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Privacy Policy
Last modified: August 15, 2020
Below you will find the privacy policy for AMTJobOpenings.com ("AMTJobOpenings" or the "Website"), which applies to any information or collected through this Website and/or any AMTJobOpenings application, including any AMTJobOpenings mobile or tablet application or any application that may appear on a social media or other website (each considered and/or referred to as an "App") each of which are being provided by CLASS GROUP, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, within the USA (referenced throughout as "AMTJobOpenings", "we" or "us").
We respect your privacy. Therefore we have taken the time to disclose our information collection practices and our privacy policy. Please take the time to review this policy statement. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Website and governs data collection and usage, including any monetization, of such data. By using the Website you consent to the data practices described in this statement. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use our Website or provide us with your personal information.
In General. AMTJobOpenings receives and stores any information that you provide to us by entering it on our website or given to us in any other way, which may include through the use of an App. This includes information that can specifically identify you ("personal information") which may include your name (first and last), phone number, mailing address, email address and, if and where applicable, billing information (which might include such things like a credit card number, cardholder name and expiration date). We may also request information relating to your personal preferences relating to the aviation industry and be able to track your search habits on the Website. You can choose not to provide information to us, but in general most of the information that we request from you is necessary in order for you to use our services, e.g., register for a user account, participate in any surveys, contests or sweepstakes, make comments on our website or App, ask us questions or initiate any transactions on our website or through any App. Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through AMTJobOpenings's public message boards, where applicable, this information may be collected and used by others and we cannot control that data. Similarly, AMTJobOpenings encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from the Website or App so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. AMTJobOpenings is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on websites outside of the Website. Clicking on any third-party link is done at your own risk.
Information from Additional Sources. We may periodically lawfully obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from affiliated entities, business partners and other independent third-party sources and add it to our account information. For example, we could obtain information relating to updating address information, purchase history, and demographic information. We may also obtain information automatically from your computer when you visit the Website. This type of information typically includes what sort of hardware you are using to access the Website or App, your IP address, web browser software (such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari) and what the referring website was. We may also choose to collect information about your online activity such as what things you view on our website or otherwise link to from our website. We aren't trying to collect this information to be creepy. We simply want to learn how our users interact with the internet and our website so that we may better improve and customize your user experience and help prevent things like fraud. For more information review the "Cookies/Technologies" section herein.
Social Media Platforms. If AMTJobOpenings elects to establish, and if you so choose to use any of the AMTJobOpenings social media features, either on the Website, through an App or otherwise though a social media provider, we may access information about you via that social media provider in accordance with their policies. Social media that you use, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter for example, may hold personal information about you within their database. If there is a feature through the social media platform that allows you to connect and/or otherwise register with our Website through your social media account, we may access information such as your name, published profile image, gender, birthday or age, email address for such account, town or district in which you have listed and any other information you have chosen to make available through that platform. All of this may be transferred to our system without you having to enter such information manually on our site. Depending on the privacy settings of you and your friends, we may also access information that you provide to a social media provider regarding your respective location ("location data") to provide you with more relevant content. Please understand that your location data may also be shared with your friends on a social media provider in accordance with your privacy settings for that social media provider. We may also access information from social media providers about your use of an App that we run on their website. If you are uncomfortable with this, please review and regulate your social media privacy settings and/or do not connect to our Website or App through a social media platform.
In General. AMTJobOpenings collects and uses your personal information to provide you with products and services that you request, to manage your account, to communicate with you in general, to respond to any questions or comments that you might have, to measure interest in and improve our products and services, website and Apps, to notify you about special offers and products or services that may be of interest to you, to customize your experience with the Website or our Apps, to reward you as part of any reward or recognition program you choose to join to the extent any are available to you, to solicit information from you, including through surveys, to resolve disputes, collect fees and troubleshoot problems, to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, to enforce our Terms of Service, and as otherwise might be described to you at the point of data collection. If we have sensitive billing information (such as a cardholder name, credit card number, and expiration date) we will use that information for the purposes of completing any particular transaction you make on our website or through an App.
Communications/Email. AMTJobOpenings may also use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from AMTJobOpenings or any of its affiliates/external business partners. AMTJobOpenings may also contact you via email or through other modes of communication with surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered. Where legally required, we will abide by all existing publicly available opt-out lists when sending you marketing communications. Further, you will have the opportunity to choose to not receive these email messages in any such email we send. For more information please review the section on "Choices for Data Use and Collection."
AMTJobOpenings may share your personal information with the following categories of entities: Referring Websites. If you were referred to the Website or App from another website or App (e.g., if you clicked on a link that brought you to our Website or App) we may share some information about you with that referring website. Again, we do not control the privacy practices or any website that referred you to our Website.
Corporate Family Companies. To the extent AMTJobOpenings is ever connected to another affiliated company, we may share your personal information with such affiliated company (or companies) within the "family." This sharing will enable us to provide you, if you have so consented, with information about products and services, both aviation-related and other, which we believe may be of interest to you. To the extent that any of these affiliated family companies have access to your information, they will follow practices that are at least as restrictive as the practices described in this Privacy policy. They will also comply with any and all applicable laws that may govern the transmission of promotional communications and, at a minimum, give you an opportunity in any commercial email they send to choose to not receive such messages in the future.
Business Partners. We may jointly offer products or services through a business partner or otherwise offer products and services of a business partner on the Website or through our Apps. You will be able to tell when a third party is involved in a product or service because their name will appear, either alone or with us. If you choose to access these optional products or services, we may share information about you, including your personal information, with those partners. We do not control the privacy practices of any such third-party business partner.
Third-Party Vendors. AMTJobOpenings may engage third-party vendors who provide services or functions on our behalf, including credit card processing, business analytics, customer service, marketing, distribution of surveys or sweepstakes programs, and fraud prevention. We may also authorize third-party vendors to collect information on our behalf, including such information that is necessary to operate features of the Website or on our Apps or other otherwise facilitate the delivery of online advertising tailored to your interests. Third-party vendors have access to and may collect information only as needed to perform such functions and are not permitted to share or use the information for any other purpose. They are also required to follow the same data security practices that we ourselves adhere to. At the same time, it is important to note that such third-party vendor service providers may be established in countries that might not offer a legal of protection for your personal information that is equivalent to the one offered in your own country of residence. We will, however, try to protect all personal information we collect in accordance with our data protection standards.
Suppliers. AMTJobOpenings may connect with any multitude of aviation related suppliers such as classified ad sources, job postings, services, education, training providers, or any other product or service provider that you may find through the Website. These third-party suppliers are described as such and you are encouraged to review the privacy policy of any supplier whose products or services you purchase through our Website and/or their website or any App. These suppliers may contact you as necessary to obtain additional information about you, facilitate your order, answer your question or comments, or respond to a review that you may submit. While we may share anonymous reviews with any of our supplies, if and where available, we will not share reviewer names or contact information unless you have told us that we may. This does not, however preclude us from legal mechanisms such as an order to comply with a valid subpoena, etc. nor will be we held liable for any supplier figuring out who you are on their own based upon the information provided nor for complying with a subpoena for information.
Social Media Platform Providers. If and where available, if you access an AMTJobOpenings social media feature through the Website or App, you are sharing information with the social media provider (such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter) and the information that you share will be governed by their privacy policies (including that we may access such information via the social media provider). As discussed herein, you may be able to modify your privacy settings for these social media platforms and you are encouraged to review such social media platform privacy policies before connecting through them to our Website, App, or vice versa.
AMTJobOpenings may also share your personal information, with or without prior notice, for the following reasons:
Legal. As discussed herein, AMTJobOpenings is not immune to legal process. As such, your information may be shared in connection to a subpoena, court orders, or other legal processes, to establish or exercise any of our legal rights, to defend against any legal claims, or as otherwise required by law. Should any of these matters arise, we reserve the legal right to raise or waive any objection or right available to us. Similarly, to the extent there is ever an event such as a corporate transaction like a merger, consolidation, asset sale or even bankruptcy, we reserve the right to disclose your personal information as may be prudent.
Police/Investigators/Government Agencies. If we believe it appropriate, in our sole discretion, to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to defend or otherwise protect the rights, property or safety of our company, the Website, or Apps or others; and in connection with our Terms of Service or any other agreements that may be in place, we may release your personal information. Similarly, if we believe that it is prudent to prevent or mitigate a serious and imminent threat to someone's health (physical or mental) or life, we may release your personal information.
