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“And why should we care? The reason is that you are about to attack Judaism in a way that concerns Jews all over the world,” they wrote. |
The Nordic Jewish community leaders urged the Icelandic lawmakers to follow Norway’s 2015 legislation on nonmedical circumcision, which introduced regulation while ensuring the custom’s legality under certain terms. |
Celebrating the success of his award-winning comedy series 'Big Show', comic genius Michael McIntyre goes to New Zealand to bring his highly-anticipated performances to Christchurch and Auckland next year. |
In just a span of three days, Michael's first two arena shows in Christchurch and Auckland has sold out and to keep up with the hype, a new pair of shows have been added. |
After the successful launch of his 'Michael McIntyre's Big Show' in 2016, Michael is now set to traverse the world. Last year, the show earned two nominations at the prestigious BAFTA TV Awards, including Best Entertainment Performance (which Michael went to win) and Best Entertainment Program. Before releasing its thi... |
Michael McIntyre's spot-on observational comedy and trademark ability to turn everyday situations into masterclasses of human exasperation, has struck chords with millions of fans, resolutely cementing him as one of the UK's most loved and treasured comedy performers today. Michael has previously sold out arenas in New... |
In the UK, Michael has sold over 1.5 million tickets, including a record-breaking 28 performances at London's 16,000 capacity O2 Arena where he was awarded the keys to the venue in 2015, alongside musical talents Prince, Take That and One Direction. |
During his early years, Michael has released four best-selling DVDs by Universal Pictures (UK): 2008's 'Live and Laughing', 2009's 'Hello Wembley' (which became the fastest-selling UK stand-up DVD of all time), 2012's 'Showtime' and 2015's 'Happy & Glorious', both of which became Christmas DVD best-sellers. Collectivel... |
His debut autobiography 'Life & Laughing' was released in 2010 by Penguin Books. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, the book landed the coveted Christmas number one slot and became one of the best-selling non-fiction books that year. |
Apart from his award-winning show, Michael has other TV projects which include hosting the 'Royal Variety Performance' twice and appearing on 'Britain's Got Talent' as guest judge. He's also hosted other TV specials in between including 'Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow', 'Michael McIntyre's Easter Night At The Colis... |
Book your tickets and get ready to laugh yourselves silly with Michael McIntyre's witty punchlines next year! |
FLATONIA — Nelson Jiménez calls out “woo, c'mon,” alerting some of his 300 cattle of feed time. He darts across his 800-acre SA Bar Ranch in his green utility vehicle and shows his ranch hand chores he wants done on this property more than 100 miles west of Houston. The immigrant from El Salvador collects handfuls of e... |
This is how Jiménez — owner of a Houston company that repairs more than 300 apartment complexes in Houston and Austin — spends his weekends. He's earned millions of dollars, and now he's living his version of the American dream. |
“It gives me a lot of satisfaction, a lot of happiness. It's something I always wanted,” said Jiménez, who escaped from civil-war-ravaged El Salvador three decades ago and started Alfred's Painting & Carpet Cleaning in 1991. |
Like many Hispanic immigrants, Jiménez dreamed of owning a ranch like his father back in El Salvador. |
Once they have achieved economic success in Texas, many Latino entrepreneurs and professionals crave land, buying it and then relaxing on it or working it. Regardless of whether they hail from Mexico, Panama or other parts of Latin America, owning their own ranch is a part of their Hispanic heritage, they say. Their fa... |
Anecdotally, it appears that more and more Hispanic entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, lawyers, doctors and athletes are buying land near Houston. |
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the number of Hispanic farmers and ranchers increased to 82,462 in 2007 from 72,349 in 2002. |
Attorney Carlos Verdecia jokes about spending $30,000 on a tractor and mower after buying his 82-acre ranch in Austin County, but says it's worth it because working on his land brings him joy. |
Verdecia raises and sells cutting horses and has lived full time at his ranch since shortly after moving to the area from Arizona. |
Verdecia always wanted horses as a child, perhaps because his grandfather owned a dairy farm back in Cuba that was confiscated by Fidel Castro's regime. |
