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Momanyi & Associates was paid Sh8 million in another case and Koceyo over Sh20 million for two other cases.
John Nichols on the USPS and Saturday delivery, Liliana Segura on Boston hero Carlos Arredondo, James Cersonsky on a celebrity-studded fight against mass incarceration, and Laura Flanders on Tax Loopholes For All.
TRAGEDY AND COURAGE: One of the heroes of the Boston Marathon attack was antiwar activist Carlos Arredondo, who was at the finish line when the bombs exploded. Arredondo, trained as a first responder, leaped into action to tend the wounded.
STARS UNITE TO END LEGAL INJUSTICE: In a country that locks up more of its citizens than any other nation in the world, a star-studded cast is working to bolster the visibility of the invisible—and put the brakes on mass incarceration. On April 9, a coalition of more than 175 artists, actors, faith leaders and academic...
The cast of reform advocates is wide-ranging: from noted civil rights activists like Julian Bond, to thought leaders like Michelle Alexander, to an award-winning lineup that includes Jennifer Hudson, Mark Wahlberg and Will Smith. The coalition was brought together by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and author Boyce Watki...
“We need to break the school-to-prison pipeline, support and educate our younger generations, and provide them with a path that doesn’t leave them disenfranchised, with limited options,” Simmons says.
LOOPHOLES FOR ALL! Just in time for April 15, activist-artist Paolo Cirio invited taxpayers to protest tax evasion by using an “offshore tax haven”—just like the biggest businesses do. He calls the project “Loopholes for All,” arguing that 80 percent of hedge funds have their companies registered anonymously in the Cay...
Is it legal? PayPal doesn’t think so: it suspended the account of Loophole4All.com, freezing the $700 already raised by selling the identities of Caymans-registered companies. “PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activi...
Arguments on an appeal filed by the Rajasthan government in a sessions court here challenging the acquittal of actor Salman Khan by a trial court in a case against him under the Arms Act will begin on July 6.
In response to a notice issued by sessions judge Bhagwan Das Agarwal on March 7, counsels of Khan appeared in the court today and submitted 'vakalatnama' (authorisation letter). After accepting the documents, Agarwal listed the matter for arguments on July 6.
Khan had been acquitted by the trial court in a case against him for alleged possession and use of arms after the expiry of its licence.
The state government had filed the appeal in the sessions court challenging the acquittal on March 7, following which the sessions court had issued a notice to Khan.
World number one shoots a course-record 11-under 61 at Wells Fargo, his lowest score as a professional.
Rory McIlroy shot his lowest score as a professional, a course-record 11-under-par 61, to charge into the lead after the third round at the Wells Fargo Championship.
The Northern Irishman used an astonishing display of long driving to overpower Quail Hollow, and struck a series of towering iron shots that honed in on the pins to set up 11 birdies.
He posted an 18-under 198 total, a tournament record low score, to open a four-shot lead over American Webb Simpson (68), and a seven-shot advantage over third-placed Robert Streb.
McIlroy's 61 bettered by one stroke the course record he held jointly with Brendon de Jonge.
McIlroy rated it among the best of his career.
"I looked at the scores in the morning and saw there were some low ones out there," the world number one told reporters. "I got a little more aggressive, and it paid off. I just aimed at the flags today. It's as simple as that. I was taking dead aim."
The four-time major champion recalled he once shot a 61 at Portrush in Northern Ireland in an amateur event.
McIlroy had 23 putts, but did not hole anything longer than 15 feet and only once, at the first hole, where he sank a seven-footer for par, was he in serious danger of dropping a shot.
The United States Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants will present a free concert on Monday, April 11, 2016, at 7 p.m. in Brown Theater on the ULM Campus.
While the concert is free, a ticket is required for admission. Tickets will be available in the VAPA Office beginning Tuesday, March 15th, at 7:30 a.m. There is a limit of 4 tickets per person; no reserved seating.
The United States Air Force Concert Band is the premier symphonic wind ensemble of the United States Air Force. Stationed at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., it is the largest of six musical ensembles that comprise The United States Air Force Band. Featuring 53 active duty Airmen musicians, the Concert...
Who's headlining Brown Bag concerts in April?
