Prompt: At 26, Ali Bryant is still scared of the dark. Her brother, Austin Bryant, knew that. The night before he was killed, he was in her room being the little brother older sisters tend to have: annoying. He’d grab at her feet as she slept to frighten her or put his feet in her face just to mess with her. Ali smiled at the thought. Today, her brother’s ashes rest in a red, metallic urn on the dresser across from the foot of her bed as she sleeps. "Sometimes I feel a breeze of wind blow past me or someone

messing with my foot and I know it’s my brother. And I’ll be like, ‘OK, Austin. I get it,’" she said, laughing. "It’s just things like that that let me know (he’s there)." Sunday marked the one-year since 20-year-old Austin Bryant was shot and killed by the intersection of Military Trail and Purdy Lane near Flashdance, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say a fight broke out during the early hours of April 16, someone pulled a gun and shot Austin outside the strip club. He was found dead at the scene. No arrest has been made. Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County is offering a $1,000 reward for information in the case. Those with information are asked to call 800-458-TIPS (8477). For Ali, a year later means less pain, more anger. Why did they shoot her brother? Why do they get to go home to their family and sleep at night? When does Austin get justice? "No one deserves to die like that. No one," she said. "Someone knows who did this. They need to come forward." For Austin’s mother, Kristina Bryant, there’s still a lot of pain. She misses her son’s calls during they day and still waits for his 6-foot frame to fill the doorway of his grandmother’s home just north of Lake Park where she and her daughter live. She can smile at those thoughts now. But in those first few months after her son was killed, she didn’t stop crying. She lost her job as a nurse and couldn’t go outside most days. "The loss of a child doesn’t come with a handbook. You just try to do what you think is right," she said. "I brought two kids into this world, and now when I wake up, there’s one. It just


Prompt: Anti-Koch signage in Wisconsin MADISON, Wis.—The standoff over the Budget Repair Act is about the portions of the legislation that scale back union rights. That’s how it started. That’s why the AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFT, and every other union with a bus is at the capitol. But many of the protesters think it’s about something more insidious. On the walk into the capitol today, I saw these six signs in the space of 10 minutes: Scott, How Much KOCH Have You Done? Scott Walker is a KOCH Whore CONFIRMED: Walker and Koch, Brothers With Bats KOCH-SUCKERS Drunk With Power—High on Koch

Recall Koch Bro’s “Puppets”—”Scott Walker” & “Republicans” None of the protesters knew the other, but some of them bonded over their obsession: the influence of David and Charles Koch, two of the wealthiest men in America, donors to a bouquet of libertarian and Tea Party causes. Amy Janczy, from Lake Mills, Wis., carried the “Drunk With Power” sign; David Wend, from Madison, carried the “Puppets” sign. They stopped to talk. “I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the Kochs,” explained Wend. “I read the legislative summary of the Budget Repair Act,” explained Janczy, “and saw the stuff in there about the giveaways for the power plants. I saw the Kochs’ fingerprints on that.” She was talking about Section 16.896 of the bill, which empowers Gov. Scott Walker to “sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids.” That section started to get attention on Monday; by this morning, Democrats in the state Assembly were using the floor time allotted to them in their quasi-filibuster to ask whether the Kochs were behind it, or interested in buying the plants. Madison’s liberal Capital Times newspaper got a flat denial of that claim. “We have no interest,” said Philip Ellender, Koch Companies’ president of government and public affairs, “in purchasing any of the state-owned power plants in Wisconsin and any allegations to the contrary are completely false.” I pointed this out to Janczy. “Well,” she said, “they may say that, but I don’t believe it.” When it comes to the Kochs, progressives in Wisconsin are ready to believe the absolute worst. Inside the capitol there are dozens of agitprop signs accusing the brothers of buying the election for Walker. There are detailed lists


Prompt: Once we enter Open Beta, we will stop selling the current set of Many people who have supported Path of Exile financially will receive physical goods posted to them (such as t-shirts, posters, copies of the game and soundtrack). We are about to start preparing these and we expect that they will be printed and posted before August. A few months ago, we stated that we hoped to enter Open Beta in June. Some of the crucial features that we must enter Open Beta with are not yet finished, so we will delay the Open Beta until they are. As

mentioned above, we expect that this will be mid-August. While we strongly believe that this estimate is accurate, we will update it over time if work progresses ahead or behind of schedule. One of the advantages of not having a publisher is that we are able to create our own deadlines without being forced to open up the game to the public in an unfinished state. While I am sure that many of our patient fans are disappointed by this announcement, please rest assured that the game is almost done - lucky testers (and our generous supporters) have been playing the Closed Beta for ten months and can hopefully attest to our high quality standards. Here's the plan for the last remaining patches before Open Beta. The patches will take approximately three weeks each, and will be available to Alpha testers a week before they are deployed to the Beta realm. 0.9.10: Will be deployed Tuesday, June 5. I've discussed its contents 0.9.11: Among other changes, this patch will enable the new end-game (which we have been hinting at for a while) and the Act Two final boss. It will include the ability to swap between weapon sets. 0.9.12: This patch will fix most of the issues with Minions. It will also introduce PvP arenas and the ability to challenge other players to duel. We expect to improve the Brutus fight in this patch as well. 0.9.13: A secure trade screen and substantial update to server stability and capacity is scheduled for this patch. 0.10.0: The official Open Beta release, which we expect will be deployed a week or so after 0.9.13. It will have Act Three enabled, voice acting for most of the NPCs and characters, as well as a range of cosmetic micro-transactions to purchase. There are hundreds


Prompt: Washington (CNN) -- The battle over health care reform reached another milestone Thursday as top House Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation that includes a highly controversial public health insurance option. The nearly 2,000-page bill -- a combination of three versions passed by House committees -- would cost $894 billion over 10 years to extend insurance coverage to 36 million uncovered Americans, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. However, the bill's total cost, including Medicare changes, is expected to be higher and could push the price tag over $1 trillion, according to an initial CNN analysis. The bill guarantees that 96 percent

of Americans have coverage, Pelosi stated. The claim is based on an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Among other things, the bill would subsidize insurance for poorer Americans and create health insurance exchanges to make it easier for small groups and individuals to purchase coverage. It would also cap annual out-of-pocket expenses and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Pelosi's office said the bill would cut the federal deficit by roughly $30 billion over the next decade. The measure is financed through a combination of a tax surcharge on wealthy Americans and spending constraints in Medicare and Medicaid. Specifically, individuals with annual incomes over $500,000, as well as families earning more than $1 million, would face a 5.4 percent income tax surcharge. Medicare expenditures would be cut by 1.3 percent annually. "Today, we are ... laying the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come," Pelosi said on Capitol Hill. "For Americans struggling with the cost of health care, this is an urgently needed bill," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland. "This is an idea whose time has come." President Obama praised House Democrats for forging "a strong consensus that represents a historic step forward." Republicans tore into the bill, characterizing it as a series of tax increases and new regulations that would destroy jobs while doing little to stop spiraling health care costs. "This really is a government takeover of health care in America," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana. "It appears for all of the world like a massive government-run insurance plan paid for with a freight train of mandates and taxes and bureaucracy." Critics argue that the Democrats' $894 billion price tag excludes the cost associated with closing the Medicare "donut hole" prescription drug coverage gap. The donut hole refers to


Prompt: Live coverage following Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti, in which tens of thousands are feared to have died and three million displaced. Bodies are piled up on the rubble-strewn streets of the capital. Rescue workers are in a race against time to find survivors. 0000 The BBC is discontinuing this live update page for the night. For the latest developments, please go to our main news page. The BBC is discontinuing this live update page for the night. For the latest developments, please go to our main news page. 2346 Survivor Jackson tells the BBC he has just found his wife

under the rubble: "We just got married. I just married my wife, and now I don't know what to do. She spent three days under the rubble of the building, and today I found her." "We just got married. I just married my wife, and now I don't know what to do. She spent three days under the rubble of the building, and today I found her." 2342 Time magazine reporter Saul Schwarz says he has seen at least two downtown roadblocks made out of bodies of earthquake victims and rocks - Reuters. "It's getting ugly out there, people are fed up with getting no help," he tells the news agency. Time magazine reporter Saul Schwarz says he has seen at least two downtown roadblocks made out of bodies of earthquake victims and rocks - Reuters. "It's getting ugly out there, people are fed up with getting no help," he tells the news agency. 2325 Louis Ballinger of Oxfam tells the BBC: "People are pretty calm, I have to say. There were no scenes of chaos or aggressivity or anything else. People are pretty shocked still. A lot of families and friends and neighbours have gathered together in parks in Port-au-Prince, so you can see the ones that are homeless now are sticking together and trying to help each other out, waiting for aid to come along." "People are pretty calm, I have to say. There were no scenes of chaos or aggressivity or anything else. People are pretty shocked still. A lot of families and friends and neighbours have gathered together in parks in Port-au-Prince, so you can see the ones that are homeless now are sticking together and trying to help each other out, waiting for aid to come along." 2319 US mobile phone users send more than


