the public.

"It's almost impossible to know what we will do," Salt said. "It didn't make any sense. How can we answer that?"

One IRS agent also asked some "weird" questions, he said.

"The nature of her questions were, questioning why Catholics would care about immigration and why Catholics would care about supporting the rights of immigrants," Salt said. "It almost seemed like there was suspicion that promoting Catholic social teaching as it relates to immigration reform was somehow suspect."

Sean Soendker Nicholson, executive director of Progress Missouri, said it took about 14 months for the IRS to approve his group's tax-exempt status, in December 2012. He said the IRS asked a lot of questions about the group's activities.

"It took a long time. We didn't think much of it," Nicholson said. "What I thought at the time was, there's a lot of new groups that have popped up in the election cycle and it's a good thing the IRS is scrutinizing these applications."

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-26-IRS-Political%20Groups/id-26fa7e7e7d3944f080e3e031388cc8d9

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Jobless Spanish nurses jump at Dutch opportunities

By Marcelo del Pozo and Sara Webb

SEVILLE, Spain/THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (Reuters) - Nurse recruiting firm Roca-BHR drew more than 800 applicants in Spain last year when it offered guaranteed jobs in the Netherlands caring for the elderly to those who were willing to take an intensive course in Dutch.

Of the 20 young nurses accepted to the program - financed by Dutch companies that need nurses - 11 completed the seven months of training and tests in the southern city of Seville and flew to The Hague, where they start work in July.

With full nursing degrees, they are all over-qualified for their nursing aide positions. But given that more than 18,000 nurses are out of work in Spain, the compromise is worth it.

Hiring is frozen in Spain's national health system and almost at a standstill in private hospitals and clinics thanks to drastic spending cuts to trim the public deficit. Some 1,000 trained nurses have never found work in their field, according to Spanish nursing union Satse.

"It's very, very difficult to find a job in Spain," said Maria Angeles Luque, 25, one of the group of 10 women and one man who will be working in the Netherlands for 1,784 euros ($2,300) a month.

Maria Jose Marin, who joined the training group with her twin sister Maria Teresa, said that when they began nursing school several years ago, most graduates found jobs the summer after they graduated.

"But the situation got worse and worse. I never imagined things would end up like this," the 23-year-old told Reuters. The two have been looking for work since they graduated in 2011.

A Reuters photographer accompanied the twins for a week as they traded the room they shared in their parents' home for a dorm in a temporary residence in The Hague. From a family of eight siblings in the town of Paradas, 50 km (30 miles) outside Seville, it was their first visit to the Netherlands.

"This is at least an opportunity to do something. For better or for worse, it's an opportunity," said Maria Jose.

The chance these nurses have seized is a solution for many young people around Europe trying to weather a recession and joblessness currently at 23.5 percent - moving to where the jobs are, often helped by their employers-to-be and now, possibly the European Union itself.

One of the worst-off in the EU, with more than half of its 16-24 year olds out of work, Spain is calling on Europe to speed up the disbursement of 6 billion euros earmarked to help young people find jobs.

The European Commission has backed the idea of spending the funds over the next two years, rather than the next seven.

Among its recommendations - which EU leaders will review at a June 27-28 summit - is to spend money to help young people move for jobs, and to encourage employers to take on young people and train them while they start to work.

Youth joblessness is costing the EU up to 150 billion euros a year, or around 1.2 percent of economic output, the Commission calculates. The lost productivity and unemployment benefits are more costly than training programs and job subsidies.

PLENTY IN SPAIN, DEARTH IN NETHERLANDS

Just five years ago, there was full employment for Spanish nurses and new graduates immediately stepped in to jobs covering summer holidays for established nurses, said a spokesman at Satse, who asked not to be named in line with union policy.

Now, when a nurse goes on holiday, the other nurses in the hospital do double shifts to cover, he said. Satse recently identified 4,000 nursing jobs available around Europe and published a "practical guide" to help members find work abroad.

But while there is a nursing oversupply in Spain, the Netherlands has the opposite problem, especially when it comes to filling jobs for less-qualified care professionals known as nursing aides or health care assistants, such as those that often work with the elderly.

