Monthly Archives: February 2017

Us & Them: Love, the Ayatollah & Revolution – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Posted: February 15, 2017 at 9:47 pm

"In the beginning of the so-called revolution, there was no talk of overthrowing the regime. When it started, there was some political oppression by the government, the shah. But socially, there were a lot of freedom, people could do anything, even you could criticize the government, but not the shah himself."

On this week's episode of the "Us and Them" podcast, we hear fromEssi and Katie, who fell in love before the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and growing antipathy between America and Ayatollah Khomeini. Despite many fantastic twists and dangerous turns, their love has triumphed over archenemies hatred.

From West Virginia Public Broadcasting, this is "Us & Them" the podcast where we tell stories from America's cultural divides.

Subscribe to Us & Them oniTunesor however you listen to podcasts.An edited version of Us & Them airs bi-weekly on West Virginia Public Broadcastingsradio network, and the full version is available atwvpublic.org/podcast.

Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you'd like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to@usthempodcastor@wvpublic, or reach us on the feedback page atusandthempodcast.com.

And if you enjoyed this episode, join our community and sustain "Us & Them" with apledge of support.

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Us & Them: Love, the Ayatollah & Revolution - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

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As I See It: The perils facing the Constitution – Corvallis Gazette Times

Posted: at 9:47 pm

We believe in the Constitution. It is the bedrock of our freedom and the supreme law of the land. No person great or small is above it not the president, not any of us. It establishes order the three branches of government and their functions and powers and it protects us lest the government overreach and try to take away our liberties.

We, and our Constitution, face two significant perils today: political parties have become more important to our leaders than serving all the citizens, and the First Amendment is under attack. I am trying to be nonpartisan, but let me give just one example. Vice President Pence, when he was chosen, described himself as a Christian, a father and a Republican in that order. What about being a citizen? What about serving all of the people, not just those on ones own team? Democrats are no better. If the Republicans want it, they are against it.

We have to start listening to each other. Each of us, regardless of education or economic status, knows where our individual shoe pinches and that is the genius of democracy: that each person has something to contribute. The great patriot of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine addressed this issue: He that would make his own liberty must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. What goes around comes around and if we Democrats and Republicans can think of nothing but beating each other up, our government will continue to be dysfunctional and our democracy flawed.

Here comes the civics quiz: What five freedoms does the First Amendment protect? No fair looking ahead. Here are the most important 46 words in the Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

First, religion. The government cant make you pray. Belief is off-limits for the government. It can neither favor nor persecute any religion, and that includes Islam. You can worship as you please or not at all. A uniform ban of people of a particular religion would seem to offend both ends of the religion clause.

Speech, press, petition and assembly. These four freedoms are how we avoid violent revolution. They give us the machinery to change and a democratic form of government is always in the process of becoming. The notion that there are alternative facts (namely, that if you believe something, it must be true) is totally contrary to the marketplace of ideas upon which the First Amendment is based (put all of the information out there and the truth will emerge). The founders protected the press because the people have to have accurate and timely information to govern themselves.

Petition and assembly are the other two ways we speak to power. We gather; we discuss. We march; we protest. But the government has to listen for this to work. A government with a closed and armored mind one that can not abide criticism is immune to the petitions of its citizens and is, therefore, undemocratic by definition.

My wish for us all is that we listen to each other with patience and good humor, and that we protect each others right to speak and try to persuade with facts and logic. After all, the Constitution is just paper unless it lives in the hearts and minds of citizens. So here is an exercise we can all try: each day engage a stranger on a topic you care about and actually listen to what that person says. Who knows. We might learn something.

John Frohnmayer was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts during the first Bush administration.

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As I See It: The perils facing the Constitution - Corvallis Gazette Times

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Simonson: The war on drugs – La Crosse Tribune

Posted: at 9:46 pm

Every week I write out the arrests for the records page in the Jackson County Chronicle, and every week there is at least one arrest due to drugs. It is quite sad really, that drugs would have such a huge hold on not only this community, but across the entire nation.

