Thursday, 28 April 2016

BUHARI PROMISES STATES MORE MONEY

Buhari Promises States More Money

April 29, 2016

Muhammadu-Buhari-2604 — Muhammadu Buhari

·Governors present fiscal restructuring plan
·Want revenue sharing formula reviewed
Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday promised to make more money available to states to tide them over the prevailing financial difficulties that have made it impossible for them to pay their workers’ salaries for months.

The president made the promise in Abuja after his meeting with the state governors under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), which presented him with a fiscal restructuring plan, asking for a review of the nation’s revenue sharing formula that would put more money in the coffers of the states.

Although details of the proposed plan were not disclosed, the president in his response to their proposal indicated that he would give it positive consideration and promised them that the federal government would make more money available to the states to help them meet their financial obligations.

The governors, who met with the president at the Presidential Villa, subsequently asked for an additional 18-month moratorium on their subsisting debts.
A statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, after the meeting, quoted Buhari as saying that the dire financial situation the states found themselves was of great concern to him.

Buhari said he was worried that nearly two-thirds of the states of the federation were still having difficulties with salary payments despite the federal government’s bailout.
He said he very disturbed by the hardship which state government workers across the country and their families were going through due to the non-payment of salaries, adding that the federal government would strive to make more funds available to the states by expediting action on refunds due to them for the repairs and construction of federal roads and other expenses incurred on behalf of the federal government.

Buhari also said that he would establish an inter-ministerial committee to study the Fiscal Restructuring Plan for the Federation which was presented to him by the governors.
The president said that the committee would review the plan to improve the finances of the state governments and make recommendations on how proposals in the plan should be dealt with by the presidency, Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the National Assembly through legislation.

However, Buhari reminded the governors to understand that while he was ready to do all within his powers to help the states overcome their current financial challenges, the federal government also has funding problems of its own to contend with.
“You all know the problems we have found ourselves in. You have to bear with us,” he told the governors.

The Chairman of the NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, who chaired the committee that worked on the Fiscal Restructuring Plan, asked the federal government to do more to help the states financially.

The governors told the president that while they had resolved to take other measures to boost their internally generated revenue, the implementation of the Fiscal Restructuring Plan would help them to deal with their funding problems on short, medium and long-term bases.

They said if the plan is adopted and implemented by the federal government, states of the federation would become financially empowered to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting, Yari, said in the short-term, the governors were looking at a situation whereby “our debts that have been hanging since 2005 right from Obasanjo’s exit of the Paris Club are paid. These are some of the monies that were not paid before. If they are paid, some of the states that are having financial difficulties now can get money from there.”

He also said that the states would like their loans to be restructured.
“Today we have received support from the federal government in terms of a bailout, restructuring of our debts, and giving us 15 per cent of the Excess Crude Account for development.
“We are also asking for 18 months moratorium on our loans before we can start paying, so that we would be able to strategise,” he added.

Saying all these were temporary measures, Yari explained that each state has short, medium and long-term programmes, which had been presented to Buhari, adding that the president had‎ graciously accepted and agreed to set up a committee that would look at the matter.

The governor said the committee would have as members: the president, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.
He said Fashola would be on the committee because he headed a similar committee on the review of revenue formula as a member of the NGF in 2012.

Yari said states cannot raise internally generated revenues overnight, but have to develop a long-term programme to achieve more efficient collection of revenue in their respective domains.
He said the work force of states had exploded and there was nothing they could do about it because people earn their daily bread from the jobs.

On the allegation ‎by the Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun that the state governors did not save for the rainy days, hence the current financial crisis, Yari said: “States only take 26 per cent of the Federation Account, whereas the federal government gets 52 per cent and you are asking us to save?
“Anyway, I doubt if the minister made that statement. It is coming from the media. The truth remains that the states are taking 26 per cent and the federal government 52 per cent, what are they doing with the money?”

