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Hellboy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Hellboy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Benjamin Wallfisch
Label: Sony Masterworks
Subgenre: Film
I`m sorry!
Dear HIGHRESAUDIO Visitor,
due to territorial constraints and also different releases dates in each country you currently can`t purchase this album. We are updating our release dates twice a week. So, please feel free to check from time-to-time, if the album is available for your country.
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1Big Red05:30
2Psychic Migraine03:57
3Gruagach01:50
4You Call Us Monsters03:26
5Baba Yaga03:27
6A New Eden05:46
7Destroyer of All Things04:31
8Cathedral Fight07:32
9Anung Un Rama02:17
10This Isn't You04:35
11Hellboy01:24
12Rock You Like a Hurricane (Spanish Version)04:16
Total Runtime48:31
Info for Hellboy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Sony Music announces the release of Hellboy (Original motion picture soundtrack) with music by Golden Globe, Grammy and Bafta-nominated composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Shazam!, It, Blade Runner: 2049). Available everywhere today, April 5, the album features music from the hugely anticipated film, based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name. Hellboy will make its theatrical debut on Friday, April 12, 2019 via Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment label.
“I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Sony Music on the release of the Hellboy soundtrack album. Mike Mignola, Neil Marshall and the entire creative team have created an incredible next chapter in this iconic franchise, one that demanded a completely new approach to the score. Sony Music couldn’t be a better partner to bring this music to a wide audience and I’m grateful to them, Lionsgate and Millennium Media.” (Benjamin Wallfisch)
Hellboy is back, and he’s on fire. From the pages of Mike Mignola’s seminal work, this actionpacked story sees the legendary half-demon superhero (David Harbour, Stranger Things) called to the English countryside to battle a trio of rampaging giants. There he discovers The Blood Queen, Nimue (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil series), a resurrected ancient sorceress thirsting to avenge a past betrayal. Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy is now hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world. Hellboy also features Ian McShane (John Wick), Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0 and Lost), and Sasha Lane (American Honey). Summit Entertainment and Millennium Films presents Hellboy, a Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin production, in association with Dark Horse Entertainment, a Nu Boyana production, in association with Campbell Grobman Films.
Composer of David F. Sandberg's box office #1 film SHAZAM!, Andy Muschietti's IT, the most successful horror film of all time, and co-composer of Denis Villeneuve's acclaimed BLADE RUNNER: 2049 (with Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer), Benjamin Wallfisch has worked on over 75 feature films and has received Golden Globe®, BAFTA®, 2x GRAMMY® and Emmy®. He is currently scoring IT: CHAPTER TWO for New Line/Warner Bros.
Other recent projects include Neil Marshall's HELLBOY, Academy Award Best Picture nominee, HIDDEN FIGURES directed by Ted Melfi (in collaboration with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer) and David F. Sandberg's box office hits ANNABELLE: CREATION and LIGHTS OUT. On the invitation of Zimmer, he wrote 'Variation 15', based on Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations, for Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK.
In recent years, Benjamin has also scored Gore Verbinski's A CURE FOR WELLNESS, the Steven Spielberg produced short film AUSCHWITZ, directed by James Moll, KING OF THIEVES, starring Michael Caine and directed by James Marsh; and Steven Knight's SERENITY, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. He also recently completed scoring HOSTILE PLANET, a six part series for National Geographic.
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Home All News Environment Wild Dog Thought to Be Extinct Resurfaces in the Mountains
Wild Dog Thought to Be Extinct Resurfaces in the Mountains
For the first time in over half a century, a wild dog thought to be extinct was sighted in New Guinea.
The New Guinea Wild Dog, similar to the New Guinea Singing Dog (NGSD), is the rarest, most ancient canid currently living (Prior to this discovery, there were only known to be about 200 to 300 NGSDs living in captivity).
With no confirmed reports of wild specimens and only two potentially credible photographs, many feared that the New Guinea Wild Dog had become extinct in its native range and habitat along New Guinea’s remote central mountain spine.
RELATED: Baby Tortoises Survive on Galapagos Island for First Time in 100 Years
Then in September 2016, inspired by nearly three decades of study by Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin of the University of Georgia, and after 3 and a half years of preparation, scientists from the University of Papua conducted a rapid assessment survey that was able to locate and document definitive proof of an apparently healthy, viable population of New Guinea Wild Dogs.
Based on that evidence along with reports from locals, trail cameras were deployed which captured over 100 photographs of at least 15 individuals, to include males, females, and pups ranging in age from about 3 to 5 months, living in isolated locations across the mountain range.
The New Guinea Wild Dog is likely the best living canid example available to scientists outside the fossil record, predating human agriculture and representing a critical “missing link” species having evolved little – and more importantly, free from selective breeding influences imposed by humans – since the time before the dawn of agriculture.
Click To Share This Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photo by New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation)
mlaiuppa Jul 27, 2017 at 10:06 pm
That’s still not a very big, genetically viable population.
Don’t tell anyone where they are. Better that we not know.
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Why did Lamech think Noah would bring comfort (Genesis 5:29)?
Question: "Why did Lamech think Noah would bring comfort (Genesis 5:29)?"
Answer: Many times in Scripture, we see that personal names have meanings that relate to the character of the people who bore them or to the times in which they lived. Noah’s name means “rest” or “consolation” and is related to a Hebrew word meaning “comfort.” Genesis 5:28–29 says, “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, ‘He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.’”
So, Lamech named his son Noah. Genesis 5:29 provides the basic idea regarding Lamech’s thought process. He specifically mentions that the ground had been cursed as part of God’s judgment (cf. Genesis 3:17–19). The birth of Noah when Lamech was 182 years old would have provided “comfort” or “rest” from some of the work of subsistence farming. A son would one day be able to join in the labors of farming, giving Lamech some relief from his many years of manual labor.
But Noah would provide more than physical rest. It appears that Noah’s name is also an inspired prediction regarding his life. The word Noah is taken from the Hebrew word for “rest,” nuakh (see 2 Samuel 14:17). Lamech lived in an evil time, before the Flood (Genesis 6:1). Noah’s father predicted that, in contrast to the world’s evil, Noah would represent righteousness and bring rest and peace in the midst of God’s judgment.
Later in Genesis, Noah was indeed used as God’s agent of peace. He was called by God to build an ark that would save himself, seven of his family members, and enough land animals and birds to keep the species alive. The dove used by Noah to help determine if the flood waters had receded would later become known as a symbol of peace. In Genesis 9:12–15 God promised that the earth would never again be covered by water, and the sign of this covenant of peace was a rainbow.
The New Testament affirms Noah’s role as one who brought comfort. Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. No others are mentioned as believing his message, and no one joined Noah’s family in the ark, but Noah had peace with God. He lived according to God’s ways and obeyed His commands in preparing for the Flood. If anyone had heeded Noah’s preaching, he or she could have found “rest” in the ark along with Noah, the man of rest.
In both a literal and prophetic sense, Noah lived up to his name as one who would bring comfort. To this day, Noah is seen as a man of peace who led people and animals through a time of judgment and into a new world.
Noah’s life was used as an illustration by Jesus in the Gospels: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). There is coming a time that will be like Noah’s time when God’s judgment will come upon the earth. The proper response is to be like Noah and obey the Lord’s call for salvation now, while time remains (2 Corinthians 6:2; John 3:16; Acts 4:12).
Recommended Resource: Genesis - NIV Application Commentary by John Walton
Who was Lamech in the Bible?
What is the canopy theory?
Would the discovery of Noah's Ark be important?
What does the Bible say about uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism?
How long did it take Noah to build the ark? How long was Noah on the ark?
Questions about Genesis
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Who was John the Apostle in the Bible?
Question: "Who was John the Apostle in the Bible?"
Answer: The Apostle John is the author of five New Testament books: the gospel of John, the three short epistles that also bear his name (1, 2, and 3 John) and the book of Revelation. John was part of Jesus’ “inner circle” and, along with Peter and James, John was given the privilege of witnessing Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah on the mount of the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). His importance in the twelve grew as he matured, and after the crucifixion, he became a “pillar” in the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:9), ministered with Peter (Acts 3:1, 4:13, 8:14), and finally was exiled to the island of Patmos by the Romans, where he received from God the majestic visions that comprise the book of Revelation.
Not to be confused with John the Baptist, the Apostle John is the brother of James, another of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Together, they were called by Jesus “Boanerges,” which means “sons of thunder,” and therein we find a key to John’s personality. Both brothers were characterized by zeal, passion and ambition. In his early days with Jesus, at times John acted rashly, recklessly, impetuously, and aggressively. We see him in Mark 9 forbidding a man to cast out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not part of the twelve (Mark 9:38-41). Jesus gently rebuked him, saying no one could cast out demons in Jesus’ name and then turn around and speak evil of Him. In Luke 9:51-54, we see the brothers wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans who refused to welcome Jesus. Again, Jesus had to rebuke them for their intolerance and lack of genuine love for the lost. John’s zeal for Jesus was also influenced by his natural ambition, as seen in his request (through his mother) that he and his brother be seated on Jesus’ right and left hands in the kingdom, an incident that caused a temporary rift between the brothers and the other disciples (Matthew 20:20-24).
In spite of these youthful expressions of misdirected passion, John aged well. He began to understand the need for humility in those who desired to be great. John’s is the only gospel that records Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:4-16). Jesus’ simple act of servanthood must have impacted John greatly. By the time of the crucifixion, Jesus had enough confidence in the young man to turn the care of His mother over to him, a charge John took very seriously. From that day on, John cared for her as if she were his own mother (John 19:25-27). John’s rash request for special honor in the kingdom had given way to a compassion and humility that would characterize his ministry in his later life. Although he remained courageous and bold, his ambition was balanced by the humility he learned at Jesus’ feet. This willingness to serve others and suffer for the sake of the gospel must have enabled him to bear his final imprisonment on Patmos where, according to reliable historical sources, he lived in a cave, cut off from those he loved, and was treated with cruelty and reproach. In the opening of the book of Revelation, which he received from the Holy Spirit during this time, he referred to himself as ‘your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). He had learned to look beyond his earthly sufferings to the heavenly glory that awaits all who patiently endure.
John was passionately devoted to the proclamation of truth. No one in Scripture, except the Lord Jesus, had more to say about the concept of truth. His joy was proclaiming the truth to others and then watching them walk in it (3 John 4). His strongest condemnation was for those who perverted the truth and led others astray, especially if they claimed to be believers (1 John 2:4). His passion for truth fueled his concern for the sheep who might be deceived by false teachers, and his warnings about them take up much of 1 John. He had no qualms about identifying as “false prophets” and “antichrists” those who tried to pervert the truth, even proclaiming them to be demonic in nature (1 John 2:18, 26, 3:7, 4:1-7).
At the same time, John is also called the “apostle of love.” In his own gospel, he refers to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). He is depicted as the one leaning against Jesus’ breast at the last supper. His brief second epistle is filled with expressions of his deep love for those in his care. He addresses his first epistle to a group of believers “whom I love in the truth” and exhorts them to “love one another” by walking in obedience to Jesus’ commands (1 John 1:1, 5-6).
John’s life serves to remind us of several lessons which we can apply to our own lives. First, zeal for the truth must always be balanced by a love for people. Without it, zeal can turn to harshness and judgmentalism. Conversely, abundant love that lacks the ability to discern truth from error can become gushing sentimentality. As John learned as he matured, if we speak the truth in love, we, and those we touch, will “in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
Second, confidence and boldness, untempered by compassion and grace, can quickly turn to pride and smugness. Confidence is a wonderful virtue, but without humility, it can become self-confidence, which can lead to boasting and an attitude of exclusiveness. When that happens, our witness of the grace of God is tainted, and others see in us exactly the kind of person they wish not to be. Like John, if we are to be effective witnesses for Christ, our demeanor should be one that reflects a passion for the truth, compassion for people, and a steadfast desire to serve and represent our Lord by reflecting His humility and grace.
Recommended Resource: The Great Lives from God's Word Series by Chuck Swindoll
عربى, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Español, Français, हिन्दी, Italiano, Kiswahili, Tagalog
What can we learn from what the Bible says about James the apostle?
Who was Salome in the Bible?
Who was John the Baptist in the Bible?
Who was Peter in the Bible?
Who was Matthew in the Bible?
Questions about People in the Bible
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Doctor of Philosophy Program Data
Program Statistics – This section provides information on the students currently enrolled in the degree major as taken from University Official Counts Data.
Cohort – This section contains information on the applicants for the stated session.
Applicants – the number of students that applied for the stated session
Admissions – the number of students offered admission by the major department for the stated session
Newly Enrolled Students – the number of students that accepted the offer of admission and enrolled in the major department for the stated session
Ph.D. Completion Data – This section contains data for three years of entering students where each academic year starts with the summer session and ends after the spring session.
Education, College of – view program statistics maintained by the College of Education for Education Policy & Leadership Studies, Psychology & Quantitative Foundations, Rehabilitation & Counselor Education, and Teaching & Learning.
