Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Trump Explains Pro-life Conversion
2. Fidel's Daughter Fights Oppression in Cuba
3. Moshe Arens Warns of 'False Alarm' on Palestine Statehood
4. Americans Worked 102 Days to Pay Taxes
5. Study: Democracy, Autocracy Linked to Rainfall
6. We Heard: Meg Whitman, Bill Moyers
1. Trump Explains Pro-life Conversion
Donald Trump says he changed his view from pro-choice to pro-life after a couple he was close to decided to give birth to a child rather than have an abortion.
In an interview on The Brody File website, correspondent David Brody told Trump, who says he is seriously considering running for president in 2012: "Evangelicals do want to feel secure that they're going to have a nominee that's going to at least be solid on those issues, those social issues. Someone that's not just going to cut and move on."
Trump responded: "One thing about me, I'm a very honorable guy. I'm pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago. One of the reasons I changed — one of the primary reasons — a friend's wife was pregnant, in this case married. She was pregnant, and he didn't really want the baby.
"He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby, and the baby is the apple of his eye. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to him. And here's a baby that wasn't going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life."
Brody asked, "So those stories did change you, they came around and changed you?"
Trump responded, "Yeah, they changed my view as to that, absolutely."
Trump said in a recent Newsmax interview that he's mulling a White House run because he hates "what's happening to this country."
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2. Fidel's Daughter Fights Oppression in Cuba
Back in 1993, a Cuban dissident boarded a plane in Havana disguised as a Spanish tourist, with a wig and a fake passport, and flew to Spain to escape the tyranny in Cuba.
But Alina Fernandez-Revuelta isn't just another Cuban dissident — she is Fidel Castro's daughter.
Now she lives in Miami and is dedicated to one crusade: Educating Americans about the injustices of the Cuban regime. And she is about to see her life unfold on the big screen in "Castro's Daughter," a film based on a screenplay by Oscar-winner Bobby Moresco ("Crash") and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz.
Fernandez-Revuelta, 55, lives alone in a house near Miami's Little Havana, and works part-time as a medical researcher at a local hospital. But her main focus is on her hour-long weeknight radio show, "Simply Alina" in English, which features her commentary, news about Cuba, and guests from across the Cuban-American community.
She also delivers anti-Castro speeches at universities and other institutions.
"It's my duty, maybe part of the obligation I have because of who I am," she told Fox News Latino.
She also said living in the Cuban exile capital of the world "has been the hardest experience in my life because it's living with the victims of your own family, your own flesh and blood."
Mauricio Claver-Carone, chairman of the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC, said, "The impact she's had has been tremendous in terms of educating the American public about the reality and injustice of the Cuban regime — but it's difficult for her because it's still her father."
Fernandez-Revuelta does not speak by phone with her mother, Natalia Revuelta, who had an affair with Fidel Castro three years before he came to power in 1959 and still lives in Cuba.
"My family caused so much damage to people walking around here [in Miami] every day," she said. "It's taken me several years to get over those guilty feelings."
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3. Moshe Arens Warns of 'False Alarm' on Palestine Statehood
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens warns that the Jewish state should not overreact to a threatened declaration of Palestinian statehood by the United Nations.
With U.S.-led peace talks stalled, the Palestinians have launched a campaign to seek international recognition of Palestinian statehood, and have indicated they might seek recognition from the General Assembly in the fall.
In an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Arens notes that some in Israel are demanding that the country launch a "daring initiative" before the "political tsunami" of a statehood declaration strikes Israel in the fall.
But in his article headlined "Israel must not succumb to false diplomatic alarms," Arens — who also served as Israel's defense minister — writes, "States have never been created by U.N. declarations and never will be. For those who have forgotten, Israel was not created by U.N. resolution 181 in November 1947, but by David Ben-Gurion's declaration of Israeli independence on May 15, 1948, and by the [Israeli Defense Force's] ability to take and control the areas of the new state.
"A U.N. declaration, whether at the Security Council or the General Assembly, recognizing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital
. . . will be no more effective than Security Council resolution 1701, which prohibited Hezbollah from military operations in southern Lebanon, or General Assembly resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism.
"If this latest declaration is actually passed, it will merely serve as another reminder of the impotence of the United Nations and its irrelevance when it comes to dealing with international conflicts."
Any real settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must include an end to hostilities and a capability on the part of the Palestinians of assuring that no acts of terror will be launched from territories that Israel turns over as part of the agreement, Arens states.
"The current Palestinian spokesman, or president if you like, Mahmoud Abbas, is not capable of satisfying either of these conditions," Arens says.
"He certainly cannot be relied on to prevent acts of terror against Israel from those areas Israel would withdraw from."
He adds: "Only when it is clear that the Israeli government is standing firm on its positions will the pressure on Israel be relaxed."
Israeli President Shimon Peres echoed Arens' sentiments in a recent discussion with diplomats at the International Peace Institute.