Houston Astros left fielder Carlos Lee agrees. |
Like Lee, many Latino immigrants want ranches because it reminds them of their idyllic childhoods. |
Houston shipper Luis Salinas was raised in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo but spent his summers on relatives' ranches. |
It also provides a financial security blanket for some. |
“We have something to dedicate ourselves to as a second career,” Lee said during a recent batting practice. |
Some see their ranches as a place to retire, while others consider land a good investment. |
“A lot of times, that piece of land that they've purchased and their improvement they make really is their 401(k),” said M.E. Swisher, a University of Florida professor who worked on a project about the needs of Latino farmers and ranchers in 2007 for the USDA. |
After a dozen years of appraising area agricultural property, Gary Underwood has noticed more Hispanics buying land recently and sometimes must ask one of the Spanish-speaking employees at his office to interpret for buyers. |
Jiménez bought his first ranch in Navasota in 2000 and remembers the feeling then that he had accomplished his dream. |
“I was very content because it was another opportunity in my life to have something that my family always wanted,” said Jiménez, who upgraded to a larger property in Fayette County in 2004. |
Click ahead to see the biggest food trends Whole Foods predicts for 2018. |
Mushroom-infused coffee and pickled watermelon rinds are going to be huge in 2018, at least according to Whole Foods. |
The supermarket just released its food trends forecast for 2018 and revealed a list of peculiar items that range from standard options to new frontiers. |
Edible flowers will pop up in everyday dishes and drinks, like lavender lattes. You'll also see more plant-based foods like dairy-free vegan frosting. |
The predictions were made by Whole Foods' experts and industry leaders, according to the press release. |
Take a look at Whole Foods' trend forecast for 2018 in the slideshow above. |
Emmerdale fans have been treated to their first look at the upcoming Robron wedding – and the trailer has got fans of Robert Sugden and Aaron Dingle more excited than ever before. |
The teaser showed footage from the episode which will screen on Monday 20th February and revealed an enthusiastic but nervous Robert trying to ensure the big surprise is as perfect as possible for his groom to be. |
With it being more difficult than anticipated to keep Aaron away from the Woolpack where Liv Flaherty (armed with a clipboard) is feverishly trying to get the place decorated. It’s all hands on deck for the Dingles – and Cain is giving the task of intervening as Adam and Paddy fail to keep Aaron from heading back to th... |
In a wonderful throwback to many key moments in the Robron story, Aaron finds himself locked in a boot while Robert and the team put the final pieces in place. |
As Robert opens the boot and invites his groom to marry him, what will happen next? |
You can find out by tuning in to ITV on Monday 20th February at 7pm. |
Check back on our soaps homepage on Sunday 19th February from 7am (we know, early rise on a Sunday!?) for brand new interviews, storyline gossip and maybe even a sneaky new picture or two. You can also follow our busy soaps Facebook page here. |
Democratic presidential candidate Warren aims to aggressively expand benefits. |
Ready or not, Social Security is just 15 years away from big trouble, according to the June-released Social Security Board of Trustees annual report. |
Despite keeping more than 15 million retired workers out of poverty and providing nearly 63 million beneficiaries with a guaranteed monthly payout, Social Security's best days appear to be behind it. A number of ongoing demographic changes, which include the retirement of baby boomers, increased longevity over many dec... |
What this inflection point really signifies is that the existing payout schedule isn't sustainable. As time passes, the program's net cash outflows are projected to increase in size. By 2034, just 15 years from now, Social Security's almost $2.9 trillion in excess cash is forecast to be completely exhausted. When this ... |
Clearly something needs to be done to preserve Social Security. The question remains what that something is. |
How would Elizabeth Warren fix Social Security? |
Long-time Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who recently declared her candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential ticket in 2020, has a plan. |
Social Security is a lifeline for seniors and Americans with disabilities. We won't let it be cut by one cent -- and instead we will fight to expand it. The rich and powerful have rigged our economy to make themselves richer, while working families face a massive retirement crisis. If this government really works for t... |
