2013-12-30

2013 Flotus Highlights


Evolution of Mom Dancing (by NBC's Jimmy Fallon show)

Link to 16 other Flotus 2013 moments: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/12/28/year-review-our-17-favorite-flotus-moments-2013?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=123013-photo

Redskins fire Mike Shanahan

Story by ESPN
Written by John Keim

ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Redskins fired coach Mike Shanahan on Monday morning after one of the team's ugliest seasons in recent memory -- and with too many losses in his four-year tenure.

Shanahan's stint began with a massive rebuild and ends with the next coach facing a tough task as well, needing to at least overhaul the defense.

"Redskins fans deserve a better result," owner Dan Snyder said in a statement released by the team. "We thank Mike for his efforts on behalf of the Redskins. We will focus on what it takes to build a winning team, and my pledge to this organization and to this community is to continue to commit the resources and talent necessary to put this team back in the playoffs."

The 61-year-old Shanahan briefly addressed the media Monday morning, making multiple references to the Redskins' salary-cap issues during his tenure.

"When we first came here, we knew we were in some tough situations relative to the salary cap," Shanahan said. "When we first came in as a staff, we knew we had to make tough decisions."

The Redskins were 24-40 under Shanahan, the worst record of any NFC East team during that span and the same winning percentage as two of his predecessors, Steve Spurrier and Jim Zorn. The Redskins lost 10 or more games in three of Shanahan's four seasons.

"A lot has been done," Shanahan said. "But anytime you take a look at the cap situations we went through, it's always tough to have depth -- and that's what I thought hurt us this year was depth on our special teams, depth on our defense. We didn't have the speed we had a year ago.

"But the thing I felt good about going into this year: We don't have those problems financially and have to worry about us not doing things the right way relative to overspending. I think from now on, the problems with the cap are over with."

The Redskins (3-13) finished with an eight-game losing streak, their longest since 1960.

"We are going to take a smart, step-by-step approach to finding the right coach to return the Redskins to where we believe we should be," general manager Bruce Allen said in the team release. "We will analyze accurately and honestly all of the decisions that were made over the past year."

Shanahan's job security became a topic of widespread scrutiny due to his frosty relationship with star quarterback Robert Griffin III, who made a rapid comeback from offseason knee surgery but struggled throughout the season.

Griffin declined to speak to the media while he cleaned out his locker Monday.

Shanahan, who did not field questions during his media briefing Monday, had previously said he anticipated a quick decision on his fate and that proved to be accurate. There had been talk about his future when the Redskins started their eight-game skid, but the general belief was that he had a good chance to return. The fact he was owed $7 million next season was seen as a factor.

But an ESPN.com report stating that Shanahan nearly quit after the 2012 season over Snyder's relationship with Griffin, which was published the day of a 45-10 home loss to Kansas City, seemed to signal the beginning of the end. Snyder, team sources said, was caught off guard by the story and was not prepared to make a move at that time, having decided to wait until season's end to review the coach's status. That story gave way to multiple others, fueling speculation about the motives behind the leaks and returning a circus atmosphere to Redskins Park.

But this move was more than just about dissatisfaction over off-field issues. The team simply wasn't doing enough to warrant a fifth season for Shanahan and a possible contract extension.

The Redskins went from 11-21 his first two seasons combined to 10-6 and an NFC East title last year. But in a playoff loss to Seattle, then-rookie Griffin tore his ACL and needed surgery to also repair two other ligaments.

Shanahan said Monday that he was proud of the Redskins for winning the division in 2012, the first season in a two-year, $36 million penalty levied against the team for salary-cap violations during the previous year.

"Going into the third year, what I thought was something we had to do was get some defensive players," he said. "When we got that $36 million hit, we weren't able to get players we wanted to get. But to show you what our team did -- we were still able to win the NFC East. I was proud we were able to do that."

The rifts between Griffin and Shanahan -- and those between Griffin and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the coach's son -- stemmed from trust issues, with Griffin displeased over plays that were called for him after he returned from his initial posterior cruciate ligament tear in early December, multiple team sources said. Those issues only deepened after Mike Shanahan benched Griffin for the final three games, saying he wanted to keep him healthy for the offseason.

Issues resurfaced in recent weeks as the Redskins continued to lose. Both Shanahans have said publicly that they like coaching Griffin and, while they might not be tight, could make it work and win together. But Griffin was lukewarm when it came to giving any sort of endorsement to the coaches returning.

He said before the Chiefs game, "I think these guys have a great future. I love having them here and that's all I can say. We're focused on Kansas City."

During the summer, Griffin said he knew the importance that he and Shanahan shared.

"Me and Mike Shanahan's relationship is paramount to this team being successful," he said in training camp.

But there were many issues, including Griffin's return from knee surgery, abysmal special teams and a defense that struggled. The Redskins were hit with a $36 million cap penalty over two seasons, preventing them from adding veterans to the roster. They were able to re-sign all but one of their key free agents last season, losing special-teams standout Lorenzo Alexander to Arizona.

Still, they expressed optimism publicly and privately this summer that they could be Super Bowl contenders this season. But they started slow with a 33-27 home loss to Philadelphia, during which they trailed 26-7 at halftime. The following week they trailed Green Bay 24-0 at the half.

It never improved, though the Redskins reached 3-5 and spoke of a second straight turnaround (after winning seven straight a year ago to close the regular season). Instead, they blew a 13-point third-quarter lead to Minnesota, fell to 3-6 and the season unraveled. They wouldn't win again.

Why Americans Have Grown to Hate Congress

Op-Ed by William Spriggs - Chief Economist to the AFL-CIO, and professor in, and former Chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University

Congress has itself to blame for its low ratings among the American people. Policymaking is all about choices; it is the calculus of weighing costs and benefits and the distribution of those costs and benefits. In theory, there are lots of policies that can make everyone better off, but they can only be accomplished by redistributing the gains of the policy.

Congress recently passed a budget deal that ended extended unemployment benefits for those unemployed for more than six months. Congress could choose to increase government expenditures-rather than their current stance of decreasing them-as was done in all other economic recoveries.

Republican members of Congress think America's working families have forgotten that Republicans expanded real government expenditures (adjusting for inflation) in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan and 2001 under President George W. Bush by about 16 percent at this point in the business cycle.

The stalemate caused by Republican refusal to increase government expenditures has resulted directly in lower public sector employment-the loss of hundreds of thousands of public school teachers across the country; and more broadly in a tepid recovery.

The argument against restoring government is that it will increase the federal deficit, leaving unpaid bills for our children to pay and put pressure on interest rates that will hurt investment and homeownership by the middle class and tie the hands of future budgets with large interest costs.

Well, of course, the failure to back President Barack Obama's America's Job Act back in 2011 has meant fewer teachers for our children today, rising class sizes and closed schools in many of America's cities, meaning our children will pay with higher dropout rates, lower achievement and lower future earnings. So, that is a trade-off most people think is not sensible.

Currently the Federal Reserve, understanding the dire situation of the economy, has been aggressively pursuing a policy to keep long-term interest rates down. Its efforts has moderated the loss of wealth in housing that most people experienced when the housing price collapse took away the savings America's workers stored in their homes as equity.

The Fed policy also has meant a tremendous growth in the Fed's holding of U.S. Treasury notes. The odd thing about that is that the Federal Reserve's profits from receiving interest payments from holding those bonds go back to the U.S. Treasury. So, currently the structure of U.S. debt is at long-term low rates, and the net interest payments are lower because the Fed pays the interest back to the Treasury. This makes the arguments about interest rates silly.

Ultimately federal debt does have to be paid. Since 2009 and the current recovery, 95 percent of income gains have gone to the top 1 percent of American incomes.

In the fairness category, most people would agree that if the net result of policies has benefited the top 1 percent only, then they should be the ones paying taxes. It follows directly from a belief that everyone can be made better off, but only if the people benefiting from the economic policy share the gains with others.

But, Republicans have fought hard to protect the 1% from paying their share of policy gains with others. One example is of corporate CEOs who have boosted their salaries by shipping U.S. jobs overseas because of "trade" agreements favoring corporations over human, worker and environmental rights.

