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“We’re not doing a good job on behalf of children of Yolo County,” he told the other four supervisors.
Never mentioning Bonus Toddler’s name or details of the case, Rexroad offered a foster parent’s eye view of the child welfare system. Using PowerPoint and his persuasive powers, Rexroad explained that Yolo County has an outdated procedure for determining whether to reunite a family. There is, he said, no evidence that ...
Lawyers appointed by Yolo County, he said, don’t specialize in representing parents or children. Instead, they defend a child’s interest in one hearing, a mother in the next and a father in a third. By representing every party, lawyers can’t represent anyone well, least of all the most important person, the child.
The county uses an algorithm, he said, that permits reunification if the risk of abuse within an 18-month period is between 11 percent and 31 percent, quite a range. What adult would roll the dice if there is even an 11 percent chance of abuse?
He urged his colleagues to place the Child Welfare Services Department into receivership. That didn’t happen. But the board told the county administrator, Patrick Blacklock, to focus on the issue immediately. The board also agreed to Rexroad’s request that Yolo County welfare workers cease automatically reuniting child...
Being a child welfare worker is tough duty. In Yolo County, with a population of 200,000, there ought to be 50 child welfare workers, except there are eight vacancies. They oversee 569 open cases, including 245 children 17 or younger in foster care.
A bill by Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, approved last year seeks to greatly reduce counties’ reliance on group homes for foster kids. To comply, counties will need to recruit large numbers of adults willing to accept the responsibility of rearing another parent’s child. Rexroad isn’t sure he’d do it again, k...
Over coffee on Wednesday, Rexroad recalled that during his days as a Capitol staffer for Republican legislators in the 1990s, he’d see legislation that would undermine parental rights. A libertarian by nature, he would align with parents, not government. Now, he isn’t so certain.
Libertarianism depends on individuals being able to care for themselves. Children cannot fend for themselves. It also depends on information. There is no free flow of information in the child welfare system.
The Rexroads became foster parents believing their family could handle a new addition, and because of their Christian faith. In a sense, Rexroad was paying forward his childhood. He was adopted when he was an infant.
“We have paid an enormous price,” he said.
Now that Bonus Toddler has been reunited with his mother, the Rexroads get visitation, for the moment. They spent an hour and half together on Tuesday. The little boy played with his toys and touched everything he had grown to know in his first 25 months of life. After the time was up, and he had to go, Bonus Toddler c...
We have a situation in the United States and NATO, along with the belligerent State of Israel, where the ruling elite believe that it is ultimately possible to win a nuclear war. Think about that "To win a nuclear war". Anyone with half a brain should consider this, and ask themselves the question of how is it possible...
Maybe, and this is a very small maybe, if just one or two nuclear weapons could subdue Iran, well maybe the it would be possible to "win" a nuclear war. The facts just don't support this however. One or two nuclear devices would not put a dent in the conventional capability of Iran. Iran is a nation that has the power ...
The "conventional wisdom" is that we would of course use nuclear weapons. The powers that be don't take into account that recent studies in which two "minor" nuclear states using nuclear weapons against each other would cause a nuclear winter that would last from 8-10 years. The Earth without sunlight for that period o...
Let us also consider exactly what it is that Iran is guilty of. Sure they are building nuclear reactors that they say is for power generation for their nation. They are also enriching uranium to 20%. Regardless of what you read in the government-controlled mass media, this behavior is permitted under the Nuclear Non-Pr...
We have nuclear weapons in the direct command and control of "regional field commanders". What does that mean exactly? What is a "tactical nuclear weapon" anyway? When I was in the Army I worked on a Nike-Hercules surface to air missile site and we also had "tactical nuclear warheads" in our inventory. While they were ...
Our government has been talking about "limited nuclear war" for so long now that I believe that they have fallen for their own rhetoric. Who will guarantee that "just enough" nukes will rain down on Iran and win this "all-important war" that could sacrifice the human race? Who will guarantee that all the Russian and Ch...
Even if we believed we could take out Iran with "conventional forces", how long would it be before millions of well-trained and motivated Iranian soldiers poured over the Iraqi border and attacked our military bases in Iraq? What would our response be? My bet would that we would go into the much-touted "toolbox" and us...
