NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened higher on Friday as strong upward revisions to job creation estimates for December and November offset a slight disappointment in the January payroll report.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 98.56 points or 0.71 percent, to 13,959.14, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 8.98 points or 0.6 percent, to 1,507.09 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 21.41 points or 0.68 percent, to 3,163.54.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Mary Matalin heard a baby cry during a Super Bowl news conference this week, she paused midsentence, peered in the direction of the fussing child and asked: "Is that my husband?"
Matalin, the noted Republican political pundit, isn't shy about making jokes at the expense of Democratic strategist James Carville, who went from being her professional counterpart to her partner in life when they were married — in New Orleans — two decades ago.
This week, though, and for much of the past few years, the famous political odd couple have been working in lockstep for a bipartisan cause — the resurgence of their adopted hometown.
Their passion for the Big Easy and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina was why Carville and Matalin were appointed co-chairs of New Orleans' Super Bowl host committee, positions that made them the face of the city's effort to prove it's ready to be back in the regular rotation for the NFL's biggest game.
"Their commitment to New Orleans and their rise to prominence here locally as citizens made them a natural choice," said Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, which handles the city's Super Bowl bids. "It's about promoting New Orleans, and their being in love with this city, they're the perfect co-chairs."
Carville, a Louisiana native, and Matalin moved from Washington, D.C., to historic "Uptown" New Orleans in the summer of 2008, a little less than three years after Katrina had laid waste to vast swaths of the city. There was not only heavy wind damage but flooding that surged through crumbling levees and at one point submerged about 80 percent of the city.
The couple had long loved New Orleans, and felt even more of a pull to set down roots here, with their two school-age daughters, at a time when the community was in need.
"The storm just weighed heavy," Carville said. "We were thinking about it. We'd been in Washington for a long time. The more that we thought about it, the more sense that it made. We just came down here (to look for a house) in late 2007 and said we're just going to do this and never looked back."
Matalin said she and Carville also wanted to raise their daughters in a place where people were willing to struggle to preserve a vibrant and unique culture.
"It's authentically creative, organically eccentric, bounded by beauty of all kinds," she said. "People pull for each other, people pull together. ... Seven years ago we were 15 feet under water. ... This is unparalleled what the people here did and that's what you want your kids to grow up with: Hope and a sense of place, resolve and perseverance."
Carville has been an avid sports fan all his life, and Matalin jokes that he now schedules his life around Saints and LSU football.
An LSU graduate, Carville has been a regular sight in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, often wearing a purple and gold rugby-style shirt.
In New Orleans, he and Matalin have lent their names not just to the Super Bowl host committee, but to efforts to prevent the NBA's Hornets from leaving when the ownership situation was in flux.
"I was scared to death they would leave the city," said Carville of the Hornets, who were purchased by the NBA in December of 2010 when club founder George Shinn wanted to sell and struggled to find a local buyer. "We were starting to do better (as a community). It would have been a terrible story to lose an NBA franchise at that time."
Saints owner Tom Benson has since bought the NBA club and signed a long-term lease at New Orleans Arena, ending speculation about a possible move.
Carville and Matalin also have taken part in a range of environmental, educational, economic and cultural projects in the area. Matalin is on the board of the Water Institute of the Gulf, which aims to preserve fragile coastal wetlands that have been eroding, leaving south Louisiana ecosystems and communities increasingly vulnerable to destruction. They have supported the Institute of Politics at Loyola University and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
Carville teaches a current events class at Tulane University and he looks forward to getting involved in the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans in 2015 and New Orleans' tercentennial celebrations in 2018, when the city also hopes to host its next Super Bowl, if the NFL sees fit.
Leading a Super Bowl host committee, the couple said, has similarities to running a major national political campaign, but takes even more work.
"This has been going on for three years and it's huge," Matalin said. "It's bigger, it's harder, it's more complex — even though it's cheaper."
The host committee spent about $13 million in private and public funds to put on this Super Bowl, and the payoff could be enormous in terms of providing a momentum boost to the metro area's growth, Carville said.
"For us — New Orleans — I think this is going to be much more than a football game Sunday," Carville said of the championship matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. "We'll know how we feel about it on Monday. It's a big event, it helps a lot of people, but I think we have a chance if it goes the way we hope it does, it'll go beyond economic impact. It'll go beyond who won the game. I think there's something significant that's coming to a point here in the city."
So there's a bit of anxiety involved, to go along with the long hours. But Carville and Matalin say they've loved having a role in what they see as New Orleans' renaissance.
