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World

obama gets mad

President Barack Obama has finally decided to get tough with world leaders amid criticisms he’s weak, naive and in desperate need of lessons in statecraft. However, rather than showing his backbone to Russia or Iran, Obama gets mad and instead demands an apology from Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Ya’alon angered the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon when he made comments that Secretary of State John Kerry said were “not constructive.”

“Look what’s happening in Ukraine, where the United States is demonstrating weakness, unfortunately,” the defense minister said. His latest comments of candor come after he was quoted by the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth as saying Secretary Kerry was “obsessive and messianic,” and that he hoped Kerry “gets a Nobel Prize and leaves us alone.”

In response to Russia staging a referendum to annex Crimea, which was later followed by a Russian-backed resolution approved by Putin, Obama slapped 7 Russian and 4 Ukrainian officials with sanctions, freezing assets and affecting travel bans. The move was immediately criticized by members of both parties as being too weak.

One Russian oligarch officials said “I quite like the company,” shrugging off the seemingly nil damage Obama’s sanctions will have. Most of these Russian oligarchs had already moved assets into safe havens before the crisis.

Ya’alon, other Israeli official and U.S. allies, including the less-public Arab allies in nations like Saudi Arabia, say the U.S. can no longer be counted upon to effectively deal with Iran. Now, Russia said Wednesday that they will likely rethink their position on the Iran nuclear talks, a predictable move since they didn’t follow through with ensuring Syria complied with their chemical weapons disposal promise.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, voicing his objections to Ya’alon’s comments. Netanyahu did speak with Ya’alon later Wednesday, though we do not know what was said and the prime minister’s office did not return our requests for a comment.

An official from Ya’alon’s office, however, stated that the defense minister told Netanyahu he does, in fact, have plans to clarify his statements during scheduled meetings with senior American officials.

President Barack Obama has finally decided to

Economy, Markets

fed announcement

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sent stock markets plunging when she confirmed the potential for interest rate hikes during her debut press conference.

Yellen revealed the Federal Reserve may begin raising interest rates as early as six months after ending its bond purchasing program, or quantitative easing.

The Dow Jones Industrial fell about 114 points, or 0.7 percent to 16222, but it was down around 210 points shortly after Yellen made the Fed announcement around 3 PM ET. The S&P 500 fell 11.5 points, or 0.61 percent to 1861, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 25.7 points, or 0.59 percent to 4308.

Though the Dow recovered a good deal of those losses, the markets were obviously shaken by Yellen’s comments, which were surprisingly specific.

Traders dumped U.S. Treasury bonds, which sent yields shooting up . The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond recently jumped 0.123 percentage point to 2.793 percent.

Earlier Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to reduce the Fed’s asset purchases to $55 billion per month, cutting $10 billion from its bond-buying program for the third time in as many meetings.

The move was widely expected, but another particular in the Fed announcement was not.

The Fed said that it changed its guidance for when it will increase interest rates from the now-record lows following its two-day policy-setting meeting. The central bank will look at a “wide range” of economic measures, rather than setting an explicit jobless rate target of 6.5 percent.

The Fed also said it will shave back its asset purchases by $10 billion a month to $55 billion a month beginning in April. With the unemployment rate nearing 6.5 percent due to absent worker participation, and real unemployment up over 12 percent, the FOMC removed that threshold for when it may begin to raise the target rate.

“In determining how long to maintain the current 0 to ¼ percent target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will assess progress – both realized and expected – toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2% inflation,” the FOMC said in its statement.  “This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial developments.

The shift away from the unemployment rate as a primary indicator to a broader array of indicators was also widely predicted, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics has not been lowering the unemployment rate based upon an improved labor market.

In her debut press conference, Yellen said she has never considered the headline unemployment rate alone to be a “sufficient” gauge for the health of the overall labor markets. Further, she said she looks at other labor indicators as well, including the broader U6 rate, which stands over 12 percent and includes people not currently looking for work, as well as the labor participation rate.

There hasn’t been so few Americans looking for work since the 1970s.

“It’s appropriate to look at many more things,” she said.