‎On the demand by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for an increase of the minimum wage‎ to N56,000, Yari said the union was right.
“We agree what they are being paid is too small but they must understand the situation the country is in, because from where we are deriving our resources is now lower by 60 per cent. So how do we do the magic? But we are going to do our best,” he said.

Earlier, the governors had admitted that they were desperately looking for solutions both in the short and long-term to the economic challenges created by the sudden fall in ‎oil prices.
“You know we are in a very bad situation and we need to come together and discuss intensively about this economy because it is what is now giving the states a headache and by extension the federal government,” Yari had said after a meeting of the NGF that ended late Wednesday night.

“If you look carefully at this month’s Federation Account allocations, it was the worst ever in the last six years, so definitely we had to come to the roundtable. We were elected under different party platforms to perform, not just to pay salaries and it is worse off it we are unable to pay salaries.

“So the issue is very, very serious and that is why we are coming back to discuss it and if we have the opportunity we will come back to see Mr. President on this issue,: the chairman of the forum told State House reporters.

He said rather than seek for more bailouts from the federal government, the governors would find a permanent solution to the problems facing their respective states.
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, who also fielded questions from journalists, said the meeting was all about finding a lasting solution to the financial problems of the states.

Fayose also disagreed that the country was in a financial mess because it did not save during the years of boom. “Well that is subjective, every leader at one time or the other must have done their best within the ambit of availability. So for me, every former president, every former leader had made their contributions and I commend them, so the new people in the saddle of leadership must continue to give their best,” he said.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State‎, Emmanuel Udom, who also spoke after the meeting of the NGF, called for cooperation among states, explaining that more interaction was needed to find a better way out of the woods.

On his own part, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole complained that the All Progressives Congress (APC) states were exempted from the N2 billion ecological funds released by former President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) states were considered in the distribution of the funds.

Oshiomhole said, however, that unlike the former president, Buhari, in the face of the worsening state of the economy, has remained a rallying point for all state governments in the country, irrespective of political affiliation.

He said: “We are very lucky to have President Buhari at this time. I have been here now for seven and a half years and I have had the opportunity to work with three presidents. That is the truth.
“Under the last president, it would have been impossible for us to approach Abuja to give us support because we have personal challenges. We would have been given lectures on fiscal responsibility and all those kind of talks, even though the wastage was more here than any other place at that time.

“We have a president who recognises that he is not just president of the federal government, he is the president of the federation of which the states are part of the whole and regardless of our political affiliation.
“This is very important, because everybody is able to ask this president to give him support and he is doing so.

“Whereas, in the recent past, some PDP governors got N2 billion from ecology fund, we APC governors were not given. But we promised to be different and I am happy this president is showing that difference.”
On the new proposal for an increase in the minimum wage by the NLC, he said he believed in a living wage for workers.

The governor said that he had been able to pay Edo State wor‎kers’ salaries despite the economic contraction because of his belief that their wages ranked high in terms of priorities for his government.
According to him, there was no need for him to borrow to pay salaries as he had increased revenue generation from taxing the wealthy more in the state.

SOURCE:THIS DAY

GROUNDBREAKING FEMALE WWE WRESTLER CHYNA DIES AT 46

Groundbreaking female WWE wrestler Chyna dies at 46

Chyna is the only woman to hold WWE's intercontinental title. (WWE)

