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1. Local governments as experiments. Increasingly, some of the most innovative ideas are being independently developed in small communities. For example, the tiny city of Manor, Texas, has launched Manor Labs to improve services. Residents sign up and suggest ideas for local services such as law enforcement, and their ideas are ranked by the community. Good suggestions are rewarded with “Innobucks” that can be redeemed for prizes. Innovative thinking plus government/resident interactions plus individual incentives can result in big wins for everyone involved. How can the federal government best stay in touch with local innovation?
2. The importance of citizen 2.0. Just as governments are adopting new media communications, cloud computing mentalities, and social networking skills, so are the people they represent. The implication is that if people want a Web site that mashes up environmental and tourist data, or desire open chat and dating platforms for service members stationed overseas, or find out what their member of Congress does every minute of the day, they might just find a way to do it themselves. Early examples like ChicagoCrime.org showed that it was possible, but with people flocking to smart phones, niche social networks, and unconferences, how long will it be before the people are beating the government at its own game?
2. Mobile devices. Most discussions I hear about — everything from social media to cybersecurity — concentrates on desktop computers plugged into a wall. Sure, those are important, and the average government-issued BlackBerry is a little out of date. But soon those mobile devices will be replaced and upgraded, and employees will increasingly demand advanced capabilities like access to social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook, embedded cameras, and customized applications (“apps”) for news and other functions. What are the implications for government when an iPhone is in many ways more powerful than a laptop?
4. Crude video content. High production value for Internet-only video is overrated. Sometimes, if a video targets a highly specific niche audience, great content is good enough. A small company named Demand Media, valued at $1 billion, creates thousands of videos a day and posts them on YouTube and other places – more than many other “media companies” combined. Its business model involves a specific algorithm that predicts highly specific questions people are likely to ask – “What’s the best color to repaint a red Camaro?” – and then assigns freelancers to film crude videos as appropriate. People have a lot of questions about their government – how well are they getting answered?
Mark Drapeau is director of public-sector social engagement at Microsoft.
Should Alcohol Be Banned On All Irish Train Routes?
We got an email in to Dublin Talks from a parent who had a bad experience on a train to Wexford - she was stuck in a carriage with her child where people were drinking and being anti social.
So we asked you on the show today if you think alcohol should be banned on all train journeys around Ireland? Jane Cregan from Irish Rail told us about what routes have already banned drinking alcohol and what Irish Rail's current policy is.
We had a huge reaction from Dublin Talks callers - many agreeing that alcohol should be banned outright but a lot of people argued that there's no harm in having a few drinks on a train.
Listen to Dublin Talks daily from 10am-12pm, only on 98FM.
Love said she was open to raising the age and strengthening background checks. In a private Facebook group, she said she was really talking about violent video games.
In the days after the Parkland shooting that left 17 people dead at a Florida high school last month, Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) told Utah state senators that “everything has to be on the table.” Love specifically asked why the teenaged shooter was able to buy an AR-15 and told the The Salt Lake Tribune that she would support stronger background checks, consider banning semi-automatic rifle sales to people under 21 and opposed President Trump’s proposal to arm teachers.
But in a private Facebook group of LDS (Mormon) conservatives, Love backtracked, and said she did not support any additional restrictions on gun sales, according to screenshots obtained by ThinkProgress where Love personally responded in the group to criticism of her comments.
Love also said in the meeting that she was “not elected by the president” and doesn’t see Trump as the leader of her party. In an interview with the Tribune’s editorial board published the next day, Love reiterated her stance about arming teachers and said she was open to raising the age to purchase assault-style rifles from 18 to 21 and increasing some firearm background checks. She said she was unsure whether she would support an assault weapons ban.
The stance upset some members of Love’s conservative base, and Love personally responded to the complaints by backtracking, saying what she actually meant by everything being on the table was that she was open to looking at violent music and movies.
Reached for comment about Love’s apparent backtrack, Rich Piatt, a spokesperson for Love, pointed to a paragraph from an op-ed Love wrote last week in the Deseret News.
A new poll conducted for the Arkansas Democratic Party found Sen. Mark Pryor and his Republican challenger still locked in a tight race.
In the survey, obtained by CQ Roll Call, Pryor led Rep. Tom Cotton, 45 percent to 42 percent, with Libertarian and Green Party candidates taking a combined 5 percent and 9 percent undecided.
Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton is launching a positive TV ad Wednesday, with just less than four weeks to go in one of Republicans' top Senate pickup opportunities.