Through the 1970s, CEOs made 20 times their typical worker; today they take home more than 230 times the pay of their typical worker. And, while the federal government isn't taking advantage of low interest rates, CEOs are by using corporate borrowing to buy back the company stock and boost stock prices and CEO wealth and pay.

So, if the point of all this fiscal austerity is to protect us from federal debt in a time of low interest rates, we see who is benefiting. If we favor austerity over creating jobs, then we should at least compensate the people we are asking to suffer-those who are unemployed.

Oddly, the research on the effect of extending unemployment benefits has pointed to this anomaly-people getting the benefit are more likely to keep looking for jobs longer rather than give up and drop out of the labor force (disappearing from the statistics). By ignoring them, Congress wishes they would go away. By ignoring the imbalances in their choices, the American people are wishing Congress would go away.

2013-12-27

2013 Honor Roll

As the year comes to a conclusion – we pause and say a Final “So Long” to these Music Innovators and Contributors who passed away in 2013. With Deep Respect and Gratitude. Their Legacy is acknowledged and never forgotten.

Dr. Yusef Lateef…Gloria Lynne…Dr. Donald Byrd

Ricky Lawson…Bobby Jackson…Herb Geller…Steve Berrios

Dick LaPalm…Bobby Blue Bland…George Duke

Jimmy Ponder…Frank Wess…Marvin Junior…Jim Hall

Marion McPartland…Cedar Walton…Jerry Boulding

Mulgrew Miller…Chico Hamilton…Eydie Gorme…George Buck

Oscar Castro-Neves…Albert Murray…Ed Shaughnessy

Ronald Shannon Jackson…Sam Most…Lou Reed…Ben Tucker

Donald Bailey…Butch Warren…Maxine Powell

Lou Wilson…Bobby Martin…Bobby Rogers…Richie Havens

Richard Street…Damon Harris…Sugarfoot


They shared the gift of music and made
our journey enjoyable.

Meruelo to pay $15 million for L.A.’s KDAY

Story by Inside Radio

Two previous deals to sell the Los Angeles urban “K-Day” combo of KDAY, Redondo Beach (93.5) and KDEY-FM, Ontario (93.5) for $35 million and $19.5 million never got to the finish line. This time the price tag is $15 million, and Meruelo Media is set to take over operations next week.

The Spanish-language television broadcaster will begin a local marketing agreement on New Year’s Day. CEO Alex Meruelo has pledged to keep the urban format intact saying he wants to “re-energize” the L.A. “cultural institution.” KDAY has been airing an urban format since the 1980s and it’s said to have been the first commercial radio station to air hip-hop. The two FMs become sisters to its L.A. television station “Mundo Fox 22” KWHY-TV. A closing is expected in the second quarter.

Seller Magic Broadcasting earlier this year struck a deal to sell the stations to Chinese-language broadcaster Phoenix New Media, but that sale fell through. KDAY/KDEY have become high-profile benchmarks of how far station valuations have fallen in recent years. Magic paid $120 million for the two FMs in 2005.

2013-12-25

Yusef Lateef, Legendary Jazz Man, dies at age 93: 'An enormous spirit'



Story and Photos by Detroit Free Press
Video Playlist above features 69 COMPOSITIONS by the Great Yusef Lateef

Legendary tenor saxophonist, oboist, flutist and composer Yusef Lateef, whose 75-year odyssey in music took him from the jazz clubs of Detroit to the fields of Africa, the world of classical music and the halls of academia, died Monday at his home in Shutesbury, Mass, near Amherst. He was 93.

Mr. Lateef’s death was confirmed by his wife, Ayesha, who said that he passed away after a short illness that took hold in September.

Mr. Lateef’s reputation in jazz was as broad as the shoulders of his towering frame. He gained notoriety as early as the 1950s in Detroit for his prescient experiments with what would come to be known as "world music," grafting exotic instruments like the Egyptian arghul and the melodic contours and rhythms of Africa and the Middle and Far East onto the trunk of hard-swinging modern jazz. He was among the first adapters of the flute in jazz, and his virile oboe playing, evocative and nasally, became a trademark. His seminal embrace of Eastern scales would influence John Coltrane’s later innovations.

But the heart of Mr. Lateef’s musicianship was a profound understanding of the blues, best expressed through the wailing, cavernous tone he produced on the tenor sax. It was a sound braised by soulful bent pitches and to-the-point phrasing that grabbed you by the collar and refused to let go.



Yet Mr. Lateef’s place in jazz transcended the specifics of style. He was known as a relentless seeker of truth, a lifelong student of music who rejected conventional divides between genres and a man whose Muslim faith and serene countenance added a halo of mysticism to his being and an air of ritual to his performances. He was, to quote the title of his autobiography, a gentle giant.

“Yusef Lateef was a presence,” the influential saxophone icon Sonny Rollins told the Free Press in an e-mail sent by his publicist. “He was an enormous spirit who everybody involved in our art loved. He was a dear man who was not only a great friend to me but also a role model.”

Born William Emmanuel Huddleston in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Oct. 9, 1920, and known on some early recordings as Bill Evans, Lateef moved with his family to Detroit when he was 5. (He changed his name when he converted to Islam in 1948.) Lateef started on alto sax, before switching to tenor while a student at Miller High School. Fellow saxophonist Lucky Thompson recommended him to bandleader Lucky Millinder in New York in 1946, and by 1948, he was working with Dizzy Gillespie’s pioneering bebop big band.

Mr. Lateef returned to Detroit in 1950, where he soon began studying composition, theory and music history at what is now Wayne State University and working in local clubs. By the mid-’50s he was studying with classical saxophone guru Larry Teal and leading one of the top bands in the city. Mr. Lateef mentored an army of young musicians on the city’s explosive modern jazz scene, among them pianist Barry Harris, trombonist Curtis Fuller and drummer Louis Hayes. He recorded in the late ’50s for East Coast labels Savoy and Prestige, his band driving to New York for the weekend to record.

He moved to New York around 1960, spending three productive months with Charles Mingus in 1960 and two subsequent years with one of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley’s best groups. He recorded prolifically as a leader for the Prestige, Riverside and Impulse labels, and by the end of the decade and into the ’70s he was recording for Atlantic. Along the way he delved into electronics, crossover styles, Turkish finger cymbals, Chinese gongs, African drums and all manner of ethnic flutes and other instruments from across the globe.

Mr. Lateef finished his bachelor’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1969 and stayed on to earn a master’s degree in music education. In 1975, he received a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. His dissertation was titled “An Overview of Western and Islamic Education.” He eventually became a tenured professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As the 1970s gave way to the ’80s, Mr. Lateef spread his wings as a composer, writing epic, programmatic works for orchestra. His 1987 recording “Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony” won a Grammy Award in the New Age category. He began working with younger musicians in a band called Eternal Wind, exploring a multi-ethnic sensibility that moved a long way from his bebop roots.

Mr. Lateef quit playing in clubs in 1980 because he came to believe music shouldn't be presented in alcohol-and-smoke cellars. And he rejected the word “jazz” as ambiguous and disrespectful, preferring to describe what he played as auto-physio-psychic music. He was named a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the country’s highest award for jazz.

“To learn is a thrill,” Mr. Lateef told the Free Press in 2001. “Whatever I do today is the whole continuum of my experience. Like John Dewey said in his book ‘Art as Experience,’ you can’t separate experience from the work of art. So, if I write for the symphony today, you’re listening to everything that’s happened to me since I was 18 years old.”

At one of Mr. Lateef’s final performances in Detroit at the 2007 Detroit Jazz Festival, he fronted a traditional quartet and in the middle of the set picked up his oboe to play a traditional blues in a walking tempo full of plangent expression, snake-charmer hypnotism and swing. But most of the set was devoted to abstract improvisation rooted in non-Western rhythms, exotic textures and open form.