Joan Laurer, better known as the larger-than-life female wrestler "Chyna," was found dead in her Redondo Beach, California, apartment Wednesday. She was 46.
"It is with deep sadness to inform you that we lost a true icon, a real life superhero. Joanie Laurer, aka Chyna, the 9th Wonder of the World, has passed away," read a post on her website.
A groundbreaking superstar in WWE who performed with the company during the height of its popularity in the late 1990s, Laurer was a pioneer in the industry as a cross-over performer who was so big, strong and dominant that it was a foregone conclusion she would dominate WWE's women's division, so she often competed against men instead.
Laurer was brought into the business by the legendary Wladek "Killer Kowalski," who trained her for just one year before WWE took notice of her unique talents and abilities in 1996.
After joining WWE in 1997, Chyna became a founding member of D-Generation X, where she was cast alongside Shawn Michaels and Triple H, two of WWE's most popular performers. The faction rose to prominence in the company and played a major role in WWE eventually evening out the Monday Night Wars with WCW and eventually overtaking the Turner-owned property to once again become the dominant player in professional wrestling.
Chyna became the first -- and remains the only -- woman to win the WWE intercontinental championship. She was also the first female to compete in the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring -- a pair of, to that point, male-only special events the company put on each year -- and be named the No. 1 contender to the company's heavyweight title.
Her career in WWE was a short one with Chyna exiting the company in 2001 following an on-screen romance with the late Eddie Guerrero and reign as women's champion.
She famously graced the cover of Playboy twice (once during her WWE tenure) and made numerous appearances on reality television, eventually taking a foray into pornography. Substance abuse problems were brought to the forefront of her life in the mid-2000s, and she had been an on-again, off-again public face since.
Though Chyna's in-ring and on-screen career make her a no-doubter for the WWE Hall of Fame, the company had resisted bestowing the honor upon her due to her life since leaving the company.
Former and current WWE superstars reacted to Chyna's passing on Twitter:
Triple H: "Someone who wasn't afraid to blaze her own trail & create a path for those who would follow. A pioneer whose star shined bright."
Shawn Michaels: "Just woke up to the news of [Chyna's] passing. So sad to hear, she was an amazing lady & I will miss her greatly!!"
Hulk Hogan: "Devastated over Chyna passing,she dated Brutus years before wrestling,such a beautiful soul and so kind ot my children,rip Joanie love u. HH"
Kevin Nash: "May the peace you were seeking put you at rest my friend. So sorry for not seeing the pain"
Natalia: "My prayers go out to Joanie Laurer and her family. It's very sad to hear the news. Chyna was revolutionary for women in wrestling."
SOURCE:MSN.COM

ENUGU MASSACRE:IG VISITS COMMUNITY, ORDERS ARREST OF SUSPECTED POLICE COLLABORATOR

Enugu Massacre: IG Visits Community, Orders Arrest of Suspected Police Collaborator

April 28, 2016

The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, wednesday visited the Ukpabi, Nimbo community of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area in Enugu State where scores of persons were on Monday massacred by suspected Fulani herdsmen to have an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, vowing to find a lasting solution to the problem posed by the activities of the herders.

Apparently to demonstrate police dismay to the challenge, the police chief immediately ordered the detention of a policeman, simply identified as Corporal Chukwu, who allegedly collaborated with the Fulani herdsmen during the killing of residents of the community. He directed that the policeman be detained and properly investigated assuring that once the allegations against him were confirmed, he would not only leave the police but would be prosecuted.

He also pledged the readiness of the police to do all in its powers to ensure that those involved in the gruesome murder of the villagers were arrested and prosecuted.

This came as the command remained deserted as schools, homes and public places remained shut down, two days after the incident.

The IG, who was accompanied during the visit by senator representing Enugu North senatorial zone, Chukwuka Utazi, assured the villagers that the police was on top of the situation adding that no policeman who collaborates with criminal elements to perpetrate crime would go unpunished. He said such person must be dismissed from the force.
“I am not happy about what has happened and that is why I have decided to come and have an on the spot assessment of the situation. I have been discussing with the senator from the area and others to enable us find lasting solution to the problem. I have been able to see what happened and we should be able to find solutions. I can assure Nigerians that nobody has the right to take the life of any other Nigerian and goes free with it. We are going to make sure that we catch them and prosecute them and we will create the enabling environment for peace. On our way here, we saw where we are trying to put a police station to increase Police visibility in this area.”
The police boss, who also visited the palace of the traditional ruler of the community, John Akor, advised the community to remain law abiding and vigilant, while commending their partnership with the Police that actually aborted the devastation of the environment.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the mayhem that took place in the community last Monday.
In its reaction, South-east Leadership Caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) condemned in very strong terms the sporadic wanton killings of innocent Nigerians and destruction of villages and farmlands by the “so called Fulani Herdsmen and the reprisals”.