The Fed had previously said it would begin to raise the fed fund rate “well past” the time unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.  Though with the unemployment rate now near that level, the Fed said it would be appropriate to maintain its historically low rate “for a considerable time after the asset program ends” and even as “employment and inflation are near mandate-consistent levels, economic conditions may, for some time, warrant (it).”

As for its asset purchases, beginning in April, the Fed will buy $25 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities and $30 billion of longer-term Treasury securities.

After concluding its two-day meeting, the Fed also tweaked its economic forecasts.  It now expects the unemployment rate this year to settle between 6.1 percent and 6.3 percent — though that’s because of the amount of Americans who have quit on looking for work, or the American dream — and gross domestic product is expected to increase slightly to 2.8 percent to 3 percent.

However, they also now expect longer-run inflation to rise at 2 percent, which will prove difficult for many Americans due to the lack of income gains.

In December, the Fed expected longer-run inflation to remain unchanged.

Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, voted against the policy over concerns the Fed is not committed to its 2 percent inflation target.

Yellen said in her press conference that the Fed is “closely monitoring” the situation in the Ukraine, but that U.S. financial interests haven’t been significantly impacted yet by the situation brought about by Russia’s aggressive push to annex the Crimea.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sent stock

Politics, Polls

montana senate poll

The latest Montana Senate poll conducted on March 17 – 18 affirms our “Likely Republican” rating on our 2014 Senate Map Predictions, despite a slick move Democrats hoped would give John Walsh an edge.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Lt. Gov. John Walsh to serve out the remainder of retiring Sen. Max Baucus’ term, in hopes to keep the red state’s Senate seat in the party.

Republican Congressman Steve Daines is well ahead of interim Senator John Walsh and fellow Democrat John Bohlinger in the first Montana Senate poll released by Rasmussen Reports.

A new statewide telephone survey of Likely Montana Voters finds that Daines leads Walsh by 14 points – 51 percent to 37 percent, with just 4 percent saying they like some other candidate in the race, and 9 percent undecided.

Avid readers of PeoplesPunditDaily.com know full-well we assign pollsters a rating based upon past accuracy, and that Rasmussen Reports scores poorly on that rating. However, after two cycles (2010 – 2012) of overestimating Republican support, the controversial, once-thought to be conservative pollster has moved far to the left, overstating Democratic support in nearly every measurement in 2013 and 2014.

If the pattern holds, it is likely that Republican Steve Daines leads Democrat John Walsh by a slightly larger margin, perhaps even more than the PPP Montana Senate poll. Until we gather more data, it is difficult to say for sure. Still, the dynamics of the race make this contest a prime Republican pick-up opportunity, in a cycle they need to net 6 seats to retake control of the U.S. Senate.

View Polling Below Or Read Full Analysis Of The 2014 Montana Senate Race

Poll Date Sample Daines (R) Walsh (D) Spread
PPD Average 11/15 – 3/18 750 LV 51.5 36.5 Daines +15
Rasmussen Reports 3/17 – 3/18 750 LV 51 37 Daines +14
PPP (D) 11/15 – 11/17 952 RV 52 35 Daines +17

The latest Montana Senate poll conducted on

Opinion

vladimir putinThis week both Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama ramped up things in Crimea. However, Obama merely dialed up the rhetoric, while Putin edged his troops into Ukraine, fortifying the Crimea.

Late last week, the United States issued a warning to Putin: go through with the elections and annex Crimea and we are going take serious economic sanctions against you.

Putin, who knows we are 17 trillion in debt — and to the wrong people — merely ignored that red line.

As it turned out, these “economic sanctions” turned out to be nothing more than seizing individuals’ western assets belonging to some of the leaders working with Putin.

It is hardly a deterrent since most of the Russian leaders had moved their assets out of the West long before this invasion. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin simply called Obama a “prankster” and laughed in his face.

Impotence.

World leaders laugh at Obama’s weakness because they know you can’t go to war with a monumental debt and dwindling military resources. You can have the most sophisticated armed forces in the world, but that can’t outmatch the proper application and leadership of those same forces. A low tech, pre-planned Russian invasion is demonstrating that to our government.

This is America’s reckoning for developing a reckless foreign policy and continued self-destructive spending. Our leaders in Congress are ingratiating themselves at the taxpayer’s expense.