AMTJobOpenings may also share non-identifying but aggregated information with any of the above and with the following:
Advertisers or Investors. AMTJobOpenings may share anonymous or aggregate data with advertisers or investors, e.g., advertisers may want to know the number of visitors that come to the Website or use the App, or may have interest in the most popular links or categories on the Website or App. This kind of information does not typically contain any personal information and is used to develop content and services that we believe you may find beneficial. Other than what is set forth above, you will be notified when personal information about you will be shared with third-parties, and you will have the opportunity to choose not to have us share such information.
As AMTJobOpenings evolves, and our products, services, and collaboration with other companies grow, you may be able to connect your AMTJobOpenings account to third party accounts. BY CONNECTING YOUR AMTJOBOPENINGS ACCOUNT TO YOUR THIRD-PARTY ACCOUNT, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE CONSENTING TO THE CONTINUOUS RELEASE OF INFORMATION ABOUT YOU TO OTHERS (IN ACCORDANCE WITH YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS ON THOSE THIRD-PARTY SITES). IF YOU DO NOT WANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU, INCLUDING PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, TO BE SHARED IN THIS MANNER, DO NOT USE THE THIS FEATURE.
Many features on our website operate by way of directing you to external links. To the extent that you connect to another site or App, those websites or apps do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you carefully examine the privacy statements posted on those external websites to understand what their procedures are for collecting, using, and disclosing personal information. If you do not agree with them, do not use those sites. Similarly, we cannot control what happens on those other websites. While we do our best to ensure that the links that we direct you to as part of your research on AMTJobOpenings are safe, we will not be held liable for any viruses, malware or other issues that may distributed from links on third-party sites.
Specific employees and contractors of AMTJobOpenings and limited third-parties as outlined herein that may be vendors or associates utilized by or connected to AMTJobOpenings in some way. This also specifically includes third-party vendors hired by AMTJobOpenings to assist with administration or maintenance of website systems and/or communications systems as they too may be provided with access to databases and storage that contain such information as deemed necessary by AMTJobOpenings.
You can access and update your contact information by visiting the Website's user account section. You may deactivate your user account by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com with the with the Subject Box Titled "AMTJOBOPENINGS – ACCOUNT DEACTIVATION REQUEST." After you deactivate your account, you will not be able to sign in or otherwise access any of your personal information. You can, however, open a new account at any time if you wish.
By providing your personal information to us through the Website or any App, including the data that may be collected through any social media platform that you connect to our Website or App or vice versa, you accept and agree that we may maintain all of your information that we collected. You further agree that we may continue to process account related information to fulfill our legitimate business objectives, to comply with legal and/or regulatory obligations, for historical records and analytical purposes. We will continue to utilize technical methods to prevent unauthorized access to account information.
To the extent that you do not possess an account through the Website or you otherwise would like to contact us in relation to any personal information that would not be displayed due to having an account, you may ask us to access, delete or modify the information that we hold about you by emailing us at the email address listed below. You can also contact us to request an explanation as to how we process your information, and you may revoke the consent to the processing of your information provided when accepting this Privacy Policy by sending an email to the address listed below.
As discussed herein, you can choose not to provide us with any information, although it may be necessary for certain product and service features of the Website or on our Apps and use of our Website or App will obtain at least some limited data that is connected to your computer. You can add or update information and deactivate your account as described herein. This includes the opportunity to provide or remove a mobile number so that you may receive notifications relating to any products and services as may be applicable.
If you register for a member account, you will be given a choice as to whether you want to receive email messages from us about special offers as well as email messages about products and services of selected third-parties. As a registered user, you can modify your notification subscription at any time via your user account dashboard. Even if you are not a registered user, you will still be given the opportunity to unsubscribe from commercial messages in any email that we may send to you and instructions to unsubscribe will be provided in such message. Notwithstanding the foregoing we reserve the right to send you other communications, including service announcements and administrative messages relating to either your user account or to your transactions, without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them. This helps ensure you receive the important/material notifications.
AMTJobOpenings and websites that you may link to through the website may use "cookies" and other technologies to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, but don't recognize you personally, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
The categories of capability that we collect include the following:
- Advertising;
- Security;
- Authentication;
- Site Features; and
- Behavioral Tracking.
One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize AMTJobOpenings pages, or register with AMTJobOpenings site or services, a cookie helps AMTJobOpenings to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information. You may have seen this on other sites when entering in your billing address, shipping address, and so on. When you return to the same Website page, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Website features that you customized. We and some of our partners may also use cookies to measure the effectiveness of advertising on the Website and how visitors use our site.
You can accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the AMTJobOpenings services or websites you visit. More specifically, if you choose to turn off the cookies in your browser settings, you will have the capability of utilizing the Website's basic functions but you will not be able to log in to your user account.
If you connect to the website through a mobile phone or tablet app ("mobile app") we will collect and use information about you in the same way and for the same purposes that we do when you access the Website direct through a regular computer. Additionally, we may also use some other information that we collect automatically when you use a mobile app. For example:
App Functionality. We may collect information about the mobile app functionality that you access and use for the purposes of helping us identify the areas that are of interests to most users and consider what areas we may need to improve. This kind of data does not specifically identify you.
Device Identifier. We may collect information relating to the unique device identifier (a "UDI") which is a sequence of numbers or characters that are unique to your mobile device. When this data is collected it is done on the first opening of the mobile app so that we can be sure that our advertising network can log the number of downloads resulting from clicks on their respective ad banners and other similar marketing tools.
Location. We may use information about your current location (if such location technologies are available and turned on) to provide you with information about products and services nearby. We do not collect location data unless you expressly have the location feature on. Location data can be turned off through the settings menu on your mobile device/tablet.
Error Reporting. We want to know if there is an error or bug with the system so that we can promptly address the issues and release fixes and/or new versions. As such the mobile app will send to us error information in the event of a crash or it otherwise gets hung up. The reports about these errors that we will receive may include information relating to the mobile device type and version, the UID, the day and time that the error occurred, information about the feature that was being used and the state of the application at the time the error occurred. We will not be using this information for any other purpose beyond investigating and fixing the cause of such errors.
As discussed herein, you have control over the data that is collected through the mobile device itself or by choosing not to use the mobile app and access our products and services through the Website via a computer.
Unfortunately, no website or app can guarantee security. AMTJobOpenings makes efforts to secure your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, and we employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your information. Further, personal information is only accessed by authorized employees or third-party vendors and they are only allowed to do so to perform legitimate business functions.
The Website is a general audience site and our products and services are not directed to children under the age of 16. Our Terms of Service provide that a user must be at least 16 years of age in order to use the Website. If we learn that a child under the age of 13 (or under the age of 16 where applicable) has provided any personal information to us without the parent or guardian's consent, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personal information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under the age of 13 (or under the age of 16 where applicable), please contact us by emailing TOSsupport @ amtjobopenings (dot) com with the Subject Box Titled "AMTJOBOPENINGS – CHILDREN'S PRIVACY."
Our Privacy Policy applies to all the services offered by AMTJobOpenings but excludes services that have a separate privacy policy without an incorporation of this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals including products or sites that may be displayed to you in or on AMTJobOpenings or other sites linked from our services. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information or other companies and organizations who advertise our services, and who may use cookies or other technologies to serve and offer relevant advertising.
AMTJobOpenings is operated in the United States. Information that we collect is, to the best of our knowledge, controlled and processed in the United States. If you are visiting our website or using our Apps from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processing in the United States, where our servers are located and our central database is operated. By providing us with your personal information or using our services or the Website, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and to those third-parties which whom we share it, as described in this Privacy Policy. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please rest assured that we take all reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected.
The United States has not sought nor received a finding of "adequacy" from the European Union under Article 45 of the GDPR. Any data that we are collecting and/or processing we deem to be done with your consent; to perform a contract with you; or to fulfill a compelling legitimate interest of AMTJobOpenings and/or to the public that we do not believe outweigh your rights and freedoms. AMTJobOpenings tries to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal data and to use it only consistent with your relationship with AMTJobOpenings through the use of the Website, its' mission, and the practices as described in the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy.
Your personal data, and data provided by you about others, is stored by AMTJobOpenings on its servers and/or on the servers of third-party vendors that AMTJobOpenings engages, located in the United States. AMTJobOpenings retains the data permanently (although there is a possibility that some data maybe lost due to technological transitions or other accidental errors). This is due to AMTJobOpenings's need to preserve historical evidence in the event of litigation, to provide historical data where relevant, including the consumer facing information, to provide information that is of legitimate interest to the public just as court records are and to promote free expression. If you do not consent to this permanent storage of such information, do not use AMTJobOpenings. Notwithstanding the foregoing, should you wish to deactivate your user account, you have such capability through your user account dashboard. If you wish to have any additional data deleted, you must contact AMTJobOpenings by emailing TOSsupport @ amtjobopenings (dot) com with the Subject Box Titled "AMTJOBOPENINGS – DATA STORAGE AND RETENTION".