Degree Major
Accounting Ph.D. Program
American Studies Ph.D. Program
Anthropology Ph.D. Program
Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences Ph.D. Program
Art History Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Biochemistry) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Cancer Biology) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Cell and Developmental Biology) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Free Radical and Radiation Biology) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Immunology) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Microbiology) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Molecular Medicine) Ph.D. Program
Biomedical Science (Pharmacology) Ph.D. Program
Biostatistics Ph.D. Program
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Ph.D. Program
Chemistry Ph.D. Program
Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Program
Classics Ph.D. Program
Communication Studies Ph.D. Program
Community and Behavioral Health Ph.D. Program
Computer Science Ph.D. Program
Earth & Environmental Sciences Ph.D. Program
Economics Ph.D. Program
Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. Program
English Ph.D. Program
Epidemiology Ph.D. Program
Film Studies Ph.D. Program
Finance Ph.D. Program
French and Francophone World Studies Ph.D. Program
Genetics Ph.D. Program
Geography Ph.D. Program
Health & Human Physiology Ph.D. Program
Health Services and Policy Ph.D. Program
History Ph.D. Program
Human Toxicology Ph.D. Program
Industrial Engineering Ph.D. Program
Informatics Ph.D. Program
Integrated Biology Ph.D. Program
Interdisciplinary Studies Ph.D. Program
Linguistics Ph.D. Program
Management and Organizations Ph.D. Program
Management Sciences Ph.D. Program
Marketing Ph.D. Program
Mass Communications Ph.D. Program
Mathematics Ph.D. Program
Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Program
Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Ph.D. Program
Music Ph.D. Program
Neuroscience Ph.D. Program
Nursing Ph.D. Program
Occupational and Environmental Health Ph.D. Program
Oral Science Ph.D. Program
Pharmacy Ph.D. Program
Philosophy Ph.D. Program
Physical Rehabilitation Science Ph.D. Program
Physics Ph.D. Program
Political Science Ph.D. Program
Psychological & Brain Sciences Ph.D. Program
Religious Studies Ph.D. Program
Second Language Acquisition Ph.D. Program
Social Work Ph.D. Program
Sociology Ph.D. Program
Spanish Ph.D. Program
Speech and Hearing Science Ph.D. Program
Statistics Ph.D. Program
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Home|Green car news|Electric Cars UK|ULEV Experience launched in Nottingham
ULEV Experience launched in Nottingham
ULEV Experience
A new initiative has been launched in Nottingham with the aim of increasing the uptake of electric vehicles, as well as improving air quality in the city.
The Workplace Travel Service: ULEV Experience programme held its first event – a ‘Ride and Drive’ Electric Vehicle showcase – on Friday 22nd June 2018 at Nottingham Racecourse, which was attended by a range of Nottingham businesses and public sector organisations.
The event provided an update on the latest Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) available, the business case for transitioning to ULEVs, the funding support available from Central Government and through Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Travel Service, and Nottingham’s investment in charging infrastructure. There was also the opportunity to test drive a range of the latest electric cars and commercial vehicles so operators could experience the technology first-hand.
The ULEV Experience is a programme dedicated to supporting businesses to understand, trial and implement Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles, and is funded by Nottingham City Council’s Go Ultra Low City project. The programme is explained in a video which can be seen here: www.ulevexperience.co.uk
The ULEV Experience programme offers businesses and the public sector:
Fully-Funded Fleet Reviews delivered by Cenex and the Energy Saving Trust worth up to £11,000, helping a business to understand if low emission vehicle technology is right for them
Low Emission Vehicle Loans delivered by DriveElectric with over 20 different makes and models available to try for up to one month
Business Engagement and Events delivered by CleanTech Business and The Big Wheel to help an organisation learn more about ULEVs and identify if there are any benefits for the business – all free to attend.
Luke Redfern, the ULEV Experience Programme Manager, commented: “This is an interesting and challenging time for all organisations, especially as the importance of improving air quality from transport operations is increasing, along with the forthcoming implementation of Clean Air Zones, so businesses really need to be prepared, which includes gaining an understanding of low emission vehicle technology.
“We’re really excited to be launching this business support programme here in Nottingham, helping all organisations to understand the true potential of ULEVs, including how they can save money through lower running costs, trying out ULEVs before purchasing them, and sharing best practice from others who have already been through this journey. This fully funded-programme can only help accelerate the uptake of low emission vehicles here in Nottingham.”
Councillor Sally Longford, Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment, who was one of the speakers at the launch event, added “Nottingham is committed to achieving cleaner air. Electric vehicles can play an important part in helping to achieve this goal, which is why we are encouraging businesses in Nottingham to find out if electric vehicles could work for them. The ULEV Experience provides expert support for organisations that are interested in making the switch, and we’re inviting businesses to come along to our ongoing programme of events to find out more.”
The ULEV Experience is open to all businesses and public sector organisations that have a presence, or operate, in the city of Nottingham.
The project is delivered by a consortium led by Cenex, with partners from Automotive Comms, CleanTech Business, DriveElectric, Energy Saving Trust and The Big Wheel.
Find out more about the ULEV Experience at: www.ulevexperience.co.uk
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Tesla’s Drop Continues in US Residential Solar Rankings
The company’s market share has plunged as it moves to lower its customer acquisition costs.
Emma Foehringer Merchant June 19, 2019
Emma Foehringer Merchant
Emma is a staff writer at Greentech Media. She previously covered environmental policy, politics, and climate change at Grist and the New Republic. Emma studied Environmental Analysis at Pomona College.
Tesla has fallen behind Vivint Solar and Sunrun in quarterly residential solar installations.
Tesla sank to third place among U.S. residential solar providers for installations in the first quarter of 2019, continuing the one-time market leader's dramatic decline.
The latest ranking from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables shows Vivint Solar knocking Tesla out of second place. Sunrun’s direct solar business pulled ahead of Tesla in the second half of 2018.
That's not to say that Vivint gained market share at Tesla's expense. Vivint’s percentage of the market actually shrank, from a high of 11.6 percent in 2014 to 7.3 percent so far in 2019.
Those figures underscore the magnitude of Tesla’s even more dramatic decline. Accounting for 32.6 percent of the market in 2014 as SolarCity, Tesla now lays claim to just 6.3 percent of the market this year.
FIGURE: Leading U.S. Residential Solar Installers, 2013 - 2019 YTD
Source: Wood Mackenzie U.S. PV Leaderboard
Overall, WoodMac forecasts nearly flat 3 percent growth for the residential solar market in 2019. Tesla continues to be a depressing factor. The U.S. installed 603 megawatts of residential PV capacity during the first quarter, up 6 percent year on year.
“The growth outlook for 2019 — like 2017 and 2018 — continues to be hampered by Tesla’s decisions to cut back on its customer acquisitions channels,” said Austin Perea, a senior solar analyst at WoodMac.
Several shifts in sales strategy have left analysts skeptical about Tesla’s solar business, which it acquired when it purchased SolarCity for $2.6 billion in 2016. The company has wound down a partnership to sell solar in Home Depot stores and is moving to close many of its own stores, where it sold solar alongside batteries and vehicles.
That leaves web-based sales as Tesla’s strongest stream of purchases. In a recent report, Perea noted the company may not see a balancing of organic sales via web and referral sales until the second half of this year.
“They have effectively cut out every single form of active customer acquisition,” said Perea. “We actually expect them to continue to see year-over-year declines relative to 2018 through 2019.”
The fall in residential installations comes amid wider turmoil in Tesla’s solar business. Reuters recently reported that solar cells produced by Panasonic at Tesla’s Buffalo, New York factory are actually being sent to the Philippines, rather than being used in Tesla’s trademark solar roof. In April, Greentech Media published a report digging into concerns about Tesla’s commitments at that plant and its capacity to scale the solar roof.
Tesla declined to comment on the latest residential installation numbers, and instead pointed to past statements.
“For residential solar and energy storage, traditional industry-wide sales techniques require customized systems, installations and purchasing processes. This results in a cumbersome buying experience and limits market potential,” the company said in its Q1 letter to shareholders. “As we have done for the vehicle business, the key to accelerating mass adoption is to standardize the product offering, simplify the customer buying experience, and focus on the markets with the strongest economics. This results in cost efficiencies.”
It's true that at the same time Tesla’s market share has faltered, its customer acquisition costs have dropped. In the second half of 2018, the company was spending $0.40 per watt to acquire customers. By the end of 2019, WoodMac analysts said Tesla could be spending “close to a quarter” per watt.
According to the energy research firm, customer acquisition costs remain the most expensive portion of residential solar systems, accounting for 21 percent of total costs in 2018. Vivint and Sunrun have customer acquisition costs at $0.94 a watt and $0.90 a watt, respectively.
“With current saturation levels, customer acquisition costs are not going to come down,” said Perea. “Tesla understands where the cost stack is right now and they’re able to rely on other business units … They’re diversified in a way that other models aren’t.”
The current leaders in residential solar, Vivint and Sunrun, have to rely on ballooning installation numbers to continue growing. Due to its luxury auto brand and its storage business, Tesla doesn’t.
The impending stepdown of the Investment Tax Credit, which drops to zero for customer-owned systems in 2022, means that many residential systems will go up in price, because cost declines will not match the loss of the incentive.
“I’m not saying that Tesla is doing the right thing here, but I think they understand that existing customer acquisition costs aren’t going anywhere,” said Perea. “It’s becoming a fairly well-respected product at a cheaper price point than some of its primary competitors. That’s because they’ve been reducing their customer acquisitions costs actively.”
According to analysts, the company is unlikely to beat competitors using the metric of installation volume that the solar industry has generally used to measure success.
If Tesla can bounce back from its current challenges and maintain its below-average costs to sign up new customers, it will have outwitted industry expectations and demonstrated that acquisition costs don’t have to be exorbitant — as long as you have a shiny brand name.
Read more about WoodMac's ranking here.
U.S. PV Leaderboard
U.S. Downstream Distributed Solar Service
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UN Security Council discusses escalation in Idlib, its countryside this week
In this week, UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting at the request of Germany, Kuwait and Belgium to discuss the escalation of fighting in north-west of Syria.
NEWS 16 May 2019, Thu - 15:09 2019-05-16T15:09:00 NEWS DESK
On Wednesday, Belgium, Germany and Kuwait asked for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council this week to discuss the escalation of fighting in north-west of Syria according to diplomats.
Since late April, the Syrian regime and its ally Russia have intensified their attacks on Idlib, which is controlled by the mercenaries of "Hayet Tahrir al-Sham" raising concern about an imminent comprehensive attack to regain control of the area.
The meeting, expected to be held this week, will be a follow-up to the closed session held on Friday in which several countries expressed concern about a possible humanitarian crisis that could result in a full-scale offensive.
Germany, Belgium and Kuwait, which hold non-permanent seats in UN Security Council, are leading efforts to deal with the humanitarian crises in Syria, where the war has entered its ninth year.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the recent military conflict in Syria has led to displacing 180,000 people, while 119 civilians have been killed by shelling since late April.
Hundreds of residents of al-Hasakah bid farewell the body of Mohammed Ahmed al-Mohimid to hi...
Today, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Organization in Girê Spî Canton held its first con...
Turkey deports Syrian refugees forcibly to occupied areas
Turkey deports the Syrian citizens who do not have Turkish identities to the areas that it h...
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HC at UGA
Denise Jans via Unsplash
5 Films to Look Forward to This Spring
By Elizabeth Angel • UGA Contributor • Entertainment March 12, 2019 at 9:30am
Binge watching classic rom-coms or horror films on Netflix can be an easy go-to for a chill Saturday night in, but in the month of March, there are plenty of new releases, either original stories or remakes, in theaters that make it worth it to change your scenery and hit up the local cinema. Here are five upcoming films for the month of March to checkout!
Five Feet Apart (March 15)
Produced by Jane the Virgin star, Justin Baldoni, and starring big actors Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson, Five Feet Apart is a film that follows the story of two CF patients, with completely different mindsets, who come together and fight their condition with one another. The movie follows their love story and how they cope with making a relationship, all while having to stay five feet apart.
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (March 15)
After many years, Ellen DeGeneres has decided to produce another book-to-screen remake of Nancy Drew. Although there is a bit of controversy surrounding the accuracy of the characters within the film, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase brings to life a series loved by many generations of people. Head to the theater yourself to see if you love or hate this modern-day rendition.
Captive State (March 15)
If you're looking for a bit more action and sci-fi, Captive State is the movie for you. An original screenplay, the film follows a state of the Earth after aliens had conquered it, where humans are enslaved to the extraterrestrial beings. Many are divided on how they feel about the takeover, and the film takes on the task of showing the thoughts and actions of not only the resistance, but those who cooperate fully with the alien cause.
Us (March 22)
Directed by Jordan Peele who shook many with his hit film Get Out, Us is another hair-raising story about a family, the Wilsons, that is terrozied by another family who wear masks of their own faces. The dopplegangers harrass and plot against the Wilsons, turning them against one another as they attempt to murder them all. If you're looking for an intense psychological thriller, this is the film for you.
Dumbo (March 29)
Now, what is a movie list without a Disney movie? Walt Disney Studios is contuining its theme of live-action remakes of its classic films with its most recent development of Dumbo. The CGI powers are great and truly bring to life a staple piece of the Disney collection. Bring a few tissues along for this nostalgic piece.
Now when there seems to be nothing to do but just rewatch the same old shows on Hulu or Netflix, use this list to go to the movie theater and experience new stories!
