All Global News on One Page

Last month Wal-Mart commissioned a poll which purported to show that 75% of union members in New York City were “all for” a Wal-Mart in the city. The New York Post ran a story which began, “New York City’s union workers love Wal-Mart.”
The improbable results of this “poll” are part of organized effort by Wal-Mart which dates back to 2005, when the giant retailer began to use “push-polls” to counter-attack its critics.
On his way out the door in 2009, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told Fortune Magazine that one of the mistakes he made during his tenure was being far too slow in responding to public criticism of his company. According to Fortune, Scott admitted “he didn’t take its concerns as seriously as he should have, believing instead that the negative feedback was coming from blue-state elites who didn’t shop at Wal-Mart and therefore didn’t understand the money the company saved consumers.”
But in 2005, Wal-Mart started to push back at the ‘blue state elites,’ and behave more like a candidate running for public office than a

And the search goes on.
Ever since last week and the release of the undercover video that captured a NPR fundraiser making some disparaging comments about the Tea Party movement, I’ve been waiting to see or hear a coherent critique of the public radio broadcasting network in terms of someone detailing the sins of its journalism.
Conservative critics clearly want NPR defunded and they publicly base that desire on the fact that NPR is supposedly so biased and treats conservatives, and especially the Tea Party, so badly.
Okay, fine. Prove it. Prove that the attacks on NPR have anything to do with the journalism in produces.
But so far it’s crickets.
In the meantime, what Media Matters has done this week is detail the very generous, fair and professional coverage NPR has extended the Tea Party movement; coverage that even Tea Party leaders think has been fair.
So again, what have been NPR’s sins?
Writing at the Huffington Post last week, Andrew Breitbart tried to rationalize the right-wing attack on public radio. But alas, his effort is somewhat incoherent: NPR was targeted because other news organizations last year reported that Democratic members of Congress said they were called the N-word by Tea Party

Source:
__________________________________________________________________________

Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

click for full size
I’ve been thinking around the power of this picture as I’ve been seeing it everywhere. Of course, who can’t relate to that sweet face and its innocent confusion?There’s more to it, though.The way the device is being pointed and the child’s hands are raised, there is also the suggestion of aggression here. It’s like this child is being assailed or robbed.
And then, isn’t that spot on …

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Ugh! If you’re planning a getaway for the July 4 weekend, there’s a chance you may have to shell out another $1 to $1.25 a gallon at the gas pump.
That essentially is one of the ugly travel scenarios that emerges from a current analysis of future oil prices from Roubini Global Economics, headed by Nouriel Roubini, one of the country’s more prominent economic bears.
First, let’s look at the background of this unhappy prospect, which emanates from the volatile Middle East.
Thanks to promises of billions in “benefits” to an aroused populace and a strong police hand, Saudi Arabia’s widely anticipated “day of rage” — a day of threatened mass protests — never came to pass last Friday as the monarchy of the world’s largest oil exporter managed to quell student calls for widespread demonstrations throughout the country in a push for Democratic reform.
But there’s no escape for the roughly 200 million U.S. drivers, who are experiencing their own days of rage at the gas pump.
The agonizing figures tell the story. The average price at the gas pump is now $3.53 a gallon, according to the website GasBuddy.com, up from $3.43 the past week, $3.12 a month ago and $2.78 a year earlier
Saudi Arabia may have evaded Friday’s day of rage, but not so oil traders, says Hong Kong trader Selwyn Ortz. The reason, he explains: a lot of them were long oil, had touted the idea that Friday would be a big day for crude in wake of the expected Saudi protests, an event, some thought, that could mark the start of a rise that would drive oil to $200 a barrel.
Alas, oil was a mediocre performer that day, falling slightly to a shade above $100 a

I’m proud of Philip J. Crowley. As Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Crowley had the guts to denounce the sustained (mis)treatment of Private Bradley Manning as “ridiculous” and “counterproductive” and “stupid.” For this burst of principled honesty, the Obama administration cashiered him. Never has the moral obtuseness of the Obama/Hillary Clinton duumvirate been more clearly displayed.
Crowley and I have two things in common: We’re from the same hometown, and we made our first careers in the Air Force (I served for 20 years; Crowley for

Japan’s government and nuclear industry, with assistance from the U.S. military, is in a desperate race to stave off multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns — as well as potential fires in pools of spent fuel.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 170,000 people have been evacuated near the reactor sites as radioactive releases have increased. The number of military emergency responders has jumped from 51,000 to 100,000. Officials now report a partial meltdown at Fukushima’s Unit

