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United States | Previewing Sanctions Under Section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 (CAATSA)

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United States | Previewing Sanctions Under Section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 (CAATSA)

United States – MODERATOR: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining in today’s call regarding the President’s executive order on the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act as well as other actions. Today’s call will be on background, and it is embargoed until the end of this call.

For your reference purposes only and not for reporting, we welcome on the call today [Senior Administration Official One]. From now on he’ll be known as Senior Administration Official One. We also have [Senior Administration Official Two], Senior Administration Official Two. Then we have [Senior Administration Official Three], now going to be known as Senior Administration Official Three.

Again, this call is on background. The contents are embargoed until approximately 1:30 or when the call is over. I will now turn it over to our senior administration officials, who will open our call with some brief remarks, and then we’ll move to your questions. So Senior Administration Official Number One, please proceed. Thank you.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and we are grateful for you joining us today. Back in January of this year, many of you may recall we held a background briefing for reporters on the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which is also known, at least in U.S. Government circles, as CAATSA for its acronym.

Some of you may have been involved in that briefing or been following this issue otherwise in the press, so you may be familiar with CAATSA. But for those who may not be, it is legislation that Congress passed in – well, at least the Russia portions of it were passed by Congress in response to a range of Russian malign activities that include meddling in the U.S. elections.

Part of the statute includes provisions that mandate the imposition of sanctions upon anyone engaging in what is called a “significant transaction” with any entity that appears on a list of persons associated with the Russian defense or intelligence sectors.

There are a couple of developments which we’d like to bring you up to speed on today, two sets of actions. The first is one with which you may be familiar from – just from the website, because today the Treasury – excuse me, today the President signed a new executive order authorizing the State Department to implement certain sanctions that are set forth in the CAATSA statute. That is already public knowledge. The second bit may perhaps be news to you.

The second thing that happened today is the Secretary of State took two actions. First of all, he added 33 additional persons to that list that I mentioned before. It’s the so-called “List of Specified Persons” that are acting on behalf of the Russian defense or intelligence sectors. So that so-called LSP, that list, it got longer today by 33 names.

In addition to that, however, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury – so Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mnuchin – imposed sanctions on a Chinese entity, the Equipment Development Department, otherwise known as EDD, and also upon its director, Li Shangfu. EDD and Mr. Li are being added to the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, which is a complicated way of referring to what we usually just informally call the SDN list. This list has now been updated on the Treasury website.

We want to stress that the legislative standard here is a significant transaction with an entity that appears on the List of Specified Persons. We took these actions because China took delivery of 10 Sukhoi fighter aircraft, specifically Su-25s, in December of 2017 – of course, after the CAATSA statute came into force. And it also took delivery of a batch of S-400 – sometimes known as SA-21 – surface-to-air missile systems or related equipment in January of this year.

Both these transactions, which I repeat occurred after the CAATSA sanctions statute came into force, were deals that were negotiated between the Equipment Development Department, or EDD, on the one hand, and Rosoboronexport, which is Russia’s main arms export entity. And it, Rosoboronexport, is on the List of Specified Persons.

I want to emphasize that the ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia. CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country. They are instead aimed at imposing costs upon Russia in response to its malign activities. And of course, those malign activities are many that it’s undertaken in its attempt to compete with the U.S. and our allies and our partners.

The array of sanctions the United States has imposed against Russia and those who material support – materially support its malign activities are undertaken in direct response to Russia’s aggressive actions against our country, our allies, and our partners.

This is also the first time that we have ever sanctioned anyone under Section 231 of CAATSA, which focuses upon, as I’ve been explaining, those who engage in significant transactions with entities that appear on the LSP. We have not done this before; we are doing this now. We want to stress that our enforcement of Section 231 is an ongoing process.

We’ve been engaging with our partners and our allies for quite some time on this, because the ultimate goal of this legislation is to prevent revenue from flowing to the Russian Government. Russia uses its arms sales not only to raise revenue, moreover, but to build relationships which, of course, it then attempts to exploit in furtherance of its interests and almost invariably in ways that goes against ours.

So we’ve been using the CAATSA – the possibility of CAATSA legislation to deter arms transfers for many months now. We’ve had a – done quite a bit, actually, and had some good results in probably preventing the occurrence of several billion dollars’ worth of transfers simply by having the availability of this sanctions tool in our pocket.

But since China has now gone ahead and, in fact, done what is clearly a significant transaction by acquiring these Sukhois and S-400 missiles, we feel it necessary – indeed, we are required by the law – to take this step today.

So I want to stress again: This is the first time we’ve ever sanctioned anyone under Section 231 of CAATSA, so it is a significant – this is a significant step. And we have some experts on hand here who can help explain to you many of the details as best we can should you have questions about this. Thank you.

MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. I think now we’ll go to our first question.

OPERATOR: Thank you. And once again, on the phone lines, you may press * and then 1 for your questions or comments. Our first question will come from the line of Emily with Energy Intelligence. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing the call. Could you all help me understand some of the other sections, not 231, but that are outlined in the executive order? I mean, specifically I’m interested in Section 232, “Sanctions with respect to the development of pipelines in the Russian Federation.” Is what you’re doing today sanctioning specific projects – like Nord Stream 2, for example – or is it effectively just laying legal groundwork so that that can happen later?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: I think it’s probably best to keep this discussion focused upon the step that we’re actually taking today under Section 231. The executive order that was signed does create a framework under – by executive order for implementing CAATSA sanctions, but I think it’s best if we keep this particular talk to – simply to the step that we are taking today so that we have the chance with the time – the brief time that’s available to explain this step to anyone who has specific questions about it.

MODERATOR: Thank you. We’ll go on to our next question, please.

OPERATOR: That will be from the line from the line of Nick Wadhams. Excuse me. One moment. That’ll be from the line of Nick Wadhams with Bloomberg News. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks. Could you give us a little more information on the 33 people who were added to the List of Specified Persons acting on behalf of the Russian defense LSP? Who are they? Where do they work? Are these government officials? Are they all Russian nationals? Thanks.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: I think perhaps some of my colleagues can provide a bit more of the buildout on that perhaps, but there are a number of – they fall into clumps, if I might sort of broadly summarize. There’s an addition to – there are additions to the list with respect to the Russian defense sector, listing a number of – three entities, actually, there.

There are also – most of the bulk of the additions today relate to filling out the list with respect to actors associated with the Russian intelligence sector, which is a bit of a – again, a bit of a new thing here. They come from a variety of sources. Some of you who perhaps will look these names up when you check them out on the website will find that a number of these names correspond to people who have been indicted in connection with Russian election meddling.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL TWO: And I would just add that we will be issuing a fact sheet from the State Department with further information with these names, so you’ll be able to see them. But it is indeed a mix of people from the defense sector, from the intelligence sector, and various others who have been associated with Russian malign activities.

