The New Abolitionists: Global Warming Is The Great Moral Crisis Of Our Time

The UK Guardian has put me in a gallery of “climate change abolitionists, those engaging in an uphill battle to challenge the broken systems that threaten our survival.” They also want your suggestions for who else to add (click here).

Climate change abolitionists: who is fighting for a more sustainable world? It took Abraham Lincoln and others many years of campaigning to abolish slavery — but who are the contemporary figures fighting to abolish dangerous climate change?

Well, I don’t really think I should be mentioned in the same breath as Lincoln — unless you are talking about our mutual love of the figures of speech and my book Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.

The Guardian has a good piece by Andrew Winston accompanying the gallery,”The campaign to abolish slavery has many parallels with the work of today’s climate change activists: it takes bravery and determination to try and make the world a better place.”

I agree that there are many parallels, many of which are spelled out in that article — and in an even longer piece in the Boston Phoenix, by Wen Stephenson, “The New Abolitionists: Global warming is the great moral crisis of our time,” which argues ”the climate-justice movement must embrace its radicalism to fight it.”

And readers of my books know I think metaphors are important — and that our inaction on climate change is a great moral crisis, the greatest moral crisis of our time. But it is also useful to spell out the differences.

Obviously slavery was not merely a great moral wrong, but cruel and inhumane to millions from the very start and for as long as it was occurring.

Unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions became immoral only when we learned that they would destroy a livable climate — and while we certainly need to go to zero this century, ideally by mid-century, we don’t have to go to zero tomorrow whereas, of course, slavery needed to be ended completely and instantly.

Winston writes:

So what are we “abolishing”? Climate abolitionists are not fighting to eliminate growth. Eradicating slavery did not rid the world of cotton or tobacco, and moving away from carbon will not mean abandoning human and economic development – in fact, it will help ensure it. What we want to abolish is our outmoded, broken economic and energy systems that threaten our survival, in part because they put no value on human and ecosystem inputs and impacts. We’re seeking a new way of powering our world that will save vast sums of money (variable costs of near zero), avoid the significant health impacts of burning dirty fossil fuels, and conserve our planet’s ability to support not only our entire $70tn economy, but our very existence.

I do think that is where we need to start. Development will continue, but it will have to continue as CO2 is pulled out of the economy ASAP. I’ll have more to say about “growth” soon.

Stephenson’s piece focuses on Tim DeChristopher. Here are two excerpts:

I want to say a word for radicalism — for the role of the radical in building a movement to confront climate change, the most urgent crisis human beings have ever faced. I want to start with two scenes, and two speakers, who embody the imperatives, and the limitations, of the moment in which we find ourselves.

July 26, 2011. Inside a federal courtroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, a 30-year-old climate activist named  Tim DeChristopher is sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine for disrupting a Bureau of Land Management auction of oil and gas leases back in December 2008. Registered as Bidder #70, he managed to win bids worth $1.8 million for some 22,000 acres of public land near Canyonlands National Park — bids he had no way of paying. He had acted spontaneously, on his conscience, engaged in nonviolent resistance to the heedless new extraction of fossil fuels that are catastrophically heating the planet and threatening innumerable innocent lives.

Weeks before his sentencing, DeChristopher told Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell: “I’m a climate-justice activist…. We want a radically different world. We want a healthy, just world.” But first, he said, “we need to get the fossil fuel industry out of the way. First we’ve got to overthrow the corporate power that is running our government.” He understands what that requires. “It will involve confrontation and it will involve sacrifice.”

At his sentencing, standing before the federal judge, DeChristopher concludes a long, eloquent statement that spreads across the Internet and galvanizes a growing climate-justice movement:

“This is not going away. At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow. The choice you are making today is what side are you on.”

DeChristopher is truly brave. I’m just a blogger.

Stephenson ends with the words of another truly brave man:

“If there is no struggle there is no progress,” Frederick Douglass said in 1857. “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

Hear, hear! Speak, speak! Act, act! If not now, when?

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Republicans Suddenly Outraged About Consequences Of Looming Spending Cuts

Barring a last minute agreement, the automatic across-the-board spending cuts that were included in the Budget Control Act will go into effect on Friday, affecting everything from food safety inspections, to HIV testing kits, and domestic violence programs. On Monday, Immigration of Customs Enforcement even began releasing some 10,000 nonviolent detainees from Immigration Detention Centers, citing the looming budget cuts. “I’m supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “How do I pay for those?”

