Daily Archives: July 29, 2017

SunEdison secures final approval for bankruptcy deal – Utility Dive

Posted: July 29, 2017 at 7:41 pm

Dive Brief:

Renewable energy company SunEdison is exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but as a much smaller company.

Under the court agreement, second lien debtholders will own 90% of SunEdisons new common stock and 90% of its Class A shares, while the companys original shareholders will receive nothing, Bloomberg reports.

SunEdison declared bankruptcy after a proposed $1.8 billion merger with Vivint Solar fell apart. Running up to bankruptcy filing, SunEdison had gone on an acquisition spree and racked up $11.7 billion in debt, more than double its debt load the year before.

SunEdisons bankruptcy also prompted the sale of the companys yieldcos, specialized vehicles designed to hold renewable energy assets and pay high dividends. TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global had 2,987 MW and 917 MW of capacity, respectively. In March, Brookfield Asset Management bought TerraForm Global and a controlling stake in TerraForm Power.

In approving SunEdisons bankruptcy plan, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein overruled the objections from shareholders and two investors. Under the court approved deal, unsecured SunEdison creditors will receive $32 million in proceeds of directors and officers insurance settlements and $18 million as a result of negotiations with the yieldcos. Secured creditors will be repaid in full with cash.

SunEdison flew too close to the sun and landed in Manhattan bankruptcy court, Nathan Serota, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told Bloomberg. During the Chapter 11 process, the company lost nearly all of the assets and personnel that -- for better or worse defined it in the first place.

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Empowering Women in Developing Economies – Council on Foreign Relations

Posted: at 7:41 pm

Economic opportunity is vital to strengthening peace and stability, especially in fragile states and post conflict societies. Developing sustainable employment entails a strong partnership between the private and public sectors, as well as multilateral organizations. Kate Spade & Companys social enterprise investment in Rwandawhich enables women to be part of its supply chainis an innovative example of that partnership.

Rwanda suffered one of the worst genocides in history in 1994. The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda claimed more than one million lives and left in its wake a near total collapse of political and socio-economic institutions. The leadership of Rwanda and its people embarked on an arduous journey to mend the fabric of their society, and out of the ashes of destruction rose a new and prosperous nation.

Today, Rwanda is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. There are several reasons for Rwandas economic and social progress. A growing body of research demonstrates that womens economic participation is essential for economic progressand for post conflict reconstruction and recovery. Women entrepreneurs drive GDP and create jobs, and the way women spend their income has a multiplier effect, as they invest it in education, nutrition, and other needs; this in turn improves the well-being of families and grows the standard of living. Rwandas leadership in gender equality has fostered a positive environment for womens political participation and entrepreneurship. Women comprise over 60 percent of the Parliamentthe highest in the world. Inheritance and land rights have been advanced, and there have been significant improvements on a range of indicators from education and literacy to health care. We have observed the impact that the private sector can have on womens economic empowerment in Masoro, a village of twenty thousand people roughly twelve kilometers away from Rwandas capital, Kigali. Like many rural communities, Masoro suffered from higher unemployment and lower earnings than the national average. On the positive, local artisans were skilled in embroidery and sewing.

Officials from Kate Spade & Company decided to make a social enterprise investment in this small community to test if this investment could produce economic and social returns. The company recruited 150 of the villages most talented and committed female artisans in 2013, and helped them set up their own worker-owned, for-profit social enterprise: Abahizi Dushyigikirane, Ltd. or ADC. Kate Spade & Company has worked to build the capacity of the workers and has been using them as a supplier for its related brands. In that way, the women and their families can prosper and Kate Spade & Company can have a dependable supplier.

According to a recently released study by Georgetowns McDonough School of Business, in partnership with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security, Kate Spade & Companys initiative has already contributed to the empowerment of the women in Masoro. They are flourishing economically and socially. The women have improved their spending on necessities and are investing in the future. They are earning a decent and steady wage and receiving opportunities for training and development from ADC. The average woman working on the initiative has also reported higher levels of decision-making within her family related to personal finances.

