Michigan State University Athletic Director Mark Hollis resigned Friday, two days after the school’s president stepped down amid a storm of criticism about how it handled the sexual assault scandal that led to the conviction of former school faculty member and USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar.

Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty of sexually abusing more than 150 female gymnasts, some as young as 6 years old, under the guise of medical treatment, for more than two decades.

Hollis disclosed his resignation to a small group of reporters on campus. When asked why he was stepping down, Hollis tearfully said, “Because I care.” Hollis also said he hoped his resignation “has a little bit, a little bit, of helping that healing process.”

More than 150 of Nassar’s victims gave emotional statements at his sentencing hearing in Lansing, Michigan. Several of the victims who addressed the court were former athletes at the university, and many victims charged the school with mishandling complaints about Nassar as far back as the late 1990s.

Nassar was also accused of molesting other young gymnasts while employed by USA Gymnastics, the sport’s U.S. governing body. Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney are among victims who said in recent months they were assaulted by Nassar during treatment. Many victims have accused USA Gymnastics of ignoring or concealing their complaints in an effort to avoid negative publicity.

University President Lou Anna Simon submitted her resignation late Wednesday, just after Nassar’s sentencing. The school’s governing board expressed support for Simon, but she eventually succumbed to pressure from students, faculty and lawmakers. There is no evidence Simon was aware Nassar was committing acts of abuse, but some of the more than 150 accusers said their complaints to the school over the years were not addressed.

University board members, who are elected in statewide votes, are also under intense scrutiny, prompting two members to say they would not seek re-election. Board member Joel Ferguson apologized this week for saying previously that some victims were ambulance chasers seeking a payday.

Michigan State had long resisted pleas for an independent investigation, but last week asked state Attorney General Bill Schuette to review the scandal.

In a Twitter post Friday, university trustee Mitch Lyons expressed regret that the school had failed to respond appropriately.

A student march and protest was scheduled for Friday evening.
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From: MeNeedIt

Around the world, an area larger than all of South America has been deforested, eroded, drained or salinized. A new report says there’s money to be made restoring that land. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. economy likely maintained a brisk pace of growth in the fourth quarter, driven by an acceleration in consumer and business spending, which could set it on course to attain the Trump administration’s 3 percent annual growth target this year.

Gross domestic product probably increased at a 3.0 percent annual rate also boosted by a rebound in homebuilding investment and a pickup in government outlays, according to a Reuters poll of economists. The strong growth pace would come despite anticipated drags from trade and inventory investment.

It would follow a 3.2 percent pace of expansion in the third quarter and mark the first time since 2004 that the economy enjoyed growth of 3 percent or more for three straight quarters.

The Commerce Department will publish its advance fourth-quarter GDP estimate Friday morning.

​Global rebound

The economy’s growth spurt is part of a synchronized global rebound that includes the euro zone and Asia.

It has also benefited from President Donald Trump’s promise of hefty tax cuts, which was fulfilled in December when the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress approved the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years.

Despite the economy’ strong performance in the last three quarters of 2017, overall growth for the year is expected to come in around 2.3 percent, because of a weak first quarter.

That would still be an acceleration from the 1.5 percent logged in 2016. Economists expect annual GDP growth will hit the government’s 3 percent target this year, spurred in part by a weak dollar, rising oil prices and strengthening global economy.

Modest boost from tax cuts

While the corporate income tax rate has been slashed to 21 percent from 35 percent and taxes for households have also been lowered, economists see only a modest boost to GDP growth as the fiscal stimulus is coming at a time when the economy is almost at full employment.

“We are encouraged by the current breadth of economic strength and … we expect the pace of U.S. real GDP to accelerate from the expansion average, increasing 3.0 percent in 2018,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Fed hawks

Robust economic growth has been accompanied by record gains on the stock market and a strong labor market, with the unemployment rate falling seven-tenths of a percentage point last year to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Economists said this could put the Federal Reserve on a more aggressive path of interest rate increases than is being anticipated.

“I think that gives the hawks at the Fed more ammunition to say we should contemplate a more aggressive path on rates going forward,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West Economics in San Francisco.

The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes this year, the same number as in 2017.