MODERATOR: Thank you, we’ll move on —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Hold on. If I might just also quickly – sorry – add a little bit of additional gloss, and that is that, of course, the List of Specified Persons is not itself a sanctions imposition. Nothing specifically happens to someone by virtue of being on that list.

The implications of it, however, are that if anyone else engages in what is deemed to be a significant transaction with such a person, the person who engages in that action may well be subject to mandatory sanctions pursuant to Section 231.

So partly this – the signaling involved and the list is teeing up such sanctions, should someone be engaged with these folks. But it also, we hope, will be something of a signal to avoid engagement with those folks for that very reason. We work very closely with people around the world to minimize their exposure to sanctions for engaging in significant Russian arms transfers.

And with this new build-out of the list to cover the Russian intelligence sector to some extent as well, we are sending a signal that dealings with these people may well subject one to sanctions, and therefore we hope that people, if they come across that opportunity, will think twice.

MODERATOR: Thank you. And we’ll go on to the next question now.

OPERATOR: Thank you. We will go to the line of Ian Talley with Wall Street Journal. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, yes. Thanks for doing this. Can you hear me? Hello?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Yes, I can.

QUESTION: Okay. Great. So a little bit of housekeeping. Can – do you have any details on the cost of those two transactions, the Su-25s and the S-400s? And then does that give us an idea of what the threshold is for a significant transaction? And finally, does – do U.S. entities that have Sukhoi parts, therefore, should they be concerned that their supply chain has a – product have – products from their – from a blacklisted entity?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Okay. I’ll try to take those three elements in the order you asked them. First, with respect to the costs, I am not in a position to provide information to you all at this point about the specific costs of the transaction. And I certainly understand your interest in trying to decode from an understanding of those costs what it might mean to be a significant transaction, but I think that is an – that would be an unwarranted conclusion.

There are a lot of factors that go into deciding when a transaction is significant. Cost is certainly part of it. The significance of that transaction, both in terms of its security impact upon us and its – frankly, its security benefits to the Russians as well as any other circumstances that may be relevant at the time —

QUESTION: Okay. That’s helpful.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: — go into this. So there – it is not quite so simple an algorithm as the question might seem to suppose. So I have no doubt the cost of this fancy equipment was rather significant, but that is not necessarily the determining factor, and I couldn’t tell you what the number is at this point on this call anyway.

With respect to your question about parts, we have been pretty consistent in our messaging throughout the process of enforcing – or implementing, I should say – Section 231 of the CAATSA statute that we are not targeting things such as simply the provision of spare parts and maintenance.

That is not of particular concern to us at this time. We are focusing most of our efforts upon the much – the bigger ticket items, the items – transactions that involve significant qualitative changes in the nature of military equipment shipped abroad or things of that nature.

I mean, there are a lot of pieces that go into determining significance, as I said, but we have not hitherto spent any time worrying about merely the provision of parts or maintenance in order to keep existing systems that have already been acquired going, for instance, which goes to my earlier point that we are – the purpose of doing this is not, of course, to undermine the defense capabilities or the aerospace capabilities or really any capabilities of any particular country.

The objective here is, of course, to impose costs upon Russia. And we generally take a – we look at things rather differently if there’s a large shipment of new, fancy, qualitatively significant stuff as opposed to simply the provision of things that keep existing systems going.

MODERATOR: All right. We’ll go on to the next question now, please.

OPERATOR: Thank you. Next we’ll go to the line – excuse me – of Joel Gehrke with the Washington Examiner. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi. Thanks for doing this. Wanted to go back to the 231 sanctions. I think under the law there are 11 different options for different sanctions under Section 235 that you can apply. Which particular sanctions have you imposed over these Sukhoi and S-400 transactions, and what do you think the practical impact of that will be? And then a little more broadly, does this mean – there have been some debates, some ambiguity about whether the law covered transactions that were agreed to prior to passage of CAATSA.

If they were agreed to on paper but they hadn’t accepted delivery yet, is that transaction a violation? Can you say – does – did you end up adjudicating that in your own minds?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Okay, yeah, let me offer a little bit more on the specific sanctions in question. Under the law, once a determination of a significant transaction is made, we’re required to impose at least five from a menu of – I think it’s actually twelve options that are set forth in the statute.

One could impose five, six, eleven, twelve, what have you, depending upon the circumstances, and that is itself a complicated question, as part of our decision-making process.

In this case, the sanctions that are being imposed upon EDD – and I would certainly turn to – I believe it’s Senior Official Number Three to correct or fill in anything that I get wrong here – but we are imposing sanctions on EDD – that is to say, the Chinese entity, Chinese company – a number of these things, although not all of them and there are indeed some carve-outs and waivers. We are denying U.S. export licenses to EDD. We are denying – or, in fact, we are imposing a prohibition upon foreign exchange transactions under U.S. jurisdiction; also imposing a prohibition on transactions with the U.S. financial system.

We are blocking all property or interests in property within the U.S. – within U.S. jurisdiction. And we are imposing sanctions on an EDD principal executive officer. That’s the fellow, Mr. Li Shangfu, who we mentioned before. And these sanctions include a prohibition on foreign exchange transactions under U.S. jurisdiction, a prohibition on transactions with the U.S. financial system, and blocking of all property or interests Mr. Li’s – in property within the U.S. jurisdiction, as well as a visa ban.

OFAC has also placed both EDD and Mr. Li on its SDN list, and as a result of that in itself, all property and interests in property within the U.S. jurisdiction are being blocked and U.S. persons are from here forth generally going to be prohibited from transacting with them.

Did I miss anything, Number Three?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL THREE: No you didn’t, Number One. I will just note that the OFAC will be implementing these sanctions by the conclusion of this call, scheduled to go out at 1:30.

MODERATOR: All right. We’ll move on to the next question now.

OPERATOR: Thank you. As a reminder, for any questions or comments, press * and then 1. And we will go to the line of Gardiner Harris with New York Times. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Can you just tell us what the effective outcome of the executive order is? It sounds like it’s an executive order that’s just sort of telling you to go ahead and do what you were already doing or what CAATSA the legislation already required you to do. Am I missing something? Does the executive order sort of give you any greater authority or any new abilities to sort of carry out CAATSA that you didn’t already have?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL THREE: This is – let me jump in here. This is – I’m [Senior Official Three]. The EO specifically is allowing us to implement the sanctions that we – that – in the State – the actions that the State Department has taken today under CAATSA.

First, it delegates the listed sanctions menu – so that was earlier referenced, the menu of 12 in section 235 of CAATSA, and also the separate menu in the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 – it delegates those sanctions to be implemented.

