DailyNewsGems

Fact Checking Third Democratic Debate from New Hampshire

Photo Credit: Getty Images

 

The third Democratic presidential debate Saturday evening at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, featured a few hard right uppercuts, some fancy footwork, and punishing blows, but in the end, the debate was more about what unites Democrats rather than what divides them.

As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said: ``I think we [Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Hillary Clinton] have a lot more to offer the American people than the right wing's extremists.’’

As with most presidential debates, the contenders played fast and loose with the facts.

So after the main event and the dust settled, I went to work on fact-checking some issues that roused my interest.

1.)           Percentage of Hillary Clinton’s Donors from Wall Street?

Clinton: “I think it’s important to point out that about 3 percent of my donations come from people in the finance and investment world,”

 True or False? Technically true, but understand Mrs. Clinton numbers are based strictly on campaign receipts. She wasn't factoring in contributions to the super PACs supporting her.

According to a recent blog, posted by Will Tucker of Open Secrets http://goo.gl/NfZDjF   donors in the securities and investment and commercial banking industries `` have given the super PACs backing Clinton more than $3.5 million out of the $20.3 million they’ve raised overall from individuals, unions and other entities — a healthy 17.2 percent. ''

So, taking into account donations to both outside groups and the Clinton campaign itself, ``Wall Street has provided about 7.2 percent of the funds backing Clinton — more than double what she said on Saturday.’’

Despite 7.2 percent of her funds coming from Wall Street, Tucker points out that Clinton's chief Republican rivals are considerably more dependent on Wall Street than she is.

For example, Jeb Bush’s ``total of $33 million from Wall Street is 26 percent of his super PAC plus large individual and PAC donations to his campaign — compared to 7.2 percent for Clinton,'' Tucker wrote.

 

2.) How Many Deaths is Bashar al-Assad (of Syria) Responsible For?

Hillary Clinton: ``I think it's fair to say, Assad has killed, by last count, about 250,000 Syrians. The reason we are in the mess we're in, that ISIS has the territory it has, is because of Assad.''

True or False? True

According to a September Washington Post article https://goo.gl/n8qkTI  ``government forces [of President Bashar al-Assad] are responsible for many more of the estimated 250,000 deaths in the four-year-old conflict than are the Islamic State militants and rebel groups, analysts and monitoring groups [Syrian Network for Human Rights] say.’’

 

3.) Where Are We in Our Fight Against ISIS and Do We Have a Strategy?

Hillary Clinton:  ``We now finally are where we need to be. We have a strategy and a commitment to go after ISIS, which is a danger to us as well as the region.’’

True or False? The jury is still out over whether the United States is where it needs to be to defeat ISIS.

On November 15, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” former CIA deputy director Michael Morell reflecting on the Paris terror attacks, said: ``we’ve had the second largest terrorist attack in Western Europe since 9/11, the largest since Madrid in 2004. I think when you put those two things together and you put together the attack capability in the West, I think it’s now crystal clear to us that our strategy, our policy, vis-à-vis ISIS is not working and is time to look at something else.”

 

4.) Pay Equity for Women Workers?

Bernie Sanders:  ``Women should not be making 79 cents on the dollar compared to that'' [of men].''

True or False? True

According to a press release from the U.S. Census Bureau issued in September http://goo.gl/NrKB4i   `` In 2014, the median earnings of women who worked full time, year-round ($39,621) was 79 percent of that for men working full time, year-round ($50,383) ─ not statistically different from the 2013 ratio. The female-to-male earnings ratio has not shown a statistically significant annual increase since 2007.''

 

5.) Minimum Wage/Increased Incomes: Republicans Have Nothing to Offer

Hillary Clinton: ``I think it's great standing up here with the senator and the governor talking about these issues, because you're not going to hear anything like this from any of the Republicans who are running for president...They [the Republicans] don't want to raise the minimum wage.’’

True or False? False

Most GOP candidates, to be sure, including Marco Rubio (R-Fla), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Donald Trump, and Jeb Bush are opposed to raising the minimum wage.

But not all.

In August, 2015, NJ. Governor Chris Christie told CNBC that he opposed raising the wage to $15 an hour, but he did not rule out an increase to $10. The Obama administration has called for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Rick Santorum’s plan is to ``increase the minimum wage by 50 cents per year for three years to bring it back in line with historical standards'' according to his website.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, meanwhile, in September said that any potential minimum wage increase should be ``reasonable'' emphasizing that management and labor should sit down and talk about what is an effective way to help workers.