Consumer spending

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is expected to have increased by as much as a 3.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter. That would be the quickest pace in three years and would follow a 2.2 percent rate of growth in the July-September quarter.

Consumer spending is likely to remain supported by rising household wealth, thanks to the stock market rally and higher house prices, tax cuts and firming wage growth as companies compete for workers and some states raise the minimum wage.

“Since the election the consumer has been exuding confidence, which is the willingness to spend money, and we see he has got even the ability to spend money too because personal income is creeping up,” said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America in Baltimore.

“So, you have the willingness and ability to spend. We think consumption is going to pick up and drive the economy.”

Business investment in equipment is expected to have picked up from the third-quarter’s 10.8 percent growth pace. Spending on equipment is likely to be underpinned this year by the corporate income tax cuts and recent increase in crude oil prices.

Investment in homebuilding is expected to have rebounded after contracting for two straight quarters. An acceleration is expected in government spending from the July-September period’s pedestrian 0.7 percent growth pace.

Trade a drag

But trade was likely a drag on GDP growth as the burst in consumer spending was probably satiated with imports, offsetting a rise in exports, which is being driven by dollar weakness.

Economists at JPMorgan estimate that trade cut one percentage point from fourth-quarter GDP growth after adding 0.36 percentage point in the third quarter.

Inventory investment also probably subtracted from GDP growth last quarter after adding 0.79 percentage point to output in the prior period.
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From: MeNeedIt

Musician William Close holds the world record for the longest stringed instrument, a device he invented and has played around the world called the Earth Harp. Mike O’Sullivan visited the musician in Malibu, California, to see how it works.
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From: MeNeedIt

North Korea shipped coal to Russia last year which was then delivered to South Korea and Japan in a likely violation of U.N. sanctions, three Western European intelligence sources said.

The U.N. Security Council banned North Korean exports of coal last Aug. 5 under sanctions intended to cut off an important source of the foreign currency Pyongyang needs to fund its nuclear weapon and long-range missile programs.

But the secretive Communist state has at least three times since then shipped coal to the Russian ports of Nakhodka and Kholmsk, where it was unloaded at docks and reloaded onto ships that took it to South Korea or Japan, the sources said.

A Western shipping source said separately that some of the cargoes reached Japan and South Korea in October last year. A U.S. security source also confirmed the coal trade via Russia and said it was continuing.

“Russia’s port of Nakhodka is becoming a transhipping hub for North Korean coal,” said one of the European security sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of international diplomacy around North Korea.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment sent on Jan 18. Russia’s mission to the United Nations informed the Security Council sanctions committee on Nov. 3 that Moscow was complying with the sanctions.

Two lawyers who specialise in sanctions law told Reuters it appeared the transactions violated U.N. sanctions.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the coal unloaded at the Russian docks was the same coal that was then shipped to South Korea and Japan. Reuters also was unable to ascertain whether the owners of the vessels that sailed from Russia to South Korea and Japan knew the origin of the coal.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday put the owner of one of the ships, the UAL Ji Bong 6, under sanctions for delivering North Korean coal to Kholmsk on Sept. 5.

It was unclear which companies profited from the coal shipments.

Russia urged to ‘do more’ on sanctions

North Korean coal exports were initially capped under a 2016 Security Council resolution that required countries to report monthly imports of coal from North Korea to the council’s sanctions committee within 30 days of the end of each month.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia had not reported any imports of North Korea coal to the committee last year.

The sanctions committee told U.N. member states in November that a violation occurs when “activities or transactions proscribed by Security Council resolutions are undertaken or attempts are made to engage in proscribed transactions, whether or not the transaction has been completed.”

Asked about the shipments identified by Reuters, Matthew Oresman, a partner with law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who advises companies on sanctions, said: “Based on these facts, there appears to be a violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution by the parties involved.”

“Also those involved in arranging, financing, and carrying out the shipments could likely face U.S. sanctions,” he said.

Asked about the shipments, a U.S. State Department spokesman said: “It’s clear that Russia needs to do more. All U.N. member states, including Russia, are required to implement sanctions resolutions in good faith and we expect them all to do so.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The independent panel of experts that reports to the Security Council on violations of sanctions was not immediately available for comment.