In a statement issued by, Osita Okechukwu Spokesman, South-east leadership caucus of APC, the party noted that “it is painful that while the Federal Government of Nigeria is doing everything possible to contain the Boko Haram insurgency; another virus in the name of herdsmen is dislocating the security architecture of our dear country. Yesterday it was Agatu in Benue State, today it is Ukpabio Nimbo in Enugu State. It must stop.

On its part, the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), yesterday expressed outrage over the incident, noting that the wanton destruction of lives and properties by the herdsmen could no longer be taken for granted.
Addressing journalists yesterday, secretary of the religious body in Enugu State, Apostle Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa, while expressing shock that security operatives could not nip the attack in the bud despite having prior information, Ajujungwa called on South-east communities to rise up and defend themselves.

“We are shocked and saddened over the level or carnage perpetrated by these Fulani herdsmen in Nimbo community. More painful is the fact that security agencies had ample time and opportunity but they looked the other way; in view of this, I am calling on the people of Enugu State and other South-east states to rise up and defend themselves because security operatives have failed”, he said.

Similarly, following his visit to Ukpabi Nimbo community to sympathise with the people of the area over the attack unleashed on them by suspected Fulani herdsmen, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday, summoned an emergency meeting with the traditional rulers, president-general of town unions and leaders of the neighborhood watch in all the communities in the state.

A reliable source disclosed that the meeting which is part of series of action plans of the state government to find a lasting solution to the menace of the Fulani herdsmen in the state is scheduled to hold on Monday, May 2, 2016 at old governor’s lodge, Enugu at 1p.m.

The source also revealed that the governor was determined to put an end to the inhuman acts of the herdsmen which have consumed the lives and property of innocent citizens of the state as well as threatened the peace and security of the state and the nation at large.

The governor also disclosed that when he got a security report on Sunday that the attack will take place in the community, he immediately summoned an emergency meeting of the State Security Council which met on Sunday night till the early hours of Monday, shortly before the herdsmen struck, regretting that the sad incident eventually occurred after all the assurances given to him by the security operatives that the attack will not happen.

The scheduled meeting, according to the source, is expected to map out the best strategy that would promote peace and end the attacks from the herdsmen.

SOURCE:THIS DAY

CRUZ DENIES ALLIANCE WITH KASICH THAT HIS CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS WEEK

Cruz denies alliance with Kasich that his campaign announced earlier this week

Ted Cruz, whose campaign announced an alliance with that of John Kasich's earlier this week, on Thursday denied to reporters that such an alliance existed.
Cruz's comments came during a press availability with journalists, according to CNN's Teddy Schleifer:
On Sunday, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns both issued statements announcing a strategic alliance aimed at stopping Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination.
"(O)ur campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico," said Jeff Roe, Cruz's campaign manager.
The idea, then, was to divide and conquer, with Cruz focusing on Indiana ahead of its May 3 primary while stepping out of Kasich's way in Oregon and New Mexico ahead of those states' primaries on May 17 and June 7, respectively.
In turn, Kasich would back off from competing in Indiana.
But on Thursday, Cruz seemed to frame the two campaigns' strategies as independent maneuvering.
A cryptic tweet issued shortly after Cruz's comments by John Weaver, Kasich's chief strategist, seemed to take issue with Cruz's assertion.
It would not be the first unflattering comment to surface about Cruz on Thursday.