The statewide spot, part of the Cotton campaign's $2.4 million TV buy for the final month of the race, features a portion of his August 2013 announcement speech in which the congressman argues for the state's need for leadership in the Senate.
Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton's campaign kicked off the final sprint to November with advertising designed to soften the image of one of the GOP's most-touted Senate recruits.
The freshman congressman, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, boasts multiple Harvard degrees, military service and broad support across the GOP spectrum. His political advantages also include a state trending Republican and a midterm cycle featuring a second-term Democratic president with a 31 percent approval rating in Arkansas, according to a recent NBC News/Marist poll.
Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake will be parents any day now, but that hasn’t slowed the mama-to-be down at all. She was spotted attending a birthday party at a roller rink near L.A., with her burgeoning baby bump in full view. Sporting a gray t-shirt that covered her belly and white pants that fell just below it, it’s plain to see that Jessica Biel won’t be pregnant for too much longer.
This will be the first child for Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake. The two married back in October of 2012 and the ‘Mirrors’ singer confirmed their impending parenthood this past New Year’s Day.
A source told E! News shortly after the announcement that the 7th Heaven star is due to give birth in late March or early April.
Jessica Biel enjoyed a beach getaway last week with her mom and sister. She was spotted walking along the shore in a casual t-shirt and pants–passing on the bikini for this trip.
If Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake know the gender of their baby, they haven’t yet shared it with the media. Thankfully fans won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Can you imagine Justin Timberlake changing diapers? Do you think he’ll be a hands-on dad or will most of the work fall on Jessica Biel instead?
Catholic conversions are plentiful in area where there has long been anti-Catholicism.
ZIRO, India — Arunachal Pradesh state in the northeastern part of India was out of bounds for the Church for years, as Christianity was virtually banned in the mountainous state nestled in the lap of the Himalayas.
The region that was earlier under direct administration of the federal government as the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) had even enacted legislation to curb conversions, primarily to Christianity, in 1978 amid Christians being persecuted and churches being burnt.
Yet the Church has flourished in Arunachal Pradesh — which literally means “land of rising sun” — with Christianity finding deep roots in the sensitive region bordering Bhutan, China and Myanmar.
That was the fruit of the unique evangelization carried out by student apostles and lay catechists. Enthusiastic students brought hundreds of their animist relatives, friends and villagers during the 1960s to 1980s to neighboring Assam state for baptism, trekking through the mountains for days.
Though the latest data from the 2011 census on the number of Christians in the state hasn’t been released, the ratio of Christians is set to go up from the 19% recorded in the 2001 census. Arunachal Pradesh reportedly has more than 200,000 Catholics among its 1.3 million people.
“Since priests were banned and denied entry pass (to NEFA), the students used to help smuggle the Fathers (masquerading them as drivers and carpenters) at the borders before leading them stealthily to our scattered congregations,” Take Tatung, the first Catholic of Arunachal Pradesh, said in an interview in early May at his farmhouse near Ziro.
Tatung embraced Christianity in 1963 at the age of 15 while studying at the Don Bosco School. He had run away from home in 1961 after his irate father burnt his books when he refused to stop his school studies and assist him in farm work. At 12, Tatung walked mountain paths for four days before he reached the Catholic school outside Arunachal.
Enthusiastic about spreading his new faith, the teenager was instrumental in mobilizing fellow student converts from Arunachal. Carrying Bibles, rosaries and medals, these student apostles spread the Good News during their holiday trips.
When Tatung returned to Ziro in 1965 seeking admission in a government school for further studies, the headmaster of the school refused to admit him, saying, “You have a Christian name” — after his baptism, Tatung included the Christian name “William” in his ethnic name.
At the root of the denial of admission was the virtual ban on Christianity at the time.
Federal officials asked Tatung to give up his “foreign faith” if he wanted admission to the government school.
“I told them it was my choice, and the constitution of India gives that freedom,” Tatung recounted. Despite the government officials denying admission to him for six months, Tatung did not budge. “Finally, they sent me to the government school at Shillong (outside) Arunachal and put me in Ram Krishna (Hindu) Mission hostel,” recalled Tatung.
A regular churchgoer, Tatung insisted on joining the Don Bosco School in Shillong.
Tatung kept his faith and completed his schooling. Though he applied for several government jobs, the defiant Christian was never selected, while others, non-Christians who were much less qualified than he was, were chosen for those posts.
“Perhaps they (officials) must have been tracking my activities,” reasoned Tatung.
“Christian students were persecuted and beaten up those days by fellow student leaders. They also confiscated Bibles and burnt them,” recalled Boa Tarin, who became a Baptist secretly in 1969, when he was hospitalized with malaria while studying at the government school in Ziro.