Prompt: The Senate Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would make significant changes to the amounts that people pay for nongroup coverage and for the care they receive under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The tables below provide estimates of how premiums after taking into account tax credits would change for people currently enrolled in the federal and state marketplaces. Under current law, people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for premium tax credits to help them pay the premium for nongroup coverage purchased through the federal or a state marketplace if they

do not have access to other affordable coverage. People are responsible for paying a specified percent of their income (“required income percentage”) toward the cost of the benchmark plan (the second-lowest cost silver plan in their area), and the federal government pays the remainder of the premium to their insurer; this amount is the person’s premium tax credit. The required income percentages people are responsible to pay vary with income: In 2017, people with incomes between 100 percent and 133 percent of poverty contribute 2.04 percent of income, while people with incomes between 300 percent and 400 percent of poverty contribute 9.69 percent of their income. Because premiums vary with age but the share of income people are responsible to pay does not, older people receive larger premium tax credits than younger people with the same income but pay the same amount for the benchmark plan. Beginning in 2020, the BCRA would make several significant revisions that affect the premium tax credits that people receive when they purchase nongroup coverage. First, the bill would revise income eligibility for premium tax credits, extending eligibility to people with incomes below poverty but capping eligibility at 350 percent of poverty. Second, the bill amends the way that premium tax credits are calculated so that the required income percentages vary with age and with income. Our estimates of the required income percentages under current law and the BCRA for 2020 are shown in the Appendix. The result is that on average people at younger ages would pay a lower share of their income to purchase a benchmark plan than they today while people at older ages would pay a higher share. Third, the bill reduces the value of the benchmark plans that are used to determine premium tax credits. The result is that a


Prompt: European Astro Pi Challenge: Code your ISS experiment - more details ESA is inviting teams of students who are 16 years old and younger to join the first European Astro Pi challenge and have their experiments run on the International Space Station! Take this opportunity to learn about science and coding, just like space scientists do! Deadline to submit your registration is 13 November 2016. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet officially launched the first European Astro Pi challenge last week. Thomas is looking forward to his first spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) with the Proxima mission later this year,

and is looking forward to assisting the Astro Pi challenge from orbit. Watch Thomas’ message in the video above! What is an Astro Pi? Astro Pi is the name of a small computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with the UK Space Agency and ESA. There are two very special Astro Pi’s. Their names are Ed and Izzy, and they have been qualified for spaceflight. They are now onboard the ISS for students like you to use. Astro Pi computers come with a set of sensors and gadgets that can be used to run cool scientific experiments. This set of sensors is called ‘Sense HAT’. With the Sense HAT you can sense movements, measure humidity, temperature and pressure, and detect radiation. Ed and Izzy are also equipped with a joystick and buttons just like a videogame console! Discover more about the Astro Pi Sense HAT and its sensors here and experience what you can do with them by using this web-based emulator. Join the competition: your code may go to space! Astro Pi inside its flight case The European Astro Pi challenge invites school students to design a scientific experiment that can be run using Astro Pi Ed’s sensors, and to write the computer code with which the Astro Pi needs to be programmed in order to execute this experiment on the ISS. Ed is ready and anxious to run your code. What are you waiting for? The Astro Pi challenge is divided into three phases. You have to succeed Phase 1 in order to be selected to participate in Phases 2 and 3. Phase 1 – Warm up and show us you are up to the Astro Pi challenge! ESA’s Astro Pi kit In this phase, ESA expects your team - with the help of your


Prompt: Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary Nauru is a small island (about eight square miles) half way between Hawaii and New Zealand made largely of bird droppings. If that does not sound particularly promising consider two further points. First, that its European discoverer named it Pleasant Island in 1798: it was once extraordinarily beautiful. And second that the bird droppings can be mined as phosphates, which are worth a lot of money. The following morality tale has, in fact, a lot to do with money… Money… Everyone wanted a piece of Nauru. It is enough to list the island’s

owners over the last two hundred years. For most of the nineteenth century the Nauruans ruled themselves and spent a lot of that time fighting each other with firearms brought by European traders. In 1888 Germany intervened to end the war and in an amnesty – and encouraged by the threat that tribal leaders would be executed – over seven hundred guns and rifles were handed over to the new authorities; enough to attempt an invasion of Belgium. The island remained in the German Empire until 1914 when it was occupied by Australians on behalf of the Allies. In 1919 the British created the British Phosphate Commission that ran the island in the interests of Australia, New Zealand and the wider Empire, though not necesarily the Nauruans. In 1923 Australia took over the running of Nauru. In 1942 Japan occupied and Nauru had its worst years: a leprosy outbreak was dealt with by sailing a boat of the afflicted out into the ocean and sinking it. In 1945 a joint New Zealand, Australian and British trusteeship was set up, then in 1968 the island was finally given independence. Nauruans, Germans, Australians, BPC, Japanese, Commonwealth Trusteeship and Nauruans again. Nauru became a kind of Pacific Krakow passing constantly between powers. It would be interesting to see if any other spot in the Pacific rivals Nauruans in terms of the multiplicity of owners. Beach is tempted to quote Kissinger: ‘if they had grown carrots there no one would have given a damn.’ From 1968 the Nauruans should have had a happy or at least wealthy existence. After all, they now had the phosophate for themselves. And for a while the government was immensely rich, particularly given how small the population was. It also proved though immensely stupid and the money was wasted.


Prompt: If you want to know what’s going on in Cairo, just look at the walls. Over the last two years, as clashes and political conflict were raging on the streets of Cairo, another war was being fought on Egypt’s walls with paint brushes and spray cans. The graffiti scene barely existed prior to the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. But as the uprising and protests gained momentum, murals have become the way for artists to dare to dream for something better for their country. Mos'ab Elshamy A child on a bike who had come to inspect the wall was

photographed by the artists and added on the final painting. A political dance has emerged between graffiti artists and the authorities that seek to paint over the prismatic walls. The cycle has ensued for almost two years–the graffiti goes up, the authorities paint over it, then something even bolder is portrayed on top. And so it continues. The back-and-forth between artists and the authorities has captivated many–and as a photographer, Cairo’s wall’s present rich material for me. I have been able to document the progression from the birth of modern political graffiti to the current struggle between art and regime. Mos'ab Elshamy An onlooker watches graffiti artists. Though the political tones are always prominent, it is not the only theme to shine through. Cairo’s walls have played host to anti-sexual harassment graffiti and calls for gender equality. Female artists have also played a considerable role in reclaiming public spaces with stenciled icons encouraging female empowerment. Most Egyptian graffiti artists remain anonymous but are still widely known by their nicknames like Ganzeer (which means “bicycle chain”), Keizer, and Sad Panda. Mos'ab Elshamy During the presidential election, graffiti which originally showed half faces of Hosni Mubarak and SCAF leader, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, was modified to include faces of candidates Ahmed Shafik and Amr Moussa Perhaps the strongest messages delivered by graffiti are those painted on walls originally meant to barricade protesters. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) walled off access to Tahrir Square in November 2011 after deadly clashes erupted and killed many civilian protesters. More than four walls were erected last year (and two last week), turning downtown Cairo into a maze. Egyptian graffiti artists arranged “No Walls Protests,” painting the barricades away with trompe l’œil murals that commemorate the dead. The Sheikh Rihan eye-deceiving, (trompe-l’œil) mural, painted during a


Prompt: Reenactment photo courtesy the author Summer break sounds amazing in June, but by August the teens have grown restless. They're broke, they've got all these hormones that they can't properly act on, and Mom's at work. Today's teens are left at home with little more than technology and other teens to keep them company. It's with this sense of boredom and the possibility of danger in mind that we turn to our top story This Week in Teens. A 15-year-old boy in Florida got a Snapchat of his cousin holding a stack of cash, so he and four of his

friends decided to rob his cousin's house. They would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for his cousin's pesky dogs, and the fact that the rest of his family was home. The teens ran from the house, taking a laptop with them, but were caught by police—because that's what happens when your aunt sees you robbing her house. This story is truly a perfect encapsulation of the way teens live now. The traditional teen traits of confusion-fueled idiocy and responding to the pressures of capitalism with petty crime are compounded by technology. Snapchat, an app that's wildly popular among young people, is being valued at around $10 billion. Teens are an instrumental part of the app's success, so there's a certain poetry in the idea that the app is inspiring them to commit crimes for cash. Check out the rest of This Week in Teens: -The impressively-named website Action News Now reported that a 16-year-old in Anderson, California, died after what the teen thought was cocaine turned out to be poison. Following this incident, the Anderson Police Department issued a statement telling parents to "Talk to your kids. Monitor their lives as much as possible. Educate them. Communicate with them. Make every effort to steer them in the right direction." While your This Week in Teens columnist is usually pretty skeptical of anti-drug rhetoric, they're right. Teens really have no business taking cocaine. For parents who want to talk to their kids but don't know how, we've helpfully compiled the following real facts behind cocaine use. The energy drink version isn't much better than the real thing. Photo via Flickr user Lauri Rantala Cocaine is, by most measures, a pretty unjustifiable drug to use. Its production destroys the environment and its sale goes to support murderous drug