As an outspoken critic of this year’s Oscars, I’m happy to note they got one thing right: Inside Job won the award for Best Documentary feature.
As of last week, this first-rate expose of the root causes behind the 2008 financial meltdown became available on DVD.
Rarely do I resort to exhortations like this, but here is a movie that every adult American should watch, digest, and discuss… then maybe watch again.
Its impact speaks to the unique power of film to relate a compelling story in under two hours, and have it hit you like a sledgehammer.
Like many others, to deal with my own bewilderment in the wake of this crisis, I had consumed Andrew Ross Sorkin’s much-praised book Too Big To Fail, and came away with a somewhat better understanding of what had gone down.
(I also felt oddly guilty that the book read like a thriller.)
Inside Job is not thrilling per se; A.O. Scott put it best when he described it as “infuriating”.
Most thoughtful people know by now the broad causes behind this mess: a steadily growing pattern of abuses in the wake of financial deregulation begun during the go-go ’80s.
Still- for context (and at the risk of over-simplification), I’ll try to encapsulate the gist of what went wrong:
Before deregulation, a bank only sold mortgages to customers who were good risks and could pay them back over

“And she never had dreams, so they never came true”
-J. Giles Band
As a structured settlement consultant, I go to meditations and settlement conferences with people who anticipate receiving large sums of money. I ask every person the same question. “Forget about what is going on

The parade of depressed, anxious and depleted students who walk through my office is endless. They feel tricked, cheated, stupid, unattractive, socially inept, and almost all of them ask this question. “What is wrong with me? These were supposed to be the best years of my life.”
To this I almost always answer with no small amount of incredulity, “Who told you that?” Of course I know the answer to that question. Everyone,

Once you move past the point of telling children about breast cancer (I happen to call it FBC, for “f-bomb breast cancer”), it is important to tell them that you are always available to talk about it with them, anytime, anywhere. A general rule of thumb is to let children initiate conversations; however, a little prodding doesn’t hurt.
For example, you could ask, “Have you been thinking at all about Mommy’s breast cancer?” If so, follow-up with, “Would you like to talk about it?”
Another question to ask is, “How are you feeling about Mommy’s breast cancer?” If children are willing to share emotions, allow them to flow. Do not stop any uncomfortable expressions of a child’s sadness (that includes crying or anger). These are healthy

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has resigned after calling the treatment of the man accused of leaking secret cables to Wikileaks “stupid”.
“Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation,” Mr Crowley said.
He made the remarks about Bradley Manning to an academic audience.
Private Manning is being held in solitary confinement at a maximum security US military jail.
He is shackled at all times and has been on suicide watch at the Quantico marine base in

Welcome to the ongoing discussion about living your best life after 50. Each week I post an article to ignite a discussion about the challenges and joys of midlife. Please read, share, comment and engage! The more people involved in the conversation, the more we’ll all connect and learn from each other. If there’s something specific you’d like to discuss, I’d love to hear from you.
We’re smack in the middle of National Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day just

It is so easy to think that there is no one there anymore when the person in front of you does not talk, or when she makes unintelligible sounds, or says things that don’t seem to make sense, or doesn’t remember what happened from one minute to the next. This is a normal reaction, but one that commonly leads to a whole set of unintentionally harmful behaviors towards the person: talking as if the person was not there, or addressing her as one would a child, or not giving her the opportunity to make decisions she is still capable of, or assuming that our interactions with her don’t matter.
The person whose essential needs for dignity, connection and autonomy are not being met is left with a host of raw emotions (anger, grief, shame, depression) that she is unable to express adequately because of her cognitive limitations. Out of desperation, the person shuts down or acts out, becoming aggressive, pacing, wandering, calling out and crying. We drove the person to madness, and now we blame her for

As expected, the heavily-hyped Battle: Los Angeles (teaser/review) topped the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $36 million. If that number holds, it will be the twelfth-biggest March opening in history, and a rock-solid start for a would-be tentpole that cost (depending on who you asked) $80-100 million. There was talk that the picture would break out and perhaps reach $50-60 million, but that was frankly silly. We’ve been spoiled the last few years, with massive March openings like 300 ($70 million), Watchmen ($55 million), and the astonishingly-huge Alice in Wonderland ($116

