New Poll: Americans Believe Bayer-Monsanto Merger Poses Serious Threats to Jobs, Independent Farmers, and Food Safety
Americans, including Trump voters, want administration to take aggressive stance on corporate monopolies
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A recently released poll shows that 9 in 10 Americans have serious concerns about the potential merger of major agrochemical companies Bayer AG and Monsanto. In a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll of 1,506 registered voters, Americans expressed overwhelmingly negative thoughts about the merger’s impacts on jobs, food safety, and independent farmers. The merger of Bayer and Monsanto is currently under review by the U.S. Department of Justice, and is one of three major potential mergers in the agribusiness industry currently under consideration.
According to the poll:
80% of Trump voters believe that the merger of Bayer and Monsanto will result in fewer jobs. History backs up their concerns: the recent merger of DuPont and Dow resulted in the layoff of 1,700 Dow employees in Delaware, and more cuts are expected across the country soon.
90% of Americans, including 92% of Trump voters, believe that the Trump Administration should take a more aggressive stance towards corporate monopolies.
89% of Trump voters are concerned that the Bayer-Monsanto merger will harm independent farmers and farming communities.
85% of Americans are concerned that the Bayer-Monsanto merger will increase chemical contamination of their food. When asked about the merger’s impact on their quality of life, chemical contamination of food and farmland were the most serious concerns.
“History shows that Bayer and Monsanto’s toxic mega-merger will be devastating for American consumers, farmers, workers and our environment,” said Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Food Futures Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “It’s time for Trump to listen to the American people -- including 92 percent of his voters -- and protect our farmers and families instead of his corporate cronies.”
“The potential merger between Bayer and Monsanto is a massive threat to food supply and farmers around the world,” said Anne Isakowitsch, Campaign Manager at SumOfUs. “Now that Monsanto and Bayer are closer than ever to this potentially disastrous takeover of our global agricultural system, we must all step up our efforts and speak out. The future of farming and food safety depend on it. This deal has the capability to usher in a new era of sterile crops soaked in dangerous pesticides around the world; we cannot not simply allow this to happen.”
In a poll commissioned by Friends of the Earth and SumOfUs, PPP surveyed a demographically representative sample of 1,506 registered voters nationwide from June 1-4, 2017. The margin of error is +/- 2.5%. This poll was conducted by automated telephone interviews. Click here to read PPP’s memo on the poll.
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Friends of the Earth fights to create a more healthy and just world. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, ensuring the food we eat and products we use are safe and sustainable, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.
SumOfUs is a global consumer watchdog. We mobilize consumers, investors, and workers to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our economy
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ANTI-TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION OFFICIALLY JOINS EFFORTS IN MEXICO
Operation Underground Railroad becomes an officially recognized organization in Mexico amidst international expansion
Salt Lake City, UT - U.S.-based anti-human trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) has been making strides to combat child sex trafficking on a global scale. This week O.U.R. became an officially recognized organization and charity in Mexico, building on the already substantial work the organization has done throughout the country. To date, O.U.R. has rescued 42 victims and assisted in the arrest of 17 traffickers throughout Mexico in partnership with local law enforcement. Additionally O.U.R. staff have been working with local partners and law enforcement agencies to provide them with adequate training and capabilities to detect, track, and ultimate dismantle these criminal enterprises throughout the country. This is part of the organization’s larger push to expand its international reach - expanding operations in India, Thailand, and Haiti.
“Becoming officially recognized in Mexico is an important step in achieving our goal of eradicating this modern day slavery throughout the country,” said O.U.R. CEO Tim Ballard. “Through cooperation with and recognition by governments on all levels we will continue to take down these networks wherever they operate. Our international partners have been extremely helpful and cooperative in achieving this goal.”
Operation Underground Railroad is registered 501(c)3 organization. Bringing together former CIA, Navy SEALs, and Special Ops operatives, O.U.R. partners with local law enforcement agencies around the world to save children from this modern day slavery. Founded by CEO Tim Ballard in 2013, O.U.R. has rescued more than 650 victims and helped arrest over 275 traffickers worldwide.