Prompt: November 16, 2015 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The idea of mentoring in the workplace is a common one, but the idea of a champion is rarely ever mentioned. In the past several months, I have been invited to speak around the topic of leadership in startups and technology, and when I mention that what we need are more champions and less mentors, people get excited. The energy level in the room suddenly rises. Most people say to me, “I’ve never heard that before. I love that idea -- champion!” Related: 6 Smart Techniques

to Connect With Influential People Mentors are a dime a dozen. Mentors are typically loose connections, and there are plenty to go around. Let’s do a quick, very unscientific poll. Based on my network on LinkedIn, I have 308,830 mentors in my network. I did the same search for champion, and I had 40,317 champions. Mentors are easier to come by these days. Some organizations have formal processes for matching mentors. I’ve only engaged in this type of formal matching once, and I was assigned a Harvard professor who was an expert in nuclear terrorism. Let’s just say that we did not have much in common, but I was very grateful for the time I spent with someone so brilliant. It is best that you try to seek mentors whose expertise you can leverage. Don’t be shy about reaching out to these people directly without a formal process in place. One way to start is to ask them a question about their own career progression. And do not take it personally if they do not respond. People are busy. Mentors are usually passive. Don’t expect your mentor to become your champion. Champions are supposed to be rare. They are rare because in my experience, most people have never heard of a champion. This post aims to change this by making people aware of the concept of a champion. Think of a champion as a mentor but with a little more skin in the game. They are actively seeing that you get the good projects at work, that you receive the proper recognition for your job, and they provide you with timely feedback so that you are constantly improving. It’s a working partnership where you are essentially groomed for a particular position or role. A champion is your voice when you


Prompt: EL SEGUNDO, CA — At around 2:15 PM on the afternoon of September 30, 2011, defenseman Drew Doughty emerged from the dressing room for his first training camp skate. That moment was the first publicly visible sign that the Los Angeles Kings had become whole once again. Late Thursday night, the Kings announced that they had reached a verbal agreement with their top defenseman, who missed virtually all of training camp as a contract holdout. In the end, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi sweetened the pot by offering Doughty an average of $200,000 more per year above his reported original

offer of $6.8 million per season, the same average annual value of center Anze Kopitar’s contract. For their part, Doughty and agent Don Meehan reportedly budged on the length of the contract, so the deal ended up at $7 million per season for eight years. “The cap is a delicate balance,” Kings Assistant General Manager Ron Hextall told LAKings.com (Kings executives were not available for comment on September 30). “Every year, there’s moving parts just to try and stay under it. But we’re really excited to have Drew under contract, and, obviously, Kopitar, long-term, along with the rest of our guys.” “We’re excited about the timing,” added Hextall. “It could have, obviously, been a little bit better at the start of camp, but we’re excited to have our team whole again.” The 21-year-old native of London, Ontario met with the media before hitting the ice for a skate with assistant coach John Stevens. “It sucked being at home, and it sucked going through this process, but I’m just really thankful that I’m here, and I’m going to be a member of the LA Kings for eight years,” said Doughty. “[The waiting] sucked, it really did. I didn’t plan to be back home in London for that long. I wanted to be here the whole time. There was never a question about leaving the Kings, or anything like that. But we had to get done what we had to get done, and it’s done before the season. That’s the most important part.” “I’ve had a lot of stress,” added Doughty. “The season’s approaching. I was counting down the days until the season started. At first, I didn’t want to miss camp, either. I was counting down the days until camp started, but I ended up having to miss that.” “I’m not


Prompt: For decades, meteorologists have been able to forecast the severity of hurricane seasons several months ahead of time. Yet forecasting the likelihood of a bad tornado season has proved a far greater challenge. Now, research from scientists at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society could eventually lead to the first seasonal tornado outlooks. "Understanding how climate shapes tornado activity makes forecasts and projections possible, and allows us to look into the past and understand what happened," said Michael Tippett, lead author of a study in February's journal of Geophysical Research Letters. The need for such data is

reinforced by the still-fresh memory of 550 Americans killed by tornadoes last year — coupled with an unusually violent January for twisters. In the study, Tippett and his team looked at 30 years of past climate data. They used computer models to determine that the two weather factors most tied to active tornado months and seasons were heavy rain from thunderstorms and extreme wind shear (wind blowing from different directions at different layers of the atmosphere). "If, in March, we can predict average thunderstorm rainfall and wind shear for April, then we can infer April tornado activity," Tippett says. The method worked for each month except for September and October, and it worked best in June. This is the first time a forecast of up to a month in advance has been demonstrated, he says. "A connection between La Niña and spring tornado activity is often mentioned," Tippett says, "but such a connection really has not been demonstrated in the historical data and hasn't been shown to provide a basis for a skillful tornado activity forecast. "Our work bridges the gap between what the current technology is capable of forecasting (large-scale monthly averages of rainfall and winds) and tornado activity, which the current technology cannot capture," he says. The research isn't ready for prime time yet, however, so no official forecast will be made for the upcoming season using these methods. "This is a useful first step," says Harold Brooks of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who was not involved in the study. He says it will be helpful to know, for example, that sometime in the last week of April, conditions will be favorable for lots of tornadoes in the eastern USA. With greater lead time, a state emergency planner "could be better prepared with generators and supplies,"


Prompt: One of the great gifts of being a teacher is that you get to learn from your students. This is especially useful when your students take your teachings and find new framing to express them. In the Strategic Sorcery group students are always cheering and challenging each other. Yesterday Student A.M. threw down the glove in a way that struck me as particularly useful, and I wanted to share it here on the blog so that others can pick it up and do it. Its a very simple idea, and here is A.M. expressing it in his own words: I’ve

got a christmas challenge I’d like to set – conjure something that you want, but think you don’t deserve. Maybe it’s a raise that you think you haven’t worked for, or the attention of someone special that you think is out of your league, or just some fun or pretty gift you’d like to give yourself. This has been a pretty powerful mental short-circuit trick for me – a lot of the time I get distracted by thoughts of whether or not I’ve ‘earned’ (in mundane or spiritual terms) the result that I’m summoning. Doing this every once in a while helps me remember that it doesn’t really matter who ‘deserves’ success or not. What matters is whether or not we make it happen for ourselves. Those of you that have taken the course or read Financial Sorcery know about Set Point theory already – what better way to shift that point than by doing this? The degree to which people who are ostensibly dedicated to causing change in strange and subtle ways are often trapped by ideas of what they do and don’t deserve has always amazed me. Fuck what you deserve or don’t deserve: just go get it because you want it. Don’t come up with some faux cosmic “it is my true will” justification; go for it just because you want it. Don’t invent some reason you “need” it. Just do it because you want it. If there is some kind of karmic-rewards point system that monitors what shit people get based on their actions, trust that it is FAR too complicated for your slightly evolved monkey brain to figure out, and assume that if you want it, it’s ok to go for it. If you are concerned about God or Gods having a destiny for you,


Prompt: SHARE Gov. Scott Walker Friday named Waukesha attorney Daniel Kelly to the state Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice David Prosser. By of the Madison — Gov. Scott Walker on Friday named a little-known Waukesha lawyer with no judicial experience to the state Supreme Court, putting Daniel Kelly on the bench and keeping in place the high court's 5-2 conservative majority. Kelly — who in his application called affirmative action and slavery the same morally — will replace retiring Justice David Prosser on Aug. 1, the start of the court's new term. Kelly, 52, initially applied for the appointment in secret,

but his name became public in June, when Walker's team narrowed the field of candidates from 11 to five. Kelly took just one question from reporters after Walker announced the appointment in the state Capitol, but he declined to discuss his writings opposing affirmative action and gay marriage. "The primary and only job of a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is to apply the law as it is written and the oath that I will take will guarantee to you that my personal political beliefs and political philosophy will have no impact on that whatsoever," Kelly said. "Those things simply have no place inside the courtroom." In his application, Kelly included a 2014 book chapter in which he wrote same-sex marriage would rob marriage of any meaning and likened affirmative action to slavery. "Affirmative action and slavery differ, obviously, in significant ways," Kelly wrote. "But it's more a question of degree than principle, for they both spring from the same taproot. Neither can exist without the foundational principle that it is acceptable to force someone into an unwanted economic relationship. Morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same." Asked to discuss what he meant, Kelly remained in the background and Walker answered on his behalf, saying Kelly would not inject his personal beliefs into his work for the court. Walker declined to yield the podium to Kelly when reporters asked him to specifically answer their questions. Kelly also did not say whether he would run for a full 10-year term in 2020, but Walker said he expected that he would. Walker said he had not asked him that question when he interviewed him for the job. In his prepared remarks, Kelly said he's had a lifelong love of the law and was humbled by the appointment. "To this


Prompt: 5th episode of the fourteenth season of South Park "200" is the fifth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 200th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 14, 2010. In the episode, Tom Cruise and all other celebrities who have been mocked by residents of South Park in the past plan to file a class action lawsuit against the town, but Cruise promises to end the lawsuit if the town can get the Muslim prophet Muhammad to meet him. The episode

was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. To celebrate their landmark episode, Parker and fellow series co-creator Matt Stone combined many of South Park's past storylines and controversies. The Muhammad subplot, similar to the one previously featured in the season 10 episode "Cartoon Wars", refers to Comedy Central's past refusal to allow images of Muhammad to be shown on the network in response to the riots and threats generated from controversial cartoons in 2005 and 2007 of Muhammad in European newspapers. "200" includes many celebrities that have been mocked in previous episodes, including Cruise, Rob Reiner, Steven Spielberg, Kanye West, Paris Hilton, George Lucas, Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand. An additional subplot includes Cartman learning he may not know the true identity of his father. The 1998 season 2 episode "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut" claimed that Cartman's hermaphrodite mother is his father, but the events of "200" and the subsequent episode reveal that this is not the case. "200" received mostly positive reviews. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 3.33 million viewers, making it the most watched cable television program of the night. Both "200" and the sequel episode "201" were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2010.[1] Within a week of the episode's original broadcast date, the website for the radical Muslim organization Revolution Muslim posted an entry warning Parker and Stone that they risked being murdered for airing the episode, which several media outlets and observers interpreted as a threat. As a result, Comedy Central heavily censored portions of "201" by removing references to Muhammad and the episode's closing speech. Plot [ edit ] While on a school field trip to a candy factory, Butters spots actor Tom Cruise working there, packing fudge into


