August 27, 2018

Turkey's Erdogan to visit Iran on Sept. 7

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will visit Iran on Sept 7, his office said on Monday, on a trip expected to include a three-way summit with Russian and Iranian leaders.

The Kremlin said nearly two weeks ago that Russian President Vladimir Putin may take part in a meeting with Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the beginning of September. The three leaders met in April in Ankara, where they discussed developments in Syria.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-iran/turkeys-erdogan-to-visit-iran-on-sept-7-idUSKCN1LC0SO
(brief article)

Trump keeps pushing Turkey to the limit and now we'll see what happens.

August 27, 2018

'America's Toughest Sheriff' Joe Arpaio struggles in Senate bid

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (Reuters) - Joe Arpaio built a national reputation as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration while sheriff of Arizona’s largest county and found a powerful ally in President Donald Trump, who pardoned him last year after he ran into legal trouble.

But as the self-styled “America’s Toughest Sheriff” hustles for votes in Arizona ahead of Tuesday’s nominating contest for one of the country’s most competitive U.S. Senate races, analysts say his comeback bid is likely to fall short.

Every public opinion poll since June has shown Arpaio, 86, in third place among Republicans seeking the seat held by Republican U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, who is retiring after tangling with Trump over the past two years.

The other two candidates in the race - U.S. Representative Martha McSally and former state Senator Kelli Ward - have largely ignored Arpaio as they focus their attacks on each other. Trump has not endorsed anyone in the race.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-arpaio/americas-toughest-sheriff-joe-arpaio-struggles-in-senate-bid-idUSKCN1LC0UZ?il=0

August 27, 2018

Macron's education cuts deny admission to thousands of French university students

Less than two weeks before classes resume on September 3, tens of thousands of French students are still being denied admission to university by the Parcoursup algorithm set up by the Orientation and Success for Students (ORE) law imposed in the face of mass student protests this spring. According to figures released on August 9, of the 812,050 university-age students who are enrolled in Parcoursup, 66,400 still had not been admitted anywhere.

The fact that tens of thousands of students may be denied higher education underscores the reactionary character of President Emmanuel Macron’s education cuts. The measure aims to make universities more competitive and to prepare their privatization. It gives France’s public universities the power to select, and to reject, their own students.

Previously, virtually every student wanting to attend university, who had passed the baccalauréat exam at the end of high school, would be assigned to a public university in his or her chosen field. The new law, however, requires university admissions to take into account the baccalauréat score, the quality of the student’s high school, and the student’s academic record and internships. This favors more affluent layers of the population who can access better-ranked schools, travel, obtain internships and cultural experiences—opportunities denied to working-class families.

In the last three years, the number of incoming university students has grown by 30,000 to 40,000 each year, a tendency expected to continue until 2020. Public universities would therefore need substantial state investment to deal with the increased number of students. Instead, Macron’s education cuts are substantially lowering the number of enrollments, forcing students to either attend private universities or abandon their studies outright.

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/27/fred-a27.html

August 27, 2018

Washington school districts have the money for educator pay raises

School administrators who say they can’t afford to give educators substantial pay raises aren’t telling the truth.

They have the money.

As one Republican state senator noted this week, school districts are benefiting from “… historic increases in funding by the Washington State Legislature…” Because of the Washington Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, districts are receiving $2 billion in state funding for educator salaries in the 2018-19 school year.

(Despite what some administrators are claiming, districts will see a net increase in funding, even after local levy reductions.)

Pay raises must be negotiated locally, of course. Responsible school boards in more than 30 districts have worked with their local unions to negotiate double-digit percentage pay raises for teachers and support staff. Read the pay raise map.

Read more: https://www.washingtonea.org/ourvoice/post/budget-faq/

August 27, 2018

Vice President Pence Faces Heightened Scrunity

Pence has remained largely in the background of the Trump presidency, often working behind the scenes on policy and other issues while Trump takes center stage. As Trump's fortunes have waned, however, those in his orbit are being reexamined.

The line of succession would call for Mike Pence to replace Donald Trump should he be removed from office. Many have feared what a Pence presidency would look like, given his actions as the Governor of Indiana against the LGBTQ community, women, and others.