Mr. Lateef wore a purple dashiki, and played tenor sax and wooden flutes and manipulated an Indian double reed whose sound he colored by cupping his hands around it. The music was moody, meditative and prayerful, as if he were pleading for peace in a world gone mad. To close he read one of his poems filled with imagery of flowers, natural beauty and the inevitability of death and the glory of the Creator.

Mr. Yusef Lateef is survived by his wife and son, also named Yusef Lateef.

Read and see more of Yusef Lateef: http://www.freep.com/article/20131223/NEWS08/312230128/yusef-lateef-dies-obituary-jazz

Christmas Greeting from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama


President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

2013-12-24

President Obama's Judicial Nominees draw Congressmen and Civil Rights Leaders opposition and a News Conference

Story and Video by CNN
Written by Joe Johns, Bill Mears and Dana Davidsen

They've stood by President Barack Obama in the past, but not now.

Three African-American members of Congress are part of a civil rights coalition claiming they were deliberately kept out of the process for filling vacancies on two Atlanta-based federal courts.

They want the President to act on their concerns and withdraw the nominations announced last week.

"Justice can't be found in secret deals that shut the people out. Mr. President, the lives of the people of this state are hanging in the balance," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat. "We believe it is not too late to turn this train around."

The group, which also includes Georgia Democratic Reps. David Scott and Hank Johnson and Civil Rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery, noted at an Atlanta news conference on Monday that only one of five selected is a minority.



But they reserved particular concern for two U.S. District Court appointees.

Mark Cohen was a lead attorney in challenges to Georgia's voter ID law, which opponents deride as discriminatory, and State Appeals Judge Michael Boggs, who supported keeping the Confederate battle emblem on the Georgia state flag when he was a legislator last decade.

U.S. Senate confirmation is required for Cohen, Boggs and the other nominees.

In nominating Cohen and Boggs along with a number of other district judges nationally on December 19, President Obama characterized them as "highly qualified" candidates who will be "distinguished public servants and valuable additions" to the federal court.

Boggs has served as a state superior or appeals judge since 2004. Prior to that, he was a private attorney for several years and a Democratic State Representative for four years.

Cohen is a litigation partner at the Atlanta law firm of Troutman Sanders, where he has worked since 1999 and has been a partner since 2001. Cohen previously worked for Democratic Georgia Gov. Zell Miller.

The White House pushed back strongly against the complaints, noting that nearly 20 percent of the judges Obama has named are African American.

It also stressed the President has named two women to the Supreme Court, including the first Latina jurist, Sonia Sotomayor.

Both Republicans and Democrats increasingly see the federal courts as a political battleground. And nationwide, open seats have gone unfilled for years due to partisan warfare and political gridlock.

2013-12-23

Sign Christmas Card to the First Family


Link: http://my.democrats.org/page/s/obama-holiday-note?utm_source=dnc&utm_medium=email&source=em_dnc_20131222

2013-12-19

Video History of Nike - a 23-Billion dollar company


George Buck, station owner and jazz label owner, dies

Story by Inside Radio

GHB Broadcasting founder and owner George Buck, whose love of jazz brought him to both the radio and record businesses, has died. He was 84.

GHB Broadcasting, owner of 11 stations, was a creation in part to spread Buck’s love of jazz music.

Buck hosted the long-running “Jazzology” series for more than three decades.

He also owned and operated nine jazz record labels from his New Orleans base, as well as the Palm Court Jazz Café in the city’s French Quarter.

Elizabeth, NJ-born Buck broke into radio at WWOD, Lynchburg, VA (1390) while attending college. He went on to work in West Palm Beach, FL before buying his first stations in 1960 with the purchase of WCOS-FM&AM, Columbia, SC (97.5, 1400). In 1990 he formed GHB Broadcasting and expanded his footprint to a number of markets around the Southeast. At its peak the radio group owned 30 stations.

In 2012 the South Carolina Broadcasters Association inducted Buck into its Hall of Fame.

Buck died on December 11 of a heart attack.

President Obama Cites Cocaine Law Disparity in Commuting Sentences

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Joe Sobczyk

President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of eight people convicted and sentenced on crack cocaine offenses, saying their prison terms were too long as a result of disparities in the law.

Each of the eight men and women has served more than 15 years in federal prison. President Obama cited the differences in sentences between crack and powder cocaine offenses, which has been reduced under the Fair Sentencing Act that he signed three years ago.

“If they had been sentenced under the current law, many of them would have already served their time and paid their debt to society,” the President said in a statement. “Instead, because of a disparity in the law that is now recognized as unjust, they remain in prison, separated from their families and their communities, at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars each year.”

The President also granted pardons to 13 people who already served terms for drug-related convictions.

President Obama in 2010 signed legislation narrowing the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. While African-Americans accounted for 30 percent of crack use, they made up 82 percent of the convictions, the US Justice Department said.

“When one looks at the racial implications of the crack-powder disparity, it has bred disrespect for our criminal justice system,” Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June 2009.

The Attorney General later told the U.S. Sentencing Commission that the revised sentencing policies should be retroactive. The President's administration is also pursuing less-harsh sentences for some non-violent drug offenders, a concept also supported by Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, and other lawmakers.

Clear Channel partners with Sean Combs’ Revolt TV

Story by Inside Radio

“The Breakfast Club,” syndicated from urban “Power 105” WWPR, New York, will be simulcast on cable TV beginning in March as part of a new partnership between Clear Channel and Sean Combs’ Revolt TV. The new multi-genre music channel, co-founded in October by former MTV executive Andy Schuon, is available in about 25 million households on Comcast’s Xfinity TV and Time Warner Cable.

Launched in December 2010, “The Breakfast Club” features Charlamagne Tha God, host of MTV2’s “Guy Code,” “Girl Code,” “Guy Court” and “Charlamagne & Friends;” Angela Yee, former morning show host on Sirius XM Radio’s Shade 45 channel and a cast member from VH1's “The Gossip Game;” and veteran New York radio personality and mixer DJ Envy, host of MTV2’s “Sucker Free” and “Week in Jams.”

“Starting our day with ‘The Breakfast Club’ brings three more hours of live daily programming to Revolt’s already expansive real-time coverage of music, music news and culture each day,” Revolt president Andy Schuon said in a statement.

“Taking this award-winning ‘Power 105’ morning show and extending its reach to television reinforces Clear Channel’s position as a preeminent multiplatform entertainment company,” said Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises president John Sykes. “We are a company that creates incredible, original content every day and we are excited to partner on this with a true visionary like Sean Combs.”

Happy Holidays from US Capital Press Club! And Join Us for Our 70th Anniversary in 2014!

YMF Media Promotes L. Deon Levingston To President

Story by Allaccess

YMF MEDIA, LLC has appointed DEON LEVINGSTON as Pres. of YMF MEDIA, reporting directly to the YMF Board of Directors. In this position, LEVINGSTON will continue his current role as Market Manager of Urban WBLS and sister Gospel News/Talk WLIB-A/NEW YORK.

"On behalf of the YMF Board, we are pleased to announce this well-deserved promotion,” said MICHAEL CUTCHALL. “DEON has earned this leadership position with his vast knowledge, commitment to impeccable client service, and his ability to engage and empower a high-performing team that will take YMF Media to the next level. He is a leader not only to his team, but the entire industry as well."

“I’m very excited about this promotion,” said LEVINGSTON. “I believe I have been blessed to work for the best-of-the- best in our industry. SKIP FINLEY and CHARLES WARFIELD have been great teachers and mentors over the last nine years. EMMIS and JEFF SMULYAN gave me my first radio management position, and CATHY HUGHES and ALFRED LIGGINS promoted me to my first General Manager position. The one thing that they all stressed to me over the years is that you win through your people. I firmly believe we have some of the most talented and creative minds in our industry at YMF Media, LLC.

2013-12-17

NFL wives must 'pick up the pieces' after brain injuries to football player husbands

Story by NBC News
Written by Stephanie Gosk and Monica Alba
Principal Terms of NFL Litigation Settlement by NFL

The wife of an ex-football player who is suing the NFL for allegedly concealing the danger of concussions said that during games, even way up in the stands, she could hear the sound of helmet-clad heads slamming into each other.