Prompt: Block Party Block Parties can be hosted year round, not just during National Night Out. If you close your street don't forget to complete your Street Closure Application through the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Block Parties can be hosted year round in the City of Portland, learn more about hosting a block party from the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Once a year there is a time for Neighborhoods throughout the Nation to gather and connect through parties big and small in an event called National Night Out. What is National Night Out? National Night Out has been celebrated across North

America on the first Tuesday of August since 1983. It's a day when people hold parties to strengthen community cohesiveness and crime resistance, and get to know their neighbors and their local public safety officials. When neighbors get to know each other, they create more connected and safer communities. Every year, more than 20,000 people in Portland participate. The Office of Community & Civic Life's Crime Prevention Program has the responsibility for coordinating National Night Out (NNO) in Portland working in partnership with many participating Bureaus; Portland Parks & Rec, Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Police Bureau, Portland Bureau of Emergency Communication, Portland Bureau of Transportation. When is National Night Out? Official date of NNO: Second Tuesday of August 2019. In Portland, residents and businesses will have the option to host parties for the whole week around National Night Out. Registration opens the first Tuesday of June, 2019 at http://www.portlandoregon.gov/civic/nno Registration closes the fourth Tuesday of July, 2019. What are the benefits of registering with the City of Portland for National Night Out? Blanket coverage noise waiver for registered parties within the allotted party week. Option to receive free "Swag" (stickers, tattoos, pencils, and more) to handout during your part Option to request visits from public safety personnel and other city staff (Fire, Police, Crime Prevention, and more) Option to have the Crime Prevention Program Publicize your party to the public to increase attendance Get contacted by your Crime Prevention Coordinator to arrange Swag pick-up, options for lawn signs, receive Crime Prevention materials and handouts and more. Are there any other forms that need to be submitted for hosting a party? If you are closing down your street for your party, you will need to complete a Street Closure Application with the Portland Bureau of Transportation at: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/66080 For questions


Prompt: Select a date Select month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August

2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 Select a category Agriculture Bihar Votes For Its (and India’s) Future BUDGET 2014 Budget 2015: Modi’s Moment of Reckoning Budget 2016: The stories behind the numbers Chart of the Day Climate Change Cover Story Currency Chaos Development Education Elections 2014 Employment Fact Check Governance Newsletter Health homepage video Hunger India’s Great Challenge: Health & Sanitation IndiaSpend In The News IndiaSpend Interviews Industry Investigations Central State Latest Headlines Latest Reports Making Sense of Breaking News Modi’s Message: India’s States Reply Modi’s Report Card Mumbai Special Mumbai Special: The Revival Agenda Opinion – Videos Opinions Pollution Poverty Prime Time: India’s Grand Challenges Resources Central State Sectors Agriculture Defence Economy & Policy Education Health Infrastructure Snapshots States Central India Chattisgarh Madhya Pradesh EAST Bihar Jharkhand Orissa West Bengal NORTH Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir New Delhi Punjab Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand NORTH EAST Arunachal Pradesh Assam Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Sikkim Tripura SOUTH Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu WEST Goa Gujarat Maharashtra Story In A Minute The Air We #Breathe The Road To Delhi: Elections 2015 The Transition: 2015-2016 Uncategorized Viznomics: A Quick Glance At Big Issues Welfare Women Women@Work Search with Google National Library of India, Kolkata “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” ― Albert Einstein They have been called “raucous clubhouses for free


Prompt: A Florida woman who claimed to be a victim of abuse yet was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for allegedly firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband was granted a new trial Thursday. The appellate court ruling erased a decision by a jury that took just 12 minutes to convict Marissa Alexander, a mother of three, of aggravated assault. The conviction of Alexander, who is black, sparked outrage and cries of a racial double standard in light of the exoneration of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, for the death of Trayvon Martin, who was black. In

particular, outrage aired on social media and among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Alexander unsuccessfully tried to invoke Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as the same prosecutors who unsuccessfully worked to put Zimmerman behind bars told the court that she did not act in self-defense. In granting the new trial, Judge James H. Daniel also seemed unmoved by the Stand Your Ground defense. "We reject her contention that the trial court erred in declining to grant her immunity from prosecution under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, but we remand for a new trial because the jury instructions on self-defense were erroneous," wrote Daniel. Alexander testified that, on Aug. 1, 2010, her then-husband, Rico Gray Sr., questioned her fidelity and the paternity of her 1-week-old child. She claimed that he broke through a bathroom door that she had locked and grabbed her by the neck. She said she tried to push past him but he shoved her into the door, sparking a struggle that felt like an "eternity." Afterwards, she claimed that she ran to the garage and tried to leave but was unable to open the garage door, so she retrieved a gun, which she legally owned. Once inside, she claimed, her husband saw the gun and charged at her "in a rage" saying, "Bitch, I'll kill you." She said she raised the gun and fired a warning shot into the air because it was the "lesser of two evils." The jury rejected the self-defense claim and Alexander was sentenced under the state's 10-20-life law, sparking outrage over how self-defense laws are applied in the state. A Florida appellate court ruled today that jury instructions, which unfairly made Alexander prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that she was acting in self-defense, were wrong -- and that there were other incorrect instructions


Prompt: “She was asking for it, dressed like that” It’s a common “rape apologist” statement. The women who are raped are blamed because they dared to present themselves as a sexual being. I think that sex bloggers get a little bit of this mentality from male readers. I present my sexual thoughts or even sexual photos. Once upon a time on this blog I even asked for HNT suggestions for new sexy photos. I don’t do that anymore for various reasons. In fact I’m not all that provocative or sexual, period, on this blog. That is a topic though for another

post. My irritation lies with the readers who “in fun” take what I give and then demand more. In the vein of “it never hurts to ask” they claim they’re being flirtatious or really just paying me a compliment. If I wanted suggestions, I would ask for them. If I wanted to post more (quantity) photos here, then I would. If I wanted to post more revealing photos here, then I would. But the key here is that it’s whatever I want to do. If you don’t like it, if you don’t find it to be “enough”….then please, seek out what you want elsewhere. There are no shortage (thank god) of sexy sex bloggers who are more revealing, more flirtatious, more interactive than I. I’ve been at this 4 years now and perhaps this is a sign to wrap things up but nonetheless I’ll thank you to keep your assumptive asshattery to yourself. What prompted this mini rant, you ask? Not just yet another guy who thinks it’s ok to ask for more (even when it should be plainly obvious that I have never / not for 3 years posted anything like it) but the utter cheek of a fellow blogger, a fellow female sex blogger (I presume, given her response, I haven’t a clue what her site is) who then takes my response to the guy and makes assumptions about HER. I don’t even know this chick. I didn’t make a derogatory comment about others who might post such photos, I didn’t say “ew gross no”. I said nothing but “I don’t do that”. My response would have been similar if someone had commented and asked “Hey that’s great, but you really should review breakfast cereal more!” to which I’d say “Um, have you read my blog, does it


Prompt: Image copyright AP Tight security is in place as airlines start to bring home Britons stranded in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh. The UK government cancelled flights to and from the resort on Wednesday amid fears a Russian passenger plane had been brought down by a terrorist bomb. Only hand luggage will be allowed on flights, with hold baggage being transported later by the government. UK investigators believe a bomb was put in the hold of the Metrojet Airbus A321 before take-off, the BBC has learned. The government says it received a crucial new piece of intelligence on Wednesday, which the BBC

understands was based on intercepted communications between militants in the Sinai. The Russian aircraft was flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg last Saturday when it crashed in the Sinai desert, killing all 224 people on board. Easyjet, Monarch, Thomson, Thomas Cook and British Airways have scheduled UK-bound flights from mid-morning local time for some of the estimated 19,000 British nationals on holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh. But Easyjet says its flights to Luton and Gatwick due to depart at 11:00 GMT have been delayed "due to congestion within the terminal building in addition to additional security procedures in place". Your travel questions answered Britons speak of Sharm el-Sheikh 'tension' Could IS have bombed Flight 9268? How has airport security changed? There will be additional security measures for passengers, put in place by British security officials who have assessed the airport. Queues were reported to be building up in the departure area of Sharm el-Sheikh airport where Britons are being asked to complete a form for each piece of hold luggage as they arrive to check in. British tourist Kate Dobbs in told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she hoped to be on one of the flights returning to the UK later. Passengers on her flight have been told they can bring up to 5kg of hand baggage, she said. "They've given us a list of the kind of thing we can take - phones and keys, that type of thing." Ms Dobbs added: "There are lot's of anger among some people although the majority... are like us. We understand we need to get home safely and that's the way in which they decided they are going to do it." Image copyright Wael Hussein/BBC Image caption British passengers have been arriving at Sharm el-Sheikh airport for their flights home Image copyright