Republicans — who have remained silent on the cuts that would effect health care and education programs — immediately expressed outrage, arguing that the Obama administration was purposely releasing immigrants to scare the public. “This is very hard for me to believe that they can’t find cuts elsewhere in their agency,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said in an interview with CBS. “I frankly think this is outrageous. And I’m looking for more facts, but I can’t believe that they can’t find the kind of savings they need out of that department short of letting criminals go free.”

The party finally found a cut it didn’t like, even though all of the immigrants released were being held on non-violent, immigration-related offenses and are still being tracked by ICE.

Taxpayers are forking over roughly $5.1 billion to the private prison industry every year to pay for detention centers, which hold thousands of immigrants who have not been convicted on any crime.

At around $164 per day per immigrant in detention, the centers are a huge burden on the U.S. economy and are home to multiple human rights violations.

The AP reports that Executive Associate Director at ICE, Gary Mead, resigned Wednesday after the White House revealed that they did not know about the release of immigrants from detention centers:

Mead had told co-workers of his resignation in the email sent Tuesday, hours after U.S. officials had confirmed that a few hundred illegal immigrants facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to budget cuts.

President Barack Obama’s spokesman said Wednesday the White House was never consulted but described the immigrants as “low-risk, non-criminal detainees.”

ICE almost immediately disputed the report, saying that it was “inaccurate and misleading,” since Mead had been planning to retire before the detainee release.

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Remarks by the President at Dedication of Statue Honoring Rosa Parks -- US Capitol

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

United States Capitol

11:45 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Mr. Speaker, Leader Reid, Leader McConnell, Leader Pelosi, Assistant Leader Clyburn; to the friends and family of Rosa Parks; to the distinguished guests who are gathered here today. 

This morning, we celebrate a seamstress, slight in stature but mighty in courage.  She defied the odds, and she defied injustice.  She lived a life of activism, but also a life of dignity and grace.  And in a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America -- and change the world.

Rosa Parks held no elected office.  She possessed no fortune; lived her life far from the formal seats of power.  And yet today, she takes her rightful place among those who’ve shaped this nation’s course.  I thank all those persons, in particular the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, both past and present, for making this moment possible.  (Applause.) 

A childhood friend once said about Mrs. Parks, “Nobody ever bossed Rosa around and got away with it.”  (Laughter.)  That’s what an Alabama driver learned on December 1, 1955.  Twelve years earlier, he had kicked Mrs. Parks off his bus simply because she entered through the front door when the back door was too crowded.  He grabbed her sleeve and he pushed her off the bus.  It made her mad enough, she would recall, that she avoided riding his bus for a while. 

And when they met again that winter evening in 1955, Rosa Parks would not be pushed.  When the driver got up from his seat to insist that she give up hers, she would not be pushed.  When he threatened to have her arrested, she simply replied, “You may do that.”  And he did.

A few days later, Rosa Parks challenged her arrest.  A little-known pastor, new to town and only 26 years old, stood with her -- a man named Martin Luther King, Jr.  So did thousands of Montgomery, Alabama commuters.  They began a boycott -- teachers and laborers, clergy and domestics, through rain and cold and sweltering heat, day after day, week after week, month after month, walking miles if they had to, arranging carpools where they could, not thinking about the blisters on their feet, the weariness after a full day of work -- walking for respect, walking for freedom, driven by a solemn determination to affirm their God-given dignity. 

Three hundred and eighty-five days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, the boycott ended.  Black men and women and children re-boarded the buses of Montgomery, newly desegregated, and sat in whatever seat happen to be open.  (Applause.)  And with that victory, the entire edifice of segregation, like the ancient walls of Jericho, began to slowly come tumbling down.

It’s been often remarked that Rosa Parks’s activism didn’t begin on that bus.  Long before she made headlines, she had stood up for freedom, stood up for equality -- fighting for voting rights, rallying against discrimination in the criminal justice system, serving in the local chapter of the NAACP.  Her quiet leadership would continue long after she became an icon of the civil rights movement, working with Congressman Conyers to find homes for the homeless, preparing disadvantaged youth for a path to success, striving each day to right some wrong somewhere in this world. 