In May, retired American neurosurgeon Ben Carson told CNBC the minimum wage ($7.25) should ``probably'' be higher. In November, however, during The FOX Business Network & Wall Street Journal GOP Debates Republican debate, he flipped his position, saying ``I would not raise it.’’  ``I would not raise it specifically’’, Carson explained, `` because I'm interested in making sure that people are able to enter the job market and take advantage of opportunities.”

 

6.) Republicans Have No Proposals to Increase Incomes

Hillary Clinton:  ``They [Republicans] don't want to do anything to increase incomes.’’

True or False? False

According to the Tax Policy Center analysis of Governor Jeb Bush’s tax reform plan http://goo.gl/WgWd4M , if his plan were enacted in 2017, it would cut taxes by $6.8 trillion over the following ten years. They also found that the plan would cut taxes for all income groups.

In addition, the Tax Policy Center reports that the Bush plan would result in a net tax cut over the next decade and would result in an increase in after-tax incomes for taxpayers in all income groups.

His plan, according to the Tax Foundation, would also lead to a 28.8 percent larger capital stock, 7.4 percent higher wages, and 2.7 million more full-time equivalent jobs.

Hillary Clinton: They [Republicans] don't want to do anything to increase incomes.’’

True or False? False

According to analysis of Senator Ted Cruz’s tax proposals by the Tax Foundation http://goo.gl/QY5qoi  , his plan would lead to 12.2 percent higher wages, and 4.8 million more full-time equivalent jobs.

 

6.) Rebuilding American Cities: Martin O’Malley Stands Alone?

Martin O'Malley: ``And I'm the only candidate on this stage to put forward a new agenda for America's cities so we can employ more people in the heart of great American cities and get them back to work.''

True or False? False

Senator Sanders and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton also have advanced programs to rebuild U.S.  cities.

In January, 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill to spend $1 trillion over the next five years to boost the nation's transportation infrastructure.

“For many years’’ Sanders said, ``we have underfunded the maintenance of our nation’s physical infrastructure.’’ “That has to change. It is time to rebuild America. A $1 trillion investment to modernize our country’s physical infrastructure would not just rebuild our country but create and maintain 13 million good-paying jobs that our economy desperately needs.”

``Each project’’, Sanders underscored, `` would require equipment, supplies and services, and the hard-earned salaries from the jobs created would be spent in countless restaurants, shops and other local businesses. And, all of this economic activity would generate new tax revenues to pay for the services that the American people expect and deserve.” 

Hillary Clinton:

In November, Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to spend $250 billion over five years to improve the nation’s infrastructure, a plan that could create 3.25 million jobs, according to government projections.

From Hillary Clinton’s website: ``According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, every $1 billion in infrastructure investment creates 13,000 jobs.  Moreover, the vast majority of the jobs created by infrastructure investment are good-paying, middle-class jobs — paying above the national median. And beyond creating good-paying jobs today, infrastructure investments promise to enhance the productivity of the American economy tomorrow — helping to boost the incomes of working Americans in the future. Every dollar of infrastructure investment leads to an estimated $1.60 increase in GDP the following year and twice that over the subsequent 20 years.  ‘’

 

7.) U.S. Leads the World in Incarceration Rates?

Bernie Sanders: ``Today in America we have more people in jail than any other country on earth, 2.2 million people.’’

True or False? True

According to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research http://goo.gl/jQvtXA  , the United States leads with 2, 217,000 incarcerated, followed by China with 1, 657, 812 and the Russian Federation with 642 444.

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]  

December 21, 2015

Year in Review: Top Online News Stories of 2015

Tashfeen Malik, right, and Syed Farook, the San Bernardino attackers expressed support for martyrdom using "private direct messages" according to FBI Director James Comey. Photo Credit: FBI

 

The Kansas City Royals win their first World Series in 30 years. Photo Credit:  CNN

 

Finally, it’s happening, at long last.  2015 is nearing its end.

And what a bloodbath it was.

If it wasn’t suicide bombings at a mosque in Kuwait, a market in Cameroon, or the killing of at least 100 people at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey in October, it was 62 school shootings in the United States alone, leaving 30 people dead.

Taken together, the U.S. witnessed 353 mass shootings with 12, 223 people killed in gun incidents during the year.

