(Continuing GMD policy of promoting diaries by officeholders and officeseekers. – promoted by kestrel9000)

Today I voted against the budget that was presented to the legislature for approval. The budget as presented – along with “Challenges for Change” – still has an $8 million hole in it. The legislative budget writers chose not to address this hole, but rather to leave it for the administration to fill however they choose.

A few days ago the legislative leadership held a press conference to announce that they would include a mechanism in the budget to use rainy day funds if the administration could not come up with proposals that the legislature could agree to for the needed savings. However, this mechanism was not included in the final bill. Further, the governor may cut up to 1% of the state workforce at his discretion.

In terms of the budget hole, the budget bill gives unprecedented authority to the governor and his administration. Even if the legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee does not agree to the proposals presented, the governor can go ahead with cuts.

I cannot support an unbalanced budget, and I do not support giving the legislature’s authority to set the budget to the administration.

http://dougracine.com/

Danielle Nierenberg is blogging everyday from across Africa for the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog. She is also writing with her partner Bernard Pollack at her personal blog: BorderJumpers.

The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as possible from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered travellers at the crossing and, having mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).

We started our first day in Zimbabwe with a meeting with Raol DuToit, who has spent twenty years with the World Wildlife Fund and now works directly for rhino conversation. Raoul is an encyclopaedia on every major conservation issue relating to Southern Africa.

Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo’s to break bread with a true hero of ours: Wellington Chibebe, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Despite having been jailed numerous times, badly beaten, and under constant surveillance-this brilliant, mild-mannered man spent a few hours passionately telling us about the struggle to bring change to his country, the heroic role the labor movement plays in the movement for democracy, and the spirit of people to overcome fear.

Afterwards we visited the editor of The Worker, Ben Madzimure. This newspaper, sponsored by ZCTU and supported by the Solidarity Center, is one of the five independent print media sources not controlled by the government, and one of its most important watchdogs.

Additionally, we were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.

The first project was a village where the union is working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during “Operation Restore Order.” As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training.

At the second project we visited we were greeted by children singing, clapping, and rushing to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the union supported orphanage provides not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives the children a family.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:

1. Comment on our daily posts — we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.

2. Receive regular updates–Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.

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(In keeping with the GMD policy of promoting first-person diaries by candidates for statewide office to the front page, here is the latest from Peter Shumlin: – promoted by Sue Prent)

As the end of the legislative session approaches, it’s time to look back at what has been accomplished in health care reform and the critical road ahead.  I was one of the sponsors of the original S.88, which would have committed the state to a single payer system and set up a process for designing and implementing it.  A single payer system is the most fiscally responsible and conservative way to create universal access to health care in Vermont.  By eliminating the profits and paperwork of insurance companies and pooling our funds, we can support a health care infrastructure that is accessible and available to everyone, and that is rational and controls costs.

S.88, the health care bill, has taken many twists and turns during this legislative session. Unfortunately, the bill does not implement universal health care in Vermont. That process will have to wait until Vermont has new leadership in the governor’s office. However, fleshing out all the details in the design of a health care system is important work that needs to begin as soon as possible. Thus, the three studies ordered by S.88 are the cornerstone of this legislation.

As the measure made its way through the legislative process, I saw several places in the bill that needed strengthening.  

First, one of the early drafts was quite vague as to the qualifications of the consultant who would be hired to conduct the studies. I feared that this left open the possibility of hiring a consultant whose expertise was insurance regulation, health care utilization analysis, or delivery system modifications. What we needed, I felt, was someone who had a track record in actually designing successful universal health care systems, and in advising governments in making the transition from private to public financing. Working with other senators, I was able to modify the language of S.88 in this regard.

Second, when the health care bill came back to the Senate from the House, it had quadrupled in length!  Working again with like-minded members of the Senate, I made sure S.88 would not implement unproven innovations, such as the insurance payment schemes suggested by the House, until after the health system studies were complete. That way any fundamental shifts in how we pay for health care, or deliver it to patients, would be based on sound evidence, and would be subject to debate in the public arena before implementation.

Many Vermonters have expressed to me their frustration at how little ever gets accomplished in the drive for universal health care in Vermont. I agree with them. It is wrong that tens of thousands of Vermonters have no health insurance, and that tens of thousands more are underinsured, and that health care debt is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy. And so the fact that the legislature will now study universal health care, rather than implement it, may seem disappointing to some people.

