Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Achoo! (Creators Syndicate)
The man who sits at the desk to my left sneezed today, in the afternoon, maybe 2 p.m. "God bless you," I said. Actually, I didn't so much say, "God bless you," as much as I mumbled, "Bless ya." He didn't say, "Thank you." A lot of people don't say, "Thank you," when I mumble, "Bless ya."
Lenore Skenazy: Going Dough Nuts (Creators Syndicate)
If you're wondering why our country seems so bizarrely fearful, here's the answer: We absolutely cannot understand that risk is inherent in everything, even things that are outrageously safe, like eating raw cookie dough.
Froma Harrop: In Manufacturing, Americans Are Back in Action (Creators Syndicate)
Reports of NASA's Juno spacecraft's entering the orbit around Jupiter lit a sparkler in this American heart - on the Fourth of July, no less. It showed that Americans still have what it takes. To keep spirits orbiting, let's note another recent American feat that few could have imagined a couple of years ago. The United States is now gaining, not losing, factory jobs. This glad trend has some sobering asterisks attached, but there's no denying this: …
What I'm really thinking: the single mother by choice (The Guardian)
I think it would be easier for a lot of people if I'd had a one-night stand or been abandoned by a cheating husband; those are easier stereotypes to understand.
Melanie McDonagh: Terry Eagleton is still the most formidable critic of populist late-capitalism (New Statesman)
Yet still there is no critic of the bogus populism of late-capitalist culture more formidable than Eagleton, whose chief influences remain, as ever, St Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx. He is his own best advertisement for the old, elitist idea of culture in the sense of broad learning, articulate argument and trenchant literary judgement. That, alas, is diminishing all around us.
Scott Burns: The Torpedo Tax and the Middle Class (AssetBuilder)
The reader was upset. He didn't know it yet, but the "tax torpedo" had just hit his retirement. That's the name I gave the taxation of Social Security benefits back in 2003. His note asked if there was some mistake in his income tax calculations. They didn't make sense. If he took an extra $1,000 from his IRA account it was taxed more than he expected. But if he took another $20,000, the additional tax wasn't so painful. No matter what, his tax bill was higher--- a lot higher--- than he expected.
Sali Hughes: "Isabella Rossellini: 'There is no work between 45 and 60 - you're in limbo'" (The Guardian)
At 43, Isabella Rossellini was sacked as the face of Lancôme. Now, 20 years on, she's been rehired. She talks movies, her mother, Ingrid Bergman, and her rollercoaster life.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"HE'D STILL BE ALIVE…"
THE WORLD WIDE POISON CARTEL WOULD LIKE YOU TO EAT THEIR POISON!
ONE MORE TIME!
'RECURRING SLOPE LINEAE'?
'LITTLE MARCO' IS MORBIDLY STUPID!
KEEP THE CORPORATE CRIMINALS OUT!
"I DREAD WHAT'S COMING. TRULY, I DO."
THE ENEMY!
WHY IS THIS HONKIE STILL ALIVE?
"HATRED UNLIMITED"
IRAQ INQUIRY - THE CHILCOT REPORT
BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED
BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED, PT. 2
BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED, PT. 3
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice marine layer.
Allen Klein Lawsuit
Beatles
A 1977 document that settled a lawsuit between the Beatles and Allen Klein and also ended Klein's stormy association with the Beatles is being sold by Moments in Time, the company has announced. The asking price is $95,000.
The suit was filed in 1973, when the Beatles decided to not renew Klein's contract. Klein promptly sued them for $19 million (roughly $75.3 million today). According to the company, the settlement, made between Apple Corps Ltd., Klein's ABKCO Industries Inc. and Klein, dated Jan. 8, 1977, ruled that Apple had to pay Allen Klein and ABKCO just over $5 million (or roughly $19.8 million now) while Klein had to pay out a total of $800,000 (roughly $3.2 million now). According to a 1977 report on the settlement in Billboard, that money was divided between Harrisongs Ltd., Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr's real name), Apple Films Ltd. and Apple Records.
The agreement said that it released Apple from "any liabiity whatsoever" related to the relationship of the Beatles and Klein. The suit cost ABKCO $1.2 million in legal fees over a year from Sept. 30, 1975. Paul McCartney was not involved in the suit or the settlement but was "delighted to see his friends end this problem," according to Lee Eastman of Eastman and Eastman, who represented him.
In Fred Goodman's recently released biography of Klein, titled Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll, the author notes that Klein, who was said to have conducted Kissinger-like negotiations, made a non-negotiable demand in settling the suit. "John has to have dinner with me tonight!," Klein is quoted by Goodman. His attorney tried to talk him out of it, saying Lennon wouldn't agree. "No dinner, no deal. Just go tell him," Klein insisted, according to Goodman. According to Moments in Time, he got his wish. Klein, Lennon
The Beatles' relationship with Klein began Jan. 28, 1969, at a meeting with Lennon and Ono at the Dorchester Hotel. Klein later met with Ringo Starr and George Harrison, then a meeting with all four Beatles was arranged. But Paul McCartney refused to allow Klein to represent him and a major disagreement that became a major cause of friction among the Beatles began.