"I always say I'm so humbled by everyone's gratitude," Matalin said. "We get up every day and say, 'Thank you, God. Thank you, God.' It's a blessing for us to be able to be here, to live here."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- The faces of more than 70 young men and boys bore down on the crowd of thousands outside Al Ahly's training complex in Cairo.
As many as 15,000 members of the Ahlawy, the organized ultras fan group of Egypt's most popular soccer club, had gathered here early for the news they, and the country, had been waiting almost a year to hear.
At 10 a.m. a judge was to deliver a verdict on one of the darkest moments in the history of the game.
It happened on February 1, 2012, when more than 70 -- those young men and boys whose faces now appear on a billboard high above the entrance of the club -- lost their lives after a match in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, against local club Al Masry.
Most of the dead were crushed when the Al Masry fans stormed the pitch.
The players sprinted for their lives, finding sanctuary in the dressing room. And then the floodlights went out.
When the lights came back on 10 minutes later, the dead lay piled in a tunnel, in front of a locked, metal gate that had prevented escape before it collapsed under the weight of bodies.
Direct action
Seventy-three people were arrested, many accused of murder. They were mostly Al Masry fans, but included several members of the security forces.
The man allegedly responsible for cutting the power to the lights was also arrested. The Ahlawy suspected that a hidden hand was at work.
There were conspiracy theories, many asked questions: was this just a football rivalry gone very wrong? Or did police allow the violence as payback against the ultras for their part in the revolution?
Read: Clashes erupt after Egypt court sentences
The Ahlawy had played a crucial role in the revolution. They were an organized group of tens of the thousands of young men willing to fight the police -- as they had both inside and out of Egypt's soccer stadiums for the previous four years -- to make their voices heard.
The authorities denied any collusion. It was a tragic accident, they said. Hooliganism and ineptitude, no more, no less, no hidden hand.
But many of the Ahlawy fans were not convinced. The Egyptian soccer league was canceled and the Ahlawy waged a successful direct action campaign to prevent its restart until justice had been served.
The young men waited for the verdict on Saturday. Several had come armed, in anticipation of a further postponement or, worst still, a not guilty verdict. Some carried clubs, others homemade pistols and double-barreled sawn-off shotguns.
Tear gas
At 10 a.m. the judge rose on national television and delivered his verdict. Twenty-one of the accused were sentenced to death. The verdicts for the remaining defendants are expected March 9.
The news swept through the crowd, reducing those in its path to tears of joy; teenagers who had lost friends, mothers who had lost sons, wives who had lost husbands.
Scores dead in Egypt soccer riot
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"It's a very good decision by the court," said Mihai, a member of the Ahlawy who had come to hear the verdict. As with all the ultras, he declined to give his last name.
The guns that had been brought in anticipation of violence were fired into the sky in celebration.
One fan fired an automatic pistol until it jammed. He inspected the piece of failing, unfamiliar equipment. Unable to fix it, he tucked it into his belt and jumped into the sea of celebrating men.
"We hope it will be a perfect ending for this story. We have been waiting for this for so long. For 21 to get executed is a very good decision. So now we wait for the police decision. For sure it wasn't just them that made this," Mihai said.
Back in February, with the raw memories of Port Said just a few weeks old, the Ahlawy had demanded that those responsible should be put to death.
With the court verdict, they received their wish. Justice, they believed, had been served. At least partially.
"The police will be (put to) trial on March 9," said Mohamed, a founding member of the Ahlawy.
The previous night -- on the Egyptian revolution's anniversary -- Cairo was blanketed in tear gas as protesters roamed the streets surrounding Tahrir Square, venting their anger at President Mohamed Morsy and what they see as a lack of any real reforms.
Many, including the Ahlawy, expected further confrontations after the verdict.
But as the crowd moved inside the complex, holding a rally on the club's main soccer pitch, it became clear that no fighting would take place that day.
"I feel satisfied that some of those who committed what we suffered a year ago are going to face what they deserve," said Ahmed, another founding member of the Ahlawy who believed that the right decision had been made.
"It's a strong verdict but they don't deserve less than a strong verdict. Nobody ever wants to see someone dying but when someone kills he deserves a death sentence. He deserves that his life is taken. I don't see a way the police can get away with this."
Port Said ignited
Not everyone was happy, especially those who saw the verdict as a potential springboard to challenge Morsy, whom many of the Ahlawy view as no different from Hosni Mubarak, the former dictator who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years.