“You would hear the clapping of the helmets,” said Garland Radloff, whose husband Wayne played five seasons at center for the Atlanta Falcons. “But then you’d hear cheering. … You know, you didn’t think about any head injury.” She says she wasn’t thinking about long-term effects even after the time her husband was knocked out cold for five minutes.

More than 20 years later, Wayne Radloff, at age 52, has been diagnosed with a form of early onset dementia brought on by repeated concussions. He is unable to work and the bank has started foreclosure proceedings on his South Carolina home. And Garland Radloff has become one of the football wives who are left to carry the ball -- to earn a living, take care of the kids, and fight for what they believe the NFL owes their families.

The woman has to pick the pieces up,” said Garland.

Last August the lawsuit, filed on behalf of 4,500 former players, was settled for $765 million, though the NFL has not admitted any liability or that the injuries were caused by football. The final details are still being determined, and the settlement must still be approved by a federal judge, but the league has agreed to split the money between compensation for players, research, and medical monitoring for players who have yet been diagnosed. The settlement applies to all retired NFL players and their spouses -- more than 20,000 people.

A group of wives of players who retired in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s told NBC they hope the settlement will relieve some of their financial burden. But they’re also concerned that the settlement, in which they played a crucial role, won’t be enough. Players who played five years or less or were diagnosed after the age of 45 may not receive much money, according to a letter written by one of the law firms involved in the suit that was recently obtained by NBC.

The wives have had to handle much of the paperwork, the discussions with doctors and lawyers, and the fight for benefits, while also holding their households together, because their husbands have been left with short term memory loss, depression, and other ills that make it difficult to hold a job or pay mounting medical bills.

Tia McNeill, whose husband Fred played defense for the Minnesota Vikings from 1974 to 1985, said Fred struggles to recognize old friends. “People we run into that he should know,” said Tia. “People that were in our wedding.” Fred, who thought he’d prepared for life after football by earning a law degree, tries to hide his mental difficulties. “He will act as if he knows them,” said his wife. “Then he will pull me aside and say, ‘Now, who is that again?’”
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Trisha Bell’s husband Nick starred for the Iowa Hawkeyes in college and then played three seasons for the NFL’s Raiders. At 45, he suffers from depression, and Trisha does all the shopping and driving and pays all the bills, responsibilities she had to “wrestle” away from him. Said Trisha, “When he is in really deep depression -- I can't leave him at all, because I'm so afraid that he's going to hurt himself.”

Tanya Bradley says her husband Henry, who was a nose tackle for the Cleveland Browns, now stammers, shakes and loses his temper. “I’m concerned about my husband all day, every day,” said Tanya.

The physical toll of football is often easy to see in the veterans. Tanya Bradley says her husband had the body of a 65-year-old at age 30. Now, at age 60, he struggles to walk down stairs or sit on the couch. While a player he broke both hands, injured both feet, both knees, his neck and his shoulder, and had a muscle removed from his back.

But brain injuries are less visible. The condition most often associated with repeated concussions, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), is hard to diagnose until after death, during an autopsy. In 2010, Bradley’s doctor diagnosed “post traumatic head syndrome,” and wrote, “100 percent of impairment/disability is felt to be due to cumulative trauma while playing professional football.”

Tanya says “the most scary part” is “to think that there may be a point where my husband can't think for himself, can't control his behavior [or] has to be in a facility.”

The women all worry about a lack of financial help for their husbands as conditions worsen. They want to dispel the impression that playing pro ball is always a lucrative proposition. Most of their husbands played five years or less, none of them earned more than $300,000 a year, and agents and other representatives could take 40 percent and more of their paychecks.

“I mean, we can't afford our medical bills right now,“ said Trisha Bell. She said she can’t keep up with prescriptions and copays, despite Medicare coverage and NFL disability payments, and her husband had two ambulance visits within the past month.

Jason Luckasevic, the attorney who filed the first concussion lawsuit against the NFL two years ago, said “the saddest calls” come from the players’ wives.

“I almost dread that call,” said Luckasevic, a Pittsburgh-based attorney with the firm Goldberg, Persky & White, “because I know that there's nothing that I can offer them with any certainty right now. That all I can offer them is, ‘Hang in there. You're doing the right thing. You are their hero now.’"

But the wives say that their pursuit of money, and publicity about the risks of the game, is not just for their families, but for future NFL families – and future wives.

“I want the young wives to have this information,” said Tanya Bradley.

She said her goal was not to warn women away from football players. “[This is] not to say, ‘Don't get married to him,’” explained Bradley, “but to say, ‘You need to be prepared, now, because gradually you will have to take control over your whole life and his whole life.’”

Link to terms of the NFL and Retired Player's settlement: http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/photo/2013/08/29/0ap2000000235504.pdf

2013-12-16

NSA phone surveillance program likely 'unconstitutional', federal judge rules

Story by The Guardian
Written by Spencer Ackerman and Dan Roberts

A federal judge in Washington ruled on Monday that the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records by the National Security Agency is likely to violate the US constitution, in the most significant legal setback for the agency since the publication of the first surveillance disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Judge Richard Leon declared that the mass collection of metadata probably violates the fourth amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and was "almost Orwellian" in its scope. In a judgment replete with literary swipes against the NSA, he said James Madison, the architect of the US constitution, would be "aghast" at the scope of the agency’s collection of Americans' communications data.

The ruling, by the US district court for the District of Columbia, is a blow to the Obama administration, and sets up a legal battle that will drag on for months, almost certainly destined to end up in the supreme court. It was welcomed by campaigners pressing to rein in the NSA, and by Snowden, who issued a rare public statement saying it had vindicated his disclosures. It is also likely to influence other legal challenges to the NSA, currently working their way through federal courts.

The case was brought by Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer, and Charles Strange, father of a cryptologist killed in Afghanistan when his helicopter was shot down in 2011. His son worked for the NSA and carried out support work for Navy Seal Team Six, the elite force that killed Osama bin Laden.

In Monday’s ruling, the judge concluded that the pair's constitutional challenge was likely to be successful. In what was the only comfort to the NSA in a stinging judgment, Leon put the ruling on hold, pending an appeal by the government.

Leon expressed doubt about the central rationale for the program cited by the NSA: that it is necessary for preventing terrorist attacks. “The government does not cite a single case in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack,” he wrote.

“Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation – most notably, the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics – I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism.”

Leon’s opinion contained stern and repeated warnings that he was inclined to rule that the metadata collection performed by the NSA – and defended vigorously by the NSA director Keith Alexander on CBS on Sunday night – was unconstitutional.

“Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of showing that their privacy interests outweigh the government’s interest in collecting and analysing bulk telephony metadata and therefore the NSA’s bulk collection program is indeed an unreasonable search under the fourth amendment,” he wrote.

Leon said that the mass collection of phone metadata, revealed by the Guardian in June, was "indiscriminatory" and "arbitrary" in its scope. "The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979," he wrote, referring to the year in which the US supreme court ruled on a fourth amendment case upon which the NSA now relies to justify the bulk records program.

Snowden welcomes ruling

In a statement, Snowden said the ruling justified his disclosures. “I acted on my belief that the NSA's mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts," he said in comments released through Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who received leaked documents from Snowden.

"Today, a secret program authorised by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.”

Senator Mark Udall, a leading critic of the dragnet collection, welcomed the judgment. "The ruling underscores what I have argued for years: [that] the bulk collection of Americans' phone records conflicts with Americans' privacy rights under the US constitution and has failed to make us safer," said Udall, a Democrat.

Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, praised what he called Leon's "thoughtful" ruling: “This is a strongly worded and carefully reasoned decision that ultimately concludes, absolutely correctly, that the NSA’s call-tracking program can’t be squared with the constitution."

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said he had no comment on the on the case, saying he had not heard of the decision when the press briefing started and referred reporters to the Justice Department for reaction.

“We’ve seen the opinion and are studying it. We believe the program is constitutional as previous judges have found. We have no further comment at this time," said Justice Department spokesman Andrew Ames.

