Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill. She can expect some heated questions about the rugged rollout of the Affordable Care Act. President Obama, meanwhile, heads to Boston to talk about health care in the afternoon.
Members of the Somali community visit near a park in Minneapolis. The city is home to the nation's largest concentration of Somali Americans.
Members of the Somali community visit near a park in Minneapolis. The city is home to the nation's largest concentration of Somali Americans.
Politics in Minneapolis is about to change.
Not only is the city electing a new mayor on Nov. 5, it's also possible that a majority of the members of City Council will be freshmen.
Among their number could be Abdi Warsame, who would be the first Somali American elected to the City Council there — or anywhere else.
"The community has realized we can turn to each other to address issues of education, housing and health, which are mainly controlled by the politicians," says Mohamud Noor, a Warsame ally.
As Noor points out, previous immigrant groups have also turned to politics as a means of gaining representation and improving their status.
It happened a century ago with the Irish and the Italians in the Northeast, and far more recently in the Southwest and elsewhere with Hispanics. And now it's happening in Minneapolis, home to the nation's largest Somali community.
"This is a process we've seen over and over again in American cities," says Daniel Hopkins, a political scientist at Georgetown University. "Once immigrant communities reach political mass, they start to engage in local politics."
How They Got There
Tens of thousands of Somalis came to the U.S. as refugees in the 1990s, the result of chaos in their country that is widely remembered by Americans for the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident in which 18 soldiers were killed.
Somalis were brought over by the State Department, but their settlement was generally arranged by nonprofit groups. That's why many ended up clustered in places such as Columbus, Ohio; Lewiston, Maine; and Minneapolis.
"They came over as political refugees and came with nothing," says state Sen. Jeff Hayden, who represents parts of Minneapolis. "They literally showed up with sandals and linens on, walking into the cold in Minnesota."
But the availability of jobs, housing and public transportation helped make the Twin Cities a good fit for the newcomers. Minneapolis, in fact, turned out to be much more hospitable than places such as Lewiston and Clarkston, Ga., where Somalis have run into open hostility from local politicians or other minority groups.
Many Somalis who were not settled in Minneapolis originally have since moved there on their own, says Ryan Allen, a public affairs professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied the community.
"We've witnessed strong migration to Minneapolis that was based on word of mouth and family ties," he says. "It's undeniable that the Twin Cities are a major hub in the Somali diaspora worldwide."
Preparing For Power
In 2010, a onetime refugee named Hussein Samatar was elected to the Minneapolis school board, becoming the first Somali American to hold elective office in the state. He died from leukemia in August, but he had already helped sow the seeds of political involvement.
In 2011, Mohamud Noor narrowly lost a special state Senate primary, thoroughly dominating the vote in the heavily Somali Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
That neighborhood is home to Riverside Plaza, the largest housing complex in the state. The majority of its 6,000 residents are Somali — and the head of the tenants association is Abdi Warsame.
Warsame gained the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's endorsement for City Council in April by mastering its complicated caucus system. (His main opponent, incumbent Robert Lilligren, complained of irregularities, but his arguments didn't sway the state party.)
Warsame also took advantage of one of the oldest tricks in the American political playbook: He played a role in the most recent municipal redistricting, helping to carve out a ward that is 42 percent Somali in part by making common cause with Hispanics who were also seeking their first representation on the City Council.
"People knew they were getting a political base," says Hayden, the state senator. "As the city was starting to do their redistricting, part of the thinking was that it was time to draw lines in ways that were equitable but gave the Somali community an opportunity to win."
Getting Out The Vote
Somali Americans vote. Perhaps it's because they especially appreciate the opportunity to participate in a democracy when their homeland has lacked a functioning government for decades. Or maybe, like earlier immigrant groups, Somalis excel at machine-style politics.
Regardless, their turnout rate often tops 80 percent.
"In both 2008 and 2012, the Obama campaign hired Somali-specific organizers because there was such a concentrated number of Somali voters," says Greg Schultz, who directed President Obama's campaign in Ohio last year. "It was certainly worth the campaign's focus."
Schultz points out that, although it's a cliche, many taxi drivers are in fact Somali, so the sizable community in Columbus was able to organize its own ride to the polls. That's happening again right now in Minneapolis.
The timing of the City Council elections means that some Muslims will not return in time from making the hajj, the religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Somalis have therefore been streaming to City Hall to cast absentee ballots.
Warsame may have already banked a lead. More than 1,500 people have already voted, predominantly Somalis who have been shuttled in groups from Ward 6 by the Warsame campaign since September.
"We don't sit down and wait until Election Day," Noor says. "Even at that moment, we don't just door knock. We drag the person to vote."
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears agreed to a one-year contract with former Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jay Ratliff, hoping he can boost their struggling line once he's ready to play.