However, I believe that what we are doing in the legislature, is laying the groundwork for real progress next year.  We now need to elect a governor who has the courage to lead on health care reform. There have been momentous debates in the past-same sex marriage and Vermont Yankee come to mind-but health care will take an even greater effort. To make real change, we will need a leader who can stand up to the powerful special interests and unite business, the medical community, and people from every corner of the state around the need for publicly financed universal health care.  If elected Governor, health care reform will be one of my top priorities.  

(In keeping with our policy of featuring first-person diaries by the candidates on the GMD front page, here is the latest from Deb Markowitz: – promoted by Sue Prent)

When a supporter told me about Brian Dubie's advertisement on the NY Times website telling readers Vermont was a bad place to do business, I didn't want to believe it.

Then I saw it for myself.

Playing politics with our economy is inappropriate especially when we have more than 20,000 Vermonters without jobs. It doesn't help make our state better and it is discouraging to businesses who already make their home in Vermont. This kind of talk may help Brian's campaign, but it won't help Vermont.

Look, in Vermont we've got challenges. We've got to make Vermont more affordable for Vermont business and families. That's one reason I'm running for governor. But, you don't jumpstart the economy by broadcasting to the readers of the New York Times, that Vermont is a bad place to do business. And if you want to be the leader of a state, that's the last thing you should be doing.

When I am governor I will send a positive message about doing business in Vermont. I will take actions to help new businesses start up and existing businesses succeed. Unfortunately, Brian Dubie is continuing a tradition of trashing Vermont and it has to end. He is literally advertising to an influential audience that businesses shouldn't think about Vermont.

See the full video from WPTZ on this here.

While the MSM is covering the Congressional Hearings of oil execs in Washington, today the New York Times also covers hearings in New Orleans concerning the nitty gritty behind the approval of any oil drilling in the Gulf.  It’s a worse mess than the Congressional hearings.

Finger-Pointing, but Few Answers at Hearings on Drilling

at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05…  All these execs in DC and governmental officials in N.O. are pointing their index fingers at each other.  Who’s in charge of oil drilling?  

(GMD’s policy is to promote diaries from officeholders and officeseekers. – promoted by kestrel9000)

Sent this press release out tonight….

Senate gives final approval to the health care reform bill

MONTPELIER, VT – The Senate gave final approval to S.88, the Healthy Vermont bill, and sent it to the Governor. The final Senate vote was 25-4. The bill calls for the state to hire an expert to create three design options for a health care system for Vermont, with one option being a single payer system and one being a public option. The third option is open, so the expert can explore different models and give Vermont choices.

The bill seemed to be tied up in political wrangling during the afternoon, but was brought to the floor for a vote late in the evening. Senator Doug Racine (D-Chittenden), chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, had ushered the bill through the legislative process. Reporting the bill on the floor, he reminded Senators of what they were voting on, saying, “This bill is about fundamental health care reform, so we can have universal coverage that is affordable for all Vermonters.”

Racine had worked to build consensus on the bill, and the strong vote reflected the coalitions that had been built. “This bill reflects good work by the committees in both the Senate and the House and productive feedback from interested citizens and groups,” Racine explained. “I am proud of our work and look forward to working to implement our new health care system next year.”

The bill will now go to the Governor, who can either sign the bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.

Just got S.88 done with a 25-4 vote. Now it goes to the Governor. Will have more details on my website soon. – Doug Racine

http://dougracine.com/

In a 24-page brief to the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) April 30, 2010, Entergy and Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) claim that their information belongs to them and to the NRC.  Vermont and its intervenors do not have the right to look at information requested by intervenors, the PSB and the Department of Public Service, according to ENVY & Entergy attorneys.

wrote Downs Rachlin Martin Attorney John Marshall in his MOTION TO MODIFY THE PREHEARING CONFERENCE MEMORANDUM AND TO ENLARGE THE TIME FOR ENTERGY VY TO RESPOND TO PENDING DISCOVERY REQUESTS.  See the entire document below the fold.

According to Bob Audette in today’s Brattleboro Reformer:

“Discovery is needed to address the issue of preemption,” wrote Sandy Levine, CLF’s senior counsel, who also rejected Marshall’s claim that Yankee’s employees were too busy with the outage to respond to the requests.

“A company as large and well-funded as Entergy should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” she wrote. “To the extent it is not able to do both, it should not be allowed to operate a nuclear facility in the state of Vermont.”

Nowhere does federal preemption exclude Entergy and ENVY’s obligation to meet NRC General Design Criteria 60 that states:

Criterion 60–Control of releases of radioactive materials to the environment. The nuclear power unit design shall include means to control suitably the release of radioactive materials in gaseous and liquid effluents and to handle radioactive solid wastes produced during normal reactor operation, including anticipated operational occurrences. Sufficient holdup capacity shall be provided for retention of gaseous and liquid effluents containing radioactive materials, particularly where unfavorable site environmental conditions can be expected to impose unusual operational limitations upon the release of such effluents to the environment.

