SKorea spokesman fired over 'disgraceful incident'

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? South Korean President Park Geun-hye fired her chief spokesman because of what her office said Friday was a "disgraceful incident" during Park's trip to the United States, in what could be a domestic blow after an otherwise widely praised appearance in Washington.

Without elaborating, the presidential Blue House said on its website that unspecified actions by spokesman Yoon Chang-jung marred the government's dignity.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited a Washington police complaint as saying a 56-year-old man grabbed a woman's buttocks in a Washington hotel on Tuesday. Yoon, who is 56, wasn't named in the report.

An email seeking police confirmation wasn't immediately answered. The Blue House said officials in its embassy in Washington were investigating, but Yoon couldn't be reached for comment.

Park traveled to Washington seeking a show of unity with her country's top ally at a time of high tension with rival North Korea, which unleashed a torrent of threats against Washington and Seoul in March and April. Her performance during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama and in a speech to the U.S. Congress won praise in Washington, but her spokesman's firing could cause her political problems in Seoul.

Park, who was inaugurated in late February, faced bitter opposition in her first month on the job to policy proposals and her choices for top government posts, many of whom withdrew amid corruption and other claims.

Yoon, a conservative columnist before joining Park's team last year and becoming spokesman after the inauguration, was disliked by many progressives. South Korea's political and social landscape is fiercely divided. And Park, who was elected in December, has long faced claims from opponents of being aloof and an "imperial" decision-maker. She is the eldest child of late President Park Chung-hee, who led South Korea for 18 years in the 1960s and '70s and is both denounced for human rights abuses and praised as a strong leader.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-spokesman-fired-over-disgraceful-incident-100358293.html

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Wade Robson: Michael Jackson Was a Sexually Abusive Monster and Everyone Knows It

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/wade-robson-michael-jackson-was-a-sexually-abusive-monster-and-e/

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Republican senator's bill to target 'political intelligence' firms

By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Law firms, brokerages and other companies that analyze the U.S. government for investors could be forced to disclose client lists and other sensitive information under legislation that a top Republican lawmaker hopes to soon resurrect.

Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who is investigating whether one such "political intelligence" firm engaged in insider trading last month, will introduce a bill shortly that would shed light on the industry, a spokeswoman for Grassley said.

A similar effort passed the Democratic-controlled Senate last year as part of a crackdown on insider trading by lawmakers and staffers, but it was stripped out of the broader bill in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

It's not clear whether Grassley's bill will fare better this year, but it could get a boost from the investigation into Height Securities LLC, a company that helps interpret Washington for investors.

Height Securities drew the scrutiny of Grassley's staff and the Securities and Exchange Commission because of its April 1 research report that prompted a surge in healthcare stocks. The report correctly predicted that President Barack Obama's administration would keep certain medical payment rates in place, rather than cutting them as previously announced.

Height's report came out 18 minutes before the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made its official announcement. The alert enabled Height clients to bargain that health stocks would rise before other investors were able to profit from the information.

Height said it did nothing wrong and based its report on several sources, including information that had leaked out a few weeks earlier.

"We are a registered, highly regulated securities firm that conducts investment research like thousands of other financial analysts across the country in complete compliance with the law," said Adam Goldberg, a spokesman for Height Securities. He said the firm is cooperating with both the SEC and Grassley's office.

The investigation has highlighted the political intelligence industry, a loosely defined contingent of consultants who interpret regulations and politics for Wall Street players. Housed in brokerage firms, lobbying shops and free-standing research outfits, the industry has become more prominent in recent years as events like the Wall Street bailout and Obama's healthcare reform have underscored Washington's impact on the economy.

Critics say political intelligence firms are an outgrowth of a pay-to-play culture that gives Wall Street and other interests unfair access to the powerful.

"In a system in Washington that's already awash in money, here is yet another advantage that moneyed interests have," said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit group that seeks greater disclosure.

JUST LIKE LOBBYISTS?