It really is time for the American people to wake up and smell the apocalypse that's brewing right under our noses. We have a military and a government that is so out of touch with reality that they can't even see the ramifications of what they are proposing. What good is all the Middle Eastern oil in the world if it's...
African elephants understand us like few other animals do.
Researchers at the University of St. Andrews found that these elephants were able to understand human gestures directing them to certain places.
In this case, the elephants were pointed to hidden snacks, which were put in nearby containers.
They found that 68 percent of the time the elephants wandered over to the containers to have a look at what the fuss was about.
In contrast, a one-year-old human will do so 73 percent of time.
''Our results showed that elephants spontaneously attend to and correctly interpret human … gestures without extensive prior learning opportunities - the only non-human species so far to show this ability,'' said study co-author Richard Byrne.
The researchers believe that there is something innate about the gesture of pointing in elephants (maybe with their trunk?).
''We suggest that the most plausible account of our elephants' ability to interpret even subtle human pointing gestures as communicative is that human pointing …. taps into elephants' natural communication system,'' said Byrne.
Animals reacting to human gestures are much debated in the scholarly community who ponder whether it's because domesticated dogs and cats live so close to humans or maybe it is something else within them.
The study was conducted in an elephant rehabilitation center in Zimbabwe.
It was published in the journal Current Biology.
Freeform has given a put pilot order to a reboot of “Party of Five,” Variety has confirmed.
The new series hails from original “Party of Five” creators Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman. The original series followed the five Salinger siblings who must band together after their parents died in a car accident. It ran for six seasons and over 140 episodes on Fox from 1994-2000.
The new series would feature an immigration twist and would follow the Buendias siblings, whose parents are unexpectedly deported to Mexico.
Keyser and Lippman will serve as writers and executive producers. Michal Zebede will write and co-executive produce. Rodrigo Garcia is set to direct and also executive produce. Sony Pictures Television Studios will produce.
In addition, Freeform is also developing a series based on the legendary Egyptian ruler Cleopatra, who, after being exiled as a young woman, decides to stand up against the patriarchy and fight back for her freedom and rightful place as heir. This tale will follow her rise and transition to becoming not only the first,...
The project originally received a put pilot commitment at NBC in 2012, but is now being redeveloped for Freeform as the network’s first period piece. The series will be produced by ABC Signature Studios. Michael Sietzman will write and executive produce, with Christina Davis, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Daniel McDermott an...
Fiz, the UK startup behind the “social discovery” app for iOS and Android that helps you find places based on things to do, has closed a seed round totalling £200,000 (~$305k) to further develop its platform and build its community.
The funding comes from the company’s two co-founders — husband and wife team David and Sarah Hughes — a well as former Expedia VP of emerging markets Murad Hajeebhoy, and an unnamed “high net worth individual” who is said to have a background in the travel industry.
Hajeebhoy, who along with Expedia was previously e-commerce consultant at Thomas Cook, is also joining Fiz as Director responsible for developing strategic partnerships.
Fiz’s service is targeted at anyone planning their leisure time — from a day out to a full holiday itinerary – by consolidating the information they need in a single app. It pulls in data from various online sources, as well its own user-generated database, to provide access to maps, directions, telephone numbers, revi...
However, the emphasis isn’t on just showing highly rated places — though it does pull in tips from Foursquare and supports checking in to said service. Users can browse by leisure categories: Fun & Leisure, Nature & Outdoors, Food & Drink, Faith & Spirit, Health & Wellbeing, Sport & Fitness, Art & Culture. The idea is ...
Finally, Fiz contributors earn karma points for every action they take in the app, such as rating a location. The startup says that these points will eventually be converted into real-world rewards for the top contributors.
The app is free, and I’m told that future revenue models could include content syndication and affiliate marketing, as well as partner tools e.g. white labelling. Fiz’s competitors include a whole host of location-aware, social leisure/travel apps. The likes of Gogobot spring to mind, or something like Minube, though t...
Originally Published: February 7, 2019 9:52 p.m.
Her sound is reminiscent of Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Bublé, according to a news release from Yavapai College Marketing Specialist Michael Grady.
Skonberg’s 2012 album “So Is the Day,” showcasing a developing flair for original songs and new takes on standards” received rave reviews from critics and pushed her to the forefront of today’s musical talents, according to Skonberg’s online biography. She followed it up in 2015 with the album “Into Your Own” and recei...