This is evidenced by Appolinaire, a team leader in ADCs beading department. Appolinaire first applied to be a temporary worker at ADC in order to supplement her households income. To her surprise, she positively adjusted to the position right away, and especially enjoyed the camaraderie with other women. ADC offered Appolinaire an opportunity to take the sewing test required for a permanent position, which she passed.

With her new income from the factory, Appolinaire and her husband have been able to invest in a new kitchen, and they are gradually replacing their mud brick walls and dirt floor with bricks. Appolinarie says her voice is heard on all of the important household decisions. She no longer tends the land or cares for the cows. As she progressed at ADC and her salary increased, a young man was hired to do those chores. Clearly, she is becoming economically empowered.

On the business investment, the Georgetown study found that Kate Spade & Company has created a financially viable business model in Rwanda. The Masoro supplier will become more competitive as production increases. The increases are set to occur over the course of 2017 with the acquisition of another client. Kate Spade & Company is actively assisting in the search for a second client and potential investors to support their growth trajectory.

This innovative social enterprise investment offers a model approach for creating economic opportunity that is sustainable in marginalized communities. Other companies can also contribute to their bottom line and help to transform fragile and war-torn societies. Its a win-win approach: one that is good for business and good for society.

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Empowering Women in Developing Economies - Council on Foreign Relations

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Why Big Up Is Way Down – Outlook India

Posted: at 7:40 pm

At the time of Independence, UP (United Provinces until 1950, when it was renamed as Uttar Pradesh) was described as one of the best governed states, with tall leaders and some of the finest IAS officers. Today, it is the most important state in national politics, but remains poor and backward. Regional inequalities between the states in southern and western India and those in the Hindi heartland have shown increasing divergence rather than convergence in recent years. The reasons lie not just in the feudal, caste-based society that reinforces economic backwardness, but also in the states competitive and divisive politics of governance.

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Social change was slow in the colonial and immediate post-colonial period in UP. The Congress, which enjoyed a majority until the late 1980s, failed to use the states enormous physical and social resources to bring about socio-economic development. UP was described in the mid-1960s as the sleeping giant and later as suffering from the burden of inertia. During the 80s, for the first time, there was a slight shift away from agriculture to industry and economic growth surpassed the national average mainly due to the green revolution in eastern UP. Poverty was reduced, fuelling the assertion of the backward castes and Dalits.

This proved to be short-lived, though, with UP getting caught in a downward spiral in the 1990s. The collapse of the Congress in 1989 had made space for the politics of self-respect and dignity. Democratisation was accelerated with heightened consciousness of caste or communal identities and the rise of parties such as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. The BJP, too, was mobilising the electorate using its Hindutva ideology, leading to communal riots and the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Throughout the 1990s, UP had hung assemblies and short-lived coalition governments. Competitive populist policies led to steep deterioration in the states fiscal health and growth rate, leading to a debt trap.

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Two developments in the 2000s created hope of improvementthe weakening of identity politics and the emergence of majority governments. During the same period, however, UP witnessed a new wave of riots: Mau in 2005, Gorakhpur in 2007 and Muzaffarnagar in 2013. While the Mayawati government (2007-12) had introduced an inclusive economic agenda and witnessed no riot, UP has been seeing rapes, lynchings, riots and poor quality of public policy since 2012. Much of this has been due to communal politics and breakdown of law and order. The Akhilesh Yadav government, hoping to gain Muslim votes, did little to prevent communal incidents, and was accused of communalising the police and the administration.

The decline of the social justice parties has given room to the BJP and its new ideology of non-Brahminical Hindutva, aimed at bringing the lower castes into its fold. This explains the shift from the politics of social justice to that of aspiration among the upwardly mobile OBCs and Dalits, who are getting attracted to the promises of development made by Narendra Modi. This, and the BJPs communally charged campaign were responsible for its massive victory during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and again in the assembly polls this year. Although CM Yogi Adityanath has promised development of all, appeasement of none and no discrimination based on caste, religion and gender, his government has not been able to rein in cow-protection vigilantes and lynchings. Instead of focussing on development, Adityanath has introduced divisive policies such as the ban on illegal slaughterhouses and new rules governing the sale of cattle, which have created economic difficulties for Muslims and others dependent on the trade.

