Split (1)

train · 2.6M rows

text stringlengths 12 63.8k
If the city does not register a 20 percent reduction -- or 400,000 fewer gallons per day-- in the next two weeks, mandatory restrictions will be put in place.
Outside water use for non-business purposes will be prohibited.Violators would receive a $25 fine for the first offense and $50 forevery subsequent offense.
"I don't think we need to be treated like little children and ordered (to conserve water)," he said. "I think it makes sense, and I think we're adults and capable of seeing that."
Brown said the last time residents were forced to conserve water was October about two years ago.
Hi! I’m Tildi and I was a Neuroscience major and Women’s Studies minor at the College. Despite my solid academic program, I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life. But that’s okay! I am confident I will be prepared to do anything, once I figure out exactly what I might want to do. I learned more than I c...
Between club and intramural sports, Greek life, Colonial Williamsburg, leadership programming and interning in the Office of Undergraduate Admission with 10 of my classmates, I felt like I had seen all facets of William & Mary. In reality, you can discover new things every day. William & Mary grows and changes constant...
The Office of Personnel Management and Department of Health and Human Services have directed federal agencies to prioritize the physical health and well-being of employees against Washington’s severe heat and humidity in the summer.
Beth Cobert, OPM acting director, said in a notice posted Friday federal agencies are encouraged to advise employees to remain hydrated and provide access to drinking water for all federal workers.
The notice added telework-ready employees may use OPM’s workplace flexibility policies to ask for supervisory approval to work from home when air quality conditions are poor.
“If permitted by agency policy, an employee working a flexible work schedule may choose to adjust arrival and departure times to avoid commuting during the hottest periods of the day,” Cobert said.
The notice also included links on federal government websites that provide information on how to deal with heat-related risks.
Hey, guys. It’s Wednesday. Let’s exhale the rest of the week away with some lighter fare — Whitney Houston’s comeback performance gets mediocre reviews, Soleil Moon Frye gives us Punky Brewster again and L.A. Laker Ron Artest does karaoke.
What do you think?: Reviews of singer Whitney Houston’s comeback performance — her first in seven years — on “Good Morning America” this morning were mixed.
Pre-taped in Central Park on Tuesday, Houston sang four songs to a huge crowd, but her voice sounded hoarse. Video of her performance circulated the Web and reviews were lukewarm. According to the NY Daily News, Houston apologized to the crowd for her voice saying she’d talked too much in an interview with Oprah Winfre...
Today, when the performance aired, others around the Web were saying it’s not that bad. The crowd also seemed to enjoy it.
Punky power: Soleil Moon Frye made a video of herself dressed as Punky Brewster to celebrate her 1 millionth Twitter follower (@moonfrye) and remind many of us of our youth.
I learned many lessons from that show, like how I should not drink bleach and that hiding in the refrigerator is a bad idea. Thanks for the memories. Now I’m re-mourning the loss of my Punky Brewster hightops. Can’t believe I left them at the park.
Not really sports: L.A. Laker Ron Artest talked/sang/ad libbed to a karaoke version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and then posted it on Twitter for all of us to hear. I’ve heard worse.
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - China orchestrated U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong at the weekend to avoid an extradition battle that would have embarrassed both Beijing and Washington, several sources said on Monday.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor wanted for exposing secret U.S. government surveillance programs, flew to Moscow on Sunday as Washington sought his arrest, and asked for asylum in Ecuador.
“One hundred percent there was communication between Hong Kong and the (Chinese) central government regarding how to handle Snowden,” a source in Beijing who has direct knowledge of the case told Reuters, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to a foreign reporter.
“China did not want to offend the United States and was happy for Snowden to leave,” the source said. The source however said he was unaware if there was direct contact between any Beijing official and the American fugitive.
A lawyer for Snowden said he was told to flee Hong Kong by a middleman claiming to represent the local government, but who was probably acting on behalf of Beijing.
Lawyer Albert Ho, who is also a Hong Kong legislator critical of China, told reporters he was approached by Snowden several days ago, and that the American had sought assurances from the Hong Kong government about whether he could leave the city if he chose to do so.
The pair had a lengthy meeting at which Snowden asked Ho to approach the Hong Kong government to gauge its position on a possible extradition battle and whether they would hand him over to U.S. authorities.
Ho said he met a senior Hong Kong official, who did not offer any comment. But Snowden later told Ho an individual claiming to represent the Hong Kong government had contacted him and indicated he should leave the city, and would not be stopped by authorities.
Ho said he believed the middleman was acting on Beijing’s orders.
“They (Beijing) used someone behind the scenes to get Snowden to leave. And the Hong Kong government didn’t have much of a role. Its role was to receive instructions to not stop him at the airport,” said Ho, who is from the territory’s Democratic Party, which opposes any meddling by Beijing in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 and, although it retains an independent legal system and its own extradition laws, Beijing has control over foreign affairs.