Beatles
European Premiere At San Sebastian Festival
'Snowden'
Oliver Stone's "Snowden" will make its European premiere at the 64th edition of the San Sebastian Festival reports The Hollywood Reporter
The biopic stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the NSA whistleblower and also stars Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants", "Divergent"), Melissa Leo and Nicolas Cage.
It will be Stone's seventh time at the festival but the first time one of his films has been included in the official selection.
The festival runs from September 16 to September 24, with "Snowden" set to be released in the United States also on September 16.
'Snowden'
Bill To Limit Office Expenses
Ex-Presidents
Congress voted Friday to put limits on the expense accounts ex-presidents get from American taxpayers.
The bill, which cleared the House by voice vote, is heading to President Barack Obama's desk. The legislation sets an annual allowance of $200,000 a year for travel, staff and office costs that have become a standard part of life after the Oval Office.
For former presidents who make money through books, speaking fees and other ventures, the allowance is reduced for every dollar in outside income in excess of $400,000.
Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, like other former presidents before them, have earned millions in speaking fees since leaving office.
The legislation sets presidential pensions at $200,000 a year, nearly the same as the current amount. Each surviving spouse would be allotted a $100,000 annual survivor benefit.
Ex-Presidents
War Childhood Museum
Bosnia
Bosnians whose childhood was traumatized by the 1990s war have donated thousands of cherished personal items from that era for a touring exhibition aimed in part at warning others about the folly of conflict.
The original plan was to open a permanent War Childhood Museum in the capital Sarajevo in August. But when the site chosen by the museum's founders was ruled out by municipal authorities in favor of a fitness club, the project embarked on a cross-country tour.
The traveling museum features more than 2,800 exhibits, including toys, letters, photographs, diaries and humanitarian food packaging, with accompanying texts in both Bosnian and English. For Wider Image story, click on http://reut.rs/29pDpbY
"It all started when I put online a simple question: What does childhood in war mean for you?" Jasminko Halilovic, a 27-year-old economist spearheading the project, told Reuters.
"We have the idea to expand the museum's scope and start collecting memories from other conflict zones so as to create a universal exhibition that would serve as a warning against new wars," Halilovic said.
Bosnia
6 More Women
Ailes
At least six more women have come forward to accuse Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, telling their stories to New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman.
In a story posted Saturday morning, the women, only two of whom gave their real names with the others requesting pseudonyms, detail incidents in which Ailes either openly asked them to sleep with him or propositioned them in sexually explicit ways.
The two named women are former RNC field adviser Kellie Boyle and former model Marsha Callahan. The allegations date back to the 1960s, when Ailes was a producer on The Mike Douglas Show.
The revelations come just days after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against Ailes. Carlson's attorney previously told The Hollywood Reporter that in the wake of media coverage of Carlson's suit, women across the country have come forward.
"We're getting emails constantly this morning and this afternoon from women that say they have experienced similar behavior at the hands of Roger Ailes," Nancy Erika Smith said on Wednesday. Those women, Smith added, would be witnesses in Carlson's suit not parties themselves. New York magazine claims that more than a dozen women have contacted Smith since Wednesday.
Ailes
Former House Speaker Sentenced
Alabama
Former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R-Crooked) was sentenced Friday to four years in prison and another eight on probation for breaking the state ethics law - a prison term handed down as his defense lawyer continued to argue Hubbard's innocence.
Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker announced the sentence after a hearing in which prosecutors called Hubbard a remorseless figure motivated by greed while defense witnesses urged mercy for the man they described as a public servant.
A jury on June 10 convicted Hubbard on 12 counts of violating the state ethics law, including that he improperly solicited lobbyists and company executives for work and $150,000 in his investments in his debt-riddled printing business and used the power of his office to help his business clients.
Prosecutors argued that Hubbard, 54, betrayed the trust of voters who elected him to the Legislature and fellow lawmakers who chose him to lead the House of Representatives.
"The motive was simply greed. He wanted the money. The evidence showed that everything he did was to get the money," prosecutor Matt Hart said. Hart also said that Hubbard had shown "absolutely no acceptance or responsibility" while continuing to attack the integrity of the prosecution.
Alabama
Ex-Park Official Gets Home Detention
Effigy Mounds National Monument
A retired National Park Service official was sentenced Friday to one year of home detention and 10 weekends in jail for stealing the ancient remains of Native Americans in 1990 and stashing them in his garage for years.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles scolded Thomas Munson, former superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa, for removing bones tied to more than 40 individuals from the monument's collection and lying about it for two decades. Scoles said Native American leaders who were denied the ability to rebury their ancestors were "understandably outraged" by the disregard with which Munson handled their bones, which were significantly damaged by the time they were recovered in 2012.