The Concert Band performs a wide variety of music ranging from classical transcriptions and original works to solo features, light classics, popular favorites and patriotic selections. Remaining true to the Air Force's pioneering spirit, the ensemble is renowned as a champion of new works for band, with dozens of world...
The Singing Sergeants is the official chorus of the United States Air Force. Featuring 23 active duty Airmen musicians, the Singing Sergeants presents more than 200 performances annually performing a wide range of musical styles, from traditional Americana, opera, and choral standards to modern Broadway and jazz. The S...
As part of The U.S. Air Force Band, the Concert Band and Singing Sergeants honor those who have served, inspire American citizens to heightened patriotism and service, and positively impact the global community on behalf of the U.S. Air Force and the United States. The excellence demonstrated by these Airmen musicians ...
For more information on this performance, contact the VAPA Box Office at 318-342-1414.
New security video shows the moment a drive-by shooting unfolded in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood, leaving three innocent young girls wounded.
Police on Monday were still looking for the gunman responsible. The video shows the shooting as it happened, including the vehicle involved.
"Three children all under the age of 15 were caught in this crossfire," said Deputy Chicago Police Chief Al Nagode.
Chicago police said the Sunday night shooting was believed to be gang-related. Three others who were walking down the sidewalk nearby were also shot and police said those three were documented gang members.
"What we have to do as a city if fight to get these shooters in custody no matter what," said community activist Andrew Holmes.
The shooting happened around 9:54 p.m. in the 3400 block of West Walnut Street, according to authorities.
Officials said three unknown people, traveling eastbound on Walnut in a black sedan, opened fire out of their vehicle, striking a total of six people.
Three of the victims were young girls - ages 5, 14 and 15 - who police said were not the intended targets of the shooting. The girls were in a car driven by their mother at the time the gunman opened fire.
The 14-year-old girl was shot in the chest, arm and abdomen and taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, according to police. The 5-year-old was hit in the arm and taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition and the 15-year-old was shot in the thigh and taken in good condition to Presence Saints Mary and Eliz...
The three other victims were standing outside when they were shot.
A 17-year-old boy was shot in the foot and a 26-year-old man in the thigh, according to police, who said they were both taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition. A 20-year-old woman was shot in the chest and arm and taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center in serious condition, officials said.
Authorities said the shooters' vehicle was last seen traveling northbound on North Homan Avenue.
Police said they have been trying to combat an increase in gang violence in the neighborhood.
"We have historical gang conflicts in this area," Nagode said at a news conference. "We’ve been devoting a tremendous amount of resources this weekend, specifically in an attempt to prevent this."
No one is in custody as the investigation remained ongoing. Anyone with information was asked to contact Chicago police.
Words to Live By: Ever Heard of Google?
“I don’t know about you guys, but every time b4 I report an ‘exclusive’ I’m all up in Google News making sure that it actually is one.” — Capital NY’s Joe Pompeo.
“Fear I have just discovered my first gray hair. Not cool.” — WaPo‘s Aaron Blake.
“The drama seems to be lacking in this health care repeal vote. Maybe they should have held off until Christmas Eve to build tension.” — NYT Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Carl Hulse.
“Stopped by 7-11 on way @FLOC_DC. Kids being encouraged by parents to fill up slurpees over&over again (free slurpee day). Humanity, doomed.” — Catherine Andrews, Director of Digital Content at Home Front Communications and former editor of Washingtonian.com.
“O/H in the newsroom, coworker asking about poker strategy: ‘what does it mean when old men nut on me?’ ‘that’s not poker.'” — Roll Call HOH writer Neda Semnani.
“Ah Cavuto explains the weird sound in background was from a ‘generator.’ what is it with Cavuto and interviews with background noise?” — ABC News reporter Matt Negrin on FNC’s Neil Cavuto.
“Oh, and if you’re wondering how this story would be covered if Jackson were a Republican? You already know how this story would be covered if Jackson were a Republican.” — The Daily Caller‘s Jim Treacher in a post about Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.‘s (D-Ill.) whereabouts. Interestingly enough, this appears to make little se...
According to an Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) tweet, between August 8 and 22 the electoral roll increased by 54,545.