We have been fighting a war on drugs now for over 40 years and it doesnt look like we are doing any better, and in fact by some accounts, we are doing worse.

Now, please note that I am by no means an expert on drugs. I never smoked marijuana or a cigarette, so the closest I have ever gotten to an addiction is food. So take my opinion as someone who knows very little about what it means to be addicted to drugs.

After it is all said and done, I dont know what the right course is and honestly I dont think anyone has a good answer. We are fighting a very strong beast, one that rears its ugly head when we least expect it. One that pries on peoples weaknesses and uses every ounce of their strength to fight it.

There is one thing I do know about addiction thoughit is there for people when there is no one else.

When we were fostering children in Ohio, it was very disheartening when parents would choose their addiction over their own children.

As you get to know these parents, you find out that they themselves have troubled pasts.

Eventually I began to feel sorry for some of these parents. Most of them didnt have family or someone they could lean on, something that is important for any person. Many would rely on the people around them, which in most cases were addicts themselves.

Instead, these addicts needed someone that could pull them out of the darkness and let them stand on their own two feet. In todays world, that someone is hard to find and often only reserved for the lucky ones.

For so long we have been waging this war on drugs. I think it is time to wage a different war.

I dont really have any answers. To many, I am just a nave person judging something I dont really know much about.

I do know one thing though, we need to change something. Maybe it is more mental health services. Maybe it is reducing jail sentences for addicts. Or maybe it is adding sharps boxes throughout the community. Maybe it is all of these things.

There are a lot of things we need to do, but I know I am working on being more compassionate. In the end, these people are already being judged by everyone they meet. And so if everyone is judging them, who is going to save them? Who is going to be there for them when they decide they want to remove an addiction from their life.

Not only am I being more compassionate towards addicts, but I am also going to be more compassionate and loving towards my son. Loving him so he doesnt have to turn to an addiction. Loving him so he doesnt have to feel loneliness in the world. Loving him so he realizes that drugs are not his friends and it will lead to negativity in his life.

In all honesty, school is where it starts. School is where children find their friends. School is where they are going to be tested. School is where they are going to have to say yes or no to their first cigarette or joint.

It all happens when our children are young. So tonight, love on your children a little more. Make sure they know they dont have to give in to peer pressure.

Today they are our children, but tomorrow they could be the next addict on the street.

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Simonson: The war on drugs - La Crosse Tribune

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Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war – Reuters

Posted: at 9:46 pm

MANILA Before Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs had even begun, allies of the Philippines president were quietly preparing for a wider offensive. On June 30, as Duterte was sworn in, they introduced a bill into the Philippine Congress that could allow children as young as nine to be targeted in a crackdown that has since claimed more than 7,600 lives.

The bill proposes to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years old to prevent what it calls "the pampering of youthful offenders who commit crimes knowing they can get away with it."

"You can ask any policeman or anyone connected with the law enforcement: We produce a generation of criminals," Duterte said in a speech in Manila on December 12. Young children, he said, were becoming drug runners, thieves and rapists, and must be "taught to understand responsibility."

The move to target children signals Duterte's determination to intensify his drug war, which faces outrage abroad and growing unease at home. The president's allies say his support in Congress will ensure the bill passes the House of Representatives by June.

The House would approve the bill "within six months," said Fredenil Castro, who co-authored the legislation with the speaker of the House, Pantaleon Alvarez. It might face opposition in the Senate, but would prevail because of Duterte's allies there, added Castro.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa recently announced that he was suspending anti-narcotics operations, which have killed more than 2,500 people, while the force rids itself of corrupt cops. The announcement came after it emerged last month that drug squad officers had killed a South Korean businessman at national police headquarters.

The killing of drug suspects has continued, albeit at a slower pace, with most following the pattern of killings that police have blamed on vigilantes. Human rights monitors believe vigilantes have killed several thousand people and operate in league with the police a charge the police deny.