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Swamp Fights Back: Mueller Hires Clinton Foundation Lawyer for Russia Probe
Source: Breitbart
Special Counsel Robert Mueller hired Jeannie Rhee, who performed work for the Clinton Foundation, defending it from FOIA requests related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
06/01/2017
Clinton Emails Show Classified Information Sent to Clinton Foundation Employees
Source: Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch today released 2,078 pages of documents revealing more instances of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sending and receiving classified information via an unsecured email server.
03/22/2016
Clinton Documents Raise Questions on Benghazi, Clinton Foundation
Source: Judicial Watch
An August 2009 email chain including Hillary Clinton’s then- Chief of Staff Huma Abedin shows that the State Department coordinated with Clinton Foundation staff on how Mrs. Clinton to thank Foundation supporters/partners for their “commitments.”
10/07/2015
State Department Documents Raise More Questions on Clinton Conflict of Interest Reviews
Source: Judicial Watch
State Department ethics review documents concerning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveal that at least one speech by Bill Clinton appeared to take place without the required State Department ethics approval.
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Experts Offer Causes and Solutions
(Washington, DC) – As the annual National Charter School Conference begins to wind down, the two major themes emerging in and out of sessions are articulated best in a new report out by the Center for Education Reform today.
Charting a New Course: The Case for Freedom, Flexibility and Opportunity through Charter Schools is a compendium of best-practice research and analysis by experts in the field of education, comparing the approaches taken by two major groups fighting for dominance in the charter sector: system-centered reformers and parent-centered reformers.
The authors illuminate the adverse trends that threaten to undo much of what has been accomplished. Those trends center on two competing camps:
System-centered reformers “believe that bureaucrats and politicians should have ample authority to decide what schools may open and what schools must close using standardized test scores to make data-driven decisions,” according to the CER book.
Parent-centered reformers, on the other hand, “trust parents more than bureaucrats,” and “want to see a more open and dynamic system, where educational entrepreneurs are freer to open new schools and parents decide which schools should close and which should expand based on whether they want to send their children there.”
Echoing the themes in the new report, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos yesterday told the over 3,000 charter advocates gathered in Washington for the conference that playing it safe doesn’t mitigate risk, it actually is bad for students.
“…somewhere along the way... we’ve taken the colorful collage of charters and drawn our own set of lines around it to box others out, to mitigate risk, to play it safe. This is not what we set out to do, and, more importantly, it doesn’t help kids.
"No one has a monopoly on innovation,” Mrs. DeVos added. "No one has a monopoly on creativity. No one has a monopoly on knowing how every child learns.
“I thought it was a tough but fair criticism when a friend recently wrote in an article that many who call themselves ‘reformers’ have instead become just another breed of bureaucrats – a new education establishment.”
The book is a collaboration of Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform; Cara Stillings Candal, CER Research Fellow and board member of the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education; and Max Eden, Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
They write: “We believe that parents (who see their child come home from school every day) are better able than bureaucrats (who see mostly standardized tests scores) to judge the quality of the school they’ve chosen. We believe that if offered more freedom, educational entrepreneurs will embrace a variety of different approaches and offer parents a diverse range of options.”
Charting a New Course: The Case for Freedom, Flexibility, and Opportunity Through Charter Schools is available in hard copy for $39 by calling 202-750-0016 or free online here.
Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education
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Changes will reduce cost, improve flexibility and diversity in college savings investments
(Salt Lake City) The Utah Educational Savings Plan (UESP) announced today that it is lowering the Administrative Asset Fee for nine of 14 investment options, effective July 14, 2017.
UESP is also expanding the number of age brackets in all of its popular age-based investment options and redesigning the Age 19+ or College Enrolled age bracket. Utah’s official 529 plan is also adding more mutual funds to its customized investment options. These changes will also take effect on July 14, 2017.
“These changes will benefit thousands of accounts owned by UESP account owners by cutting costs and adding more flexibility and diversity to account portfolios,” said Lynne Ward, UESP executive director.