And yet our minds fasten on that single moment on the bus -- Ms. Parks alone in that seat, clutching her purse, staring out a window, waiting to be arrested.  That moment tells us something about how change happens, or doesn’t happen; the choices we make, or don’t make.  “For now we see through a glass, darkly,” Scripture says, and it’s true.  Whether out of inertia or selfishness, whether out of fear or a simple lack of moral imagination, we so often spend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injustice, rationalizing inequity, tolerating the intolerable. 

Like the bus driver, but also like the passengers on the bus, we see the way things are -- children hungry in a land of plenty, entire neighborhoods ravaged by violence, families hobbled by job loss or illness -- and we make excuses for inaction, and we say to ourselves, that's not my responsibility, there’s nothing I can do.

Rosa Parks tell us there’s always something we can do.  She tells us that we all have responsibilities, to ourselves and to one another.  She reminds us that this is how change happens -- not mainly through the exploits of the famous and the powerful, but through the countless acts of often anonymous courage and kindness and fellow feeling and responsibility that continually, stubbornly, expand our conception of justice -- our conception of what is possible. 

Rosa Parks’s singular act of disobedience launched a movement.  The tired feet of those who walked the dusty roads of Montgomery helped a nation see that to which it had once been blind.  It is because of these men and women that I stand here today.  It is because of them that our children grow up in a land more free and more fair; a land truer to its founding creed.

And that is why this statue belongs in this hall -- to remind us, no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires; just what it is that citizenship requires.  Rosa Parks would have turned 100 years old this month. We do well by placing a statue of her here.  But we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction.

May God bless the memory of Rosa Parks, and may God bless these United States of America.  (Applause.)

END                
11:55 A.M. EST

President Obama is on hand for the unveiling of the new Rosa Parks statue in the U.S. Capitol

February 27, 2013 12:00 PM EST

To mark African American History Month, as well as the 150th anniversary of the year the Emancipation Proclamation, we talked with White House Curator Bill Allman about a painting called Watch Meeting--Dec. 31st 1862--Waiting for the Hour that hangs near the Oval Office in the West Wing.

President Obama strongly believes we need to replace the arbitrary cuts known as the sequester with balanced deficit reduction, and today he was at a shipyard in Newport News, VA to talk about what failing to do so will mean for middle class families.

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Poll Finds 15-Point Drop In Dem Support For Health Law

Democratic support for President Obama's healthcare law has dropped 15 points since November, contributing to a rise in negative attitudes toward the reform, according to a new poll.

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act currently outnumber supporters (42 percent to 36), according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's latest tracking survey. Public opinion has switched back and forth since the law passed in 2010, and in November, support for the law was 4 percent higher than opposition (43 percent to 39). 

Kaiser attributed the marked slide in support among Democrats to a "post-presidential election fade." In November, 72 percent of that group expressed support for the law, compared with 57 percent who feel favorably toward it now.

Unaffiliated voters saw a similar but less dramatic decline in support, with 32 percent approving of the healthcare law compared with 37 percent in November.

"It's difficult to say whether this downward drop will last," Kaiser analysts wrote of the decline in overall support for the law. "Support seems to have shifted to the no-opinion category, up to nearly a quarter, a new high in Kaiser polling."

Obama's win in November cements the future of the Affordable Care Act. Implementation has begun in earnest in anticipation of 2014, when several major provisions will take effect.

Wednesday's poll was Kaiser's first effort since November to survey opinions on healthcare reform.

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MARKET PULSE-Boyd Gaming, Optimer Pharma, Clearwire, Coach, Dollar Tree

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Some U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday:

((For more market insights, including options activity, click on ; for the Day Ahead newsletter ))

US STOCKS-FUTURES LITTLE CHANGED AHEAD OF BERNANKE, DATA

U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited a second round of testimony in Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for signs of whether the Fed will continue its economic stimulus program. S&P 500 futures

rose 2.5 points, Dow Jones industrial average futures

fell 1 points while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.25 point.

** BOYD GAMING , Tuesday close $6.50, up 7 pct premarket

** CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT CORP , Tuesday close $12.13, up 4 pct premarket

** INTERNATIONAL GAME TECH , Tuesday close $15.89, up 0.37 pct

** ZYNGA INC , Tuesday close $3.36, up 3 pct premarket

** GLU MOBILE INC , Tuesday close $2.33, up 1 pct premarket

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday approved online gambling within the state's border, a move that he hopes can help boost state revenues and revive Atlantic City casinos.