It also authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to employ all powers granted under IEEPA. Some of those powers that this executive order now allows us to take will be to do things like promulgate regulations, issue administrative subpoenas, issue licenses, and take the full range of civil enforcement actions that we can. So what the executive order does today is it amplifies and makes implementable the good authority that Congress has given us in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA.

MODERATOR: Think we have time for one last question.

OPERATOR: Thank you, and that will be from the line of Nicole Gaouette with CNN. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, thank you for making the time. I apologize that I missed the top of the call. I am – I have two questions, and one is: What has prompted today’s action? You mentioned that the Chinese purchases took place in – at the end of last year and in January. We’re nine months into the year.

The second is that Turkey has been quite forthright about S-400 purchases itself and I’m wondering if there’s been any communication with Turkey that they might be next or whether you’re looking at them, if there’s been any communication with them about their intent to purchase the S-400.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Okay. The – as I indicated, the driver for this was the delivery of the Sukhoi fighters in – at the end of 2017, and also of a batch of S-400 missile system-related equipment in January of 2018. These are about —

QUESTION: I’m just wondering why it has taken so many months. I mean, it’s been – it’s been – CAATSA has been in existence for a while and that’s nine, ten months ago.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: Well, we wanted to make sure that we were doing our job responsibly, making sure that we have evaluated all of the circumstances and understood the facts surrounding these particular transactions, making sure that in evaluating the standard of significance in light of those facts, and of course, not just deciding what is a significant transaction, but then thinking through the process of what sanctions it is appropriate to apply from the menu of sanctions.

Which ones to impose, what carve-outs to have, which ones not to impose, to make sure that we’ve done an appropriate job as stewards of the interests of the American people and the intent of the Congress in passing this statute, and making sure that we’ve appropriately balanced all the equities.

The CAATSA was not intended to take down the economy of third party countries. It’s intended to impose appropriate pressures on Russia in response to Russian malign acts, and we have it on very good authority from the office of the statute itself that they expect that we will implement it in ways that are appropriate in light of consultations with all of the parties involved.

So we think this time was necessary in order to do the homework that we needed to do to make sure that this action was measured and appropriate, as well as being stern and responsive to a real challenge presented by facts on the ground.

As to other potential recipients of the S-400, we haven’t made any determinations yet with respect to what to do about those, but you can be confident that we have spent an enormous amount of time talking about prospective purchases of things such as S-400s and Sukhois with people all around the world who may have been interested in such things and some who may still be. We have made it very clear to them that these – that systems like the S-400 are a system of key concern with potential CAATSA implications.

Members of Congress have also publicly said that they believe any transfer of an S-400 to anybody would constitute a significant transaction, and of course that’s something we have to bear in mind in these as well. So while decisions on other cases have yet to be made, and indeed other transactions have yet to occur, we hope that at least this step will send a signal of our seriousness and perhaps encourage others to think twice about their own engagement with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors, which would of course be precisely what we hope Congress intended, and what we are required to do pursuant to the fact.

MODERATOR: All right, thank you very much. I’d like to thank our speakers for taking the time today and our journalists for joining us. The embargo on this call is lifted. We will be issuing a statement from the spokesperson as well as a fact sheet on this that will be coming out shortly. Thank you very much and thank you for joining our call today.

—–

SOURCE: news provided by STATE.GOV on September 20, 2018.

#CAATSA #Countering America Adversaries #Equipment Development Department #LSP #Rosoboronexport #russia #S 400 #Sanctions Act of 2017 #Secretary Mnuchin #secretary pompeo #TodayNews #United States

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investmart007 · 6 years

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Missouri News: Little accountability over millions in taxpayer dollars that go to business recruiting, Auditor Galloway says

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Missouri News: Little accountability over millions in taxpayer dollars that go to business recruiting, Auditor Galloway says

Audit identifies concerns with contract oversight, administration of performance-based incentives

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway today released an audit of the Economic Development Advancement Fund (EDAF), which is primarily overseen by the Department of Economic Development (DED). The fund supports an exclusive contract with the Hawthorn Foundation for business development and marketing, but the audit found little oversight or accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent.

Approximately 86% of spending from the EDAF goes to the Hawthorn Foundation and its subsidiary, the Missouri Partnership, which manages nearly all of Missouri’s efforts to recruit new businesses to the state. During the past three fiscal years, 45% of the Hawthorn Foundation’s income came from the EDAF. Other revenues include grants, membership dues and foreign trade office income.

“It is essential that Missouri is competitive nationally, and this public-private partnership is helping meet that important goal. However, that does not mean taxpayers should give up the right to have their dollars used efficiently and transparently,” Auditor Galloway said. “In this case, the state is not doing its due diligence to ensure accountability for millions in taxpayer dollars.”

The Department of Economic Development is responsible for administering the contract and is required to provide oversight on how state funds are spent by the Hawthorn Foundation and the Missouri Partnership. However, the DED only receives general information about expenditures. During the audit, the State Auditor’s Office requested details to review, but the DED declined to ask the Partnership for specific documentation on spending.

The lack of specific information on expenditures means the DED is not adequately overseeing the use of state funds. For example, over a three year period, approximately 60 percent of Partnership expenditures were for payroll and bonus payments, but the department did not receive itemized salary information for how more than $4.3 million was spent.

Additional concerns were identified in the way incentive payments were awarded by DED. Under the contract, these incentives are based on the number of jobs announced per year, but it appears the per-job performance rate was adjusted to ensure the Hawthorn Foundation received the maximum payment every year. The DED also did not independently verify the number of new jobs announced, which resulted in inconsistencies in these numbers.

“When it comes to performance-based incentives, the Department of Economic Development is simply not administering the contract effectively, instead awarding the maximum payment without verifying if the results are correct,” Auditor Galloway said. “Relying on news clippings from when new businesses are announced is not an effective solution to ensure accuracy. There needs to be a better system in place.”

The report also detailed actions taken by the DED to use funding from the Missouri Development Finance Board to continue to make payments to the Hawthorn Foundation, despite funding being cut from the budget. These payments were not required to be approved by the legislature, listed on the Missouri Accountability Portal or disclosed to the public. The department reimbursed the Missouri Development Finance Board after lawmakers approved funding for the Hawthorn Foundation in a supplemental budget bill.

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SOURCE: news provided by AUDITOR.MO.GOV

#auditor #Auditor Galloway #missouri #missouri auditor #Nicole Galloway #TodayNews

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MOSCOW | Israeli delegation in Moscow to share data on plane downing

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MOSCOW | Israeli delegation in Moscow to share data on plane downing

MOSCOW — A high-level Israeli military delegation visited Moscow on Thursday to present detailed information related to the downing of a Russian warplane by Syrian forces that responded to an Israeli air raid.