SOURCE:AP

FEDS SEEK JUDGEMENT IN LANCE ARMSTRONG CASE

…

Feds seek judgment in Lance Armstrong case

That’s how much it says his cycling team was paid by the U.S. Postal Service based on 41 claims for payment between June 10, 2000 and October 2004, according to court documents filed Wednesday. And now it wants a federal judge to rule on that issue as part of its effort to get it back in triple – nearly $100 million.

“Because the factual record is undisputed, the United States respectfully requests that this Court enter an order granting partial summary judgment in its favor,” the government stated in its filing Wednesday.

It’s the latest and most critical stage yet in the government’s 3-year-old civil fraud lawsuit against Armstrong and two other co-defendants -- Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong’s former cycling team director, Tailwind Sports, the cycling team’s owner.

The government filed for partial summary judgment on that amount Wednesday, hoping it will bolster its effort to recover damages on behalf of the USPS, which paid that amount to sponsor Armstrong’s cycling team.

Armstrong also on Wednesday requested summary judgment against the government, a motion that asks the judge to rule on key parts of the case without taking them to a jury trial.

One of those issues is the amount at stake. In its suit, the government says that Armstrong’s cycling team violated its sponsorship contract by doping and that it submitted false claims for payment to the USPS while in violation of that contract.

“It’s a shrewd move (by the government),” said government contracts expert Tony Anikeeff of the firm Williams Mullen. “They’re going for a very minor point that will have a dramatic effect on the case. They want to establish the simple fact that claims were submitted and set the base dollar amount in the case.”

Armstrong's request for summary judgment was more sweeping. It asks the court to throw out the whole case against him and notes the sponsorship contracts were between Tailwind and the USPS and not directly with him.

" Armstrong was never a party to those agreements; he did not read or sign them," his attorneys stated in a 59-page argument filed Wednesday. "He never submitted a claim for payment under either sponsorship agreement."

Summary judgment decisions could come later this year by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. Otherwise the suit proceeds to trial, prolonging a legal slugfest that revved up in 2013, when the government joined a case originally filed in 2010 by Armstrong’s former teammate, Floyd Landis.

Under the False Claims Act, damages could be tripled to nearly $100 million, with Armstrong possibly on the hook for all of it and Landis in line to get a cut of it as the whistleblower who brought the case.

The government's official request Wednesday boiled down to this:

“The United States therefore respectfully requests that the Court enter an order granting partial summary judgment in favor of the United States against Defendants Tailwind, Armstrong,and Bruyneel that… Tailwind and its predecessor DFP Cycling LLC presented forty-one claims for payment to the United States between June 10, 2000 and October 31, 2004 under the 1995 and 2000 Sponsorship Agreements, for which the USPS paid Tailwind and its predecessor DFP Cycling LLC a total of $32,267,279.85.”

Tailwind dissolved in 2007. Bruyneel is from Belgium and recently lived in London. They have not responded to the suit, recently leading a court clerk to declare them to be in default. That leaves Armstrong as the lone active defendant in the government’s case, which his attorneys describe as wrongheaded and essentially worthless.

They argue the USPS suffered no actual damages from the doping because it got more than its money’s worth from the sponsorship. Back then, Armstrong was at the height of his fame as a cancer survivor and a cycling champion who generated worldwide publicity for the USPS by wearing its logo to victory in the Tour de France.

The issue of damages could make or break the case and is hotly disputed, with both sides hiring expert witnesses to testify about whether the USPS suffered damages. In a separate ruling Wednesday, Cooper ordered Armstrong to make his expert available for four more hours of deposition testimony.

In the motion for summary judgment, Anikeeff said the government took a key step Wednesday to put a number on its claims. He noted the 41 claims could come with penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 each, in addition to the paid amount of $32 million.

“The impact of partial summary judgment on this point will be significant,” said Anikeeff, who is not involved in the case. “The United States will still need to prove the claims were false and that defendants knew they were false, but it will have raised the stakes substantially. The base amount at stake in the case will be set at a high level for defendants as a matter of law.”

Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his victories in the Tour de France in 2012. After more than a decade of lying about doping, he finally confessed in January 2013. He has reached undisclosed settlements with three other plaintiffs who sued him for fraud, including two companies that insured his bonuses for winning the Tour

SOURCES: USA TODAY SPORTS

REPUBLICANS HOPE VOTERS IN KEY RACES WILL SPLIT TICKETS,BUCKING TREND

Republicans Hope Voters in Key Races Will Split Tickets, Bucking Trend

YORK, Pa. — Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, has never met Charles Kress, but he desperately needs him.

Mr. Kress, 62, will vote for a Democrat this November for the White House, he said, no matter what. He is also planning to vote for Mr. Toomey’s re-election. “Sometimes you have to keep in office the ones who make the deals,” Mr. Kress said as he watered the flowers in front of York’s Unitarian church.

Republican senators like Mr. Toomey who are running in swing states — about six, and enough to tip the balance of power in the Senate — need voters who would reject Donald J. Trump to nonetheless pull the levers for the party’s other candidates in November. In some districts, House Republicans will need them, too.

Mr. Trump’s convincing sweep of the primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island on Tuesday did little to assuage concerns about his standing with swing voters in November. His victory speech included a bracing broadside against Hillary Clinton’s playing the “woman card.” And he continues to trail his opponents, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio, among Republican women.

But ticket-splitting voters in federal races have become increasingly rare over the last two decades, hitting a low in 2012, when only 10 percent of them divided their votes between parties. That was down from 30 percent in 1972. The ranks of straight-ticket voters have expanded along with the rise in partisanship and its attendant rancor in Congress.

“There is no doubt that, over all, the era of polarization and hyper-partisanship above and beyond idiosyncratic factors — that has to lead to a drop in ticket splitting,” said Richard Born, a professor of political science at Vassar College and an expert on congressional elections.

“Democrats and Republicans alike, as part of the polarization phenomenon, are more consistently liberal or conservative across issues,” Mr. Born said, “as are the candidates themselves, meaning less likelihood of ticket splitting.”

Even in Pennsylvania, a state that has elected a senator from a different party than the presidential candidate it chose seven times since World World II, ticket splitting has decreased drastically in recent elections.

“That is probably Toomey’s worst problem,” said G. Terry Madonna, the director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College. It is also a problem for the Republican Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio.

Republicans in Washington are increasingly worried for them. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and other Republicans are openly urging elected officials in their party to focus largely on local issues and their role in bipartisan legislation, and to refrain from tying themselves to the top of the ticket should the nominee be Mr. Trump.

“I think we have to go out and make a case,” said Representative Scott Perry, a Republican who represents the York area. “People don’t split their tickets because they don’t have a choice. It’s because they do. I think those people are going to need to be convinced.”

While a polarizing presidential candidate is considered very difficult for Republican senators to overcome in swing states, there may be a perverse silver lining for them.

Some Republican donors are quietly plotting to dismiss Mr. Trump as a lost cause and instead pour their money into Senate races where they believe Republicans can be saved, as a check and balance to a Democrat sitting in the White House for the next four years.

“The prospect of Trump at the top of the ticket could create an exodus of donors away from the presidential and toward Senate and House races,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who has had numerous discussions with donors. “The potential is there for a concentration of effort and resources geared toward Senate races that Chuck Schumer and his Senate Democrats may not have been counting on.”

Mr. Schumer, a New Yorker who is poised to become the next leader of the Senate Democrats, says good luck with that. “If there was ever a national election, this is it,” he said. “They can run from their nominee, but they can’t hide.”

Ticket splitting over the last five decades has occurred most often among moderate Democrats who have supported a Republican for president but voted for Democrats for Congress. Some voters have viewed this as a recipe for compromise and balance, while others have been repelled by the Democratic candidates running for the top job.