Duterte has signaled he intends to continue his drug war. In late January, he said the campaign would run until his presidency ends in 2022.

'IN CAHOOTS WITH DRUG USERS'

Lowering the age of criminality was justified, Castro told Reuters, because many children were "in cahoots with drug users, with drug pushers, and others who are related to the drug trade." He said he based his support for the bill on what he saw from his car and at churches children begging and pickpocketing. "For me, there isn't any evidence more convincing than what I see in every day of my life," he said.

A controversial bill to restore the death penalty, another presidential priority, is also expected to pass the House of Representatives by mid-year, according to Duterte allies in Congress.

Supporters of the bill to lower the age of criminality say holding young children liable will discourage drug traffickers from exploiting them. Opponents, including opposition lawmakers and human rights groups, are appalled at a move they say will harm children without evidence it will reduce crime.

There is also resistance inside Duterte's administration. A member of Duterte's cabinet who heads the Department of Social Welfare and Development opposes the move. And a branch of the police responsible for protecting women and children disputes the claim that children are heavily involved in the drug trade a claim not supported by official data.

Opponents warn that lowering the age of criminality would further strain a juvenile justice system that is struggling to cope. At worst, they say, with a drug war raging nationwide, the bill could legitimize the killing of minors.

"What will stop them from targeting children?" said Karina Teh, a local politician and child rights advocate in Manila. "They are using the war on drugs to criminalize children."

IN THE FIRING LINE

The drug-war death toll includes at least 29 minors who were either shot by unidentified gunmen or accidentally killed during police operations from July to November 2016, according to the Children's Legal Rights and Development Center (CLRDC) and the Network Against Killings in the Philippines, both Manila-based advocacy groups.

Dela Rosa said the Philippine National Police "fully supports" the new bill. It is "true and supported by data" that minors are used by drug traffickers because they can't be held criminally liable, the police chief said in a submission to the House of Representatives.

Some police officers working on the streets agree with Dela Rosa. In Manila's slums, children as young as six act as lookouts for dealers, shouting "The enemy is coming!" when police approach, said Cecilio Tomas, an anti-narcotics officer in the city. By their early teens, some become delivery boys and then dealers and users, said Tomas.

Salvador Panelo, Duterte's chief legal counsel, said the bill would protect children by stopping criminals from recruiting them. "They will not become targets simply because they will no longer be involved," he said.

Child rights experts say the legislation could put children in the firing line. They point to the deadly precedent set in the southern city of Davao, where Duterte pioneered his hard-line tactics as mayor. The Coalition Against Summary Execution, a Davao-based rights watchdog, documented 1,424 vigilante-style killings in the city between 1998 and 2015. Of those victims, 132 were 17 or younger.

For all but three years during that period, Duterte was either Davao's mayor or vice-mayor. He denied any involvement in the killings.

CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE

Althea Barbon was one of the children killed in the current nationwide drug war. The four year old was fatally wounded in August when police in an anti-narcotics operation shot at her father, the two Manila-based advocacy groups said.Unidentified gunmen shot dead Ericka Fernandez, 17, in a Manila alley on October 26, police said. Her bloody Barbie doll was collected as evidence.Andon December 28, three boys, aged 15 or 16, were killed in Manila by what police said were motorbike-riding gunmen.

If the bill passes, the Philippines won't be the only country where the age of criminality is low. In countries including England, Northern Ireland and Switzerland it is 10, according to the website of the Child Rights International Network, a research and advocacy group. In Scotland, children as young as eight can be held criminally responsible, but the government is in the process of raising the age limit to 12.

Critics of the Philippines' bill say lower age limits are largely found in countries where the legal systems, detention facilities and rehabilitation programs are more developed.

Statistics from the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the government's top anti-narcotics body, appear to contradict the Duterte camp's claim that there is a large number of young children deeply involved in the drug trade.