In 1977, Tarin reached the Catholic center of Harmutty and was baptized Catholic. From then on, Tarin served as a catechist.
“Times have changed. We are a strong community now,” said Lowanggcha James Wanglat, a leading Catholic politician and former interior minister of Arunachal Pradesh, on May 28. “We are the first Catholic family to be baptized in Arunachal Pradesh,” said Wanglat, who, along with his wife, Tei, and two children, was baptized Aug. 18, 1978, defying the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, anti-conversion legislation that had been enacted weeks earlier.
Hailing from a royal tribal household, Wanglat went on to be elected as a state legislator in 1980 — and repeated the feat three times more. In 1995, Wanglat became a minister in the state government and held several posts that culminated in his elevation to the state interior minister in 2003.
Right now, he noted, the Arunachal Pradesh Legislature has more than a dozen Christians among its 60 members, while one of the two members of the national parliament from the state is a Catholic, and Nabam Tuki, also a Catholic, heads the state government as its chief minister.
Behind the virtual ban on Christianity and the persecution of Christians, Wanglat pointed out, was the “strong influence” of Elwin Verrier, an anthropologist and tribal activist. Verrier, who came to India as an Anglican priest from Britain, renounced Christianity and converted to Hinduism in 1935.
“With his deep prejudice against Christianity, Verrier became the agent of disinformation (against Christians) to the government as its advisor,” pointed out Wanglat. Later, the Hindu nationalist lobby also tried to exploit the situation through officials and politicians to keep Arunachal hostile to Christianity.
“I myself was called an anti-national for becoming a Christian and branded as CIA agent,” recalled Wanglat.
But now more than 90% of the 200,000-plus people in the three districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding in eastern Arunachal are Christian, pointed out Wanglat.
Anto Akkara writes from Bangalore, India.
KENOSHA, Wis.—A leader of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut says it remains committed to the Menominee tribe’s proposal to develop a casino in Kenosha, despite the U.S. Interior Department’s rejection this week of a land-into-trust application for the project.
Lynn Malerba, who serves as vice chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribal Council, told the Kenosha News Friday that she hopes the Menominee succeed in their pending lawsuit against the government over the application, although her tribe has no part in that legal dispute.
The Mohegan tribe, which operates one of the nation’s largest tribal casinos in Uncasville, Conn., is an investor and developer in the Kenosha project. The tribe also has an agreement to manage the casino for the Menominee for the first seven years it operates.
PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - France's long-term energy plan is not ambitious enough and could asphyxiate the nascent biogas industry, miss energy efficiency targets and hamper investment in offshore wind projects, according to energy group Engie.
The government outlined the plan known as the PPE in November and presented the details in January, inviting comments and consultations from various stakeholders before it is presented in cabinet and passed by lawmakers.
Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron's government postponed the cabinet presentation of the plan, saying it was working on "more ambitious" targets.
Didier Holleaux, Executive Vice-President of Engie , said the plan in its current form was based on false assumptions especially with respect to energy efficiency targets, and offshore wind and biogas sector development.
Briefing journalists in Paris, he said a previous target to cut French energy consumption by 20 percent by 2030, which he said was achievable, had been reduced to 17 percent in the current plan.
Holleaux said the Macron government had also failed to set a target for offshore wind energy sufficient to develop the sector, which remains non-existent unlike with European peers.
The plan presented in January envisaged France boosting offshore wind capacity from zero today to 2.4 GW in 2023 and about 5 GW in 2028. Holleaux said this would represent around 500 megawatts of projects annually even though France had the means to develop 1-1.5 gigawatt of projects annually by 2021.
"If the plan goes through in its current form, it is clear that we will look at offshore wind projects elsewhere other than France," he said. Engie is one of the bidders for France's 600 MW wind farm in the northern town of Dunkirk.
Officials were on the scene of a McDonald's in Miami Gardens Friday morning.
Two men are in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center after a shooting at a Miami Gardens McDonald's Friday, police said.
They identified the two men who were shot in a Mercedes-Benz as Michael Sexton, 23, and Martrell Brown, 26.
Aerial footage showed police surrounding the Benz and a silver Chevy parked by the drive-thru window of the fast food restaurant at 18250 NW 27th Ave. Police responded to the shooting at 6:44 a.m.
Witnesses said someone from inside the Chevy was the one shooting towards the Benz. Afterwards, someone was seen jumping out of the Chevy and running away, witnesses said.
Police have not released an official motive for a Friday morning shooting at a Miami Garden's McDonald's. NBC 6's Bobby Brooks spoke with one of the victim's brothers Calvin Stewart about the incident.