North Korea has refused to give up the development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States. It has said the sanctions infringe its sovereignty and accused the United States of  wanting to isolate and stifle North Korea.

An independent panel of experts reported to the Security Council on Sept. 5 that North Korea had been “deliberately using indirect channels to export prohibited commodities, evading sanctions.”

Reuters reported last month that Russian tankers had supplied fuel to North Korea at sea and U.S.

President Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview on Jan. 17 that Russia was helping Pyongyang get supplies in violation of the sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday imposed sanctions on nine entities, 16 people and six North Korean ships it accused of helping the weapons programs.

Two routes

Two separate routes for the coal were identified by the Western security sources.

The first used vessels from North Korea via Nakhodka, about 85 km (53 miles) east of the Russian city of Vladivostok.

One vessel that used this route was the Palau-flagged Jian Fu which Russian port control documents show delivered 17,415 tons of coal after sailing from Nampo in North Korea on Aug. 3 and docking at berth no. 4 run by LLC Port Livadiya in Nakhodka. It left the port on Aug. 18.

The vessel had turned off its tracking transmitter from July 24 to Aug. 2, when it was in open seas, according to publicly available ship tracking data. Under maritime conventions, this is acceptable practice at the discretion of the ship’s captain, but means the vessel could not be tracked publicly.

Another ship arrived at the same berth — No. 4 — on Aug. 16, loaded 20,500 tons of coal and headed to the South Korean port of Ulsan in Aug. 24, according to Russian port control documents.

Reuters was unable to reach the operator of the Jian Fu, which was listed in shipping directories as the China-based Sunrise Ship Management. The Nakhodka-based transport agent of the Jian Fu did not respond to written and telephone requests for comment. LLC Port Livadiya did not respond to a written request for comment.

The second route took coal via Kholmsk on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin, north of Japan.

At least two North Korean vessels unloaded coal at a dock in Kholmsk port in August and September after arriving from the ports of Wonsan and Taean in North Korea, Russian port control data and ship tracking data showed.

The Rung Ra 2 docked in Kholmsk three times between Aug. 1 and Sept. 12, unloading a total of 15,542 tons of coal, while the Ul Ji Bong 6 unloaded a total of 10,068 tons of coal on two separate port calls — on Aug. 3 and between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, according to the official Russian Information System for State Port Control.

The coal did not pass Russian customs because of the UN sanctions taking effect, but was then loaded at the same dock onto Chinese-operated vessels. Those vessels stated their destination in Russian port control documents as North Korea, according to a source in Sakhalin port administration who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Reuters has seen the port control documents which state the destination of the coal as North Korea. But the vessels that loaded the North Korean coal sailed instead for the ports of Pohang and Incheon in South Korea, ship tracking data showed.

The Chinese commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday included the owner of the Ul Ji Bong 6 under sanctions for delivering North Korean coal to Kholmsk after the sanctions took effect.

It was unclear which companies profited from the coal shipments.

Asked about the shipments, a South Korean foreign ministry official said:c“Our government is monitoring any sanctions-evading activities by North Korea. We’re working closely with the international community for the implementation of the sanctions.”

The official declined to say whether the ministry was aware of the shipments reported by Reuters.

The Japanese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The European security sources said the route via Russia had developed as China, North Korea’s neighbour and lone major ally, cracked down on exports from the secretive Communist state.

“The Chinese have cracked down on coal exports from North Korea so the smuggling route has developed and Russia is the transit point for coal,” one of the European security sources said.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned whether peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians will ever resume.

He made the remarks in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he accused the Palestinians of disrespecting the United States by refusing to meet with Vice-President Mike Pence during his recent visit to the region.

Trump threatened to cut aid money to the Palestinian territories.

“That money is on the table and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace.  Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace, and they’re going to have to want to make peace too or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer,” he told reporters.

WATCH: Trump on Palestinians

Atlantic ties

Earlier, Trump rejected what he called ‘false rumors’ of differences with British Prime Minister Theresa May and promised to boost trade after Britain’s EU exit.

“I look forward to the discussions that will be taking place are going to lead to tremendous increases in trade between our two countries which is great for both in terms of jobs,” he said, adding that Britain and the United States are “joined at the hip when it comes to the military”.