We respect your privacy and give you an opportunity to opt-out of receiving announcements of certain information. Typically, such opt-out options are present on the communications sent to you by email themselves. Alternatively, users may opt-out of receiving any or all marketing communications from AMTJobOpenings by contacting us here:
Web page: https://amtjobopenings.com
Email: TOSsupport @ amtjobopenings (dot) com with the Subject Box Titled "AMTJOBOPENINGS – OPT-OUT & UNSUBSCRIBE"
AMTJobOpenings may occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. AMTJobOpenings will maintain the most current version of this Privacy Policy on its website, however, because notifications of Privacy Policy changes will not be sent out, it is highly encouraged that you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to be informed of how AMTJobOpenings is protecting your information. You are charged with knowing what the most current terms of the Privacy Policy are and by continuing to use the site you agree to the same.
AMTJobOpenings welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you believe that AMTJobOpenings has not adhered to this PrivacyPolicy, please emailing us at TOSsupport @ amtjobopenings (dot) com.


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Several million American workers will cut back their hours on the job or leave the nation's workforce entirely because of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, congressional analysts said Tuesday, adding fresh fuel to the political fight over "Obamacare."
The workforce changes would mean nationwide losses equal to 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021, in large part because people would opt to keep their income low to stay eligible for federal health care subsidies or Medicaid, the Congressional Budget Office said. It had estimated previously that the law would lead to 800,000 fewer jobs by that year.
Republican lawmakers seized on the report as major new evidence of what they consider the failures of Obama's overhaul, the huge change in U.S. health coverage that they're trying to overturn and planning to use as a main argument against Democrats in November's midterm elections.
It's the latest indication that "the president's health care law is destroying full-time jobs," said Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. "This fatally flawed health care scheme is wreaking havoc on working families nationwide," he said.
But the White House said the possible reduction would be due to voluntary steps by workers rather than businesses cutting jobs — people having the freedom to retire early or spend more time as stay-at-home parents because they no longer had to depend only on their employers for health insurance.
The law means people "will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said the top reasons people would reduce work would be to qualify for subsidized coverage and an expanded Medicaid program but that lower wages — because of penalties on employers who don't provide coverage and looming taxes on generous health care plans — would also be a factor.
The agency also reduced its estimate of the number of uninsured people who will get coverage through the health care law. The budget experts now say 1 million more people will be uninsured this year than had been expected, partly because of the website problems that prevented people from signing up last fall.
However, it wasn't all bad news for the Obama administration. The CBO's wide-ranging report predicted that the federal budget deficit will fall to $514 billion this year, down from last year's $680 billion and the lowest by far since Obama took office five years ago.
The new estimates also say that the health care law will, in the short run, benefit the economy by boosting demand for goods and services because the lower-income people it helps will have more purchasing power. The report noted that the 2014 premiums that people pay for exchange coverage are coming in about 15 percent lower than projected, and the health care law, on balance, still is expected to reduce the federal deficit.
However, the budget experts see the long-term federal deficit picture worsening by about $100 billion a year through the end of the decade because of slower growth in the economy than they had previously predicted.
As for health care signups, the website woes have largely been cleared up, but the nonpartisan congressional analysts estimated that about 1 million fewer people will enroll through the new insurance exchanges than had been expected this year, for a total of 6 million.
Enrollment is predicted to pick up, topping 20 million in 2016. The exchanges, or online marketplaces, offer subsidized private coverage and cater mainly to middle-class people who don't have health care on the job.
The Congressional Budget Office also revised its Medicaid enrollment projection downward by about 1 million, for a new total of 8 million signups in 2014. About half the states have accepted the health law's Medicaid expansion.
What about those people whose decisions about work might be affected by the new law?
Lower-wage workers are more likely to reduce their hours or quit their jobs because of Obamacare incentives, the report said.
Although some employers will choose not to hire additional workers, or will reduce hours, the budget office said that does not appear to be the main factor.
"The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses' demand for labor," the report said.
The health care analysis is layered with complexity. The job losses are measured in "full-time-equivalent workers," which means more people are actually affected than, say, the 2 million full-time-equivalent jobs lost in 2017. It could take several part-time workers or people deciding to reduce their hours to produce the wage loss of one full-time equivalent.
The report also contains an important caveat, that the estimate of job losses is "subject to substantial uncertainty" and could be larger or smaller than predicted. There now are more than 130 million jobs in the economy.
Meanwhile, the broad federal deficit projection shows another yearly improvement. Obama inherited an economy in crisis and the first deficits ever to exceed $1 trillion. The 2009 total, swelled by the costs of the Wall Street bailout, hit a record $1.4 trillion, while the deficits of 2010 and 2011 each registered $1.3 trillion.
The agency sees the deficit sliding to $478 billion next year before beginning a steady rise years through 2024 that would bring the annual imbalance back above $1 trillion. Overall, it forecasts deficits totaling $7.3 trillion over the coming decade, about $1 trillion more than previously estimated.
"CBO expects that economic growth will diminish to a pace that is well below the average seen over the past several decades," the report said, citing an aging population and a decrease in the rate of growth in the labor force.
Tuesday's report comes as Obama and Republicans in Congress are taking a respite in the budget wars that have periodically consumed Washington since Republicans took control of the House in 2011. The declining deficit numbers mean they could feel even less urgency to act now.
A December budget agreement and last month's follow-up spending bill could buy peace through November's midterm elections. Republicans also appear to be taking a less confrontational approach to legislation needed this month to increase the government's borrowing limit to avoid defaulting on its obligations.
Copyright © 2014 Capitol Hill Blue
Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nothing about what happens during today's Republican presidential primaries in five states is expected to change the fact that Mitt Romney is the presumptive/expected/presumed/inevitable (pick your favorite word) nominee.
Polls are open in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. There are 209 convention delegates at stake and Romney could pull off a five-state sweep.
But — and there's always a but — there's this:
"Newt Gingrich has got a new hope: the tiny but dangerous state of Delaware," Politico reports. While Romney has invested time in the other states, he's mostly ignored Delaware. Gingrich, though, "has spent most of his time recently" in that state. So, there's a chance he could pull off a victory there today.
It's not that a win in Delaware would change anything. Romney would still be on track to have the 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination by some time in May. "But it would be an irritating distraction for the Romney campaign, which continues to struggle with the party's base," Politico writes, and it would give Gingrich something to point to if he decides to stay in the race after today.
But — and there's almost always a second but — there's also this:
If Gingrich doesn't do well in Delaware, his spokesman has "suggested the former House speaker may reassess his candidacy," CBS News says.
Polls close in Delaware at 8 p.m. ET.
Check It's All Politics for more on the 2012 campaign.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Examining some of the more recent theories of the crime, including allegations that there was a St. Louis conspiracy.
As 69-year-old James Earl Ray wasted away in a Tennessee prison - suffering from terminal liver disease - even the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. argued that he should be allowed a trial on whether he killed the Nobel Prize winning civil-rights leader.
Shelby County, Tennessee, Judge Joe Brown had ruled that 12 of 18 test bullets fired recently through the rifle long thought to be the murder weapon had markings different from the markings on the bullet that killed Dr. King. The rifle tested was the rifle that was found near the murder scene, within minutes of the shooting, with Ray's fingerprint on it. It has long been alleged, by Ray and many others, that the rifle was planted and that Ray was just a "patsy" in the conspiracy to kill Dr. King. These test results support that contention.
One expert argued that the defense should be allowed to clean the rifle's bore, because there was evidence of "bubbling" on the test bullets - which could be caused by a buildup of lead or copper from previous test firings. The government argues that cleaning the rifle's bore could destroy evidence - even though no expert has ever been able to say that the fatal bullet was fired from this rifle.
In those proceeding the fatal bullet was described as fragmented and deformed to such a degree that no ballistic comparison is possible. However, in the late 1970s, when I interviewed Arthur Hanes and Bernard Fensterward, former attorneys for James Earl Ray (Hanes is also a former FBI agent), they both said they had held the fatal bullet, that it was in good shape and should be more than suitable for ballistics comparison. In fact, when Ray entered his guilty plea, in 1969, the prosecutor told the jury that, had the case gone to trial, he would have introduced ballistics evidence linking the fatal bullet to the 30.06 rifle with Ray's fingerprint on it.
Even that fingerprint is in question, however. The first book on the King case, The Strange Case of James Earl Ray, by Clay Blair, said it took the FBI's fingerprint section two weeks to identify the fingerprint - even though it was comparing the print against only 720 sets of prints. That would indicate a fingerprint of dubious quality.
