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Former Louisiana fovernor Bobby Jindal comes under severe criticism from the Washington Post for policies it says hurt the poor by turning down federal Medicaid funds under Obamacare, for using rainy day funds, and cutting spending on education and other needed programs in the state. It says Jindal pursued Grover Norquist's no tax pledge leading to spending cuts in the state and budget gaps, merely to appeal to voters in the GOP presidential primaries. Jindal's appeal to Republican voters actually fell sharply because of unpopular policies and he did not qualify for participation in the presidential televised Republican debates. Republican voters turned to outside candidates such as Trump, Carson and others.

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The effort by a community bank, Talmer Bank, to fill in for the lack of mortgage lending for certain neighborhoods in Detroit with abandoned or ransacked homes. Talmer Bank provides $25,000 loans so that these homes can be repaired and restored. Another agency helping in this work of renewal of these neighborhoods is the Detroit Land Bank Authority which auctions abandoned homes with bids starting at $1000. That agency was started in 2007 and is now making fresh efforts under Mayor Mike Duggan. This agency had in 2015 about 22,351 residential structures and 54,660 vacant lots in its inventory, one fifth of the land in the city. Between 1900-1950 Detroit's population grew to 1.85 million. Then by 2010 as the auto industry hit a downturn and residents departed from a declining city the population declined to 700,000. Other approaches taken by DLBA are to fix up abandoned homes and sell these properties sometimes at a loss, and to demolish homes that cannot be restored to raise property values in the neighborhood. Even here with scarce resources the DLBA has to pick and choose which neighborhoods have the best chance of recovery to invest resources....

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Turkey's relations with Turkmen in northern Syria, and opposition to the bombing of this part of Syria by Russian planes is cited as the reason for Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane in November 2015. Prime minister Erdogan stated this by saying: "we strongly condemn attacks focusing on areas inhabited by Bayibucak Turkmen- we have our relatives, our kin there." Following the incident Turkey provided media with footage showing 10 repeated warnings in the space of 5 minutes to the two Russian planes before Turkish F-16's shot down the Russian plane. The area where the plane was shot down is a small part of Turkey that juts into Syria. This part of Turkey is called the Hatay province, with Turkmen in Hatay forming a republic in 1938 breaking away from the French mandate over Syria set up following the first world war. The following year it joined Turkey. Parts of the Turkmen in Hatay are still in Syria and this is the region Russia began bombing 2 months ago, with Turkey opposing the bombing. Russian president Putin's claim that this is part of the bombing of Islamic State positions is refuted by Turkey's prime minister Davotoglu, who says "No one can legitimize attacks on Turkmens in Syria using the pretext of fighting the Islamic State." ...

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False claims on carbon dioxide emissions leading to tax breaks are leading to a German prosecutors investigation. To reimburse European governments for tax incentives for carbon pollution limiting vehicles would cost VW an additional 2.2 billion euros, according to VW estimates

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The 2 tier wage system is scrapped at U.S. autoworkers Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler after a vote following the Fiat Chrysler negotiations leads to a rejection of the system. This is a major achievement of UAW president Steve Williams and union members. All autoworkers can now have a path to the top factory wage of $29 per hour.

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Saeed Jan Qureshi, with only a high school education and a passion for books, started an extraordinary bookstore in Islamabad, Pakistan. Th store is now one of the largest in the world, with 42,000 square feet over 3 stories, displaying 200,000 titles, and an inventory of 4 million books in 5 warehouses, books mostly in English. Rod Norland of the NYT provides an exceptional and heartwarming story of the man, his son, and a passion for books that gives a different picture of Pakistan, the country and its people. Saeed's son Qureshi provides advice to readers, referring them to a book "Fallen Leaves," by American historian Will Durant. The story shows the passion for reading and books in South Asia.

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Andrew Higgins provides this exceptional account of how the political and administrative authorites in Belgium are so divided because of ethnic and poltiical reasons, that they are often paralyzed. It is described as the Belgian disease. Belgium is a country that has French, Dutch and German ethnic groups and languages. Divided along linguistic lines, all centralized authority is resisted, leading to parts of Belgium becoming a haven for terrorist activity. Terrorists from Molenbeek, a part of Brussels, carried out the Paris attacks in November 2015. The German and French media coverage now ridicules the way Belgium is run.