The measure, announced the same day that Christie unveiled his new budget plan for fiscal 2014, will legalize Internet gaming to New Jersey's 9 million residents and also create opportunities for European companies with expertise in running online gaming operations.

** OPTIMER PHARMACEUTICALS INC , Tuesday close $10.72, up 11 pct premarket

Optimer Pharmaceuticals said it was exploring a possible sale of the company among a full range of alternatives and that Chairman Henry McKinnell would act as chief executive for the duration of the review process.

** ACCRETIVE HEALTH INC , Tuesday close $12.11, down 30 pct premarket

Shares of Accretive Health fell more than 30 percent before the bell, as the medical billing services provider withdrew its forecast and indefinitely delayed the filing of its fourth-quarter results, saying it was evaluating the timing of revenue recognition.

** TARGET CORP , Tuesday close $64.05, down 2 pct premarket

Target posted lower quarterly profit on Wednesday, as sales of food and value-priced items only partially mitigated some weakness it saw when holiday shoppers held back from discretionary spending in an uncertain economy.

** DOLLAR TREE INC , Tuesday close $41.08, up 5 pct premarket

Dollar Tree on Wednesday posted a higher quarterly profit in line with its forecast as shoppers spent more when they came into its stores and the chain controlled costs.

** VIRNETX HOLDING CORP , Tuesday close $33.96, up 4.5 pct premarket

** APPLE INC , Tuesday close $448.97

VirnetX Holding, an internet security software company, said a district court has upheld a previous patent infringement ruling against Apple and denied the iPhone maker's motion to reduce the $368 million in damages.

** COACH INC , Tuesday close $46.50, up 5 pct premarket ** NIKE INC , Tuesday close $54.27

Coach said on Wednesday it has hired a former Nike executive to oversee the transformation of its stores as it moves further into segments where the leather goods maker is a relatively small player, such as shoes and clothing.

** QUESTCOR PHARMACEUTICALS INC , Tuesday close $32.66, down 4 pct premarket

The drugmaker which reported fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, said its main product Acthar had 8 percent lower sales in its multiple sclerosis indication.

Acthar is approved in the United States to treat multiple sclerosis, infantile spasms and 17 other indications.

Questcor reported a quarterly profit of $1.03 on revenue of $160.5 million.

** ZOGENIX INC , Tuesday close $1.21, up 10 pct premarket

The drugmaker said the U.S. health regulator has delayed the decision on approval of its painkiller, Zohydro for several weeks. The regulatory decision was initially expected on March 1.

William Blair analyst Tim Lugo viewed the delay as a positive signal as delay of several months tend to signal a more significant issue between the agency and the applicant.

Zohydro contains hydrocodone, an addictive opioid which is subject to increased scrutiny due to high rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States.

** CLEARWIRE CORP , Tuesday close $3.20, down 4 pct premarket

** SPRINT NEXTEL , Tuesday close $5.78, up 1 pct aftermarket

** DISH NETWORK , Tuesday close $35.14

Clearwire said it will take $80 million in financing from Sprint Nextel in the form of exchangeable notes. Wall Street Journal had reported that Clearwire plans to tap financing from Sprint, in a move that further complicates Dish Network's effort to buy Clearwire, citing people familiar with the situation.

** JPMORGAN CHASE & CO , Tuesday close $47.60, down 0.42 pct aftermarket

JPMorgan Chase said on Tuesday that it plans to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2014, representing about 6.6 percent of the company's overall workforce, as the bank sheds staff that helped it deal with bad home loans.

** BOEING , Tuesday close $75.65

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is not close to approving test flights of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner with a proposed fix for the plane's troubled batteries, denying news reports that such tests could start as early as next week.

** WALT DISNEY CO , Tuesday close $53.90

Proxy advisers ISS and Glass, Lewis & Co urged Disney shareholders to vote in favor of a proposal to split the chairman and chief executive roles now both held by Robert Iger.