Amongst the bad news for Trump last week was the indictment of Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Manafort was found guilty last week on eight counts of financial crimes in his fraud trial.

It was Paul Manafort who chose Mike Pence as Donald Trump's vice president, with the president reportedly preferring Chris Christie for the role.

Read more: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2018/08/27871/

August 27, 2018

"WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING" -- A Bad Lip Reading

August 27, 2018

In small-town Virginia, Muslim residents face a crisis of sheep and zoning laws

WARRENTON, Va. — It was the day before one of the biggest Muslim holidays of the year, and the Rababeh family was in a panic.

The family had ordered hundreds of sheep, goats and cows to slaughter for customers in observance of Eid al-Adha, a holiday that ran from Tuesday to Thursday commemorating the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God’s behest, and God’s ultimate decision to let Ibrahim slay a sheep instead.

But now the family was scrambling to avert a crisis. Local officials had declared a few days earlier that, this year, the Rababehs’ Lebanese Butchers Slaughterhouse would not be granted the special-event permit it was required to have to accommodate its hundreds of expected customers. And now the town had placed a police barricade out front to block customers from walking through the slaughterhouse doors.

“These people are depending on me to deliver this once a year,” said Samir Rababeh, who helps his father, business owner Kheder Rababeh, manage Lebanese Butchers. “I don’t know what to tell them.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-small-town-virginia-a-crisis-of-sheep-and-conflicting-narratives/2018/08/24/ff23f8fc-a4bc-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html

August 27, 2018

Flooded trails and full toilets: Storms wreak havoc on D.C.-area parks

The deluge of storms throughout the Washington area over the past several months has done more than ruin summer plans — it has wreaked millions of dollars in damage to the region’s national park land.

Weather-related damage this year is among the worst in recent memory, officials said, and has forced the National Park Service to brainstorm strategies for maintenance and upkeep amid shrinking budgets.

Parks in the Washington region have been pummeled by storms since early spring, Park Service officials said, causing floods, downed trees, washed-out trails and waterways so bloated that repairs have been nearly impossible.

In many cases, the damage has outpaced the agency’s ability to fund fixes and hampered basic maintenance tasks such as cutting grass and emptying toilets.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/flooded-trails-and-full-toilets-storms-wreak-damage-on-national-parks-in-the-dc-area/2018/08/21/630deabc-a166-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html

August 27, 2018

Too big to sanction? U.S. struggles with punishing large Russian businesses.

When the Treasury Department imposed tough sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his companies in April, the fallout for the Putin ally was fast and fierce.

Western customers stopped buying from the aluminum company he controls, sinking its share price and shaving Deripaska’s fortune from $6.7 billion to $3.4 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

The sanctions also caused havoc far beyond Russia. Global aluminum prices spiked, battering U.S. and European companies that use the metal. After an outcry from manufacturers and foreign governments, Treasury softened its stance, giving companies more time to end dealings with the aluminum producer, Rusal, and suggesting it could lift sanctions on the company if Deripaska cedes control.

The episode is a cautionary tale as the United States readies more sanctions against Russia, including some beginning Monday that will affect U.S. technology exports, and some under consideration in Congress that could prove painful for European oil and gas companies.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/too-big-to-sanction-us-struggles-with-punishing-large-russian-businesses/2018/08/26/c797e294-9fd6-11e8-8e87-c869fe70a721_story.html?utm_term=.b6a596769ca7

August 27, 2018

Baltimore Del. Curt Anderson stripped of leadership, ordered to undergo training over harassment

Baltimore Del. Curt Anderson stripped of leadership, ordered to undergo training over harassment allegations


Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch stripped Del. Curt Anderson of his legislative leadership posts Friday after an ethics committee ordered the Baltimore Democrat to undergo sexual harassment training following the completion of its investigation into multiple allegations against him.

Busch’s action came two days after Anderson, a Baltimore Democrat, appeared before the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics to answer allegations of misbehavior from female lawmakers and staffers.

The panel decided unanimously that Anderson must undergo “one-on-one intensive” sexual harassment awareness and prevention training, Busch said in a statement.

In a brief interview, Anderson, 68, said he believed the actions by the committee and Busch were “fair” but said any further remarks would have to come from the speaker’s office.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-busch-anderson-20180824-story.html