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There is indeed a close relationship between the divisive politics of identity and UPs continuing trajectory of economic backwardness. The state epitomises the Hindi heartlandcaste and communal mobilisation by political parties in their desire to capture power, riots, breakdown of law and order, negligent and poor governanceand needs a new leadership to bring in political order and development so that it can resume its position among the better-governed states.

(The writer is a national fellow at ICSSR and former professor at JNU, New Delhi.)

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Norman Duquette shot down on recon mission – Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Posted: at 7:40 pm

CEDAR FALLS Norman Earl Duquette had everything planned out.

As a U.S. Air Force pilot flying over North Korea in 1952, he would be rotated back to the states after 100 missions. With any luck, he could make it back to Iowa for the birth of his third child anticipated for early April.

I would have finished just about in time to get home. But it didnt work out that way, Duquette told a Grout Museum historian in a 2003 interview.

On Duquettes 87th mission, a reconnaissance job to photograph an airfield near the Chosin Reservoir north of enemy lines, a North Korean proximity flak round detonated near his RF-80A jet as he was descending toward his target through cloud cover on Jan. 26, 1952.

Some of the shrapnel pierced the canopy and hit him in the head, and the plane started smoking.

The aircraft, which was designed during the tail end of World War II, didnt have auto ejection, so he tried the hand crank to open the cockpit.

I tried to get the canopy off, and it wouldnt come. Apparently it jammed when I got hit, he said. Next, he unbuckled and tried to open the cockpit with his shoulders, but that, too, failed.

Finally, he pulled himself back into his seat as the plane spiraled toward Earth and was able to bring the jet under enough control to bring it down in a clearing. Duquette hadnt re-buckled his harness, and he slammed forward and lost consciousness.

The first thought that occurred to me was that being dead is not that uncomfortable, said Duquette, who suffered two broken vertebrae in the collision. When he awoke, and climbed out of the cockpit, he dropped into 3 feet of snow.

He was taken prisoner by a squad of North Korean soldiers and almost executed on the spot had it not been for an officer who stepped in and took him prisoner.

After being marched through a village where residents cursed at him and threw rocks, he was whisked away to a facility in Hamhung, North Korea, and eventually transported to an interrogation center north of Pyongyang.

He lived in an 8-foot-square room with seven to 12 prisoners of war. It was the coldest winter on record for Korea, and everyones breath condensed on the mud walls, Duquette said.

It was so cold that the mud walls on the inside, it was like the inside of a deep freeze with frost on the walls, he said. He got callused hips from sleeping on the dirt floor, and recalled the smell of up to a dozen men packed into close quarters.

They were fed sorghum grain with kelp seaweed. Maybe once a month they had rice, which was a treat, and there was an occasional potato.

They were eventually taken 10 miles north to what Duquette and his fellow prisoners called the slave camp where they unloaded gasoline, rice and other supplies into and out of bunkers.

For water, they had to drink from a rice paddy and soon developed dysentery.

After another stint at the North Korean interrogation facility, they were taken some 200 miles to the north and handed over to the Chinese. There, Duquette was put through a system of solitary confinement and interrogation as the Chinese tried get them to sign confessions sometimes at gunpoint alleging they had been involved in germ warfare in Korea. The interrogators accused him of being a war criminal and told him he wouldnt be returned to the states.

After awhile, Duquette was housed with a group of 13 other non-confessors who were later rotated back to the interrogation program.

The rotations didnt stop when war ended in July 1953.

Duquette recalled a last-ditch attempt to get him to confess to germ warfare in August 1953. When he again refused, he was told the war was over and he would be repatriated.