"They are giving us something of a painkiller to take out the anger from the young lads -- for me it is not enough," said Hassan, an Ahly fan standing on the training ground pitch.
Egypt unstable after days of protest
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"All the other political movements and parties were looking at what was going to happen today. Everyone had their hopes for the ultras and now they have given us this painkiller and it has lost its momentum of something really happening against the new regime," he added.
But what had -- if only temporarily -- calmed the Ahlawy, it ignited Port Said.
The verdicts were greeted with astonishment, disbelief, and anger by Al Masry's fans and the families of the 73 accused who had gathered outside the prison in Port Said where the suspects were held.
Like the Ahlawy supporters in Cairo, they too had come prepared. Two policemen were shot dead as the relatives tried to storm the prison. The police fired back. At least 30 people were killed in clashes. Among them was a former Al Masry player.
President Morsy addressed the nation and announced a 30-day curfew, from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. in the cities worst effected by the violence.
A few hours before the first curfew was due to fall, a storm rolled into Port Said. The streets were empty, the skies dark and pregnant with rain as 9 p.m. approached.
The only sound was the faint, periodic burst of gunfire. It emanated from near the Al Arab police station by the sea.
Smoldering barricades
On approaching it, the dead streets suddenly came alive, as if the entire energy of the city had been focused on one point. Barricades made from burning tires separated the police from groups of young men, exchanging rocks for gunfire.
The clashes had followed the funeral of more protesters, killed the day after the violence outside the prison.
"There are some injuries here," a member of the Red Crescent said as he sheltered from the gunfire in a side street. Ambulances flew by, their sirens blaring.
"We've seen gun bullets from the government. In four days we have seen more than 450 (injured)."
The prospects of a hastily arranged march to defy Morsy's curfew, looked bleak.
But at 8.30 p.m. a crowd of thousands gathered near the same spot the Red Crescent had been waiting to ferry the injured to hospital. They marched through the smoldering barricades towards where the gunfire had previously come from.
Now the army, not the police, was in charge.
Armored personnel carriers and armed troops were stationed on street corners and outside important military and civilian buildings.
At its core were the fans of Al Masry ultras group the Green Eagles. But they were by no means alone. The marchers had come from all sections of Port Said. Several hundred women marched together, denouncing Morsy and Cairo.
The curfew came and went, the crowd mocking its passing. "It's 9 o'clock!" they chanted as they passed the stationed troops.
But there was no animosity towards the army. The police was the enemy. Protesters took it in turns to hug and kiss the young soldiers.
Few would readily admit to being Al Masry fans, nor say whether they were there on that fateful night almost a year ago that set in motion this chain of deadly events.
Vendetta
What they would say is that they believed a miscarriage of justice had taken place, that Morsy had sacrificed Port Said to prevent chaos in Cairo, that traditional antipathy towards Port Said was at play.
"People are truly sure that these people (the 21 sentenced to death) didn't kill anyone. We didn't do it and they (the Ahlawy) don't believe we didn't do this," said Tariq Youssef, a 32-year-old accountant who was on the march with a friend.
"Al Masry will not be back for five years. I'm a big Masry fan. But I can't go anywhere. All the supporters for the big teams in Cairo or anywhere believe that Al Masry supporters did this."
For Tariq, admitting to being an Al Masry supporter outside of Port Said was impossible.
"They say, 'You killed them the Ahly supporters. You are like a terrorist.' Nobody believes us we didn't do anything here. There will be no football in the next five years."
As the march moved back towards the place it had started, machine gun fire rang out once again.
This time it was all around the march, front and back. The crowd scattered. A protester had been shot dead at the back of the march, next to the Al Arab police station.
"In three days we have lost 21 people, judged to be executed, and also about 39 murdered and many injured so there is no family which have not lost a friend, a colleague, a neighbor.
"You can consider this a sort of vendetta between the people and the police," said Muhammad el Agiery, an English tutor who had stayed until the end.
"People are going to stay out all of the night, every day for a month. They reject and refuse the curfew imposed by Morsy," he added.
The next morning the storm was gone and the sun was shining. But the cycle of violence continues. Another funeral march will begin, another barricade will likely be set on fire, and another curfew broken.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Justin Timberlake, making his pop music comeback with a new single and album, will perform at next month’s Grammy Awards for the first time in four years, Grammy organizers said on Wednesday.
Timberlake, 31, will take the stage at the music industry‘s biggest night in Los Angeles on February 10, ahead of the scheduled March release of his first album since 2006.