These types of questions are more troubling because the House Select Committee on Assassinations, after releasing its report on the case in 1979, immediately sealed all of the evidence it had, including all of the test bullets, for 50 years.
Ray had purchased the rifle days before the killing. If only one bullet had ever been fired through it, then the test bullets fired in 1968 would be the best bullets for use in comparison. We do not know how many bullets were fired in 1978. The more times a rifle is fired, however, the more wear and tear there will be inside the barrel, and this can change the markings left on a bullet.
HSCA didn't seal the evidence for the benefit of the King family - they've been after the truth since the day King was murdered. Nor was it sealed for the benefit of Ray - he's been denying his guilt since March 13, 1969, three days after he pled guilty to the murder. Ray claims he was coerced into pleading guilty by his lawyer, Percy Foreman, who convinced him it would be suicide to go to trial. (Ray had also signed a contract with Foreman, giving him a piece of any book by Ray, as a way of paying legal fees - he had the same arrangement with Arthur Hanes, whom he fired after four months. Such a book was obviously worth more if Ray were convicted.)
Ray's plea of guilty was a bitter disappointment to many people, who felt that without a trial - where witnesses could be subpoenaed to testify - that the truth of who and what was behind the assassination would never be known. In fact, the day after Ray pled guilty, The New York Times wrote a blistering editorial denouncing the plea, and the fact that there would be no public trial where the facts could be brought out.
The 1978 HSCA investigation was supposed to answer the countless questions surrounding the death of Dr. King - not the least of which was whether FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, or anyone else in the federal government, had a hand in his killing. While at first this suggestion might seem ludicrous, Hoover in fact developed a deep hatred for King. Hoover was certainly not alone.
J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover was director of the FBI for 48 years until his death in 1972. In the years following his death, Hoover has been widely demonized - to the point of being characterized as a closet drag queen who sold his soul to the Mafia because it had photographs of him in drag.
These efforts to turn Hoover into a cartoon character trivialize him, and make him seem less formidable than he really was. Hoover was the most powerful man in America for decades. He built the modern FBI. And, while social activists dwell on COINTELPRO, and the other evils perpetrated by Hoover, it was his FBI that prevented even one act of sabotage from being perpetrated on American soil during World War II (even though the Germans landed a dozen saboteurs on the East Coast). To millions of people Hoover was a hero - still is.
Hoover at all times was Machiavellian. For decades he outmaneuvered his political enemies, which included more than one president of the United States. (Nixon is on tape saying that if he fired Hoover, Hoover would " bring down the temple," including the presidency.) The source of Hoover's power was information. He compiled dossiers on the drinking, sex and gambling habits of many thousands of prominent Americans. Writers, actors, musicians, ministers, politicians - anyone with a public following was fair game. Hoover's agents not only cultivated armies of informers, but used illegal wiretapping to gather information on the more prominent targets.
From the end of World War II until Hoover's death his great crusade was fighting communism. In fact it was during World War II - when America's intelligence focus was on Germany and Japan - that Hoover received an anonymous letter, warning him that a particular Soviet official was a double-agent. On no more than that, Hoover turned the guns of intelligence on Russia. History proves that was the right decision (although it was later determined the Russian official in question was not a double agent).
After World War II, Russia developed an atom bomb. The Rosenbergs were charged with divulging top atomic secrets to the Soviets, tried for treason, convicted and executed. Communism was a real threat, and hundreds of prominent Americans were willingly feeding information to Hoover, including the head of the Screen Actors Guild by the name of Ronald Reagan.
Among those prominent Americans was Thurgood Marshall, general counsel of the NAACP. Marshall, who in 1967 became the first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme Court, first came to FBI attention in the 1940s when he was a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild, a group suspected by some of being a communist front. Marshall often complained that the FBI failed to investigate attacks on blacks, including lynchings.
However, in 1952, Marshall contacted Louis B. Nichols, assistant to Hoover, saying he was worried that the Communist Party was trying to infiltrate the NAACP and "forge to the forefront."
This dovetailed with a fear of Hoover and many others that the millions of blacks in America were ripe for recruitment by foreign agents, who would then use them to foment unrest and civil disorder across the United States.
It was not an unreasonable fear. In the early 1950s, blacks were strictly segregated across the nation. They were called "niggers" and they were treated as such. They could not eat in white restaurants, use white restrooms or public drinking fountains. Merely looking at a white woman could - and sometimes did - get a black man killed.
Even the bigots, and Hoover was one, understood that a lifetime of humiliation, being forced into ghettos, and exploitation at every level, left the black population of America a bit cynical about the attainability of The American Dream. Racism in the Northern states was bad, but in the South it was virulent. Although downplayed by the FBI, the KKK was still a powerful force in the deep South (along with even more extreme white supremacist groups, such as J.B. Stoner's National State's Rights Party, which was so extreme it was publicly disavowed by the KKK).
Into this picture, then, burst the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. General unrest over the Vietnam War created a social climate conducive to change.
Army Intelligence
The U.S. military buildup in Vietnam began in 1961. In early 1963 King led the month-long demonstrations in Birmingham, establishing himself as a national leader among the black population. His preparations for Birmingham were monitored by Army Intelligence.
On Aug. 2, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. Destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, resulting in a Congressional resolution allowing President Johnson to provide military assistance to Vietnam. A second attack by North Vietnam allegedly occurred on Aug. 4, resulting in U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.
In 1965 the first U.S. combat troops shipped out to Vietnam. By early 1967 we were a nation divided on the war, but coming together on many other fronts. There was widespread resistance to the draft. Children from affluent families - or families with an influential friend (ala Bill Clinton) frequently avoided the draft, but the poor were in the front of the line, and no one was poorer or more disenfranchised than black youths. The issue wasn't cowardice, as so many conservatives wish to pretend - the issue was fighting in and dying in a war that had no moral underpinning.
In 1993 the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, following a 16-month investigation, revealed that by 1963 Army Intelligence considered King a threat to the country's security. Dr. King wasn't the first member of his family to bear such scrutiny. The Army began watching King's maternal grandfather, Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, in September, 1917. When King's father, Rev. M.L. King, Sr., became pastor of the same church, the Army started watching him, too. In 1947, while still a college student, King himself became the target of government spies and informers. The Army, beginning in 1917, feared that the black population was ripe for subversion by foreign interests, so they tried to keep its pulse on that community. A lot of the spying was done by black informers.
In the case of King, however, the Army (and the FBI) went high-tech. In early 1963 King led a march in Birmingham that resulted in widespread arrests of marchers over a month-long period. Maj. Gen. Charles Billingslea, commander of the 2nd Division, sent a plea for help to his superiors, saying he feared a full-scale revolt in Birmingham. President John F. Kennedy ordered an additional 3,000 troops into the area.
It was with the Birmingham disturbances that the Army began to use a U-2 spy plane to keep tabs on Dr. King. By 1967 Maj. Gen. William P. Yarborough, of Army intelligence, was convinced the communists were bankrolling Dr. King. Yarborough was relying on information from the Mexican minister of national defense, to the effect that black militants were receiving training and funding from the Havana-based Organization of Latin American Solidarity.
By 1967, the U.S. government feared King. His speeches in the United States were affecting black troop morale in Vietnam. He had announced he would lead a massive march on Washington the following spring. The government's ultimate fear was that King, the apostle of non-violence, would ask the black soldiers in Vietnam to lay down their arms.
Once college students became galvanized against the war, they reached out to black people, Native-Americans, Mexican-Americans, even convicts.
In that context Martin Luther King loomed large as a moral figure. As a recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1964), he also had international stature.
Counter Intelligence
The FBI's answer to this cauldron of dissent, widely perceived as endangering America's ability to effectively wage war, was COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program). The purpose of COINTELPRO was to destabilize radical groups, which included the American-Indian Movement, Black Panthers, white hate groups (however they also enlisted the aid of white supremacists in countering black activists), the New Left, etc. The FBI generated a large file on Cesar Chavez, head of the National Farm Workers Association. The FBI shadowed Chavez, because of unfounded rumors that he may be a communist, and enlisted the aid of military intelligence, local police and the Secret Service - without ever finding a shred of proof to substantiate its suspicions. (In 1994 Clinton awarded Chavez the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously and described him as a "Moses figure.") While Chavez was viewed with deep suspicion by the FBI, Dr. King was viewed as the enemy. Under COINTELPRO, the FBI used a wide variety of methods to discredit people - including forged documents, false arrests, pamphlets - and it is known that white supremacists were enlisted in the fight against black organizations. COINTELPRO was approved in Washington but operated at the local FBI office level. The FBI was itself a racist organization. (Just a few years ago, African-Americans accounted for only 5 percent of FBI agents, an underrepresentation that caused them to file a class-action discrimination suit against the Bureau, which included allegations of pernicious discrimination in promotions, assignments, etc.)