They are growing wealthy on our hard labor and putting the nation’s security at risk. They are destroying everything America has stood for and has made us great, in a bacchanal feast of greed and excessive vices.

We have come to the point in which people are realizing they can vote to empty the granaries and are ignoring the real world implications of doing so. We refuse to accept the reality that monumental debt leads to more than just exhausted entitlements.

How very characteristic of the American people that they see matters only in how they affect themselves.

Unfortunately, we can’t go back now. Once the ideology of a republic has been compromised in this manner and people have grown reliant on their entitlements, then there is no going back.

Our enemies have now recognized this fundamental problem in America and exploited it for their own gain. They laugh in our face at our weakness, while running amok in the lands we shed blood to free.

Some of you are trying to fight this trend, but it is mere teaspoons of water in an ocean of poor education and personal immorality.

The only hope for this nation is to elect and stand by leaders that do things on a personal belief that small government governs best, and a willingness to accept less so that future generations can get more. We must educate our children that it is immoral not to work and accept money from government. We must make them understand that taxes are not investments, nor are entitlements charity.

So far, efforts by more rational-thinking adults have been nothing more than yelling into the wind.

Thomas Purcell is a nationally syndicated columnist and host of the Liberty Never Sleeps podcast hour and author of “Shotgun Republic.”

If you would like to read more about Thomas Purcell’s thoughts on this issue you can read more at LibertyNeverSleeps.com 

These ‘economic sanctions’ turned out to be

Politics

bruce rauner

Bruce Rauner, with wife Diana, after winning the Republican nomination for the Illinois race for governor, Tuesday March 18, 2014. He spoke before supporters at the Hilton and Towers in Chicago, (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune) 

Republican businessman Bruce Rauner won the Illinois GOP primary for governor despite a late, union-backed surge supporting Kirk Dillard. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Rauner received over 322,000 votes compared to just over 301,000 votes for Dillard.

State Sen. Bill Brady had 15 percent, and state Treasurer Dan Rutherford had 8 percent of the vote with 99 percent of the vote counted.

The unions, who Bruce Rauner promised to get under control, stopping the main driver of Illinois debt in its tracks, cancelled their ad-buy last week. But they had a ground game setup to use Democratic voters to stop Bruce Rauner by voting for Dillard, instead of for a candidate in the Democratic primary.

From the results below, we can see they clearly were successful, just not successful enough.

Dillard lost to Rauner in the senator’s own home territory of DuPage County. Yet Dillard got support from Downstate Republicans, primarily those who are union members employed by the state. Not surprisingly, Dillard led heavily in Sangamon County, where the state capital and many state workers are located.

Now, Rauner will go on to face embattled Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn in the general election. He accused Quinn of practicing “the politics of division” as he labeled the governor “a failure.” Rauner said voters face a stark choice Nov. 4 between the “old status quo” versus “a new direction.”

Governor – Dem Primary
10026 of 10130 Precincts Reporting – 99%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Quinn, Pat (i) Dem 310,950 72%
Hardiman, Tio Dem 122,075 28%

 

Governor – GOP Primary
10016 of 10130 Precincts Reporting – 99%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Rauner, Bruce GOP 322,297 40%
Dillard, Kirk GOP 301,229 37%
Brady, Bill GOP 122,141 15%
Rutherford, Dan GOP 61,070 8%

Republican businessman Bruce Rauner won the Illinois

World

missing malaysian flight pilot and co-pilot

The missing Malaysia flight had changed course 12 minutes before the co-pilot calmly sent his last transmission, “all right, good night.”

During an interview with Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File,” FAA spokesman Scott Brenner said Tuesday confirmed what one senior FAA source said earlier in the evening.

“One of the pilots clearly had the intention that he was going to take (the plane) in a different direction,” Brenner told Megyn Kelly. “It was 100 percent clear that this pilot or co-pilot was going to take this plane with the intent of doing something bad.”

At 1:19 p.m. on March 8, which was 12 minutes after the plane had already diverted from its original course and was heading toward the west, co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid sent what would be his final radio transmission.