There is nervousness that Trump’s “America First” diplomacy is about to shake-up the global system that underpins the Davos summit.  Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said many Europeans are hoping for a positive message.

“I hope he will send a message, of course it will be ‘America First’, but if he could add on ‘But not alone’, or ‘But America First and we need cooperation with the rest of the world’ or whatever, that could be nice, because I think everybody needs to realize, whether you are a leader from a small or medium-sized or big countries that you can’t achieve what you want on your own.  The world is faced with a lot of challenges, which can only be solved with close international cooperation,” Rasmussen said Thursday.

Wealth distribution questioned

The general mood in Davos is upbeat, with the IMF forecasting synchronized global growth across 2018.  But behind the many closed doors, there is talk of danger ahead.  The background report to the WEF summit is titled “Fractures, Fears and Failures”, a reflection of growing global tension, says Inderjeet Parmar, professor of international politics at City University London.

“Even though international wealth and the wealth of states and the levels of economic growth and the GDPs of states have grown, the inequality of the distribution is having large scale political effects.”

The fortunes of the world’s wealthiest 500 billionaires rose by a quarter last year, while the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population did not increase their income.  Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, in Davos for the summit, says it’s time for action.

“I’m here to tell big business and politicians that this is not natural, that it’s their actions and their policies that have caused it, and they can reverse it.”

Donald Trump is due to give the closing speech to the conference Friday.

“President Trump will be speaking to two audiences, the ones assembled in front of him, and his voter base at home.  And I have a strong feeling that he is going to give some strong words in order to show people back home that he has gone to the belly of the beast itself, of globalization, and told them that he stands for America and the American people,” says analyst Parmar.

Davos is braced for what could be a dramatic finale Friday.
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From: MeNeedIt

After several near misses and heaps of outrage, this could finally be hip-hop and R&B’s year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday where rappers Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar dominate nominations for the top prizes on the biggest night in music.

Rap is now officially the biggest music genre in the United States after surpassing rock in 2017, but the odds are historically stacked against a hip-hop artist winning album of the year at the Grammys.

“Hip-hop and black music in general has really had its finger on the pulse of the American temperament for the last few years,” Ross Scarano, vice president of content at Billboard magazine, told Reuters.

“There is a sense that maybe this year some of the wrongs will be righted. I think people are looking to Kendrick and to Jay to do that,” Scarano said.

In the 60-year history of the most prestigious honors in music, only two hip-hop albums have ever won album of the year; Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999 and Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” in 2004.

Lamar, 30, whose fusion of jazz, poetry and blues with social themes and love songs has made him one of the most innovative rappers of his generation, missed out in 2016 with his critically acclaimed album “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

This year, he is back with album of the year nominee “Damn.” and record of the year entry “Humble.”

A year ago, British pop star Adele’s “25” swept aside Beyonce’s influential “Lemonade,” a win that stunned even Adele.

This year, Jay-Z, 44, was nominated for album of the year for “4:44,” in which he examines the infidelity that was so scathingly detailed by his wife Beyonce in “Lemonade.”

Scarano said the fact of Jay-Z “getting down on his knees, so to speak, and baring his soul really resonate in a year where we’ve seen a lot of men taken to task for really objectionable behavior.”

Jay-Z goes into Sunday’s ceremony in New York with a leading eight nominations followed by Lamar (7), Bruno Mars (6) and Childish Gambino, the alter ego of actor Donald Glover, with 5.

Ed Sheeran was snubbed in the album, song and record of the year categories despite his romantic pop album “Divide” being the biggest seller of 2017. That omission leaves only New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Lorde’s album “Melodrama” and the Latin global hit single “Despacito” to mount a serious challenge in the top races.

However, the Grammys aren’t just about the winners. In a three-hour live show where careers can be made or damaged, performers include Miley Cyrus, Elton John, U2, Sting, Kesha, Rihanna, Sam Smith, SZA and Broadway star Ben Platt.

The Grammy Awards, hosted by James Corden, will be broadcast live from New York’s Madison Square Garden on CBS television on Sunday starting at 7:30 pm ET.
…

From: MeNeedIt

U.S. and Mexican unions will formally complain to the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday that Mexico continues to violate NAFTA’s weak labor standards, a move that they hope will persuade U.S. negotiators to push for stronger rules.