All 15 crew members on board the Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane were killed when it was downed Monday by Syrian air defense forces that mistook it for Israeli jets. The incident threatened to derail the close security ties between Russia and Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly called Russian President Vladimir to express sorrow over the death of the plane’s crew, blamed Syria and offered to share detailed data.

Netanyahu said Thursday that while voicing regret over the deaths, he told Putin that “the root of the problem is Iran’s attempt to use Syrian territory for attacks against Israel and to arm our enemies, such as Hezbollah.”

“I told him that we have the right of self defense,” Netanyahu said, adding that “there is also very great importance to maintaining the security coordination between Israel and Russia.”

He said he dispatched the Israeli air force chief, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, to Moscow with a double objective: “One, to continue defending our citizens, and two, to preserve the cooperation between our two countries.”

On Thursday, a delegation of Israeli military officers led by Norkin, held several meetings in Moscow with their Russian counterparts.

The Israeli military said in a statement that they presented the situation report regarding the plane’s downing, as well as the pre-mission information and the findings of an Israeli military inquiry.

“The meetings were held in good spirits and the representatives shared a professional, open and transparent discussion on various issues,” the Israeli military said. “Both sides emphasized the importance of the states’ interests and the continued implementation of the deconfliction system.”

The Israeli military has said its fighter jets were targeting a Syrian military facility involved in providing weapons for Iran’s proxy Hezbollah militia and insisted it warned Russia of the coming raid in accordance with deconfliction agreements. It said the Syrian army fired the missiles that hit the Russian plane when the Israeli jets had already returned to Israeli airspace.

But the Russian Defense Ministry charged that the Israeli warning came less than a minute before the strike, leaving the Russian aircraft in the line of fire. It accused the Israeli military of deliberately using the Russian plane as a cover to dodge Syrian defenses and threatened to retaliate.

The Russian military made no comment after Thursday’s meetings with the Israeli delegation.

While the Russian Defense Ministry blamed the plane’s loss on Israel, Putin quickly sought to defuse tensions Tuesday, pointing at “a chain of tragic accidental circumstances.”

The Israeli military also noted that its delegation “presented the ongoing Iranian attempts to establish its military presence in Syria and to transfer strategic weapons to the Hezbollah terror organization.”

Moscow has played a delicate diplomatic game of maintaining friendly ties with both Israel and Iran. In July, Moscow struck a deal with Tehran to keep its fighters 85 kilometers (53 miles) from the Golan Heights to accommodate Israeli security concerns. ___ Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

#Israeli delegation #Israeli military #Moscow #MOSCOW News #plane downing #Russian warplane #share data #TodayNews #visited Moscow

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NEW YORK | 'Veronica Mars' starring Kristen Bell gets revived by Hulu

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NEW YORK | 'Veronica Mars' starring Kristen Bell gets revived by Hulu

NEW YORK — Veronica Mars has another mystery to solve.

Hulu has ordered eight new one-hour interconnected episodes of the series, starring Kristen Bell, that premiered in 2004 and aired on UPN for two seasons and The CW for one. Bell announced the news Thursday on her Instagram account.

The original series centered around Bell as a whip-smart high school student named Veronica, who was a teenage detective and made the actress a star.

This isn’t the first revival of “Veronica Mars.”

In 2013, Bell and series creator Rob Thomas launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a “Veronica Mars” feature film that premiered in 2014 and took place 10 years after the show ended.

Hulu has also secured the streaming rights to the series.

By Associated Press

#Bell gets #Kristen Bell #new york news #ordered eight #revived Hulu #starring Kristen #TodayNews #Veronica Mars

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United States | Joint Statement on the Expanded Comprehensive Partnership Between the United States and Mongolia

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United States | Joint Statement on the Expanded Comprehensive Partnership Between the United States and Mongolia

United States – The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and Mongolia on the occasion of the official visit of Mongolian Prime Minister Khurelsukh to the United States of America:

The United States and Mongolia, recognizing that persistent efforts by both sides across thirty-one years of diplomatic relations have deepened political, economic, educational, cultural and people-to-people ties between the two countries, declared that their bilateral relationship had reached a new level of expanded comprehensive partnership.

The two sides recognized that the basic principles set forth in the 2007 Declaration of Principles for Closer Cooperation, and supported by the 2004 and 2005 U.S-Mongolia Joint Statements, have provided a solid foundation for the development of a relationship based on shared values and common strategic interests. Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to these principles as they pursue avenues to further broaden and deepen their bilateral relationship.

The United States hailed Mongolia’s transformation into a free and democratic society, reaffirming both the friendship between the two countries and Mongolia’s role as an important Indo-Pacific partner. Mongolia expressed appreciation both for the unwavering support of the United States during Mongolia’s transition to democracy and for continued U.S. partnership as Mongolia works to strengthen its market economy, build strong governance institutions, and foster sustainable economic development. Mongolia reaffirmed the role of the United States as a significant third neighbor, a close friend, and an important partner.

Regional and Global Security

The United States commended Mongolia for the long and distinguished service of Mongolian forces serving in Afghanistan and expressed anticipation for its contribution to the Resolute Support Mission beyond 2018. The United States also expressed appreciation for Mongolia’s contributions to global peacekeeping, including its efforts to enhance the peacekeeping ability of other nations through the Khaan Quest exercises.

Mongolia thanked the United States for its support of the exercises and of capacity building within the Mongolian armed forces. Both sides pledged to continue to provide mutual support in their shared pursuit of a secure, stable, prosperous world of independent and sovereign countries.

Both sides also reaffirmed the essential importance to regional and global security of the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, and pledged to continue cooperation and information sharing to ensure the full implementation of all UN Security Council resolutions. The United States thanked Mongolia for its assistance in this regard and urged continued support for the efforts of the international community.

Strengthening Economic Cooperation

Under the new expanded comprehensive Partnership, Mongolia and the United States expressed their intent to strengthen their shared economic, trade, and investment relationship for the benefit of both peoples. To that end, both sides noted with approval the completion of the “Roadmap for Expanded Economic Partnership between the United States of America and Mongolia” and expressed their desire to take positive and effective measures to expand economic relations.

Both sides welcomed the signing of Mongolia’s second Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact, which will support vital improvements to infrastructure supplying water to Ulaanbaatar, and will secure the long-term sustainability of that infrastructure through policy reforms. The United States observed that the Compact is representative of the U.S. desire to protect and promote the principles of freedom, openness, sovereignty, and transparency in Mongolia and across the region.

Mongolia highlighted that the Compact is a symbol of the lasting friendship between the Mongolian and American peoples; and it has an important contribution to the economic development of Mongolia.