Non-existent buried underground pipes that have leaked tritium into the Connecticut River, are none of our business according to Entergy’s attorneys.

Writing for CLF, Levine stated that Entergy’s request “perpetuates the continuing efforts … to hide important information … They are refusing to provide factual information that is necessary for the board to determine the scope of its authority.”

Personally, I find it curious that Entergy and ENVY, which have taken such efforts to separate themselves as entities in order to obfuscate Entergy’s responsibility to fully fund ENVY’s decommissioning fund, have the same attorney pushing their authority over any state intervention.  You will note that Attorney John Marshall of the Burlington law firm DOWNS RACHLIN MARTIN PLLC is the attorney representing both Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee,LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. of Louisiana. How convenient.

See Attorney John Marshall’s argument against Vermont’s right to intervene on Page 18.  Certainly it is the preliminary volley in a long anticipated wider attack on Vermont’s authority over anything Entergy wishes or chooses to do.

Entergy ENVY to PSB Dkt 7600 Motion to Modify 043010 –  

It’s the Best of Times for One Paper and the the Worst of Times for the Other as The Washington Blade Makes a Triumphant Return Five Months After Former Parent Company’s Bankruptcy Shut it Down, While The Washington Times Totters on the Brink of Extinction After Church Cuts Off its $35 Million-a-Year Subsidy and is Now on the Selling Block

GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS — Five months after it was abruptly shut down in late November when its former parent company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, The Washington Blade resumed publishing on April 30 under the ownership of a new company formed by longtime staffers of the 40-year-old LGBT community weekly. Across town, The Washington Times is tottering on the brink of folding. The conservative daily last fall lost its $35 million annual subsidy from the Unification Church — which owns the Times’ parent company — forcing massive layoffs, the elimination of its local news and sports sections and the firings of top editors and executives. Now the Times is up for sale, but it has never made a profit in its 28-year history. It loses a reported $80 million a year and its circulation has plunged dramatically since the crisis began. (Left Photo: Joe Tresh Photography; Right Photo: National Press Photographers Association)

(Posted 5:00 a.m. EDT Tuesday, May 11, 2010)

By SKEETER SANDERS

In recent months, the nation’s capital has borne witness to a tale of two of its newspapers worthy of one of Charles Dickens’ most famous novels.

Call it “A Tale of Two Newspapers.”

With apologies to the 19th century British author, what’s been happening to the two newspapers can best be described by the opening paragraph of Dickens’ novel about  events that transpired in London and Paris during the French Revolution.

For one paper, it is the best of times. For the other, it is the worst of times.

WASHINGTON BLADE MAKES A COMEBACK FIVE MONTHS AFTER SHUTDOWN. . .

On April 30, The Washington Blade, the capital’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community weekly that had been the nation’s LGBT newspaper of record for 40 years before it was abruptly shut down last November when its former parent company filed for bankruptcy, made a triumphant return to Washington-area newsstands and vending boxes on April 30, with a new look and a new slogan — “Still Sharp After 40 Years.”

A group of longtime Blade staffers formed a new, locally-based company to publish a new weekly newspaper for the city’s LGBT community immediately after Atlanta-based Window Media, the Blade’s parent company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shut down all of its newspapers, including the Blade. The new newspaper published under the name DC Agenda.

The new company, Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, Inc., was founded by Blade Publisher Lynne Brown, Editor Kevin Naff, sales executive Brian Pitts and other longtime Blade employees.

. . .WHILE WASHINGTON TIMES TOTTERS ON BRINK OF FOLDING  

Meanwhile, across town, Washington’s longtime conservative daily newspaper, The Washington Times, is tottering on the brink of extinction following months of turmoil after the Unification Church, which owns News World Communications Inc., the Times’ parent company, cut off its $35 million-a-year subsidy to the newspaper, amid a bitter feud among the children of the church’s 90-year-old founder, Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

After sinking more than $3 billion into the newspaper it launched in 1982, the Unification Church has put the Times up for sale. But the paper has never turned a profit in its 28-year history and loses upwards of $80 million a year.

Moreover, the Times’ paid circulation, which posted an anemic 67,000 in its last report to the Audit Bureau of Circulations last September — compared to the rival Washington Post’s 702,000 — plunged dramatically since the crisis began to 42,000, with only 25,000 home subscribers, according to Times sources who spoke to The ‘Skeeter Bites Report on condition of anonymity.

