A couple days before Christmas 1995, then-Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole grew fed up with his negotiating partners in Newt Gingrich’s House of Representatives and the Clinton White House.
“It’s time for adult leadership,” the Kansas Republican declared during a Senate floor speech.
Using a favorite phrase of his tenure as one of Washington’s most prominent figures, Dole emerged as the leader in talks to reopen the federal government amid a budget standoff pitting the House speaker, Gingrich (R-Ga.), against President Bill Clinton.
That “adult leadership” made a rare appearance Wednesday in the Capitol. President Trump and the bipartisan leadership awarded Dole, 94, with the Congressional Gold Medal, and it served as a stark contrast to today’s partisan toxicity, the whiff of another shutdown in the air.
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President Trump and congressinoal leaders pay tribute to former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) on Wednesday. In a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, Dole received the Congressional Gold Medal. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
With more than 2 billion users, Facebook’s reach now rivals that of Christianity and exceeds that of Islam. However, the network’s laser focus on profits and user growth has come at the expense of its users, according to one former Facebook manager who is now speaking out against the social platform.
“One of the things that I saw consistently as part of my job was the company just continuously prioritized user growth and making money over protecting users,” the ex-manager, Sandy Parakilas, who worked at Facebook for 16 months, starting in 2011, told NBC News. During his tenure at Facebook, Parakilas led third-party advertising, privacy and policy compliance on Facebook’s app platform.
As Facebook transitioned from a Harvard dorm-room project into one of the world’s most valuable companies, its power grew in ways that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg never could have anticipated.
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Facebook is a ‘living, breathing crime scene,’ says one former tech insider
North and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to march their athletes together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month and to field a joint women’s ice hockey team. It was the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between them in a decade.
South Korea, host of the games, has said it hopes such a partnership in sports could contribute to a political thaw after years of high tensions. It came even as the prospect of war over the North’s nuclear and missile tests has grown especially acute.
The Games will begin on Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the women’s ice-hockey squad will be the first combined Korean team for the Olympics, and the first unified team since their athletes played together for an international table-tennis championship and a youth soccer tournament in 1991.
The two countries’ delegations will march at the opening ceremony behind a “unified Korea” flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula, negotiators from both sides said in a joint news release after talks at the border village of Panmunjom. The North will send 230 supporters to the Games, and negotiators agreed that supporters of both Koreas would root together for athletes from both countries.
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North and South Korean athletes marched together during the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.CreditAmy Sancetta/Associated Press
The private school had a welcoming name. The principal was scientifically minded. But the Sandcastle Day School was a nightmare for the six students enrolled there.
David A. Turpin created the school inside his nondescript stucco home southeast of Los Angeles. But the only ones enrolled there were the six of his 13 children who were school age. And what took place inside was not teaching but torture, the authorities said, after they raided the house over the weekend and found a horrifying scene of emaciated children chained to furniture. The putrid smell overwhelmed them.
By creating such a school of horrors, Mr. Turpin had kept the authorities at bay. His children were never seen by teachers or counselors. Their absences never raised suspicions. On Tuesday, state and local officials were on the defensive as they tried to explain how such things could have occurred in a private school the state had sanctioned.
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Members of the news media were parked outside the home of David A. Turpin and Louise A. Turpin in Perris, Calif.CreditMike Blake/Reuters
A fresh layer of snow blanketed the ground on the night of Dec. 31, 1967, and revelers in Times Square and Central Park seemed to look to the future with some hope. “World Bids Adieu to a Violent Year” was the Jan. 1 headline in The New York Times.
But 1968 would be tumultuous, too.
Even from the distance of a half-century, the moment feels familiar. From January to December, people demonstrated against racial injustice and economic inequality. Abroad, the United States military slogged through a seemingly interminable war. And after two terms with a Democrat in the White House, a Republican presidential candidate campaigned on a promise of law and order, and won.
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An American lieutenant carried a wounded South Vietnamese Ranger to an ambulance in February 1968, during the Tet offensive.Dang Van Phuoc/Associated Press
A green, military-style Humvee drove along the shore here, the beach on one side, the shuttered Four Seasons Hotel on the other. Up in the hillsides, a no-go zone for civilians, multimillion-dollar mansions are flooded with mud, and cars, tossed about like playthings, are now just hunks of twisted metal, jammed against trees.
On the facades of the big homes are orange markings. An X denotes the house was checked and cleared by rescuers. A V indicates a victim was pulled, alive, from the wreckage. A V with a slash through it indicates a dead body was found.
Unimaginable tragedy struck this small, exclusive enclave, nestled between the mountains and the ocean and home to many celebrities, last week when a torrential downpour — a “once in 200 years” storm, officials are quick to say — set off deadly mudslides in a landscape that, just last month, was scorched from the state’s largest wildfire on record.
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Mansions in Montecito, Calif., were destroyed in last week’s mudslides. Residents are familiar with the inherent dangers of living in the area, but for many, its appeal is undimmed.CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times
After Serena Williams gave birth everything went bad! The 36-year-old developed blood clots in her lungs and had two operations before leaving the hospital. Not only is Serena a tennis star but she’s also a superstar mom!
There is no city in the world like New Orleans. Influences from Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and indigenous peoples have made it the ultimate melting pot. And that diversity expresses itself in a multitude of ways that define New Orleans in the American imagination: music, food, language, and on and on. Though it’s been a long recovery from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans isn’t just back on its feet, it is as vibrant as ever — particularly impressive for a 300-year old.
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A starter kit for escaping into the world.
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Click link below,THEN click picture on right to navigate 52 places:
Joan Blades and John Gable want you to make friends with people who vote differently than you do.A pair of political opposites, the two longtime pals know the value of engaging in honest conversations with people you don’t immediately agree with. Join them as they explain how to bridge the gaps in understanding between people on opposite sides of the political spectrum — and create opportunities for mutual listening and consideration (and, maybe, lasting friendships.)
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
President Trump and congressinoal leaders pay tribute to former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) on Wednesday. In a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, Dole received the Congressional Gold Medal. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
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After Serena Williams gave birth …
A starter kit for escaping into the world.
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