Recognizing that a stable investment and financial environment is an essential component of deepened U.S.-Mongolia economic relations, both sides acknowledged the importance of strengthening Mongolia’s defenses against financial crimes, improving transparency, and securing macroeconomic stability.

Mongolia expressed support for further cooperation on developing its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes, and reiterated the country’s commitment to fulfilling its commitments as part of its IMF program.

Shared Values and People-to-People Exchange

The United States and Mongolia affirmed that the two countries’ shared commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights represented a cornerstone of their bilateral relationship. Mongolia thanked the United States for hosting the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, and expressed Mongolia’s desire to promote religious freedom in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

The United States welcomed Mongolia’s announcement at July’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom of its appointment of an Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom. Both sides committed to explore avenues through which to deepen cooperation in securing and expanding religious freedom, with Mongolia as a leader on this issue in the region.

Underscoring the importance of cultural and educational cooperation, the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to broadening educational programs through public-private partnerships, increasing direct exchanges, promoting both commercial and non-commercial cultural exchanges, and enhancing collaboration through an increase of Peace Corps volunteers and their activities in Mongolia, including, but not limited to, expanded English language teaching programs. With the view of deepening these ties, Mongolia and the United States agreed to announce 2019 as the “U.S.-Mongolia Youth Year.”

The two sides also noted the importance of maintaining the frequency of high-level dialogues and bilateral mechanisms, including the Annual Bilateral Consultations, defense talks, the Economic Policy Dialogue, TIFA talks, and the Energy Cooperation Dialogue to discuss and collaborate on efforts to advance bilateral priorities and international peace and prosperity.

Mongolia and the United States reaffirmed their shared commitment to the principles of democracy, good governance, respect for human rights, and promotion of peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and beyond in the spirit of true partnership.

—–

SOURCE: news provided by STATE.GOV on September 20, 2018.

#Comprehensive Partnership Between the United States and Mongolia #DPRK #IMF #Indo Pacific partner #Khaan Quest #Khaan Quest exercises #Khurelsukh #Mongolia news #TIFA #TodayNews #United States

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MILAN | Nicki Minaj struts into Fendi; Max Mara rewrites classics

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MILAN | Nicki Minaj struts into Fendi; Max Mara rewrites classics

MILAN— Milan designers were letting go of streetwear and turning back to the basics of elegant design on the second day of Milan Fashion Week.

That is not to say there is nothing for trendy youth. Designers are turning to materials like PVC to keep a street-smart edge. And they aren’t giving up the lessons of functionality, incorporating them into more sophisticated collections.

Some highlights from Thursday’s previews of womenswear for next spring and summer in Milan, including Fendi, Max Mara, Prada and Emporio Armani. ____ CLASSIC PRADA HAS REBELLIOUS STREAK Miuccia Prada is challenging conservative winds with conservative looks, fighting fire with fire. But she is also giving them a rebellious twist.

Prada’s collection Thursday for next spring and summer — unveiled on the ground floor of Fondazione Prada’s high-rise — drew on classic Bourgeois codes. The textiles were satin, chiffon and canvas in a basic palette of black, white and beige. The building blocks are classic T-shirts, baby-doll tops and dresses, 1970s wrap skirts and pedal-pusher shorts.

But the prettiness is undermined by psychedelic and tie-dyed fabric treatments and exaggerated by oversized beads and sequin accents.

What at first appears to be a sparkly princess tiara is actually a preppy headband stacked high on the head. Eyewear creates alien eyes, replicating an emoji. Handbags are structured, lady-who-lunches purses.

Prada’s resistance is evident in the lowcut and super-lowcut fronts and backs, modestly held in place by straps. Classic cashmere sweaters with starched white-collar shirts belie their primness with cutouts on the backs or elbows. The message: Don’t be deceived.

Prada said the collection aimed to represent the clash between liberation and rising conservatism — in society, in fashion and in politics.

“What worries me is the simplification. Because even now, politics is run by slogan. In Italy, not even slogans, kind of hashtags,” Prada said.

“That is my worry now. The struggle between freedom, rights, liberation fantasy and conservatism.” _____ FUNCTIONAL FENDI GOES ELEGANT Nicki Minaj took a front row seat at Fendi, taking a turn for fans on her way in decked out in a Fendi puffer jacket and matching leggings and cropped top.

Other front-row celebs included Italian fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni with her rapper husband Fedez, leaving home their much-Instagrammed infant, Leone, but trailing television cameras as they toured backstage.

While the front-row celebrity attire was highly branded Fendi streetwear, the runway collection by Karl Lagerfeld was more elegant and subtle.

Fendi courted functionality with transparent PVC outerwear with leather details, while jackets, belts and handbags were equipped with external utility pockets.

This Fendi woman is an urban dweller whose wardrobe needs to carry her through the day. The color palate was somber neutrals with flashes of orange and acid green, and the branding was limited to subtle heat-stamped double-F logo impressions.

On the casual side, biker shorts were paired with a fur-intarsia bomber coat or a belted cream shirt. Cargo pants had a trailing belt fastened with an airline seatbelt buckle and paired with a cropped sweater.

The power silhouette was more sculptural. A leather top was corseted tightly around the waist and worn with a straight pencil skirt, while a cream mini leather dress zipped up the front. For day there were pretty pleated skirts, and for evening a series of romantic floral and animal patterns on silk and fur.

The brand’s Peekaboo bag came under a waterproof cover and with interchangeable straps. ____ MAX MARA REVISTS THE CLASSICS Ruffled, twisted and ruched detailing defined the Max Mara silhouette for next season, giving an ultra-feminine edge to power looks for day and night.

Gigi Hadid and Irina Shayk led a tribe of mythic models in looks that the show notes said illustrated a literary retelling of epic classics, like Homer’s “The Odyssey,” from a female perspective, exposing centuries of male mistranslations.

Max Mara tapped ancient classical attire like one-shoulder twists and updated it with one-shoulder button-down shirts that wrap the figure. Elegant basics included classic overcoats with down-to-business scrunched-up sleeves, and buttoned gators worn under Bermuda shorts, pleated gaucho pants or dresses for a boot effect.

Flurries of ruffles created an armor look on a dress bodice, or a military vibe down the side of cropped trousers or the sleeves of knitwear. One-shoulder dresses twisted at the waist. Ruffled belts gave a peplum effect while ruffled detailing was pretty as it trailed down the heels of shoes and along straps of backs.

The mostly monochromatic color scheme ranged from the brand’s traditional camel to canary yellow, navy blue and taupe — broken up by some polka dots and Prince of Wales check prints.

Hair was worn in a no-nonsense tight braid down the back, sometimes covered with a scarf.