There were 24,000 minors among the 800,000 drug users and dealers who had registered with the authorities byNovember 30, according to police statistics. But less than two percent of those minors, or about 400 children, were delivering or selling drugs. Only 12 percent, or 2,815, were aged 15 or younger. Most of the 24,000 minors were listed as drug users.

The number of minors involved in the drug trade is "just a small portion," said Noel Sandoval, deputy head of the Women and Children's Protection Center (WCPC), the police department that compiled the data.

The WCPC is not pushing to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility, said Sandoval, but if the age is to be lowered, his department recommends a minimum age of 12, not 9.

Between January 2011 and July 2016, 956 children aged six to 17 were "rescued nationwide from illegal drug activity," according to PDEA. They were mostly involved with marijuana and crystalmethamphetamine, a highly addictive drug also known as shabu, and were handed over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Of these, only 80 were under the age of 15.

MORE DETENTIONS

Asked for evidence that younger children are involved in the drug trade, Duterte's legal counsel Panelo said the president had data from "all intelligence agencies." Panelo declined todisclose those numbers.

Among the opponents of the bill is a member of Duterte's cabinet, Judy Taguiwalo, secretary of theDSWD.The legislation runs counter to scientific knowledge about child development and would result not in lower crime rates but in more children being detained, Taguiwalo wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives in October.

Hidden by a high wall topped with metal spikes, the Valenzuela youth detention center in northern Manila is already operating at twice its capacity. Its 89 boys eat meals in shifts the canteen can't hold them all at once and sleep on mats that spill out of the spartan dorms and into the hallways.

The government-run center, which currently houses boys aged 13 to 17 for up to a year, is considered a model facility in the Philippines. Even so, said Lourdes Gardoce, a social worker at the Valenzuela home, "It's a big adjustment on our part if we have to cater to kids as young as nine."

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall. Edited by David Lague and Peter Hirschberg.)

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois As speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Michael Madigan has outlasted five governors and is now on his sixth. This year, the Chicago Democrat will become longest-serving state or federal House speaker in the United States since at least the early 1800s.

Chicago As Illinois House speaker for more than three decades, Michael Madigan has often worked to raise peoples taxes. As a private attorney, he works to lower them.

WASHINGTON Burning passions over Donald Trump's presidency are taking a personal toll on both sides of the political divide. For Gayle McCormick, it is particularly wrenching: she has separated from her husband of 22 years.

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Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war - Reuters

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Cops bust alleged gambling ring being run out of Cobb storefronts – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Posted: at 9:46 pm

Marietta police arrested three men they say were running an organized gambling operation out of two storefronts in town.

Investigators found at least 15 unlicensedcoin-operated slot machines when they raided Gantt food store at 1033 Franklin Gateway and a Citgo at the corner of Windy Hill andBenson Poole roads Monday.

They arrested Gantt ownerKhubaib Hussain, Gantt employee Samson Beye and convenience store workerArif Muhammad each on a felony charge of commercial gambling.

What started as a drug trafficking case by Marietta cops in mid-2014 ended upa substantial organized crime investigation involving Cobb County police,Douglas County Sheriffs Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

According to warrants, Hussain ran the unlicensed operation and the other two men handed out the cash winnings.

The legal line is crossed when owners pay cash prizes instead of giving store credit or lottery tickets,said Kimberly Starks, Georgia Lottery spokeswoman.

The machines were disabled and the agency cited the businesses, she said.

When searching the Douglasville home of Hussain, police officers found $250,000 in cash, five high-end vehicles, eight computers and a large tote full of gold jewelry.

All three men bonded out. Hussain had the highest bond,$38,720. Beye and Muhammad paid $2,970 each.

Investigators plan to get subpoenas for several bank accounts they believe are connected to the investigation.

Anyone with information about the case can call the anonymous Marietta police tip line at 770-794-6990.

