Public Opinion Toward Tea Party Hits Low Point

Tea Party activists attend a June rally on the grounds of the Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Tea Party activists attend a June rally on the grounds of the Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Tea Party's standing with Americans is at its lowest point since the movement took shape in 2010, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.

The survey, conducted from Oct. 9-13, reports that nearly half (49 percent) of the public now view the Tea Party unfavorably, compared with 30 percent who view it favorably. Since February 2010, when Pew first began gauging opinion on the Tea Party, unfavorable views have nearly doubled, and the number of "very unfavorable" views has tripled.

In June, when Pew last polled on the Tea Party and before the latest Washington budget battle fully ratcheted up, 45 percent said they held an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, while 37 percent reported they had a favorable view.

Michael Dimock, the director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, told All Things Considered host Audie Cornish that one of the issues is that people don't really know what the Tea Party is about.

"There's not really a consensus about what the Tea Party is, whether it's kind of an outside group trying to steer policy or whether it's working within the Republican Party itself," Dimock says.

The poll, which was in the field as congressional Republicans continued their push to remove financing for President Obama's health care law as part of a deal to reopen the government, found that the Tea Party's popularity is falling even among Republicans.

Pew reported that 53 percent of Republicans now view the Tea Party favorably, down from 62 percent in June; and 27 percent view it unfavorably, up from 23 percent in June.

The popularity of freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has championed the movement to defund Obamacare, is soaring among Tea Party members: 74 percent view him favorably, while just 8 percent rate him unfavorably.

That's a dramatic rise from July, when 48 percent of Tea Party members said they viewed him favorably. Cruz's stature is also growing among Tea Party Republicans: 18 percent think of him as the leader of the GOP, second only to House Speaker John Boehner, who leads with 28 percent. No other Republican is even close to those two.

But Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, still has a ways to go in winning over the rest of the GOP.

Thirty-one percent of those classified by Pew as non-Tea Party Republicans view Cruz unfavorably, up from 16 percent in July. Cruz's favorable ratings among those Republicans remained essentially unchanged, and a plurality of non-Tea Party Republicans (44 percent) said they do not have an opinion of Cruz.

Despite the criticism Boehner often receives from the most conservative wing of his party, he continues to have a higher favorability rating among Tea Party members than the rest of the GOP.

Fifty-five percent of Tea Party members hold a favorable opinion of Boehner, a 2-point increase from July, while 35 percent have an unfavorable opinion, up from 28 percent in July. Among non-Tea Party Republicans, 36 percent view Boehner unfavorably, and 35 percent view him favorably.

His GOP counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, doesn't fare as well with Tea Party members. McConnell, who faces a tough re-election fight in 2014 and is already sustaining attacks from conservative grass-roots groups, saw his unfavorable rating spike over the past three months.

While his favorable rating remained essentially steady among Tea Party members at 45 percent, his unfavorables jumped to 32 percent in October, up from 23 percent in July.

Thirty-three percent of non-Tea Party Republicans also view McConnell unfavorably, an 8-point increase from July.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235517950/public-opinion-toward-tea-party-hits-low-point?ft=1&f=1003
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Unbelievable ... Really (talking-points-memo)

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SNC-Lavalin stock falls 5% on earnings downgrade

Engineering giant SNC-Lavalin has lowered its earnings forecast for fiscal 2013, citing restructuring of its European operations and some money-losing legacy projects.

Montreal-based SNC said it now expects consolidated net income in fiscal 2013 to be in the range of $10 million to $50 million or five to 35 cents a share. That falls well below its previous guidance of $220 million to $235 million, or $1.45 to $1.55 per share.

SNC-Lavalin stock fell more than five per cent, or $2.24, at $41.89 in early trading Wednesday.

The company's management said its long-term prospects remain positive and it expects to move beyond its unfavourable projects in 2014.

"Certain legacy fixed-price contracts entered into by the company between 2010 and 2012 and the ongoing softness in the mining sector unfortunately continue to stress our performance in 2013," president and CEO Robert Card said Tuesday night.

"Going forward, we will remain focused on winning and delivering high-margin projects and implementing measures to restore our SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses) to historical levels, or better, with the aim of better positioning SNC-Lavalin for growth."