Elizabeth Angel (UGA ‘22)
Elizabeth Angel is a Mississippi native who recently made her way to the University of Georgia. She is a first year, (hopefully) on the Pre-Med track, majoring in Cognitive Science with a minor in English. When she's not locked in her room studying, Elizabeth enjoys spontaneous road trips or binging multiple seasons of a show over a long weekend.
The Morning Scroll: Democratic Congresswomen Respond to Trump's 'Go Back' Remarks & IHOP is Selling 58-Cent Pancakes For Its Birthday
Pro-Surfer Bethany Hamilton Inspires With Her Documentary "Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable"
“Yesterday”: A Film Review
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Mentum Fusion: Improving Collaboration with Wireless Network Intelligence
Ryan Dussiaume
You may recall from the second post of this four part series, “Automate, Collaborate, Empower — Maximizing the RAN's Value Through Coverage Maps,” that automation is the first, and perhaps most obvious, enhancement for coverage map generation, but there is much more to achieve with Mentum Fusion. In particular, it enables cross-functional collaboration based on available wireless network intelligence.
Using a mapping and reporting interface, such as our Network Online eXplorer (NOX) client, mobile operators can achieve a unique solution that automates network simulation and coverage map production to significantly reduce the time and effort in typical coverage mapping applications. Without such capability, changes made to the wireless network itself — or merely the network plans — need to be shared and analyzed to generate the appropriate coverage maps, instead of being automated in one complete solution. Essentially, it's about synchronizing network data with coverage map generation.
Mobile operators can take this a step further by publishing the resulting data to the web so that it is available to all stakeholders. All that is needed to access the coverage maps is a browser.
As an example, consider executive management. They need to understand the wireless network in relation to corporate marketing targets, corporate accounts, government accounts, network sharing agreements with other wireless operators, mandatory services such as 911 and compliance data for new spectrum. To support decision making and communicate compliance and strategy, these executives and their support staff require detailed reporting. Normally, this level of detailed reporting needs to be defined and communicated to engineering, which requires formatting and other specific visualization attributes. This pre-production process can be very time consuming, and then, the coverage maps and reports have to be generated. The likelihood that these reports are stale and out of date by the time they're generated is very high.
Good decision making involves analyzing the alternatives, but this adds to the complexity of what-if scenarios. Mobile operators can begin to see how timely data and network intelligence seem to be on opposite sides of the “spectrum” (no pun intended). With integrated network data automation and what-if analysis built into the coverage generation process, the ability to get timely, accurate and meaningful information is not only possible, but practical, without stealing away precious engineering resources.
Now, add web-based access, and all stakeholders can see the real-time status, instead of wondering which one of dozens of static report files pertain to the current plans or network configurations.
Enabling enhanced decision making with full collaboration is the exact purpose of Mentum Fusion. It centralizes data locations with a common interface, dynamically reports with different filters and inputs what-if capabilities by tuning the system configuration to regenerate maps, perhaps on a daily schedule. A reduced level of coordination is necessary to support the process which also frees up highly valuable resources so employees can focus on their ‘day-jobs.'
Check back in two weeks for my last post in the series!
Mr. Dussiaume is the product manager for Mentum Fusion. With a degree in computer science, he is an expert in the design and architecture of web-based data intelligence platforms. Throughout his 11 years in the telecommunications industry, he has made significant contributions to the development of software used for a broad range of business applications such as wireless network planning, business analysis, customer service, capacity planning and performance analysis. In the past, he has held positions such as lead user experience designer and team lead of user interface development.
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Restrictions on State of California’s ability to contract with private engineering firms struck down by California Supreme Court
By Greg Korbel on November 11, 2007
Posted in Consultants
On November 5, 2007, the California Supreme Court held that the State of California could not enter into a memorandum of understanding with an engineering union which restricted the State from hiring and retaining private engineering firms where such restrictions were barred by a recent amendment to the state constitution. (See Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California, Inc. v. Professional Engineers in California Government, 2007 Cal. LEXIS 12680.)
In November 2000, California’s voters approved Proposition 35, adding art. XXII to the state constitution. Art. XXII allowed the state to contract with private entities to obtain architectural and engineering services for public works of improvement. Proposition 35 specified that art. VII, which the courts had usually interpreted as barring such contracts, would not be construed to limit the state from contracting with private companies for such services.
After Prop. 35 was passed, the state and Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), a union representing engineers employed by the state, entered into a collective bargaining agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Article 24 of the MOU provided that, except in extremely unusual or urgent circumstances, the state must make every effort to use state employees to perform architectural and engineering services for public works projects, before resorting to contracts with private companies.
Art. 24 of the MOU mandated the preferential use of civil service engineers over outside engineers, except under specified circumstances. It also permitted termination of existing outside engineering contracts and transfer of the work to civil service engineers after the contracts are reviewed by a committee dominated by PECG members. Finally, it required that steps be taken, such as termination of outside contracts were possible, to minimize the displacement of state engineers resulting from contracting out engineering services. Although cost savings appeared to be a consideration with respect to the termination of existing engineering contracts, the court noted there was no requirement that the preference given to civil service engineers for new projects must be based on cost effectiveness.
Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California, Inc. filed a petition for a writ of mandate, seeking to enjoin the implementation of Art. 24 of the MOU.
The Court found that the effect of all of these requirements was to restrict the ability of state authorities to freely contract out engineering services. The mandatory preference for civil service engineers, without a concomitant requirement of costs savings, did not ensure the best value for California taxpayers, and it undermined the goal of promoting fair competition. Moreover, the court observed, common sense dictated that review and termination of existing contracts would not be conducive to speeding the completion of backlogged projects. Art. 24 thus contravened the goals of Prop. 35 and thwarted the intent of the electorate.
The court found further that substantial evidence supported the trial court’s finding that the implementation of art. 24 of the MOU would (1) disrupt ongoing public works projects and waste public funds by terminating existing contracts, (2) produce great and irreparable injury to the public and to the parties to existing architectural and engineering services contracts, and (3) result in the loss of benefits that would flow to the public from such future contracts.
The California Supreme Court affirmed, holding that art. 24 of the MOU fatally conflicted with Prop. 35.
Tags: Consultants
Public Agencies Face New Restrictions in Contracting with Design Professionals
2007 Legislation Affecting the Construction Industry
New law limits design professionals' indemnity obligations to public agencies
Third Circuit Court of Appeals holds that state's ability to contract for private architectural and engineering services mandated by California constitution
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David Johnston, chairman of The North Matters speaks in the Gathering Place in Burns Lake, on June 12.
Rich U.S. donors fund anti-oil activism, meeting hears
Much of the organized opposition to oil and gas development in Canada comes from powerful groups funded by American philanthropists, says a Vancouver-based researcher.
Their ultimate aim is to “land lock Canadian oil and keep it out of the global market,” as Vivian Krause told an audience in the Gathering Place in Burns Lake on June 12.
The event was organized by pro-development group The North Matters.
READ MORE: Pro-pipeline group eyes expansion to Burns Lake
Krause has been researching the financial links between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and wealthy American philanthropists and foundations since 2002.
The initial focus of her research 17 years ago was on campaigns to encourage the consumption of wild salmon over farmed salmon. The David Suzuki Foundation, among other organizations said that farmed salmon contained high levels of toxins.
When Krause began digging, she found that the alleged science behind the campaign was shoddy, and that wild salmon in fact contained more mercury than their farmed cousins.
She dug deeper, and found that the Packard and Moore foundations in the United States were giving millions of dollars to Sea Web, Tides Canada and other NGOs to help bolster their anti-farming projects.
Krause learned about the payments because she obtained copies of the tax returns of the various organizations.
She became aware of a wider pattern in the funding streams.
“About 37 organizations in British Columbia have received more than $1 million from the Moore Foundation. Almost every environmental group in B.C. They’ve spent most of the money on marine planning – $150 million on marine planning and related purposes,” she explained.
“Marine planning came up with four plans for the coast of B.C. and none of them would allow for any pipelines or any tankers. No infrastructure that would allow for the export of gas or oil.”
Moving from the water onto the land, campaigns for the Great Bear Rainforest initiative have also received many millions of dollars for several years.
The rare, blond-furred Kermode bear lives in that forest on the coast.
One of the biggest recipients of funding has been the Coastal First Nations group, an organization of nine northwest First Nations that backs the rainforest initiative and seeks “to protect our coast and improve the quality of life in our communities,” according to its website.
It has received funds from – among others – the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, which has also given financial backing to anti-oil sands initiatives, such as the Tar Sands Campaign, Krause said.
Coastal First Nations itself received $25 million from philanthropist supporters for its work in protecting the Great Bear Rainforest.
Krause acknowledged that the habitat of the Kermode bear should be protected because of the animal’s beauty and its spiritual significance for Indigenous people.
However, she showed the audience three images of the rainforest region that gave a wider perspective on the situation.
“If we look at the annual report of the Rockefeller’s at the end of the 1990s, there’s actually a map of the area that they wanted to protect,” which showed a region just inland from the coast where the bears live.
But moving up to the present day, a third image showed the much larger Great Bear Rainforest that stretches from just north of Campbell River up to the Alaska border.
“It started out as a good idea and it has changed. And now they call the entire north coast of B.C. the Great Bear Rainforest, even though in most of it there’s no Great [Kermode] bears,” she said.
“And now we’re told that we can’t have any tankers and no pipelines.”
Other “large scale conservation initiatives” such as the Yellowstone 2 Yukon bid and the Canadian Boreal Initiative, both of which seek to protect vast swathes of land and put them off limits to any development, have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the big donors, Krause said.
Specifically with pipelines, Krause said the strategy of NGOs has been to deter investment in Canada.
“Greenpeace got $424,000. This was to create enough financial, regulatory and political uncertainty such that prominent financial analysts would publicly state their concern about investing in Canada.”
Considering the B.C. government’s opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, “the Georgia Strait Alliance would push the government to articulate its strategy to undermine the industry’s legitimacy and make investors nervous. They said this would involve stakeholders in the US who could make it more difficult for the Kinder Morgan project to be successful. This is what a charity in Nanaimo [Georgia Strait Alliance] was funded to do.”
On the ground, Krause said some activists are paid to attend anti-pipeline protests, such as those that took place in early January at the Gitdumden blockade south of Houston, where 14 people were arrested.
LOOK BACK: RCMP arrest 14 people in northern B.C. over anti-LNG pipeline protest
Other times, the activists are already employed by NGOs.
“Some of them are paid very well – $100,000 payments. In one case, the Boreal Songbird initiative – they fund the Canadian Boreal Initiative. On their tax return for 2017 the names of the contractors are there and their salaries,” Krause said.
“Activists should be paid but if they’re paid they should be honest about it. My problem is when they’re paid and they say they weren’t. There are people even in this region that are part of that.”
The million dollar question amid all the money transfers and protests is why deep-pocketed American foundations care about Canadian energy development.
There is an environmental ethic among most of the relevant philanthropists, and Krause pointed out that most of the organizations support noble humanitarian and scientific causes.
But in at least one case, their interest in Canada’s oil industry is clear.
The San Francisco-based Hewlett foundation has put $18 million into environmental projects, such as the Canadian Boreal Initiative.
It also funds SAFE (Securing America’s Future Energy) an organization that aims to reduce American oil dependence and vulnerability of businesses to volatile oil prices.
“This charitable foundation has no qualms about influencing the price of oil, as long as it is benefits US interests. And they’re clear about why. They’re doing this because of the geopolitics of oil. Energy security is national security,” Krause said.
If Canada could sell oil to other countries, the near-monopoly the U.S. has on Canadian oil would end and prices could become less stable.
Hewlett, along with the other big funders have four main goals, as Krause outlined: More renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, a cleaner environment, and keeping Canadian oil and gas out of overseas markets.
“The fourth goal is where we as Canadians need to disagree. I think making Canada the whipping boy, the poster child – that’s not okay. I think we all want to transition to cleaner and greener energy but this transition has got to be fair,” she said.
“I think the most objectionable thing about it is it doesn’t help the environment at all. Keeping Canada out of the oil market hasn’t kept one barrel of oil in the ground. I would like us to be part of the oil market. I would like to see us have a strong economy.”
In closing her presentation, Krause said that Canadians can begin to raise awareness of the long money trails behind opposition to oil development by writing letters to the editor in the media, and by urging local politicians to bring the issue to wider attention.
Krause writes for the Financial Post and has worked in the fish farming industry and for UNICEF in Indonesia and Guatemala.
She has faced criticism for accepting large speaking fees at oil and mining industry events.
Multimedia reporter
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Karen Ogen-Toews, a recently elected councillor of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation speaks at The North Matters event in the Gathering Place in Burns Lake, on June 12. (Blair McBride photo)
Researcher Vivian Krause speaks in the Gathering Place in Burns Lake, on June 12.
Billboard posted along B.C.’s Highway of Tears to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women
Life’s work of talented B.C. sculptor leads to leukemia
The FortisBC shipments to China are to be delivered in 60 specialized shipping containers per week
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AFCON Tables
Middendorp will need nerves of steel to turn Chiefs around
PSL / 9 December 2018, 4:15pm / ANTHONY MCLENNAN
Ernst Middendorp has a big job to do ay Kaizer Chiefs. Photo: @KaizerChiefs via Twitter
JOHANNESBURG – The appointment of Ernst Middendorp as head coach suggests that the Kaizer Chiefs hierarchy have lost touch, or worse yet, don't really care about the opinion of their supporters.