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Cops bust alleged gambling ring being run out of Cobb storefronts - Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Lakewood Village Board keeps video gambling ban in place – Northwest Herald

Posted: at 9:46 pm

LAKEWOOD The village will remain free of video gambling machines after the Village Board rejected an ordinance to overturn its ban.

Board members voted Tuesday evening, 3-0 with two abstentions, against ending the last remaining ban still in force in McHenry County. About 50 people attended the meeting, with speakers during public comment overwhelmingly opposed to allowing the machines within village limits.

The request to overturn the ban was made late last year by the new management of Turnberry Country Club, where the village meeting was held.

Constituent opposition to the idea prompted the opposing votes from Trustees Paul Serwatka, Gene Furey and Bev Thomas. With Furey seconding, Serwatka successfully forced a vote against an attempt to table the ordinance so Turnberry, which at 9600 Turnberry Trail is in a residential area, could speak to residents and club members.

Serwatka said that although he supports smaller government and less regulation of commerce, he voted for what his constituents wanted and said Turnberrys location makes it a unique case. Both Serwatka and Furey said they received numerous calls and emails from residents opposed to allowing video gambling.

Were not talking about a cafe in a strip mall were talking about the heart of a residential community, and the people are very, very set against it, Serwatka said.

Lakewood was one of six local governments that banned video gambling under an opt-out in the 2009 state law that legalized it to finance a $31 billion capital plan, but five of them have since changed their minds and overturned their prohibitions after bar and restaurant owners complained that the bans put them at a competitive disadvantage..

Establishments that serve alcohol, truck stops, and fraternal and veterans organizations can have up to five of the machines under state law. The state gets 30 percent of the proceeds, 5 percent of which goes back to local governments. The remaining 70 percent is split between the business and the company that operates the machines.

Turnberry and three of the four other businesses holding village liquor licenses would have been eligible for gaming permits had the ban been overturned, according to village records.

Besides public outcry, Furey said video gambling would not be a good fit for the villages character. As a former village treasurer, he added that the small amount of revenue the machines would generate for village government would not justify lifting the ban.

I dont think it really contributes anything at all to the village, Furey said.

Village President Erin Smith, who lives in Turnberry, opposed lifting the ban, but she was one of several who favored tabling the matter to a later date. She did not vote, but said she would have voted no to break a tie.

Unlike other governments that lifted their bans at the request of multiple business owners, only Turnberry requested it, Smith said. Both the owners of Lou Malnati's and the Lakewood Commons behind it said they have no interest in video gambling, Smith said.

"There were no other businesses asking us for a video gambling ordinance," Smith said.

Another concern the Village Board had was that during the winter months in which the golf course is closed, the country club essentially would become a video gambling parlor.

The proposed ordinance scuttled Tuesday explicitly prohibited such parlors, which are legal in some other local municipalities.

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Lakewood Village Board keeps video gambling ban in place - Northwest Herald

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Paul Seago: Decoupling aids gambling – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Posted: at 9:46 pm

By Paul Seago, Guest Columnist

The Herald-Tribune editorial on Feb. 7, regarding the gambling debate taking place in the Legislature, argues for decoupling at Floridas pari-mutuels and specifically urges a straightforward bill on this subject.

A straightforward gambling bill in Tallahassee is something of myth and legend like Bigfoot or a unicorn that people claim its real, but of which there is little evidence.

Many things hailed as reforms when it comes to gambling are held hostage by those seeking to expand gambling in order to argue there is somehow a reduction.

Throughout Florida history, every limited, seemingly simple, decision related to gambling leads to more gambling than originally intended. It is a phenomenon we call gambling creep (and is the subject of a video we have posted on our website at http://www.NoCasinos.org).

This gambling creep is most on display when one looks at Floridas pari-mutuels industry.