By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press

#elegant design #Fashion Week #Fendi #Max Mara #Milan designers #milan fashion #MILAN news #Nicki Minaj struts #rewrites classics #TodayNews

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PHOENIX | 9 people, including 7 in US illegally, die in Arizona crash

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PHOENIX | 9 people, including 7 in US illegally, die in Arizona crash

PHOENIX — Nine people, including seven immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally, were killed in a head-on collision on an Arizona highway, authorities said Thursday.

The crash occurred late Wednesday in a rural part of the state more than 120 miles north of the Mexico border.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety declined to say whether an SUV involved in the collision was being used as part of a smuggling operation or may have been connected to a government immigration facility in nearby Florence.

However, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said the immigrants killed were not detainees.

Officials say the SUV’s driver and front-seat passenger were U.S. citizens, but seven others in the vehicle were immigrants in the country illegally.

The driver, front-seat passenger and five others in the SUV were killed. Two others were taken to hospitals.

The driver and front-seat passenger in the other vehicle also were killed.

Investigators don’t know the cause of the crash on State Route 79.

Arizona has been the scene of a number of fatal crashes involving immigrants who were being smuggled, including one near the border nearly a decade ago in which 10 people died after an SUV rolled over on a highway.

Some crashes occurred on remote routes being used by smugglers after the government ramped up personnel and surveillance technology at the border.

Smugglers sometimes lost control of vehicles while fleeing Border Patrol agents.

In Texas, five people were killed in June when an SUV carrying a dozen immigrants flipped while fleeing agents.

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press

#Arizona highway #crash news #crash occurred #die Arizona crash #including #late wednesday #Nine people #PHOENIX news #TodayNews #US illegally

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ABDERDEEN, Md | Sheriff: Suspect in shooting at Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland is a female temporary employee

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ABDERDEEN, Md | Sheriff: Suspect in shooting at Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland is a female temporary employee

ABDERDEEN, Md — Sheriff: Suspect in shooting at Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland is a female temporary employee.

By Associated Press

#ABDERDEEN #distribution center #female employee #Maryland #maryland news #Rite Aid #sheriff #suspect shooting #TodayNews

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North Carolina News: Durham Man, MICHAEL DEXTER BRODIE Arrested for Mailing Bomb Threat Hoaxes

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North Carolina News: Durham Man, MICHAEL DEXTER BRODIE Arrested for Mailing Bomb Threat Hoaxes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announces that MICHAEL DEXTER BRODIE was arrested today, September 20, 2018.

On September 6, 2018, a federal grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned an indictment charging BRODIE with two counts of mailing bomb threat hoaxes, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(e).

As stated in open court during the initial appearance, the alleged conduct includes bomb threats received by government offices in the Raleigh area, resulting in multiple evacuations. If convicted, BRODIE would face as to each charge a maximum term of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of up to three years supervised release following any term of imprisonment.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Investigation of this case is being conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service and Raleigh Police Department, with assistance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

—–

SOURCE: news provided by JUSTICE.GOV on Thursday, September 20, 2018.

#Department of Justice #DOJ #Durham news #Mailing Bomb #Mailing Bomb Threat #Mailing Bomb Threat Hoaxes #MICHAEL DEXTER BRODIE #north carolina news #Robert J. Higdon #TodayNews

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New York News: Central Islip, Most Wanted Fugitive Arraigned on Multi-Million Dollar Health Care Fraud

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New York News: Central Islip, Most Wanted Fugitive Arraigned on Multi-Million Dollar Health Care Fraud

Former Co-Owner of a Long Island Medical Supply Company Expelled from Haiti to Face Charges After a Decade on the Run

Central Islip, N.Y. – Etienne Allonce is scheduled to be arraigned today before United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco at the federal courthouse in Central Islip on charges of health care fraud and conspiracy, for allegedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid out of millions of dollars. Allonce was expelled from Haiti to face the charges in the indictment pending here, and turned over to the custody of law enforcement agents. Prior to his return to the United States, Allonce was placed on the Most Wanted list of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent-in-Charge, HHS-OIG, Office of Investigations, New York Region, announced the charges.

According to the indictment returned in 2007, Allonce and his wife, Helen Michel, were co-owners and operators of Medical Solutions Management, Inc. (MSM), a medical equipment company located in Hicksville, New York. MSM provided durable medical equipment and supplies to nursing homes. Between April 2003 and March 2007, Allonce and Michel allegedly submitted $10 million in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid seeking payment for medical supplies purportedly provided to patients at nursing homes, when those medical supplies had not been provided.

Allonce fled the United States hours before federal agents arrested Michel. Michel was tried and convicted by a jury in August 2012 and she was sentenced in April 2013 to 12 years’ imprisonment and ordered to forfeit $1.3 million that had been seized by the government. Michel served her sentence and was released from prison in December 2017.

“Today begins the process of holding Allonce responsible for his crimes, more than a decade after he was indicted for healthcare fraud and left the United States,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “The prosecution of Allonce demonstrates the resolve of this Office and our law enforcement partners to bring to justice those who defraud vital benefit programs relied upon by millions of Americans.”

“Mr. Allonce allegedly thought he could escape his crimes by leaving the United States, and hiding as a fugitive for more than a decade, leaving his wife behind to answer for their defrauding American taxpayers,” stated Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Regardless of the crime, be it healthcare fraud or bank robbery, if criminals break the law and are charged, they will be held accountable.”

“We are committed to investigating those responsible for health care fraud, including this former HHS-OIG Most Wanted fugitive, who stole scarce taxpayer money intended to pay for legitimate patient care,” stated HHS-OIG Special Agent-in-Charge Lampert. “The pursuit and arrest of Mr. Allonce is a reflection of our determination, and that of our law enforcement partners, to hold fraudsters accountable for their crimes no matter where they run or try to hide.”

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant Etienne Allonce is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Charles P. Kelly, Burton T. Ryan, Jr. and Madeline O’Connor.

The Defendant:

ETIENNE ALLONCE Age: 55 Port au Prince, Haiti

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 07-889(JFB)

—–

SOURCE: news provided by JUSTICE.GOV on Thursday, September 20, 2018.

#Department of Justice #DOJ #Etienne Allonce #health care fraud #HHS OIG #Islip news #Joseph F. Bianco #Million Dollar Health Care Fraud #new york news #Scott J. Lampert #TodayNews #William F. Sweeney

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AMES, Iowa | Slayings raise alarms for women who practice sports alone

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AMES, Iowa | Slayings raise alarms for women who practice sports alone

AMES, Iowa — It was decades ago, but Sara Schwendinger remembers perfectly the panic she felt when she realized a car was following her as she ran along a country road at dusk, just outside her small Wisconsin hometown.

She desperately tore into a cornfield and listened as the vehicle stopped.

