| ‘Hate’ Hustlers -  In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser reported that the Southern Poverty Law Center was a toxic atmosphere for its black employees, who said they “felt threatened and banded together.” At the time, SPLC co-founder Morris Dees pooh-poohed the report, claiming that the “most discriminated people in America today are white men when it comes to jobs.” This month, SPLCemployees notified management that “allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism threaten the moral authority of this organization and our integrity along with it.” Dees, 82, was fired.By any fair or rigorous standard, it’s difficult to impugn Dees’s character based on either the old charge of racial discrimination or the current, still-vague allegations. But Dees’s leadership of the SPLC has done enough to impugn his character, and by the SPLC’s own standard, both incidents could be enough to designate the organization a “hate group.” Far from being a nonpartisan watchdog genuinely dedicated to exposing racism and extremism, the SPLC has spent recent decades stoking fear and hostility for fun and funds. That is Dees’s legacy as he departs.The SPLC’s estrangement from its former moral authority is an open secret. Yale law professor Stephen Bright, former director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, told the Los Angeles Times that “Morris is a flimflam man and he’s managed to flimflam his way along for many years raising money by telling people about the Ku Klux Klan and hate groups,” he said. “He sort of goes to whatever will sell and has, of course, brought in millions and millions and millions of dollars.” SPLC assets reached $477 million in 2017.Hate groups, in Dees’s junk-mail pitches, are forever on the march, always growing, always metastasizing in sinister new ways. These fears were built on smears: Dees would make ever more absurd claims about right-leaning individuals and groups, labeling scholars and intellectuals such as Charles Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Christina Hoff Sommers soldiers of hatred to attract publicity, which in turn would stoke the fundraising furnace. The Center for Immigration Studies and the Alliance Defending Freedom were absurdly designated hate groups, as was the Family Research Council for its traditional views on gay marriage. In 2012 a shooter who picked his target off the SPLC’s “hate map” marched into FRC’s offices and shot an unarmed security guard.The SPLC hustle has become so brazen, the group was lately starting to receive skeptical coverage even from left-leaning media outlets. Last year, liberal Muslim Maajid Nawaz sued the SPLC for calling him “anti-Muslim extremist.” It settled the lawsuit for $3.4 million and an apology, but its grift continued apace.Lumping together neo-Nazis and distinguished authors is a vile, shameless tactic in which much of the mainstream media has been complicit for many years by treating the SPLC as a neutral umpire instead of a wildly and unabashedly partisan activist group. (“We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left,” a spokesperson told NR in 2012). Dees’s SPLC took a nominal stance against hatred, but its true mission was to profit from hate-mongering. While we doubt new leadership will solve the SPLC’s problem, we’re nonetheless happy to see him go.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:21:41 -0400
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| Sientra gets FDA warning letter for breast implants -  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to Sientra Inc for its silicone gel breast implants that were approved by the agency for breast augmentation and reconstruction procedures. The agency's letter, dated March 18, comes after the company failed to comply with the post-approval study requirements, which included evaluating the long-term performance of the implants and following the participants of the study annually for 10 years.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:20:18 -0400
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| Stakes rise for Boeing as EU, Canada step up scrutiny of 737 MAX after crashes -  ADDIS ABABA/PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe and Canada said they would seek their own guarantees over the safety of Boeing's 737 MAX, further complicating plans to get the aircraft flying worldwide after they were grounded in the wake of two accidents killing more than 300 people. As the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) analyses Boeing's plans for a software fix prompted by the first crash five months ago, the European Union's aviation safety agency EASA promised its own deep look at any design improvements. "We will not allow the aircraft to fly if we have not found acceptable answers to all our questions," EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky told an EU parliament committee hearing.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:19:29 -0400
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| TNW: Binance Lite to Allow Australians to Purchase Bitcoin at Newsagents -  Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is expanding its “Binance Lite” service to allow Australian residents to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) at newsagents, technology news outlet The Next Web reported on March 19. The new service Binance Lite — which will initially be introduced in Australia — is purportedly set to enable customers to buy digital currency with fiat money from more than 1,300 supported newsagents within the country. The service currently supports only the purchase of Bitcoin, although it will offer more digital currency and fiat options at a later date.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:17:00 -0400
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