'To my sister Amanda Bynes you're not alone. I'm here for you. I understand,' Cannon writes in his lengthy note about the hardships of navigating fame.
By Gil Kaufman
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711610/amanda-bynes-nick-cannon-open-letter.jhtml
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MEXICO CITY |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's opposition conservative party proposed sweeping energy reform on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow more private investment and promote competition, while the ruling party is expected to present its own plans for an overhaul next week.
Both parties favor market-friendly policies in Latin America's No. 2 economy and are expected to join forces to push through energy reform.
"Everything indicates that the (energy reform) initiative of President Pena Nieto will arrive next week," said Senator Emilio Gamboa, leader of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the upper chamber of Congress.
However, lawmakers from the center-right National Action Party, or PAN, were the first to come out with a detailed bill that aims to provide the biggest private-sector opening of the state-run oil sector in decades.
The party called for changes to the constitution to give oil companies incentives to boost the nation's sliding energy output.
The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, has made clear it will not support constitutional changes, which it argues are tantamount to privatization.
"We have set the bar in line with the size of the challenge in Mexico and we urge lawmakers from the PRI and PRD to approach what we can achieve with audacity," the PAN's national chairman Gustavo Madero told reporters as the bill was unveiled in the Senate.
The PAN's bill marks the opening bid in what is expected to be a heated debate over the future of the country's ample oil and gas reserves. Mexico is the world's 10th biggest producer of crude oil, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The conservative party's proposed legislation is broadly in line with the thinking of Pena Nieto's PRI, which has also called for constitutional reforms.
The PRI will need the PAN's backing in Congress to achieve the two-thirds majority to push through constitutional reform. That would bypass a political pact forged by the three main parties, which achieved consensus on a batch of economic changes earlier this year, and could complicate future reform efforts.
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
The PAN's proposal would end a prohibition on oil and gas concessions and risk-sharing contracts enshrined in Article 27 of the constitution.
In place of the ban on concessions and contracts, the text of the PAN's proposed amendment says the state "should guarantee the maximum benefit of oil profits for the nation from the work of the operators who conduct exploration and production activities."
Mexico's current sole oil and gas operator is the state-run monopoly Pemex.
Overall, the PAN's proposal would reform Articles 25, 27 and 28 of the constitution. It would eliminate public-sector exclusivity over the generation, transportation and distribution of electricity, and strengthen the country's energy regulatory bodies by making them autonomous. Those details would be dealt with in so-called secondary laws.
The bill would create a new national petroleum fund to administer the country's energy riches, but still keep all oil and gas resources under public ownership.
PAN leaders emphasized that they were open to negotiating the fine print of how oil companies would be compensated under a more open, competitive energy sector.
"At the end of the day, how you pay them, whether with money or oil, is practically the same," Salvador Vega, a PAN senator, told Reuters.
"We are not closed to any kind of model. In fact, we are looking at all types of models. That is where the most important part of the debate will be ... whether we move to a kind of royalty, taxes on products or benefits."
The PAN's bill was filed with the Senate, which will formally kick off the debate on energy reform on September 1 when the new congressional session begins.
(Additional reporting by Michael O'Boyle.; Editing by Simon Gardner and Christopher Wilson)
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/environment/~3/3tYV7y0Fpno/story01.htm
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By Richard Cowan and Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Tea Party-inspired plan to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare law by forcing a government shutdown unless funds to implement the law are denied has not gained traction among senior Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
"I think leadership is giving other options that they think are more effective," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner.
Tiberi, speaking to Reuters following a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, said that while a final decision probably had not been made, his colleagues are more likely to continue pushing for Congress to repeal individual provisions of "Obamacare."
Republicans have been on a continuous campaign to kill Obama's landmark healthcare law, which aims to help provide medical insurance for millions of people who cannot afford it on their own. They argue that the law, which is taking effect in stages, will discourage job creation and saddle businesses with higher costs.
Tea Party-backed conservatives in the Senate, including Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, have been trying to persuade enough of their fellow Republicans to join them in a high-stakes gamble that would threaten a government shutdown on the start of the new fiscal year, October 1, unless legislation to keep Washington operating specifically defunds Obamacare.
More senior Senate Republicans have savaged the idea, with some calling it "dumb," "silly," "feckless" and "dishonest."
On September 30, federal funding expires for hundreds of federal programs, ranging from military activities and NASA space exploration to federal parks, education and job training.
A dozen funding bills for the fiscal year starting on October 1 are pending in Congress but are unlikely to be completed by that deadline.
The result is that Congress will either have to pass a temporary funding bill, called a continuing resolution or CR, or risk government closings. Tea Party-backed senators who want to attach the Obamacare provision have complicated already difficult negotiations over government spending levels.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, asked about chances of his chamber going along with demands of Tea Party-backed senators on the funding bill, told reporters: "This is just something the White House will not accept and we've got to have a CR."
Representative Tom Cole, another longtime House Republican, told reporters that he had seen "an awful lot of push-back" on the idea, adding, "I don't sense that there's nearly enough unanimity in either the Senate or the House Republican conferences to push an approach like that."
With Congress about to start a month-long break, Boehner said he will keep mulling ways to tackle end-of-fiscal-year funding problems.
"I'm confident that when we get into the fall, it may be a messy process, but I suspect we'll find a way to deal with it," Boehner told reporters.