For the second quarter of 2013, SNC-Lavalin reported a net loss attributable to SNC-Lavalin shareholders of $37.7 million.

In the third quarter, SNC cited hospital and road projects and fixed-price contracts in North Africa as problem areas, but was not specific.

However, Maxim Sytchev of Dundee Capital Markets said McGill University Health Centre was likely the money-losing hospital project. It was delayed by the Quebec construction strike earlier this year.

Sytchev said SNC has a much stronger management team with Card as CEO and Alain-Pierre Raynaud as CFO and expressed confidence the company would turn a corner in 2014.

Former CEO Pierre Duhaime resigned in March 2012 after a probe revealed that he signed off on payments to undisclosed agents, breaching the company's code of ethics.

In an effort to clear its reputation after a series of scandals, the company adopted a new ethics and compliance framework in September.

SNC-Lavalin is on course to reduce its investments in infrastructure assets and announced the possible disposal of a minority interest in AltaLink, which owns more than half of Alberta's electricity grid. Despite the poor performance of the mining sector, the company said it is targeting growth in the resources sector, including oil and gas, mining and metallurgy, and environment and water.  It has taken a $75-million writedown on a reorganization of its European operations.

Sara O'Brien of RBC Capital Markets expressed concern that the continuing write-offs could be troubling to credit rating agencies and lenders.

SNC-Lavalin will report third-quarter results on Nov. 1.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snc-lavalin-stock-falls-5-earnings-downgrade-160658750--finance.html
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Days of Gray: Reykjavik Review

The Bottom Line

Promising debut offers an enviable vehicle for the music of Icelandic band Hjaltalin.

Venue

Reykjavik International Film Festival, Icelandic Panorama

Cast

David Laufdal Arnarsson, Dilja Valsdottir, Viktoria Ros Antonsdottir, Gudmundur Ingi Thorvaldsson, Bryndis Petra Bragadottir, Margret Helga Johanssdottir

Director-Screenwriter

Ani Simon-Kennedy

REYKJAVIK — Envisioning a post-civilization existence in the primordial landscapes of Iceland, Ani Simon-Kennedy's Days of Gray makes the most not just of an untouched setting but of Hjaltalin, a local band yet to be discovered by American fans who've made successes of Icelandic groups like Sigur Ros and Mum. The entirely dialogue-free project, first imagined as a long-form music video for the band, grew into a standalone narrative during preproduction; while its fable-like simplicity makes it a specialty item in commercial terms, it represents an assured debut that should attract attention on the fest circuit and could connect with musical tastemakers.

In this far-future scenario, both spoken and written language have been abandoned. Families live in isolation from each other, seemingly communicating via cryptic pictures viewed on magic-lantern slides. It's left to the audience to imagine events that might cause humanity to give up words, but such conditions certainly suit the emotional atmospherics of Hjaltalin, whose excellent all-instrumental score gives emotional support to the child actors carrying the film.

Centering on one family whose son (David Laufdal Arnarsson) is approaching adolescence, the plot is essentially a coming-of-age tale in which he must overcome his community's rejection of the outside world: As if in superstitious imitation of earlier generations who endured a pandemic, the family wears clearly useless breathing masks whenever they go outside; they shun strangers; and they destroy the artifacts from the past he unearths when scouting the countryside.

Contrast this with the girl he meets (Dilja Valstoddir), a wild-haired creature who lives in a cave and hoards circuit boards and plastic fragments that, in this earth-toned environment, scream with man-made color. Keeping their friendship secret, he goes off to meet her and silently mimics what seem to be yoga exercises but later prove to have a very practical purpose.

With cinematographer Cailin Yatsko, Simon-Kennedy makes the most of the landscape's alien, out-of-time qualities. (Both filmmakers are New Yorkers who'd never been to Iceland before discovering Hjaltalin's music.) The cobbled-together aesthetic of Nell Tivnan's production design sits in between sci-fi and a post-disaster survival film, but the picture's heart isn't in fleshing out its sketchily imagined world's rules. Rather, it identifies strongly with a hero looking to transcend them.