Of course it would be disrespectful to judge the German before he's even started, but based on the major backlash over the past few days, his arrival is not a popular one, and to say that he’s starting on the back foot would be an understatement.
When Giovanni Solinas' departure broke on Friday afternoon, there was celebration, many hoping this might be the beginning of a new dawn for the club, management having realised their mistakes, and now willing to fork out big money to bring in a big and proven name.
The fans had wanted an upgrade for Christmas, someone with new innovations, fresh energy, and a track record of recent success. Instead, they got a refurbished model, and they've been throwing their toys out the cot ever since. Like a couple of supporters wrote on a social media platform, the general interpretation seems to be that the club has 'replaced a fridge with an ice box'.
How does Middendorp even begin to work after this kind of reception? Unless he wins the league, which looks unlikely bar a major turn-around, or the Nedbank Cup or the Confederation Cup, this is an appointment which appears doomed from the outset. Not because he's a poor coach, but because of the timing of his arrival, and the situation the club is currently in.
Indeed, who would want to be in Middendorp's shoes right now? He has signed a 30-month deal at a time of general unease, which comes as a result of the club’s loyalty to Steve Komphela despite his failure to win a trophy in three years, followed by the surprising hiring of the underwhelming Solinas, who lasted less than five months.
One can understand Amakhosi's desire to bring in someone who knows the PSL, and the club, having had a previous spell with Chiefs around 13 years ago. However, this will only fuel the notion that Middendorp is expected to hit the ground running as far as results are concerned. That’s expecting a lot. Would a clean slate not have been the way to go?
He wasn't the most popular of coaches in his last spell either; despite winning two cup competitions in a two-season stay between 2005 and 2007, Chiefs lost ground in the league during that period, with the coach being dubbed 'Middendraw' after 14 league draws in the 2005/ 06 campaign, which saw them ending third, before slipping down to ninth a year later.
Anything less than a storming start of victories accompanied by scintillating football, and fans will quickly be onto the new coach's back. Middendorp will have absolutely no grace period; a couple of early defeats or draws, and the pressure will ratchet up rapidly.
And while his previous work in the PSL should be respected, Middendorp is known more as a pragmatic tactician, rather than an innovator or a charismatic man-manager. The club were surely crying out for an endearing coach with a trophy-laden CV, someone who could galvanise both the players and the supporters with a fresh outlook, no matter the financial cost.
In appearing to ignore what their fans want, club management seem to have forgotten just how crucial the role is which supporters play in creating a positive energy, be it at the stadiums, or on media platforms. This in turn transcends to the players, who hear that discontent during matches, and read about it online.
In a period when Amakhosi's home games at the FNB Stadium are attracting increasingly sparse crowds, with last season's crowd riot in Durban still fresh in the memory, surely at this point of the club's great history, it would have been a wise idea to get the supporters back on board by appeasing them with a more illustrious manager, be that someone from abroad or a local man?
With some exceptions, many of Chiefs' player signings over the past few years have been relative unknowns, or PSL journeymen, largely seen as 'bargain buys', with few and far between proving a hit. Now Middendorp is being viewed by supporters as another cheap and convenient option.
At 60-years-old, and having been out of work as a coach for around two years after his last few seasons in the PSL were spent at smaller teams such as Chippa United, Bloemfontein Celtic, Maritzburg United, Golden Arrows and Free State Stars, he was hardly in demand, and is unlikely to have been anywhere near the top end of the club's budget.
It's in large part due to Amakhosi's massive fan base (on the back of their historic successes) that they're able to attract huge sponsorships, and for many, Middendorp's appointment has been nothing less than a slap in the face.
If there was ever a time that the Glamour Boys needed to go out and make a statement by head-hunting a big-name, and thereby consolidating their position as one of the continent's biggest institutions and most successful teams domestically, this must have been it.
Former Al Ahly coach Patrice Carteron was on the top of many fans' wish-lists and seemed like the kind of coach Chiefs should have been looking for.
Someone such as Carteron, or a Herve Renard type of character, even former Orlando Pirates coach Ruud Krol, would likely have rejuvenated spirits in the Chiefs family. He would have started with a blank canvas, and with the fans happy and on board at least initially. He would have been give more breathing space to build a team, to stamp his mark, and to adapt to the PSL. Middendorp is unlikely to be afforded any leeway whatsoever.
In short, Middendorp is going to have to pull off a footballing miracle with a bunch of players who for the most part look disjointed and uncertain of themselves. If not, this has all the makings of another disaster, and another step backwards for South Africa's most popular team.
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Iona Launches Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
News: 2017-2018
Record $15 Million Gift to Prepare the Next Generation of Leaders, Innovators
SEE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM JUNE OF THE APPOINTMENT OF A FOUNDING DIRECTOR -- AND NEWS COVERAGE ABOUT THE NEW INSTITUTE
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- In its continued efforts to prepare students for new careers in a global economy defined by constant change and on the heels of tripling its endowment, announcing a new business school building, and hiring over 30 new tenure-track faculty, Iona College has announced plans to endow a visionary institute for entrepreneurs and innovative thinking.
The Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation will establish an interdisciplinary curricular focus for students in any major, create new majors and minors in entrepreneurship, and appoint new endowed faculty fellows. The institute, which also creates a community incubator, will ensure students develop the knowledge, skills and experience required to create, innovate and lead in a global economy empowered by exciting technological advances.
The institute is made possible by the generosity and record $15 million gift to Iona from James and Anne Marie Hynes, who now become the largest lifetime donors to the College. The gift is part of the College’s $150 million Iona Forever campaign to advance student scholarship, accelerate academic innovation and enhance key learning environments.
Anne Marie and James '69, '01H Hynes
“Building on a legacy that has long produced leaders who are known for their entrepreneurship and innovation, the Hynes Institute will fortify Iona's future while preparing our students to be the next generation of big thinkers and global leaders,” said Iona College President Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D. “At Iona, we understand how important it is to prepare students for careers that were once unimaginable or don’t yet even exist. The Hynes Institute will ensure that our students are not only receiving the education they’ll need to be leaders among their peers in this country, but throughout the world. We are grateful for the Hynes family, their generous gift and continued support.”
Entrepreneurial studies programs help students in moving new ideas from concept to execution. This institute will empower students with hands-on, shared learning experiences to support them in identifying, approaching and solving problems in all aspects of life.
“We wanted to do something for Iona College that would have lasting and far-reaching benefits for all students, present and future,” said Mr. Hynes. “We are underwriting academic innovation and transformation. We believe the entrepreneurial mindset is not only necessary in starting businesses, but it is invaluable in any career or vocation.”
Mr. and Mrs. Hynes are well known in the Iona community for their presence on campus, leadership and philanthropy. Mr. Hynes holds a BA and an honorary doctorate from Iona College, in addition to an MBA from Adelphi University. He has been active in the Iona College community since graduating in 1969, and has served on the College’s Board of Trustees since 1995, and as chairman since 2008. In early 2006, the Hynes Athletics Center on the Iona campus was dedicated in recognition of his leadership philanthropic support.
Mr. Hynes earned international acclaim as an entrepreneur, innovator and business leader whose career includes 25 years of entrepreneurial success in the telecommunications industry. He co-founded and was first CEO of Inteliquent, a leading provider of interconnection services in the United States; was a founder and first CEO, of COLT, PLC, the first non-governmental telecom provider in Europe; and made numerous successful venture capital investments in early stage telecommunications and technology companies.
Mrs. Hynes, a member of the Hynes Institute design team, holds a BA in mathematics, an MS in management science and a law degree from Pace University and is a member of both the New York and Connecticut bars. Her work has been focused on serving the greater community. Most recently she has functioned as a pro bono attorney with the Pace Women’s Justice Center in White Plains, N.Y., working with domestic abuse victims. She serves on numerous boards and is the president of the Hynes Foundation.
"Students from any major will benefit from learning and elevating their creativity, their innovation, and leadership skills into an entrepreneurial mindset," Mrs. Hynes said. "Whether building water filtration systems in Africa, enriching young minds in classrooms around the country, developing public policy or scientific solutions to life's great questions, or founding and leading businesses large and small, we all need to cultivate the essential skills supported by the Hynes Institute.”
The gift comes after a yearlong planning process that included touring leading centers and institutes across the country. The process transitioned from planning to action with the support of the Hynes family. Now, Hynes Fellows are being actively recruited, the search for the endowed director of the Hynes Institute is underway, and campus and community locations for the institute have been identified.
“As a member of the English faculty and chair of the Faculty Senate, I am profoundly appreciative of the investment the Hynes family has made in the College,” said Hugh Short, Ph.D., an Iona faculty member for 42 years. “It’s a transformational gift to bring both schools together in the center of campus – it will have lasting effects on the academy, our faculty, and our students.”
For more information about the Hynes Institute, email interim Director Glenn Horine, professor in Iona's School of Business, at ghorine@iona.edu.
News media contact: Brian Beyrer, bbeyrer@iona.edu or (914) 637-2726.
About the Iona Forever campaign: iona.edu/ionaforever
“Approaching entrepreneurship as a mindset democratizes the discipline and signals to everyone in the Iona community that entrepreneurship is a life skill that must be developed by every student in every part of the College.”
Heidi M. Neck, Ph.D., Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Babson College, and
President, United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
“This is by far the largest gift to a private college I have ever seen and Iona couldn’t be a more deserving recipient of this gift. The College’s cross-disciplinary approach is a well-respected strategy, and sets them very high on the benchmark. With greater resources I see amazing things ahead for Iona’s program. USASBE is excited and proud to welcome Iona to our family of over 600 college and university members."
Patrick Snyder, IOM, Executive Director, United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
"Entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing areas of study on college campuses. The Hynes Family gift helps ensure Iona is able to fully foster the entrepreneurial mindset and aspirations of students and faculty from all disciplines."
Eric Liguori, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Tampa, Lowth Entrepreneurship Center
About Iona College: Founded in 1940, Iona College is a four-year private, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers and American Catholic higher education, located just 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan. With a growing global network of more than 40,000 alums, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. In addition to inventing and or founding their own companies, Iona alumni attain top leadership positions in arenas including nonprofit and for-profit organizations such as NBC, Univision, NASDAQ, NYSE, American Express, VISA, school districts across the country, law enforcement, law, and the judicial system. Iona offers undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, pre-professional and professional programs, Master of Arts, Master of Science and Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. The College is the second largest private sector employer in New Rochelle and provides more than 66,000 service hours in the community each year.
Permalink: www.iona.edu/HynesAnnouncement
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The issue prospectus – what’s new ?
Published 14 July 2016 by GESSEL
Source: Parkiet, 2016-06-13
Author: Krzysztof Marczuk attorney, partner
Przemysław Krzemieniecki trainee advocate
25 March witnessed the coming into force of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/301 of 30 November 2015 supplementing Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for approval and publication of the prospectus and dissemination of advertisements (“the Regulation”) and amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 809/2004.
Application for prospectus approval
The first amendment to the Regulation as hereuntil known concerns the means of application for prospectus approval. Until now, such an application along with its accompanying documents was submitted to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) in paper form, and any subsequent versions likewise had to be submitted in writing, with signatures of all the parties to the proceedings and of the advisors. Now that the new Regulation is in force, the KNF has adopted the position that documentation ought to be filed in paper form as well as in the form of searchable electronic files.
Significantly enough, failure to submit an electronic version of the documents, and likewise submission of electronic documents not concordant with their paper versions, are now regarded by the KNF as formal defects which preclude consideration of the application on its merits. Each and every new version of the prospectus – whether submitted at the request of the KNF, or as a correction of the applicant’s own initiative – should be filed in an electronic version along with a summary of the changes signed by all the parties whom those changes concern (and not by all the parties to the proceedings as well as their advisors, as was hereto the case). The summary of the changes should be signed using a trusted ePUAP profile or a secure electronic signature verified using a qualifying, valid certificate. The summary may be signed by an attorney only. As for the final version of the prospectus, it must – as was previously the case – be submitted in its paper version, with signatures by all the parties to the proceedings. Our assessment of these changes is positive – all in all, they should have the effect of simplifying and facilitating the prospectus proceedings on the issuer’s side.
Publication of the prospectus
The prevailing form for publishing issue prospectuses is that of an electronic file which may be posted on a website. As a general rule, most Polish issuers carry out their IPOs in Poland only. If the “prospectus passport” procedure is not followed and the shares are not registered with competent authorities in other jurisdictions, a Polish prospectus may not be published – or taken as an offer to purchase, or subscribe for, shares – in any other country. In order to avoid the risk of running afoul of restrictions on offering or promoting shares in foreign jurisdictions, issuers publishing their prospectuses on their websites (and likewise their brokers) have resorted to internet “gateways” in the form of appropriate disclaimers which must be acknowledged and accepted before accessing the actual prospectus. For some reason, the European Commission has taken a sceptical view of this solution. The Regulation provides that prospective investors may not be required to accept legal disclaimers before perusing the electronic version of an issue prospectus posted online. At the same time, the category of “disclaimers” as distinguished by the Regulation does not encompass filters with warnings specifying the national jurisdictions in which the offer is being made and obligating website visitors to specify their country of residence or, alternatively, to state that they do not reside in a certain country. Analysis of a sample of recent prospectuses drawn up under the new regime indicates that, for the moment being, regulatory oversight practice with respect to internet “gateways” is not consistent.