There were 577,879 total enrolment transactions processed in that time, including checking and updating enrolment details. This data does not include the last two days of the enrolment period, which closed at midnight on August 24, so these numbers are likely to increase.
Student groups nation-wide registered their opposition to the government’s proposals to raise student fees and lower the HECS threshold at an action in Canberra on budget day on May 9.
The $2.8 billion in cuts would see fees increase by a maximum of $3600 for a four-year course with students paying for 46% of the cost of their degree on average — up from 42%. The cuts propose a lowering of the HECS threshold — down from $55,874 to $42,000.
Tertiary students are doing it tough. Yet the Coalition would have you believe we have it easy. High — and getting higher — course fees, job insecurity and accommodation costs are all adding to students’ anxieties.
A student action against education cuts was held at the University of Sydney on May 20. It was organised by the National Union of Students. Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon talked about the fantastic campaign in Chile for free education and how students here should take inspiration from the mass campaign there that made it ...
Two thousand people rallied in Federation Square on April 4 to oppose Reclaim Australia freely spreading racism and fascism on the streets of Melbourne.
Anti-racist participants included socialists, anarchists, feminists, refugee rights advocates, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the politically unaligned. All were united in a common cause to stop the spread of racism in Australia.
On March 25 university students and supporters of accessible education participated in National Day of Action rallies against the ongoing attacks on education. There were rallies in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Tasmania and Wollongong.
The scenery of the nature in Germany ranges from the awe-inspiring Alpine Foreland, providing a playground for hikers in summer and snowboarders in winter, down to the spotless stretches of golden sandy beaches at the Baltic Sea.
Walking trails take you through forests steeped in legends, over mystical high moorland and along unspoilt glacier lakes that create ideal habitats for rare flora and fauna. The nature of Germany offers you breathtaking cliffs, deeply carved valleys and gorges capture every nature lovers heart.
Wine regions are blessed with lots of sunny days, while ski-resorts are packed with snow for sure. Temperatures from May to October are perfect for outdoor activities. But spring, impressing with trees full in blossom and the 'Golden autumn' are the times of thousands of colors. Enjoy the nature in Germany!
Germany - right in Europe's heart is bordered by nine states. Alps reaching the sky, glacial valleys with picturesque villages, bays and lagoons with old fisher towns draw tourists from around the globe. Explore the nature in Germany!
Germany's cultural attractions and German arts are good reasons to visit our country, which is very multifaceted and offers endless opportunities for tourists.
The cities are packed with cultural attractions such as museums - imagine, there are 6000 museums in every size and about every topic from German arts to science. German history epochs are colorful documented, inventions explained or you are invited to touch and try yourself. To the cultural attractions belong amazing ...
The range of cultural attractions is wide and as a fan of theaters and operas you can really look forward to Germany! Classic German arts can be experienced in hundreds of locations all around Germany: Imagine, just Berlin has an amount of 150 theaters and three operas, whereas Dresden is said to have probably the most...
But German arts can also be experienced in lots of traditional producing handcrafts stores, where e.g. glass painters or blowers can be watched - those places belong definitely to the great cultural attractions of Germany.
The methane emitted by landfills, dairy farms and sewage plants, when converted into fuel, burns cleaner than diesel and is completely renewable. That it's not widely available in the United States is about to change, as Clean Energy Fuels, a company backed by oil giant T. Boone Pickens, today announced that it has bec...
The company plans to sell 15 million gallons of the biogas, called Redeem, at 40 pumping stations in California this year. Its arrival came much earlier than most were expecting, reports the New York Times, and it's already doubling the amount of biogas the EPA predicted would be produced nationwide.
According to California Air Resource Board estimates, Redeem sourced from landfill gas can enable up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions when displacing diesel or gasoline in CNG. A fleet that consumes 1,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 9,700 metric tons...
The fuel’s environmental benefits also include capturing the methane before it is released into the atmosphere. When the methane-derived fuel is burned, it is far less harmful to the atmosphere than petroleum fuels. But the methane that escapes directly from decomposing waste is more potent as a heat-trapping gas than ...
Although technically, biogas is more expensive to produce than diesel, California state and federal incentives are allowing Clean Energy to sell it for the same price. Plans are underway to take the product national -- soon enough, we could all be running on manure.