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaking to reporters. Image source: Elizabeth Warren Senate webpage. |
How would this be done? Namely by replacing Social Security's existing inflationary measure, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), with the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). As the name implies, the CPI-W takes into account the spending habits of urban and clerical wo... |
The CPI-E would fix this by tying COLAs to the spending habits of households with persons aged 62 and over. This should more accurately reflect the medical care and housing inflation that senior citizens are facing. Plus, with more than 43 million of the nearly 63 million beneficiaries being retired workers, it makes s... |
Warren has also proposed eliminating the maximum taxable earnings cap associated with the payroll tax. In 2019, all earned income between $0.01 and $132,900 is subject to the 12.4% payroll tax, with earned income beyond this level exempt. Put in another context, more than 90% of all working Americans pay into Social Se... |
Warren's solution would see this $132,900 cap removed entirely. This would require that all earned income be hit with the payroll tax, thereby erasing Social Security's estimated $13.2 trillion cash shortfall between 2034 and 2092. |
Chances are that if any Social Security solution becomes law, it's going to be a bipartisan fix. That's because neither party has held a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate for 40 years. But make no mistake about it: There is a handful of Republican proposals that Warren will fight tooth and nail. |
The first would be any attempt to switch the CPI-W to the Chained CPI. The Chained CPI is an inflationary tool that takes substitution bias into account. Imagine that the price of ground beef rises 50% and you instead buy chicken or pork. The act of trading down to a similar but less-pricey good is substitution bias in... |
The other Republican proposal (which admittedly was more popular in the mid-2000s than it is now) that Warren has vehemently opposed is the idea of partially privatizing Social Security. Partial privatization involves setting aside a portion of a worker's earnings into a separate retirement account that they would cont... |
The problems with privatization are twofold. First, it redirects payroll tax revenue into workers' own accounts, thereby disrupting the social investment the program has made in future generations of workers. In other words, it would create a near-term cash shortfall that would be disastrous, especially to low-income r... |
The other problem is that privatization doesn't solve the retirement problem. It would take some responsibility off of the federal government's plate, but it doesn't narrow the projected $13.2 trillion cash shortfall in any way. If anything, it could make matters worse. |
Understandably, it's still very early in the campaign process for the 2020 presidency, but with Social Security being such an important issue for elderly Americans and future retirees, it pays to understand how presidential hopefuls would resolve the coming crisis. |
Sue Arsenault of the Vernon Board of Civil Authority conducts a recount last week at the Vernon Town Office. |
VERNON—Despite new numbers in Vernon’s double recount on March 12, the results of the March 3 town election remain the same. |
The recount upheld the defeat of the fiscal year 2016 school budget and the win for Selectboard candidate Michael Courtemanche. |
Tim Arsenault, Town Moderator and chair of the Board of Civil Authority, thanked the five audience members for attending the afternoon recount, March 12. |
Voters defeated the $4.4 million fiscal year 2016 school budget on March 3, by four votes 245 to 241. The budget was still defeated after the recount a little more than a week later. The “nay” votes increased for a new result of 247 to 239. |
Four members of the Board of Civil Authority spent approximately 40 minutes reviewing and counting the school budget vote printed on purple Australian ballots. |
The recount was held in the Selectboard meeting room of the town offices. On the board’s meeting table, a nameplate already displayed Courtemanche’s name. |
Courtemanche defeated incumbent board member Sandra Harris 242 to 238 on March 3. The recount numbers changed by one — but still in Courtemanche’s favor, 243 to 238. |
Counting the canary yellow election ballots took approximately 50 minutes. |
Arsenault informed the small audience that, based on Robert’s Rules of Order, the Board of Civil Authority would not recount the paper ballot vote that ended the Town Auditors Department. |
