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L.A. Galaxy sign superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic
LOS ANGELES--A little more than a decade ago, the Galaxy lured David Beckham to Southern California from one of Europe's top soccer clubs, a move that changed the direction of the sport in the U.S. forever.
On Thursday the Galaxy finalized a deal to bring an even bigger name to Major League Soccer -- Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose jaw-dropping ...Read more
LA bid to be host city for 2026 World Cup takes step forward
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles' bid for a part in World Cup 2026 moved forward Tuesday after the City Council moved to allow a private group to seek the international sporting event on behalf of several Southern California cities.
Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee, LLC, a group that includes the Los Angeles Football Club, will bid on behalf...Read more
David Beckham awarded Miami MLS team, will begin play 2020
Yes, Miami, it finally happened.
David Beckham was officially awarded a Miami Major League Soccer team Monday after a four-year odyssey beset by more twists and turns than he ever imagined when he smiled at a bayside news conference on Feb. 5, 2014, and announced his plans.
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US women's soccer wins their first match of 2018 against Denmark 5-1
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subset: commoncrawl


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The NASDAQ Stock Market has added Diwali to the events it commemorates on its fancy seven-storey-tall signage in its HQ in New York's Times Square. And here's the photo to prove it.
I am delighted to see the Indian flag towering over Manhattan traffic, but here are two nit-picky items:
It refers to the "Indian" festival of Diwali. While technically true, it would have been better to call it the Hindu festival of Diwali. Also, the use of the giant India flag, instead of say, a traditional Diwali lamp is rather odd. I wouldn't have minded a lamp AND a flag.
Diwali is celebrated in countries around the world by Hindus, including places where the Hindus have barely a connection to India itself, being fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, seventh-generation immigrants - such as Singapore, Trinidad, Guyana, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, Canada, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the U.K. and, yes, the U.S. (of course few of those countries have South Asian-led companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges).
It's a nice gesture, but the execution could have been better. Diwali is a Hindu festival first.
What do YOU think? Post your comments at the bottom of this item (free, one-time TypePad registration required). Some others have already weighed in.
[ See SAJAforum coverage on the Diwali stamp hoax and also read about the NYC Diwali Parking Holiday ]
PHOTO: Rob Tannenbaum, NASDAQ
© Copyright 2006, the Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Reprinted with permission


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A little over a week ago, the adult services section on Craigslist, the ubiquitous internet ad hub, suddenly shut down, replaced by a black-and-white label with the word "censored." Whether this was self-imposed, done under pressure, or in response to an order from some higher authority, Craigslist has yet to say.
That silence will reportedly end tomorrow, as officials from and affiliates of Craigslist are scheduled to testify at a House subcommittee hearing on sex trafficking. Between lawmakers' self-righteous fist-pounding, and panelists' won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children rhetoric, let's hope that one point of truth comes through: Stopping Craigslist will not stem the tide of sex-for-hire—it will only make it more dangerous.
Without Craigslist, police are deprived of a readily-available resource for prostitution "stings," and, in the event of tragedy, investigators are left with fewer clues—IP addresses, email trails, and more—than if the solicitation were to take place off-line and on the streets.
In other words, these measures have made the public less safe, especially those participating in the sex trade. The law enforcement emperor, stoking fear and appealing to public safety, is left with fewer clothes than the ladies and men of the night.
Over the past three years, multiple lawsuits have been lodged against the San Francisco-based advertisement and listings site, documents related to its adult ads have been subpoenaed, and fiery letters have demanded that Craigslist shut down the adult services section because, as 17 state attorneys general wrote on August 24, it "is the right thing to do to protect innocent woman [sic] and children."
Craigslist, by all appearances, complied with the state AGs recent demand. And within a few days of shutting down adult services, ads for prostitution reportedly migrated to other sections of Craigslist and elsewhere. Popular media and gossip blog Gawker listed six website "alternatives" in a Sept. 5 post titled: "Your Post-Craigslist Guide to Buying Sex Online."