In 2016, she signed to Sony Music Masterworks’ OKeh Records and her debut LP, “Bria,” won a Canadian JUNO Award and made the Top Five on Billboard jazz charts. Her second Sony album, “With a Twist” released in 2017.
Not only has Skonberg’s music received more than 6 million streams online, she has also won the Best Vocal and Best Trumpet awards form Hot House Jazz Magazine, Outstanding Jazz Artist from the New York Bistro Awards, DownBeat Rising Star and she was nominated for Jazz Journalists Association Up and Coming Artist in 20...
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show start at $32 and are available online at www.ycpac.com, by calling 928-776-2000 or at the box office.
Yavapai College Performing Arts Center is located at 1100 E. Sheldon St.
For more information on Skonberg, visit www.briaskonberg.com.
Attempts to reach Skonberg for an interview were unsuccessful.
Marks & Spencer in Cambridge is to host fortnightly stress-busting mental health chat sessions as part of a project fronted by comedian and campaigner Ruby Wax.
The Frazzled Cafe meetings, which will take place in 11 stores across the country, will allow people to meet to talk and share personal stories "in a safe, anonymous and non-judgmental environment", the retailer announced.
Alongside Cambridge, the stores will include three in London, Brighton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Canterbury and Norwich, with more locations to be added throughout the year.
The sessions will take place in M&S cafes after hours and will be led by trained volunteer facilitators with the Cambridge cafe launching in the next few months.
Frazzled Cafe was successfully trialled in M&S offices and stores last year as part of the company's Plan A eco and ethical initiative.
Ruby Wax, who announced the launch at London Book Fair, said: "We live in a time where to have a life crammed to the hilt is considered a success story. But with all this pressure, so many of us have nowhere to go to meet and talk about it.
"Frazzled Cafe is about people coming together to share their stories, calmly sitting together, stating their case and feeling validated as a result. Feeling heard, to me, has always been half the cure.
"It's special to get a company like M&S on board. I'm grateful for the set-up support they've given us and access to their cafe network is a huge boost."
Sacha Berendji, retail director at M&S, said: "Ruby's Frazzled Cafe is a simple, pressure-free way of tackling what can be a taboo subject - feeling stressed.
"We hope that by providing free and calm venues after the cafe has closed, we can help any members of the community who simply need to talk about things and what's happening in their lives."
ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government will decide next Friday how to handle a draft treaty on future ties with the European Union, a spokesman said after a cabinet meeting on Friday.
He gave no details about Friday’s discussion of the pact, which Brussels has sought for a decade. Four years of negotiations have not yielded a breakthrough on a deal with Switzerland’s biggest trade partner.
But it has met opposition from both anti-EU far-right and normally pro-Europe center-left parties in Switzerland, leaving the four-party coalition to walk a delicate line as it balances commercial interests against Swiss sovereignty.
The talks have been complicated by Britain’s separate negotiations on EU divorce terms, with the European Commission loath to be soft on non-member Switzerland for fear of providing ammunition to Brexiteers.
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A German historian has accused the British of "betraying" an anti-communist uprising in the early years of the German Democratic Republic which was eventually put down by Soviet tanks.
In a book published to coincide with today's 50th anniversary of the uprising, Hubertus Knabe claims that the western powers, in particular Britain led by Winston Churchill, declined to intervene because they feared a reunited Germany.
Churchill rebuked a British commander who protested about the execution of a west Berlin student caught in the east and praised the Russians for their restraint.
Mr Knabe, author of 17th June 1953: A German Uprising, said: "The demonstrators were bitterly disappointed, after the west's rhetoric about the liberation of Europe, and the encouragement of resistance, that when they went out on the streets, they received no support."
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of East Germany in demonstrations which began as a protest against increased work quotas and spiralled into demands for free elections. Red Army tanks were brought in and the Soviet military commander declared a state of emergency.
According to Mr Knabe's book, more than 50 people were killed, at least 20 of whom were summarily executed, while more than 1,000 were convicted in the East German courts of having taking part in an "attempted fascist coup".