News of the ruling came as the White House revealed that its review into NSA activities has made more than 40 separate recommendations in a report received by Barack Obama on Friday. Carney said the president would be reviewing the group's conclusions before making their findings public. “Over the next several weeks we will be reviewing the review group's report and its more than 40 recommendations as we consider the path forward, including sorting through which recommendations we will implement and which might require further study and which will choose not to pursue,” Carney said.

“We expect the overall internal review to be completed in January. After that, the president will deliver remarks to outline the outcome of our work and at that time we will make public the review group's full report and other conclusions of our work.”

The White House also poured cold water on suggestions by an NSA official that whistleblower Edward Snowden could be offered an amnesty by the US in exchange for returning documents. “Our position has not changed on that matter – at all,” said Carney. “Mr Snowden has been accused of leaking classified information and he faces felony charges in the US. He should be returned to the United States as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process.”

Asked about the NSA official's suggestion, the White House added: “He was expressing his personal opinion; these decisions are made by the Department of Justice. There has been no change in our position.”

In his ruling, Judge Leon expressly rejected the government’s claim that the 1979 supreme court case, Smith v Maryland, which the NSA and the Obama administration often cite to argue that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy over metadata, applies in the NSA’s bulk-metadata collection. The mass surveillance program differs so much from the one-time request dealt with by the 1979 case that it was of “little value” in assessing whether the metadata dragnet constitutes a fourth amendment search.

'Defying common sense'

In a decision likely to influence other federal courts hearing similar arguments from the ACLU, Leon wrote that the Guardian’s disclosure of the NSA’s bulk telephone records collection means that citizens now have standing to challenge it in court, since they can demonstrate for the first time that the government is collecting their phone data.

“The government asks me to find that plaintiffs lack standing based on the theoretical possibility that NSA has collected a universe of metadata so incomplete that the program could not possibly serve its putative function,” Leon wrote. “Candor of this type defies common sense and does not exactly inspire confidence!”

Leon also struck a blow for judicial review of government surveillance practices even when Congress explicitly restricts the ability of citizens to sue for relief. “While Congress has great latitude to create statutory schemes like Fisa,” he wrote, referring to the seminal 1978 surveillance law, “it may not hang a cloak of secrecy over the constitution.”

The case will almost certainly be heard next by the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, recently bolstered with two new liberal justices following a change in Senate rules relating to confirmation votes. Were the appeal court to uphold the ruling, the Department of Justice would seek another stay, pending a final verdict from the US supreme court or a "bench" decision by all justices on the appeal court.

In his ruling on Monday, Judge Leon predicted the process would take six months. He urged the government to take that time to prepare for an eventual defeat. “I fully expect that during the appellate process, which will consume at least the next six months, the government will take whatever steps necessary to prepare itself to comply with this order when, and if, it is upheld,” wrote Leon in his opinion.

“Suffice it to say, requesting further time to comply with this order months from now will not be well received and could result in collateral sanctions.”

The three DC appeal court judges who will first hear the case are chosen are random from the bench, currently comprising 10 justices.

However, it may prove a test of new Obama appointees, Patricia Millett and Nina Pillard, who were confirmed by the Senate last week in the face of bitter opposition from Republicans who said the administration was trying to “pack the court” with like-minded justices. A third, Robert Leon Wilkins, awaits confirmation by the Senate.

Though known as a straight-shooter when it comes to interpreting the law, Pillard, a Georgetown law professor, is married to prominent NSA critic and academic David Cole, who has argued that privacy is a “human right”.

2013-12-13

Artists United Against Apartheid - 1980s' videos


Mini-Documentary above by New York Times







President Obama enters South African stadium to deliver eulogy for President Nelson Mandela

Photo by White House Photographer Pete Souza
Link to speech: http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2013/12/president-obama-remembering-president.html

2013-12-12

President Nelson Mandela's body lies in State in Pretoria, South Africa

Photos by AFP





2013-12-11

Washington Redskins Quarterback RG3 2013 season is over - RG3 and Coach Shanahan explain...

Videos by Redskins.com

Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan talks to the media following practice at Redskins Park in Loudoun County, Va. on Wednesday, December 11, 2013.


Redskins QB RGIII and QB Kirk Cousins talks to the media following practice at Redskins Park in Loudoun County, Va. on Wednesday, December 11, 2013.

History of President Nelson Mandela

Chronicle by bestmswprograms
Nelson Mandela: Before Prisoner, Beyond President
Source: BestMSWPrograms.com

President Obama Remembering President Nelson Mandela at Memorial in South Africa


President Obama joined leaders from the United States and around the world at a national memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg. The President reflected on what Mandela meant to him personally, as well as to the people of South Africa, and urged all of us to remember Madiba’s legacy and contributions to humanity.

2013-12-10

President Mandela Memorial Live Stream

President Nelson Mandela Memorial Live Stream by South Africa Broadcasting Corporation

2013-12-09

President Nelson Mandela's Obituary

Obituary: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013


It is with deep sadness that the Government has learnt of the passing on of the father of South Africa’s democracy – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela on Thursday, 5 December 2013.

He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20h50.

The man who was to become one of the world's greatest icons was born in Mvezo, Transkei (Eastern Cape) on 18 July 1918, to Nongaphi Nosekeni and Henry Gadla Mandela. His father was the key counsellor/advisor to the Thembu royal house.

After his father's death in 1927, the young Rolihlahla became the ward of Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu nation. It was at the Thembu royal homestead that his personality, values and political views were shaped. There can be no doubt that the young man went on to bring about some of the most significant and remarkable changes in South African history and politics.

It is through Mandela that the world cast its eyes on South Africa and took notice of the severe and organized repression of black South Africans. Yet it was also through Mandela that the world would learn the spirit of endurance, the triumph of forgiveness and the beauty of reconciliation. Indeed, the story of Nelson Mandela is so much the story of South Africa.

When he was only 25 years old, Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress. His political career would span decades more – as he himself said: "The struggle is my life." The young Mandela also qualified and practiced as a lawyer.

Together with Oliver Tambo he opened the first black legal practice in Johannesburg.

Mandela married Evelyn Nomathamsanqa Mase in 1945. They were married for 14 years and had four children: Thembekile (1946), Makaziwe (1947), who died at nine months, Makgatho (1951) and Makaziwe (1954). The couple divorced in 1958.

He was instrumental in the formation of the radical African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in the 1940s, which was determined to change the face of politics. Mandela was elected the league's National Secretary in 1948 and President in 1952.

Much of the years that followed saw Mandela deeply involved in activism, rallying for political change against the increasingly aggressive apartheid government. He was a key player in the ANC's Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952 and the Treason Trial in 1961. During this time he was incarcerated several times under the apartheid laws and banned from political activity. Realising that the ANC needed to prepare for more intensive struggle, he became an instrumental force behind the formation of a new section of the liberation movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), as an armed nucleus with a view to preparing for armed struggle. Mandela was commander-in-chief of MK.

On 14 June 1958 Mandela and Winnie Madikizela were married at a local Bizana church. They had two children, Zenani (1958) and Zindziswa (1960). In April 1992 they were separated and finally divorced in 1996.

He left the country in 1962 and traveled abroad to arrange guerilla training for members of MK. On his return to South Africa he was arrested for illegal exiting the country and incitement to strike. Mandela decided to represent himself in court.

While on trial, Mandela was charged with sabotage in the Rivonia Trial. This is his famous statement from the dock made in 1964: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

In the same year Mandela and the other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial and sent to Robben Island, near Cape Town. While in prison, Mandela rejected offers made by his jailers to be released on condition that he renounced violence. "Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate," he said. He served a total of 27 years in prison for his conviction to fight apartheid and its injustices.

Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

In a life that symbolises the triumph of the human spirit, Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (along with FW de Klerk) on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to our land.

The era of apartheid formally came to an end on the April 27, 1994, when Mandela voted for the first time in his life – along with his people. However, long before that date it had become clear, even before the start of negotiations at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park, that the ANC was increasingly charting the future of South Africa.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was inaugurated as President of a democratic South Africa on 10 May 1994.