Agent Mark Slough confirmed the move Saturday. He said Ratliff will join the team sometime next week and should be ready to play in two to four weeks.
A four-time Pro Bowl pick, Ratliff is joining a struggling defensive line. He also is getting a fresh start after being released by Dallas in mid-October.
The Cowboys said at the time that he failed a physical after spending the first six weeks of the season on the physically unable to perform list. Ratliff missed the last six games of 2012 with a groin injury that required surgery and never practiced for Dallas this season.
Slough said Ratliff was cleared by the surgeon a few weeks ago and his client is "good to go." He just has to "get over that last 10, 15 percent."
That probably can't happen soon enough for the Bears, who struggled right from the start to generate pressure and then got hit hard by injuries. Even so, Slough said the team won't rush Ratliff.
"The Bears are going to be patient," he said. "It's more about getting him ready and right."
The Bears (4-3) have dropped three of four and are trying to keep pace with Green Bay and Detroit in the tough NFC North. They visit the Packers on Monday night and will likely have to get by at least for the next few weeks without quarterback Jay Cutler (torn groin muscle) and star linebacker Lance Briggs (small fracture in the left shoulder), who were injured in a loss at Washington on Oct. 20.
Losing their most important players on offense and on defense were just the latest blows for Chicago.
The Bears are allowing 391 yards per game and have a league-low nine sacks.
They lost defensive tackle Henry Melton, his replacement Nate Collins and middle linebacker D.J. Williams to season-ending injuries, forcing some shuffling in the rotation. Other players such as cornerback Charles Tillman and nose tackle Stephen Paea have been banged up, but Chicago was struggling up front even before the injuries started to mount.
Defensive end Julius Peppers has hardly resembled the dominant force the team needs him to be. Now, the Bears are hoping the 32-year-old Ratliff can provide a spark once he's ready.
Ratliff made the Pro Bowl in 2011, but missed 10 games last year. A sprained ankle kept him out of the first four, and then came the groin problem.
The Cowboys said he had sports hernia surgery and expected him to be ready in 2013, but Slough said a few weeks ago doctors told him the injury was much more serious and could take up to a year to heal. He described the injury as muscles tearing away from bones in the pelvic area.
Ratliff also was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in January after his injury-riddled 2012 season, just weeks after teammate Josh Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter following a car accident that killed practice squad player Jerry Brown.
___
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
The Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — move further and further toward the Golden Age of Push Notification. What some see as a fragmented sea of apps, others see as a ripe opportunity to unify notifications as the successor to email, social streaming to the core. As Windows gets sucked into the tidal wave of mobility, it’s up to individual apps to intermediate themselves into the relentless flow.
Out of the soup of retweets, @mentions, and other graph-aware signals, a new hierarchy is presenting itself as an alternative to the conventional email aristocracy. The enterprise is not convinced of the viability of a meritocracy-driven individual contributorship, but luckily nothing else has yet surfaced to rule it out. Meanwhile, the slow iterative thinning of the tablet is fashioning a new template for navigating the new world, swimming against the tide in ecstatic leaps up the stream.
@stevegillmor, @borthwick, @kteare, @kevinmarks, @jtaschek
Produced and directed by Tina CHase Gillmor @tinagillmor
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) — Mucho Macho Man won the $5 million Classic by a nose Saturday, making Kathy Ritvo the first female trainer to win North America's richest race at a Breeders' Cup that began tragically with the death of a horse in the first race.
Gary Stevens capped his comeback at 50 in stellar fashion, surviving a photo finish in the Classic after winning the $2 million Distaff with Beholder on Friday for a sweep of the biggest races at the two-day world championships at Santa Anita.
"I didn't know the photo was as close as it was," said Stevens, who had never won the Classic in his long career.
Ritvo became the fifth female trainer to win a Breeders' Cup race and got to celebrate a year after seeing Mucho Macho Man finish second by a half-length to winner Fort Larned.
"Thrilling," she said.
First, though, Ritvo had to sweat out the results.
Mucho Macho Man stretched his neck at the finish to narrowly edge Will Take Charge, trained by 78-year-old Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
"I was just hoping he got it," Ritvo said. "When I saw Gary shake his stick, I was confident. He ran a great race."
Game On Dude, the 8-5 favorite who was 5-0 this year, finished ninth on his home track for trainer Bob Baffert and co-owner Joe Torre, the retired Dodgers and Yankees manager. A year ago, he went off as the favorite and finished seventh. Fort Larned wound up fourth.
Mucho Macho Man ran 1 ¼ miles in 2:00.72 and paid $10, $4.60 and $3.60 as the 4-1 second choice. The victory likely earned him champion older male honors and may get him consideration for Horse of the Year honors, which Game On Dude could have wrapped up with a win.
Will Take Charge returned $7.20 and $4.80, while Declaration of War was another head back in third and paid $4.80 to show.