Regarding the possible U.N. declaration, Peres said: "I don't believe this is a solution, because in order for the Palestinians to have independence, we have to give back land. And as we are ready to give back land, we expect that we shall guarantee [security for] our own people. We cannot have a crossfire from Gaza and the West Bank."
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4. Americans Worked 102 Days to Pay Taxes
Tax Freedom Day arrived on Tuesday, April 12 this year — Americans worked for the first 102 days of 2011 just to earn enough to pay their federal, state, and local taxes.
The date is three days later than in 2010, meaning that taxes across the board have gone up this year, according to the Tax Foundation, which computes Tax Freedom Day each year.
Americans will pay more in taxes this year than on groceries, clothing, and shelter combined, the Foundation noted.
The computation of Tax Freedom Day ignores the budget deficit and figures in only taxes that will actually be collected this year. If the federal government was seeking to collect enough in taxes to finance all of its spending, Tax Freedom Day would not arrive until May 23.
The latest-ever Tax Freedom Day was May 1, 2000.
On top of federal income tax, all but seven states levy an income tax, as do some localities. The Foundation projects that Americans will work 36 days this year to pay those income taxes, plus 22 days to pay for payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare.
They will also work 15 days to pay sales and excise taxes, 12 days to pay property taxes, and 12 days to cover corporate income taxes.
Due to different state and local tax rates, and differences in average income subject to federal taxes, total tax burdens vary from state to state. This year Americans in 13 states will work more than 102 days to pay their taxes, including Connecticut (122 days), New Jersey (119 days), and New York (114 days).
The lightest tax burden will affect workers in Mississippi (85 days), Tennessee (86 days), and South Carolina (88 days).
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5. Study: Democracy, Autocracy Linked to Rainfall
An intriguing new study has found that the likelihood of a country being a stable democracy or a persistent autocracy is linked to a single natural phenomenon — rainfall.
Researchers Stephen Haber of Stanford University and Victor Menaldo of the University of Washington examined the relationship between rainfall levels and regime types from 1965 to 2009. To ascertain regime type, they used average ratings from a political database called Polity 2. To determine rainfall, they used the annual average within 100 miles of a nation's largest city.
They found that among nations where rainfall measures below 21.5 inches a year, there are only two democracies: Israel and Cyprus.
Between 21.5 inches and 51 inches, there were 18 stable democracies and only seven persistent autocracies.
But when rainfall measures above 51 inches, the balance tips overwhelmingly back to non-democratic nations, with only six stable democracies.
The relationship held true "even when colonial history, the presence of oil, religion, and ethnic division were controlled for," according to a Wall Street Journal report on the study.
The researchers observe: "Why are some societies characterized by enduring democracy while other societies are persistently autocratic? We show that there is a systematic, non-linear relationship between rainfall levels and regime types in the post-World War II world: Stable democracies overwhelmingly cluster in a band of moderate rainfall; persistent autocracies overwhelmingly cluster in deserts and semi-arid environments, and in the tropics."
Haber and Menaldo's theory, according to the Journal, "is that moderate rainfall plus arable land creates economies in which small farms produce grain and legumes above the subsistence level. In turn, the trade of crops helps a large swathe of the population build up financial and educational capital — and a broadly educated, reasonably well-off citizenry is the foundation of democracy."
On the other hand, arid and tropical nations are faced with challenges that favor plantations and large landholders, which create an environment more likely to produce autocracy.
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6. We Heard . . .
THAT California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's former undocumented housekeeper was feted at an immigrant rights gala in Los Angeles.
Mexican-born Nicky Diaz Santillan created problems during the campaign for Whitman, who had portrayed herself as tough on illegal aliens, when it came to light that Diaz Santillan is an undocumented immigrant. Former eBay CEO Whitman claimed she was unaware of the status of the housekeeper, who worked for her for nine years.
Diaz Santillan's liberal attorney, Gloria Allred, claimed that the housekeeper, who was fired by Whitman when she learned of her status, was "exploited, disrespected, humiliated, and emotionally and financially abused" by Whitman. Republican Whitman lost to Democrat Jerry Brown in the gubernatorial race.
The Coalition for Humane Immigration Reform, which organized the April 7 gala, maintains that Diaz Santillan's "situation is similar to many undocumented immigrant household workers," Fox News Latino reported.
THAT despite earlier reports, liberal newsman Bill Moyers won't be returning to PBS with a weekly series after all.
The Insider Report two weeks ago cited a New York Times article disclosing that Moyers, who ended his PBS public affairs show in April 2010, had received preliminary approval for a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which would fund a 29-month run for a show tentatively titled "Something Different With Bill Moyers."
But in an emailed statement on Thursday, Moyers said: "PBS has informed us there is no time slot available in which the series could be designated for simultaneous common carriage across the country. After discussions with my underwriters, we have decided to pursue other options and projects."
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