The AFL-CIO told Reuters that it and Mexico’s UNT were filing the complaint with the U.S. office that oversees the labor accord attached to the North American Free Trade Agreement as U.S., Canadian, and Mexican negotiators met in Montreal to try to modernize the 1994 trade pact.

The complaint, seen by Reuters, argues that Mexico’s proposed labor law amendments to implement constitutional reforms will violate the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. It seeks efforts from the United States to prevent the measures from being implemented and to demand changes to bring Mexico into compliance.

“Simply by promoting this bill, which aims to undermine the constitutional reforms, the government of Mexico brazenly violates the central obligations of the NAALC – namely to ‘provide high labor standards’ and to ‘strive to improve those standards,’” the AFL-CIO and Mexico’s UNT National Workers Union said in the complaint.

 Talks to overhaul the trade deal have been dogged by U.S. threats to withdraw from the pact, but the foreign ministers of Mexico and Canada on Thursday struck an upbeat note on future negotiations.

A key complaint is that NAFTA has failed to lift chronically low Mexican wages that have steadily drawn U.S. and Canadian factories and jobs to Mexico.

The trade pact has also allowed lower health and safety standards in Mexican factories to persist, but violations of the NAFTA labor cooperation agreement are not enforceable through trade sanctions.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office has made steep demands on automotive content to reverse job migration, but its labor proposals have disappointed unions and many Democratic Party lawmakers. The proposals stuck largely to language that Mexico and Canada previously agreed to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal the Trump administration has abandoned.

“What the USTR put on the table is not acceptable and won’t get the job done,” said Celeste Drake, the AFL-CIO’s trade and globalization policy specialist.

She said past complaints to the Labor Department regarding Mexico’s violation of the labor cooperation pact have not led to major change and this one may be no different, but it aims to influence the negotiations by drawing attention to Mexico’s weak record on worker rights as negotiators discuss labor issues in Montreal.

“It gives ammunition at the negotiating table to U.S. and Canadian negotiators to say, ‘Your violations on NAFTA are not in the past, they’re not over with.’”

A USTR spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Thus far, Canada led the call for higher labor standards in the talks, including making a proposal that the United States revise its so-called right-to-work laws in many southern states that help to limit the spread of unions in manufacturing.
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From: MeNeedIt

A Syrian refugee will be cooking dishes from Damascus and Aleppo for VIP guests at the opening of the Berlinale International Film Festival next month.

The choice of Malakeh Jazmati reflects the mission of the festival, which was set up in 1951 to showcase films that address urgent social and political issues in the world.

The festival devoted its program to refugees and migration in 2016 after Europe’s politics were convulsed by the arrival of more than a million refugees from the Middle East and Africa, including Jazmati herself.

At the Berlin film festival opening reception in February, the 30-year-old chef, who runs a catering business in the German capital with her husband, will be cooking for more than 400 guests attending the opening reception.

“When I went and saw it’s not just any film festival but the Berlinale, I was more than happy,” she said of her reaction on learning she had been chosen. “It’s like getting to fulfill your dreams.”

She will be working under the management of Berlinale’s chef Martin Scharff and cooperating with the Lebanese-American cook Barbara Massaad, known for her Syrian cookbook. Her menu will range from Aleppo stuffed aubergine to a Damascene “Syrian pasta”, seasoned with tamarind sauce and pomegranate molasses.

“People think about our food that we only have falafel and hummus, but after that they see it’s a very big kitchen,” Jazmati told Reuters TV.

The festival will open on February 15 with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s animated film “Isle of Dogs,” staring Hollywood actors such as Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Gulf Arab officials used the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday to slam Iran for what they said was its destabilizing behavior in the region,

taking advantage of Tehran’s conspicuous absence at the annual event.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had been a regular presence at the annual forum that brings together top politicians, CEOs and bankers, and he often clashed with his Gulf Arab counterparts at competing sessions. But this year, he did not show.

As a result, the platform was wide open for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to criticize Iran.