UESP offers 14 tax-advantaged investment options to families investing for future qualified higher education expenses. Almost 70 percent of UESP accounts are age-based, which automatically reallocate funds from equities to fixed-income investments as the beneficiary ages. Here are the details of the changes:
· UESP will lower the Administrative Asset Fee charged annually to accounts invested in the four predetermined age-based investment options and five static investment options to 0.160 percent from 0.170 percent, a savings of $0.10 per $1,000 invested. UESP continues to be a low-cost, high-quality 529 college savings plan.
· The number of age brackets will be increased to 10 from seven, with smaller equity step-downs between age brackets. The modifications should make accounts less vulnerable to sharp market fluctuations on the day when an account moves to the next age bracket.
· The College Enrolled trigger will be removed from each age-based investment option. Now, if an account owner withdraws funds to pay for the qualified higher education expenses of a middle school or high school student enrolled in a college class, the account is automatically placed in the Age 19+ or College Enrolled bracket, which has the most conservative mix of investments. When the College Enrolled trigger is removed, the account will remain in the bracket appropriate to the beneficiary’s age and continue to move down the glide path designed for the account owner’s investment option.
· UESP will add the Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund to the Age-Based Aggressive Global, Age-Based Moderate, and Age-Based Conservative investment options as an underlying investment. This fund will increase diversity and reduce potential investment risk. An international fixed-income investment currently is not available as an underlying investment in the age-based options.
· Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund (VWEAX), Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund (VFTSX), and Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 Portfolio (DFSIX) will be added as optional underlying funds for the Customized Age-Based and Customized Static investment options. VWEAX will increase the diversity of fixed-income investments. VFTSX and DFSIX invest in socially responsible companies.
UESP will release a new Program Description in July with details of all the changes.
About UESP
UESP, Utah’s official nonprofit 529 college savings plan, is highly ranked by Morningstar Inc., Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, Money magazine, CBS MoneyWatch.com, and consumer expert Clark Howard for its low fees and industry innovations such as its customized allocation investment options.
Accounts are free to open, and UESP requires no minimum deposit or account balance. UESP’s user-friendly website, uesp.org, makes it easy to open, manage, and contribute to an account online.
To learn more about the Utah Educational Savings Plan, visit uesp.org, call UESP toll-free at 800.418.2551, or send an email to info@uesp.org.
Important Legal Notice
Read the Program Description for more information and consider all investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. Call 800.418.2551 for a copy of the Program Description or visit uesp.org.
Investments in UESP are not guaranteed by UESP, the Utah State Board of Regents, the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority or any other state or federal agency. However, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance is provided for the FDIC-insured accounts. Please read the Program Description to learn about the FDIC-insured accounts. Your investment could lose value.
Non-Utah taxpayers and residents: You should determine whether the state in which you or your beneficiary pays taxes or lives offers a 529 plan that provides state tax or other benefits not otherwise available to you by investing in UESP. You should consider such state tax treatment and benefits, if any, before investing in UESP.
UESP does not provide legal, financial, investment, or tax advice, and the information provided in this document does not contain legal, financial, investment, or tax advice and cannot be construed as such or relied upon for those purposes. You should consult your own tax or legal advisor to determine the effect of federal and state tax laws on your particular situation.
A Morningstar Analyst Rating for a 529 College Savings Plan is not a credit or risk rating. Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Morningstar does not represent its Analyst Ratings to be guarantees. Please visit Morningstar.com for more information about the Analyst Ratings, as well as other Morningstar ratings and fund rankings.
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After Appeals Court Ruling, IRC Urges Trump Administration to Drop Travel Ban
New York, NY, June 12, 2017 - David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), renewed the call for the Trump administration to drop its push to reinstate the Travel Ban following today’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
Said Miliband, “The decision of the 9th US Circuit Court today is a comprehensive and telling judgement against the legality of the Administration’s Travel Ban. It is now well past time for the Administration to recognize that the Ban is neither good law nor good policy. There is an easy way out of the legal morass: for the Administration to leave existing arrangements in place while they conduct a security review. It is harder to get to the US as a refugee than by any other route.