Worse, however, than ads for prostitution drifting to other online locales is the fact that killing the messenger—in this case, Craigslist—serves to push the flesh trade back to the streets and further into the shadows. As one escort-service madam neatly summed it up in the Boston Herald: "My business will definitely pick up."


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It's a great time to enter the Chinese market as a children's book author because of the new requirement for children there to learn English.
Houston, TX (PRWEB) November 21, 2013
Ever since she was a little girl, Lynn Eddy always knew she wanted to be a writer. While raising her daughters, she saw an opportunity to teach children about yoga through the written word.
"When my best friend, a yoga instructor, watched my little girls twisting and turning into crazy positions while playing, she would name out the advanced yoga positions," said Eddy. "I'd done yoga on and off for years, and I saw this as a great way to introduce poses to children at a young age."
Cue the release of "Every Body Does Yoga," Eddy's first children's book that teaches basic yoga poses by showing kids they already do many of them throughout the day. The book has experienced success in the United States; most recently, Eddy has been reading the book to groups of children and then hosting fun yoga sessions afterward.
Eddy, who is also an employee of Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency (SBPRA), is now reaping the benefits of some of the work her company specializes in: bringing American literature the Chinese market. And while her favorite part of working in publishing is making authors dreams come true, one of her dreams to reach the Chinese youth has been realized.
"It's absolutely incredible to see my book on sale in China. It's a great time to enter the Chinese market as a children's book author because of the new requirement for children there to learn English," Eddy continued. "Yoga has been popular in the United States for as long as I can remember, but it's actually just gaining a large following in China."
In its continuing effort to tap into the Chinese publishing market, SBPRA recently attended the Shanghai International Children's Copyright Book Fair (CCBF), held November 7 through November 9, 2013. With over 90 percent of children's books in China imported, it was important for SBPRA to display its books and connect with leading publishers.
With the help of SBPRA, Eddy's book is available for download on JD.com, widely considered the Amazon equivalent in China. SBPRA currently has over 500 authors selling books on the site, which is one of the leading online distributors in China.
SBPRA has established itself as a leading publisher in helping distribute books in international markets, most recently in China's booming imported literature industry. As Eddy added, "The timing to release this book in China couldn't be better."
About Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency
With more than 5,000 published authors to our credit, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency (SBPRA) has the experience, expertise, and international network that authors seek and need to be successful in today's ever evolving publishing industry. We are your complete book publishing and comprehensive marketing support solution. For more, visit http://sbpra.com/.
SOURCE Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency


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PRESCRIPTIONS MAKING SENSE OF THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE; A Divide Separated By Common Ground
By DAVID HERSZENHORN
Published: February 1, 2010
The question-and-answer session between President Obama and House Republicans last week seemed to offer an unusually frank and refreshingly substantive debate, especially on the subject of health care.
Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee insisted that Republicans had many ideas on health care but that Democrats had refused to listen.
''My question to you is: When will we look forward to starting anew and sitting down with you to put all of these ideas on the table?'' Ms. Blackburn asked.
But while the forum in Baltimore -- unscripted and broadcast live on television -- might have been new and different, a vast majority of ideas put forward by both parties in the health care debate are not. Many have been on the table for decades, debated year after year while Congress repeatedly failed to act and president after president came up short.
Consider an excerpt from the State of the Union address -- not last week's speech, but the one George W. Bushgave in 2005.
''To make our economy stronger and more productive, we must make health care more affordable and give families access to good coverage,'' Mr. Bush said.
''I ask Congress to move forward on a comprehensive health care agenda, with tax credits to help low-income workers buy insurance, a community health center in every poor county, improved information technology to prevent medical error and needless costs, association health plans for small businesses and their employees, expanded health savings accounts, and medical liability reform that will reduce health care costs and make sure patients have the doctors and care they need.''
Or the State of the Union speech that Bill Clinton gave in 1993. ''All of our efforts to strengthen the economy will fail unless we take bold steps to reform our health care system,'' Mr. Clinton declared. ''The American people expect us to deal with health care. And we must deal with it now.''