Blood and bullet casings could be seen on the ground next to the cars.
Witness Peppermint Collins said a series of bangs could be heard from inside the McDonald's.
"At first we didn't know what it was and the cashier was like, 'Everybody duck,'" she said. "It was a lot but the only thing going through our mind was to get out of there."
Collins said police were unable to get a description of the gunman or gunmen.
Brittany Sexton said her twin brother Michael is no saint, acknowledging he has a criminal history, but she added, "Nobody deserves this regardless of what you did in your life."
One man said his brother was one of the victims, but had no idea what the motive could have been.
"He probably was going to work or something, we don't know," Stewart Collins said.
With no motive and no suspects in custody, Brittany Sexton pleaded with the public to come forward with information.
As family and community members gathered to mourn the shooting death of 12-year-old Tequila Forshee, officers continued to search for the gunman or gunmen who may be responsible. NBC 6's Bobby Brooks has the story.
Officials have not released further details on the investigation.
The largest publicly traded marijuana companies — even when listed on American exchanges like NYSE — are completely forbidden from operating in the US.
This means the entire American marijuana sector is missing out on hundreds of billions of dollars of investments that are instead going to Canadian firms.
Terra Tech CEO Derek Peterson has a plan to change this, and it starts with a full-page ad titled "Dear Mr. President"published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday along with ad slots on "Fox and Friends."
Marijuana stocks are booming this year.
A handful of Canadian cannabis companies have successfully raised billions on American stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, but thanks to federal laws that forbid them from operating in the US, every cent of that capital is heading north of the border.
Legally-operating US marijuana companies — in places like Colorado where the drug is legal, at least on a state level — have largely missed out on the success stories of their Canadian peers due to federal drug laws that stand between their equity and a listing on a major exchange. Derek Peterson, CEO of California-based Terra Tech, says American companies are being left in the dust.
"The problem that we're under as US operators is these Canadian companies are using the healthy capital market up there to fund and raise a ton of capital, putting us at serious risk," the former investment banker, who has helmed Terra Tech for nearly seven years, said in an interview. "We'll end up being take out candidates for probably great premiums for our shareholders, but the concern is about longevity."
It's a problem that's sending major investments— like Constellation Brands' $4 billion stake in Canopy Growth Corporation — outside of the US. Elsewhere, companies like Green Growth Brands, are pursuing unusual methods like reverse takeovers in order to list on Canadian exchanges and cash in on the trend.
"It'd be foolish to sit on the sidelines and use our own cash to grow our business," Green Growth Brands CEO Peter Horvath, a veteran of American Eagle, DSW, and Victoria's Secret, told Business Insider. "You've got to skate to where the puck is going, not where it is."
Terra Tech and Peterson refuse to stay idle and let American companies get left behind.
In an effort to speed up the modernization laws in the US, Terra Tech has taken out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal aimed directly at President Donald Trump. Peterson also plans to buy advertising slots during Fox and Friends, the morning talk show that's known to be a favorite of the president.
"America is rapidly losing its competitive advantage to Canada," the ad, published the day before recreational cannabis is legal nationwide in Canada, reads. "The cannabis industry is legal in 31 states, yet most domestic companies do not have access to traditional banking ot institutional financing."
"If we don't change our laws here and the banks don't have a chance to come in and fund companies and have access to out capital markets, we're going to end up having our industry owned by Canadian conglomerates," Peterson said.
"We would prefer to create our own destiny and have access to the Morgan Stanley's, Bank of Americas, and Goldman Sachs's of the world to be able to raise real capital and compete in the global marketplace."
Until then, most major Wall Street banks will likely stay on the margins. No major sell-side research department except for Cowen has launched coverage of marijuana stocks, despite the largest ones being worth more than many of the other equities they cover.
Canopy Growth, for example, is easily the most valuable publicly traded cannabis company with a market cap of $14 billion, more than double that of the sports-apparel maker Under Armour — and is only covered by two US research shops: Cowen and William O'Neil.
"We're working to at least get a public conversation going around this because I don't think a lot of our political leaders understand what's happening here from a capital markets perspective," Peterson said.
Want to Go to an Island in Maine for Free?
Northeast Pa. Audubon is offering a full scholarship for an adult and a related child to attend a family camp on beautiful Hog Island in Maine. This year, it will be from August 11 to 16, 2019. This is open to children ages eight to thirteen. The adult can be anyone related to the child. One of them must be from Pike, Wayne, Susquehanna, or Lackawanna County in PA.