This is despite the fact that the Netherlands has more than 10 nurses per 1,000 people, compared to just under five per 1,000 in Spain, according to Eurostat data from 2008.

When caregiving personnel such as nursing aides are included, the Netherlands' ratio still doubles Spain, with 21.4 per 1,000 people, compared with 10 per 1,000.

"It's very difficult in the big cities in Holland to find enough nurses with the right level of qualification," said Theo Stoffels, a manager at private healthcare group Respect Zorggroep Scheveningen.

"Today when nurses leave school, they prefer to go to work in a hospital. It's more interesting, more exciting, whereas care of elderly people is a different kind of work."

Stoffels' company will hire the Spanish nurses trained by Roca-BHR to work at hospices and nursing homes that it operates in and around Scheveningen, a seaside resort district of The Hague.

Olof Craenen, Spain director for Roca-BHR, has recruited nurses in Latvia, Poland and Bulgaria to work in the Netherlands for companies that pay his company a fee to give them language training.

The nurses that traveled on June 4 from Seville are in the first Roca-BHR group from Spain.

Maria Jose and her sister spent three hours a day in Dutch class in Seville, and up to nine additional hours practicing their spoken Dutch with a computer program. They did not pay for the courses, but had to commit full-time to the program and not work elsewhere, and be prepared to pay for housing in the Netherlands.

Craenen said his training focused on language and culture and that he selected nurses whose families were supportive of their move abroad, to reduce the likelihood they would abandon their new jobs.

After two years working in the Netherlands the nurses will be eligible for higher-paying professional nursing jobs, he said.

In an email exchange from The Hague, Maria Teresa said the most frustrating things about the first few weeks in her new country has been struggling to make herself understood and getting used to an early-to-bed-early-to-rise schedule.

Her Dutch colleagues have made all the difference, always willing to help out and answer questions, she said.

"They all encourage me and tell me 'maakt niet uit, komt goed,' which means 'don't worry, everything will be fine.' Their attitude has surprised me and that has cheered me up."

($1 = 0.7612 euros)

(Additional reporting by Carlos Ruano in Madrid; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jobless-spanish-nurses-jump-dutch-opportunities-104840620.html

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25 Percent of Chicago Workforce Calls in Sick or Late Following Blackhawks Win

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/25-percent-of-chicago-workforce-calls-in-sick-or-late-following/

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Hedge fund alternative investors love ? Bankrate, Inc.

Institutional investors are increasingly turning to mutual funds over hedge funds for strategy diversification. Just over a quarter, 26 percent, of institutions use hedge funds for exposure to long-short strategies this year, compared to 61 percent in 2010, according to a survey released this week by Morningstar and Barron's.

Long-short mutual funds take mostly long positions, buying investments they believe will go up, while hedging their bets with a smaller amount of short positions, or investments they think will go down. There are other types of alternative strategies --?for instance, market neutral strategies that take long and short positions but avoid stocks to lessen volatility. In general, alternative investment strategy funds "provide a smoother ride over time," says Nadia Papagiannis, CFA, director of alternative fund research at Morningstar.

During the events of 2008, institutional investors found themselves stuck in illiquid, highly leveraged hedge funds that only a year or two before had returned outsized returns.

"In 2008, hedge funds delivered high losses. Investors were stuck with illiquid investments they had to pay management fees on but couldn't get out of," says Papagiannis.

Mutual funds offer liquidity and transparency, plus lower fees for similar strategies. "When you are getting double-digit returns, it's?OK to pay 2 percent management fees and a 20 percent performance fee. But with mediocre returns, that eats away at benefits. Plus, if you can find something with lower costs, that is something that as a fiduciary, you have look at," she says.

The average expense ratio of the long/short equity fund category on the Morningstar website is 1.96 percent.

Advisers to small investors are also interested in the risk-management benefits of alternative strategies. For investors, allocating a portion of their portfolio to an alternative strategy fund helps cushion the downside when big stock market drops happen. That downside cushion means less return on the upside as well.

"In order to build wealth over time, you need to have a little bit of a smaller upside and a lot smaller downside. That way, you can build wealth more effectively over time rather than having a couple good up years and then big down years," says Papagiannis.