Prompt: Political types aren't the only ones descending on Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan for a meeting with the president-elect and his transition team. On Wednesday, Donald Trump met with Hollywood heavyweight Leonardo DiCaprio and Terry Tamminen, the chief executive officer of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which "is dedicated to the long-term health and well-being of all Earth’s inhabitants," according to the foundation's mission statement. "Today, we presented the president-elect and his advisers with a framework -– which LDF developed in consultation with leading voices in the fields of economics and environmentalism -– that details how to unleash a major economic

revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure," Tamminen said in a statement. Tamminen said the meeting "focused on how [to] create millions of secure, American jobs in the construction and operation of commercial and residential clean, renewable energy generation." The meeting -- which was not announced ahead of time by the transition team -- also included a discussion about the polarizing issue of climate change. "Climate change is bigger than politics, and the disastrous effects on our planet and our civilization will continue regardless of what party holds majorities in Congress or occupies the White House," Tamminen said. And is seems that the trio will continue their dialogue. "The president-elect expressed his desire for a follow-up meeting in January, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with the incoming administration as we work to stop the dangerous march of climate change, while putting millions of people to work at the same time," Tamminen said. DiCaprio also met with Ivanka Trump and couple other Trump advisers while at Trump Tower, a source with knowledge of the meeting said. On Wednesday afternoon, former NYPD detective and 2017 New York City mayoral candidate Bo Dietl tweeted a photo of DiCaprio and Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and a member of Trump's transition team, as well as others, dining together. Earlier this week, ABC News confirmed DiCaprio recently met with Ivanka Trump and gave her a copy of his documentary "Before the Flood." The meeting occurred on the heels of Donald Trump's Monday meeting with former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore. The meeting also comes on the same day a senior Trump adviser said Trump has selected Oklahoma State Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is a strong


Prompt: If you spent time trying out interesting new Macintosh software in the early 90s, you might recognise the name Randy Ubillos. In those days software companies used to credit application developers in the splash screen they displayed while the software started up. Bill Atkinson was credited as MacPaint’s creator in 1984, Thomas and John Knoll were amongst those credited with Adobe Photoshop in 1990. I saw Randy’s memorable name for the first time in the splash screen for Premiere 1.0 when I opened it in 1992: [image by Riccardo Mori from his System Folder blog] In April 2015 Randy Ubillos

retired from Apple after many years developing video and photo applications such as Final Cut Pro and Aperture. In the 90s he wrote Adobe Premiere 1.0. He started his Mac career working at SuperMac Technologies, a Mac peripheral maker. Earlier this summer I interviewed Randy on stage at the Bay Area SuperMeetUp in San Jose, California. The evening was part of series of events organised by video user groups in the US and in Europe. The next Supermeet event takes place in September in Amsterdam and features special guest Walter Murch, who’s worked as sound or picture editor on films with George Lucas, Francis Coppola, Sam Mendes and Brad Bird. 1991 – Adobe Premiere Alex Gollner: Let’s start at the very beginning… The program that became Premiere… Randy Ubillos: …originally known as ReelTime. …was actually demo software. Tell us about that I was working for SuperMac and they were working on something called DigitalFilm – one of the very first digital video recording cards. It did quarter frame standard definition – they were pushing the limits of the JPEG chips that were available at the time and we needed some software to try it out. In about 10 weeks I put together a demo and we’d bring in people and show them editing on a computer and it was going over pretty well. The marketing department had just gotten out of software at SuperMac and they weren’t sure what to do with it and so as it got close to shipping the card in late 1991 my software was sold to Adobe and they released it as Premiere 1.0. So they sold the software and didn’t involve you? Adobe were specifically prohibited from offering me a job, because SuperMac didn’t want to lose me, so I could ask Adobe but


Prompt: Uruguay’s leader José Mujica must be one of the world’s most unusual presidents – he gives away 90% of his salary to charity and chooses to live a very basic lifestyle. Courtesy Dateline. World's 'poorest president' gives most of salary to charity 1:52 HE lives in a rundown one-bedroom house he has shared with his wife of more than 30 years and his lifestyle is a far cry from other world leaders. So it’s little wonder Uruguay President Jose Mujica, who reportedly earns around $12,000 a year and donates 90 per cent of it to charity, has been nicknamed the

world’s poorest president. Compared to US President Barack Obama who earns $400,000 in his role, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott, $500,000, Mujica is far from wealthy, but he is rich in many other ways. The popular leader not only legalised gay marriage, abortion and marijuana, but unlike most politicians seems widely liked by his own people and many others. #JoséMujica, President of #Uruguay waiting for his turn in a public hospital... That's how a leader should be pic.twitter.com/eD7e4OJy1g — Raheel Rao (@Rahealrao) September 14, 2014 Today my most inspiration comes from Jose Mujica. Salute El Presidente! — Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) September 18, 2014 Here’s seven other reasons why this ex-revolutionary is much more popular than our pollies. 1. Money isn’t important to Mujica His salary pales in comparison to other world leaders. Earning around $12,000 a year, he gives around 90 per cent to charity, the BBC reported. His wage is way below the $400,000 earned by US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron who earns around a paltry $235,000 in comparison. And it’s definitely well below the $500,000 salary our own Prime Minister Tony Abbott earned this year. 2. He’s not big on security or flash cars The Uruguayan leader is guarded by two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, the BBC reported. Mujica also drives around in an old VW Beetle ditching opulence in favour of what works. 3. Mujica has served time in jail He was a former guerilla leader in the 1960s and robbed banks to pay for uprisings across the country. The crime earned him a 13-year prison stint and torture, Dateline reported. He was released in 1985 under an amnesty at the end of the country’s dictatorship. 4. He doesn’t think highly of Australia’s asylum seeker policy “It’s not very


Prompt: We suggest that signal convergence between the sexes may reflect strong selective pressures on kin recognition, whereas signal convergence within the sexes may arise as its by-product or function independently to prevent competition between unfamiliar relatives. The link between an individual's genome and its olfactory signals could be mediated by biosynthetic pathways producing polymorphic semiochemicals or by carrier proteins modifying the individual bouquet of olfactory cues. In conclusion, we unveil a possible olfactory mechanism of kin recognition that has specific relevance to understanding inbreeding avoidance and nepotistic behavior observed in free-ranging primates, and broader relevance to understanding the mechanisms of

vertebrate olfactory communication. Despite derivation from different genital glands, labial and scrotal secretions shared about 170 of their respective 338 and 203 semiochemicals. In addition, these semiochemicals encoded information about genetic relatedness within and between the sexes. Although the sexes showed opposite seasonal patterns in signal complexity, the odor profiles of related individuals (whether same-sex or mixed-sex dyads) converged most strongly in the competitive breeding season. Thus, a strong, mutual olfactory signal of genetic relatedness appeared specifically when such information would be crucial for preventing inbreeding. That weaker signals of genetic relatedness might exist year round could provide a mechanism to explain nepotism between unfamiliar kin. Like other vertebrates, primates recognize their relatives, primarily to minimize inbreeding, but also to facilitate nepotism. Although associative, social learning is typically credited for discrimination of familiar kin, discrimination of unfamiliar kin remains unexplained. As sex-biased dispersal in long-lived species cannot consistently prevent encounters between unfamiliar kin, inbreeding remains a threat and mechanisms to avoid it beg explanation. Using a molecular approach that combined analyses of biochemical and microsatellite markers in 17 female and 19 male ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), we describe odor-gene covariance to establish the feasibility of olfactory-mediated kin recognition. We sampled 17 sexually mature females year round, during the extended nonbreeding season and the relatively limited breeding season, following published protocols [ 35 ]. Our comparable male data (on n = 19 adults) derived from a prior study [ 27 ]. We used a sequential approach to determine if genital secretions encode information about relatedness within and between the sexes. For the first analysis involving all female-female (FF) dyads, we related differences in the semiochemical secretions between dyads of females to their pairwise genetic distance. This analysis is particularly relevant to examining olfactory mechanisms guiding nepotistic or competitive behavior between members


Prompt: Truth in Packaging time… School systems consume huge amounts of tax revenue, and spend much of that money, via the time and resources it pays-for, forcing boys to act like girls. They waste the time of bright children, especially of bright boys, by forcing them to sit still and wait for duller pupils to learn lessons they have already “got”. Kleinfeld (2009) reported: middle class parents … were worried that so many of their sons had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed drugs such as Ritalin which might damage their developing brains. They suspected that teachers’

intolerance for active, boisterous boys, not their sons’ presumed deficits, was responsible. Middle class parents—all or mostly respectable citizens—were worried about schools abusing their children—if the children were boys. Sax (2007) considered over-prescription of stimulants so serious as to make it one of five main factors in the de-motivation of boys and young men. Girls didn’t seem to need worrying-about, Kleinfeld wrote later in the same paper: “ While the educational problems of girls have led to numerous policy efforts to increase their achievement in areas where they are behind, such as achievement in mathematics and science at the top, the problems of boys have been largely ignored by federal agencies, foundations, and school districts. ” Schools, over the past two generations of time, have changed to be more girl-friendly, but have demanded the boys change rather than the schools, even to the point of forcing the boys to change by drugging them (Kleinfeld, 2009; Sax, 2007, Anonymous, 2011.) Drugging children to force them to adapt to inappropriate circumstances is abuse and may constitute torture. If this were done to children of one race, rather than of one gender, it would be criminal. The only reason it is not criminal—if indeed it is not—is that laws have been written to privilege female and disempower male citizens. Imaginably, men rank lower in civil standing today than Afro-Americans have ranked since Brown v. Board of Education. Not being a lawyer nor a policeman, i don’t know whether criminal prosecution of school agents for drugging boys is possible. I would encourage it if it is—if street pushers go to prison, why not school pushers?* With the street pushers, acceptance is at least somewhat voluntary, so school drugging is worse on the face of it. If drugging stopped tomorrow, schools would still be prim,