The latest news of the missing Malaysia flight comes just one day after the New York Times reported that the route was programmed into a computer system onboard, meaning it was not executed manually by one of the pilots at the controls. Senior officials told the Times that someone must have entered a little-known code into a knee-high pedestal located between the pilot and co-pilot.

Interestingly, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia announced Tuesday that China had just launched a new search mission within its territory to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. The announcement comes as growing uncertainty about exactly when it was the pivotal communications system was disabled on the Boeing 777.

“Factors involved in the incident continue to multiply, the area of search-and-rescue continues to broaden, and the level of difficulty increases, but as long as there is one thread of hope, we will continue an all-out effort,” China Premier Li Keqiang said.

Chinese officials said they will focus on what they believe to be a northern flight pattern believed by China to be a likely course.

The search for Flight 370, which seemingly vanished almost two weeks ago while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, has expanded well-into the northern and southern hemispheres. Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the search area in the northern and southern “corridors” totals an astonishing 2.24 million square nautical miles (nearly 3 million square miles), or roughly the size of Australia. Twenty-six countries are involved in the hunt.

“We know the United States has got possibly the best ability to assist us in locating the aircraft in the southern corridor,” Hussein said Tuesday. Hussein told reporters that he asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for help in the search efforts, though 26 countries are now participating in the search effort.

Previously, a U.S. destroyer, which already covered 15,000 square miles of water in its effort, has left the search.

Meanwhile, military officials in Thailand said Tuesday that its radar did detect a plane that may have been Flight 370 just minutes after the Malaysia Airlines flight communications went down. Unfortunately, the military is claiming that it didn’t share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn’t requested by investigators from Malaysia or any other country.

Air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn said the Thai military doesn’t know whether the plane it detected was Flight 370. And that is, of course, true.

Whether or not the decision by Thailand not to share the radar event with other nations actually hurt the investigation, is unclear. However, it does show just how secretive and uncooperative nations have been with and toward each other since the investigation into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight had begun.

The latest developments are disturbing considering the Malaysian government had claimed they cleared both the pilot and the co-pilot of all suspicion. Of course, we now know that there is plenty of reason to suspect them now. FAA officials say they are leaning toward pilot suicide or terrorism.

The missing Malaysia flight had changed course

World

vladimir putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin defiantly replied to President Barack Obama’s threat of sanctions that would affect a small group of oligarchs within Putin’s circle. President Obama tactfully avoided any direct threat to Putin himself, yet the treaty was still signed making Crimea a part of Russia.

The majority of Ukraine’s southern region residents supported the move. However, there are still formalities that must be followed. Both houses of parliament within Russia will have to approve the treaty in order to make it valid. 

In a televised address to the nation, the Crimean prime minister, President Putin, and the parliament speaker signed the treaty, with Putin relaying that the West is encouraging discourse in Ukraine in order to destroy its historic ties with Russia.

Meanwhile, Putin publicly dismissed the claim by Obama and the West that the Crimean vote is, in fact, illegitimate.

Obama’s sanctions would freeze any assets in the U.S and ban the travel of seven Russian government officials and four Crimea based separatist leaders.

Critics immediately pounced on President Obama, stating it was not enough to discourage President Vladimir Putin or cause him to change course regarding Crimea.

Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Constitutional Legislation Committee, Andrei Klishas, stated “I quite like the company I have found myself in.”

Head of the parliamentary committee on Eurasian integration Leonid Slutsky stated, “I don’t have any accounts or real estate in the U.S., and as regard private visits, I’ll have to do without them.”

Putin defended Russia’s move to annex Crimea by claiming the rights of the ethnic Russians have been abused by the Ukrainian government. He called Ukraine authorities “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites.”

“Those who were behind recent events, they were preparing a coup d’etat, another one. They were planning to seize power, stopping at nothing,” President Putin stated defending the reason of this so-called treaty.

Putin also denied the accusations that Russia invaded Crimea prior to a referendum vote, claiming that Russian troops were sent to Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea, which Ukraine allows up to 25,000 Russian troops to occupy at any given time.

He also conveyed that the Crimea’s vote that took place on Sunday to join Russia is in line with international law, reflecting its right for self-determination.

“Our Western partners headed by the United States prefer not to be guided by international law in their practical policies, but by the rule of the gun. They have come to believe in their exceptionalism and their sense of being the chosen ones. That they can decide the destinies of the world, that it is only them who can be right,” stated Putin to a joint session of parliament.