“The 20/20 Experience” marks Timberlake’s return to music after several years in which he has focused more on acting and business ventures, including a clothing line and a partnership in social networking site Myspace.
At the Grammy Awards ceremony and show, Timberlake will join performers and country music nominees Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, singers Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, and bands Mumford & Sons and FUN.
Elton John will also duet with rising British singer Ed Sheeran, and the Grammy ceremony will be hosted by rapper LL Cool J. Other performers will be announced in the next 10 days.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Will Dunham)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
(Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index looked set to open lower on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve said in its latest statement that economic growth had stalled and as weak German retail sales data hurt investor sentiment.
TOP STORIES
* The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left in place its monthly $ 85 billion bond-buying stimulus plan, arguing the support was needed to lower unemployment even as it indicated a recent stall in U.S. economic growth was likely temporary.
* Potash Corp of Saskatchewan reported a bigger-than-expected 38 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as key potash buyers China and India stayed out of the market, but the company forecast a modest rebound in earnings for 2013.
* Research In Motion Ltd on Wednesday unveiled the long-delayed line of smartphones it hopes will put it on the comeback trail, but it disappointed investors by saying U.S. sales of its all-new BlackBerry 10 devices will not start until March.
* Facebook Inc doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, a sign that the social network is seeing early success in expanding onto handheld devices as more of its users migrate to smartphones and tablets.
* German retail sales tumbled by their largest amount in over three years in December, preliminary data showed, denting hopes that private consumption can compensate for weaker exports and lift Europe’s largest economy this year.
* Spain’s Santander has sharply raised provisions against bad loans after defaults rose in its home market and key earnings-driver Brazil, while writedowns on rotten Spanish real estate also contributed to a 59 drop in yearly net profit.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
* Canada stock futures traded down 0.2 percent
* U.S. stock futures,, were mixed around -0.01 percent and 0.04 percent <.n></.n>
* European shares <.fteu3>, <.stoxx> were down <.eu></.eu></.stoxx></.fteu3>
COMMODITY PRICE MOVES
* Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index <.trjcrbtr>: 305.0439; fell 0.06 percent</.trjcrbtr>
* Gold futures: $ 1,674.8; fell 0.3 percent
* US crude: $ 97.76; fell 0.18 percent
* Brent crude: $ 114.91; rose 0.01 percent
* LME 3-month copper: $ 8,223.5; fell 0.03 percent
CANADIAN STOCKS TO WATCH
* Agrium Inc : The fertilizer company expects North American potash producers to strike a deal with Indian importers in February or March, ending a long standoff, CEO Mike Wilson said on Wednesday.
* JDS Uniphase Corp : The company reported a quarterly profit on higher demand for its products used in broadband networks in the Americas.
* Turquoise Hill Resources : Rio Tinto Plc said its Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia is on track to reach commercial production in the first half of 2013, countering a media report saying the company was considering a temporary halt to construction work because of political issues.
ANALYST RECOMMENDATIONS
Following is a summary of research actions on Canadian companies reported by Reuters.
* AGF Management Ltd : National Bank Financial raises target price to C$ 11 from C$ 9.50 on an increased valuation after the company reported fourth-quarter results.
* Altagas Ltd : CIBC raises price target to C$ 37.50 from C$ 35 after news of plans to form a 50/50 joint venture with Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd to pursue opportunities involving the export of LPG and LNG from Canada to Asia.
* CGI Group : CIBC raises price target to C$ 31 from C$ 30 citing the company’s solid first-quarter results and growth in its U.S. operations.
* KEY Real Estate Investment Trust : CIBC raises to sector performer from sector underperformer and raises price target to C$ 7 from C$ 5.75 after Huntington Capital Corp announced its intention to make an all-cash offer to purchase up to 6.6 million units of the company.
* Teranga Gold Corp. : CIBC cuts price target to C$ 2.50 from C$ 3 after the company’s updated reserve statement for Sabodala showed a decrease in reserve ounces.
ON THE CALENDAR
* Major Canadian economic data includes GDP, producer prices and raw materials
* Major U.S. events and data includes personal income and consumption, PCE price index, initial claims, continuing claims and Chicago PMI
(Reporting by Chandrashekhar Modi; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Auto loan rates fell to record lows in Bankrate’s weekly survey.
The average rates for 48-month new-car and 60-month new-car loans each slid 1 basis point to 4.04 percent and 4.12 percent, respectively, the lowest they’ve been since Bankrate began surveying auto loan rates in 1985. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point.