The three strongest years of ticket splitting between presidential and House voting in the last five decades, according to American National Election Studies survey data, were in 1972, when 30 percent of voters did it; 1980 (28 percent); and 1984 (26 percent). Similar studies show the same trend for Senate races.

In all three of those elections, a Republican won the White House by a landslide at a time when registered Democrats significantly outnumbered Republicans in the overall population, and when considerably more incumbent House members were Democrats.

The 1928 election provides a history lesson in what can happen when a candidate, rather than the political mood, drives ticket splitting. That year, Al Smith, the governor of New York, became the Democratic nominee. It was not extreme rhetoric like Mr. Trump engages in, which has repelled some Republicans, that held Mr. Smith back with voters.

Mr. Smith was a Roman Catholic, opposed Prohibition and was a symbol of modern urbanism. And that combination drove off rural and moderate Southern Democrats, who outnumbered Republicans significantly at the time, contributing to his loss to the Republican Herbert Hoover.

While Republicans made a net gain of eight seats in the Senate that year — demonstrating that ticket splitting does not help all senators attached to the party of a wildly unpopular candidate — many Democrats still voted along party lines for the House and Senate.

In 1996, when it was clear that Bill Clinton would trounce Bob Dole, Republicans encouraged voters to stick with their party in the down ballot, and Newt Gingrich, then speaker of the House, cautioned his members to distance themselves from Mr. Dole.

Mr. Gingrich came up with a parallel House agenda much as Speaker Paul D. Ryan is now doing, and he told members to run on it. “It saved the House and the Senate for them,” said Mr. Born, the Vasser professor. “Trying to localize the campaigns paid off.”

But Republican ticket splitters may make an alternative choice that is equally damaging to Mr. Toomey’s prospects.

“I might just skip the whole thing,” said Kristi Peyton, 46, a Toomey fan who offered her views of Mr. Trump — “disaster,” “bully” and “unattractive” — over a crabs at Captain Bob’s in Railroad, a small town near York.

“Where Republicans can really get hurt is not so much that people vote Democrat for Congress but that they don’t show up at all,” Mr. Born said. “This is where the Republicans are scared to death.”

BERNIE SANDERS TO CUT HUNDREDS OF STAFF MEMBERS AND TURN TO CALIFORNIA

Bernie Sanders to Cut Hundreds of Staff Members and Turn to California

Senator Bernie Sanders is planning to lay off “hundreds” of campaign staffers across the country and focus much of his remaining effort on winning California, he said in an interview Wednesday.

The Vermont senator revealed the changes a day after losing four of the five states that voted Tuesday and falling further behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Despite the changes, Mr. Sanders said he would remain in the race through the party’s summer convention and stressed that he hoped to bring staff members back on board if his political fortunes improved.

“We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around country,” Mr. Sanders said in the interview. “We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over. We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.”

When asked how many people would be let go, Mr. Sanders didn’t give an exact number but did say many people would be affected.

“It will be hundreds of staff members,” Mr. Sanders said. “We have had a very large staff, which was designed to deal with 50 states in this country; 40 of the states are now behind us. So we have had a great staff, great people.”

He added that he hoped to work with the people his campaign is letting go in the future.

“If we win this, every one of those great people who have helped us get this far, they will be rehired,” Mr. Sanders said. “But right now, we have to use all of the resources we have and focus them on the remaining states.”

Mr. Sanders said he planned to move a number of staff members to California, where he hoped to hold rallies for “hundreds of thousands” of people in cities across that state.

“California will have the most staff,” Mr. Sanders said. “Symbolically and in terms of delegates, if we can win the largest state in this country, that will send a real message to the American people and to the delegates that this is a campaign that is moving in the direction it should.”

SOURCE:THE NEW YORK TIMES

MURDER VICTIM FORMERLY IDENTIFIED BY POLICE AS JANE DOE #59 FINNALLY IDENTIFIED BY FAMILY MEMBERS AFTER 46 YEARS .FAMILY MEMBERS SHARES SORROW

Murder Victim's Family Shares Their Sorrow After She's Identified by police as Jane Doe #59 – Was She Murdered by Manson?