Production Company: Bicephaly Pictures

Cast: David Laufdal Arnarsson, Dilja Valsdottir, Viktoria Ros Antonsdottir, Gudmundur Ingi Thorvaldsson, Bryndis Petra Bragadottir, Margret Helga Johanssdottir

Director-Screenwriter: Ani Simon-Kennedy

Producers: Alice Bloch, Ani Simon-Kennedy, Cailin Yatsko

Executive producers: Kjartan Thor Thordarson, Kristinn Thordarson

Director of photography: Cailin Yatsko

Production designer: Nell Tivnan

Music: Hjaltalin

Costume designer: Christian Kjaerulf Praksti

Editor: Perry Blackshear

No rating, 79 minutes

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/B4uPicbJBs8/days-gray-reykjavik-review-648527
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After A Decade, SCOTUS Hears Another Michigan Affirmative Action Case

A clear majority of the U.S. Supreme Court sounded ready on Tuesday to uphold a Michigan referendum banning affirmative action in higher education. But the justices were less clear about whether they want to reverse a 40-year-old doctrine that bars changing the political process to disadvantage racial minorities.

The issue before the court was not whether affirmative action in higher education is permissible. So far, the justices have said it is. Indeed, one of the court's landmark cases upheld the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan Law School. But three years later, 58 percent of Michigan voters approved an initiative that amended the state constitution to ban such programs.

While the ban went into effect, it was challenged in court. Affirmative action supporters, contending that minority enrollment was plummeting, argued that the state constitutional amendment violated the federal Constitution by restructuring the political process along racial lines. Last year a federal appeals court agreed, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court.

Tuesday's arguments focused primarily on the "political process doctrine," which dates back more than 40 years. In two cases, the Supreme Court has held that the political structure cannot be altered to disadvantage minorities. In 1982, for instance, the justices ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state of Washington to amend its state constitution to prevent Seattle from using busing to voluntarily desegregate the city's public schools.

On Tuesday, Michigan Solicitor General John Bursch urged the Supreme Court to reverse the Seattle decision and others like it, if necessary. "Maybe the whole doctrine needs to be re-examined," he said, after a number of justices seemed unconvinced that there is a difference between the Seattle case and Michigan's.

Testing the state's argument, Justice Anthony Kennedy asked whether it would be permissible to pass a constitutional amendment requiring that all pro-affirmative action laws be approved by a supermajority in the state Legislature. Bursch replied that the court "might want to ... consider whether there's a discriminatory animus based on race," but that laws can't fall simply because they have a "racial focus."

The ACLU's Mark Rosenbaum defended the affirmative action programs as themselves democratically enacted by the governing boards, the regents, of the state's universities, who are elected by popular vote.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked whether there would be any problem "if the regents decided to revoke the affirmative action programs." That, answered Rosenbaum, would be "absolutely fine."

"So why is it different," Roberts inquired, when the "people of the state themselves make that decision?" The problem here, Rosenbaum said, is that the referendum changed the political process "from the ordinary" to "the extraordinary."

Justice Kennedy seemed dubious. "I just don't understand," he said, why the voters can't take away affirmative action but the regents or legislature can. Lawyer Rosenbaum responded that the people "have multiple options available to them" to change university policies. "The one option they don't have," he said, "is to treat racial matters different from all other matters."

Students seeking to enact or get rid of other preferences can lobby the regents, Rosenbaum observed. But racial minorities cannot lobby for reinstatement of consideration of race in college and university admissions decisions. Moreover, he said, to get back their preferences, minority students would have to embark on a difficult and multimillion-dollar campaign to re-amend the state constitution in a state that is more than three-quarters white.

Also arguing against the referendum was lawyer Shanta Driver. Justice Stephen Breyer posed this hypothetical to her: Most cities have "a vast number of administrators" of all kinds of programs. Suppose an administrator of one project decides to adopt a racial preference, for a good reason, but then the city council votes to abolish that preference. Would that be unlawful?

"No," replied Driver. Breyer pressed on, asking "Where's the line?" How do you avoid giving every individual administrator the power "to decide on his own whether to use racial preferences without a possibility of a higher-up veto?"