** GOOGLE INC , Tuesday close $790.13

** FACEBOOK INC , Tuesday close $27.39, down 0.43 pct aftermarket

Google transformed the Internet by cataloging the Web's countless pages. Now it wants to keep better track of the Web's multitude of users. The Mountain View, California-based company said Tuesday it would begin encouraging websites and mobile apps to accept log-in credentials via Google+, its social network.

The integration with third-party sites and apps, which Google hopes will help it track users as they surf across the Internet, represents the search powerhouse's latest effort to establish a foothold in the all-important social Web arena - and beat back competition from Facebook, the sector leader.

** MICROSOFT CORP , Tuesday close $27.37 ** APPLE INC , Tuesday close $448.97

A top Microsoft executive side-stepped questions on Tuesday about any plans the software maker may have to bring its Office suite of applications to Apple's iPad.

** DINEEQUITY INC , Tuesday close $72.28

The owner of the Applebee's and IHOP restaurant brands, reported a 34 percent fall in quarterly profit following the sale and refranchise of Applebee's company-operated restaurants and due to higher income taxes.

** JOY GLOBAL INC , Tuesday close $59.96, down 2.4 pct premarket

Mining equipment maker Joy Global posted a first-quarter profit that came above analysts' expectations, but said aftermarket orders declined from the fourth quarter.

** BIG 5 SPORTING GOODS CORP , Tuesday close $15.15, up 6 pct after market

The sports goods retailer reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts' estimates, helped by strong performance in its hardgoods business. The company said its hardgoods category benefited from the increase in demand for firearms and ammunition products in the United States.

Big 5 also forecast first quarter 2013 profit far above Wall Street estimates, based on the increased demand for firearms and on favorable winter weather conditions.

** DREAMWORKS ANIMATION SKG INC , Tuesday close $16.61, down 3 pct aftermarket

Movie studio DreamWorks reported its first quarterly loss in almost six years as it wrote down $165 million related to the weak box office performance of "Rise of the Guardians" and its decision to delay another film.

** GUIDEWIRE SOFTWARE INC , Tuesday close $31.53, up 14 pct aftermarket

The company, which provides software to property and casualty insurers, reported a quarterly profit that blew past analysts' estimates, helped partly by several customers who made payments earlier than their third-quarter due dates.

** PRICELINE.COM , Tuesday close $678.49, up 4 pct premarket

The online travel agency known for its name-your-own-price auction, on Tuesday topped analysts' estimates for quarterly profit, citing improved hotel and car-rental reservations.

At least six brokerages raised their price targets on Priceline.com's shares, some by more than $100 per share.

"We're encouraged by Priceline's performance in a more challenging operating environment and also note the company faces easier comparisons over the next couple of quarters," JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to clients.

** ZAGG INC , Tuesday close $7.48, up 5.4 pct after market

The mobile accessories maker posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, helped by strong sales during the holiday season and forecast 2013 revenue well above analysts' estimates.

** OFFICE DEPOT INC , Tuesday close $3.99

Office Depot's largest shareholder, Starboard Value LP, urged the office supply chain's board to explore the sale of its Mexican joint venture interest soon.

** LOCKHEED MARTIN , Tuesday close $87.30, down 1.2 pct premarket

The Pentagon program chief for the F-35 warplane slammed its commercial partners Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to "squeeze every nickel" out of the U.S. government and failing to see the long-term benefits of the project.

** FIRST SOLAR INC , Tuesday close $31.36, down 12 pct premarket

** SUNPOWER CORP , Tuesday close $11.69, down 7 pct premarket

First Solar on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit, reversing a year-ago loss, but the U.S. solar company's shares fell 8 percent after it failed to offer an earnings and sales outlook for 2013.

** MAKO SURGICAL CORP , Tuesday close $11, up 6 pct aftermarket

Mako reported a fourth-quarter loss of 13 cents per share on revenue of $30.2 million on Tuesday.

William Blair analyst Matthew O'Brien said the surgical device maker's fourth quarter loss was narrower than expected by the brokerage. O'Brien said Mako's reduced research and marketing expenses should help allay concerns about the company's cash burn rate and need for additional capital.

** EXXON MOBIL CORP , Tuesday close $88.51

Exxon Mobil has won the reversal by Maryland's highest court of a $1 billion punitive damages award stemming from an underground leak at a gas station, and also won the reversal of portions of nearly $650 million of compensatory damages awards.

** AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC , Tuesday close $37.69

** BANK OF AMERICA CORP , Tuesday close $11.13

A federal judge has put AIG's dispute with a financial crisis-era bailout vehicle on hold while another court addresses the insurer's separate $10 billion lawsuit against Bank of America over defective mortgages.

** CABLEVISION SYSTEMS CORP , Tuesday close $15.29 ** VIACOM INC , Tuesday close $57.28

Cablevision has accused Viacom in an antitrust lawsuit of forcing it to pay for more than a dozen low-rated cable networks in order to get access to Viacom's more popular channels such as Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central.

** CHARLES SCHWAB CORP , Tuesday close $16.21

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will appeal a ruling that allowed Charles Schwab to require customers to waive their right to participate in class-action suits, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

** PARTNER COMMUNICATIONS , Tuesday close $5.65

Partner Communications , Israel's second-largest mobile phone operator, reported weaker than expected quarterly profit and said it could have weak earnings throughout 2013 due to fierce competition that has slashed calling rates.

** EBAY INC , Tuesday close $53.82

Max Levchin, co-founder of online payment giant PayPal, launched a rival business on Tuesday called Affirm that will compete in the crowded but fast-growing mobile payments business. PayPal, owned by eBay, is the leader in online payments.

** BEST BUY CO INC , Tuesday close $16.46, down 2.4 pct aftermarket

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze's effort to take the company private is in trouble after attempts to secure financing faltered while an alternative strategy to line up minority investors may not pan out either, five sources familiar with the matter said.

** AMGEN INC , Tuesday close $89.47

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it has stopped all pediatric clinical trials of Amgen's Sensipar after the death of a 14-year-old patient taking part in a study of the drug.

** ELAN CORP , Tuesday close $11.03

New York-based investment firm Royalty Pharma does not want to take "no" for an answer to its $6.6 billion offer for Irish drugmaker Elan Corp .

** CENTRAL EUROPEAN MEDIA ENTERPRISES , Tuesday close $5.28,

** TIME WARNER INC , Tuesday close $52.28

Central European Media Enterprises said it is looking to raise cash by selling assets, raising fees and holding talks with its largest shareholder, Time Warner, over increasing its stake in the broadcaster.

** PAPA JOHN'S INTERNATIONAL INC , Tuesday close $56.65, down 8 pct aftermarket

Papa John's said it would restate financial results dating back to 2009 after the company found accounting errors in a joint venture agreement.

** COMMONWEALTH REIT , Tuesday close $24.40

Office building operator CommonWealth REIT on Wednesday said it will go ahead with a common share offering and debt tender offer despite opposition from several large investors.

** TIVO INC , Tuesday close $12.41

Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo reported a higher quarterly revenue as its subscription base expanded.

** DIGITALGLOBE INC , Tuesday close $27.00

DigitalGlobe posted better-than-expected quarterly results largely due to increased sales of its satellite images to businesses and U.S. intelligence agencies.

(Compiled by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore)

((chandni.doulatramani@thomsonreuters.com)(within U.S. +1 646 223 8780)(outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800)(Reuters Messaging: Reuters messaging: chandni.doulatramani.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: MARKETS USA STOCKS/PULSE

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UPDATE 2-Tenet swings to profit as hospital visits rise

* Q4 profit 45 cts/shr vs loss 70 cts/shr year ago

* Outpatient visits up 7.3 pct

* Outpatient surgeries rise 13.9 pct

* Reiterates 2013 EBITDA outlook

* Shares down 1 percent

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Tenet Healthcare Corp on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter profit versus a year-ago loss as outpatient hospital visits increased and said it sees health reform next year will have a positive impact on earnings.

An estimated 26 million people, many of them now uninsured, are expected to obtain coverage through health insurance exchanges being set up under the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Tenet, the No. 3 for-profit U.S. hospital chain, said it has traditionally served a larger number of uninsured patients than other publicly traded chains. This burden is expected to diminish as those patients are insured through the exchanges, beginning in 2014.

"We see a lot of upside in our markets," Tenet Chief Executive Trevor Fetter said on a conference call.

Fetter said Tenet recently signed its first contracts with three Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans for health insurance to be sold through the exchanges, covering about 30 percent of its hospitals. The plans have a similar structure as its commercial contracts, with a pricing discount of less than 10 percent from current rates.