Since horse and greyhound racing and jai alai were legalized in Florida in the 1930s, pari-mutuel owners have engaged in an almost ceaseless yearly pilgrimage to the state capitol to beg, cajole and lobby for more and more gambling with the same mantra, give us more gambling so we can compete

Over the years, the Florida Legislature has given pari-mutuels simulcast wagering, poker rooms, higher poker-hand limits, and no-limit poker over the years without a vote of Floridians and without competitive bids.

Now, pari-mutuels have their sights set on slot machines, essentially making each one a casino.

Recall that Florida voters rejected the idea of turning every pari-mutuel in the state into a casino in 1994 by a 2-to-1 ratio. That didnt stop the pari-mutuels from continuing to ask lawmakers for more gambling, finally receiving card rooms in 1996.

At first their arguments were that people loved racing and jai alai but needed new forms of gambling to enhance prize purses so they could continue to offer their races and live performances.

Now they argue no one wants to watch racing and live jai alai so they need more gambling to continue to exist and they no longer want to offer races and live events.

We take exception to pari-mutuel owners feeling that their license gives them a birthright to whatever forms of gambling become fashionable over time.

If the free market had been allowed to have its say, the way it has for other industries like travel agents, video-rental stores and TV repair stores, many of these pari-mutuels especially greyhound racetracks would have gone the way of the dodo, meaning they would have become extinct.

If pari-mutuels no longer wish to do the only thing the Florida Constitution authorizes them to do, they should turn in their licenses and find another purpose for their land.

Instead, the Legislature has given each of these license-holders the idea that their permit is a Willy Wonka-style golden ticket that will one day transform their ancient track or fronton into a Las Vegas-style casino.

That is not following the free market, or the wishes of Florida voters. Its giving into crony capitalists looking for another round of corporate welfare.

Paul Seago is the executive director of No Casinos, which opposes the expansion of gambling in Florida.

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Paul Seago: Decoupling aids gambling - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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Wesfarmers considers pokies exit in bid to tackle problem gambling – ABC Online

Posted: at 9:46 pm

Updated February 16, 2017 08:45:08

Retail group Wesfarmers has thrown its weight behind gambling reform by not ruling out dumping its gaming operations unless changes are introduced to limit the social damage caused by poker machines.

The company's chief executive, Richard Goyder, has told ABC's The Business it was pushing poker-machine manufacturers to make software changes that would allow it to introduce a $1 per spin limit to poker machines, which it could trial in its hotels.

"We had a conversation at board level about this and there's a really strong desire from both Wesfarmers and Coles to move this along and I'm hopeful this will happen," he said.

Wesfarmers began its push last year but it is being stonewalled by poker-machine manufacturers.

"I'm hoping we get a positive response because we'd like to trial it we think it is the right thing to do and we're a bit frustrated at the moment that we can't do it," Mr Goyder said.

Wesfarmers inherited a large gambling business when it bought Coles in 2007, including a swag of Queensland hotels bought in order to compete against rival Woolworths in the liquor business.

"The reason we're in pokies is that legislation in Queensland mandates that to retail liquor, you have to own hotels," he said.

When asked if the company would consider selling its poker machines, Mr Goyder said: "We need that legislation to change and it's fair to say we'll look at all options, but at the end of the day we are a good operator and an ethical operator of these businesses and we should be allowed to trial $1 spin limits in line with the Productivity Commission recommendations."

He added the limit would "reduce the harm that comes from one end of the pokie industry".

"But if we can't do that, we'll look at other options," he said.

When asked how quickly the Wesfarmers board wanted the issue resolved, Mr Goyder replied: "I'm serious about it and there's no doubt the board and John Durkin [managing director] at Coles is serious as well, so we would like it to move forward as quickly as we can."

Pokies reform is shaping up to be an issue that could be a legacy for Mr Goyder as he prepares to leave Wesfarmers at the end of the year.

The issue was put on Mr Goyder's agenda at a meeting with World Vision Australia's Tim Costello three years ago, when he made a promise to tackle problem gambling.