Grassley's bill last year would have required political intelligence firms to list their names and client lists, much like the disclosure now filed by lobbying firms.

This year's bill will be similar, an aide said. New York Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter is expected to sponsor a similar bill in the House.

That could make it easier for regulators and law enforcement officials to uncover cases of insider trading, said Kenneth Gross, a partner at Skadden Arps's political law practice.

But the measure will almost certainly face resistance from financial companies and other groups that argued the measure was too broad. A group of 40,000 business lawyers said last year that it could interfere with routine legal research, client discussions and communications with regulators.

Deciding whether a company would have to register under the proposal could be difficult. Some are registered as brokerages or investment advisers, while others are consulting firms not subject to regulatory scrutiny.

Height Securities, for example, is a Washington-based broker-dealer that is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Its research arm, Height Analytics, is an investment adviser overseen by state securities regulators in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut.

(Editing by Marilyn Thompson and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republican-senators-bill-target-political-intelligence-firms-223543603.html

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Chute Raises $7M To Help Publishers And Brands Manage User-Generated Photos (And Use Them In Ads)

Chute, a startup that offers tools for collecting and displaying photos, has raised $7 million in Series A Funding. The round was led by Foundry Group, with participation from existing investors Freestyle Capital and US Venture Partners. Chute previously raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Freestyle.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hoZP1kdz85w/

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Problems with today's press? Religion is No. 1 - Patheos

After a busy Pascha weekend, I need to jump back into the tmatt file of guilt for a moment or two.

You just know, with a single glance at the title on this essay, that dozens of GetReligion readers were going to clutch the mice to the side of their keyboards and forward this piece to us quicker than you can say, ?The press ? just doesn?t get religion.?

It helps that the byline ? Carl M. Cannon ? belongs to a man known as a top-rank White House correspondent. In other words, he gets politics which means that, among elite journalists, he?s important enough to opine on other lesser topics ? like religion.

And then, of course, there was that headline:

The Problem With the Press, Part 1: Religion

Cannon opens with the by now well-established reality that journalism ? primarily the advertizing wing of the enterprise ? is in crisis. If the advertising doesn?t work then the whole business model doesn?t work. And then, from that sobering note, Cannon leaps straight to this point (with a time reference that suggests Dr. Kermit Gosnell, and perhaps one M.Z. Hemingway, are on his mind):

? (C)overage of religion in the mainstream media ? and of the faith-tinged issue of abortion ? has revealed that our journalism model is also broken. Most dispiriting of all, the recent coverage suggests that economic pressures are making the problem worse.

Despite the presence of the occasional pious Catholic, observant Jew, or devout Protestant, American newsrooms have long been highly secular places. This is as it should be for a mass circulation audience in a pluralistic society. But political and cultural polarization in the past generation has exacerbated the great spiritual divide between journalists and those we cover.

Although the number fluctuates, some 40 percent of the American people describe themselves as evangelical Christians. Yet in traditional U.S. news organizations, print or broadcast, such believers are a rarity. The news coverage tends to reflect this disconnect. Evangelicals are often dismissed, particularly in political reporting, as exotic; or, worse, as a menace to civil society.

Traditionally, the people covering religion knew what they were talking about, at least. And presumably, they exerted a leavening influence inside their newsrooms. But Biblical literacy isn?t necessarily a requirement for that beat anymore; meanwhile, newsroom budget cuts have decimated the ranks of the nation?s religion writers.

What?s he talking about?

Well, there was a whole ?Gong Show? of mistakes linked to Western Holy Week and the arrival of Pope Francis. Some of those punch lines made it into GetReligion posts, naturally. At one point, Cannon noted, The New York Times made three theological and historical errors in one 27-word sentence.

At some point, the non-serious media began mocking the serious media and things started going in circles.

Like this:

Inadvertently providing his own comic relief, a couple of days later radio host Don Imus claimed in an exchange with liberal columnist Kirsten Powers that ?hundreds of gospels? were written, including one by Judas. ?There?s an indication there,? Imus added, ?that Jesus may have been gay.?