Reet Jurvetson, a 19-year-old Canadian, arrived in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969 to visit a man named John whom she had met in a coffee shop in Toronto.

"She was smitten by him," says LAPD cold case detective Lou Rivera. "She told friends she was saving money so she could come visit him in L.A."

Once she arrived, the brunette hippie decided to stay. She sent her parents a postcard saying she was happy and that she had found a nice apartment. She told them not to worry about her.

The postcard was the last they would hear from their daughter. Now, 46 years later, her family knows what happened to her – and cold case detectives are trying to determine who killed her.

© Provided by TIME Inc. Murder victim Reet Jurvetson's family shares their sorrow 'As Months and then Years Passed, We Imagined She Was Making a New Life for Herself'

Reet was the youngest daughter of Estonian immigrants who fled for Canada during the World War II. She grew up in Montreal during the 1950s and 1960s, where she sang in a youth choir and sewed her own clothes.
She was "very artistic," her sister Anne said in a statement.

"Reet developed a taste for adventure and freedom as a teen. After graduating high school, she moved to Toronto to live with her grandmother, where she found work at the post office and met John at a coffee shop before disappearing to L.A.

"As months and then years passed, we imagined that she was making a new life for herself," wrote Anne. "As time passed, however, we received no more news. We were always hoping that she would re-establish contact with friends and family. But no one ever had any new information. However, not once did we suspect she had been killed."

When a birdwatcher spotted a lifeless body dressed in a blue corduroy jacket, jeans and brown leather boots tangled in dense bush off L.A.'s picturesque Mulholland Drive, on November 16, 1969, the family was not notified. With no missing persons report filed, the police had no way of identifying the body. The case went cold.

The lifeless body, dubbed Jane Doe #59 by the coroner, had been stabbed in the neck more than 150 times.

"I don't think robbery was a motive because she was still wearing her rings," says Rivera, about the vicious attack. "It looked like rage," he says. "It was a maniac or love gone wrong."

Was Killing Connected to Manson Family?

The timing and MO fueled speculation that the murder was connected to the notorious Manson Family killings. Just three months earlier, a few miles from where Reet's body was found actress Sharon Tate and several others were viciously stabbed to death by the Manson Family.

Ruby Pearl, a caretaker at Spahn Ranch, the Manson Family hangout, told police that Jane Doe #59 looked like a hippie named Sherry from Simi Valley who hung out at the ranch, but nothing ever came of the tip.

Jane Doe #59's identity remained a mystery for more than 46 years until last June when a friend of Reet's who was searching crime websites saw Reet's post-mortem photograph and called Anne, the sister, who then contacted law enforcement. DNA taken from the victim's bloody bra matched Anne's.

"Finally, after all these years, we are faced with hard facts," said Anne. "My little sister was savagely killed. It was not what I wanted to hear. I can hardly grasp how she could have been stabbed over 150 times. It is devastating. I try to draw comfort from the coroner's report that at least she was not raped, nor were there traces of drugs or alcohol in her system.... Nevertheless, I am horrified to think of how terribly frightened and alone she must have felt as she died."

Anne wrote that her parents, now deceased, "never thought to report Reet missing to the police."

"They thought that she was just living her life somewhere and that eventually news from her would turn up," she wrote.

In October, detective Rivera and his partner detective Veronica Conrado interviewed Charles Manson in Corcoran Prison in California as part of the investigation of the case.

"No new leads were learned," Rivera says, but he adds, "We can't rule out that the Manson Family was involved."

Rivera and Conrado are determined to solve Reet's murder, and identify the mysterious man named John who Reet went to L.A. to visit.

"He is the best lead we have," Rivera says. "No one deserves what happened to her. Someone might be out there who is responsible and it is our job to find out who it is and bring them to justice."

SOURCE :PEOPLE