Putin relayed a warning to the West, notifying the United States that he is not seeking to spark a confrontation, but he will defend Russia’s interests.

Vice President Joe Biden describes Russia’s actions in Crimea as nothing more than a “land grab.” The vice president also warned Russia that the United States and Europe will impose  further sanctions as Moscow seeks to annex the Ukrainian territory.

Vice President Joe Biden tried to calm the fears of European leaders, letting them know that the majority of the world does not recognize the referendum in Crimea that annexed Russia to the peninsula in Ukraine.

Biden stated, “The world has seen through Russia’s actions and has rejected the flawed logic.”

Crimea’s parliament declared the region an independent state and its residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of the split.

Moscow is not disturbed by any of this, the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin openly tweeted, “Comrade Obama, what should those who have neither accounts nor property abroad do? Have you not thought about it? I think the decree of the President of the United States was written by some joker,” mocking the United States and its sanctions.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has suspended military cooperation the U.K. had with Russia.

Hague expressed to British lawmakers that it is regrettable Putin is choosing a path of isolation in the annexation of Crimea and denying Russian and Crimean citizens of a partnership with the international community.

The U.K. has canceled naval exercises, suspended military export licenses to Russia, and a proposed Royal Navy ship visit to Russia.

Foreign Secretary Hague is not pleased with the relationship Britain now has with Russia, but it is one they are forced to have.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that leaders of the Group of Eight world powers have suspended Russia’s participation in the club amid tensions over Ukraine and Russia’s incursion into Crimea.

The other seven members of the group had already suspended preparations for a G-8 summit that Russia is scheduled to host in June in Sochi.

Russia's Vladimir Putin defiantly replied to President

Culture, Science

Big Bang evidence

This NASA graphic shows the universe as it evolved from the big bang to now. Goddard scientists believe that the universe expanded from subatomic scales to the astronomical in a fraction of a second after its birth. (NASA/WMAP)

Scientists have discovered new Big Bang evidence they say is the first that directly supports the expansion of the universe in the instant following the birth of the universe around 13.8 billion years ago.

Astronomers believe that the universe exploded from a tiny singularity and expanded itself out in all directions in the literal fraction of a second that followed, beginning just 10 to the minus 35 seconds (roughly one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second) after the universe’s birth. Gravity would inevitably coalesce Matter over hundreds of millions of years later into planets, stars, and ultimately our own solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.

Likening the astonishing event to ripples from a ball kicked into a pond, the Big Bang would fuel expansion-caused ripples in the ancient light, which remains imprinted in the skies in a leftover glow called the cosmic microwave background.

Big Bang evidence

The tiny temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (shown here as color) trace primordial density fluctuations in the early universe that seeded the later growth of galaxies. These fluctuations produce a pattern of polarization in the CMB that has no twisting to it. Gravitational waves from inflation are expected to produce much a fainter pattern that includes twisting (“B-mode”) polarization, consistent with the pattern observed by BICEP2, which is shown here as black lines. The line segments show the polarization strength and orientation at different spots on the sky. (BICEP2 COLLABORATION)

Regardless of the latest Big Band evidence, there remains two very important, unsolved mysteries. First, no one has ever offered a solution as to who kicked the ball in the pond in the first place. Second, this new evidence doesn’t strengthen the Big Bang theory of a singularity against other notable scientific theories, notably String Theory.

Rather than the universe expanding from one tiny speck, or the singularity, String Theory holds that many universes perhaps existed prior to our own, and our universe may be the product of two other crashing into each other.

Still, proponents of the Big Bang say that, if confirmed, the newly found ripples would be direct proof of what they have long conceded was a mere theory regarding what happened in those first millionths of a second.

“The implications for this detection stagger the mind,” said Jamie Bock, professor of physics at Caltech, laboratory senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and project co-leader. “We are measuring a signal that comes from the dawn of time.”

“It would be the most important discovery since the discovery, I think, that the expansion of the universe is accelerating,” Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who is not a member of the study team, told Space.com. He likened the new finding to a 1998 observation of mysterious dark energy, which won three researchers the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.