By late 1967, at FBI field offices in the South, there were white agents enlisting the aid of white supremacists to try to neutralize black activists. The key target was Dr. King. It is common knowledge that the FBI used wiretaps on King (approved by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who would later express regret for signing the wiretap authorization). The most infamous recording involves King making love to a woman in a hotel room - a tape that Hoover enjoyed sharing.
James Earl Ray
I first met James Earl Ray in early 1960. I had arrived at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City on February 8, 1960, and Ray arrived shortly afterward. We didn't have much in common: I was 19 years old, and serving four life sentences for murder and armed robbery, and Ray was 32 and serving 20 years for armed robbery.
We knew some of the same people. I was born and raised in South St. Louis, an ethnic neighborhood that Ray had moved to from a small town. In September, 1961, I tried to escape from Jefferson City, and Ray tried to escape several months later. We spent approximately four months in E-Hall (solitary) together without ever speaking to each other.
Ray was a low-key guy. He was considered a solid convict. He minded his own business and kept his mouth shut. For a while he ran a magazine stand on the yard (renting out magazines like Argosy, True Detective, etc.), from which he made enough money to get by, since he didn't smoke, drink or do drugs.
In 1963 I became friends with Jerry Davis, and through him with Rollie Laster and Ronnie Westberg. Those three had taken some guards hostage in 1959, in a failed escape attempt, and Laster and Davis were shot.
At that time, there were only a dozen men in the prison who had ever tried to escape from inside the walls, so it created a small fraternity. Ray didn't run around with us, but he and Westberg liked each other, and Westberg would talk about him from time to time.
In late 1966 Westberg discovered a way to escape from Jefferson City. The prison bakery also baked bread for Renz Farm and Church Farm, delivering the bread via pickup truck to these nearby satellite institutions in a four-foot square box. Westberg's problem, however, was that he was viewed as such an extreme security risk by the guards that it was impossible for him to be absent for more than a few minutes without the guards looking for him. Had he disappeared for 15 or 20 minutes, the guards would have shut the prison down.
Ray, although having tried to escape twice, had a generally good conduct record except for the escapes. The guards did not view him as a dangerous convict - nor did they take him very seriously as an escape risk (the first time he fell off the wall and knocked himself out, the second time, in March of 1966, he was found hiding in a ventilation shaft in one of the factories).
On April 23, 1967, Ray climbed into the bread box, another convict covered him with a tray of bread, and he successfully escaped from Jefferson City. The prison officials were so convinced that he was hiding in the prison that they did not turn in a general alarm until several days later.
Ray's brother, John Larry Ray, was waiting in a car, picked Ray up and drove him to South St. Louis. John Ray owned a tavern in South St. Louis that faced Benton Park. The tavern was a local gathering place for George Wallace supporters. From St. Louis, Ray went to Chicago, where his other brother, Jerry Ray, was living. Jerry Ray is known to have assisted James Earl Ray during this Chicago period.
The Ray brothers have frequently lied since the assassination of Dr. King. At one point Jerry Ray was accusing author Harold McMillan of lying, and McMillan was accusing Jerry Ray of lying. McMillan had been paying Jerry Ray for information and apparently got burned. In fact, McMillan quoted Jerry Ray in his book as saying, "What surprised me even tho you are a liberal how I with a limited education could get a fee from you without telling you anything and making up all that bull." On the other hand, it is McMillan who is mostly responsible for portraying Ray as a rabid racist. In his book, The Making Of An Assassin, published in 1976, McMillan wrote: "In 1963 and 1964, Martin Luther King was on TV almost every day talking defiantly about how black people were going to get their rights, insisting they would accept with nonviolence all the terrible violence that white people were inflicting on them until the day of victory arrived, until they did overcome. . . . Ray watched it all avidly on the cellblock TV at Jeff City. He reacted as if King's remarks were directed at him personally. He boiled when King came on the tube; he began to call him Martin 'Lucifer' King and Martin Luther 'Coon.' It got so that the very sight of King would galvanize Ray." That is utterly untrue. There were no cellblock TVs in Jefferson City while Ray was there. Three years after Ray escaped, they finally began to sell televisions to the convicts. I knew a lot of racists in Jefferson City, but James Earl Ray wasn't one of them. Although McMillan's book was gravely flawed, Time promoted the book heavily, and what McMillan wrote later permeated much of what was written about Ray.
The Assassination
On April 3, 1968, Dr. King arrived in Memphis to support a strike by 1,300 sanitation workers. He would stay at the Lorraine Motel. Someone - it' s never been determined who - identified himself as an advance man for King, and had the motel manager switch King's room from the ground floor to the upper level. Everyone in King's group later said there was no such advance man.
The following day, at 6:01 p.m., King stepped out on the balcony. He was speaking to a friend below him when a shot rang out and he fell mortally wounded. A famous photograph shows several persons pointing toward a rooming house about 80 yards away. The FBI would later say the fatal shot was fired from a second-floor bathroom window at the rear of the rooming house. Several minutes after the shooting, a bundle was discovered in a doorway at the front of the rooming house. It contained a Remington Gamemaster 30.06 rifle, with a fingerprint on it that would later be attributed to James Earl Ray, and a small plastic radio that was said to be purchased by Ray while he was in the Missouri State Penitentiary.
Earl Caldwell, then a reporter for The New York Times, was in his room on the ground floor of the Lorraine Motel when the shot was fired. He ran out of his room and saw a man crouching at ground level near the base of the apartment house. Caldwell was never interviewed by the FBI. Harold "Cornbread" Carter, a wino, said a man with a rifle walked right past him, to the edge of an embankment (exactly where Caldwell said he saw a man crouching), and that the man fired at the motel. The FBI dismissed Carter's account. Two community-relations agents from the Justice Department were staying on the same level of the motel with King, and rushed out of their room when they heard the shot. They, also, were never interviewed by the FBI (even though these agents didn't see anything, the fact they weren't interviewed speaks volumes about the FBI's "investigation." )
The following day Roger Wilkins, then head of the Community Relations Service of the Justice Department, flew from Washington to Memphis with Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Cartha D. "Deke" DeLoach, assistant director of the FBI. DeLoach was already pushing the lone-gunman theory, although the FBI had no clue yet as to whom that lone gunman would be, or why Dr. King was killed.
The murder of Dr. King set off nationwide rioting, including Kansas City. It is likely that Hoover was pushing a lone-gunman to avoid the even more intense rioting that a white conspiracy might generate.
It would later be determined that Ray traveled from Memphis to Atlanta, then to Montreal, Canada, then to London, then to Portugal, then back to London where he was arrested at Heathrow Airport by Scotland Yard.
Shortly after Ray's arrest, J.B. Stoner, head of the National States Rights Party, volunteered his services as Ray's attorney. Several years later Jerry Ray served as Stoner's campaign manager when Stoner ran unsuccessfully for governor of Georgia against Jimmy Carter. Jerry Ray shot a 17-year-old boy who broke into Stoner's office, and served as Stoner's bodyguard and chauffeur.
The federal government, and Tennessee authorities, aggressively pushed the lone-gunman theory - although this explanation was rejected out of hand by millions of Americans. At Ray's sentencing, as the state was telling the jury what the evidence would have been at a trial, Ray interrupted the proceedings to say he did not agree with the statement of Ramsey Clark, U.S. attorney general, that there was no conspiracy. Three days later Ray tried to withdraw his plea of guilty, even though that would subject him to a possible death sentence. The court refused.
From that day forward there has been a tug-of-war between conspiracy believers and lone-gunman advocates. In 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations issued a report saying there probably was a conspiracy, and that it originated in St. Louis, with a reward being offered for King's death by two racists, one of whom was a patent lawyer. Both of these men were conveniently dead by 1978.
It began with an informant telling the FBI in 1974 that Russell G. Byers claimed to have been offered $50,000 to kill King, but had turned the offer down. The FBI put that information in a memo and filed it away. Byers, a high-profile thief, was the brother-in-law of John Paul Spica, who was convicted in the early 1960s of a hired killing in St. Louis County. For about a year, Spica was my cellmate, and we worked in the hospital together.