"Where we have accepted any discount at all, it is for additional market share," Fetter said.

Tenet posted fourth-quarter earnings of $49 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with a loss of $76 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier, when the company took a large charge for the early retirement of debt.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 16.7 percent to $336 million. Net operating revenue rose 7.3 percent to $2.33 billion.

Tenet reiterated its outlook for 2013 EBITDA of $1.325 billion to $1.425 billion.

In the fourth quarter, Dallas-based Tenet said adjusted patient admissions rose 2.9 percent, with outpatient visits up 7.3 percent and outpatient surgeries climbing 13.9 percent. Total admissions were flat, while emergency room visits increased 8.6 percent.

Uninsured and charity admissions rose 1.1 percent. Bad debt expenses as a percentage of revenue was 7.9 percent, up from 7.7 percent from a year ago, as more uninsured patients sought treatment, Tenet said.

Tenet shares were down 1.4 percent at $37.12 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Texas Bill Would Dramatically Loosen Gun Training Requirements

Fearing tighter gun violence prevention, Texans have bought guns in droves since the Sandy Hook tragedy. To accommodate the frenzy, state Rep. Dan Flynn introduced a bill to cut down the training required of concealed carry permit holders from 10 hours to just four.

Flynn claimed there would be no difference between the two classes. WFAA reports:

“You spend a lot of time taking breaks, you spend a lot of time hearing stories,” Flynn said. “A lot of people who try to get their license, they have to take a day off of work, or they have to take a whole Saturday to go do this where, four hours, range time, you can do the same thing and it accomplishes it.”

Naturally, shooting instructors call the change unsafe. “It takes me four hours just to go through one segment, which is the lawful use of deadly force,” Travis Bond, a National Rifle Association member who runs a firearm training academy, said. “There’s no way you can teach people what they need to know.”

Currently, the 10-hour class covers at least four required topics — “use of force; non violent dispute resolution; handgun use; and safe and proper storage of handguns and ammunition” — according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. It is far more likely the shorter class would omit material more substantial than water cooler breaks, especially when Texas’ neighboring states all require between 8-15 hours of training.

Gun accidents may make up a smaller portion of firearm deaths than homicides and suicides, but adding more poorly trained gun owners to the mix does not help a state where roughly 500,000 hold concealed gun permits.

Texas lawmakers will also consider a second bill that capitalizes on the increased demand for guns. This one would create a tax-free holiday for guns and ammunition on “Texas Independence Day.”

(HT: Raw Story)

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Federal Reserve Chairman Explains Why Looming Budget Cuts Could Be Bad News For Deficit Reduction

Budget cuts under the so-called “sequester” will go into effect on Friday. Independent estimates shows that the cuts will cost anywhere from 700,000 to 750,000 jobs. And the end result may be very little deficit reduction as well, as a more depressed economy will not produce as much in the way of revenue, as economist Adam Hersh explained.

During a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke patiently tried to explain this to Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), who wasn’t having it:

DUFFY: Instead of encouraging responsibility, you come in and say “listen to cut 2 percent of our budget, you can’t do it. It’s going to have a great impact on our economy.” Mr. Chairman that doesn’t make sense to me.

BERNANKE: Well, I think most economists, including the CBO, would say this will cost a lot of jobs in the short run. And you can achieve the same results with longer-term programs. [...]

DUFFY: So then are you here telling us if we cut $85 billion in a more reflective way — in the bad spending that I just referenced — you would support it? It’s a good idea if we’re not doing it by way of the sequester, but we had a little more reflective analysis on the $85 billion.

BERNANKE: It would be better.

DUFFY: So is it better or you agree with us that we should actually reduce spending?

BERNANKE: I’m still concerned about the short-term impact on jobs. And you don’t get as much benefit as you think, because if you slow the economy that hurts your revenues and that means your deficit reduction is not as big as you think it is.

Watch:

For evidence of what Bernanke is talking about, one needs to look no further than Europe, where austerity — rather than sparking a recovery — has led to weak growth, high unemployment, and yes, more debt. In fact, the EU’s debt “was barely changed at 90 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2012 compared with 89.9 percent for three months earlier…It was up from 86.8 percent of GDP a year earlier,” even after the continent embraced deep spending cuts and reforms.

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