Two competing pressures—downsized budgets and rising policy interest—have left the future of performance-based teacher compensation uncertain.
A dicey fiscal climate and research that has shown limited impact have led some states and districts to scale back, abandon, or change their fledgling merit-pay programs, causing observers to wonder what the next few years will hold for compensation systems that link teacher pay to student achievement.
Just this summer, Texas officials squeezed funding for the country’s largest merit-pay program, from $392 million to $40 million, blaming the state’s deficit. And New York City wiped out its $56 million schoolwide program, citing disappointing research results.
Yet new examples are also springing up, largely because of increased federal funding for performance pay and state and federal legislation encouraging, and in some cases requiring, alternative-compensation schemes.
Still, there may not be a “trend” to predict the future of such programs, said Matthew Springer, the director of Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives, in Nashville, Tenn., and an assistant professor of public policy and education.
Findings: Bonuses had no positive effect on student, teacher, or school performance.
Suggestions: Improve teacher buy-in and perceived value of bonuses.
School District Focus: Nashville, Tenn.
Findings: No impact on student achievement for 6th to 8th graders, minimal impact on 5th graders.
Findings: No improvement on student math and reading scores; no effect on teacher retention.
While increasing attention has gravitated toward the evaluation and compensation practices for teachers, specifically in shifting from traditional salary models tied to experience and education levels to merit-pay systems that factor in a teacher’s impact on student achievement, some say the interest in performance pay...
The journal Education Next reported last spring that only 500 out of 14,000 districts had merit-pay programs. Two of the largest programs in the country were also dismantled this summer.
The 90 percent reduction of Texas’ District Awards for Teacher Excellence program, which provided one-time bonuses linked to performance reviews, will mean the number of teachers receiving bonuses could decline from 180,000 this year to 18,000 within the next two.
The program is a victim of the state budget deficit that led to some $4 billion in cuts to school funding overall, state officials say, and not lack of support for merit pay.
A Texas Education Agency official says the program was thought to be successful, based on research conducted by the National Center on Performance Incentives in 2010. Nevertheless, the agency said it doesn’t expect teacher performance to suffer from the significant decline in bonuses.
Some Texas districts have had more favorable results than others, however. In Houston, criticism emerged that the district let too many teachers qualify for bonuses, yielding minimum impact on teacher performance. Now it will use the budget cuts as an opportunity to rework the program, said Jason Spencer, a spokesman f...
But both state and district teachers’ union members worry that the merit-pay programs themselves are a waste of money and do little to improve teacher performance.
Other states are also abandoning performance pay. According to the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, Alaska’s three-year program recently ended, mainly because of friction with local unions. Iowa’s program was also eliminated.
And money isn’t the only reason some places have backed off performance pay.
In July, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based RAND Corp. released a study of New York City’s merit-pay program that found no substantial impact on teacher, student, or school performance. The district later announced it would discontinue the three-year program.
The RAND study adds to a growing body of research that has found limited effects of merit pay, such as one conducted on Nashville teachers last year.
The research is not abating, either. Mathematica Policy Research has been commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education to assess the 2010 round of Teacher Incentive Fund grantees over the course of their grant cycle. It is unknown whether the first round of grantees, awarded in 2006, will continue their merit-pay p...
A number of states and districts are still moving forward with plans or pilots for new merit-pay systems, and others have maintained them through innovative or hybrid models even though they face limited finances and have yet to prove significant statistical impact.
Some of those efforts stem from increased federal support for merit pay. A provision in the Race to the Top program requires states and districts to change their teacher-evaluation practices and encourages them to be tied to salary. In addition, funding for the Teacher Incentive Fund has been increased from $99 million...
Indiana, Michigan, Utah, and Idaho, for example, have all looked at implementing or expanding performance pay in their states within the past year alone. And some places that even have a prior history of ineffective merit-pay models are still trying to put new systems in place.
According to Kathy Christie, the chief of staff at the ECS, many of the earlier state and district programs were unsuccessful because the incentives were too small or the models were untested. The new systems may have different effects, she said, because many have tried to increase incentives and strengthen criteria an...

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