BLADE’S REVERSAL OF FORTUNE IS RARE GOOD NEWS FOR A BATTERED NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

For the Blade, its phoenix-like rise from the ashes of Window Media’s bankruptcy is a rare instance of good fortune in an industry that has suffered — and continues to suffer — staggering losses. Figures released in April by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which monitors newspaper sales to the public, found average weekday circulation fell 8.7 percent in the six months that ended March 31, compared with the same period a year earlier.

Circulation of Sunday newspapers also fell, by 6.5 percent.  Even free-circulation newspapers, most of them weeklies, have seen declines in both circulation and advertising revenues. The Blade was no exception to this trend, but has remained financially healthy, according to publisher Lynn Brown.

Over its 40 years, the Blade built a reputation as the newspaper of record if you wanted to know the latest news of the LGBT community in the nation’s capital and around the world.

With its straightforward, no-nonsense, in-depth style of reporting, the Blade became known as “The New York Times of the gay press” — the one LGBT newspaper that the mainstream media — and much of Washington’s  heterosexual society — took seriously.

SUDDEN SHUTDOWN OF BLADE LAST NOVEMBER CAME AS A SHOCK

On November 15 — just weeks after it celebrated its 40th anniversary in October — the Blade’s nearly two-dozen employees arrived for work at the newspaper’s offices in the National Press Building in downtown Washington and were  stunned to be told by an executive of parent company Window Media that the company had filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Act and was shutting down all of its publications.  

Staffers had until 3 p.m. that afternoon to clear out their desks.

BLADE ITSELF WAS FINANCIALLY HEALTHY, BUT ITS PARENT COMPANY WAS MIRED IN  DEBT

The Atlanta-based Window Media, which purchased the Blade for a reported $2 million in 2001, was also closing the Southern Voice of Atlanta, the Houston Voice, the South Florida Blade of Miami and several magazines.

The Blade’s Web site, washingtonblade.com, was also shut down.

A Window Media spokesman did not disclose a reason for the sudden shutdown, but it had been known for months that the company was saddled with major debts. Ironically, the Blade itself was financially healthy, with a weekly circulation reported at about 25,000 and its average 80-to-100-page issues thick with advertising. Its Web site was even more successful, drawing about a million visitors a month.

Founded in October 1969, just four months after the Stonewall Riots in New York’s Greenwich  Village that is credited as the beginning of the modern gay rights  movement, the Blade — originally named The Gay Blade — first rolled off a mimeograph machine as a four-page newsletter.

BLADE STAFF RALLIES, LAUNCHES NEW PAPER TO REPLACE BLADE

Determined to preserve the Blade’s 40-year legacy, a group of Blade employees, led by Brown and executive editor Kevin Naff —  with the backing of many businesses and LGBT community organizations — launched DC Agenda to fill the void left by the Blade’s sudden demise. Without missing a week, on November 20, the first issue of DC Agenda hit the streets on what would have been the first Friday without the Blade.

The newspaper’s staff formed Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia Inc. to buy the rights and assets of the Blade. They succeeded in late February, when the fledgling company purchased the newspaper’s name, copyrights, trademarks, 40-year-old archives, computers and office furniture under the auspices of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta for $15,000.

On April 30, 25,000 copies of a new, redesigned 56-page Blade rolled off the presses. “A lot of people really have an emotional connection to the Blade and the outpouring since it closed was overwhelming and was really what led us to carry on,” Naff told The Washington Post..

“We’ll be a leaner publication and we’ll grow as we can afford to grow,” Naff continued. “But [this first] issue is 56 pages — which is remarkable considering [that] DC Agenda launched with just eight pages.”

WHILE BLADE SOARS, TIMES CRASHES

It’s a totally different story at The Washington Times offices on New York Avenue in northeast Washington. On the very same day that the Blade made its return, it was announced that the Times was up for sale.  

Nicholas Chiaia, a member of the conservative daily’s two-person board of directors, announced the sale just as Times president and publisher Jonathan Slevin was shown the door — the second chief executive of the newspaper to be fired in five months.

Slevin was named the Times’ president and publisher last November after his predecessor, Thomas McDevitt, along with longtime chief financial officer Keith Cooperrider and board chairman Dong Moon Joo, were fired personally by Preston Moon, president of parent company News World Communications Inc. and the youngest son of the company’s founder, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

CRISIS AT TIMES TRACED TO BITTER FEUD BETWEEN SONS OF REVEREND MOON

The chaos at the Times began in October, when the Unification Church announced that the 90-year-old Reverend Moon, who founded the church in 1954, was essentially retiring, turning over control of the church and his global business empire to his three American-born sons.

