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from Anglican Journal
'Momentous step' makes Scottish Episcopal Church first Anglican church in UK to legalise same-sex marriages
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from Asia Times Online
Debris has been found in the sea near where a Myanmar military plane went missing with more than 100 soldiers and their families on board on Wednesday, a local official and air force source said. Navy ships and aircraft had been searching since the afternoon when the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers.
Everybody from US President Donald Trump to the Global Infrastructure Forum is trying to think of innovative ways to attract long-term private and institutional investors to pay for the huge and largely unmet demand for new highways, railways, and dams. Governments of all stripes have come to accept the lesson that they should no longer incur further direct debt on their balance sheets
Is President Donald Trump really a defense hawk? A simple question, but one that is quite difficult — frustratingly so — to answer. That’s because his public utterances and his actual policies are so often contradictory. Trump is a man more of instinct and in-the-moment feeling, rather than policy. This makes him flexible, but it also makes him difficult to pin down when it comes to what he really wants.
The spread between two and 10-year US Treasuries fell to an eight-month low Tuesday, a bad sign for US banks’ profitability. The spread narrowed to 84.71 bps, from a post-election high of 135.5 bps, according to Bloomberg data. The KBW banks index has fallen 9.9% since early March, after a huge post-election rally. Bank of America has shed 12.1% after a 50% bump from November 8 to March 1, falling 0.78% on Tuesday. Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase all posted losses on Tuesday.
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from BBC News (UK)
Sale of twopenny scarlet featuring Edward VIII – who abdicated soon after it was printed – expected to spark a frenzy
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from Competitive Enterprise Institute
Today, the House passed a plan aimed at scaling back some of the most harmful provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
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from Conservative Tribune
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]
Supreme Court Rejects Unlawful Property Grabs
While civil asset forfeiture can be an important tool in reigning in drug operations, many civil libertarians are unnerved by significant abuses of the law by authorities. Particularly relevant in Honeycutt v. United States is a tendency for authorities to penalize low-level conspirators with judgments far beyond their actual profit.
Supreme Court Rejects Unlawful Property Grabs
While civil asset forfeiture can be an important tool in reigning in drug operations, many civil libertarians are unnerved by significant abuses of the law by authorities. Particularly relevant in Honeycutt v. United States is a tendency for authorities to penalize low-level conspirators with judgments far beyond their actual profit.
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from EUobserver
UK election under way, as voters eye Brexit
Almost 50 million voters expected at UK polls, with May hoping to reinforce her position as prime minister with a sizeable majority ahead of Brexit talks.
Italy softens claim of NGOs colluding with smugglers
Italy's interior ministry appeared to backtrack on accusations that NGOs are colluding with people smugglers in Libya. Instead, he said the main issues were with bringing people to safe ports and their cooperation with the authorities.
MEPs say Panama Papers probe more difficult than Dieselgate
The European Parliament inquiry committee on tax evasion and money laundering had its one-year anniversary.
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UK election under way, as voters eye Brexit
Almost 50 million voters expected at UK polls, with May hoping to reinforce her position as prime minister with a sizeable majority ahead of Brexit talks.
Italy softens claim of NGOs colluding with smugglers
Italy's interior ministry appeared to backtrack on accusations that NGOs are colluding with people smugglers in Libya. Instead, he said the main issues were with bringing people to safe ports and their cooperation with the authorities.
MEPs say Panama Papers probe more difficult than Dieselgate
The European Parliament inquiry committee on tax evasion and money laundering had its one-year anniversary.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]
Does It Matter Whether the Mayor of Atlanta Is Black Or White?
Racial politics of all sorts ends up dividing the community, whether these efforts are malevolent or well-intended. Most regular people, regardless of race, face the same struggles and issues. No matter who is in charge, politically ambitious impositions ignore these real-world struggles in favor of ideological campaigns that interrupted people’s desire to get along. Every day, and in every way, the commercial life of the city is a tribute to the value people can offer each other regardless of race, which is to say, very simply, that people get along just fine so long as the politicians and the state stay out of it. We have a long history of racial division precisely because we haven’t always chosen the path of peace and commerce. We have chosen that path today, not perfectly but largely, and the beautiful results are all around us.
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from First Things
The ongoing campus chaos in the United States has elicited both cries of despair over the behavior of students and criticism of the complicity of administrations in this cultural embarrassment. But I would suggest that the problem is really not the arrogance of the students, nor the spinelessness of the administrators. It is something far more disturbing. Pace Benjamin Franklin, there are actually three certainties in life. There is death. There are taxes. And there are riots, frequently involving students or young people.
NATIONALISM AFTER TRUMP
During the 2016 election, some Trump supporters argued that this was our last chance to save American sovereignty from the affluent, elite “Davos class” of cosmopolitan technocrats. The irony is that, if moderate populist nationalists are not careful, this prophecy could turn out to be self-fulfilling. As the example of Greece teaches us, the Davos class might look pretty good to voters who have tried populism and found it wanting.
I just wrapped up my undergraduate career at Columbia University. It was a strange time to be a college student—thanks in no small part to new movements in campus politics, some of which have popped up only in the past few months. The ground has been shifting at college campuses everywhere. But at my alma mater, nothing has changed more than campus conservatism.
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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]
Qatar Conflict Imperils U.S. Interests
While Washington has military bases in other Persian Gulf states, right now it has some 10,000 troops and a major airbase at al Udeid in Qatar. An unvarnished discussion about Qatar’s role in the troubled region is probably due. The opportunity is that a thorough diplomatic airing of the issues will lead to a closer alignment of interests and a more unified effort to address challenges.