Prompt: Abortion-rights advocates said the law would shut more than half of the clinics remaining in the state. Supreme Court blocks Texas abortion law ruling The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily halted two Texas requirements that would have forced more than half of the state’s abortion clinics to close on Wednesday. Without the emergency action, only nine clinics would have remained opened, according to abortion-rights advocates. The provisions blocked by the justices are part of a law that has shut down approximately 20 clinics since taking effect in 2013. They require that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a local hospital

and that abortion clinics meet the building standards of ambulatory surgical centers. Story Continued Below The stay will remain in effect while providers seek a full review of Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole by the high court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit had upheld most of the law earlier this month and then declined to suspend its ruling. Five justices agreed to issue the emergency stay, one more than would be necessary to take the case on its merits. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voted to deny the action, the court said. “We are confident that the justices will make clear once again that the constitutional protections for safe and legal abortions are real,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the case on behalf of the abortion providers and clinics. During a call with reporters, Northup noted that the latest action is the second time the Supreme Court has intervened on the Texas law, H.B. 2. Last fall, it reinstated a district court’s ruling to block the admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements. The soonest the justices could decide whether to take the case would be when they come back into session in October, CRR attorney Stephanie Toti said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed confidence Monday afternoon that the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the law. “H.B. 2 was a constitutional exercise of Texas’ lawmaking authority that was correctly and unanimously upheld by the 5th Circuit,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to fight for higher-quality health care standards for women while protecting our most vulnerable — the unborn.” Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry faulted the justices’ decision to keep the law from fully taking effect this


Prompt: No timetable on pulling jets, says Defence Minister Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan Canada will not pull its CF-18 fighter jets from the combat mission in Iraq and Syria if it degrades the overall capability of the coalition forces, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told SiriusXM in an interview on “Everything in Political with Evan Solomon.” “The decision for that will be based on my conversations with my counterparts, making sure that the coalition’s capability is not reduced,” the defence minister said. He said he is working on various options and will announce a decision soon. This stands in contrast to what

the Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said on Monday, when he announced that the combat mission would end imminently. “It will be a matter of weeks not months,” Dion told reporters. Dion also said pulling out Canada’s jets would be done in conjunction with Canada’s allies and rolled out alongside a new plan, but he never hinted that the defining issue would be “capability.” Sajjan also said he is considering leaving Canada’s air refueling and reconnaissance aircraft as part of the mission. The Conservative defence critic James Bezan responded to Sajjan, demanding to see the details of the Liberal plan for the military mission. He believes there have been contradictory messages sent about the nature of the mission and whether the Liberal government will eventually put more boots on the ground. “I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what the plan is because that wasn’t apparent,” says Bezan. “The defence minister is using language that’s quite different from what we’re hearing from the Prime Minister,” he said. Bezan said the Prime Minister has said in the House that Canada needs to fight ISIS in its own territory. “Does that mean boots on the ground?” he asked. The defence minister joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Pearson airport on Thursday night to greet the incoming Syrian refugees, but Sajjan says the government is trying to avoid using military bases to house more refugees. “We are trying to, hopefully, not even be able to use military bases, but if it’s needed, we are available for that purpose,” the minister said. Today the threat level from ISIS was raised in Geneva after suspects related to the Paris attacks are being tracked by police, but the defence minister maintains his previous statement that Canada has nothing to fear from ISIS. “Canada should not fear ISIS,


Prompt: 'Maturity Is Greatly Overrated': The Conversation With Ronda Rousey UFC Champion Ronda Rousey explains why she doesn't like calling herself a "role model." NEXT VIDEO Ed Mullholland for ESPN Who could doubt Ronda Rousey's seriousness on press day for UFC 184? In this signature espnW series, we sit down for a candid Q&A with a remarkable person. Our aim is to cover topics high and low, deep and less so, to present a fresh look at folks we think we know and meet some others we wish we'd known all along. Welcome to The Conversation. Caution: Adult themes and language

ahead. *** Who: Ronda Rousey, undefeated women's UFC bantamweight champion. Who else: Her best friend, Marina Shafir. Where: Threadgill's Restaurant, Austin, Texas. When: March 14, 2015. Ronda Rousey: I think we should have a prickly pear margarita. I worked hard the last couple days. I deserve it. Allison Glock: I wholeheartedly agree. What size? RR: [side-eyeing] Uh, large. I'm f------ Ronda Rousey. [Laughs.] I'm officially changing my name to "F------ Ronda Rousey." WAITRESS: Can we get your drinks? RR: I want a prickly pear margarita! Ten ounce. And get some top-shelf tequila. WAITRESS: It only comes one way. Can I just see your ID? RR: Here's my bartender's license. Do you want to see that? AG: You have to have a license to bartend? RR: In California, yeah. As soon as I turned 21, I was bartending. I learned so much from the job, social lessons I didn't learn from judo. Especially about doing press. AG: How's that? RR: As a bartender, I am having pretty much the identical conversation over and over all day, but I still have to be present and genuine with every single response and try to get the other person to like me because that's what gets you tips. And really, how is that different from media? I did an appearance with fans recently, and people were like, "Are you getting tired of this?" And I'm thinking, "No, this is the same as Mother's Day at Gladstones. Instead of giving out drinks, I'm giving out signed pictures." AG: You worked at Gladstones in Malibu? RR: I wore the red polo and the blue hat. The khakis. And then they made me start wearing skirts. It was bulls---. I got skorts instead. I wasn't about to be working in a skirt. AG: You've evolved from not


Prompt: 9-month-old Connor Richardson (Facebook.com) A 9-month-old boy with an aggressive brain tumor received a letter from his family’s insurance company explaining that treating the cancer would be too expensive and therefore “not medically necessary.” ‘Dear Connor Richardson,” the letter said, according to The Daily Beast, “As HIP Health Plan of New York, we try hard to provide you with access to quality health care services that meet your needs. When we decide to deny coverage for treatment or service, we want to make sure you know why.” Connor’s father — retired NYPD officer Wayne Richardson — told The Daily Beast’s

Michael Daly that at 7 months old, his son had a frightening crying jag late one night. The baby’s eyes popped open, wide and staring. “Not like a regular baby, like when somebody dies,” Richardson said. Connor was diagnosed with a rare aggressive teratoid rhabdoid brain tumor that was blocking blood flow to his spine. Doctors removed the tumor, but the cancer returned. St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN opted to place the baby on a combination of four drugs plus an experimental medication in a desperate bid to save his life. “He’ll die if you don’t do it,” said Richardson. However, the family’s insurer has deemed that the lifesaving treatment is “not medically necessary” and warned Connor, “If you decide to have this service you may have to pay it yourself.” “When we reviewed the information given to us about this request, we have decided to deny coverage of the following medical service(s) or item(s) that you or your provider asked for: Inpatient Hospitalization to St. Jude Hospital from 10/4/2017-10/10/2017. We have determined that the service(s) are not medically necessary,” the letter explained. “This letter is your Initial Adverse Determination. This means we are denying your quest for coverage of the requested service(s).” Then, in a bold-typed section, the company explained to Connor — as if he were his own child: “Your child is a 9 month old boy who was diagnosed with a high grade brain tumor. Your child was treated with surgical removal of his tumor at Stony brook Hospital. After your son was discharged you enrolled him in a clinical trial at St. Jude’s hospital. The principal investigator has requested medications including methotrexate, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine in combination with an investigational medication, alisertib. This combination of medications is not the standard of care for this


Prompt: Oh, you mean government did build that? Oops. Well, the Romney campaign did it again. Another day, another set of local business owners cited by the Mitt camp as having gotten where they are without the help of government exposed as hugely dependent on government. And this one, via the Tampa Bay Times, isn't even subtle: The point of the 11 a.m. news conference was to stress that small business owners succeed because of their own grit and determination and don't need government to do it. [...] In Tampa, the campaign spotlighted Rebecca Smith, owner of the construction company A.D.