Coles has been in communication with long-time anti-gambling campaigners senator Nick Xenophon and MP Andrew Wilkie.

Mr Wilkie told the ABC Wesfarmers should be congratulated for continuing to push against the might of the gambling lobby.

"It's nothing short of scandalous that Australia's poker-machine manufacturers are refusing to make safer $1-maximum bet machines, and vitally important that Coles doesn't buckle to such unscrupulous behaviour," he said.

"We know that 40 per cent of money lost on poker machines is lost by gambling addicts and any corporation whose business model depends on this, or which supports the operators of poker machines, is patently unethical and to be condemned."

Wesfarmers rival Woolworths is the biggest poker-machine operator in the country and has not shown interest in pushing for $1 machines.

Topics: gambling, retail, community-and-society, australia

First posted February 15, 2017 21:24:14

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Wesfarmers considers pokies exit in bid to tackle problem gambling - ABC Online

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‘War on gambling’ starts with small fry – Inquirer.net

Posted: at 9:46 pm

A day after the Philippine National Police chief, Director General Rolando dela Rosa, announced a war on illegal gambling, arrests were made in the neighboring cities of Malabon and Valenzuela.

Instead of busting bigtime gambling operators, however, the wars opening salvo settled for small fry. Eduardo Masagcay, an alleged kubrador or bet collector, was arrested in Malabon, while pedicab driver Daniel Reyes was arrested in Valenzuela for playing tong-its, a card game he was caught playing on the street.

Chief Supt. Roberto Fajardo, the director of Northern Police District, said the arrests were in line with Dela Rosas declaration. The war on gambling has always been there. But since thats the order, we will focus our efforts there, Fajardo told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Fajardo said the police were still awaiting the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of President Rodrigo Dutertes Executive Order No. 13. The EO directed law enforcement agencies, freeport authorities and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to intensify the campaign against illegal gambling.

Raids, raids, raids

Fajardo said the NPD would obey the EO through raids, raids, raids. But he said the police would need the publics help in pinpointing targets while were waiting for the IRR.

Reyes was arrested on Navarette Street, Barangay Arkong Bato, about 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 by PO1 Noel Caspe of Valenzuela police. A report by the officer in charge, Supt. Freddie Tejano, said Caspe chanced upon Reyes and his two female companions in the act of playing illegal cards called tong-its.

This game, the report added, is prohibited under Presidential Decree No. 1602 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos in July 1978.

The same presidential decree was allegedly violated by Masagcay, who was described in a report by Senior Supt. John Chua, the Malabon police chief, as a kubrador for bookies karera, which is based on horse racing results.

Masagcay was taking a bet from an unidentified man when a team composed of SPO1 Damian Matalang, PO2 Francis Camuna and PO1 Ricky Lamsen arrested him on Sulucan Street in Barangay Hulong Duhat about 8:20 p.m. on Feb. 14.

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'War on gambling' starts with small fry - Inquirer.net

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Osage woman accused of stealing, gambling mother’s money – Mason City Globe Gazette

Posted: at 9:46 pm

OSAGE | An Osage woman is accused of gambling with her mother's money and not leaving enough for the older woman's care.

Marilyn Jo Spartz, 58, was charged with felony second-degree theft.

She's accused of gambling with her mother's money from July to December at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, according to court documents.

Formal charges were filed last week by Assistant Mitchell County Attorney Aaron Murphy. Her next court appearance is Tuesday.

Investigators say Spartz, who lived with her mother, also used the money to buy a bus ticket to bring her boyfriend to Iowa.

They allege $2,315.50 was improperly spent.

The theft was discovered when Spartz's mother's health insurance company declined to pay her medical bills from a recent hospitalization, according to the complaint.

Police say the woman's health care plan had been canceled because there wasn't enough money in her checking account to pay for the insurance.

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Osage woman accused of stealing, gambling mother's money - Mason City Globe Gazette

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