Why the US Must Stay the Course in Afghanistan
Americans tend to get impatient with long-lasting military commitments overseas and like to see an end in sight. It is an understandable and noble impulse, and reflects the deep connection many Americans feel with family, friends, and neighbors serving in the military. History has shown, however, that peace and stability often depends on America being willing to accept a presence on foreign soil, and to be committed there for decades into the future after wars have been won. U.S. military bases in Europe are a case in point. So are the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and Japan.
Trump Will Reverse Damage Done by Obama's Cuba Policy
The administration is about to announce it is reinstating the limits on travel and trade that Obama lifted. With Cuba’s international benefactor, Venezuela’s own despotic government, teetering on the brink of collapse, the Obama lifeline to Castro looms even larger. The Trump administration is reportedly considering measures that would block deals between American companies and the Cuban military.
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Qatar Conflict Imperils U.S. Interests
While Washington has military bases in other Persian Gulf states, right now it has some 10,000 troops and a major airbase at al Udeid in Qatar. An unvarnished discussion about Qatar’s role in the troubled region is probably due. The opportunity is that a thorough diplomatic airing of the issues will lead to a closer alignment of interests and a more unified effort to address challenges.
Why the US Must Stay the Course in Afghanistan
Americans tend to get impatient with long-lasting military commitments overseas and like to see an end in sight. It is an understandable and noble impulse, and reflects the deep connection many Americans feel with family, friends, and neighbors serving in the military. History has shown, however, that peace and stability often depends on America being willing to accept a presence on foreign soil, and to be committed there for decades into the future after wars have been won. U.S. military bases in Europe are a case in point. So are the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and Japan.
Trump Will Reverse Damage Done by Obama's Cuba Policy
The administration is about to announce it is reinstating the limits on travel and trade that Obama lifted. With Cuba’s international benefactor, Venezuela’s own despotic government, teetering on the brink of collapse, the Obama lifeline to Castro looms even larger. The Trump administration is reportedly considering measures that would block deals between American companies and the Cuban military.
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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website
Man's Ingenuity Is Quenching the World's Thirst
Future wars may not be fought over 'liquid gold' after all. Dystopian visions of the future are as old as humanity itself. As I noted in a previous column, one of our most consistent concerns is the interplay between population growth and the supposed finality of natural resources. According to conventional wisdom, a rising population – there will be 10 billion of us by 2050 – must result in poverty and famine. Yet, human beings, unlike other animals, can innovate their way out of scarcity by increasing the supply of natural resources or developing substitutes for overused resources. Human ingenuity, in other words, is “the ultimate resource” that makes all other resources more plentiful. Now is a good time to look at one concrete example: the water supply.
Man's Ingenuity Is Quenching the World's Thirst
Future wars may not be fought over 'liquid gold' after all. Dystopian visions of the future are as old as humanity itself. As I noted in a previous column, one of our most consistent concerns is the interplay between population growth and the supposed finality of natural resources. According to conventional wisdom, a rising population – there will be 10 billion of us by 2050 – must result in poverty and famine. Yet, human beings, unlike other animals, can innovate their way out of scarcity by increasing the supply of natural resources or developing substitutes for overused resources. Human ingenuity, in other words, is “the ultimate resource” that makes all other resources more plentiful. Now is a good time to look at one concrete example: the water supply.
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from The Inlander
Creative growth in Spokane's culinary and cultural scenes inspired a well-known local chef to start a food festival to match its pace. With 10 events featuring 50 chefs spread out over four days, Chef Adam Hegsted's vision for a "big and grand" food festival is soon to be a reality. The upcoming Crave! NW food and drink celebration in Spokane Valley from June 15-18 will feature a long list of local and regional chefs, as well as culinary pioneers from food capitals across the country who are coming to see what the Spokane region has to offer.
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from The Olympian
Evergreen professor shows support for Weinstein. Now he expects to be called a bigot.
A biology and agriculture professor says he’s the first — and so far the only — faculty member at The Evergreen State College to publicly come out in support of Bret Weinstein, the professor whose comments enflamed tensions over racism at the Olympia campus. Tenured faculty member and veterinarian Mike Paros of Centralia confirmed he sent a letter in support of Weinstein to his state lawmaker, Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen).
________Evergreen professor shows support for Weinstein. Now he expects to be called a bigot.
A biology and agriculture professor says he’s the first — and so far the only — faculty member at The Evergreen State College to publicly come out in support of Bret Weinstein, the professor whose comments enflamed tensions over racism at the Olympia campus. Tenured faculty member and veterinarian Mike Paros of Centralia confirmed he sent a letter in support of Weinstein to his state lawmaker, Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen).
from The Spokesman-Review
Two health insurance companies pull out of Washington individual market
Two health insurance companies will quit offering individual plans in Washington state next year, leaving the state with 11. Some companies that remain will drop areas where they offer coverage, and two counties will have no company offering individual plans. The exchange will have six companies offering plans, the outside market seven. Two of those companies will be selling both inside and outside the exchange, making the total 11. That’s down from 13 total companies this year, and 15 in 2015. The Community Health Plan of Washington and the former Group Health options program did not submit plans to operate in the state next year.
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from The Washington Post
Kansas Republicans conducted a ‘real live’ tax experiment. Poor people are paying for it.
Kansas's legislature voted this week to increase taxes, with Republicans revolting against a years-long string of tax cuts pushed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback that left the state with huge budget shortfalls. But even after the hike, the rich are still paying less — and the poor are paying more — than they did before what Brownback called a “real-live experiment” in conservative economic policy, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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from WTOP News (Washington, D.C.)
Approximately a dozen police, fire and emergency agencies surrounding Washington, D.C. are using drones to capture criminal suspects and fight fires, but the unmanned aircraft systems also are sparking privacy concerns and legislation. At least 347 state and local police, sheriff, fire and emergency units in the United States have acquired drones, according to an April report by Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
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