Used-car rates also set an all-time low, with the average rate for a 36-month used-car loan lopping off 3 basis points to 4.71 percent.
Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is stepping down after four years, according to a report by The Washington Post. LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, waged a national campaign against distracted driving, negotiated to create a 54.5 mpg fuel-economy standard and dealt with a massive recall at Toyota over unintended acceleration. LaHood will remain in the office until a successor is confirmed, according to the report.
Yahoo! Finance – Personal Finance | Loans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened flat on Thursday as economic data continued to paint a mixed picture of the economy and as investors sifted through a host of corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 16.05 points, or 0.12 percent, at 13,894.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 1.81 points, or 0.12 percent, at 1,500.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 0.55 points, or 0.02 percent, at 3,141.75.
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Baltimore Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones is among those NFL players who want the league and the union to finally agree on a way to do blood testing for human growth hormone.
"I hope guys wouldn't be cheating. That's why you do all this extra work and extra training. Unfortunately, there are probably a few guys, a handful maybe, that are on it. It's unfortunate. It takes away from the sport," Jones said.
"It would be fair to do blood testing," Jones added. "Hopefully they figure it out."
When Jones and the Ravens face the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday, two complete seasons will have come and gone without a single HGH test being administered, even though the league and the NFL Players Association paved the way for it in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement they signed in August 2011.
Since then, the sides have haggled over various elements, primarily the union's insistence that it needs more information about the validity of a test that is used by Olympic sports and Major League Baseball. HGH is a banned performance-enhancing drug that is hard to detect and has been linked to health problems such as diabetes, cardiac dysfunction and arthritis.
"If there are guys using (HGH), there definitely needs to be action taken against it, and it needs to be out of (the sport)," Ravens backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. "I'm pretty sure it'll happen eventually."
At least two members of Congress want to make it happen sooner, rather than later.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland wrote NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith this week to chastise the union for standing in the way of HGH testing and to warn that they might ask players to testify on Capitol Hill.
Smith is scheduled to hold his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference Thursday.
"We have cooperated and been helpful to the committee on all of their requests," NFLPA spokesman George Atallah said. "If this is something they feel strongly about, we will be happy to help them facilitate it."
Several players from the Super Bowl teams said they would be willing to talk to Congress about the issue, if asked.
"I have nothing to hide. I can't speak for anyone else in football, but I would have no problem going," said Kenny Wiggins, a 6-foot-6, 314-pound offensive lineman on San Francisco's practice squad.
But Wiggins added: "There's a lot more problems in the U.S. they should be worried about than HGH in the NFL."
That sentiment was echoed by former New York Giants offensive lineman Shaun O'Hara, who now works for the NFL Network.
"Do I think there is an HGH problem in the NFL? I don't think there is. Are there guys who are using it? I'm sure there are. But is it something Congress needs to worry about? No. We have enough educated people on both sides that can fully handle this. And if they can't, then they should be fired," said O'Hara, an NFLPA representative as a player. "I include the union in that, and I include the NFL. There is no reason we would need someone to help us facilitate this process."
Issa and Cummings apparently disagree.
In December, their committee held a hearing at which medical experts testified that the current HGH test is reliable and that the union's request for a new study is unnecessary. Neither the league nor union was invited to participate in that hearing; at the time, Issa and Cummings said they expected additional hearings.
"We are disappointed with the NFLPA's remarkable recalcitrance, which has prevented meaningful progress on this issue," they wrote in their recent letter to Smith. "We intend to take a more active role to determine whether the position you have taken — that HGH is not a serious concern and that the test for HGH is unreliable — is consistent with the beliefs of rank and file NFL players."
Atallah questioned that premise.
"To us, there is no distinction between players and the union. ... The reason we had HGH in our CBA is precisely because our players wanted us to start testing for it," Atallah said. "We are not being recalcitrant for recalcitrance sake. We are merely following the direction of our player leadership."
Wiggins and other players said no one can know for sure how much HGH use there is in the league until there is testing — but that it's important for the union's concerns about the test to be answered.
"The union decides what is best for the players," said Ravens nose tackle Ma'ake Kemoeatu, who said he would be willing to go to Capitol Hill.
"I feel like some guys are on HGH," said 49ers offensive lineman Anthony Davis, who would rather not speak to Congress. "I personally don't care if there is testing. It's something they have to live with, knowing they cheated, and if they get (outplayed) while they're on it, it's a hit on their pride."