Of the contact killing, Spica always denied doing it. He told me that the victim's wife had approached him, offering him $5,000 to kill her husband, and Spica turned it down. However, when the man was killed, Spica went to the wife and said, "Well, I took care of that matter for you - where' s my $5,000." The woman, however, was smarter than Spica thought. She went to Capt. Pete Vasil, chief of detectives in St. Louis County, and told Vasil that she had approached Spica, but that she had later told him she changed her mind, but that Spica had ignored her wishes and killed the husband anyway. Spica, on the basis of her testimony, and a tape-recording of him asking her for $5,000, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The wife was acquitted and collected approximately $200,000 in insurance. Spica kept his sense of humor however, by complaining that, "I asked the bitch to send me the $5,000, and she won't do it."
In prison, Spica eventually got involved in selling drugs and other scams. One scam was to run off extra license plate stickers and smuggle them out of prison. Byers was involved in that. The prison officials finally caught on to it, but were unable to make a case against Spica.
By 1978 Spica had made parole. That year Russell Byers was one of the key suspects in burglarizing the St. Louis Art Museum and stealing several valuable statuettes. Another suspect was Sam E. White. On June 6, 1978, White walked out of the FBI office in St. Louis and was found five days later shot to death in Madison County, Ill. Byers was never convicted of the art museum burglary, because two witnesses were murdered and another refused to testify. During this period, however, the FBI turned the memo about Byers being offered a bribe to kill King over to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Conrad "Pete" Baetz, a deputy sheriff from Madison County, Ill., was serving as an investigator for HSCA. At the time of King's death, Baetz had been in an Army intelligence unit that specialized in electronic surveillance. Baetz, and HSCA, latched onto the Byer's story as though it were the holy grail.
HSCA also subpoenaed Judge Murry Randall, who had been Byer's attorney before being appointed to the St. Louis Circuit Court. Randall (whose brother, Alvin Randall, is retired from the Jackson County Circuit Court) desperately sought to evade appearing before HSCA. Randall sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, chairman of the committee, saying Byers was "one of the most dangerous criminals in this city."
However, once Randall began testifying, he made it clear that he thought Byers was lying, and that the "St. Louis Connection" to the King assassination lacked credibility. Randall was certainly in a position to keep his finger on the pulse of the St. Louis underworld. As a lawyer Randall had been affiliated with the law firm of Morris Shenker, the most influential criminal lawyer in St. Louis history. A number of circuit and federal prosecutors, along with circuit and federal judges, were former members of the Shenker firm. Shenker had represented many gangsters, and was Jimmy Hoffa's lawyer. Shenker would later borrow more than $100-million from the Teamsters, and bought the Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. After six years with the Shenker firm, Randall went into practice with Lawrence Lee, then a state senator from St. Louis. Lee, himself, was one of the more highly regarded criminal lawyers in St. Louis. Randall was also a good friend of Mark Hennelly, regarded as probably the best criminal trial lawyer in the city's history. By the late 1970s, Hennelly was president of Missouri-Pacific Railroad. In a conversation I had with Hennelly in 1977 he admitted to me that he was still friends with Tony Giardano, head of the St. Louis Mafia, and Jimmy Michaels, head of the Syrian mob in South St. Louis.
All of this is to say that, once he'd been subpoenaed to testify, Randall had the contacts to find out whether a $50,000 reward to kill King had been floating around the St. Louis underworld.
Randall told the committee that Byers had concocted the story about the bounty on King as a way of trying to pinpoint whether Richard O'Hara was an FBI snitch. Byers told that story to O'Hara - knowing that, if the FBI later asked him about the story, the only place it could have heard it would be from O'Hara. The FBI, however, figured out what Byers was doing, and never questioned him (until the memo was turned over to HSCA four years later).
Baetz, and HSCA, however, chose to believe Byers over Randall. Baetz later told The Riverfront Times in St. Louis: "Honestly, we believed Byers, and so did the committee. I think he told the truth. I don't think he would have lied to us once he got to Washington." That has to stand as either one of the most naive, or most disingenuous statements I've ever heard.
The Riverfront Times The Riverfront Times questioned Baetz concerning his knowledge of Sam White, who was killed in Madison County - and Baetz said he'd never heard of White until The Riverfront Times brought up the name (even though White was allegedly killed by Byers, the witness on whom Baetz and HSCA based their findings. When The Riverfront Times filed a Freedom of Information request with the FBI, asking for the file on Sam White, the FBI said it had destroyed the file.
The New York Times The New York Times bought into the Byers story, also. It published a story implying a Spica-Byers-Ray connection (strongly implying that Byers had told Spica about the reward, and that Spica then set it up for Ray to meet the money men). The Times reporters had sought me out, and I told them that it was an untenable proposition. Spica and Ray ran in completely different circles in Jefferson City. Had someone offered Spica $50,000 to kill King, he would have asked for half the money up front, then he would have told you to go sit on a fire hydrant. (Spica was killed by a car-bomb some years ago, over a union dispute.)
The statement by John Larry Ray, that James Earl Ray, after escaping, had hidden in East St. Louis, at a gambling joint owned by Frank "Buster" Wortman, is the fuel for current speculation that organized crime was involved in the King assassination. Buster Wortman ruled East St. Louis from the early 1940s to his death in 1968. My stepfather, Julius "Dutch" Gruender, was a close friend of Wortman's. They had served time together in Leavenworth (before Wortman was transferred to Alcatraz), and Dutch had done time with Elmer Dowling, Wortman's chief lieutenant (until he was murdered in the early 60s).
I had known Wortman most of my life. His brother, Ted Wortman, had married my mother's cousin. As I was growing up my stepfather often took me to the Paddock, a tavern that served as Wortman's headquarters. After I was locked up, Wortman tried to help me in whatever way he could. Had James Earl Ray gone to Wortman for help - and had Wortman actually hidden him out - I would have learned of it through my stepfather.
John Ray also said his brother had tried to get help from the Egan's Rats, an Irish gang in St. Louis. The Egan's Rats went out of existence decades before James Earl Ray escaped. The Ray brothers were as penny ante as criminals get in St. Louis. Wortman would never have gotten involved with them. Buster Wortman was under constant investigation by the FBI. He would never have risked hiding an escaped convict, particularly a petty thief who could do him no good, and to whom he owed nothing.
The Present
When Jerry Ray appeared before HSCA in 1978 he was represented by a lawyer named William Pepper. Originally from New York, Pepper has worn a variety of hats: freelance journalist (in Vietnam), operator of a group home in Rhode Island, school consultant, civil-rights activist, author and lawyer.
At the time of his appearance in front of HSCA, Pepper was in serious trouble in Rhode Island. Charges had been filed against him alleging he had solicited teenagers: "transporting boys for immoral purposes", the charges read. Those charges arose out of a federal investigation into a state-funded foster care program that Pepper operated. In 1975 he'd been fired by the mayor of Providence, who questioned his close personal relationship with the superintendent of Providence schools.
After the HSCA investigation, Pepper moved to London, to pursue international law, he says. He began to represent James Earl Ray. Pepper eventually convinced the BBC to produce a mock trial of Ray. With that money he hired investigators and began to prepare the two-hour show (because of a need for additional financing, HBO later got involved and it aired on HBO in 1993). One of the investigators met with me in 1992 and his holy grail was George Ben Edmonson.
I'd first met Edmonson at the Algoa reformatory near Jefferson City, where he'd taught me how to type. At that time I was 15 (although the minimum age for inmates at Algoa was 17, I'd been transferred to Algoa after four escapes from Boonville Training School) and Edmondson was about 22.
The next time I saw Edmondson was in Jefferson City. He arrived several years after I got there. In 1966 he was assigned to L-Hall, an honor unit just outside the walls, and was working at the State Capitol as a computer programmer (he'd completed about two years of civil engineering in college before robbing a savings and loan). One day Edmondson walked away from his job and disappeared - along with about $5,000 in state funds. About a year later, after being put on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, Edmondson was captured in Canada. It was learned that he'd been the project engineer for the West German Pavilion at Expo-67 in Montreal.
Because James Earl Ray claimed to have been recruited by a mysterious "Raoul" in Montreal, William Bradford Huie, author of They Slew The Dreamer, tried to find a way to connect Edmondson to the assassination. However, Edmondson had been captured before Ray went to Montreal.
When I met with William Pepper in Memphis, in 1993, during filming of The Trial of James Earl Ray, I quickly discovered that he was impervious to logic. He was already launched on his theory that King was killed by the FBI and the military and the Mafia. My suggestion that King was murdered by white supremacists, possibly including J.B. Stoner, didn't persuade him. There is even the possibility that FBI agents in the South deliberately deflected the investigation away from the white supremacists. No matter how much one would like to believe it, I just can't see Hoover getting involved in a murder plot involving dozens of people. The man was simply too smart for that. Now, once the murder was committed, I could see Hoover limiting the damage to James Earl Ray. There is proof that the FBI had three witnesses who saw suspects near the Birmingham church in which four young girls were killed by a bomb in 1964, and Hoover withheld that information from Alabama authorities, on the ground he didn't think anyone would be convicted anyway. And there is always the possibility that some FBI agents in the South were deeply sympathetic to, if not actual members of, white supremacist groups.