Investors scared of living through another stock market drop like the one in 2008 and 2009 may want to consider incorporating some strategies that behave differently than the rest of their investments.

Follow me on Twitter: @SheynaSteiner.

***
Senior investing reporter Sheyna Steiner is a co-author of "Future Millionaires' Guidebook," an e-book written by Bankrate editors and reporters. It's available at all the major e-book retailers.

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/investing/hedge-fund-alternative-investors-love/

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Court says suit testing blogger's rights can go on

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court says former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod can continue her defamation case against a conservative blogger.

Larry O'Connor, a colleague of the late blogger Andrew Breitbart, asked a federal court of appeals to throw out the case, saying it violates his freedom of speech rights. The appeals court on Tuesday upheld a federal district court's rejection of that motion to dismiss.

The case is one of the first high-profile federal lawsuits to test bloggers' freedom of speech rights, and large news organizations including the New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. and Dow Jones & Company, Inc., have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the suit.

Sherrod was ousted from her job as a rural development official in 2010 after Breitbart posted an edited video of Sherrod, who is black, supposedly making racist remarks. She sued Breitbart, O'Connor and an unnamed defendant for defamation and emotional distress after USDA officials asked her to resign and the video ignited a racial firestorm.

Breitbart died unexpectedly last year. Sherrod's lawyers say the unnamed defendant is the person whom they believe passed the video on to Breitbart, though the person's identity remains unknown.

The video on Breitbart's website turned out to be edited, and when Sherrod's full speech to an NAACP group earlier that year came to light, it became clear that her remarks about an initial reluctance to help a white farmer decades ago were not racist but an attempt at telling a story of racial reconciliation. Once that was obvious, Sherrod received public apologies from the administration ? even from President Barack Obama himself ? and an offer to return to the Agriculture Department, which she declined.

Sherrod's 2011 lawsuit says the incident affected her sleep and caused her back pain. It contends that she was damaged by having her "integrity, impartiality and motivations questioned, making it difficult (if not impossible) for her to continue her life's work assisting poor farmers in rural areas" even though she was invited to return to the department.

O'Connor's lawyers had argued to have the case dismissed under a District of Columbia statute called an anti-SLAPP law that aims to prevent the silencing of critics through lawsuits. A federal district court judge rejected their motion to dismiss, citing timing and jurisdictional issues, prompting the appeal.

In March arguments, the lawyers told the court of appeals that O'Connor and Breitbart, before he died, stood by the content, saying the blog post was opinion.

"What happened here is what happens in journalism every day," said Bruce Brown, a lawyer for O'Connor.

Sherrod's lawyers disagreed and said dismissal under the District of Columbia statute would violate their right to a trial.

The case has been closely watched as a test of the District of Columbia's anti-SLAPP statute.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MCJalonick

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-says-suit-testing-bloggers-163141034.html

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Analysis: Brazil riots raise questions over sporting mega-events

By Brian Homewood

BERNE (Reuters) - Brazilian anger against the cost of staging the World Cup could undermine the argument that host countries benefit from sporting mega-events as they become too big for most countries to handle.

UEFA's idea of splitting the Euro 2020 championship into mini-tournaments hosted in 13 different countries could be one of the alternatives which organizers could follow in the future, analysts say.

Brazil has been hit by a wave of nationwide protests as it hosts the eight-team Confederations Cup, a dry-run for next year's World Cup which will be staged in 12 different cities.

Although the protesters have a multitude of grievances, one of their main complaints has been the contrast between shiny new stadiums and shambolic state of public services including health, education and transport.

They are also angry that Brazil has broken a promise not to spend public money on stadiums, while failing to build many of the planned infrastructure projects.

"The stadiums for the World Cup will be built with private money," Orlando Silva, sports minister at the time, said in 2007 when Brazil was confirmed as the host nation. "There will not be a cent of public money for the rebuilding of the stadiums."

Instead, building work fell behind schedule and the state and federal governments had to come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, at least five host cities will miss out on promised bus lanes, metro lines or tram services and cities are now likely to declare public holidays on match days to reduce traffic, a move which critics says reeks of typical improvisation.