Internationally, one of the most shocking incidents of the year took place in the heart of Paris in November, when three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants and a music venue, leaving 130 dead in the City of Light. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took responsibility for the ruthless acts.

Back on U.S. soil, the most highly publicized mass shootings of the year centered on the three killed and nine wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs in November, and another 16 killed during a bloody shooting rampage at a health center in San Bernardino, California on December 2nd. Sixteen people died during the ISIS inspired attack, including the assailants with 17 more wounded.

In addition, questionable police shootings of unarmed minority suspects have cast a dark shadow over a number of law enforcement officials across the nation.

According to the Washington Post, of the thousands of police shootings that have occurred since 2005, just 54 officers were charged—an average of about five officers a year. In the final weeks of 2015, however, that number has climbed to 17.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom in 2015.

On September 9^th, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving Queen in history.

After a 10,962-day title drought, the Kansas City Royals out-hustled and out-pitched the New York Mets in five games to claim their first World Series in 30 years.

Finally, in entertainment news, Donald Trump, the real estate mogul, launched a new reality TV show in which he spits out the most insulting, bigoted, and xenophobic attacks against enemy combatants in his quest for the U.S. Presidency.

The Donald’s reality show, so far,  has met with rave reviews.

To give you a better idea of what stories and events attracted reader’s attention in 2015, I asked a number of news organizations what story generated the most page views for the year.

Here, then, are some of the most heavily trafficked online stories of the year.

CNN

Celebrities turning the BIG FIVE O, generated 94 million page views for the year, according to a CNN spokesperson. http://tinyurl.com/paq6c87

The New York Times

The Upshot: Ari Isaacman Astles, Samarth Bhaskar, and Danny DeBelius took a close look at the Times' stories which held reader’s attention the longest; including a mix of investigative projects, big breaking news, and features, among others. http://tinyurl.com/hcuaoau

The Atlantic

Graeme Wood, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and an Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in ``What ISIS Really Wants'' describes how he tracked down the world’s most influential recruiters for the Islamic State—and how they reacted after his article was published. http://goo.gl/l5oXof

New York Magazine

A chilling narrative authored by Noreen Malone and Amanda Demme in which 35 women divulge their private accounts about being assaulted by Bill Cosby. http://tinyurl.com/pwj5h6p

ProPublica

The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations, nearly half a billion dollars, after an earthquake struck Haiti.  Today, according to a ProPublica investigation, the actual number of permanent homes the group built in all of Haiti stands at six, not the 130,000 people it claims to have provided for. http://tinyurl.com/pl6txrz 

Time.com

Chris Wilson creates an interactive feature in which he traces the popularity of names dating back to 1890. According to a Time spokesperson, this is the third year in a row in which Wilson has authored (or co-authored) the most read story. http://tinyurl.com/zgpej36

FBI.gov

The FBI, in partnership with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), executed ``Operation Cross Country,'' in which they recovered 149 sexually exploited children, including the arrests of more than 150 pimps and other individuals. http://tinyurl.com/jv6xboa

 

Weather.com: Top 5 posts of the year

1.)  World’s Weirdest Bridges (PHOTOS) http://tinyurl.com/pqcn3f6

2.)  No Vacancies: Abandoned Hotels and Resorts (PHOTOS)  http://tinyurl.com/pn4d7q4  

3.)  Wild Photos of Spring Break Partiers Through the Decades http://tinyurl.com/zgrvz9e

4.)  The World’s Deepest Snow (PHOTOS) http://tinyurl.com/nuf42ft

5.)  The World’s Weirdest Hotels (PHOTOS) http://tinyurl.com/zgdc3pe

 

BuzzFeed

Lively Debate: What Colors Are This Dress? http://goo.gl/8wYvDb

MLB.com

• Melissa Mayeux, a shortstop on the French U-18 junior national team, became the first known female baseball player to be added to MLB's international registration list, making her eligible to be signed by a Major League club. http://tinyurl.com/q2kwe8o

• AL, NL All-Star Game Starters Unveiled. http://tinyurl.com/ogs4vm4

 

Social Media

Twitter: Year in Review: http://tinyurl.com/j62a9cb

Facebook: Year in Review: http://tinyurl.com/zlmlse9

Tumblr: Year in Review: http://tinyurl.com/qbnzrj9

Instagram: Year in Review: http://tinyurl.com/gvnlftu

Vimeo (Video sharing website) Year in Review: http://tinyurl.com/zzhvblh

YouTube: Celebrating the videos, people, music and moves that made 2015 http://tinyurl.com/o25ws9y

 

Search Engines

Google: A Year in Searches: http://tinyurl.com/jllabxj

Yahoo: A Year on Yahoo 2015  http://tinyurl.com/jqlbvbe

 

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]

December 17, 2015

Carl Bernstein Bids Farewell to the Washington Post

 

Bittersweet!