He was returned to his solitary cell and scratched The war is over into the wood. He figured other non-confessors who were unaware of the developments were likely going through the same interrogations, and he felt it would keep their spirits up.

I thought the message might do them some good, Duquette said.

Duquettes Korean service was actually his second time fighting in a war.

The Plattsburgh, N.Y., native, had signed up for the U.S. Navy immediately after graduating from high school in 1943 during World War II. He flew TBF torpedo bombers looking for enemy submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. In 50 missions, he was involved in one sub attack that lost two aircraft from his unit.

After World War II, there were questions about the future of the Navys flight program as the U.S. Air Force was founded.

The Navy flight training program got pretty well bogged down. They didnt know whether to finish off the people who were in flight training to get their wings or just what they were going to do, said Duquette, who returned to civilian life in 1947.

He had met his wife, a Traer native, while studying at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and he returned to the East Coast to study engineering.

Then a movie called about fighter pilots came out, and Air Force recruiters were in the lobby. They were offering a deal to allow married men into flight school.

Duquette signed up, and he graduated from the program with Gus Grissom, who would later go on to become a NASA astronaut.

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Welsh government shelves plans for Iron Ring sculpture dubbed ‘monument to oppression’ – iNews

Posted: at 7:40 pm

The Welsh Government has been forced to back down over plans for an Iron Ring sculpture that opponents have dubbed a monument to oppression.

More than 10,000 people signed a petition calling on the Welsh Assembly to scrap its proposals for the controversial artwork outside Flint Castle in Flintshire, north east Wales.

Announcing the 395,000 sculpture last Friday, the Welsh Government said it symbolises a giant rusted crown.

Flint Castle was where in 1399 Richard II surrendered the crown to Henry IV, an event that shaped the history of Britain and Europe.

But opponents of the sculpture point out that Iron Ring is the term used for the castles built by Edward I to assert his might over the uprising Welsh in the late 13th century.

Welsh Government cabinet member Ken Skates announced they will pause and review the plans, just days after describing the sculpture as the perfect way of recognising the importance of Flint Castle.

We have listened and recognise the strength of feeling around the proposed art installation at Flint Castle and feel it is only right that we now take a pause and review the plans for the sculpture, said Skates.

Working closely with local partners we will continue to work on proposals for developments at Flint, including reviewing new visitor facilities.

Plaid Cymru AM Llyr Gruffydd welcomed the climbdown, saying: This crass design for a sculpture to symbolise Wales oppression was inappropriate and insulting to the people of Wales.

It showed a serious lack of judgement by the Welsh Government, which failed to consult with local people about this 400,000 sculpture.

The Labour government has rightly been shamed into rethinking its design, however it has failed to acknowledge how disrespectful this plan was. The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy should apologise for its bad judgement.

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Tyranny and oppression still alive and well in Navajo County – White Mountain Independent

Posted: at 7:40 pm

Tyranny and oppression still alive and well in Navajo County

Jury summons, by definition, invokes power from the court to demand your presence under penalty of law. Many claim that jury duty is a privilege or civic duty, but I assert that it is more than that an honor and the ultimate exercise of true democracy.

When serving on a jury, you exercise three votes. The first vote is when you elected a judge or legislator to enforce and create the laws. The second vote is to protect fellow citizens from overzealous prosecutors (government tyranny), and the third is when your decision has more power than the judges, the legislators, Congress or President.

Your decision is only answerable to yourself and God.

This was the safety valve and equalizer that our wise and noble forefathers placed into the Constitution, specifically to fight tyranny and oppression against We, the People and to preserve our freedoms. This is the greatest exercise of freedom and is a democratic honor. Freedom is unalienable as it comes from God not a privilege granted from government and to deny freedom to a man is the greatest sin and crime of mankind.

On July 18, I reported to the Navajo County Superior Courthouse as required per the summons, and there is a process and series of qualifying questions by which prospective jurors are eliminated. The first round of elimination is conducted by the judge (there were more than 100 citizens present as prospective jurors) as people are advised of any conflicts that would objectively disqualify them to serve.