"What is happening right now in Brazil should be a watershed for FIFA and the World Cup," said Simon Chadwick, professor of sports marketing at Coventry University in central England.

"It should respond by working more strategically to ensure that future World Cups are not just two-week showcases, but have a longer-term legacy for host nations.

"It some ways, it's an acid test for FIFA and its ability as an organization to adapt, respond and learn."

SWISS REJECTION

"FIFA has never been especially open, direct or vociferous in accentuating legacy as an element of bidding and hosting," he added. "Such discussions are often centered on the number of people playing the game and the development of grassroots and competitions."

While Brazil, which also stages the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, struggles to cope with the World Cup, other countries appear to be losing the appetite to stage major sporting events.

Switzerland, one of the world's most prosperous countries, backed down from bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics after residents of the proposed host cantons voted against it in a referendum.

The 2020 Olympics games drew only five formal bids, from Istanbul, Madrid, Tokyo, Baku and Doha.

"It is showing that major sporting events have reached a point where you need to re-discuss what is being done and what is really a legacy," said Sylvia Schenk, senior advisor for sport at anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

"Even the bidding itself has become very expensive and costs millions of euros."

Chadwick warned of "industrial concentration" where "the same small group of nations repeatedly host sporting mega events."

"This clearly would not be good for the public and for democracy in sport," he said. "The global economic downturn of recent years needs to sharpen people's sense that sporting mega-events have spiraled out of control."

Last month, a UNESCO-organized meeting of sports ministers in Berlin issued a declaration which warned of the way events such as the World Cup, European championship, Olympics and winter Olympics were awarded and staged.

It said that "many oversized stadia are not financially viable post-event" and said increasing demands on host nations "may act as a disincentive to bid for major sport events and risk excluding certain countries from the bidding for or hosting of such events."

It also noted the trend of overbidding, described as "incurring higher costs than necessary in order to outbid competitors....and a corresponding escalation of hosting costs."

RADICAL MOVE

UEFA made a radical move after it received only three bids to host the 24-team European championship in 2020, instead deciding to stage the contest in 13 cities around the continent, each hosting three or four games.

"There are reasons to commend it, most notably the spreading of financial risk and cost," said Chadwick.

Host countries needed only one stadium, in some cases holding only 30,000 people. "It could be the right direction, even smaller countries usually have one stadium where they can stage two or three games," said Schenk.

FIFA, which has already awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 tournament to oil-rich Qatar, has more immediate worries, as it is seen as the villain of the piece in Brazil due to the conditions it has imposed on the host nation.

Countries can only stage the World Cup if they agree to tax exemptions and enforce FIFA's marketing rules, among other things. In Brazil's case, this has included lifting a ban on alcohol sales in stadiums, prompting former Brazil forward Romario, now a Congressman, to say that FIFA had set up "a state within a state."

"FIFA has been caught napping," said Chadwick. "The global political agenda has been turbulent for some time now.....FIFA should have seen what was coming. It has advertently, although entirely predictably, become embroiled in a geo-political debate."

(Reporting by Brian Homewood, editing by Justin Palmer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-brazil-riots-raise-questions-over-sporting-mega-022542615.html

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Foursquare for Android and iOS now lets you check friends in, with permission

If you regularly hang out with Foursquare aficionados, you've likely seen conversations grind to a halt as everyone dutifully checks in at the same restaurant. A fresh update to Foursquare's Android and iOS apps could get those friends talking again by letting one of them check in the rest. Whoever arrives first just has to tag their contacts, who'll be counted as if they'd gone through the check-in themselves. Thankfully, Foursquare tries to eliminate the privacy disasters that could stem from its new feature -- the app won't check anyone in without permission, and users can delete unwanted check-ins on the spot. Those comfortable with Foursquare's safeguards can grab the new app through the source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet

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Source: App Store, Google Play

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Like Google Voice But Live Outside The US? Then Try VoxSci's New iO6/Android App

Google Voice remains a pretty useful service if you want your voice mails turned into text messages. However, it's ability to do so accurately is a little hit and miss. Indeed, there are numerous websites that contain hilarious Google Voice transcriptions, often on Tumblr blogs. Plus, Google Voice is only available in the US. VoxSci is a service which has been operating for a while in the UK, but has now launched an iPhone and Android app to do what Google Voice does, but for the rest of us outside the US.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EhxWLbUgwYQ/

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After Supreme Court, Congress must move on Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act has been America?s most effective tool to eradicate racial discrimination in voting. Today, a sharply divided Supreme Court has thrown the future of this critical tool in limbo by striking down a key provision. It?s now up to Congress to revive the act.