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
Vernice Armour says "bottom line is if you can do the job, you should be out there doing it...man or a woman. "
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Editor's note: Captain Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour is America's first African-American female combat pilot, having flown AH-1W Super Cobra Attack Helicopters for two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq. She is author of the book "Zero to Breakthrough: The 7-step, Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals That Matter." She is a business coach and keynote speaker for corporations and organizations.
(CNN) -- I was sitting in the cockpit of my AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter when my division got a desperate call for help. It was August 2004, and I was a part of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Iraq.
Insurgents were hitting our troops with mortar rounds. The Marine squad was out of ammunition and couldn't shoot back. They had just fought a long and fierce battle, supply reinforcements couldn't reach them and they didn't even have any green smoke to mark their position for us. They needed assistance immediately.
We took out the enemy target with the last remaining missile on our aircraft. Several months later, I was talking to a Marine. When he found out I flew Cobras, he started to recount an experience he had in Iraq in which a Cobra shot a missile and saved his squad. Turned out, it was the same mission; the missile came from my aircraft. He stared at me and said, "Ma'am, you saved my life." Did it matter that the one who fired that missile was a woman, or that she was black and gay? Absolutely not!
Vernice Armour
Fast forward almost 10 years to 2013, and history has been made for women in the military. The ban on women in military combat has been lifted, allowing women to apply for jobs in front-line positions and elite commando units.
According to statistics from Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, as of September 2011, there were 214,098 women serving on active duty in the military. While that might sound like a large number, these women make up only 14.6% of all active-duty service personnel. In the Marine Corps, women make up just a little more than 6%. The Pentagon says women have been barred from roughly 237,000 positions, and they will now start looking to qualified women to fill these roles. This is long overdue.
The debate the move has raised presents an obvious reality check: Our American community needs to be educated that women are capable of taking on military roles and have done so throughout the nation's history.
Women have already proven we can handle ourselves on the front lines. And in recent times, even with the ban on women in combat in place, women have been POWs. The Lioness Program, the Marine Corps all-female search team, is an example of why we can't accomplish our front line missions without women. The reality of modern warfare is that there are no front lines.
Honestly, I am offended by how many times I hear "women in combat" and "lowering standards" used in the same sentence. True, the average man is physically stronger than the average woman. Standards should not be lowered and women don't want them to be. No one should be in a job where he or she doesn't meet the standards -- not every man, for example is fit to be a Navy SEAL.
The argument that women in combat will have a negative impact on unit cohesion and morale is the same argument that was used to keep blacks and gays out of the military. At what point do we bring a stop to these ridiculous arguments and address what really matters?
Having more women on the battlefield will improve the military's ability to carry out its mission. During my two tours flying helicopters in Iraq, my unit experienced many dangerous and potentially life-threatening scenarios. The ultimate sacrifice wasn't meted out by gender.
For those who are against women serving on the front line, know this: Opening up combat roles for women is merely formalizing the reality of what was already happening; it's just opening more roles and opportunities. The bottom line is if you can do the job, you should be out there doing it, whether you're a man or a woman.
The military has been a personal journey for me. My grandfather served in World War II and was a Montford Point Marine. My stepdad was a Marine and served three tours in Vietnam, and my father retired as a major from the Army Reserves after 24 years. I love being part of this legacy, and the legacy of service to our great nation. It's time we give women the same opportunity to serve this great country. We're all in this together.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Vernice Armour.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Singer Ke$ ha is coming to cable television with a new reality series that promises to document the “drama, madness and euphoria” of her professional and personal life, MTV said on Tuesday.
“Ke$ ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life,” will premiere on MTV in April, the network said.
“You might have heard my voice on the radio, seen me onstage or in a music video, but that’s only a part of the story,” the 25-year-old singer, known for hits including “Tik Tok” and “We R Who We R,” said in a statement.
“With this documentary series I’m revealing a more complete picture of what my life is really like. It’s not all glamorous but it’s all real,” she added.
MTV said the “no-limits” series would depict the music star “as she navigates the drama, madness and euphoria of her professional and personal life while recording a new album and traveling the globe.”
The show was shot over two years by the singer’s brother Lagan Sebert, working with minimal crew, providing what MTV said was an unfiltered, “real and raw” look at her life.
Lagan, a journalist, said that as he watched his sister’s ascent, “I soon realized that the most amazing story was happening in my own family and it became my mission document it … I set off on a two year long journey to tell my sister’s story.”
Ke$ ha has sold 3 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide and has won MTV Europe‘s best new act award. Her most recent album was 2012′s “Warrior.”
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)
TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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