“I remember hiding in the cornfield and hearing them and then just running as fast as I could in the other direction and making it out of this cornfield and all the way to my house and being petrified,” she said. “That experience has never left me, and it’s 25 years ago.”

Now 41 and living in Des Moines, Schwendinger often recalls that evening as she hears comments yelled by passing motorists when she trains along city streets. It’s a disturbingly common part of life for female athletes, and it’s suddenly in the spotlight following the deaths of three women who were attacked while engaged in the sports they love.

The killings raised alarms about how women can defend themselves and why they must be ready to fight off attackers in the first place.

“It’s not fair that they have a different situation than a man does,” said Steve Bobenhouse, the owner of a Des Moines-area running store and a longtime fixture in the city’s running community. “But it’s the way it is.”

The latest attack happened Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., when Wendy K. Martinez, 35, was attacked as she went for a run in the Logan Circle neighborhood. She was stabbed in what police said was likely a random attack, dying after she staggered into a restaurant where customers tried but failed to save her life.

A day earlier, Iowa State University golf star Celia Barquin Arozamena was stabbed to death during a random attack while she was golfing by herself in broad daylight on a course not far from campus in normally quiet Ames, Iowa. That attack came little more than a month after the body of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts was found hidden among corn stalks near her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. She had disappeared weeks earlier after going for a run.

Police have charged men with murder in both of the Iowa killings. Tibbetts’ death prompted an outpouring from other runners, especially on social media under the hashtag #MilesforMollie.

Hundreds of women shared their experiences of being harassed and followed and vowed to keep running as a show of defiance.

“It was foggy & still dark when I went for my run this morning. I looked over my shoulder more than usual, but running outside is something I love too much to let fear stop me,” one Twitter user said.

“I just want us all to be able to feel safe and free when out on a run — is that so much to ask?!?” someone else lamented on Instagram.

After Tibbetts’ death, Bobenhouse’s store set up a meeting to discuss safety issues and had to move the gathering to the city’s main library due to an overwhelming response. More than 200 women gathered that night to hear from police and share best practices on how to stay safe while running alone.

Kathleen Meek, who helped organize the event, said a key issue is situational awareness.

“I’d be the first one to say that, even walking, I’ve had headphones in and I’ve thought ‘Oh my gosh. I don’t even know who’s around me,” Meek said. She urged women to “know what’s going around you so you can be confident in what you’re doing.”

Other suggestions included using the buddy system, joining a running/biking club and informing others of intended routes should something go wrong.

Des Moines police spokesman Paul Parizek, who hosted the meeting, also warned women to know their abilities and understand their limitations should they find themselves in imminent danger.

“There’s a lot of conversation now, especially since Mollie Tibbetts’ (death), about, do I need a gun? Do I need a stun gun? Pepper spray? What do I need? Well, that depends on what you’re willing to do, what you think you need to do and what you’re capable of doing,” Parizek said.

According to Joseph Giacalon, a retired New York City detective and sergeant who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the ways that women can also put themselves in danger is when they share their whereabouts on social media.

Giacalon says his warnings to his students not to announce their plans on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat can “fall on deaf ears.” But he also tells his students to change up their routines as often as they can and make sure their headphones aren’t turned up too loud to for them to not know what’s happening around them.

“These guys are just looking for that opportunity,” Giacalon said.

“Women, specifically, need to be mindful of their surroundings, unfortunately, when they’re going out.”

If there’s one thing Parizek, Giacalon and Schwendinger agree on, it’s that women shouldn’t have to face these issues to begin with.

But they do, and Schwendinger, the cross country coach at Roosevelt High in Des Moines, said it happens to her so often that she’s “almost” unfazed when she’s harassed while running. Recently, a truck full of men yelled out lewd comments to her in the middle of the day on a busy main street between downtown and the airport.

To Schwendinger, the issue is less about women learning to protect themselves and more about changing the dialogue about women being objectified.

“We shouldn’t have to arm ourselves against men who are making those decisions,” she said. “You teaching me how to throat punch a guy is all well and good. But why do I need to be in the position to throat punch a guy?”

By LUKE MEREDITH and SCOTT MCFETRIDGE, Associated Press

#AMES #Iowa News #practice sports #realized car #Sara Schwendinger #Slayings raise alarms #small Wisconsin #TodayNews #Women

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PHILADELPHIA | Robert Venturi, postmodernist architect, dies at 93

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PHILADELPHIA | Robert Venturi, postmodernist architect, dies at 93

PHILADELPHIA— Architect Robert Venturi, who rejected austere modern design and instead ushered in postmodern complexity with the dictum “Less is a bore,” has died. He was 93.

His family released a statement on his firm’s website saying Venturi died at home in Philadelphia on Tuesday after a brief illness, surrounded by his wife, the architect Denise Scott Brown, and son, James Venturi.

He remained active well into his 80s at Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, the architectural firm he founded in the 1960s. It’s now known as VSBA Architects + Planners.

“All of us at VSBA are heartbroken. Viva Bob,” the firm said in a statement.

Unlike the spare aesthetic of modernists like Mies van der Rohe, Venturi’s work celebrated complexity and even inconsistency in design. He encouraged architects and consumers to enjoy “messy vitality” in architecture — whether whimsical, sarcastic, humorous or honky-tonk.

Often referred to as the father of postmodernism, Venturi shunned the title, calling it “an easy catch phrase … the equivalent of a political sound bite.”

In 1991, Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for “expanding and redefining the limits of architecture in this century, as perhaps no other has.”

“Architects today are too educated to be either primitive or totally spontaneous, and architecture is too complex to be approached with carefully maintained ignorance,” Venturi wrote in his 1966 manifesto against what he saw as the excesses of modernism entitled “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.”

In that book Venturi first established his “Less is a bore” philosophy — in defiance of the minimalist approach to architecture espoused in van der Rohe’s credo “Less is more.”

The 1972 book “Learning from Las Vegas,” which Venturi and Scott Brown wrote with the late Steven Izenour, embraced the blinking facades and flashy signs of the Las Vegas strip as a reinvigoration of architectural design.

“Naturally, we were punished by the architecture establishment for being so vulgar,” Venturi told The Associated Press in a 1991 interview. “But we used it as a vehicle to learn about symbolism.”

In downtown Philadelphia, for example, a painted steel outline of the former site of Benjamin Franklin’s house serves as a monument, while a museum is buried underground. A firehouse near Walt Disney World in Florida is decorated with Dalmatian spots, and Venturi once proposed a 90-foot-tall red apple for Times Square in New York.

In 1978, Venturi set a series of 34-foot letters along the facade of the box-like Basco showroom and warehouse in Philadelphia that spelled out the store name. In 1979, he had a windowless Best Products Co. showroom in suburban Langhorne painted over with enormous, stylized red and white flowers.