Here is President Richard M. Nixon, below, in the State of the Union address in 1974: ''The time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high-quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it.''
And President Harry S. Truman, above right, in 1949: ''We need -- and we must have without further delay -- a system of prepaid medical insurance which will enable every American to afford good medical care.''
Mr. Obama, in his State of the Union address last week, noted that after generations of failure, Congress was closer than ever to adopting legislation that would achieve the health care goal of his predecessors.
''If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know,'' Mr. Obama said.
The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, raised his left hand high in the air.
Two days later, Mr. Boehner and his caucus challenged Mr. Obama during the televised question-and-answer session. With dramatic flair, they presented him with a book of Republican ''solutions,'' including a chapter on health care.
But the debate has raged for so long that there was not much new for Mr. Obama to contemplate.
For instance, a core component of the House Republicans' alternate health care measure -- to create so-called association health plans -- was also proposed in 2005 in response to Mr. Bush's speech.
House Republicans, who controlled the majority at the time, approved the bill but it died in the Senate, where Republicans were also in charge. The proposal, disliked by Democrats, was also criticized by conservatives as an intrusion by the government into health care.
Mr. Obama, in an exchange Friday with Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, said he had considered many Republican ideas and pointed, by example, to a proposal to allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines.
''We actually include that as part of our approach,'' the president said. ''But the caveat is, we've got to do so with some minimum standards; because otherwise what happens is that you could have insurance companies circumvent a whole bunch of state regulations.''
After the session, Representative John Shadegg, Republican of Arizona, took issue with Mr. Obama's comments, saying the president ''got his facts wrong.''
''He insisted that his health care reform proposal would allow Americans to purchase insurance across state lines,'' Mr. Shadegg said. ''In reality, his bill nationalizes federal insurance regulation and gives the average American family no relief from expensive mandates that drive up the cost of health insurance.''
But in a report comparing the health care bills passed by House and Senate Democrats, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service wrote: ''Both bills would allow states to form compacts to facilitate the sale and purchase of health plans across state lines.''
On a number of points, Republicans and Democrats are closer to agreement than many people realize.
For instance, the Senate health bill would allow adult children to remain on their parents' health plan until their 26th birthday, but the rule would apply only to new insurance policies. The House Democrats' bill would allow dependent coverage until the 27th birthday and the House Republicans' bill until the 25th, but both would apply the rule to existing policies.
The House Republicans' bill seeks to end annual and lifetime caps on benefits, as well as to ban ''recisions'' -- by which insurers cancel policies for seemingly arbitrary reasons. The Democrats' bills share those goals.
So there was not much new about Democrats and Republicans debating health care in Baltimore on Friday. What would be different? If they acknowledged their shared goals and agreed on a bipartisan solution.


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|Rediff India Abroad Home | All the sections
Punditry on Mayawati win is misleading
May 28, 2007
Just as the psychologist's perspective influences the results of the Rorschach test, the punditry after Mayawati's win reflects the biases of the analysts.
Such are the compulsions of 24-hour news channels that even seasoned, respected political analysts rush with comments that would not survive a second thought.
The recent victory of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Mayawati has not only been likened to a tsunami, but she is credited to have reworked the entire social calculus in the cauldron of caste-based politics and brought about a paradigm shift in Indian polity.
At a remove of just a few weeks, it appears very likely that these remarks are at the very least premature and perhaps quite misleading.
Any realistic analysis must begin with an acknowledgement of the obvious -- the first simple majority for any party in Uttar Pradesh in 15 years, and one that was achieved almost single-handedly by a Dalit, media-unfriendly woman, with no patronage from any other entity or individual.
Indeed, Mayawati was so confident that she spurned all overt and covert alliance offers before the election. Equally noteworthy is the fact that the BSP vote gains have been at the expense of the two national parties, a foregone conclusion in the case of Congress and a shocker for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But it was not a landslide or a sweep as is repeatedly being said. The BSP's 206 seats out of the 402 amount to 51.2 per cent, almost exactly the same ratio the BJP has in neighbouring Uttarakhand (36 out of 70 is 51.4 per cent).