Dissemination of advertisements and of alternative indicators of the issuer’s results
Under the amended Regulation, in the event that an IPO is advertised to the general public and, subsequently, an annex to the issue prospectus is published, revealing a new material factor, a material error, or an inaccuracy of the original prospectus, the original advertisement must likewise be supplemented with a new one, clearly amending the previous one.
Under a new provision, issuers may not publish (before or after publishing the prospectus) information setting out alternative result indicators other than those published – or, as the case may be, to be published – in the prospectus. For these purposes, alternative indicators include past or present financial indicators concerning the financial results, financial situation, or cash flow other than those employed in the issuer’s financial reports. Under the previous rules, the selling issuer and entities acting on its behalf or on its instructions were barred from publishing information inconsistent with the issue prospectus. The Regulation includes no details as to the addressees of the proscription on publishing alternative indicators. If we were to presume that this proscription is addressed to entities other than those referred to above, this would have extensive implications as regards drawing up and distributing reports and analyses by independent market analysts – and, indeed, on offering practice. If these restrictions were to be applied on a blanket basis, the significance of analyst reports as an alternative source of independent knowledge about the issuer might be undermined.
Janusz Fiszer (GESSEL)
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Daniel L. Rodriguez
City Editor of ThePress, HuffPost Blogger and a SAIT Senior Journalism Student
Analysis: The Weeks Leading up to the "Most Difficult Hours" for Hugo Chavez and Venezuela
Rumors, secrecy and the hermeticism lasted until the last day before the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The government handled the illness of Chavez with emotionally charged messages, religious references and few medical details.
03/07/2013 02:19 EST
Insight: Behind the clues of President Chavez after two months without him
It has been more than 60 days of uncertainty in Venezuela, since President Hugo Chavez had a fourth surgery on Dec. 12 in Havana, as part of his ongoing battle against Cancer . The Venezuelan authorities has been limited when informing about Chavez's health. However, they claim the President has been in meetings with cabinet members and signing decrees in Cuba. Yet there haven't been any photos, telephone calls or video appearances of him -- unusual of the omnipresent dignitary.
Motion For A Venezuela Crisis Emergency Debate In Parliament Gains Support
A petition organized by Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis to gather support for his future motion calling for an emergency debate in the House of Commons about the situation in Venezuela is gaining strength with each passing day.
Venezuelans Across Canada Gather In Citizens' Assemblies, Issue Public Statement Regarding Crisis
Dozens of Venezuelans gathered last Saturday in a citizens' assembly across many of Canada's largest cities and demanded, in a public declaration, the restitution of constitutional order in Venezuela and that the sovereignty of their country be respected.
Venezuelan Vice-President Describes Canadian Proposal At OAS As 'Miserable'
Venezuelan Vice-president Nicolas Maduro condemned as "miserable" the proposal from Canada to send a diplomatic mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) to study the crisis in Venezuela.
Venezuelan Crisis: Canada Has to Say 'We Aren't Going to Deal With This Anymore'
Canada is one of the last countries in the Americas that haven't expressed its position with the crisis in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan community is looking to the Canadian government to see what position it will take.
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ComCofs
IUMS Structure
IUMS Outreach programme
Travelgrants
About IUMS
IUMS is one of the 31 Scientific Unions of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). ICSU is a non-governmental organisation with a global membership of national scientific bodies (120 Members, representing 140 countries) and International Scientific Unions (31 Members).
IUMS consists of three Divisions
BACTERIOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY (BAM),
MYCOLOGY AND EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY (MEM)
Within these Divisions are 6 Committees, 9 Commissions and 2 Federations (COMCOFs), under which are subgroups consisting of working groups concerned with bacteriological, mycological and virological research. IUMS acts as an umbrella organization for these scientific research activities (see also IUMS structure).
IUMS also has 96 national member societies and 26 associate member societies adhering to the Union. These societies are spread throughout the world and IUMS represents an important link for instance by organizing International Conferences at regular intervals
The International Union of Microbiological Societies was founded in 1927 as the International Society for Microbiology. lts first President was Nobel Laureate and Director of the Pasteur Institute in Brussels (Belgium), Jules Bordet. The first International Congress for Microbiology was held in Paris in 1930. At the time of the 10th International Congress of Microbiology held in Mexico in 1970 the Executive Committee decided to create three sections covering the fields of Bacteriology, Virology and Mycology. Subsequently these sections became three separate divisions of IUMS possessing complete autonomy in the conduct of their affairs and the organization of their International Congresses (list of past presidents of IUMS and past and future International IUMS Congresses).
An IUMS Executive Board is elected at each IUMS General Assembly meeting . The Board consists of 15 members: a President, Past President, two Vice Presidents, Secretary General, Treasurer, two Members at Large and the Chairman and Vice Chairman of each of the three Divisions. The Executive Board meets annually and coordinates IUMS activities.
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Jada Griffin
Tesuque, NM 87574
Tel. +1 505-603-2275 or 505-455-7548
E. jada@jadagriffin.com
Please feel free to contact us about any art you would like to add to your collection. We would love to speak with you. Most originals can be made available as a print in any size, dependent only upon the proportions of the original painting. For “oversize” shipping prices, please contact the artist.
Jada Griffin is an American-born and British-educated painter and writer. She lives and works in Northern New Mexico on the famous High Road to Taos in Santa Fe. Her works, particularly her paintings of women, are sold internationally, and she is a contributing writer to Portland Interview magazine. Having studied at Sotheby Parke Bernet in London, Jada has a background, not only in studio painting, but in art history and interior design. In addition to the United States and Great Britain, she has lived in Chile, Algeria, Switzerland, Spain and France and speaks three languages - English, Spanish and French. Jada loves dancing and reading about the history of intellectuals on the Left Bank in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. For 10 years she owned her own studio and gallery in Portland, Oregon’s legendary Pearl District, which was named in the early 1980s by her late partner, Thomas Paul Augustine. USA Today rated her gallery the “Best Gallery in an arts district outside of New York City.” The Oregonian newspaper stated, “Jada Griffin is gaining renown as one of the best American abstract expressionist painters.”
Contact Jada
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Red Right Hand
O Children
The Weeping Song
The Ship Song
The Mercy Seat
Book nick cave & the bad seeds
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is available for exclusive private events, as well as public concerts. To inquire about pricing and availability of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, or to book Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for your event, Contact Jay Siegan Presents here.
about nick cave & the bad seeds
An Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey and keyboardist Conway Savage (all four from Australia), guitarist George Vjestica (United Kingdom), keyboard/percussionist Toby Dammit (United States) and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). The band has released fifteen studio albums[citation needed] and completed numerous international tours, and has been considered "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward"
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OXFORD PLAYSCRIPTS adaptation of ONE OF US
I am very excited that ONE OF US is being adapted as an OUP Oxford Playscripts play. The playwright is Mike Kenny and the Teaching and Learning materials are by Paul Bunyan and Ruth Moore. More details here.
Ten poems I take with me
National Poetry Day made me think about what poems mean to me. They can put into words things that up until then have only been feelings. For me, certain poems crystallise moments. If I go back to them, they hold both the past and new discoveries. So there are a few poems I take with me through my life. When I was looking for them, I realised that I have a much-loved collection of anthologies that I often turn to.
I was given this book for my 7th birthday, and the poem I loved most was E.V. Rieu's Mr Blob. It's about a drawing that gets rubbed out. Although it's a witty poem, I always thought it was sad too.
This anthology by Walter de la Mare is an unusual and intriguing one.
On the cover, the same scene is beautifully shown in daylight and twilight, designed by Erik Blegvad. Here I found The Snare by James Stephens. It begins with a rabbit's scream and ends with the poet promising the rabbit that he will keep looking for it. Like Mr Blob, this poem now seems to me to be about much more than it first seems.I remember the first time a poem unexpectedly jumped out at me. It was when I was in year 8, in English, and I found this poem by Tennyson's poemThe splendour falls on castle walls. I loved the rhythm of the poem and the way that it seemed to put into words the feeling that I got from being in nature. The line 'Our echoes roll from soul to soul' seemed both so mysterious and so familiar that it gave me a thrill.
Another poem full of mystery is Walter de la Mare's The Listeners. This is such a well-loved poem that it ends up in lots of children's anthologies. Here's mine:
It's never clear who the shadowy presences in the empty house are, so the poem leaves you with a haunting sense of there being more to know. I loved it so much that I illustrated it when I was at college.
I also illustrated Stevie Smith's Not Waving But Drowning, a deceptively simple short poem which heartbreakingly explores how someone's persona can be at great odds with what's really going on inside. Now that we have social media and all the pressure that brings to present our most successful side, this poem seems even more relevant than ever.
When I was 16 I found a collection of poems by ee cummings. I was drawn in by the lack of capital letters, even in his name, and I found Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town. I loved how it rhymed but was also completely untraditional. 'Anyone' and 'noone' are both their usual meanings and also names of individuals.
This was one of my coursebooks when I studied English. I loved Christina Rosetti's haunting poems with their quiet reflectiveness that often turns a sad thought round. In this poem, Remember, she finishes with: Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. For me the clever thing about the poem is that these lines are the lost person's remaining love, because nobody would really choose to 'forget and smile'. Somehow this gap is what keeps the two, one living, one dead, still close.
This beautiful anthology arranges its poems by mood and situation, so it's great if you want to choose a poem to put in a card. It has a section on 'True Love' and for me the definitive love poem is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous sonnet from Sonnets from the Portuguese. It begins with a question: How do I love thee? and answers it at the end: I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears of all my life!
On the tube, poems instead of adverts make a welcome change. They have to be short to fit in their little space and to be able to be quickly read. One that I love is Sheenagh Pugh's Sometimes. In this poem she looks at how things aren't always as bad as they seem. It's a very honest poem, because at the end there is a wish, almost a prayer, that even in the saddest of times eventually even this can 'melt'.
This is my newest anthology, a Christmas present a year or so ago. Many of my favourites are in here, but I'd like to finish with Marianne Moore's I may, I might, I must. This wee poem only has four lines. I'm trying not to breach copyright, and in a poem of only 27 words, I don't think I can quote any of them at all! But it's worth finding. I love this poem. The poet says that when she's been told that something is impossible, she will immediately look for ways to do it. But of course, I can't put it in other words without losing it. That's the whole magic of poems.
A response to: TAKE COURAGE Anne Bronte and The Art of Life by Samantha Ellis
In January, I was excited to read a review for Take Courage – Anne Bronte and the Art of Life in the Guardian. I hadn’t read a biography of Anne before and I decided that this book sounded like one I would read more than once.
I used to ask myself which of the Bronte sisters’ work I loved the most. I remember the first time I read all of their books. Jane Eyre was the first – I read it on the train from Aberystwyth to London. The opening scene, with Jane trying to hide in a corner with a book and then being brutalised by her aunt and cousin hooked me, and from then on I was with Jane all the way.
But then I read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, written from the point of view of Bertha, Rochester's first wife. It was hard to think of Rochester in quite the same way, after that.
When I came to Wuthering Heights, I started with the feeling that it couldn’t possibly be as good. But I was wrong. I began reading at bedtime and stayed up into the small hours to finish it.
For a long time I thought of the Brontes as Emily and Charlotte. I think I had absorbed the idea that Anne had also written but that her writing couldn’t compare to Charlotte’s or Emily’s. Maybe I even mentioned this to my sister, and she immediately said how wrong I was. Then she gave me a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
I remember the first time I read that, too. Straight away I wanted to know more about the unconventional woman who lived all alone in part of a deserted old house – what she was doing there and how she had come, with her child, to be living this secretive life.
Now I had to wonder which of the three books was my favourite. And over the years, in spite of Jane Eyre’s passionate longing for love, and Wuthering Heights’ wildness and beauty and its poignant love story tucked away in the younger generation, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall grew in my mind. Helen (and through her, Anne) spoke from the book in a timeless way. Like Jane and Emily, Helen is drawn to a Byronic hero. Like Jane, she has fond hopes for his reform. But unlike Jane Eyre, the wedding takes place part of the way through the book. The novel looks out and beyond. It’s about what happens when romance and passion turn sour and marriage becomes abusive. What can the wife do then, it asks, when she is her husband’s property? It seemed to me that Anne was actually the most radical of the sisters.
When I read the review of Take Courage, I knew it would be a book I would want to own in hardback. It’s a beautiful book, both as an object and for the way it’s written. It’s a very personal response to Anne Bronte. Samantha Ellis constructs the chapters through the people in Anne’s life. The last chapter is ‘Anne’ and by the time I got there, I was crying. Anne died very soon after Emily and Branwell, but by the time you reach this point, having been immersed in her words, her ideas and above all her zest for life, it’s awful to imagine her life cut short.