That was the immediate thought of long-time Washington Post staffer Sally Quinn (Washington Post columnist) when asked to reflect on the final day in the Washington Post newsroom on Wednesday.

If you were to pop your head into the door of the Washington Post at 1150 15th St. NW today-all you’ll find are movers preparing to move to the Post’s new home at One Franklin Square, three blocks away.

Except for a few in the new offices today, most Post staffers are working remotely from home until Monday, when the official transition takes place.

The old building, which was home to the Washington Post since 1972, just a few months before the Watergate scandal, will be demolished next year to make way for a new development, anchored by the new headquarters for Fannie Mae.

According to written accounts and Twitter feeds, Wednesday was an emotional day inside the Post newsroom with a number of moving speeches delivered by Marc Fisher (the emcee) Marty Weil (50 years at Post!), Karen DeYoung, Marcus Brauchli, Bob Woodward, Len Downie, Don Graham, Fred Ryan and Marty Baron, executive editor of the Post.

The Washington Post was founded in 1877, and since its inception, it has earned 47 Pulitzer Prizes., including six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever given to a single newspaper in one year.

Former Washington Post investigative reporter Carl Bernstein was on hand to pay his final respects to his old stomping ground.

 I was able to obtain the full transcript of the remarks Bernstein delivered in the newsroom during its tearful farewell, his farewell to ``a true national treasure, a sacred treasure, the Washington Post,'' including the shocking revelation for the first time of his ``third-rate burglary '' inside the Post's newsroom. 

Carl Bernstein on the Washington Post…..

 

• ``When Jeff Bezos bought the Post I said, “I have high hopes that today’s announcement will represent a great moment in the history of a great institution''

 

• ``Today, it’s working... What's been accomplished since then both substantively --Journalistically--and Commercially, under Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron's vision, is the talk of the news trade.  ''

 

• ...``And most important, day-in day-out the home page of the Washington Post today is now a unique model and example of where a great, exciting and enticing journalistic mix might be heading in the digital era.... including a great, healthy rivalry and competition with the New York Times which the Post has surpassed now in digital subscriptions.''

• ``What we are seeing now is about continuity .... of what's always been best about the Post going back to the paper of Phil and then Kay Graham and before that don’s grandfather Eugene Meyer. ''

 

• ``When we moved into this building in 1972 and it was joined with the old post building on L Street, --this was several months before Watergate-—I took a souvenir of the old post newsroom with me. Petty larceny, I guess. so on that day when we moved into these precincts now being vacated today, I took a screwdriver and unbolted this sign on the door to the newsroom.... and it has been in my office since. So I'm returning it today to its rightful owners, and hope it finds a place in the new newsroom of yet another era in post's history.’’

 

• ``Glorious history that continues-- and as we leave this place today, recognize that, like this sign and where it was bolted to the door from another day and era that we outgrew, that this is not a day for sadness but another historic turn into another great era of a true national treasure, a sacred treasure, the Washington Post.’’

 

 

Washington Post Milestones

1947: The Washington Post Co. is incorporated Aug. 4. Philip Graham, husband of Eugene Meyer's daughter, Katharine -- is named president, a position he holds until his death in 1963

1963: Katharine Graham becomes president of The Washington Post Co. after the death of her husband, Philip Graham.

1968: Benjamin C. Bradlee is named executive editor of The Washington Post.

1972: Alfred E. Lewis, staff writer for The Washington Post, first reported on the break-in at the Democratic National headquarters on June 18, 1972. http://goo.gl/qLt1fV

June 19, 1972: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein publish their first article on the Watergate affair, in which they name former CIA employee James W. McCord as being a salaried security coordinator for President Nixon’s reelection committee. http://goo.gl/Bv9AGt

1972: The Post dedicates a new $25 million building at 1150 15th St. NW. It is given its own Zip code: 20071.