On the first night of Town Meeting, March 2, voters agreed to discontinue the Town Auditors Department in favor of using an outside auditing firm. The tally was 109 to 100. |
According to Robert’s Rules, said Arsenault, paper ballots — not considered the same as Australian ballots — cannot receive a do-over once the vote at the meeting is made and voters move on to the next agenda item. Therefore, the Board of Civil Authority had no legal basis for recounting the auditors department vote. |
In a phone interview, School Board chair Mike Hebert sighed upon hearing the result of the recount. |
The School Board will discuss the budget and scheduling a new town-wide vote at its March 23 meeting, he said. |
Hebert believes voters thought the entire $4.4 million belonged to the elementary school’s budget, and it does not. |
Hebert estimates that the elementary school accounts for about half the total amount. |
He pointed to a quandary for voters in the polling booth. State statute requires the ballot state the total budget going toward education; in Vernon’s case, $4.4 million. |
“The wording does not reflect what actually happens,” Hebert said of the budget language appearing on the ballot. |
The only part of the budget voters approved on March 3 was the elementary school budget, he said. Half the $4.4 million had been approved nearly one month prior. |
A handful of voters from five towns essentially approved each other’s school budgets at the BUHS District #6 annual meeting in Brattleboro on Feb. 10. |
Hebert estimates approximately half of Vernon’s $4.4 million funds the Brattleboro Union High School, Brattleboro Area Middle School, the Windham Regional Career Center, and the supervisory union’s assessment. |
Of the total 14,174 registered voters in the five towns served by the BUHS District #6, only 73, or 0.5 percent, voted on the budget during the annual meeting, Feb. 10. Of that number, only 10 of Vernon’s 1,687 registered voters attended. |
If the Vernon School Board must cut its budget, the cuts will hit the elementary school because that’s where the Town School Board has control, said Hebert. This could mean hundreds of thousands from the bottom line, said Hebert. |
“It’s going to be tough,” Hebert said. |
Hebert is crossing his fingers for some good-news figures at the upcoming board meeting. |
Preliminary number crunching on some energy projects the school has undertaken, like the new heat exchange project, point to savings in the utilities budget. Hebert said the School Board recently learned it had made a very favorable deal for heating oil that may hopefully drop expenses by $50,000. |
After the recount, Courtemanche checked his watch. The duly elected Selectboard member had to dash back to work. |
Courtemanche returns to the board after three years away. He said he needed the “cooling off” time. He had continued working on waste management issues in town. |
He added that he has not agreed with some recent handling of town issues by the board. |
Courtemanche wants to rebuild trust in the board and relationships between the board, committees, staff, and citizens. He also looks to increase the board’s transparency. |
“The town needs to bond and work together,” he said. |
Originally published in The Commons issue #297 (Wednesday, March 18, 2015). This story appeared on page C1. |
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif), the former chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, joined Fox & Friends to discuss the breaking news regarding the FBI taking a second look at their investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and suspected misuse of classified information. |
Issa said that, in July, FBI Director James Comey made the decision not to recommend charges against Clinton after consulting with his "team", which included Department of Justice officials. |
"When he made the [July] announcement that he would not be seeking an indictment, he talked about his team [which] included... in a sense Loretta Lynch, even though she denied it, she kind of got the ability to influence the decision not to refer charges." |
"In [Friday's] case, it is purely a matter of his integrity," Issa said of Comey, "He is making people aware that there is more there, and I think that's why it was an individual decision by the FBI." |
"They are ignoring her criminal-type activity and they’re voting for her or they’ve decided that she and the Clinton Foundation are selling out America...or they’re in the other camp and they can’t take this gruff unconventional politician [Donald Trump] and it’s a tough decision," he said. |
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