Stevens and Mucho Macho Man started moving on the outside around the stretch turn and went after the leaders. They took the lead coming out of the turn for home, with Stevens urging the 5-year-old Mucho Macho Man on with a right-handed whip.
"They give me a free roll around the far turn," he said. "I think that might have been the winning move."
Ritvo, a 44-year-old mother of two, had a heart transplant in 2008 after a six-month wait.
Last Gunfighter was fifth, followed by Palace Malice, Paynter (trained by Baffert), Flat Out, Game On Dude, Moreno and Planteur.
The 30th Breeders' Cup got off to a troubling start, with a rare disqualification in the opening race and Secret Compass euthanized because of a broken leg.
The $2 million Juvenile Fillies went from strange to tragic over several minutes. The DQ was announced after a green screen went up in a spot approaching the final turn to shield injured Secret Compass from the crowd.
"When you lose a horse like that, it just took all the wind out of our sails," Baffert said. "I've never had something like that happen on a big day. We're all still in shock."
John Velazquez, who rode Secret Compass, had emergency surgery to remove his spleen after internal bleeding was discovered shortly before he was to be released from a Pasadena hospital.
Ria Antonia finished second but was declared the winner of the 1 1/16-mile race after She's a Tiger was disqualified by the stewards.
They ruled that She's a Tiger and Stevens drifted out late, bumped Ria Antonia and Javier Castellano, slowing her momentum.
"I had gotten by Gary but when he came in to me, he bumped me off-stride," Castellano said.
Stevens said the stewards had a tough call.
"The stewards made their call and I wouldn't disagree with that," he said.
It was the first DQ of a winner since the inaugural 1984 Juvenile Fillies race in which Fran's Valentine won and later was placed 10th.
"This is heartbreaking," said Jeff Bonde, who trains She's a Tiger.
Sent off at 32-1 odds, Ria Antonia paid $66.60, $29.80 and $17.40. The winning time was 1:43.02 and the margin was a nose.
"If that horse changes course and doesn't make contact, you say, 'OK, leave it up,'" said Jeremiah Englehart, who trains Ria Antonia. "But once you make contact it has to come down."
She's a Tiger returned $6.40 and $4.80. Rosalind paid $6.80 to show.
Running third at the time, Secret Compass' front legs collapsed, slamming Velazquez hard into the dirt. Baffert's 2-year-old filly was euthanized after sustaining a lateral condylar fracture, according to on-call veterinarian Dr. Wayne McIlwraith.
"It is the worst type of injury we get, unfortunately," he said.
Velazquez was to ride in all nine Breeders' Cup races, but he was replaced by other jockeys.
Baffert was smiling later when 10-1 shot New Year's Day rallied on the rail to win the $2 million Juvenile by 1 ¼ lengths. The colt paid $23 to win, with jockey Martin Garcia earning his first Cup victory.
But the trainer's emotions were raw.
"Just the win is exciting, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about that filly," he said.
Baffert and Garcia also teamed to win the $1.5 million Sprint by a neck with Secret Circle.
Baffert earned his third win in the Juvenile, whose winner is typically tagged as the early Kentucky Derby favorite. His other entry, Tap It Rich, finished fifth.
Havana, the 5-2 favorite trained by Todd Pletcher, was second. Strong Mandate, trained by Lukas, was third.
Current Horse of the Year Wise Dan repeated in the $2 million Mile, winning by three-quarters of a length under Jose Lezcano, a late replacement for Velazquez. He paid $3.60 to win as the 4-5 favorite.
After the early drama, 3-2 favorite Dank restored order by winning the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf by a half-length over Romantica. Ridden by Ryan Moore, Dank ran 1 ¼ miles in 1:58.73 and paid $5, $3.40 and $2.80.
Another favorite, 3-1 Groupie Doll, won the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint for the second straight year by a half-length. Ridden by Rajiv Maragh, the 5-year-old mare covered seven furlongs in 1:20.75 and paid $8 to win.
Mizdirection defended her title in the $1 million Turf Sprint for co-owner Jim Rome, the sports talk host. She ran 6 ½ furlongs in 1:12.25, improving to 7-0 on Santa Anita's downhill turf course and paying $7.40 to win as the 5-2 favorite.
Mike Smith guided Mizdirection to a half-length victory, extending his record for most Cup wins by a jockey to 20. He won two races on opening day Friday.
The shift in season reminded me of this cool old project in cold Helsinki, where a team of designers turned an abandoned oil tank into a lovely, year-round public art project.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/B28cypOP2Zg/1-250-leds-shimmer-on-the-surface-of-this-abandoned-oil-1456981875
Minecraft players who want to share their elaborate creations through internet video won't need special broadcasting tools for much longer -- Mojang and Twitch have revealed plans for native livestreaming support in Mac and Windows versions of the game. Twitch tells us that it's a standard ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Ecn8_zhLcC0/