The interest in Charlie Sheen’s otherworldly behavior has reached such a level that someone thinks she can make money off his poetry. Judith Regan, the controversial publisher behind Howard Stern’s book, “Private Parts,” and O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It,” recently told New York magazine:
I’d been following Sheen’s antics a bit (jaw often agape), and I’d never considered it poetry. But I hadn’t yet seen this recent unsettling, and perhaps brilliant,

Folks, the Dept of State is serious about “21st century diplomacy”, getting Internet tech and social media training to places like the mideast. Here’s a new effort which I feel will be a big deal.
The U.S. Department of State’s TechWomen initiative is now accepting cultural and technical mentors for its cutting-edge international exchange program that will bring the power of global business, technology, and education together to empower women and girls.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

The movie, Waiting for “Superman”, laid blame for our broken K-12 public school system with teacher unions. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan suggested teachers should come from the top third of their graduating classes. President Obama in a recent speech at TechBoston called for more reform and more money. Theories abound for fixing our schools, but the debate ignores an underlying

On March 8, women celebrated 100 years of advances that have changed their lives irreversibly and in the process have made a monumental impact on our world — from the first woman in space, to the growing list of female Nobel Prize recipients and the steadily increasing number of female business and political leaders.
But a closer look at these achievements spotlights a darker truth: by and large they are the successes of women in the developed world. What about the billions of women in the developing world?
The numbers that signpost the societal changes — and the stark contrasts between women in the developed and developing world — are staggering.
In the U.S., for every two men who get a degree, three women will do the

What if corporate leaders thought more like Bill Gates, a leading philanthropist and founder of Microsoft, who once said, “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others?”
Ideally, innovative corporations would increasingly function beyond the short-term profit motive and pay greater attention to their impact on the social economy. A key strategy for companies in this paradigm would be to put more focus on collaborating with the multitude of organizations working to improve communities to make a positive impact in the world.
The Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate giving can positively impact a range of social issues. Especially during trying economic times, the value of donating money, goods, and services to charitable causes is generally expected as part of a company’s social obligations.
Corporate giving can be strategic while also being a valuable investment in the community.
One major strategic benefit is an increase in brand awareness that can result in a competitive edge. According to the CSR Branding Survey 2010, 75 percent of those who have read about a company’s social responsibility agenda on its website say it made them more likely to purchase products or services from the company in the

Well, iCarly didn’t literally say “I’m sorry,” but Nickelodeon, the network that airs the popular teen show, responded by pulling all references to “hobo” off their online media outlets and has committed to no new episodes referring to “hobo.”
A few weeks ago, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom urged me to respond to iCarly’s “hobo” references. So I wrote a piece on Huffington Post called, “iCarly, Homelessness Is Not A Joke,” and set up a Facebook campaign. I also wrote a letter to Nickelodeon explaining the reasons why making fun of “hobos” is an affront to those struggling with homelessness.
I recently received a telephone call from a Nickelodeon executive who was responding to the appeal

Measles is nothing to sneeze at and hopefully it shouldn’t be something you sneeze from today in the United States. But measles has been in the news lately. A sick passenger arriving from London to the United States and traveling through four cities eventually was diagnosed with measles. This has caused health officials to scramble trying to get in touch with passengers and staff on these flights and at these airports who came in contact with

How often have you noticed that formerly normal-weight people have gradually gained weight throughout the years? Or dieters who have lost a significant amount of weight and then gained it back quickly?
Should people even try to lose weight at all? The answer is yes, if they are already having weight-related health problems or if they are putting on extra weight every year and so are likely to have health problems in the future. On the other hand, studies that have examined how much weight people are able to lose and how much they are able to keep off long term are fairly dismal. Most people gain weight back. Here is a surefire formula for gaining weight:
Lose weight quickly.
Go back to your old way of eating when you lose weight.
Continue to eat and exercise exactly as you have been as you get older.
Eat in the way “everyone else” is.
Make excuses for why it’s okay to eat when you shouldn’t.
Each of these items is explained below.
Lose weight quickly: One of the best ways to gain weight quickly is to drastically cut your

By now, many of you have heard news reports about the PACE study out of the U.K., suggesting that cognitive behavioral therapy and exercise are helpful for chronic fatigue syndrome, and misguided media reports suggesting that this shows that the illness is all in people’s minds.
Two other studies came out recently as well, which add perspective:
1. Promising New CFS Study (Reported by CBS News)
This study showed changes in over 700 proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, the fluid that bathes the brain, in CFS patients. These patterns were much different for CFS patients