The anniversary has been trailed for weeks by political debates, television documentaries and theatre productions. In his book, the historian quotes Churchill expressing surprise that the British commander should have issued a complaint to the Russians without consulting London.
The then prime minister asked whether the Soviet Union should have allowed "the eastern zone to collapse into anarchy and revolt", according to a private message quoted by Mr Knabe, and went on: "I had the impression that the unrest was handled with remarkable restraint."
The west feared reunification. Foreign Office minister of state, Selwyn Lloyd, told Churchill in a memo on June 22 that the allies felt "a divided Germany is safer at present. But none of us dare say so in public because of the impact on public opinion in Germany". The first East Germans to go out on the streets in 195...
At the opening of an exhibition of photographs commemorating the uprising, Günter Mentzel, then a 17-year-old building site labourer, recalled: "After Stalin's death [in March 1953], we were hoping for somebody new, that the restrictions would be lifted. But it was exactly the opposite. The leaders of the Soviet-occupi...
"We told our work representatives that we didn't want any more work, couldn't do any more work. Then we went to our unions, who only laughed at us. We decided to strike, and marched to the government ministries' building, where we said we wanted to change the regime."
Another eyewitness, Waltraut Krugler, now 82, lived in a Stalinallee apartment with a statue of the dictator outside. "Every morning when we looked out of the window we saw Stalin," she said.
"The street was full of people, saying 'come with us, do this with us'," she remembered. "At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the street was black with people.
"The police said: 'All of you go home, and we will fulfil your demands.' But people shouted at the police and threw stones. Then the tanks came and people were killed."
The events of 1953 became the focus of competing cold war claims. In the West German republic until 1990, June 17 was a public holiday and an occasion for politicians to criticise the east. The communist view was that it was an attempt at counter-revolution fomented by agents of western powers.
According to Mr Knabe, the Americans had considered supplying the protesters with guns but decided against it.
Klaus Huhn, formerly a journalist with Neues Deutschland, the East German equivalent of Pravda, still regards the uprising as a resurgence of Nazism. "To believe that eight years after the end of World War Two, there were no more fascists in Germany is absolute nonsense," Mr Huhn said.
"These people were still there, [Nazism] was still there in the heads of the people. Where you found these people was on the construction sites, because they were fired from every official position."
Mrs Krugler disagreed: "They said that the west had inspired it, but it was not true. The people had done it because they were not satisfied."
The root of the protest was economic discontent, she believes. "There was very little meat, and no fruit at all. Everything was on a ration card. Margarine cost four [Ost]marks - and that was in those days, when a month's rent was 60 marks."
According to Mr Knabe, the protest tapped into the widespread discontent felt by the East German public during the early years of communism. "The early 1950s were the worst years of the GDR. The farms were collectivised, the prisons were full, and there was a major economic crisis."
He takes the view, popularised in the west during the cold war, that the uprising should be regarded as a struggle for freedom and a forerunner of the peaceful revolution of 1989. "It was a rare moment in history when the German people, in their hundreds of thousands, rose up and demanded a free and secret vote."
There is also dispute over the extent to which Soviet tanks were required to quell the demonstrations. Other historians have argued that, with the exception of East Berlin, the protest largely came to a standstill before the Russians intervened.
Some western observers agreed with Churchill's view. The Manchester Guardian's correspondent reported: "The Red Army troops evidently were given the strictest instructions to behave with restraint. There are few cases reported of their having opened fire on demonstrators even though they were stoned and insulted and th...
For Mr Mentzel, as a protagonist on the streets of east Berlin, the role of the tanks was clear-cut. "One knew when the tanks came that that was the end, and it had failed, and we had to go back to work."
The sale of the Brooklyn Nets has stalled because Mikhail Prokhorov is trying get a $3 billion valuation for the team and Barclays Center while keeping a controlling interest in the NBA team.
The Russian billionaire controls 80% of the team and 45% of the arena while Bruce Ratner controls 20% and 55%, respectively. Prokhorov wants to keep 51% of the Nets after any sale.
Prokhorov's terms have been confirmed by two sources who did not want to be mentioned because they do not have permission to speak about the deal discussion publicly. Three weeks ago I wrote that people were telling me Prokhorov only wanted to sell a minority interest. But at that time I wasn't sure of the valuation he...

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