This world icon worked tirelessly even after the achievement of democracy in South Africa to continue improving lives. Even as he retired from politics, his attention shifted to social issues such as HIV and AIDS and the wellbeing of the nation's children. As a testimony to his sharp political intellect, wisdom and unrelenting commitment to make the world a better place, Mandela formed the prestigious group called The Elders – an independent group of eminent global leaders, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

Mandela is survived by his wife Graça, three daughters and 18 grandchildren.
_______________________________________________________________________

Link to more Nelson Mandela information: http://www.mandela.gov.za/

2013-12-06

Radio One Founder and Chairwoman Cathy Hughes Issues Statement On Nelson Mandela’s Passing


Story by NewsOne
Photos from Cathy Hughes

Radio One Founder and Chairperson Cathy Hughes has issued a statement on the passing of South African icon Nelson Mandela, discussing the time she had dinner with Madiba at Rev. Jesse Jackson’s home.

“The world has lost a tremendous life force with the passing of Nelson Mandela, but has gained a legacy of commitment and struggle for justice and freedom. We mourn his departure, but celebrate his life as direct beneficiaries of his commitment and sacrifice.

Nelson Mandela left the world in far better condition than it had been on the day of his birth, and we shall remain eternally grateful. The high point of my career and life was the evening I had dinner with him through the facilitation of Rev. Jesse Jackson.

It was a fund-raiser at Rev. Jackson’s home, and he graciously seated me next to Babba Mandela, with my son seated directly behind us. To spend several hours in his presence, in the presence of God filled good, in the presence of compassion and forgiveness, radiating from Nelson Mandela, was a life changing event for all who were blessed to experience it. His life was biblical, and his example was the foundation of his longevity. Truly, with Nelson Mandela, God was well pleased and now, he will rest in peace for a life well lived.”

President Obama Delivers a Statement on the Passing of Nelson Mandela


President Obama says that Nelson Mandela’s journey from a prisoner to President embodied the promise that human beings, and countries, can change for the better, and asks that we pause and give thanks for the fact that Mandela lived -- a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

2013-12-05

NELSON MANDELA DIES AT AGE 95


Mandela at an election rally in 1994. (Walter Dhladhla / AFP - Getty Images)

Story by NBC News
Written by Tracy Connor

Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.

"He is now resting," said South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."

"Our nation as lost his greatest son," he continued. "Our people have lost their father."

A state funeral will be held.

Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/05/17500450-nelson-mandela-dead-at-95

President Obama speaks on economic mobility.


President Obama speaks on economic mobility. The President discusses the twin challenges of growing income inequality and shrinking economic mobility and how they pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream.

Story below by Bloomberg
Video by the White House
Link: 2012 Census Bureau Population and Income Report http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-245.pdf

The gap between rich and poor that President Barack Obama yesterday called a “fundamental threat to the American dream” has grown.

The richest 10 percent of Americans earned a larger share of income last year than at any time since 1917, according to Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley. Those in the top one-tenth of income distribution earned at least $146,000 in 2012, almost 12 times what those in the bottom tenth made, Census Bureau data show.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/obama-decries-u-s-income-gap-that-has-widened-under-his-watch.html

Radio remains king of the daytime media.

Story by Inside Radio

Radio has long been a drive-time and at-work medium and this week’s new media consumption report from Nielsen confirm that’s still the case. The bulk of radio listening is done between 5am and 5pm — a 12 hour timespan that adds up to an average of 14 hours per week of use by the typical American. Or 62 hours and 51 minutes per month, a total that’s second only to television.

Nielsen says the peak listening period is the noon hour when lots of people are at work, and many others are in their cars running lunch hour errands. “We see that between the morning hours and early evening hours, roughly two-thirds of audio listening comes from out-of-home tuning,” SVP of insights Dounia Turrill writes in the report says, adding, “The hyper-local nature of audio offers advertisers community-level engagement between content and in-store activity — radio catches you right before you shop and make purchase decisions.”

Television viewing actually ranks last during the daytime according to Nielsen, which says online and mobile media top TV during those hours. TV doesn’t become the most-used medium until after 6pm, although online and mobile use has risen during the evening hours in recent years.

2013-12-04

Pensions To Be Cut Due To Detroit Bankruptcy - It's Official (How Much Judge?) - Most of Detroit's retirees' pensions are less than 20-thousand annually

Story by AP

DETROIT — A judge has given Detroit the green light to cut pensions as a way out of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a decision that puts the case in the laps of thousands of retirees who had hoped that the Michigan Constitution would protect them from getting smaller checks in their golden years.

Judge Steven Rhodes said the city is eligible to stay in bankruptcy court and scrub $18 billion in debt, with about half of that amount linked to underfunded pensions and health care obligations. But he also warned officials that they’ll need to justify any deep reductions.

The case now turns to crunching numbers and trying to strike deals, although unions are pursuing an appeal.

Some retirees said they felt socked by the outcome Tuesday.

“We’ll be thrown out of our homes and starving if they seriously slash our pensions. Then they’ll tell us to go to the soup lines,” said David Sole, 65, who retired from the public works department in January after 22 years and whose wife also is a city retiree.

“We don’t know what they are going to take,” Sole said. “The judge said he would not tolerate steep cuts. What’s steep?”

The judge, who wondered aloud why the bankruptcy had not happened years ago, said pensions can be altered just like any contract because the state constitution does not offer bulletproof protection for public employee benefits. But he signaled a desire for a measured approach and warned city officials that he would not “lightly or casually” sign off on just any cuts.

“This once-proud and prosperous city can’t pay its debts. It’s insolvent,” Rhodes said in formally granting Detroit the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history. “At the same time, it also has an opportunity for a fresh start.”

The ruling came more than four months after Detroit filed for Chapter 9 protection.

Rhodes agreed with unions and pension funds that the city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, had not negotiated in good faith in the weeks ahead of the July filing, a key condition under federal law. But he said the number of creditors – more than 100,000 – and a wide array of competing interests probably made that “impossible.”

Detroit “could have and should have filed for bankruptcy long before it did. Perhaps years,” the judge said.

The decision set the stage for officials to confront debt with a plan that might pay creditors just pennies on the dollar and is sure to include touchy negotiations over the pensions of about 23,000 retirees and 9,000 workers. Orr says pension funds are short by $3.5 billion; most who collect get less than $20,000 a year.

“We’re trying to be very thoughtful, measured and humane,” Orr told reporters. “The reality is there is not enough money to address the situation no matter what we do.”

The city has argued that bankruptcy protection will allow it to help beleaguered residents who for years have tolerated slow police responses, darkened streetlights and erratic garbage pickup – a concern mentioned by the judge during a nine-day trial that ended Nov. 8.

Before the July filing, nearly 40 cents of every dollar collected by Detroit was used to pay debt, a figure that could rise to 65 cents without relief through bankruptcy, according to the city.

City truck mechanic Mark Clark, 53, said he may look for another job after absorbing pay cuts and higher health care costs. Now a smaller pension looms.

“Most of us didn’t have too much faith in the court. …The working class is becoming the have-nots,” Clark said outside the courthouse. “I’m broke up and beat up. I’m going to pray a whole lot.”

Marcia Ingram, a retired clerical worker, said she may need to find work but added: “How many folks are going to hire a 60-year-old woman?”

The judge spoke for more than an hour in a packed courtroom, reciting Detroit’s proud history as the diverse, hard-working Motor City devoted to auto manufacturing. But he then tallied 'a list of warts': double-digit unemployment, catastrophic debt deals, thousands of vacant homes and wave after wave of population loss.

Behind closed doors, mediators have been meeting with Orr’s team and creditors for weeks to explore possible settlements. The judge has told the city to come up with a plan by March 1 to exit bankruptcy. Orr has said he would like to have one ready weeks earlier.

The city is so desperate for money that it may consider peddling masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts and selling a water department that serves much of southeastern Michigan. In a report Wednesday, New York auction house Christie’s pegged the value of city-purchased art at $452 million to $866 million. It’s just a fraction of what the museum holds.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents half of city workers, vowed to appeal Rhodes’ decision.