Iran, the leading Shiite Muslim power, and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, are rivals for influence in the Middle East, where they support opposing sides in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

“In the Middle East, we have two competing visions … and the vision of darkness is sectarianism. It’s trying to restore an empire that was destroyed thousands of years ago. It’s using sectarianism and terrorism in order to interfere in the affairs of other countries,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a panel at the forum. “History has shown that light always prevails over darkness.”

Iran denies interference in Arab countries’ affairs. Last year at Davos, Zarif said Iran and Saudi Arabia should be able to work together to help end conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Yemeni conflict

Saudi-led forces, which back the Yemeni government, have fought the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen’s civil war. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has described Iran’s supply of rockets to the Houthis as “direct military aggression” that could be an act of war.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri gave a more measured critique. With his coalition government, which includes the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, he has had to tread carefully. His Saudi allies accuse Hezbollah of waging war

across the Middle East as agents of Iran.

“Iran is a country that we need to deal with. … As prime minister, I would like to have the best relationship with Iran, but I would like it state to state,” Hariri said at a separate panel.

“Iran represents a challenge in the region, maybe, but dialogue also is a part of resolving these issues,” Hariri said.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, while acknowledging that Berlin had issues with Iran, used the moment to defend the 2015 Iran nuclear deal sealed with world powers, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon.

“We have many worries about Iran, without any question, and we see a lot of problems with Iran, without any question. But we think that the Iran [nuclear] deal encapsulates the core problem, and therefore we think we should stick to the deal as long as Iran sticks to the deal, too,” she said.
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From: MeNeedIt

The Senate has confirmed a former pharmaceutical industry executive as head of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

Alex Azar, former president of the U.S. division of Eli Lilly & Co., was confirmed by a 55-43 vote on Wednesday.

Azar, 50, will replace Tom Price, who resigned in September amid questions over his use of private jets for official travel.

Azar says he has four main priorities for the Health and Human Services Department: help curb the cost of prescription drugs; make health insurance more affordable and available; continue bipartisan efforts to focus Medicare payments on quality; and confront the opioid addiction epidemic.

Azar had served in senior health jobs under President George W. Bush and had the support of much of the health care industry.
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From: MeNeedIt

Elton John is retiring from the road after his upcoming three-year global tour, capping nearly 50 years on stages around the world. He calls it a “way to go out with a bang.”

“I’ve had a good run, I think you’d admit that,” John said Wednesday, adding that he wanted to “leave people thinking, `I saw the last tour and it was fantastic.”‘

The 70-year-old singer, pianist and composer said he wanted to spend time with his family. His children will be 10 and 8 when he stops in 2021, and John said he hoped he might be able to take them to soccer practice. “My priorities now are my children and my husband and my family,” he said. “This is the end.”

John made the announcement at an event in New York in which he sat at a piano and performed “Tiny Dancer” and “I’m Still Standing.” He wore his signature glasses and a colorful suit jacket that read “Gucci Loves Elton.”

 His final tour — dubbed “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” — starts in September. It will consist of 300 shows in North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Asia. Tickets go on sale beginning Febraury 2.

John said he decided on his retirement plans in 2015 in France. “I can’t physically do the traveling and I don’t want to,” he said. He also ruled out a residency but vowed: “I will be creative up until the day I die.”

At the Grammy Awards, to be presented in New York on Sunday, John is to perform alongside Miley Cyrus and will collect the President’s Merit Award. His Vegas residency ends in May after six years.

His hits include “Your Song” and “Candle in the Wind.” He has won five Grammys, an Oscar, a Golden Globe for “The Lion King” and a Tony Award for “Aida” He is the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.

John, who has sold 300 million records, launched his first tour in 1970 and boasts having performed over 4,000 times in more than 80 countries. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

He has suffered several medical setbacks of late, including a bacterial infection last year that he contracted during a South American tour and an E. coli bacterial infection in 2009. He’s also suffered an appendicitis and has been fitted with a pacemaker.

From 1970-76, John released 10 original studio albums and seven consecutive chart toppers. He remained a hit maker over the following four decades, from “The Lion King” soundtrack song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” to a revision of his Marilyn Monroe ode “Candle in the Wind,” released in 1997 after the death of John’s friend Princess Diana and one of the best-selling singles of all time.
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From: MeNeedIt