The Hong Kong government had no immediate comment on Ho’s claims. It said on Sunday it let Snowden leave because it did not have sufficient information to process a U.S. request for his arrest.
Just over 10 days ago, Snowden said he would stay in Hong and fight his case in court.
In Washington, the White House said it had registered strong objections to authorities both in Hong Kong and in China at the decision to let Snowden flee.
Zha Daojiong, an international relations professor at Peking University in Beijing, said Snowden’s departure was to the long-term advantage of both Washington and Beijing, since a prolonged extradition battle in Hong Kong would have affected bilateral ties.
“His departure removes a potential long-term problem in the wider relationship, whatever short term anger is expressed from the U.S.,” Zha said.
The source in Beijing also said allowing Snowden to leave was the best possible solution under the circumstances.
“There is no way Hong Kong would have extradited Snowden (to the United States) because that would be tantamount to China obeying U.S. orders,” the source said.
Another source in Beijing, who has ties to the leadership, said China was repaying a debt by avoiding an extradition stand-off. The United States refused asylum to Wang Lijun, the disgraced vice mayor and police chief of Chongqing who sought refuge in a U.S. consulate last year in a scandal that later brought down his ...
“This is China returning the (U.S.) favor,” the source said.
Officially, the Chinese government signaled its approval of the way the Snowden case was handled.
Ho, the lawyer, provided a first glimpse into Snowden’s time in Hong Kong, where he said he lived at a cramped private residence and used a computer to communicate with people around the world. Snowden was last publicly seen leaving a luxury hotel on June 10 following his explosive revelations of the NSA snooping progr...
“In Hong Kong he was living a completely secretive existence, afraid of being followed or intercepted so the pressure was extremely great,” Ho said.
Ho did not say where in the territory Snowden stayed.
He said Snowden had initially booked a flight for Saturday but later made a decision to fly to Moscow on Sunday. One of Ho’s legal colleagues who accompanied him to the airport said he suspected was tailed by plainclothes officers.
Snowden was able to get to the immigration counter without any difficulty with his American passport, Ho added.
U.S. sources said Washington had revoked Snowden’s passport. The New York Times said it was annulled a day before Snowden left Hong Kong.
When students enter school in California, they learn at a pace on par with — if not better than — those in other states.
The problem is that they arrive far behind their national peers, and they never catch up.
This conclusion, from a sweeping research project aimed at charting future education policy, focuses new attention on what is often overlooked: infant and toddler care, parenting skills, preschool and early childhood education.
The researchers argue that if California wants to improve student achievement in schools, it has to start much earlier so that children are prepared when they show up for kindergarten.
Those who tend to be least prepared for school are low-income Latino and black students, including recent immigrants and those in foster care, the experts said.
And this is connected to another challenge facing educators in California: The achievement gap between Asian and white students and their black and Latino peers. Data shows all students are doing better but that the gap is not closing.
Other states have made more progress. Ten years ago, eight states had a larger achievement gap than California when comparing white and Latino students in eighth-grade reading. Now, only four have larger gaps.
“We’re moving backward in that respect,” said Christopher Edley Jr., president of the Opportunity Institute, a nonprofit organization that took part in the research.
A key component of the remedy is more money, the researchers said. The knotty question: where dollars should be invested. Some advocates favor higher teacher salaries to attract and retain the best talent. Others focus on providing more counseling and health support to older students. There are needs in these areas and...
The idea of providing needed support from birth onward — as part of an education plan — is not new. It’s embodied in such smaller-scale projects as the Harlem Children’s Zone, where generous private funding helps children from birth to college. Many see the Harlem project as a model, but an expensive one and therefore ...
Stipek said one reason California children are unprepared for school is a lack of quality child care and preschool.
More than half of the people who provide child care qualify for federal or state welfare or other forms of public assistance, Stipek said.
“That tells you something about the salaries that are paid,” she said.
Compared with other states, California also has lower standards for child-care providers and preschool teachers. But tightening standards alone would only exacerbate the shortage of workers, Stipek said.
The research released Monday comprises 36 studies and involved more than 100 experts who examined a broad range of topics. They looked at new and recent data and did some of their own number-crunching. A similar effort 10 years ago became the launching pad for the education reforms of Gov. Jerry Brown.
One goal was to evaluate the Brown-era measures, which directed a substantial infusion of new money to help the neediest students — English learners, students in foster care and those from low-income families — as they moved through grade school. But the new research suggests this extra help needs to start sooner.
The extra money provided through Brown’s reforms did have an impact. The researchers found a correlation between increased money and higher graduation rates. Efforts by Brown and the Legislature also have included a new testing and accountability system as well as an attempt to move control over schools closer to the l...