Imus? oddball theories were passed along by an unskeptical Huffington Post ? notwithstanding the fact that the two theologians it consulted dismissed the notion. HuffPo also identified Powers as a ?conservative,? apparently on the basis of her part-time gig as a Fox News commentator.

A minor mistake, to be sure. Or was it? In the days ahead, Kirsten Powers would be at the heart of an intramural fight in journalism, one that would reveal the limitations of our secularism. This was a heated debate over the coverage ? or dearth of coverage ? of the murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. And this time the stakes were life and death.

From there, Cannon moved on to Problem No. 2 ? abortion coverage itself.

Here?s my question: Is Carl M. Cannon now officially a GetReligion reader? Also, GetReligion readers, which issue do you think is hotter right now in the mainstream press ? abortion or gay rights?

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/05/problems-with-todays-press-religion-is-no-1/

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2 workers removed from Saudi-owned residence

McLEAN, Va. (AP) ? Immigration officials have removed two domestic workers from a northern Virginia home owned by the government of Saudi Arabia as part of an investigation into a report of human trafficking.

Agents went to the home in McLean on Tuesday night, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Brandon Montgomery said Thursday. Fairfax County police were called in to help.

Montgomery said the investigation is in the early stages. The two women who were removed from the home are from the Philippines, Montgomery said, but there has been no formal determination that they needed to be rescued.

Officials received a tip that alleged two workers were being held in circumstances that amounted to human trafficking, said John Torres, ICE's special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in the Washington field office. But he declined in an interview Thursday to discuss the case in more detail.

ICE is investigating whether there may be other potential victims connected to the home, Torres said. He wouldn't discuss the specific allegations but said that generally in cases of domestic workers, ICE prioritizes those involving allegations of workers being held against their will or threats of violence against workers or their families.

According to real estate records, the Virginia home is owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Armed Forces Office. A representative of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia could not be reached for comment Thursday. A guard at the gated home, near the CIA headquarters in Langley, waved off a request to speak to residents there Thursday morning.

At a press briefing Thursday, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that the agency was aware of the case but that ICE is taking the lead on the investigation. He referred questions there.

Ventrell declined to answer specific questions about whether diplomatic immunity had been invoked. Countries traditionally grant immunity to foreign diplomats to receive reciprocal treatment for their own diplomats and to ensure open lines of communication. Ventrell said that in general, the State Department honors its treaty obligations that provide for immunity while expecting diplomats to observe and respect U.S. laws.

Trafficking cases have been a priority in recent years for the Justice Department, which reports that it has brought an average of 24 cases alleging forced labor in each of the past three fiscal years ? nearly twice as many as the prior period.

Recent cases have involved an Italian government worker at the consulate in San Francisco who was prosecuted in 2011 for keeping a Brazilian woman as an involuntary servant. The same year, a naval officer from the United Arab Emirates was acquitted at a federal trial in Providence, R.I., on charges that he had kept a Filipino woman as an unpaid servant.

Tiffany Williams, an anti-trafficking campaign coordinator for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, works specifically on the issue of diplomats exploiting domestic workers. She said such exploitation can be a particular problem in the diplomatic community because officials know they hold immunity, and it is difficult to punish them.

Generally, though, she said the underlying issue is no different than in cases involving the community at large: The power dynamic is tilted heavily toward the employer. Domestic workers' visas are tied to employment with a particular household, so quitting or standing up to abuse runs the risk of deportation. For domestic workers who live in the home, leaving a job also can mean homelessness, Williams said.

Torres said trafficking cases involving domestic workers are a particular problem in the Washington area, in part because of the presence of a large diplomatic corps and cultural differences ? some countries consider it acceptable to treat workers more harshly than is allowed in the U.S.

To be proactive, Torres said ICE works with nonprofit groups and provides brochures and information to all incoming diplomats who want to bring domestic help from other countries.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-workers-removed-saudi-owned-va-residence-153701708.html

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