Orr’s team got “absolutely everything,” attorney Sharon Levine told reporters, adding: “It’s a huge loss for the city of Detroit.”

Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was appointed in March under a Michigan law that allows a governor to send a manager to distressed cities, townships or school districts. A manager has extraordinary powers to reshape local finances without interference from elected officials. By July, Orr and Gov. Rick Snyder decided bankruptcy was Detroit’s best option.

Detroit, a manufacturing hub that offered well-paying, blue-collar jobs, peaked at 1.8 million residents in 1950 but has lost more than a million people since then.

Former hospital executive Mike Duggan takes over as mayor in January, the third mayor since Kwame Kilpatrick quit in a scandal in 2008 and the first white mayor in largely black Detroit since the 1970s.

Orr is in charge at least through next fall, although he’s expected to give Duggan more of a role at City Hall than the current mayor, Dave Bing, who has little influence in daily operations.

Detroit Bankruptcy Risks Pensions as Cuts Ruled Possible


Detroit's Dave Bing: Bankruptcy Lets City `Move Forward'

Story/Video by Bloomberg
Written by William Selway and Steven Church

Police, firefighters and other municipal workers can no longer count on a financially secure retirement based on a city-sponsored pension.

A federal judge yesterday ruled that Detroit, the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection, may cut employees’ retirement benefits as it looks to emerge from $18 billion of debt with a sputtering economy and a declining population. The ruling cast uncertainty on the incomes of thousands of former workers of Michigan’s largest city, where pensions average $19,000 a year and were assumed to be protected by state law.

“There are a lot of hurdles before you can go into bankruptcy,” said Peter Henning, a professor of constitutional law at Wayne State University in Detroit. “It does send a message to retirees that you can’t assume that because there’s a state constitutional protection that your pension can’t be cut.”

The judge’s decision is the latest challenge to local government employees’ pensions, which guarantee fixed annual payments based on how long workers were on the job. Stung by investment losses and the failure to set aside enough money, the twenty-five largest U.S. cities have $125 billion less than they will need to pay for benefits they have promised, according to Morningstar Inc.

The shortfalls are forcing governments to put more money into their pensions and have led officials to propose lifting retirement ages, requiring employees to contribute more out of their paychecks, or put new employees into 401(k)-style accounts commonly used outside of the public sector.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-04/detroit-bankruptcy-risks-pensions-as-cuts-ruled-possible.html

President Obama's First Weekly Address January 24, 2009



Remarks of President Barack Obama
Link: http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2009/01/president-barack-obamas-first-weekly.html

Weekly Address

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future.

In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

That is why I have proposed an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to immediately jumpstart job creation as well as long-term economic growth. I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month.

It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done. That’s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Today I’d like to talk specifically about the progress we expect to make in each of these areas.

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives. And we’ll protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans who are in danger of losing their coverage during this economic downturn.

To ensure our children can compete and succeed in this new economy, we’ll renovate and modernize 10,000 schools, building state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs to improve learning for over five million students. We’ll invest more in Pell Grants to make college affordable for seven million more students, provide a $2,500 college tax credit to four million students, and triple the number of fellowships in science to help spur the next generation of innovation.

Finally, we will rebuild and retrofit America to meet the demands of the 21st century. That means repairing and modernizing thousands of miles of America’s roadways and providing new mass transit options for millions of Americans. It means protecting America by securing 90 major ports and creating a better communications network for local law enforcement and public safety officials in the event of an emergency. And it means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located.

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won’t just throw money at our problems - we’ll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible. We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.

No one policy or program will solve the challenges we face right now, nor will this crisis recede in a short period of time. But if we act now and act boldly; if we start rewarding hard work and responsibility once more; if we act as citizens and not partisans and begin again the work of remaking America, then I have faith that we will emerge from this trying time even stronger and more prosperous than we were before. Thanks for listening.

2013-12-03

Detroit Ruled Eligible for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy


Story by AP

Detroit is eligible to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history, a judge said Tuesday in a long-awaited decision that now shifts the case toward how the city will accomplish that task.

Judge Steven Rhodes turned down objections from unions, pension funds and retirees, which, like other creditors, could lose under any plan to solve $18 billion in long-term liabilities.

But that plan isn’t on the judge’s desk yet. The issue for Rhodes, who presided over a nine-day trial, was whether Detroit met specific conditions under federal law to stay in bankruptcy court and turn its finances around after years of mismanagement, chronic population loss and collapse of the middle class.

Earlier:


When U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes rules on Detroit’s eligibility for bankruptcy relief Tuesday morning, experts believe two things could happen: an orderly resolution of the city’s debts will be set in motion or a “financial free-for-all” from creditors will ensue, making the city’s problems far worse, the Detroit News reports.

Douglas Bernstein, a Bloomfield Hills attorney and expert on municipal bankruptcy, told The News that keeping the city in bankruptcy court will bring a “sense of order” for which creditors get paid and exactly how much they would receive.

If Rhodes kicks the case out of court, the ruling would allow some 500 creditors with lawsuits against the city to continue with collection efforts. Detroit would be left open to judgments that could push the city into an even tighter financial bind, experts told The News. The city has more than 100,000 creditors who are owned some $18 billion, according the Detroit Free Press. Here are more details behind the city’s bankruptcy and what could happen, depending on how the judge rules:

Getting kicked out of bankruptcy court could lead to lengthy court battles, payless paydays for city workers, cuts to already shoddy city services and a state court ruling that blocks Detroit from filing for bankruptcy again, experts said. “Think about what Detroit was like before they filed: a bunch of lawsuits, the city fending off creditors, the fear it couldn’t manage its cash,” Bernstein said. Although many experts consider Detroit a likely recipient of Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, there remains a chance it could be ruled ineligible. Outside of bankruptcy protection, a creditor could get a judgment to collect on debts and conceivably garnishee the city’s bank accounts and seize assets such as masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection. “It’s a race to the courthouse among creditors to see who gets the Warhol first,” said Michael Sweet, a San Francisco bankruptcy attorney who has been following Chapter 9 cases in Detroit and California. Asked earlier if the city had a Plan B, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr spokesman Bill Nowling said: “No, we will have to reassess after that.” A nine-day trial last month about whether Detroit was eligible for Chapter 9 relief focused on the city’s grim finances outside of bankruptcy court. Attorneys for labor unions and retiree groups spent most of their time arguing the city did not negotiate in good faith and that Orr was trying to improperly use the federal bankruptcy court to wipe out public pensions protected by Michigan’s Constitution. Ryan Plecha, a lawyer who represents the Detroit Retired City Employees Association and Retired Detroit Police and Fire Fighters Association, said a ruling against the city Tuesday could spark good-faith negotiations. “It is somewhat opening Pandora’s box, but I don’t think it would be the doom and gloom that the city is portraying,” Plecha said. “The city could negotiate with retirees in good faith, which is what they should have done prior to filing the bankruptcy petition. Or there is a chance the city could refile for bankruptcy and exclude the pensions. That would not be something we would object to.”

The dispute over pensions has been another touchy issue that has Detroit and unions fighting for their respective interests. During the trial, Rhodes questioned Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on city pensions, specifically his proposals for deep cuts in “the estimated $3.5 billion portion of the pension obligations that is unfunded,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Rhodes, however, also challenged pension holders for arguing that they should be treated more favorably than other unsecured creditors of Detroit. Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the city’s largest employee union, argued during the trial that the city did not negotiate in good faith, according to the Free Press:

“Trial testimony demonstrated not only that the city never engaged AFSCME in ‘negotiations’ over retiree benefits at all, but also that it conducted its negotiations … all the while intending to avoid reaching an agreement,” AFSCME said in its filing. “Courts recognize that a ‘non-negotiable, take-it-or-leave-it’ proposal by a debtor fails to comply with the duty to negotiate in good faith.” Attorneys for the Retired Detroit Police and Fire Fighters Association and the Detroit Retired City Employees Association said the city cannot justify its rush into bankruptcy. “The requirement that the city first negotiate with its creditors is too important to be sacrificed to expediency. The requirement of good-faith negotiation was not met in this case no matter what definition of ‘good faith’ is applied,” the associations argued.