Lawyers and judges select juries by a process known as voir dire, which is Latin for to speak the truth. In voir dire, the judge and attorneys for both sides ask potential jurors questions to determine if they are competent and suitable to serve in the case. The reasoning for this is obvious and logical as jurors should be ethical, impartial and fair.

However, Tuesday morning I was summarily dismissed without the due process of qualifying questions and/or conditions that would exclude me from exercising my right as a citizen of Navajo County. If a superior court judge can do this, then why even bother with legislators, lawmakers, or constitutional processes? We wouldnt need laws, prosecutors or defense attorneys, just one supreme monarch that solely make all the decisions for society and mankind.

Is this the type county or country that We, the People desire to live in? If we dont have the right to participate in the process of government, is it still a democracy? I swore an oath to the Constitution and it guarantees individuals their right for self-governance in a representative democratic republic and to be free from these abuses of controlling tyranny and oppression.

Sterling Smith,

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Tyranny and oppression still alive and well in Navajo County - White Mountain Independent

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How Good Intentions Created a Tool of Oppression – Bacon’s Rebellion

Posted: at 7:40 pm

Lakisha Johnson and daughter. Photo credit: Reuters

Politicians had the best of intentions when they crafted policies to make higher education more accessible to everyone by handing out generous student loans. But they ended up plunging millions of Americans deep into debt and subjecting them to relentless efforts to recover that debt.

A Reuters investigation into student loan debt collections highlights the plight of a Philadelphia woman, Lakisha Johnson.

Lakisha Johnson figured all she needed was her 2016 tax refund to get her and her daughter out of a homeless shelter and back into a place of their own.

The U.S. Department of Education had other plans.

Johnson, a home health aide, and 12-year-old Aijiah were forced to move out of their West Philadelphia apartment just before Thanksgiving last year, after the landlord jacked up the rent from $675 to $875. Soon, they were living on a bunk bed in the shelter a few blocks from Aijiahs school. The girl was petrified that a classmate would see her using the secured entrance of the crowded, noisy shelter.

With the $13 an hour she earns caring for her elderly charges, Johnson planned to stay at the shelter or with anyone who would let the two sleep on a floor, a couch or a spare mattress until April. In past years, thats when she received her federal Earned Income Credit tax refund.

The check never came.

On the phone, an Internal Revenue Service agent told her the Department of Education (DOE) was holding back the $8,220 refund to recoup some of her student loan debt. It would probably do the same next year, the agent told her, to recover the rest of the nearly $17,000 she owed.

Johnson is just one of eight million borrowers in the United States who are in default on a combined $137.4 billion in government-held or government-backed student loans. Eleven percent of all student debt is severely delinquent or in fault, a higher rate than the mortgage foreclosure rate at the peak of the sub-prime real estate bust. But unlike mortgages, a form of debt that can be discharged, there is no way to shake student loans.

Since the summer of 2015, Reuters has found, student loan servicers and private debt collectors have garnished about $3 billion in wages. And last year, tax refund seizures and Social Security benefit reductions amounted to another $2.6 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2015. Since 2009, the federal government has clawed back at least $15.2 billion. Writes Reuters:

Default, which usually occurs when a borrower hasnt made a payment for 270 days or more, can make it only harder for a debtor to regain financial stability. It can trash credit scores, scaring off potential employers. It can disqualify debtors for auto loans, apartment rentals, utilities and even cellphone contracts. In about 20 states, student loan borrowers who default can lose their drivers and professional licenses.

Needless to say, those impacted from the student debt-collection regime are disproportionately poor and minorities.

The Reuters article focuses mainly on the aggressive tactics of debt collectors and the failure (or refusal) to inform many debtors of all of their options, such as shifting to a plan that limits repayments to a percentage of income. In effect, the debt collectors come across as the bad guys in the story.