April 8, 1976: Vincent Canby, in his review in The New York Times of All the President's Men, wrote of the film: ``The manners and methods of big-city newspapering, beautifully detailed, contribute as much to the momentum of the film as the mystery that's being uncovered. Maybe even more, since the real excitement of "All The President's Men" is in watching two comparatively inexperienced reporters stumble onto the story of their lives and develop it triumphantly, against all odds.’’  http://goo.gl/82AzAm

1976: Donald E. Graham, Katharine Graham’s son, is appointed executive vice president and general manager of the newspaper.

1979: Donald Graham becomes publisher of The Post, succeeding Katharine Graham, who retains her positions of chairman of the board and chief executive of The Washington Post Co.

1991: Donald Graham is named chief executive officer of The Washington Post Co., while remaining publisher of the Washington Post newspaper.

1991: Benjamin C. Bradlee retires as executive editor of The Post in September. Leonard Downie Jr. is named his successor.

1996 Washingtonpost.com is launched.

2008: Katharine Weymouth is named chief executive of Washington Post Media (The Washington Post, Express and El Tiempo Latino) and publisher of The Washington Post.

2008: Leonard Downie Jr. steps down as executive editor of The Post. Marcus Brauchli is named his successor.

2013: Martin Baron becomes executive editor of The Post in January, succeeding Marcus Brauchli.

2013: Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos buys The Post and affiliated publications and formally takes over as the owner of The Washington Post on Oct. 1, 2013.

Note: Beginning in November of 1979, full-text articles of the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, the Economist, the Associated Press, and Reuters were made available through Lexis Nexis.

Note: Senator Al Gore, while chairing the Senate subcommittee on science technology and space, advocated building a new nationwide network for storing computer information in a July 15, 1990 Washington Post article. Gore wrote that the network had the potential of reaching into homes and "providing anyone with a personal computer access to a whole universe of electronic information."

Source: The Washington Post

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]

December 10, 2015

Are the Media giving Fair and Balanced Coverage to Police Actions?

Demonstrators rally outside the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct to protest police brutality, on Nov. 25, 2014, in Minneapolis. AP Photo/Jim Mone

 

Chicago police Officers Michael Modzelewski, left, and John Conneely speak to reporters Sept. 29, 2015, about their role in helping save an 11-month-old shooting victim. (Brian Nguyen / Chicago Tribune)

 

If you’re a U.S. law enforcement official, no news, it seems, is good news.

Unless police officers are exposed by national news organizations for profiling minorities, shooting unarmed suspects, employing questionable use of force, or being charged with first degree murder-chances are you’ll rarely hear any positive news about police officers from coast-to-coast.

Unquestionably, national news organizations like PBS and CNN should be roundly applauded for highlighting some appalling police abuse and criminal acts, thanks largely to the growing use of cell phone cameras and dash board cameras mounted on police vehicles.

The appalling rough arm tactics used by police officers in Staten Island, NY in 2014 in the ``chokehold’’ of Eric Garner, which led to his death, leaves you wondering exactly who is training these officers, especially when dealing with unarmed suspects.

The officer who grabbed Garner by the neck, Daniel Pantaleo, was put on desk duty and stripped of his service handgun and badge, while Police Commissioner William Bratton ordered an extensive review of the NYPD's training procedures.

Similarly, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I first laid eyes on a video (April, 2015) showing Michael Scott, a 50-year old black man from North Charleston South Carolina running away from a police officer, Michael Slager, after a routine traffic stop.  Slager who had been with the North Charleston Police Department for five years fired eight shots at the unarmed fleeing traffic violator, three of the shots entering through his back.

After the police reviewed the video, Slager was charged with murder.

Most recently, a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke, discharged 16 shots at Laquan McDonald, killing the 17-old black male who was armed with a knife, moving not in the direction but away from police officers.

Van Dyke was slapped with first-degree murder within hours after the video's release, which additionally sparked a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the ``Patterns and Practices’’ of the Chicago Police Department, including a sharp review of its use of force, accountability, and how it trains its force.

Compounding these horrific police officer actions, among others, comes a new poll by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which reports that one out of five African-Americans said they were treated unfairly because of their race in dealings with the police in the past 30 days. Only three percent of whites, by comparison, said they'd been treated unfairly. http://goo.gl/qcBe7Q

Taken together, the casual television viewer to the nightly news might very well come away with the impression, a false one, that the vast majority of police officers are an unprincipled villainous lot with a predilection for roaming urban neighborhoods shooting unarmed black suspects and harassing minorities.