The new discovery came from observations by BICEP2, which is a telescope at the South Pole that observed the cosmic microwave background, appearing as a faint glow left over from the Big Bang.

Beginning a fraction of a fraction of a second after the universe’s birth, according to the current theory, space-time expanded at a near-incomprehensible rate, ballooning outward faster even than the speed of light. The afterglow from that expansion is called the cosmic microwave background, and tiny yet observable fluctuations in that background provide a glimpse in to the conditions during the early universe.

For example, small differences in temperature across the sky show where parts of the universe were denser, eventually condensing into galaxies and galactic clusters.

Since the cosmic microwave background is a form of light, it exhibits all the properties of light, including polarization. On Earth, sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere and becomes polarized, which is why polarized sunglasses help reduce glare. In space, the cosmic microwave background was scattered by atoms and electrons and became polarized too.

“Our team hunted for a special type of polarization called ‘B-modes,’ which represents a twisting or ‘curl’ pattern in the polarized orientations of the ancient light,” said Bock.

The team presented their work at a press conference on Monday at Harvard University, a discovery of that aforementioned characteristic occurance of polarization in the skies, which they deem to be proof of the gravitational waves across the primordial sky.

“This work offers new insights into some of our most basic questions: Why do we exist? How did the universe begin? These results are not only a smoking gun for inflation, they also tell us when inflation took place and how powerful the process was,” Harvard theorist Avi Loeb said.

Scientists have discovered new Big Bang evidence

Culture, Entertainment

L'Wren Scott

L’Wren (left) and longtime boyfriend Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, (right) began dating in 2001. L’Wren Scott was found Monday morning in her New York apartment.

Longtime girlfriend of Rollin Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger and fashion designer L’Wren Scott was found dead due to an apparent suicide Monday morning

“A female 49 years of age was found unconscious and unresponsive” in an apartment that shares Scott’s address, an NYPD spokesperson said.

An official close to the investigation said her assistant found Scott hanging from a doorknob, but no note was found and there was no sign of foul play.

The NYPD said the body of L’Wren Scott was found around 10 a.m. and that “it does appear to be an apparent suicide, preliminarily.”

The spokesperson said the identity of the female would not be officially confirmed until the family had first been notified.

Scott was a fashion designer to celebrities and even First Lady Michelle Obama. Other clients included Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams and Penélope Cruz. A Utah-native, Scott first began designing clothing for her own tall, 6-foot 3 inch figure when she was a teenager. Through the years, she worked closely with some of the top names in fashion, including cosmetics mogul Bobbi Brown.

“I am devastated by the tragic news about L’Wren. She was a visionary designer who I very much enjoyed working with, but she was also smart and kind,” Brown stated. “My thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to her loved ones during this very sad time.”

Scott canceled her London Fashion Week show this winter due to reported production delays.

L’Wren and Mick Jagger began dating in 2001, and Jagger is currently touring with his band in Australia, where he tweeted from just four hours ago, “Great to be back In Australia! Looking forward to the first show in Perth.” That tweet has since been deleted.

The Jagger camp had no further comment.

Longtime girlfriend of Rolling Stones lead vocalist

Economy, News

U.S. homebuilder confidence rose in March, but lingering concerns kept overall sentiment poor, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index rose to 47 in the month of March, up from 46 in the month prior. The decline in February was the largest ever month-to-month drop. This month, economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index would bounce back to a reading of 50 in March.

Readings of the index below 50 suggest more builders view market conditions as poor than favorable. The index had been above 50 for eight straight months prior to the February drop off.

“A number of factors are raising builder concerns over meeting demand for the spring buying season,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe in a statement.

“These include a shortage of buildable lots and skilled workers, rising materials prices and an extremely low inventory of new homes for sale.”

Last month, the NAHB blamed unusually cold weather conditions for the record-breaking drop, though during the Reagan recovery temperatures were roughly equitable.

The single-family home sales component increased to 52, up from 51 in February. The gauge of single-family sales expectations for the next six months dropped to 53, which is the lowest measurement since May, down from 54. Prospective buyer traffic actually rose to 33, up from 31.

U.S. homebuilder sentiment rose in March, but

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