Samantha Ellis visited the places where Anne lived and she recounts them for the reader with such immediacy that you feel as if you’ve been there yourself. I like her defence of Anne. She sets out to discover just how Anne’s work has been so neglected, and it’s a fascinating story. All the way through, I kept thinking how nice it would be for Anne if she could have read this book written so many years after her early death. I think she would have liked to know that her work still speaks to people, and I hope that this is just the start of Anne taking her true place.
Top Withens (possibly the inspiration for Wuthering Heights) taken in 1910 by my grandfather, Cecil George Waudby
Some people say that Anne’s writing lacks the passion of Charlotte’s and Emily’s. But I don’t think that’s true. I think she just goes further, asking what would it really be like, to be married to someone like Heathcliffe, Rochester or Huntingdon. Even in terms of religion, I think Anne went further. In Jane Eyre, the parson accuses little Jane of being a liar, and asks her where liars go. She replies: to hell. He asks her how she can avoid going there and she says, by staying well and not dying. Of course, that is brave of Jane. But it’s still only a short-term solution. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, when Helen starts to wonder about her much-loved fiance’s goodness (or not), she searches through the Bible to find proofs that nobody will go to hell in the end. I think this is typical of Anne. Her character is not ready to accept what she’s told. In many ways, she is like a woman of our own time.
Samantha Ellis makes this point in Take Courage, suggesting that one of the reasons Anne fell out of favour is because she was too shocking and radical for her age. But not for ours! I’m glad Anne has found such a champion and I hope her two books and her poetry find a renaissance.
Ten Christmases I love in children’s literature
I decided to try and think of the Christmases that leap into my mind when I think of the children’s books and poems I grew up with or shared with my children. These are the ones I thought of first – there are loads of others too.
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott, opens with Jo’s famous line: ‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.’ Of course, that first chapter then goes on to show how little the actual presents matter after all. I got this book on my seventh birthday, and right away I wanted to know these four sisters.
KING JOHN’S CHRISTMAS from NOW WE ARE SIX, by A.A. Milne, illustrated by E. H. Shepherd, became my favourite Christmas poem when I was six. Like Scrooge, King John is a bad man. So, obviously, he doesn’t deserve a Christmas present, even though he writes an ever-shrinking Christmas list, as it dawns on him that he has no friends or cards and has never given or received a Christmas present in his life. But, even though he’s the archetypal bad boy who Santa shouldn’t visit, this is how the poem ends:
My sister had a beautifully illustrated book of A CHRISTMAS CAROL by that king of Christmas, Charles Dickens. One year Dad read it to us on Christmas Eve. I was enchanted by this tale of a man in the dark turning to the light. I’ve loved every film version I’ve seen since, especially the Muppets’ Christmas Carol, which is so faithful to the original (apart from the characters not all being human!). Although the final scene always moves me, the one that stayed with me most is the image of little Scrooge alone in his boarding school at Christmas, with only the characters from stories for company. And when jaded old Scrooge sees this, it’s the friendship he felt for these characters that awakens his capacity to love.
BALLET SHOES by Noel Streatfield, illustrated by Ruth Gervais, is another childhood favourite of mine. I never did ballet, but I loved this story of three girls who have no birth families, but find their own family with each other and a motley collection of supportive adults. Always struggling to find enough money, their Christmas is magical because of the simple things that don’t cost anything.
That brings me to MILLY-MOLLY-MANDY, written and illustrated by Joyce Lankester Brisley in the 1930s. These were the most comforting bedtime stories when I was little. Not much happens but you are in this calm and friendly village life with Milly-Molly-Mandy and her friends.
The WILLIAM books by Richmal Crompton were some of my favourite books when I was in the last year of primary school. It’s nice to know that my dad read these same books when he was a child. I still find them funny now because the stories are so completely from William’s point of view and the writer is so strongly on his side. Christmas features in many of the stories, but I especially like the scene from MORE WILLIAM, in which William buys all his relatives presents he would like himself, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before he can quietly get them back.
The HARRY POTTER books are ones which we shared with our children. Christmas runs through them all, but for me the most moving one is in HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE, when Harry has the first happy Christmas he can remember. Like many other Christmas scenes, it features a gift which is more than it appears – his father's invisibility cloak. This helps him in almost all his tasks, but most importantly of all it hides Harry as he walks to face Voldemort, meaning that he can make this most difficult journey alongside those he has loved and lost. It's not Harry's only gift, though. While Ron receives his mother's home-knitted jumper with resigned disdain, to Harry it represents a kind of coming home.
FATHER CHRISTMAS, written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs is another favourite. His version of Santa is a slightly grumpy, overworked but kind man. He gets up on Christmas Eve and feeds the cat, dog and deer, still in his dressing gown, in the snow. I love all the detailed illustrations of his outside loo, butler sink and wooden draining board. His is not a glamorous life and he lives very simply, but still he travels the world in horrible weather of every kind to deliver his presents to everyone. One spread shows rain, sleet, hail, ice – and poor Father Christmas hunched up in his sleigh. But at the end, he and the deer, the dog and the cat are all tucked up in the warm.
Our children loved all the JOLLY POSTMAN books by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, especially THE JOLLY CHRISTMAS POSTMAN. He delivers presents and cards to all the old favourites – the big bad wolf, Humpty Dumpty, the gingerbread boy and the rest – and finally is given a gift himself (a paper peep show) as well as a ride home in Santa’s sleigh. I used to enjoy reading this story to my children on Christmas Eve.
I started this post with the presents from LITTLE WOMEN so it seems fitting to finish with the presents from Narnia. The first ‘chapter book’ I read on my own was THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by C. S. Lewis. Father Christmas, coming from our world, doesn’t quite fit in Narnia. But all the same, he turns up with his sleigh and reindeer to tell the children and the beavers that the witch’s eternal winter with no Christmas is breaking, and to give them each a gift. These really are special gifts – so special that they feature in the following stories, giving the children the power to fight evil and heal the harm it causes.
Readers, libraries and awards
In June, I was involved in three book awards - two as a shortlisted author and one as the visiting author who announced the winner.
When ONE OF US was published, I didn't even think about book prizes or awards. So finding out that it was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year award (LBOY) and the Bolton Children's Fiction Award was both amazing and very nice.
First up was LBOY, in Preston, for a two-day event. It's the 30th year of this award, which was the first to be entirely chosen by young people. I met David Lightfoot who had the initial idea for an award in which the judges are teenagers. He was Head of Library Services then and here he is with Julie Bell, current Head of Libraries, Museums, Culture and Registrar.
I was impressed with how many hundreds of people come together each year with a shared love of reading. The University of Central Lancashire have supported the event for 15 years.
Julie Hitchin of UCLAN
I think it's wonderful that a university puts so much into an event centred around young people's experience of YA books.I met so many people involved with the event - librarians, including Jill Connelly who organised the event from September 2015 to June 2016, councillors, teachers, bloggers, booksellers, parents and most importantly the young judges, who spoke with such eloquence and inspired me to read 'outside my comfort zone'.
With Jill Connelly, Reading and Learning Manager
At a time when libraries are being closed across the country, it was both inspiring and heartbreaking to be part of something in which so many people of different ages come together in a shared passion for books. I couldn't help wondering if thirty years ago anyone would have believed that libraries would be lost all over the country. I think thirty years ago they felt like something that was part of the fabric of British society.
The thing about this award that really blew me away was the young people who took part in the event. At the award ceremony, each of the judges (all from year 9) stood up and spoke about what they had got from the experience. I met one boy who read over 60 books! Their passion for reading was inspiring and so was their self-assurance and confidence - it was a very imposing room! This year's winner was Holly Bourne for Am I Normal Yet? It was also great fun to meet the other authors.
Shortlisted authors at LBOY
Like LBOY, the Ealing Readers’ Award is chosen completely by young people, this year from 8 high schools in Ealing. It was lovely to be in a room with Ealing schools and I felt very at home because I went to school in Ealing myself from 14 on and I taught in an Ealing school when I first started teaching English.
You can see what a happy and fun event it was. Each group put on a presentation of their chosen book and these were very funny with some great props and excellent acting. Here students from Acton High School psych themselves up for their presentation on Holly Smale's Geek Girl.
When I was at school, going to the library was a solitary activity. I would have loved the chance to be part of a book club, spend time with people who also passionately loved reading and be able to choose the winner of a prize. Lots of the students mentioned that they wouldn't have chosen the book themselves, but having read it, found lots to enjoy. The winner of the Ealing Readers' Award was Girl Online on Tour by Zoe Sugg and the joint winners for the presentation were Greenford High School and Cardinal Wiseman. You can read about it in posts by Brentside, Drayton Manor and Acton High School. I've always wanted to be the person who gets to say: 'And the winner is...', and this was my chance!
The winner of the Bolton Children's Fiction Award is also chosen by teenagers. This year it was won by Narinder Dhami for 13 Hours I read the shortlist as there were only 6 of us and it was a real treat. I feel proud to be part of such a great line-up. The event was organised by the Library at Bolton School and held there with students from other local schools. We were made very welcome and all thought it looked like Hogwarts. Many of the young judges had read all six books and they had special bookmarks to tick off as they read. They queued up with their stacks of books and it was really lovely to meet readers.
Some pupils (from St James C of E High School) made trailers for each of the books. These were amazing, not only gripping but also showing such engagement with each book. I loved mine because it captured the feeling I wanted to come across in the book. I particularly liked the crumpled, scribbled-on paper they used as this showed in such a visual way what K’s life is like at the start of the story.
The highlight for me was once again meeting the young people. Some of them told me what they liked about ONE OF US and that was the most exciting thing. There are moments when it’s very tough finishing a novel, times when it isn’t going well and you can feel plagued by doubt. The thing that made me finish this book was the thought that my characters K, Greg, Oskar, Celestina and the others, could only really ‘live’ if young people read their story. So to know that that has happened, but even more to meet those readers is really something I will never forget. I can’t imagine this ever feeling ordinary, however many books I write.
Notes from Canvey Island
I've been meaning to go to Canvey Island for ages and yesterday I finally went! I've set a section from the middle of my current novel there, but I decided I couldn't do that without actually seeing it in real life. I love visiting places as research - somehow even the journey feels like an adventure, and it makes the story almost cross over into reality. I put Canvey Island in my book because it's one of the nearest places to London where you can see the ocean.
And there it was, in the far distance between Essex and Kent, under a sky just waiting to pour down. That's when I realised that I must have seen this bit of coast before. My first ever sight of Britain would have been here, from a P&O liner called the Chu San. I was only three so I can't remember seeing the Thames estuary narrow into the river that leads to London, but it was nice to think I'd been here before, only in the sea rather than on the land. As I walked along the seawall, taking photos and working out where various things could happen in my story, it started to rain torrentially and I got so wet that my jeans were dripping. But that was good, because it rains the whole time my protagonist, Logan, is there. In the moments between showers, there was something beautiful about the light and the huge expanse of sky.
The other thing I loved was watching the ships, boats and sailing boats passing to and from London. Some of them were so near that I could hear the rumble of the engines. I could look at them for hours, and other people obviously do this too because even in the worst of the wind and rain I met people cycling and walking along the sea wall or sitting in the shelters watching the boats.
After getting so wet (including my notebook and the inside of my bag), I decided to write up my notes inside the Labworth cafe, a 30s' building that looks like a ship and serves delicious apple pie and piping hot tea. Was it worth it? I asked myself. Will my book be better because I came here? I think it will - even if these scenes change beyond recognition. Because I spent the day walking round Canvey Island in Logan's shoes, his story came alive for me in a different way.
I found it inspiring to go somewhere new. I'd like to go there again. There is an interesting mural about the flood of 1953, memorial benches under the sea wall, and palm trees dotted alongside the beach:
And there's also this!
I had a lovely day today at the friendly and welcoming Hoe Valley School in Woking for World Book Day.
It was great to read some of the students' fabulous stories and chat over lunch with them.
I really enjoyed hearing the interesting ideas they came up with in a very short time.
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YouTube Music And YouTube Premium Launched In India
by Yashonil GuptaMarch 13, 2019
In a bid to regain the market captured by the barrage of music streaming services in India, YouTube has launched two new services. These services are YouTube Music and YouTube Premium. While the former will be a standard music streaming service similar to the likes of Saavn, Apple Music and Spotify; the latter is an ad-free, feature-laden paid YouTube subscription.
YouTube Music is a music streaming service from the popular video sharing platform. Besides offering official songs and albums, there is a range of different covers and remixes that the company claims the users may not be able to find elsewhere. While the app is currently free to download and is ad-supported, users can also purchase a premium subscription for Rs. 99 per month which will get rid of the advertisements. The existing subscribers of another music streaming service from the company, Google Play Music will get a free subscription to the newly launched YouTube Music Premium. Notably, Play Music will exist as a standalone application.
YouTube Music was first launched in the year 2014 under the name Music Key and provided ad-free music streaming to users in the United States. Interestingly, it has arrived in India a few weeks after the launch of Spotify, another popular music streaming service.
YouTube Premium is a feature rich version of the traditional YouTube, offering features that weren’t previously available on the platform. Buying a subscription will cost Rs. 129 per month. Pleasantly, there is a three month free trial for the service available at launch. The YouTube Premium subscription has all the benefits of YouTube Music but adds on a background play mode ad-free videos on the platform, more downloadable videos available and access to YouTube Original content.