“A robust resettlement program is not just the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do: it furthers US foreign policy and national security goals, brings positive economic contributions to US communities, keeps families together, and most importantly, it saves lives. We join with bipartisan leaders from Congress in opposing any renewed efforts to reinstate a Travel Ban, and support the values upon which this nation was founded by standing with refugees.”
Ends
IRC spokespeople are available for interviews. Please contact communications@rescue.org or +1 646 761 0307 for more information and to schedule an interview.
ABOUT THE IRC
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 28 offices across the U.S. helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities. Learn more at www.rescue.org and follow the IRC on Twitter & Facebook.
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DENVER—In a Federal Register notice released today, the Bureau of Land Management announced it would suspend key parts of a rule designed to limit methane waste from oil and gas operations on public lands. In May, the United States Senate voted against eliminating this rule. In response the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Advocacy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn:
“Last month Congress explicitly opposed killing these safeguards with a bipartisan vote, but it seems oil and gas CEOs have an ace up their sleeve—Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. This reckless decision will leave Westerners with dirtier air to breathe and cheat taxpayers out of money owed to all Americans.
“These commonsense safeguards will ensure more natural gas is captured and sold, and will create jobs designing and installing methane capture technology. Instead of looking out for all Americans, Secretary Zinke is simply ignoring rules on the books at the behest of oil and gas companies.”
Eliminating the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste rule was a major priority for the oil and gas industry, which spent millions lobbying Congress. Last month, Senators McCain (R-AZ), Graham (R-SC) and Collins (R-ME) joined Democrats to defeat a Congressional Review Act resolution that would have eliminated the methane waste rule and prevented substantially similar rules from being issued in the future.
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To speak with an expert on public lands, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org.
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EMILY BELL & THE TALKBACKS
ANNOUNCE SUMMER TOUR
AUGUST 7 | KILBY COURT | SALT LAKE CITY, UT
June 7th, 2017 - Austin, TX - Emily Bell & The Talkbacks will be heading out on tour this summer. The tour kicks off in San Antonio, TX and continues throughout the west including cities like Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin. Check out the full list of tour dates below -
Emily Bell & The Talkbacks recently released their new EP Kali on April 21st, 2017. The 5-song EP is packed with unapologetic female anthems, each with its own message of empowerment. To quote Lemonade Magazine "This epic 5-song EP is a nonstop emotional bombshell." Fans can now stream Kali on Spotify or download from Apple Music, here.
The explosive music video for "Can't Talk Back" was released earlier this year. Fans can watch it now here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCLhWz4iJ8
Over the past few years, alt-rock artist Emily Bell has been on a path of glorious destruction, moving away from industry artistic paradigms to follow the music yelling at her from within. Kali, is in reference to the Hindu Goddess of Destruction. Like its moniker suggests, Kali is a boldly expressive release. Impose Magazine calls the EP "an album of five ferocious rock n' roll tunes from one of Texas' most talented songwriters."
Bell's debut, In Technicolor, garnered rave reviews from press and radio. In Austin, she was awarded "Best New Artist" by the Austin Music Awards. Select highlights during that album cycle include performances at SXSW, CMJ, and Float Fest.
Upcoming Shows
July 20th - San Antonio, TX @ The Mix
July 21st - El Paso, TX @ The Perch at Tricky Falls
July 22nd - Scottsdale, AZ @ Rogue Bar
July 26th - Las Vegas, NV @ Beauty Bar
July 27th - San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink
July 29th - Fresno, CA @ Tioga Sequoia
July 30th - San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah
July 31st - Los Angeles, CA @ School Night @ Bardot
August 4th - Seattle, WA @ Funhouse
August 5th - Boise, ID @ Reef
August 7th - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
August 8th - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
August 10th - Dallas, TX @ Double Wide
August 11th - Austin, TX @ Stubb's Jr.
Follow Emily Bell & The Talkbacks:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyBellMusic/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/emilybellmusic
Instagram: http://instagram.com/emilybellmusic
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