It is rare, indeed, when viewers or online readers hear or read about heroic and life-saving actions undertaken by police officers, especially on national news.

Why can’t national news organizations sprinkle their broadcasts, every now and again, with some courageous act carried out by a law enforcement official?

Do most viewers and readers know, for example, that according to the Officer Down Memorial Page that 116 police officers died in the line of duty in 2015 alone, including 36 by gunfire, three by assault, and six by vehicle assault? https://goo.gl/T056ae

Would it be asking too much for national television networks and U.S. daily newspapers to adhere to the twin journalistic tenets of ``balance’’ and ``fairness’’ when it comes to police officers, just as they do any other subject, organization, or institution?

When I asked Andrew Rosenthal, New York Times editorial page editor about the imbalance in reporting the good with the bad of police officer actions, he said: ``the idea of balancing “good news” with “bad news” just doesn’t go anywhere. Is it “news" when a cop shoots an unarmed teen-ager''? Rosenthal asked. ``Yes, because that’s not what cops are supposed to do. Is it “news” when a cop does an act of kindness or catches a thief? Not really. It’s just how life is.''

Mr. Rosenthal presented a valid point; but I still argue that in ignoring courageous actions by police officers, the powerful media behemoths like The New York Times and CNN are hammering into viewers heads the misleading notion cops are scum and dregs of society, instead of enforcing laws and protecting people and property from harm, which the vast majority of officers practice 24/7.

In light of the highly publicized and well-deserved pounding the Chicago Police Department is taking over the merciless gunning down of Laquan McDonald; along with the questionable shooting death of Ronald Johnson, a father of five, who lived on Chicago’s South Side, why not mention the efforts of two other Chicago police officers who were involved in a chaotic quintuple shooting scene in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side in September of this year?

The Deering District officers, John Conneely and Michael Modzelewski, abandoned department protocol in order to save a baby, 11-month-old Princeton Chew, who was losing blood after being shot during a family outing, an innocent bystander in which the boy’s mother and grandmother were killed in the melee.

With no ambulance in sight, Conneely and  Modzelewski took the baby to the hospital themselves; Modzelewski held the child in a blanket as the baby cried and bled from the wound on the side of his body, while his partner, Conneely, was navigating the steering wheel with one hand and holding a handheld police radio with the other in order to notify emergency staff that he and his partner were on their way to the hospital with the wounded baby. The officers then made a mad dash into the emergency room where the medical staff took over to save the baby.

The Chicago Tribune, to their credit, reported on the life-saving episode. ``This is just a very small sliver of something that police officers do all over the country that never gets any type of recognition," Conneely told the Tribune, a 16-year veteran of the department. "Stories like this happen all the time that never get recognized."

And just last month, four brave Chicago police officers (Phoebe Flores, Eric King, Josue Pivaral and Shadi Sweiss), pulled two men from a burning car, minutes after a violent crash on the city's south side. The officers fearing the vehicle was about to explode with not enough time to wait for the fire department to arrive-lunged into to action to save the two unconscious passengers.

Another upbeat action by police officers; this time in Boston, which more than likely went unnoticed by national media organizations involved police officers Darryll Vinson and Jeffrey Lynch who responded to shots fired in the area of Sussex and Warwick Streets.  The officers arrived on the scene on the South End of Boston and observed a man clutching his waistband as he fled on foot. They pursued the suspect who ditched his handgun, which was successfully recovered by the officers without incident.

Because of the officer’s diligence, they apprehended, identified and arrested a dangerous felon, who was swept off the streets, preventing an act of violence to the community.

It may seem trivial to many news editors to profile fearless efforts by police officers, but it actually goes a long way in building trust within communities that law enforcement officials are working for them in order to make their neighborhoods safer when they see it on television or read about in the newspaper.

Attempting to give some sense of balance in reporting on police conduct, additionally smashes stereotypes that view the police largely as villains when pursuing black or minority suspects.

According to David A. Makin, a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University ``the police need to be examined with scrutiny because they work for the people. However, that light also needs to shine on those other outside actors. We are quick to blame the police. However, the legislature fails to properly fund and commit to the programs we create. The police are only one institution within a fractured system. You cannot reform the police without reforming the very laws that created the issues we are struggling with today.''