But Reuters does quoteJack Remondi, CEO of Navient Corp., a loan servicer operating under contract with the Department of Education:

Remondi blamed rising student loan defaults on the front end of the process, such as the government policy of lending to borrowers regardless of their credit standing and without consideration of whether the investment they are making is reasonable.

Bacons bottom line: That is the root of the problem. Under the guise of creating opportunities for the poor, the government policy of treating access to higher education as a right and indiscriminately handing out loans to unsophisticated consumers turned millions of Americans into debt peons. Government policy made their condition worse. Government policy, far from liberating the American poor, is grinding many into deeper poverty. Between shoveling out student loans and stoking the issuance of sub-prime mortgages a decade ago, misguided policies emanating from the good intentions of federal policy makers have shattered the lives of millions of poor. (Dont get me started on the issues of under-performing schools and the mal-incentives of the welfare state.)

Meanwhile the poverty-creation machine chugs on unperturbed in Virginia. Here is data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia encompassing public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, and community colleges:

All told, 36% of students at 20% of the poverty line and below fail to graduate.College loans, it must be said, also have allowed many students to lift themselves out of poverty, so it would be a mistake to dismantle the entire system. But student lending is in desperate need of reform. Good intentions are not enough.

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How Good Intentions Created a Tool of Oppression - Bacon's Rebellion

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Plans for Iron Ring sculpture dubbed a ‘monument to oppression’ put on hold – WalesOnline

Posted: at 7:40 pm

Plans for a controversial sculpture at a Welsh castle have been put on hold after more than 9,000 people signed a petition opposing it .

Opponents claimed that the Iron Ring sculpture at Flint Castle celebrates the subjugation and oppression of the Welsh people.

Welsh Government cabinet member Ken Skates announced that they will "pause and review" the plans.

The U-turn comes days after Mr Skates described the sculpture as the "perfect way" of marking the significance of Flint Castle .

Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, said on Wednesday: We have listened and recognise the strength of feeling around the proposed art installation at Flint Castle and feel it is only right that we now take a pause and review the plans for the sculpture.

Working closely with local partners we will continue to work on proposals for developments at Flint, including reviewing new visitor facilities.

Announcing it, the Welsh Government said it symbolises a giant rusted crown.

But the Iron Ring is the term for the fearsome castles built by Edward I in an enormous military and building effort to assert dominance over the uprising Welsh.

They include Harlech, Conwy, Beaumaris and Caernarfon. Flint was one of the first castles to be built in Wales by Edward I - construction began in 1277.

Edward led an army into Wales in 1277, and in 1284 the Statute of Wales was issued, in which Edward stated that Wales and its people were wholly and entirely transferred to our proper dominion.

Plans for the sculpture - which will cost 395,000 - were unveiled on Friday. According to the Welsh Government, it could be seven metres high and 30 metres wide.

Plaid Cymru has welcomed the rethink.

Plaid Cymru AM Llyr Gruffydd said: This crass design for a sculpture to symbolise Wales oppression was inappropriate and insulting to the people of Wales.

"It showed a serious lack of judgement by the Welsh Government, which failed to consult with local people about this 400,000 sculpture.

"The Labour government has rightly been shamed into rethinking its design, however it has failed to acknowledge how disrespectful this plan was. The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy should apologise for its bad judgement.

He should heed the words of Plaid Cymru MPs who wrote to him stating that nations with a robust grasp of their history erect monuments to their peoples liberty, not conquest.

I hope to see the Welsh Government announce a new design soon for an installation at Flint Castle that both recognises and respects our past. I am sure the people of Flint and the whole of Wales would be happy to support that.

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NSW ALP set to back Palestine despite ‘furious’ lobbying by Israeli government – The Sydney Morning Herald

Posted: at 7:39 pm

Labor leader Bill Shorten will be under increasing pressure to recognise Palestine after the party's NSW conference appears set to make an "historic" push to do so, despite some MPs complaining about "extraordinary interventions" and lobbying against the motion by the Israeli government.