The sentence ends a painful case for the National Park Service, which is tasked with preserving the picturesque monument site along the Mississippi River that many tribes consider sacred. The monument includes hundreds of earthen burial and ceremonial mounds, many in the shape of animals, that were built by Native Americans between 700 and 2,500 years ago.
During excavations from the 1950s to the 1970s, scientists dug up bones and skeleton fragments of dozens of individuals who lived and died there. The remains were kept at the monument and considered historically significant.
Munson ordered a subordinate to pack the bones into two cardboard boxes in July 1990, then drove them to his home across the river in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. They stayed there for more than two decades but decayed due to inappropriate storage conditions.
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Algae Bloom
Florida
Every night Tim Robinson sleeps in his boat, which floats atop a blanket of foul-smelling bright green slime.
For houseboat dwellers like Robinson, the toxic algae bloom spreading through Florida's Lake Okeechobee -- the nation's second-largest freshwater lake -- is more than just unpleasant. It's alarming.
Stuart, a town on east Florida's Treasure Coast, is about 175 kilometers (110 miles) north of Miami. It's often cited as one of America's best small tourist towns, particularly for its tropical climate and proximity to the St. Lucie River.
But the thick layer of slimy blue-green algae -- also called cyanobacteria -- coating the water and smelling of sewage has dampened the town's appeal.
The putrid algal blooms, which appear mornings and evenings with the rising tide, are toxic and can cause rashes and respiratory problems.
Florida
Separate and Unequal Treatment
Two Endangered Wolf Species
North Carolina legislators last week tried to pass a bill demanding that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service abandon efforts to save the critically endangered red wolf and declare the species extinct in the wild.
The legislation failed, but it is just one of many attempts to rid North Carolina of the red wolf.
For two of the rarest species of wolves in North America-the Mexican wolf and the red wolf-how the Fish and Wildlife Service responds to states blocking efforts to protect the animals could mean the difference between survival and extinction.
The wildlife agency has ignored calls from state game officials to stop releasing red wolves into New Mexico and Arizona. But it appears to have acquiesced to demands from North Carolina's Natural Resources Commission to suspend the release of red wolves, a practice the agency has dubbed "a valuable technique" in keeping small, isolated wolf populations healthy.
"It's interesting, because state officials in New Mexico and Arizona, where Mexican wolves are recovering, are opposed to wolves, but the Fish and Wildlife Service is pushing ahead-albeit begrudgingly-with their recovery effort," said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "But for the red wolf in North Carolina, it's kind of a tragedy because it seems they have been forgotten."
Two Endangered Wolf Species
In Memory
Sydney Schanberg
Sydney Schanberg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who chronicled the Khmer Rouge's brutal rise to power in Cambodia in the 1970s, died Saturday at age 82.
That gripping account by Schanberg and his story of his Cambodian friend and assistant Dith Pran's captivity under and survival of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror inspired the 1984 film "The Killing Fields" by director Roland Joffe.
Schanberg had suffered a massive heart attack Tuesday. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, said his friend and former colleague at The New York Times, Charles Kaiser.
While the diplomatic community and other Western reporters fled Cambodia as the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot approached Phnom Penh in 1975, Schanberg and Dith chose instead to stay behind.
After the Khmer Rouge took power and violence and executions became rampant, Schanberg and Dith took refuge in the French Embassy.
But Dith was eventually expelled from the compound and forced to join an exodus of Cambodians into the countryside as part of the Khmer Rouge's radical, murderous social experiment: turning Cambodia into a modern-day agrarian society.
People suspected of coming from educated, prosperous backgrounds were targeted mercilessly. An estimated two million people died in the genocide, from outright murder, starvation in labor camps or disease.
After two weeks at the embassy, Schanberg and other foreigners were trucked to Thailand. There, he filed his first report on the fall of Phnom Penh and the hellish early days of life under the Khmer Rouge and its emptying of the capital city.
Schanberg returned to New York, and while taking off time from his work at the newspaper, helped Dith's wife and children resettle in San Francisco.
Schanberg won awards including the Pulitzer, which he said he shared with Dith. He also set about the gargantuan task of finding Dith, whose whereabouts remained unknown for years.
In 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and toppled the Khmer Rouge. Dith escaped to Thailand in 1979 and was eventually reunited with Schanberg.
Schanberg helped him get a job at the Times and move his family to New York.
An article that Schanberg published in 1980 in the New York Times Magazine -- entitled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran" -- was turned into a book and inspired "The Killing Fields."
Dith died was murdered in 2008. Schanberg said at the time that the two had become like brothers.
Kaiser posted a statement on behalf of Schanberg's wife Jane Freiman and his daughters Rebecca and Jessica.
"We will miss his wicked sense of humor, his love, and his endless supply of damning facts about Donald Trump.
Sydney Schanberg
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