By Myrna P?rez,?Op-ed contributor / June 25, 2013

Voting rights activists gather in front of the Supreme Court this February as the court heard arguments in the Shelby County v. Holder case on the Voting Rights Act. Op-ed contributor Myrna P?rez writes: 'It is fair to question whether congressional dysfunction will stall a legislative response to today?s ruling. But on an issue as important as the fundamental right to vote, advocates remain confident America?s leaders can come together in a bipartisan way.'

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For nearly five decades, the Voting Rights Act has been America?s most effective tool to eradicate racial discrimination in voting. Today, a sharply divided Supreme Court has thrown the future of this critical tool in limbo by striking down a key provision of the act. It?s now up to Congress to revive the act.

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The court upheld the act?s core ? known as Section 5 ? that requires jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to gain federal approval before changing their voting laws. But it struck down the formula that determines which jurisdictions are covered by Section 5, which as a practical matter means they do not require pre-approval at this time.

The majority held that the formula was based on old data, but it dismissed in essentially one paragraph the vast record Congress considered ? about 15,000 ? which supported its conclusion that certain jurisdictions needed to be targeted

In light of the Supreme Court?s second-guessing of Congress, lawmakers must act in a decisive and bipartisan way ? as they did when reauthorizing the law in 2006 ? to protect voting rights of countless Americans and ensure that elections remain free, fair, and accessible.

In effect, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act blocks discrimination before it occurs. This landmark law was passed in 1965, but there is ample proof it is still critically important today. States across the country introduced a wave of voting restrictions since the beginning of 2011. With the help of Section 5, citizens, courts, and the Department of Justice were able to stop changes in voting laws that were discriminatory. For example, Section 5 blocked Texas?s strict voter ID law and its redistricting plans. It also helped drastically improve South Carolina?s voter ID law by expanding the ?reasonable impediment? exception to allow citizens without an ID to vote.

Without a robust mechanism like Section 5 to block and deter discriminatory voting changes, voting rights advocates will need to be even more vigilant. After this decision, states and localities may attempt to revive blocked laws or implement changes that have been passed but not yet submitted for federal approval. For example, Texas?s attorney general said today his state?s strict voter ID law, which was blocked by a court because of the discriminatory effect it will have on minority voters, can now go into effect.

Further, some jurisdictions may seek to enact new restrictive laws or try to put in place blocked changes that, despite not being in effect, technically remain on the books. For instance, a 2007 Texas provision, which limits eligibility for a position of supervisor of a water district to landowners that are registered to vote, is still on the books.

The court?s decision does not mean states or other jurisdictions are free to enact racially discriminatory measures, and voting rights advocates will work tirelessly to push back against laws that are discriminatory. But, we have lost an important and effective tool. Congress must act swiftly to put a new coverage formula in place to avoid the fallout that may result from today?s decision.

In 2006, Congress voted nearly unanimously to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. The vote ? 98-0 in the Senate and 390-33 in the House ? came after more than 20 hearings and thousands of pages of evidence showing the continued need for the critical provision of federal approval. Since then, the Justice Department has formally blocked 31 voting changes and Section 5 has deterred countless more.

It is fair to question whether congressional dysfunction will stall a legislative response to today?s ruling. But on an issue as important as the fundamental right to vote, advocates remain confident America?s leaders can come together in a bipartisan way. They must.

?Myrna P?rez is deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Univeristy School of Law.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xQ6aBT4l0g8/After-Supreme-Court-Congress-must-move-on-Voting-Rights-Act

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