The uncertainly of what will happen tomorrow morning has Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder eager for a ruling, no matter what the outcome may be. “When you have uncertainty it makes it more difficult for people to get excited about investment and growing in the city,” Gov. Snyder told the Wall Street Journal. “As soon as we get certainty, then we’ll know what we’re dealing with and we can move forward.”

Clear Channel Burning Cash to Delay Reckoning: Corporate Finance

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Krista Giovacco / email: kgiovacco1@bloomberg.net

Clear Channel Communications Inc. is offering to double interest to push out maturities on some of the $4.3 billion it owes, just as the most-leveraged U.S. broadcaster suffers the first cash-flow deficit in four years.

The company said on Nov. 25 that it’s seeking to extend about $1.8 billion of borrowings due in 2016 by three years to five years, which Fitch Ratings estimates would boost interest costs as much as $55 million annually.

While the proposal gives Clear Channel more time to turn around a business that’s posted losses every year after Bain Capital Partners LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP took control in 2008, it also raises the company’s risk of missing interest payments on $20.7 billion of debt, according to Moody’s Investors Service. After capital expenses, Clear Channel ran a deficit from operations in the year ended June, meaning the company had to eat into cash that’s declined more than 60 percent since the end of 2010 to $704.2 million.

“Refinancing at a higher rate is never a positive,” Scott Van den Bosch, a New York-based senior analyst at Moody’s, said in a telephone interview. “It’s not a cure-all, but it buys them time to improve the balance sheet.”

Wendy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for San Antonio-based Clear Channel, didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment about the transaction and company’s finances.

‘Mixed Bag’

The company’s $1.5 billion of 9 percent bonds due in December 2019 traded at 102.5 cents on the dollar to yield 8.3 percent, at 10:07 a.m., up from a low of 95.5 cents in August, according to Trace, the bond price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Clear Channel is seeking to extend $1 billion of loans to 2019 from 2016 and is proposing to pay interest of as much as 7.5 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate, compared with 3.65 percentage points more than Libor on the existing debt, according to CreditSights Inc.

It’s also asking lenders to exchange $448.1 million of 10.75 percent notes and $340 million of 11 percent bonds expiring in 2016 for 14 percent debt due in 2021.

“These extensions are really a mixed bag in terms of credit quality, with the benefit of extending maturities offset by significantly higher interest costs,” Spencer Godfrey, an analyst at KDP Advisors Inc., wrote in a Nov. 26 report.

Clear Channel had a free cash-flow deficit of $69.4 million in the year ended June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. On the trailing 12-month basis, the company burned cash for the first time since 2009, the data show.

Interest Expense

Its interest expense rose to $1.58 billion in the 12 months ended June 30, from $451.9 million in 2007, the year before its $17.9 billion takeover, Bloomberg data show.

Fitch estimates $50 million to $55 million of added interest costs after the transaction, which follows a loan extension and bond exchange in the second quarter that resulted in $165 million of additional interest expense, analysts led by Rolando Larrondo wrote in a Nov. 27 report.

“The current proposal does not come cheaply,” Karen Klapper, an analyst at debt research firm Creditsights Inc., wrote in a Nov. 27 report. The increased interest comes at the expense of what are already “strained cash flows.”

Moody’s rates the company Caa2, eight levels below investment grade and a mark reserved for companies with “very poor financial security” that present “elements of danger with regard to financial capacity.” Standard & Poor’s rates the company CCC+, one level higher.

Most Leveraged

Clear Channel’s interest expenses have surpassed its operating income in every quarter since the end of 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization have shrunk to $1.8 billion in the 12 months ended June 30 from $2.3 billion in 2007.

“Ultimately, they need to grow Ebitda and generate free cash flow to repay debt to delever the balance sheet, which will increase the opportunities to sell assets to repay additional debt,” Moody’s analyst Van den Bosch said.

Its ratio of debt to Ebitda, or leverage, is 11.7 times, the most among U.S.-based broadcasters with at least $100 million of annual sales, Bloomberg data show.

About half of Clear Channel’s sales come from its 840 domestic radio stations that feature music and talk shows and its Premiere Networks syndication service with almost 5,000 affiliates, according to a Feb. 19 regulatory filing. The company also owns Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. (CCO), which owns or leases more than 750,000 advertising displays worldwide, including billboards and street furniture.

“Its broadcast radio business is heavily sensitive to economic trends,” Moody’s Van den Bosch said. “During a downturn, advertisers are more likely to cut back on broadcast and the secular risks to broadcast radio are more likely to manifest themselves then.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Krista Giovacco in New York at kgiovacco1@bloomberg.net

2013-12-02

Jerry Boulding Mourned By Family, Friends, Industry

Story by AllAccess

It's been like a bad dream since reporting last FRIDAY (NET NEWS 11/29) the untimely passing of our beloved friend, ALL ACCESS Urban/UAC Editor, JERRY BOULDING, following a short term illness, on THANKSGIVING evening (11/28). JERRY was 75 years young. He is survived by his wife MAGGIE O'HARRA BOULDING, son AARON and granddaughter SAGE of LONG BEACH, CA.

Family-only funeral services are pending and are expected to be private. A public celebration of JERRY's life is also pending for sometime in JANUARY, as are plans for flowers and contributions. More on that soon.

MAGGIE BOULDING remarked, "JERRY was a very special man. We've always known that but we really found out when JERRY became ill. So many folks spoke of him as their mentor. The outpouring of support was amazing. Thank you all so much."

ALL ACCESS President & Publisher JOEL DENVER commented, "Our deepest condolences to JERRY's wife MAGGIE, and the entire BOULDING family on JERRY's passing. His spirit, enthusiasm and passion for life, for radio and music were but just some of the reasons that we loved having JERRY with us -- and it's what brought JERRY so many friends and fans over his amazing life and career.

"I have known JERRY since I was a teenager listening to him on WOL-A/WASHINGTON, later meeting him while a young DJ. He called himself JOLLY JERRY B. I've followed JERRY's career over the years with his many accomplishments including being on-air and PD at 16 stations and markets like WWRL-A/NEW YORK, WVON-A/CHICAGO, KDIA-A/SAN FRANCISCO, WCHB-A/DETROIT, WEBB-A/BALTIMORE, KJCK-A/JUNCTION CITY, KS, WHB-A/KANSAS CITY, plus successful stops in RICHMOND and ROCHESTER. Over the course of his career, JERRY picked up the nickname 'The Doctor Of Radio' -- because he always made the ratings better, and healed sick stations.

"JERRY also developed HEART & SOUL, the first Urban format for satellite delivery. He later went on to run MCA RECORDS' Black Music Division, co-founded 'BLACK RADIO EXCLUSIVE' and later founded 'URBAN NETWORK MAGAZINES,' eventually joining AMERICAN URBAN NETWORKS as SVP/Entertainment Programming. He then joined ALL ACCESS, and continued his consultancy specializing in network syndication and ratings analysis for major market stations including KJLH/LOS ANGELES.

"During his early years of broadcasting success, he was even part of a huge R&B hit, 1968's "The Court Of Love," performed by THE UNIFICS (KAPP RECORDS). In his booming voice he was the Judge at the beginning of the song. He founded "The Living Legend Foundation" with RAY HARRIS and BARBARA LEWIS; a non-profit who annually recognizes and honors legendary music and radio industry figures. The current Chairman is DAVID LINTON.

"Rarely do you come across someone so gifted, so talented, and so warm an individual -- full of love for his family, friends and the industry -- as JERRY. Speaking for myself, the entire ALL ACCESS staff and JERRY's many friends, I feel that we were so truly blessed to have known JERRY. He's touched our lives and hearts in immeasurable ways. We are so going to miss you JERRY ... and you will never be forgotten. May GOD bless you always."

You can share your thoughts about the passing of JERRY below, or on MAGGIE's FACEBOOK page, or with an email to MAGGIE at moboulding@yahoo.com. No calls please.