He approached the design of living spaces with the same slant: Guild House, an elderly housing complex in Philadelphia with a nonfunctional gilded TV antenna on top (it has since been removed), is loved or loathed by architects and residents alike.

“I think he’s one of the most important American intellectuals of the 20th century,” said David Brownlee, an expert on Venturi’s work and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“He took an academic approach to architecture,” he said on Thursday. “It wasn’t about style, it wasn’t about flash and shape. It was about seriously coming to terms with the material and intellectual challenge of the work.”

Removing architecture from its rarefied air was criticized by traditionalists who saw some of Venturi’s work as lacking in refinement, but he argued that buildings should reflect the culture in which they exist.

“Architecture must be tolerant of different tastes and cultures,” Venturi told the AP. “There’s not just an elite culture. There is elite and folk cultures.”

Elsewhere, his most prominent works include the Seattle Art Museum, completed in 1991, which has been incorporated into a larger building, and the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, also completed in 1991. Venturi became involved in the British project after Prince Charles denounced an earlier design as a “monstrous carbuncle.”

Venturi was born in Philadelphia on June 25, 1925, the son of a fruit-and-vegetable wholesaler. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Princeton University.

From 1954 to 1956 he was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He returned to Philadelphia in 1957 to teach at the University of Pennsylvania and practice architecture, and quickly gained prominence in the “Philadelphia school” of architects dominated by the late Louis I. Kahn.

He founded his own practice in 1958. Scott Brown, whom he met at Penn and married in 1967, joined the firm that year and became a partner in 1969.

Venturi’s first notable building was a house he designed for his mother in the city’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood in 1961.

The building’s broken classical pediment that splits the gabled roof and its over-scaled moldings on each side of the symmetrically positioned doorway represented a major break from the established architectural thinking of the time: that a modern house should contain no historical elements.

Architect Frederick Schwartz referred to the Vanna Venturi House as “the first postmodern anything.”

The American Institute of Architects in 1989 named the Vanna Venturi House the winner of its 25 Year Award for its “enduring significance that has withstood the test of time.”

“A while back, when it was considered very daring, we did very simple things,” Venturi said in 1991. “We did buildings that looked ordinary, that were not trying to be revolutionary the way modern architecture was going to go.

“That horrified people. We did houses that looked like houses, elemental concepts of houses. We did fire stations that looked like fire stations.”

By Associated Press

#family released #james venturi #joann loviglio #kristen de groot #Philadelphia #postmodern complexity #postmodernist architect #robert venturi #TodayNews

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NEW YORK | 'Pod Save America' political podcast is coming to HBO

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NEW YORK | 'Pod Save America' political podcast is coming to HBO

NEW YORK— The popular political podcast “Pod Save America” is coming to HBO for a series of four specials.

“Pod Save America” will be hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor, who worked for the Obama administration. They will provide insight and commentary on the political news of the week.

The series will debut Oct. 12 at 11 p.m. Eastern. The four episodes will be taped in front of live audiences in Miami; Austin, Texas; Philadelphia; and Irvine, California.

By Associated Press

#midterm elections #Obama administration #pod save america #political news #popular political podcast #provide insight #TodayNews

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CAMDEN, N.J. | From G League to GM, 76ers turn franchise over to Brand

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CAMDEN, N.J. | From G League to GM, 76ers turn franchise over to Brand

CAMDEN, N.J.— Only two years out of the NBA, Elton Brand is set to return to the league as a 39-year-old general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.

For a franchise that underwent the painful “Process” for a few seasons and had its last GM caught up in a Twitter scandal, a youth movement in the front office could be what the Sixers need to take the next step into Eastern Conference contention.

Brand is ready to help lead the way.

“I’m going to rely on my team,” Brand said. “Not just on the court, but the off-the-court team. I can’t keep saying it enough. In my opinion, we are one of the top groups in the NBA.”

Brand was introduced Thursday at the Sixers complex as the new GM, and it was made clear the two-time All-Star will not yield the power to make the final decisions, but rather work in concert with coach Brett Brown and the rest of the front office.

“The 76ers are on the cusp of something very special and the next 12 months are really important,” Brand said. “I think that’s why I was the leading candidate, to bring stability to the organization and this group that I know really well.”

Brand had worked for the Sixers as vice president of operations and was the general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats, the 76ers’ G League affiliate.

Sixers owner Josh Harris said Brand emerged from a list of at least 10 candidates as the right choice to steady a franchise rocked by Bryan Colangelo’s sudden departure. Colangelo resigned in June as the 76ers’ president of basketball operations after what an investigation concluded was “careless and in some instances reckless” sharing of sensitive team information on Twitter.

“I’ll lead with honesty, integrity,” Brand said.

Brown had assumed interim GM duties but wanted no part of holding the job full time. But he will work as Brand’s partner in key decisions the franchise faces coming off a 52-win season.

“Coach and I are aligned,” Brand said. “Teams that have won in the NBA, the GM, the coach have to get along. He’s going to have the players. But when it comes to trades, draft process, I’m running that. That’s what I’ve been hired for. Final say? Coach is going to have a voice in it.”

Brand played in 1,058 career games over 18 seasons with the Bulls, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas, Atlanta and two stints with the Sixers. He posted career averages of 16 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks per game.

A two-time All-Star and the 2000 co-rookie of the year, Brand was also the recipient of the 2005-06 Joe Dumars Trophy, presented each season to the player who exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.

“I think we’re at a new point in our team’s development into hopefully an NBA championship,” Harris said. “We need to be attracting talent here. Certainly, Elton’s image and who he is as a person were real positives. But leadership and managerial skills and the things you’ve got to do in the front office that aren’t just about image, he’s got those, too. But certainly, that was a huge positive.”

Brand said it’s fair to question his inexperience as he skyrocketed through the organization from the G League to GM. But it’s a job he’s ready to handle.

“I’ll take the hits,” he said. “When there’s decisions made on the basketball side, I’m taking the hits.”

Alex Rucker was promoted to executive vice president of basketball operations. Ned Cohen will remain assistant general manager and Marc Eversley will stay as senior vice president of player personnel.

The Sixers beat Miami in the first round of the playoffs before they were eliminated in the conference semifinals by Boston. Under Brown’s watch, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons have blossomed into two of the top young players in the league.

Embiid and Markelle Fultz were among the players who attended Brand’s press conference.

The Sixers were stunned when an independent review found that Colangelo’s wife, Barbara Bottini, operated four Twitter accounts. She admitted using private information to criticize the Sixers and rival colleagues.

Brand, the fourth black GM in the NBA, is ready for the Sixers to put the offseason mess behind them and make a jump in the East. “This is a special team, an incredible opportunity, and we will lead a disciplined and determined path to building a championship organization,” he said.

By Associated Press

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