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]

December 8, 2015

Hillary: To Be or not to Be a Clinton

Bill Clinton, then the Arkansas attorney general, announces his candidacy for governor in 1978 as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, looks on. Photo Credit: Associated Press

 Hillary Rodham Clinton for President

 

Hillary Clinton made history in 1993 in becoming the first wife of a U.S. President to preserve her maiden name.

She also became the first lawyer to become the nation’s First Lady.

But if elected in 2016, she’ll no longer become the first female U.S. president using her maiden name.

Hillary Clinton's campaign informed a number of news organizations, including the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, that Mrs. Clinton prefers her maiden name ``Rodham'' be dropped when referring to her in news stories.

Mrs. Clinton's maiden name has been subject to some subtle flip-flopping for several years, ever since walking down the aisle in 1975 to marry William Jefferson Clinton during a small ceremony in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Hillary wanted to keep her maiden name as a convenient way to separate their professional lives, avoid conflicts of interest, and maintain her identity.

When Bill Clinton told his mother Virginia that his new wife wouldn’t be taking the name Clinton, she reportedly broke down in tears.

Hillary always maintained Bill was the only person who never pressured her to change her name.

Mrs. Clinton continued using her maiden name in 1976, when her husband, Bill Clinton, was elected attorney general and moved to Little Rock Arkansas, the same time she joined the Rose Law Firm.

In 1978, Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas at age 32.

In 1980, when the Clinton’s daughter Chelsea was born, Arkansas newspapers reported that ``Governor Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham had a daughter,’’ leaving the impression in many readers minds that the couple were not officially married.

It was about this time, when Hillary was thought too domineering and was quickly tagged: ``The Lady Macbeth of Little Rock.’’

The same year Chelsea was born; Clinton lost his re-election to the statehouse.

Some argued his crushing defeat was partly due to the appearance that Bill and Hillary were two moving parts and not a unified whole.

So in 1982, when Bill Clinton announced he was again running for governor, Hillary announced she was becoming Mrs. Bill Clinton and hired a fashion consultant to advise her on her appearance. She parted ways with her signature Coke-bottled glasses in exchange for contact lenses; and began wearing silk form-fitting print dresses to give her a new and improved fashionable pizzazz when greeting constituents for her husband.

Mrs. Clinton said she would rather her husband be governor than to keep her last name.

While in the White House as First Lady, her ``personal identity’’ mounted a comeback . Her standard initials for signing documents were ``HRC. ‘’

In her run for the Senate in 2000, the name on the ballot read: ``Hillary Rodham Clinton’’ but on the campaign trail, she was simply ``Hillary,'' to distinguish herself from her scandal tainted husband.

In 2008, in her unsuccessful bid for the presidency, she campaigned as Hillary Clinton. But in her 2014 memoir, ``Hard Choices’’ the book is authored by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Just this year, an analysis conducted by the New York Times reported that about 30 percent of women in recent years have decided to keep their maiden names in some way after getting married. The Times additionally found that about 20 percent keep their last name in full, while 10 percent have opted to hyphenate their two names. http://goo.gl/xLSKZA

What follows are excerpts from books written about Hillary Clinton over her decision to keep her maiden name.

•          ``I kept my maiden name when I married because it was important to me that I be judged on my merits...but I was not at all prepared about the concern people expressed about this decision, which we made personally.''

-``Hillary Rodham Clinton: Historic Leader’’ by Valerie Bodden

•          ``It was not a fierce, feminist statement, but a practical concern. It seemed like a sensible way of keeping my professional life separate from Bill's political life. I sensed this was territory I needed to walk through pretty carefully. I did not want to be perceived as a conduit to him. Not that the name wasn't an issue almost from the first moment. No sooner had Bill announced his candidacy in 1976 than a reporter asked him if he thought Hillary's use of her maiden name might hurt him politically. ``I hope not'' he replied.

-``Hillary Rodham Clinton: The Evolution of a First Lady’’ by Donnie Radcliffe

 

In 1982, on Bill Clinton's decision to be a candidate for governor, she announced she was becoming Mrs. Bill Clinton

•          ``I must confess that sometimes when I hear the name Mrs. Bill Clinton, I think `Mrs. Who?'' I get a little homesick for Hillary Rodham. But I supposed she's waiting patiently inside me, and I can always pull her out when necessary, such as when if I ever get a divorce.''

-``Hillary Rodham Clinton: On The Couch: Inside the Mind and Life of Hillary’’ by Alma H. Bond

 

 Bill Lucey

[email protected]

December 1, 2015