Also read: Redmi Note 7 Pro To Go On Sale For The First Time In India Today
Notably, YouTube Premium was originally called YouTube Red which was launched in the year 2015 in the United States. The launch of the service was long overdue and much awaited in India for a while. The YouTube Music will exist as a separate application while the contents and features of YouTube Premium will be available in the regular YouTube app once the user logs in with a paid subscription.
Google India Blog
Latest, YouTube
Yashonil Gupta
Easily Distracted By Meta Objects, Movie Nerd And Theory Inventor. Yash Covers All Tech at iGyaan
LatestYouTube
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Amarjeet Singh
Assistant Professor (CSE, ECE)
PhD (2009), Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Dr. Amarjeet Singh received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2009. As part of his Ph.D. thesis work, he developed mobile sensing systems for environmental monitoring. He was part of multiple real world deployments in collaboration with application scientists such as Biologists and Ecologists for critical applications such as monitoring pollution content in rivers and lakes. Amarjeet joined as Asst. Professor at IIIT Delhi in 2009. At IIIT Delhi, he has led multiple efforts in both energy and healthcare that involve data collection through sensors and other information systems along with developing suitable analytics that helped improve the overall operations. He co-founded a startup called Zenatix (www.zenatix.com) in 2014 that helps large consumers of energy identify inefficient operations and work towards reducing the energy bill significantly. He has led several project grants worth crores and actively engages with the industry through multiple research and consulting projects. He did his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi in 2002 and MS from UCLA in 2007. He was awarded Outstanding MS student in UCLA School of Engineering in 2007 and Chorafas Foundation Award for research with long term impact.
Email: amarjeet@iiitd.ac.in
Website: http://faculty.iiitd.ac.in/~amarjeet/
Office: NA
Sensor Networks, Data Analytics, Energy Efficiency, Health Informatics, Internet of Things.
Embedded Systems, Internet of Things, Computer Systems.
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Evidence mounts of more election meddling than expected: A New York Times report from today focuses on a string of technical glitches that plagued key districts during the 2016 elections. The problems seemed especially pronounced in districts like Durham, N.C., and focused around problems with the electronic polling books that were used to verify voters. When electronic polling books went down, voters couldn't get checked in, and the entire process got delayed. It's hard to assess the impact of glitches like this, and it's even harder to assess whether they really were glitches — or were the result of malicious interference. That's the power of the type of subtle manipulation that Russia targeted at our 2016 elections: even when you find evidence of it, it's hard to tell whether you're looking at real evidence or just unrelated noise.
I'm reading: "Russian Election Hacking Efforts, Wider Than Previously Known, Draw Little Scrutiny."
Some of my best friends are algorithms... : If algorithms are going to decide what loans to advertise, who should get access to special programs, and what stories we want to read, the way they make those decisions are critical. It's long been clear that algorithms can incorporate the conscious or unconscious bias of their developers —and might even absorb bias from the broader society they observe. There's a great piece from the New Republic out this week that dives into how this happens, what it means, and what we can do about it.
I'm reading: "Turns Out Algorithms Are Racist."
New York State cybersecurity regulations: are they enough, or is more needed?: The New York DFS cybersecurity regulations have already sent ripples of impact through the financial sector. By far the most specific and demanding cybersecurity complaince regime of any state regulator, some commenters see them as an early indicator of a new era of increased regulation from industries, states, and federal government. But some are already criticizing them as not going far enough. One piece from SC Magazine this week criticizes them as "not robust enough." All of the criticisms leveled at the regs have been targeted at other compliance regimes before, but seeing them here is a good reminder as regulators wade into cybersecurity. Compliance is an important lever to ensure appropriate security investment, but it's also a blunt instrument, and compliance regimes quickly separate from their underlying goals and take on a life of their own. As cybersecurity compliance expands and organizations struggle to strike the right balance, we'll likely only see more of these challenges.
I'm reading: "NY State financial services cyber rules: a first step that falls short."
Wondering whether to ask a question at a conference?: InfoSec conference goers take note: you could do worse than follow this flowchart's guidance...
I'm reading: "When should you ask questions at a conference?"
Spies like us: Hollywood seems convinced that cybersecurity experts are either hackers in their parents' basement, or James Bond — sometimes both. But the truth is obviously much more complicated than that. For that matter, the truth is even more complicated than that for real-life James Bonds. For this long holiday weekend, here's a great read on the amateur spies that prepared the way for the Allied Invasion of North Africa at the height of World War II. Back when modern spying was still being created (much as modern cybersecurity is being created today), these individuals were as different from each other as possible, and their story, which paved the way for everything that came after, is a brilliant read. Who among us is paving a similar path for cybersecurity?
I'm reading: "12 Amateur Spies Paved the Way to War Against the Nazis."
https://www.illumio.com/blog/week-in-cybersecurity-august-25
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Indiana Business Lawyer Blog
Published By Parr Richey Frandsen Patterson Kruse LLP
Articles Posted in Utility Law
INDIANA SUPREME COURT HOLDS IURC IS A PROPER PARTY TO APPEALS OF IURC ORDERS
by Parr Richey Frandsen Patterson Kruse LLP
On June 27, 2018, the Indiana Supreme Court issued an opinion establishing that the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (“Commission”) is a proper party to an appeal of a Commission order. Hamilton Se. Utils., Inc. v. Indiana Util. Reg. Comm’n, No. 93A02-1612-EX-2742, 2018 Ind. LEXIS 496, at *1-12 (Ind. June 27, 2018). Interestingly, the Commission had participated as a party in appeals of its orders without controversy until relatively recently, when parties began to challenge its standing to be a party in several appellate proceedings
This matter began in September 2015 when Hamilton Southeastern Utilities, Inc. (“HSE”) requested a rate increase from the Commission. HSE sought an 8.42% increase in rates, but the Commission only authorized a rate increase of 1.17%, partially because the Commission said that HSE should eliminate outsourcing expenses. Id. at *3-4. HSE appealed the order, initially naming the Commission as a party. HSE then moved to dismiss the Commission, claiming “it had mistakenly identified the Commission as a party” and that the Commission should not be a party because it had “acted as a fact-finding administrative tribunal.” Hamilton Se. Utils., Inc. v. Indiana Util. Reg. Comm’n., 85 N.E.3d 612, 617 (Ind. Ct. App. 2017). The Court of Appeals granted the motion, reasoning that the Commission had adjudicated a rate case where the parties appearing before the Commission advocated for competing interests, and the Commission’s order “should speak for itself, without the need to further rationalize its decision.” Id. at 619. The Court of Appeals went on to affirm a number of the Commission’s decisions in calculating the 1.17% increase, but it held that the Commission arbitrarily excluded outsourcing expenses from that rate calculation. Id. at 626.
The Supreme Court granted transfer to review the question of whether the Commission was a proper party to the appeal of its order. The Court held that it was a proper party because it is a “long-standing custom and practice” to treat the Commission as a proper party to appeals of its orders, and the legislature had acquiesced to that practice. Hamilton Se. Utils., Inc, 2018 Ind. LEXIS 496, at *6.The Court noted that other “similarly situated executive branch agencies enjoy the ability to defend their decisions on appeal, both through explicit legislative directive” and through “legislative acquiescence to custom and practice.” Id. at *8. Furthermore, the Court said that public policy supports allowing the Commission to defend its orders on appeal in the interests of not disturbing a long-standing custom, promoting efficiency in the appeals process, and allowing the Commission to adequately represent its interests since opposing parties in a ratemaking case do not necessarily represent all of the Commission’s interests in defending its order. Id. at *10. Finally, the Court noted that the Commission’s role in the ratemaking case is administrative, not adjudicative, and therefore HSE’s argument that the Commission could not be a party because it adjudicated the proceedings failed. Id. at *11.
Posted in: Appeals and Utility Law
Updated: July 16, 2018 11:02 am
FERC Legal – FERC Determination in Docket No. EC17-131-000
In June 2017, Florida Power and Light (“FPL”), a rate-regulated electric utility, filed an application with FERC requesting authorization to transfer its ownership interests in substation equipment and other assets to JEA, the largest community-owned electric utility in Florida. FERC dismissed FPL’s application for lack of jurisdiction. The net book value of the retained assets to be given to JEA was $3 million, including a $1.1 million value for the substation equipment.
FERC determined that FPL’s application was unnecessary and that FERC lacked jurisdiction to review the application. Under section 203(a)(1) of the FPA, FERC only has jurisdiction to review applications where a public utility seeks to: (A) sell, lease, or dispose of the whole of its facilities which are valued above $10 million; (B) merge or consolidate facilities with another person; (C) purchase , acquire, or take a security of another public utility in excess of $10 million; or (D) purchase, lease, or otherwise acquire an existing generation facility valued over $10 million that is used for interstate wholesale sales over which FERC has jurisdiction for ratemaking. 16 U.S.C. § 824b(a)(1) (2017). Subsection (A) did not apply because the value of the assets to be transferred was under $10 million. Subsections (C) and (D) likewise did not apply.
FPL stated in its application that subsection (B) applied to transactions involving the acquisition of transmission facilities from non-jurisdictional municipal entities and that FERC had not yet addressed whether subsection (B) applied to the disposition of transmission facilities from a jurisdictional public utility to a non-jurisdictional municipal entity. FERC determined that subsection (B) did not apply to the sale or other disposition of jurisdictional facilities. Additionally, subsection (B) did not apply because the party acquiring the facilities is a municipal entity.
Posted in: Utility Law
Allco Renewable Energy, Ltd. v. Mass. Elec. Co.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion finding that the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”) does not authorize lawsuits between cogeneration facilities and electric utilities because there is no express or implied private right of action in the statutory language. Allco Renewable Energy, Ltd. V. Mass. Elec. Co., 875 F.3d 64 (1st Cir. 2017). PURPA was enacted to encourage the development of energy-efficient cogeneration and small power production facilities, requiring electric utilities to purchase energy from “qualifying facilities” at a regulation-specified cost rate. Under FERC regulations, the cost rate is the rate equal to the utility’s full avoided cost. A qualifying facility under PURPA is a “nontraditional” facility which produces energy from sources such as biomass, waste, renewable resources, or geothermal resources.
In Allco, the plaintiff was a qualifying facility that wanted to negotiate a purchase agreement with defendant National Grid, an electric utility. Instead of negotiating a purchase agreement, National Grid offered to purchase Allco’s energy under its standard power purchase contract. Allco petitioned the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (“MDPU”) to investigate the reasonableness of National Grid’s offer, which the MDPU denied. FERC subsequently denied Allco’s petition asking FERC to bring an enforcement action against MDPU, and Allco sued National Grid and other state defendants.
The court analyzed section 210 of PURPA to determine whether it created an express or implied private right of action allowing a qualifying facility to sue an electric utility. PURPA expressly authorizes FERC to bring enforcement actions against a state in federal court and allows a qualifying facility to sue the state utility regulatory agency in state court for PURPA violations—it does not authorize suits between qualifying facilities and electric utilities. The court also held that Congress did not implicitly authorize this kind of lawsuit because of the aforementioned express enforcement provisions. Additionally, the court invalidated MDPU regulations relating to calculating a utility’s avoided costs, but left the proper calculation to the MDPU since state utility regulatory agencies are responsible for implementing FERC’s regulations for rate determinations.
Posted in: Municipal Law and Utility Law
Updated: January 8, 2018 11:52 am
Changes to Indiana 811 Call Before You Dig Law
The Indiana General Assembly recently made changes to the Indiana Underground Plant Protection statute (Indiana Code § 8-1-26) which will take effect July 1, 2017. S.B. 472, 120th Gen. Assem., Reg. Sess. (Ind. 2017). The main change in this chapter is the creation of a new voluntary “design information notice” which applies to advance planning efforts relating to a demolition or excavation project. The amendments also establish procedures for Indiana 811 and operators once a design information notice is received.
A design engineer, consultant, or architect may voluntarily submit a design information notice to Indiana 811, which must include contact information for the person serving the notice, the person responsible for project planning activities, and the person planning to perform the excavation or demolition, if known. The notice must also include the scope and location of the proposed project and whether white lining will be performed. The person responsible for the project may not serve more than two design information notices for the same project within any 180-day period. Additionally, if the person serving the design information notice is unable to provide the physical location of the proposed excavation or demolition project with the location’s address or legal description, the person must perform white lining in the area affected by the proposed project. Indiana 811 must receive the notice at least ten working days, but not more than twenty calendar days before preliminary planning activities commence. Indiana 811 is required to adopt policies for processing design information notices, including alerting the operators of underground facilities that will be affected by the proposed project and providing this list of operators to the party serving the design information notice.
Once an operator or utility receives a design information notice, it must, within ten working days, contact the person serving the notice and inform them whether the operator has underground facilities located in the project area. If the operator does have underground facilities in the area, it must provide either a description of the location and type of facility affected by the proposed project, allow an inspection of the operator’s drawings or records for all of the operator’s underground facilities within the project area, or mark the location of the operator’s underground facilities within the project area with temporary markers. The operator must also, where applicable, provide the person serving the notice with the necessary maps or information to describe the location of all facility markers marking the underground utility. An operator may reject a design information notice where there are security considerations or the operator would be placed at a competitive disadvantage by producing the information. An operator who rejects a design information notice must provide notice to the person serving the design information notice and may request additional information.