Justice Sonia Sotomayor stepped in with an answer. The line, she suggested, is "a very simple one. "The line is crossed when the political process is "changed specifically and only for race."

A decision in the case is expected by June.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/wxklL-3hN5E/story.php
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Amazon reportedly making smartphones with HTC's help

Amazon may not be developing its first smartphones by its lonesome. The Financial Times claims that the online retail pioneer is teaming up with HTC on three handsets, one of which is at an "advanced stage of development." It's not clear if or when these devices would ship, according to tipsters. None of the involved companies are commenting on the rumored smartphones, but they would continue a familiar strategy for HTC. The company has a history of partnering with web giants like Facebook and Google as they experiment with official devices; when Amazon is already comfortable with offering its own hardware, it's a natural fit for an HTC deal.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/15/amazon-reportedly-making-smartphones-with-htc-help/?ncid=rss_truncated
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2 girls arrested in Florida bullying case

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida girls who were primarily responsible for bullying a 12-year-old girl who killed herself were arrested after one of them acknowledged the harassment online, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Police in central Florida have been investigating the death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who climbed a tower at an abandoned concrete plant Sept. 9 and hurled herself to her death. Authorities said as many as 15 girls may have bullied Rebecca and the investigation was continuing.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the arrests of the girls, ages 14 and 12, were hastened when the older girl posted Saturday on Facebook, saying she bullied Rebecca but she didn't care.

"We decided that we can't leave her out there. Who else is she going to torment, who else is she going to harass?" Judd said.

The 14-year-old girl was accused of threatening to beat up Rebecca while they were sixth-graders at Crystal Lake Middle School, telling her "to drink bleach and die" and saying she should kill herself, the sheriff said. The older girl convinced the younger girl to bully Rebecca, and they both repeatedly intimidated her, called her names and once the younger girl even beat Rebecca up, police said.

Both girls were charged as juveniles with third-degree felony aggravated stalking. If convicted, it's not clear how much time, if any at all, the girls would spend in juvenile detention because they did not have any previous criminal history, the sheriff said.

"Time may not be the best trainer here. We've got the change this behavior of these children," Judd said.

The sheriff's office identified the two girls, but The Associated Press generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.

Judd said the bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy Rebecca had been seeing. The older girl didn't like that and "began to harass and ultimately torment Rebecca," Judd said.

A man who answered the phone at the 14-year-old's Lakeland home said he was her father and told The Associated Press "none of it's true."

"My daughter's a good girl and I'm 100 percent sure that whatever they're saying about my daughter is not true," he said.

At the mobile home, a barking pit bull stood guard and no one came outside despite shouts from reporters for an interview.

Neighbor George Colom said he had never interacted personally with girl but noticed her playing roughly with other children on the street.

"Kids getting beat up, kids crying," Colom said. "The kids hang loose unsupervised all the time."

A telephone message left at the 12-year-old girl's home was not immediately returned and no one answered the door to her home.

The girls were arrested Monday night and released to their parents' custody. Judd said the 14-year-old was "very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest."

The girls remain on home detention.

The younger girl was Rebecca's former best friend, but the sheriff said the older girl turned her and others against Rebecca, out of fear they would be bullied, too.

Before her death, Rebecca changed one of her online screen names to "That Dead Girl" and she messaged a boy in North Carolina: "I'm jumping." Detectives found some of her diaries at her home, and she talked of how depressed she was about the situation.

Last December, Rebecca was hospitalized for three days after cutting her wrists because of what she said was bullying, according to the sheriff. Later, after Rebecca complained that she had been pushed in the hallway and that another girl wanted to fight her, Rebecca's mother began home-schooling her in Lakeland, a city of about 100,000 midway between Tampa and Orlando, Judd said.

This fall, Rebecca started at a new school, Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, but the bullying continued online, authorities said.

Judd said he was upset the girls who were arrested still had access to social networks, even after Rebecca's suicide.

"If we can find any charges we can bring against their parents, we will," Judd said.

___

Kay reported from Miami.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-girls-arrested-florida-bullying-case-164108414.html
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