The BJP's majority is rightly called wafer-thin, with just two legislators' defection spelling its doom. If five MLAs desert the BSP, it will be in similar dire straits.
More importantly, the BSP's win brings out the fractious nature of elections in UP in even sharper relief than was the case earlier.
The party garnered 30 per cent of the votes cast. Since just about one-half of the eligible voters actually exercised their franchise, the BSP mandate came from only 15 per cent of the electorate.
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami was justifiably concerned about this state of affairs. This small a base cannot really sustain the talk of social revolution or paradigm shifts in the state, however sweet sounding those phrases may be.
Caste-based voting has been a fact of life all over India; states such as Bihar and UP provide more dramatic instances of it. There are, of course, no official data on the caste-wise break-up of the votes polled by different parties.
What we have are estimates on the basis of surveys; they are certainly susceptible to errors, possibly very large ones, as the present election results show. Assuming that the broad patterns taken for granted are correct, all one can conclude from the last several elections is that caste-coalitions are in a state of flux.
The Congress's upper caste-Dalit-Muslim combination gave way first to Ahir-Jat-Gujjar-Rajput and then Muslim-Ahir-Jat-Gujjar-Rajput, only to be succeeded by a winning combination of upper castes and Other Backward Classes, which in turn lost ground to OBCs and Muslims.
Now we have Dalits and a smattering of upper castes and Muslims providing a winning combination.
It requires a heroic perspicacity to read any patterns into these realignments, quite clearly temporary in nature -- a sort of social Brownian movement, a term used to describe the random movement of tiny particles in suspension.
An unusually lucid Brahmin voter said he could not vote for the cycle (Samajwadi Party), the Congress was finished and the BJP nearly so; hence, he had little choice but to give the BSP a chance this time. What emerges is not new loyalty, but a serial, shifting promiscuity of voter affiliations.
Mayawati fought the election with a single-point platform: a win at any cost and to hell with a manifesto.
Since her party amounts merely to an extension of herself and since her majority frees her from any need to adhere to any common programme at all, it would be very brave indeed to read a movement to the political centre in her victory, or to assume that governance and the other BSP planks (bijli-sadak-pani) (eletricity-roads-water supply) would be priority concerns of her government.
The first indications in this regard are bothersome. A large number of ministers have pending criminal prosecutions.
Most of them have been given minor portfolios, with Mayawati keeping for herself the most important departments.
The chief minister's office has seen a substantial bureaucratic concentration, suggesting that most of the work will be concentrated there.
Almost all Indian Police Service officers and a large number of their Indian Administrative Service counterparts have been transferred, even as there has been lip service about stopping the "transfer industry."
And we can rest assured that a great deal of energy and effort will be spent on investigating the decisions and actions of the predecessor administration and its chief performers.
In all of Mayawati's comments, prominent by its absence is the parallel with another imperious, contemporary woman politician, Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu.
Even her worst enemies would not count her out. The similarities are striking: strong mentors and the mercurial rise of the ladies after the mentors' exit from the political stage; attitudes; no semblance of a party structure; veneration by loyal voters and partymen even as the leader maintains a touch-me-not posture.
If Jayalalithaa, despite being a formidable force in Tamil Nadu, represents no break with conventional politics and only a minor impact on the national level, should we not use some caution before bestowing upon Mayawati those qualities?
She could well be, because politics is full of surprises and people grow, but we need more evidence before coming to that conclusion.
In elections, first past the post wins. In punditry, first with the byte or quip gets called for more interviews.
The liberal establishment is also troubled by its own historic guilt. It seeks to find deeper meaning in all in-your-face acts and pronouncements. This has happened abroad as well, most prominently in the United States. The patterns and paradigms we see in the Mayajaal are more likely our own Rorschach tests.
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