In any event, Pepper stuck to his guns and The HBO special ran, and Ray was, of course, cinematically acquitted. In 1995 Pepper published a book, Orders To Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King. He was recently sued by Billy Ray Eidson, a former green beret. In his book Pepper claimed Eidson had been murdered to keep him quiet (about military involvement in the conspiracy to kill King). Pepper said he welcomes the suit because it allows him to have discovery against the Army.
As a journalist I've been following the Ray case for a quarter-century. The more I study it, the more convinced I become that Ray did not personally shoot Martin Luther King. I am also firmly convinced he was involved in the assassination. I believe Ray was covering up for white supremacists. Too many people, however, think of Bubba when they hear that phrase - some Cro-Magnon foreheaded, tobacco-spitting redneck. In the South, when you speak of white supremacists, you are often speaking of lawyers, police officers, businessmen.
After Ray escaped from prison, as he was hiding from the law, how did he come in contact with these people? I'm sure these people weren't walking around, asking strangers, "Hey, are you an escaped convict who'd like to shoot an internationally known man?" The theory that Ray acted alone is ludicrous. Ray was simply too unsophisticated to have arranged by himself the elaborate escape to Canada, London and Portugal and back to London, with multiple false IDs and passports.
Someone who was in contact with Ray, was also in contact with the people who wanted Martin Luther King, Jr. dead.
Several members of the first HSAC have suggested a new committee be formed. That may be the only hope for getting at the truth. Janet Reno has announced that the Justice Department will undertake a limited review of the King assassination. That seems destined to lead nowhere.


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Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is DevOps.
DevOpsSummit New York 2018, colocated with CloudEXPO | DXWorldEXPO New York 2018 will be held November 11-13, 2018, in New York City.
Digital Transformation (DX) is a major focus with the introduction of DXWorldEXPO within the program. Successful transformation requires a laser focus on being data-driven and on using all the tools available that enable transformation if they plan to survive over the long term.
A total of 88% of Fortune 500 companies from a generation ago are now out of business. Only 12% still survive. Similar percentages are found throughout enterprises of all sizes.
Register for Full Conference "Gold Pass" ▸ Here (Expo Hall ▸ Here)
Sponsorship Opportunities ▸ Here
Speaking Opportunities ▸ Here
Sponsorship and Speaking Inquiries: [email protected].
2018 Conference Agenda, Keynotes and 10 Conference Tracks
DXWordEXPO New York 2018 and Cloud Expo New York 2018 agenda present 222 rockstar faculty members, 200 sessions and 22 keynotes and general sessions in 10 distinct conference tracks.
- Cloud-Native | Serverless
- DevOpsSummit
- FinTechEXPO – New York Blockchain Event
- CloudEXPO – Enterprise Cloud
- DXWorldEXPO – Digital Transformation (DX)
- Smart Cities | IoT | IIoT
- AI | Machine Learning | Cognitive Computing
- BigData | Analytics
- The API Enterprise | Mobility | Security
- Hot Topics | FinTech | WebRTC
Register for Full Conference "Gold Pass" ▸ Here (Expo Hall ▸ Here)
Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here
DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO 2018 New York cover all of these tools, with the most comprehensive program and with 222 rockstar speakers throughout our industry presenting 22 Keynotes and General Sessions, 200 Breakout Sessions along 10 Tracks, as well as our signature Power Panels. Our Expo Floor brings together the world's leading companies throughout the world of Cloud Computing, DevOps, FinTech, Digital Transformation, and all they entail.
As your enterprise creates a vision and strategy that enables you to create your own unique, long-term success, learning about all the technologies involved is essential. Companies today not only form multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures, but create them with built-in cognitive capabilities.
Cloud-Native thinking is now the norm in financial services, manufacturing, telco, healthcare, transportation, energy, media, entertainment, retail and other consumer industries, as well as the public sector.
Sponsorship Opportunities
DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO are the single show where technology buyers and vendors can meet to experience and discus cloud computing and all that it entails. Sponsors of DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
- Featured on-site presentation and ongoing on-demand webcast exposure to a captive audience of industry decision-makers.
- Showcase exhibition during our new extended dedicated expo hours
- Breakout Session Priority scheduling for Sponsors that have been guaranteed a 35-minute technical session
- Online advertising on 4,5 million article pages in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications
- Capitalize on our Comprehensive Marketing efforts leading up to the show with print mailings, e-newsletters and extensive online media coverage.
- Unprecedented PR Coverage: Unmatched editorial coverage on Cloud Computing Journal.
- Tweetup to over 100,000 plus Twitter followers
- Press releases sent on major wire services to over 500 industry analysts.
Secrets of Our Most Popular Sponsors and Exhibitors ▸ Here
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact [email protected].
Sponsorship Opportunities ▸ Here
Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here
Speaking Opportunities
The upcoming 22nd International DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO November 11-13, 2018 in New York City, NY announces that its Call For Papers for speaking opportunities is now open.
Secrets of Our Most Popular Faculty Members ▸ Here
Submit your speaking proposal ▸ Here or by email [email protected].
Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here
CloudEXPO is the world's most influential technology event where Cloud Computing was coined over a decade ago and where technology buyers and vendors meet to experience and discuss the big picture of Digital Transformation and all of the strategies, tactics, and tools they need to realize their goals.
From Apollo 13 to Google SRE: When DevOps met SRE
The complexity of managing and delivering the high level of reliability expected of web-based, cloud hosted systems today, and the expectation of Continuous Delivery of new features has led to the evolution of a totally new field of Service Reliability Engineering catered for such systems.
Google, who has been a pioneer in this field, calls it Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). While it would be more aptly named Service Reliability Engineering, the name has caught on. The seminal work documenting Google approach and practices is in the book by Google by the same name (commonly referred to as the 'SRE book'), and has become the defacto standard on how to adopt SRE in an organization. This session will cover adopting SRE as a practice in organizations also adopting DevOps; address the challenges to adopting SRE faced by large traditional enterprises, and how to overcome them.
Cloud-Native: A New Ecosystem for Putting Containers into Production
The standardization of container runtimes and images has sparked the creation of an almost overwhelming number of new open source projects that build on and otherwise work with these specifications.
Of course, there's Kubernetes, which orchestrates and manages collections of containers. It was one of the first and best-known examples of projects that make containers truly useful for production use. However, more recently, the container ecosystem has truly exploded. A service mesh like Istio addresses many of the challenges faced by developers and operators as monolithic applications transition towards a distributed microservice architecture. A tracing tool like Jaeger analyzes what's happening as a transaction moves through a distributed system. Monitoring software like Prometheus captures time-series events for real-time alerting and other uses. Grafeas and Kritis provide security policy attestation and enforcement. And there are many more.
In short, there's an entire new cloud-native ecosystem growing up around containers. Come to this talk by Red Hat technology evangelist Gordon Haff and learn all about it.
DevSecOps: The Open Source Way
DevOps purists may chafe at the DevSecOps term given that security and other important practices are supposed to already be an integral part of routine DevOps workflows. But the reality is that security often gets more lip service than thoughtful and systematic integration into open source software sourcing, development pipelines, and operations processes–in spite of an increasing number of threats.
The extensive use of modular open source software from third-parties, distributed development teams, and rapid iterative releases require a commitment to security and the adoption of security approaches that are continuous, adaptive, and heavily automated.
In this session, Red Hat Technology Evangelist Gordon Haff look at successful practices that distributed and diverse teams use to iterate rapidly. While still reacting quickly to threats and minimizing business risk. I'll discuss how a container platform can serve as the foundation for DevSecOps in your organization. I'll also consider the risk management associated with integrating components from a variety of sources–a consideration that open source software has had to deal with since the beginning. Finally, I'll show ways by which automation and repeatable trusted delivery of code can be built directly into a DevOps pipeline.
Andi Mann, Chief Technology Advocate at Splunk, is an accomplished digital business executive with extensive global expertise as a strategist, technologist, innovator, marketer, and communicator.
For over 30 years across five continents, he has built success with Fortune 500 corporations, vendors, governments, and as a leading research analyst and consultant.
Dhiraj Sehgal works in Delphix's product and solution organization. His focus has been DevOps, DataOps, private cloud and datacenters customers, technologies and products. He has wealth of experience in cloud focused and virtualized technologies ranging from compute, networking to storage. He has spoken at Cloud Expo for last 3 years now in New York and Santa Clara.