Hyung-jin Moon, 30, was put in charge of the church itself. Kook-jin (Justin) Moon, 39, was tapped to run the church’s businesses ventures in South Korea. Hyun-jin (Preston) Moon, 40, runs the church’s overseas businesses — including News World Communications.

There have been numerous reports — most notably on TalkingPointsMemo.com — of a bitter feud between Preston and the rest of the Moon family.

IS POLITICAL SPLIT ROOT OF MOON FAMILY FEUD?

The reason for the feud is not known, but according to a Wikipedia page about the new Unification Church leader, Hyung-jin Moon is said to have broken from his family’s longtime support for conservative Republicans to back President Obama.

“I am very proud as an American to have a black president,” he is quoted by Wikipedia as saying. “I was born and raised in America. I am a part of a minority. To see a minority representative being the president of the United States of America is extremely inspiring. It’s just miraculous.”

The ‘Skeeter Bites Report was unable to independently confirm the quote.

Whatever reason for the feud, it apparently led Hyung-jin Moon in October to cut off the church’s subsidy to keep the Times afloat — a hefty $35 million a year. In its entire 28-year history, the Times has never made a profit and, according to Times sources, loses between $75 million and $80 million a year.

TIMES QUICKLY WITHERS AFTER CHURCH’S MONEY CUTOFF

The results have been disastrous for the paper. With the church’s largesse — which reportedly totals $3 billion since the Times was founded in 1982 — now dried up, on top of sharply declining advertising and circulation that has plagued newspapers from coast to coast, Preston Moon was forced to drastically cut costs in a desperate attempt to keep the conservative daily alive.

In quick succession, more than 60 percent of the Times’ staff was laid off — far more than previously reported. The paper stopped publishing on Sundays, becoming a Monday-through-Friday daily only, much like USA Today.

But the most radical cutback, however, was one that Times readers noticed right away: It ceased to be a full-service daily, eliminating its metropolitan news and sports sections.

In particular, the end of the Times’ highly-regarded sports section — it published for the last time on December 27 — might have been the final straw with readers: Circulation plummeted, from 67,000 last September to 42,000 now, according to Times sources. Home-delivery subscriptions nosedived to 25,000. Even the Times’ Web site saw a dramatic decline in visitors.

The capital’s conservative community — the paper’s core readership base, as well as many of the paper’s longtime conservative columnists — abandoned the Times in droves, with many switching to the Washington Examiner, the city’s other conservative daily owned by billionaire Phillip Anschutz’s Clarity Media.

Now, the Times is up for sale. But given the fact that it’s never made a profit in its 28-year history; it loses up to $80 million a year; its circulation has dropped like a stone; and the economic climate for daily newspapers appears to get worse by the month, who in their right business mind is going to buy it?

Certainly not Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns a highly profitable television station in Washington (WTTG Fox Channel 5) and FCC cross-ownership rules would bar a purchase of the newspaper without selling off the station.

Besides, Murdoch already owns a money-losing newspaper — the New York Post — which hasn’t made a profit in 36 years and loses an estimated $55 million to $60 million a year. Murdoch can’t really afford to subsidize two money-losing dailies. Unlike Reverend Moon, Murdoch has News Corporation shareholders he has to answer to — and they would not likely be happy with such a purchase.

The Times’, for all intents and purposes, is in a coma. It would be very surprising if the paper isn’t gone by September, if not sooner.

# # #

Copyright 2010, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.

  The Obama administration, with some evocative rhetoric, has vowed to keep "the boot on the neck" of British Petroleum as a result of the massive oil leak in the Gulf.  

Despite this rhetoric, Obama’s other shoe hasn’t yet dropped on the oil industry as McClatchy reports 27 environmental study waivers have been granted since the oil leak began.  

With investigations pending, the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment zeros in on the lack of regulatory implementation even as exemptions continue to be given. The committee chair calls the disaster “a blistering, scalding indictment of the practices the industry engaged in to avoid implementation of safeguards that could have removed the likelihood or possibility of this kind of accident …”  

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling



McClatchy

The exemptions, called “categorical exclusions,” are granted by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) includes exploration at 4,000 and 9,000 deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig. Final approval would still be needed for drilling but official would not say if the waivers would stand after the moratorium is lifted  

MMS’ approvals are expected to spark new criticism of the troubled agency and the administration’s response to the spill.

Salazar announced Thursday that there’d be no new offshore drilling until the Interior Department completes the safety review process requested by Obama. The department is required to deliver the report to the president by May 28.

Given the MMS approvals, however, said Peter Galvin (conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions.) the administration’s pledge appears disingenuous.   McClatchy