Morgan Corp., and Lou Ramos, owner of Value Enterprise Solutions, an information technology company. The A.D. Morgan Corporation employs 50 people and has annual revenues of about $80 million, according to its website. The company lists more than 130 projects and developments. Impressive, no doubt. But the list is nearly all government projects. [...] "We're not going to have an opportunity in the private sector, they have a tendency to use lump sum, low bid," Smith said, explaining how government bids work. "So by virtue of what it is that we do, we go to the client base that purchases construction services that way." As for Ramos, his company's Facebook page describes Value Enterprise Solutions as "providing value added service/education to businesses, local government, federal government, Department of Defense, and industry contract organizations." [...] In the Air Force for 24 years, Ramos dismissed the role it played in providing him the training and expertise to run his business today. "It wasn't handed to me," Ramos said. "I worked my butt off. My military experience taught me integrity. But that didn't come from the government." Well, that sounds fine, then. John Galt would be proud. Wait—but what's this?So the company can't compete in the private sector, and deals almost exclusively in government-backed projects, but the owner is outraged that Obama would imply that government helps businesses. And here's the other one:Oh, gawd. Keep in mind, this is after an entire week of ads events that similarly featured businesses that had received very direct help from the government . It appears that the Mitt Romney campaign is supported almost entirely by people whose businesses have received taxpayer money but are so arrogant that they're not willing to admit it. He's gone on a nationwide hunt to find Republican business owners who will


Prompt: Doug Jones made an appeal for "decency" to prevail over partisanship. Deeply conservative Alabama apparently listened, overturning a quarter-century of voting habits to elect him on Tuesday night in a stunning rebuff of the president, of an anti-establishment insurgency and of sexual harassment in Congress, Alabama politicos said. Jones, a former prosecutor, became the first Democrat in 25 years from the deeply red state to be elected to the U.S. Senate seat, edging out his Republican rival Roy Moore, an accused child molester and Bible-quoting former judge, in a test of the limits of political tribalism. Jones's upset victory on

reliably red soil suggested Moore's alleged sexual predation of teen girls when the ex-jurist was in his thirties may have been too much for Republican voters to stomach. Moore denies the allegations. 'Voters will only be pushed so far' "Turnout didn't decide the election," tweeted Republican Alabama strategist Blake Harris, noting that some 22,000 votes were recorded as write-ins for alternative candidates. "Republicans who showed up but who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Moore decided it." "This shows there are limitations to partisanship. Even in a Republican state," Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster, said from Jones's Birmingham victory party. "Voters will only be pushed so far. And then they push back. That's what happened tonight." Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore pauses as he addresses supporters at his election night party in Montgomery, Ala. Moore's loss spells trouble for the so-called Trump effect. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) He said Alabamians were tired of being "embarrassed" by politicians. For U.S. President Donald Trump, the upset victory by Jones throws into doubt the value of his political capital, with the commander-in-chief now 0-2 in Alabama Senate races. Trump supported Republican candidate Luther Strange in the primary before Strange lost to Moore. Trump then endorsed Moore, to no avail. The result spells trouble for the so-called Trump effect, said Joseph Smith, chair of the political science department at the University of Alabama. "Donald Trump is not a kingmaker," he said. "He does not have enough influence over voters to change races." 'Earth-shaking for Alabama' Establishment Republican lawmakers who felt pressured for the sake of their seats to abide by the president's agenda might now feel more emboldened to buck some of his policies, as well as the populist movement within the party, Smith said. "This changes the calculus for current Republican senators," he said,


Prompt: This morning Salesforce Tower had its ceremonial topping off, which included a press conference with the mayor, several supervisors, the developer, and CEO Marc Benioff, and the hoisting of the "final" steel beam  signed by the construction crew and whoever else wanted to  up to the top story. Local media was given their first opportunity to ride to the top floor on a hardhat tour, and yes, the views do not suck. At 1,070 feet, the building is still being touted as the tallest office building west of Chicago  which is true, however the title of tallest

building west of Chicago now belongs to Los Angeles' Wilshire Grand, which kind of cheated for the title with a spire that brings its height to 1,099 feet. Benioff announced today that the 61st floor of the building, the highest glass-walled floor of the structure beneath the translucent screened "cap," will not in fact be his personal office suite, but will instead be a gathering space they're calling the Ohana Floor  Benioff is fond of Hawaiian culture, and the word "ohana," which means family, is used at the company to represent the "family" of employees. During the day, the floor will be used as conference and event space for Salesforce employees and customers, and at night and presumably some weekends, the space will be opened up for use by community partners, non-profits, and others, free of charge. “I am deeply grateful to everyone working on Salesforce Tower as we celebrate this incredible milestone," said Benioff. "My hope for this building is that its meaning goes beyond its beautiful glass and steel structure. May the meaning of Salesforce Tower be the people within it who are deeply committed to making this city a better place for all of its citizens." Supervisor Jane Kim, in whose district the tower has been rising over the last several years, says that back when she took office in 2011 all she heard from other developers about the project was "it's too big," and she joked, "It was the only time ever that you had developers saying something should be smaller." But after securing Salesforce as an anchor tenant in 2014  the company will be occupying the bottom 30 floors (3 through 30) along with floors 60 and 61  the project was on much more solid financial footing. Architect Fred Clarke, senior principal


Prompt: Historical information about the Mental Patients Union, formed in London in 1973 to oppose psychiatric oppression, written by Past Tense. The Mental Patients Union (MPU), in the early 1970s, could probably be seen as the first service user involvement movement. Founder member Andrew Roberts described the Union’s genesis: “The idea of a Mental Patients Union was first developed by a small group of mental patients and supporters back in December 1972. A pamphlet was produced — which came to be known as the Fish Pamphlet (it had a picture of a fish struggling on a hook on the cover) —

that was strongly Marxist in its analysis. Its argument was that psychiatry was a form of social control of the working classes in a capitalist state, and that the psychiatrist was the “high priest” of technological society, exorcising the “devils” of social distress through electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), lobotomy and medication. The thinking was that, in the same way that workers formed trade unions, mental patients also needed a union to fight for their rights against political oppression and social control. There were six of us involved in setting up the union: Liz Durkin, Brian Douieb, Lesley Mitchell, Eric Irwin, me and my partner Valerie Argent, but only Eric, Valerie and I were mental patients. Valerie and I were mainly focused on forming the union. We didn’t participate in the political analysis, or sign the Fish Pamphlet. The group planned to hold its first public meeting at Paddington day hospital, where Liz had been a social worker. She had been making contact with the press to promote the cause for a Mental Patients Union. The idea of the union caught the fancy of Radio 4’s Today programme and they asked her to come and talk about it on the programme on the morning of the meeting. Liz realised they were asking her because she was a social worker, but at a “council of war” meeting we decided we wouldn’t take part unless they agreed to interview a patient — and that we wouldn’t give them any information about the patient, whether they were from Broadmoor or whatever. We had this idea that we’d line up in the studio and say: “Spot the loony.” They took three or four hours to ring us and agree to interview a patient. They needed time to think about that. In the end, I was the


Prompt: Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali said Sunday that Fox News's Eric Bolling is attempting to intimidate him into silence by filing a $50 million dollar defamation lawsuit against his reporting. "He is trying to intimidate me. He sees me as a young reporter that may be scared by big lawsuits. But if he wants to wade into this pond, I'm happy to go in with him," Ali host Brian Stelter on CNN's "Reliable Sources." Ali pointed out that the lawsuit goes after him personally, rather than naming The Huffington Post. The media outlet has said it will stand with Ali

regarding a story that included claims by multiple women who allege Bolling sent them lewd pictures. "My life history has given me a lot of experience to not be scared by these things," Ali said. ADVERTISEMENT Ali also said he stands by his report, which he said he verified with 14 sources. Bolling has denied the allegations. Ali called Bolling "wrong" for his decision to take legal action. "He's wrong because I spent three months on this story. As you said, I have 14 sources. I've spoken to the victims, and that's on a factual basis. I know he's wrong," Ali continued, adding that "the best defense of defamation is the truth." Ali said Bolling's intent to intimidate him is clear because Bolling filed the lawsuit against him personally, not against his company that has a multibillion-dollar parent. "It's really important to note, Brian, that he's suing me personally for $50 million. He did not include HuffPost, which is owned by Verizon, in this lawsuit. If he wants $50 million, if you feel that you've been aggrieved and you deserve damages, you go after the multibillion-dollar conglomerate, not an individual reporter," Ali told Stelter. Ali said he welcomes the opportunity to depose the Fox News host, saying he hopes his case will serve as an example to other journalists should they face similar legal actions. "I relish the opportunity to see and being deposed and to stand up for not only my First Amendment rights, the First Amendment Rights of many reporters who messaged me after this came out, saying that they would be scared by this kind of action," Ali said. "And, you know, I'm not trying to turn myself into a representative for the media here, but I feel like I have to really fight this because of


Prompt: In a Reuters Exclusive, John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke reveal that the National Security Agency shares information it gleans from warrantless surveillance of Americans with the Special Operation Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which then uses the metadata to develop cases against US citizens. The DEA then routinely lies to the judge and defense attorneys during discovery about how its agents initially came by their suspicions of wrongdoing. But you could imagine a situation where a young woman repeatedly called a boyfriend who was secretly known to the DEA to be a drug dealer, but whose crimes were unknown

to her. And you could imagine law enforcement entrapping her into making a small drug buy. And then you could imagine their secretly basing their case against her in part on her phone calls to a known dealer. But this latter information would be denied to her defense attorney and the judge, making it harder to discern the entrapment. All these stories about the government’s quest for Total Information Awareness about the phone calls, email, internet searches, etc. of 312 million ordinary Americans raise some questions in my mind. There are so many things about these stories that don’t make sense. 1. The government says that they need everyone’s phone records because they want to see who calls known overseas terrorists from the US. But if the NSA had a telephone number of a terrorist abroad and wanted to see if it was called from the US, why couldn’t it just ask the telephone company for the record of everyone who called it? It isn’t true that it would take too much time. It would be instant. Obviously, the government wants the telephone records of millions of Americans for some other reason. 2. If the real reason they are getting our phone records from the phone companies is to check for drug sales and other petty crime inside the US not related to terrorism, and if they are lying to judges about how they initially came to know of these crimes, aren’t the NSA, DEA and other government officials violating the Constitutional guarantee of due process? Are they focusing on drug buys because law enforcement can confiscate the property of drug dealers, whereas busting other kinds of crime actually costs time and money? And, hasn’t their dishonesty and its revelation just put in danger thousands of drug convictions? 3. If