(Editing by Vicki Allen)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-republicans-leery-obamacare-defunding-idea-193211835.html
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When fake tan meets the seams of a white wedding dress, it can make for a very tacky affair. Add to that a good chance you'll look too tanned against your groom, and not the least bit like yourself. While some say a spray will take more kilos off your already primed bridal body, we say go the safe route and use a gradual tan in the weeks leading up to your big day. Try a few out over the months proceeding, and make sure you photograph yourself a few days into the process to see which shade you like the best. Take notes on the application process, colour, scent and longevity. We've done some of the hard work for you, here's seven of our favourites.
Source: http://www.bellasugar.com.au/Best-Gradual-Tanner-Use-Your-Wedding-31043796
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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel thinks it's important for Siemens AG to get back to smooth sailing after the German engineering group's announcement that it plans to remove CEO Peter Loescher, a government spokesman said Monday.
"From her point of view, Siemens is a flagship of German business, and so it is important to her that this global company returns to calm waters," spokesman Georg Streiter said, while stressing that removing Loescher was "a company decision."
Munich-based Siemens makes industrial machinery such as power generation and transmission equipment, high-speed trains, and medical diagnostic scanners. It has 370,000 employees, including 56,500 in the United States, and is active in 190 countries.
The company's stock dropped last Thursday after it said it would miss its 2014 goal of 12 percent profit margin, blaming "lower market expectations." On Saturday, Siemens announced its board of directors would decide Wednesday on Loescher's departure and choose another company executive as president and CEO.
News media speculation has focused on chief financial officer Joe Kaeser as the likely replacement.
Company shares traded little changed Monday on the first trading day after Loescher's departure became apparent, up 0.2 percent at 79.86 euros in early afternoon trading in Europe.
Loescher, a company outsider hired in 2007 from drug company Merck & Co., Inc., helped Siemens move past a corruption scandal involving payoffs to win contracts. But the company has lately missed profit targets and has had other slips such as late delivery of trains to Germany's Deutsche Bahn railway and cross-channel railway Eurostar.
The company is worth 70.4 billion euros in market capitalization and had net profit of 4.59 billion euros for its 2011-2012 fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The profit figure was down 27 percent on the previous year. Revenues last year were 78.3 billion euros.
Siemens reports earnings for the latest quarter on Thursday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merkel-calls-siemens-return-calm-waters-103157430.html
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-syrian-electronic-army-just-hacked-another-big-twit-956491103
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MUNCIE, Indiana ? On a hot summer night in 1930, Shaffer American Methodist Episcopal Church in Whitely became a part of 20th century American history.
Without financial help, however, the building and only historical site in the city's neighborhood, will crumble before residents' eyes, leaving only the stories of its members' bravery behind.
"This is an important site not only for African-Americans, but for all of Muncie," said Cornelius Dollison, who married his wife, Mary, in Shaffer 51 years ago. "We're raising money not just to improve the church, but to improve a piece of history and the last piece of history from a horrible event. We don't want people to forget what happened."
On Aug 7, 1930, the last recorded lynching in a northern state took place in Marion, Indiana, after the arrest of two black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, for the alleged rape of a white resident.
Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit," along with the poem of the same name, were written in response to the Marion lynching.
When no one in Marion or its surrounding towns would take the bodies and prepare them for burial, Shaffer's pastor J. E Johnson, also a Muncie mortician, volunteered to embalm the bodies.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan came to Whitely looking for the bodies ? and Johnson ? to add more terror to the situation.
Instead, they encountered a group of black residents who held an all-night vigil at Shaffer, eventually prompting the Klan to leave the site and spare Johnson's life.
"I was a little kid when all of that happened, but people always talked about it. Even when I got older, people talked about it," Hurley Goodall, a member of Shaffer, told The Star Press (http://tspne.ws/162Vxhz ). He was also married in the church. "That's what made me want to be an activist. Knowing the community fought back when the Klan was powerful. What those people did was an inspiration."
These days, the Shaffer congregation is smaller and older, but members are still strong in their faith for God and civil rights.
Unfortunately, the building doesn't carry the same strength.
With broken stairs, cracks in the facade, uneven landscaping and an old historical marker, Whitely residents and members of its neighborhood association are calling on Munsonians to donate to the Shaffer Chapel fund.
The Whitely Community Council has long made it their goal to beautify the neighborhood. Bringing pride and glory back to the chapel is a key feature, members said.
With the help of 20 Ball State University elementary education students, the neighborhood association will create fundraisers for the chapel.
"We think it'll be an amazing opportunity for our students to work alongside members of a community in a project like this," said Eva Zygmunt, an associate professor in elementary education leading the student component of the fundraisers. "When they enter their (future) classrooms and communities, they will understand how important it is to engage in communities where they teach ... learn more about where the students live."
The council, which now has tax-exempt status as a nonprofit, hopes to raise $50,000 to fix the broken stairs and improve the landscaping on the Shaffer site. Members also plan to build a ramp for the church to make it accessible for its older population.
The major building improvement will be the creation of a larger marker to denote the role Shaffer members played in providing two men with what Whitely residents called "a respectable burial."
The Klan was outnumbered by prayerful black residents in the summer of 1930, at least for one night.
And the northern states never had a lynching similar to the one in Marion again.
"It's so important for everyone to take pride in what went on in Whitely then and to take pride in the neighborhood now," said Mary Dollison. "This is a historical site for the city and we've taken it on as a project. ... With the community's help, we'll be able to create a site we can all be proud of, a site we can remember."
Information from: The Star Press, http://www.thestarpress.com
Source: http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/11691998c4db4545836ebab568141611/IN--Exchange-Saving-the-Chapel
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