In all, the researchers were not prepared to judge whether these measures worked as intended, because the new data — which suggested California’s student achievement improved at a faster rate than the nation at large — yielded both encouraging and disappointing findings.
The state-by-state comparison is based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP compiles results from a sampling of fourth- and eighth-grade students, who are tested in math and reading. While the NAEP results are not new, this latest research effort analyzed these scores within the broader context of s...
By important measures, California has made progress.
For example, in 2007, only three states trailed California in scores for eighth-grade reading. This latest review shows that California has landed ahead of 14 other states. But California students still were scoring well below the national average in math and reading.
The researchers also looked at the state of school finances and found reason for alarm because of problems with state pension funds and other issues. These concerns are not new.
But one newer wrinkle was an analysis comparing California teacher salaries to the state’s overall level of education funding. It turns out, according to the research, that comparatively high teacher salaries take up more funding than in other states, with the result that fewer employees can be hired to work in schools...
Buhari to new DG DSS: Have we ever met before?
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday in Abuja, met for the first time, with the newly appointed Director-General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
When Bichi was ushered into the president’s office by protocol officials, he was asked by the president if they had met before.
The new DG, however, `confessed’ that he was seeing President Buhari face-to-face for the first time in his life.
The meeting of the president and the DSS boss went into a closed door session.
President Buhari, on Sept. 13, appointed Bichi, as new Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS).
Bichi, who replaced Lawal Daura, the former DG of the DSS, is a core Secret Service operative, said Malam Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media.
He attended Danbatta Secondary School, the Kano State College of Advanced Studies and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he graduated with a degree in Political Science.
The new Director-General began his career in the security division of the Cabinet Office in Kano, from where he joined the defunct Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO), the precursor of the present DSS.
Bichi had undergone training in intelligence processing analysis, agent handling recruitment and intelligence processing in the UK, as well as strategic training at the National Defence College.
In the course of his career, Bichi had worked as the State Director of Security in Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Abia States.
The original Gerber baby has turned 90.
The baby food maker says Ann Taylor Cook celebrated her 90th birthday on Sunday.
Cook was about 4 months old in 1927 when her image was sketched in charcoal by a family friend. The drawing was submitted to Gerber a year later when Gerber put out a call for images to be used in its new baby food advertisements. Cook’s picture became the company’s official trademark in 1931.
Cook became a mother of four and taught literature and writing in Tampa, Florida, for 26 years before retiring in 1989.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Continued recovery in car and truck sales bolstered shipments of new and replacement automotive batteries in North America in August, fuelling optimism about demand for lead metal, according to data the Battery Council International released on Tuesday.
Lead is the main ingredient in automobile batteries.
Shipments of original equipment batteries rose 31 percent to 1.6 million units from a slower July, while replacement battery shipments dipped 1.4 percent to 8.7 million, the data showed.
The data follows a 17 percent rise in August vehicle sales in the United States.
Auto batteries often fail in extreme cold or heat during the winter and summer months. Demand for replacement batteries was dampened by a cooler-than-usual summer in the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Does Lauderdale library's 'brutal' design make it a landmark?
The Fort Lauderdale Main Library may be designated a historic landmark.
It's not often you can use the word brutal to describe how a building looks and have it be considered a good thing.
But that's precisely how to assess the Broward County Main Library, the work of an internationally acclaimed team steeped in the Brutalist style of architecture.
Brutalism, a form of modernism, is typically austere, with walls of rough, unadorned precast concrete and an emphasis on function, with results that can appear plain or crude. The downtown library's architects improvised a “soft” brutalism, covering the exterior concrete with Florida keystone and creating a “glass curt...
The county's historic preservation coordinator said the library is arguably the most significant and iconic piece of architecture in the county. On Wednesday, city commissioners will consider designating it a city landmark — even though the 30-year-old building is young, even by South Florida standards.
What does matter is the building was designed by one of the top architectural firms of the time, Marcel Breuer and Associates, led by architect Robert Gatje. In a competition, the firm beat out such notable architects as I.M. Pei.
Breuer and Gatje designed the modernistic former IBM Corporate Center in Boca Raton, circa 1970. Other local structures that fit the Brutalist style are the Fort Lauderdale Federal Courthouse, the Miami Marine Stadium, and the Neiman Marcus store at the Galleria Mall, said Anthony Abbate, a professor at Florida Atlanti...
Abbate said the term brutalism actually came from the French “beton brut,” or raw concrete, which described the material being used.
Boca Raton architect Derek Vander Ploeg said you can't always rely on current tastes when deciding what should and shouldn't be saved.
“It wasn't that long ago people were rushing to tear down the Art Deco buildings on Miami Beach and now people spend a fortune restoring them,” Vander Ploeg said.
Fort Lauderdale's Historic Preservation Board has unanimously endorsed the landmark designation requested by the county. The designation would give the building protected status and require any changes to be approved by the preservation board.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.