Prompt: Labour’s travails with the media are more deadly than it thinks ‘People don’t vote for a divided party; we’ve got to learn some lessons about how we handle the media.’ So said John McDonnell during a recent LSE lecture, and frankly amen to that. Five months in, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party has formed a relationship of sorts with the press, but it remains an uneasy one. Talk to lobby journalists and the complaint is not, as Corbyn’s loyal fans imagine, that the wrong guy won. It is that the leader’s inner circle do not understand what reporters want. The rehiring

last month of formerly disgraced spin doctor Damian McBride to advise Emily Thornberry will be welcomed by many hacks – if not by the colleagues McBride sometimes briefed against – on the grounds that at least he knows a story when he sees one. Forget the comforting fiction that Corbyn would be polling over 40 per cent if only the wicked Murdoch press/BBC/mainstream media were not out to get him. Nothing good comes of blaming everyone but yourself for being unpopular, and, while a fierce sense of being oppressed by the establishment is hardwired into large parts of the left, there is something faintly surreal about claiming victimisation by the rightwing press even as it moves on to ripping the Tories apart over Europe. The truth is that newspapers thrive commercially by reflecting, not driving, readers’ opinions of individual politicians, and often fall flat on their faces when attempting the latter. Neither Rupert Murdoch nor Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre ever rated David Cameron much – the Daily Mail twice backed Ken Clarke for leader, which did not end well – but so long as their readers liked him, he got a relatively easy ride. Watch them turn the minute that that is no longer the case. That said, Corbynistas are right in their complaint that the rightwing press outguns the leftwing press in terms of newspaper market share. And, with the closure of both Independent print titles, the number of sympathetic outlets for Labour has further reduced. Social media is an increasingly important news source for the JezWeCan generation but Twitter, the liberal left’s favourite meeting place, is shedding users. The BBC is watched and trusted by millions, and since it is statutorily obliged to be impartial, is crucial to levelling an otherwise uneven playing field. But it too


Prompt: QUEEN ANNE, Md. -- Maryland's Route 404 sees an average of 20,000 cars daily but there are also a high number of deaths seen on the highway. That's why the state's department of transportation is working on widening the road as part of a new $1.97 billion infrastructure project. Travelers can expect heavy traffic in the coming months as construction continues to widen Maryland's Route 404 between Starr Rd. and Route 50. The two lane road will turn into a four lane highway from west of Route 309 to east of Tuckahoe Creek. State lawmakers have pressed to make widening

Route 404 a priority since it's notorious for bad accidents and fatalities. Jill Kinnamon works at Hot Off the Coals BBQ right off the highway and says traffic can be terrible when there's an accident. "People get a lot of rear ends and we just had a tractor trailer accident down the road not too long ago with a fatality," the diner manager said. Philip Smith grew up in Denton and now lives in Baltimore. He says now that he travels back and forth to the beach, a four-lane highway is necessary. "I know growing up before this was just two lanes all the way to Bridgeville so it was kind of annoying to us when I lived here," said Smith. "Of course I'm for it because the faster we can get to the beach and to my family's house the easier it is." Widening the 404 highway should hopefully improve safety and streamline traffic, but at what cost? The diner where Kinnamon works is also a family-owned Shell gas station where the owners have had to sell much of their land to the state. Kinnamon says all of their roadside advertisements are gone. Most of their parking lot is gone and soon most of the station's entry points will be gone as well. "They want to take our access from 404 away from us and have our new entry point at the back of the building," said Kinnamon. That's a problem for the 15-year old business since the owners say this new access road may not be easily seen from such a busy highway. "Consumers aren't going to notice or want to get off of the highway to try to find out how to get back in here," the manager said. It's just one of many problems businesses and


Prompt: -- by Mary Bottari and Sean Hoey Generation Opportunity (Gen Opp), a "nonpartisan" youth group funded by the Koch brothers "Freedom Partners" conduit, is backing one of the Koch's favorite politicians and thanking him for his support for a Koch-approved ALEC model bill. The Arlington, Virginia, astroturf group recently asked Wisconsinites to sign a petition thanking Governor Scott Walker for signing "The CASE for Jobs Act." The tweets signal that the group is trying to capture names in Wisconsin perhaps for use in the election cycle. As CMD previously reported, the group has been spending big money in federal races

for the U.S. Senate. The tweets from @GenOppWI went viral on Twitter, but not for the reasons the group would have hoped. Rather, Wisconsinites reacted viscerally to the call to thank Wisconsin's governor for making progress on jobs. "@GenOppWI Is this a joke?" was one of the milder and more common responses pouring into the Gen Opp account, prompting one Walker supporter to lament, "I can't believe the negative replies." Wisconsinites Aren't Buying Gen Opp Spin on Jobs Gen Opp signaled its support for Walker by thanking him "for giving our generation an opportunity to build our own future." How are Wisconsin youth building their future? Apparently by "crowdfunding" capital. Just a few months before the election, Gen Opp has begun peddling a petition to thank Walker for signing the CASE for Jobs Act, which he signed into law eight months ago. The bill in question was co-authored by Wisconsin ALEC members Rep. David Craig, Rep. Chad Weininger, and State Senator Leah Vukmir. Vukmir, an ALEC Board Member, was sued by the Center for Media and Democracy for failure to respond to our open records requests. The state attorney general settled the case with CMD in 2014, paying penalties and fees. Drafting documents obtained by CMD reveal that the CASE Act was modeled on a North Carolina bill, the "Jump-Start Our Business Start-Ups Act" (JOBS Act). It, too, was introduced by a passel of ALEC politicians, including Kelly Hastings, Tom Murry, and Tim Moffitt. So it's not surprising that the bill then moved to ALEC and became ALEC's Local Investment Made Easy (LIME) Act, which was on the ALEC agenda in Kansas City in April 2014. It was approved as a "model" by ALEC's board, which includes Koch Industries, on July 1, 2014. Under the bill businesses are granted exemptions


Prompt: Fifty-four years after he accidentally wandered across the eastern frontier into India following the 1962 war with China, a Chinese soldier has returned home to Xi’an to a hero’s welcome. “I’m finally home!” Wang Qi (77) sobbed as he arrived at Xi’an’s airport in an emotional reunion carried on state television in China. “Today is my happiest day in 54 years. Finally I have come back to this beautiful lovely country. Words cannot express how I feel now,” he said as he hugged his tearful brothers and sisters. He was accompanied by his son, Vishnu Wang (35), daughter-in-law Neha and

grand-daughter, Khanak Wang. His Indian wife Shushila, however, stayed behind in India as she was ill. Building roads Mr Wang had been a surveyor with the Chinese military following the brief war with India in 1962 and had been building roads for the Chinese army when he strayed into Indian territory at Assam. “I had gone out of my camp for a stroll but lost my way. I was tired and hungry. I saw an Indian Red Cross vehicle and asked them to help me. They handed me over to the Indian army,” he said. Mr Wang was moved around between various jails for seven years after he was jailed for espionage, before his release in 1969. He ended up in a remote village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where he married and worked in a flour mill, living in poverty and sending many letters to his family in Shaanxi province expressing his desire to come home. Mr Wang began the process of applying for the necessary documents to leave India in 1977, but he only received a passport in 2013. He was never granted Indian citizenship. Finally back It was a report by the BBC that highlighted his plight on Chinese social media and expedited efforts to get him a passport. Arriving in his home city of Xianyang, he was met by crowds carrying banners. The reunion took place on the same day as China’s Lantern Festival, a day that traditionally represents reunion. “After all these years, he is finally back,” Wang Shun, who had prepared a quilt for Mr Wang, told the Xinhua news agency. “We bought the furniture in this room many years ago.” A local villager Wang Ming said Mr Wang had not changed much. “I can still recognise him . . .


Prompt: Four players have retained the Premier League Golden Boot award: Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, and Robin van Persie are the first three. They've got 602 English top flight goals between them and are regarded among the best to ever play in this country. Last Sunday, Harry Kane became the latest. This season Kane (29) scored more goals than Middlesbrough (27). There were six hat tricks scored in the Premier League this season and Kane scored four of them. His goals were scored in 30 games, at a ratio of one every 87 minutes. What's even more remarkable about Kane's feats

this term (four against Leicester and three at Hull in the final two games eventually getting him over the line) is that he reached these remarkable heights despite missing two chunks of the season with separate ankle injuries. These ailments forced him to miss eight league games, but what's incredible isn't just that he missed those two spells, but more the speed of his recovery. In September it was predicted he'd miss two months, but he was back in a little over six weeks; there were similar fears in March, but ultimately he returned after a month. And he scored in his first game back both times, too. There is often a tendency in England to overhype players, but in Kane's case there's a sense he's underrated. By any rational standard, Kane is world-class, even if that is a nebulous term without clear definition. We are, after all, perfectly prepared to place players like Alexis Sanchez, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero into that bracket, but Kane isn't routinely classed among the finest in the world. With the caveat that goals aren't the sole marker of players' class, Kane has scored more than all of those players this season. In the last three seasons, he has scored 75 in the Premier League, ahead of Aguero, on 70. Throw in another three the season before, plus 21 in other competitions, and his career total for Tottenham is 99, from 131 starts. There's enough evidence to confirm his status now. At first glance, he still doesn't look particularly special -- despite being a fine athlete he doesn't have a single "eye-catching" physical quality, like pace, rippling power or a bullet header -- but something intangible marks him out, specifically that he thinks in a different way to many footballers. When he's in the