On Friday afternoon shortly before NSW Labor Right figures met to negotiate on the wording of a proposal that would "urge" a future federal Labor government to recognise a Palestinian state, state MPs who were delegates at this weekend's NSW party conference received an email.

"Time and again throughout its history Israel has extended a hand of peace only to have it rejected by the Palestinians," the three-page document from the Public Affairs Section of the Israeli Embassy labelled as a fact sheet and obtained by Fairfax Media, reads. "The international community must speak up against the culture of oppression, genocidal rhetoric, terror and incitement that is prevalent among the Palestinians."

Former Premier Bob Carr told Fairfax Media there had been a "furious" lobbying campaign against the motion, which will "urge" a future federal Labor government to recognise Palestine and be voted on by 800 party conference delegates on Sunday.

"How did they know which MPs were delegates [only up to one-third of caucus go to conference]?" one NSW MP told Fairfax Media on condition of anonymity, saying the list was not publicly available.

An email and phone call to the Israeli Embassy in Canberra was not returned.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr said: "It's an honour to be asked by the party to move anhistoric motion that supports recognition of Palestine and to do so in the face of a furious lobbying campaign."

The final motion does include an affirmation of a two-state solution and supports Israel's right to exist, something pro-Israel Labor MPs said was an insertion that followed a compromise between Labor factions.

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Pro-Palestinian NSW MPs claim they were subject to other lobbying last week from official and back channels, such as suggestions of alternative motions including that Australia only acknowledge Palestine when that country's institutions improve.

Mr Carr caused a fissure in the Gillard government by advocating abstaining on a motion before the UN on upgrading Palestine's official observer status, when the then-PM advocated voting against the proposal.

Mr Carr later wrote in his memoirs that the former prime minister was overly influenced by the Israel lobby and constituents in Melbourne.

Backers say the motion is an historic break for Labor, whose support for Israel dates back to its the 1940s and backing from party legend and former UN General Assembly President, Doc Evatt.

But that support, particularly in the NSW Right, has been weakening recently, particularly as the party relies more heavily on voters descended from middle-eastern countries in Sydney's west for its supporter base.

Earlier this month frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said foreign affairs was a matter for the party's national conference and would not be influenced by state branches.

But state conferences can influence policy debate significantly, party insiders say. Queensland Labor's conference this weekend also reportedly backed recognition.

At Labor's last national conference leader Bill Shorten's Victorian Right faction opposed any change to policy on Palestinian recognition.

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NSW ALP set to back Palestine despite 'furious' lobbying by Israeli government - The Sydney Morning Herald

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The War on Drugs Is a Failure, So Jeff Sessions Is All for It – Truthdig

Posted: at 7:39 pm

Attorney General Jeff Sessions at an April meeting of the executive committee of the Organized Crime Council and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. (Alex Brandon / AP)

The war on drugs in the United States didnt work the first time, so Jeff Sessions wants to give it another shot. Thanks to a new policy announced Thursday by the U.S. attorney general, people convicted on drug charges now can expect to receive a stiff minimum sentence. The policy change follows the Obama administrations sweeping reduction in harsh prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, a move that won support across the political spectrum.

In May, Sessions sent a memorandum to federal prosecutors across the country urging them to charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense in all criminal cases, even though overall crime is lower than it has been in decades. The following day, Sessions delivered remarks at the Drug Enforcement Administration 360 Heroin and Opioid Response Summit in West Virginia and emphasized that criminal enforcement is crucial to stopping the violent transnational cartels that smuggle drugs across our borders, and the thugs and gangs who bring this poison into our communities.

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If that language sounds familiar, its because Ronald Reagan said something eerily similar in 1988, when many of the current mandatory minimums were put on the books. We cannot tolerate criminals who violate our borders, terrorize our communities, or poison our citizens, Reagan said, laying the groundwork for his new strategy to reduce the supply and demand for illegal drugs.

Nearly 30 years later, theres still ample supply and booming demand for drugs. And now, after the federal governments brief experiment with an alternative approach, Sessions is ensuring that the strategy for fighting the war on drugs will regress.