Accelerating CI/CD with Data Management On Premise and Cloud
Updating DevOps to the latest production data slows down your development cycle. Probably it is due to slow, inefficient conventional data management practices to copy data between different developer and test environment. This problem doesn't scale as teams are adopting faster software release cycles.
In this session, Dhiraj Sehgal in Product and Solution at Delphix, will talk about DevOps and cloud-focused strategies to update hundreds of developer and test copies with updates from a master database in minutes, saving hours or even days in each development cycle. He will also discuss how new practices in DataOps to manage data across multiple sources is making their life easier and helps becoming invisible to developers for data provisioning.
As Cybric's Chief Technology Officer, Mike D. Kail is responsible for the strategic vision and technical direction of the platform. Prior to founding Cybric, Mike was Yahoo's CIO and SVP of Infrastructure, where he led the IT and Data Center functions for the company. He has more than 24 years of IT Operations experience with a focus on highly-scalable architectures.
FinTech Is Now Part of the DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO Program!
Financial enterprises in New York City, London, Singapore, and other world financial capitals are embracing a new generation of smart, automated FinTech that eliminates many cumbersome, slow, and expensive intermediate processes from their businesses.
Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 22nd CloudEXPO | DXWorldEXPO November 11-13, 2018 in New York City will find fresh new content in two new tracks called:
- FinTechEXPO
- New York Blockchain Event
which will incorporate FinTech and Blockchain, as well as machine learning, artificial intelligence and deep learning in these two distinct tracks.
Register for Full Conference "Gold Pass" ▸ Here (Expo Hall ▸ Here)
Sponsorship Opportunities ▸ Here
Speaking Opportunities ▸ Here
Sponsorship and Speaking Inquiries: [email protected].
FinTech brings efficiency as well as the ability to deliver new services and a much improved customer experience throughout the global financial services industry. FinTech is a natural fit with cloud computing, as new services are quickly developed, deployed, and scaled on public, private, and hybrid clouds.
More than US$20 billion in venture capital is being invested in FinTech this year. DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO are pleased to bring you the latest FinTech developments as an integral part of our program.
DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO are accepting speaking submissions for this new track, so please visit Cloud Computing Expo for the latest information or contact us at [email protected]
Register for Full Conference "Gold Pass" ▸ Here (Expo Hall ▸ Here)
Sponsorship Opportunities ▸ Here
Speaking Opportunities ▸ Here
Sponsorship and Speaking Inquiries: [email protected].
Download Slide Deck ▸ Here
Only DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO bring together all this in a single location:
Attend DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO. Build your own custom experience. Learn about the world's latest technologies and chart your course to Digital Transformation.
22nd International DXWorldEXPO | CloudEXPO, taking place November 11-13, 2018, in New York City, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises are using some form of XaaS – software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend and learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.
Every Global 2000 enterprise in the world is now integrating cloud computing in some form into its IT development and operations. Midsize and small businesses are also migrating to the cloud in increasing numbers.
Download Slide Deck: ▸ Here
Companies are each developing their unique mix of cloud technologies and services, forming multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures and deployments across all major industries. Cloud-driven thinking has become the norm in financial services, manufacturing, telco, healthcare, transportation, energy, media, entertainment, retail and other consumer industries, and the public sector.
About DXWorldEXPO LLC
DXWorldEXPO LLC is a Lighthouse Point, Florida-based trade show company and the creator of DXWorldEXPO – Digital Transformation Conference & Expo. The company produces and presents CloudEXPO, DevOpsSummit, FinTechEXPO – Blockchain Event, the world's most influential conferences and trade shows.
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Dr. Joel Burken, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been named director of the Environmental Research Center at Missouri S&T. The appointment takes effect April 1.
The Environmental Research Center brings together researchers from a wide variety of academic fields to address environmental issues, including those related to the so-called "emerging" contaminants category. Emerging contaminants include chemicals that are becoming of greater concern due to their impact on humans and the environment. They include pollutants from municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewater sources, as well as pharmaceutical and personal care products, to name a few.
A member of the Missouri S&T faculty since 1997, Burken also serves as associate chair of the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department at Missouri S&T. He also served as president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors in 2011-2012. In 2007, the organization presented Burken with its Outstanding Teaching of Environmental Engineering and Science Award. The award honors individuals who are making outstanding contributions to the teaching of environmental engineering, both at the individual's home institution and beyond.
At Missouri S&T, Burken conducts research on how trees and other plants can be used to reduce water and soil pollution while cutting overall cleanup costs. Burken's work, known as "phytoremediation," also led to a new method to detect pollutants in the environment by testing plant tissues. That approach is known as "phytoforensics."
His work in phytoforensics recently received the top 2012 Technology Award from Network for Contaminated Land in Europe (NICOLE) for a project titled "Pollution Investigation by Trees," which includes 26 international collaborators.
Burken has been honored numerous other times for his teaching and academic pursuits. He received the Rudolph Hering Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1998 and 2007. In 2000, Burken received a faculty early career development award from the National Science Foundation. He also has been presented with S&T's Faculty Excellence Award six times, and in 2012 received the Alumni Merit Award from Missouri S&T's Miner Alumni Association.
Burken earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa in 1991, 1993 and 1996, respectively.


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After the enthusiastic response to my post on Momofuku's Pulled Pork, I found that I am not alone in my love of pig. Pork fans, add this recipe to your porcine list. Take a little time this weekend to blister tomatillos and braise some pork, and your whole house will smell like Mexican comfort food.
I trust Rick Bayless. He has earned a good rep by making great food at Frontera Grill in Chicago (sadly a place I've never had the chance to eat.) Plus, he has a nice face... somehow that open smile makes me trust him even more.
As Californians, my little family eats a lot of Mexican food. When we go out to eat, 9 out of 10 times it's Mexican, though we don't cook much Mexican food at home. We do make tacos, and the occasional carnitas, but rarely more. A few weeks ago our neighbors loaned us a copy of Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen and I knew I needed to spend some time in my kitchen with Rick.
I was right to trust the guy - Bayless' recipe for Tomatillo Braised Pork was a total hit. Succulent pork, a spicy/sweet stew, oh yeah!
INGREDIENTS adapted from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen
(printable recipe)
for the sauce:
- 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- fresh Serrano chilies, stems removed and roughly chopped (Bayless calls for 5 chilies, I only used 2 and there still was a nice kick)
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves, plus a few sprigs for garnish
- salt, about 1 1/2 teaspoon, plus more for seasoning the meat
for the stew:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 pounds pork country ribs, or pork shoulder, cut into large chunks*
- 2 small white onions, finely chopped, plus some round slices for garnish
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 8 medium boiling potatoes, quartered
*We've made this recipe with a few different cuts of meat. I preferred our batch that used pork country ribs and some pork belly. So rich and succulent.
Preheat your broiler. Husk and rinse your tomatillos, then scatter them on a broiling pan. Stick pan with the tomatillos a few inches under the hot broiler and cook for a few minutes until the skins are blistered. Then turn the tomatillos a bit to makes sure they are roasted on all sides and beginning to soften nicely.
Put the roasted tomatillos in a blender. Blend until smooth, then add cilantro leaves, 3/4 cup water, and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt. Blend again. Your sauce is done!
Prep your pork, by cutting it into big chunks and seasoning all sides with salt. Leave the fatty bits on - they really make the flavor here.
In a large heavy bottomed pan, (I used my Le Creuset Dutch Oven), heat olive oil over a medium/high flame. Add the chunks of meat to the pan in a single layer and brown the meat on all sides. ( I needed to brown my meat in a couple of batches because I couldn't fit all the meat in the pan at once.) This whole process should take about 20 minutes.
Set aside browned meat.
Preheat oven to 325.
Pour out all but a thin coating of oil from your dutch oven. Heat over medium. Add onions and saute for about 4 minutes until they become translucent. Add the garlic and cook a few more minutes. Pour the tomatillo sauce into the pot. Turn up the heat and bring the sauce to a roiling boil. Add the pork. Stir. Cover the dutch oven and place it in the hot oven. Cook for 45 minutes until the pork is just tender. Skim off any fat that has risen to the surface.
Add the chopped potatoes to the pot. Submerge the potatoes in the sauce. Return the whole thing to the oven and continue cooking for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
Before serving, take the pork out of the stew. Remove any fatty bits and pull the meat apart into bite sized bits. Stick the meat back in the warm stew and serve.
Garnish with cilantro and round slices of raw onion. We served our stew with corn tortillas, guacamole, slices radishes, beans, and rice.
Serves 4-8. With just a simple side salad, the stew is a hearty meal for 4. If you serve this along with a bunch of nice side dishes, this can easily serve 8.