The bad effects of the so-called war on drugsunfair treatment of people of color and the poor, an immense cost to taxpayers, overcrowded prisons and little to no reduction in drug-related crime or recidivism ratesseem to be completely lost on Sessions.

Amid the overwhelming evidence that minimum sentences for nonviolent federal drug offenses do little except exacerbate mass incarcerationwhich is perhaps the most pressing civil rights problem of our timeits hard to imagine that Sessions return to old policies is not just an attempt to tighten governmental control over people of color and the poor.

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison calls Sessions a racist and views his rise to attorney general as a nightmare scenario, the MinnPost reports. Hes horrible on every issue. He believes in using the criminal justice system as an instrument of racial and economic control of poor people and brown people, Ellison charged.

Focusing on drug offenses at the federal level has proved futile before, even though Sessions argues that the 2015 rise in murder rates was somehow a result of a 2013 directive by his predecessor, Eric Holder, that scaled back federal prosecutions in lower-level drug cases. The Washington Post explains:

First, federal prosecutors handle fewer than 10 percent of all criminal cases, so a modest change in their charging policy with respect to a subset of drug cases is unlikely to have a nationwide impact on crime. The other 90 percent of criminal prosecution is conducted by state prosecutors, who were not affected by Holders policy.

Second, the few individuals who benefited from Holders policy by definition lacked a sustained history of crime or violence or any connections to major drug traffickers.

Third, the increases in violent crime that Sessions cites are not nationally uniform, which one would expect if they were attributable to federal policy. In 2015, murder rates rose in Chicago, Cleveland, and Baltimore, to be sure. But they declined in Boston and El Paso, and stayed relatively steady in New York, Las Vegas, Detroit and Atlanta. If federal drug policy were responsible for the changes, we would not see such dramatic variances from city to city.

The ACLU released a statement saying that Sessions is pushing federal prosecutors to reverse progress and repeat a failed experiment. Additionally, a former Senate staffer who helped draft a prominent minimum-sentencing law supported by Sessions says now that the legislation has proved to be ineffective and poorly thought out.

In June, the History Channel aired a four-part documentary series called Americas War on Drugs. The series asserts that the war on drugs was actually a war of drugsand that the CIA was essentially a partner in spreading drugs and drug use. The series follows how the U.S. intelligence agency, in an obsession with fighting communism, allied itself with U.S. organized crime and foreign drug traffickers and includes firsthand accounts from many involved. In an interview with Truthdig columnist Sonali Kolhatkar on her radio program Rising Up With Sonali, the series executive producer, Anthony Lapp, explains why the CIA got involved:

Its actually a pretty mind-blowing story when you look at the extent to which the CIA was involved with drug traffickers and drug trafficking throughout the Cold War. If you look at Cold War policy against the Soviet Union, we were locked in a global battle for supremacy, where we have lots of proxy wars going on. We needed to team up with local allies, and often the local allies we were teaming up with were people who had access to guns, who had access to underground networks, to help us fight the perceived threat of communism. There are actually a lot of similarities between what drug traffickers do and what the CIA does.

Lapp elaborates by saying the hypocrisy of the war on drugs has been evident from the start: Secret CIA experiments with LSD helped fuel the counterculture movement, leading to President Richard Nixons crackdown and declaration of the war on drugs.

The series also explores the CIAs role in the rise of crack cocaine in poor black communities and a secret island cocaine base. In addition the documentary makes the connection between the war on drugs, the war on terror and the transformation of Afghanistan into a narco state and contends that American intervention in Mexico helped give clout to Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn and the super cartels, making it easier to send drugs across American borders.

Watch Kolhatkars full interview with Lapp below.

Perhaps the serieswhich offered a thorough analysis of the CIAs involvement in the global drug trade for the first time on mainstream cable televisionmight be of interest to Jeff Sessions.

Posted by Emily Wells

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The War on Drugs Is a Failure, So Jeff Sessions Is All for It - Truthdig

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