Posted in: Construction Law and Utility Law
Updated: May 10, 2017 11:11 am
Indiana Stormwater Act: Municipalities May Assess Fee on Property Owners Even When Property Does Not Cause Runoff
On February 15, 2017, the Indiana Court of Appeals issued a published opinion affirming a municipality’s ability to charge a Stormwater Fee to all property owners within the boundaries of the city. Mint Management, LLC v. City of Richmond (No. 89a01-1603-PL-496, decided February 15, 2017). The Court of Appeals found the definition of “user” under the statute included all property owners within the boundaries of the city, regardless of whether a particular property owner contributed to the city’s storm water runoff.
The City of Richmond adopted an ordinance in 2007 which created a Stormwater Management District in Richmond, which was financed by imposing a Stormwater Fee on all property within the city that directly or indirectly contributed to Richmond’s stormwater system. Four property owners whose stormwater runoff did not directly or indirectly drain into the city’s stormwater system sued, requesting a declaratory judgment that they were not required to pay the fee and a reimbursement of the fees already paid. The trial court granted summary judgment to the city, finding that the definition of “user” under the ordinance included the property owners.
The Court of Appeals agreed, finding that there would be “an irrational and disharmonizing interpretation” of the ordinance if the definition of “user” and statutory language was not taken into account. Specifically, the Stormwater Act under the Indiana Code (section 8-1.5-5-7) allows a stormwater management district to collect user fees “from all of the property of the storm water district” without exceptions. The Court found the ordinance also used language which encompassed all property owners within the city’s boundaries. Further, the court noted that the stormwater system benefitted everyone who uses any sewer infrastructure, so the property owners did directly or indirectly contribute to the stormwater system.
Updated: May 3, 2017 7:05 pm
Utility Easement Not Materially Impaired by Intersection Expansion
On December 16, 2016, the Court of Appeals found that “the reasonable necessity of an intersection expansion outweighed whatever injurious effect that expansion would have on an electric utility’s enjoyment of its easement.” Duke Energy Indiana, LLC v. City of Franklin, 41A01-1607-CT-1549, at 23. Duke Energy Indiana, LLC (“Duke”) had an easement for the transmission of electrical energy in the area of the City of Franklin’s proposed traffic plan, which would connect a four-lane state road to two city streets. Duke, believing that the plan would unreasonably interfere with its easement rights, filed for a preliminary injunction. The trial court denied the request, finding that Duke failed to establish unreasonable interference, and therefore, failed to show a reasonable likelihood of success at trial. Duke asserted that the increased volume and speed of traffic proceeding past the utility pole, located adjacent to and just northwest of the proposed intersection, would increase the hazard to maintenance and repair crews. The trial court found that Duke did not show material impairment, unreasonable interference, or irreconcilable conflict. Instead, the trial court found that Duke essentially argued that to repair and maintain the utility pole and transmission lines, Duke’s crews would interfere with the public’s use of the road. While the court found this concern valid, it did not address the issue of Duke’s use, and the need for additional traffic measures was not found to equate unreasonable interference with Duke’s easement. Duke appealed.
The Court of Appeals addressed Duke’s two claims related to its contention of a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits at trial: (1) the City should not be able to expand the intersection because it does not have adequate property interests in portions of the land and (2) the proposed expansion of the intersection unreasonably burdens its rights pursuant to the easement. The Court of Appeals found that the first claim was essentially a trespass action. However, as an easement holder, Duke lacked standing to maintain an action for trespass for invasion of a right of way or easement. As for the second claim, the Court found that the proposed intersection was a reasonably necessary use of the City’s right-of-way, as it will beautify the corridor, enhance safety, and spur growth. Duke would still be able to repair and maintain the transmission lines and utility poles by simply using additional traffic measures. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding that the reasonable necessity of the expansion outweighed the injury to Duke’s enjoyment of its easement.
Jeremy Fetty is a partner in the law firm of Parr Richey Frandsen Patterson Kruse with offices in Lebanon and Indianapolis. He often advises businesses and utilities (for profit, non-profit and cooperative) on organizational, human resources, and transactional matters and drafts and reviews commercial contracts.
Developer And Builder Payments For Extension Of New Utility Infrastructure May Be Excluded From Gross Utility Receipts For Purposes Of Assessing Indiana Utility Receipts Tax.
In 2015, the Tax Court of Indiana ruled that sewer system development charges and connection fees that are paid by a developer or builder and not by the retail customer are not gross receipts subject to the utility receipts tax (URT). Hamilton Southeastern Utils., Inc. v. Indiana Dept. of State Revenue, 40 N.E.3d 1284 (Ind. Tax 2015). The Indiana Department of State Revenue completed an audit of Hamilton Southeastern Utilities, Inc. proposing URT assessments on receipts from sewer system development charges and connection fees. Hamilton Southeastern protested, and after an administrative hearing denied the protest, Hamilton Southeastern appealed.
In determining that the sewer system development charges and connection fees paid by a developer or builder and not by the retail customer were not subject to the URT, the court examined I.C. 6-2.3-1-4 and I.C. 6-2.3-3-10. Under I.C. 6-2.3-1-4, the court determined that ‘utility services for consumption’ simply refers to the removal of sewage and does not give indication of a broader definition. The Department of State Revenue argued that because the fees are necessary, they should be included in the URT; however, the court found that was not grounded in the words of the statute. Under I.C. 6-2.3-1-10, gross receipts “are: 1) received for an enumerated service, 2) the enumerated service is provided to a consumer, and 3) the enumerated service is directly related to the delivery of utility services to the (same) consumer.” At 1288 (emphasis in original). In the case of system development and connection fees, the charges are not paid by the retail consumer, but by the developer and builder.
The court granted summary judgment to Hamilton Southeastern under I.C. 6-2.3-1-4 and I.C. 6-2.3-1-10, but decided the issue of needing to separate receipts on records and returns of the taxpayer under I.C. 6-2.3-3-2 separately. Later, the court determined that the system development and connection fees were separated from the taxable receipts in accordance with the statute. Hamilton Southeastern Utils., Inc. v. Indiana Dept. of State Revenue, Cause No. 49T10-1210-TA-00068 (Ind. Tax April 29, 2016). Although Hamilton Southeastern did not report the amount of fees that was not required – simply separating the fees from the taxable receipts was sufficient. This was accomplished by only reporting the taxable receipts.
Communication Services and Telecommunications
Whether telecommunications providers have a private right of action under Section 253 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is an issue that will only be resolved in time. In November 2015, the Eighth Circuit joined the Second, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth in holding that they do not. This decision split from the Sixth and Eleventh circuits holding they do.
Spectra Communications Group, LLC (“Spectra”) provided telecommunications services in the City of Cameron (“the City”) for several years. Spectra also maintained facilities in the City’s rights of way (“ROW”). The City enacted a ROW and Communications ordinance that required communications providers, like Spectra, to pay user fees and obtain use permits in order to maintain facilities in the City’s ROW.
The City sued Spectra for failure to pay municipal license taxes and user fees and failure to obtain use permits. After this suit, Spectra sought a construction permit. The City denied Spectra’s request for failing to comply with the City’s ROW code. Spectra then sued the City.
Indiana Utility Law – Aztec Partners, LLC v. Ind. Dep’t of State Revenue
The Indiana Tax Court recently examined in Aztec Partners, LLC v. Ind. Dep’t of State Revenue, No. 49T10-1210-SC-00067, 2015 Ind. Tax LEXIS 29 (Ind. Tax Ct. June 23, 2015), whether electricity that Aztec Partners, LLC (“Aztec”), who operates nineteen Qdoba Mexican Restaurants in Indiana, used to power electrical equipment was subject to Indiana sales tax. The Court found it was not and reversed the Department of State Revenue’s (the “Department”) final determination and remanded the case.
At Aztec’s Qdoba Restaurants, employees prepare food items that are ultimately combined and served as entrées. Those food items are held and preserved in electrical equipment, such as food warmers and cooling systems, until they are combined into entrées and sold. The electrical equipment is not used to cook the food. In June 2011, Aztec filed twelve refund claims with the Department for the refund of sales tax paid on the electricity used to power electrical equipment. The Department denied the refunds finding that the electricity was taxable. Aztec protested the refund denial. Thereafter, the Department held a hearing and issued a Memorandum of Decision on August 24, 2012 denying that protest. Aztec initiated an original tax appeal.
Indiana Utility Law — Interpreting Land Development Contracts: Utility Connection Fees
The Indiana Court of Appeals recently interpreted a land developer’s contract with an Indiana town in Carroll Creek Development Company Inc. v. Town of Huntertown, 9 N.E.3d 702 (Ind. Ct. App 2014). The contract provided that the developers could recoup nearly five-hundred thousand dollars of their water main construction costs through connection charges levied against land owners in a defined “excess area” if the land owners chose to directly or indirectly connect to the water main within the subsequent fifteen years.
Partner Highlights
JAMES A.L. BUDDENBAUM is a partner with the Indianapolis office of Parr Richey Frandsen Patterson Kruse LLP, where he concentrates in corporate law, acquisitions, business transactions, utility, real estate, employment, and complex insurance, and other business litigation. more ›
JEREMY FETTY joined the firm in 2006. Mr. Fetty’s practice focuses on utility law, corporate law, cooperative law, labor and employment law, and creditor's rights law. more ›
KENT FRANDSEN has practiced with the firm since 1977, concentrating in civil litigation, zoning and land use, electric utility, estate planning and estate administration, and education law.
PAUL KRUSE graduated cum laude from Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis in 1981 and has been a partner in the firm since 1984. more ›
MIKE SCHULTZ concentrates his practice on civil litigation. He routinely handles a wide variety of employment related disputes, representing both business and employees, and is a frequent lecturer on compliance with federal employment laws. more ›
Free Consultation: 888.532.7766
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Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog
We’ll Have What They’re Having: The Potential Impact of Tennessee Wine on Indiana Utility Law July 9, 2019
Seventh Circuit Holds Title VII Retaliation Plaintiffs To A High Bar, Requiring Retaliation To Be “The” But-For Cause Rather Than “A” But-For Cause July 1, 2019
Is Obesity A Protected “Disability” Under The ADA? The Seventh Circuit Says “Maybe.” June 24, 2019
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Fire Sermon (Paperback)
By Jamie Quatro
Grove Press, 9780802128980, 224pp.
Hardcover (1/9/2018)
January 2018 Indie Next List
“I'm presently gobsmacked by and head-over-heels in love with Jamie Quatro's Fire Sermon, a gorgeous, searing first novel that takes on themes of grace, God, desire, truth, and family. Told in an array of tenses and forms that range from poetry to e-mail (and everything in between), Fire Sermon takes great risks stylistically, as well as topically, leaving nothing stable in its wake. It is unsparing and uncompromising, singular, innervating, and strong, and it is a deeply, wonderfully stirring work of art.”
— Will Walton, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
"It would be difficult to overstate the wonder I felt while reading this novel. It's among the most beautiful books I've ever read about longing--for beauty, for sex, for God, for a coherent life."--Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
Maggie is entirely devoted to her husband Thomas, their two beautiful children, and to God--until what begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James transforms into an erotically-charged bond that challenges Maggie's sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire.
A daring debut novel of obsession, lust, and salvation by the highly lauded author of the story collection, I Want To Show You More, Fire Sermon is a tour de force that charts with bold intimacy and immersive sensuality the life of a married woman in the grip of a magnetic affair.
JAMIE QUATRO is the author of I Want To Show You More. She is a visiting professor in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program, a contributing editor at Oxford American, and lives with her husband and children in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.
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US policy in Israel remains unclear after envoys' visit
After ‘Team America’ peace envoys’ visit, attention shifts toward formulation of US policy.
By CHARLES BYBELEZER/THE MEDIA LINE
PA President Mahmoud Abbas with US presidential adviser Jared Kushner and lead negotiator Jason Greenblatt in Ramallah. (photo credit: REUTERS)
They came, they saw, they left – and to little fanfare at that.
Expectations were already tempered ahead of this week’s visit to the region by President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoys. It was always going to be an uphill battle for special adviser Jared Kushner and lead negotiator Jason Greenblatt, in particular, as the wheels of the two-decades-long effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict churn ever so slowly, when at all.
And following the latest meetings between the US delegation and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it appears as though “Team America” is no closer to reaching a breakthrough to reestablish any meaningful negotiating process.
Besides the predictable platitudes and exchange of catchwords such as “positive,” “productive” and “possible,” few if any new ideas were reportedly presented, with one senior Palestinian aide reiterating that the US delegation refused even to commit to the two-state model; namely, the creation of an independent Palestinian state living sideby- side in peace and security with Israel. And while Abbas expressed “appreciation for Trump’s efforts to achieve a historic deal,” comments made earlier this month to dovish MKs are perhaps more representative of the Palestinian leader’s frustrations.
“I have met with Trump’s emissaries to the Middle East about 20 times since the start of his tenure,” Abbas was quoted in a statement transmitted by Meretz. “I have urged them to emphasize to Netanyahu [a commitment to the twostate solution and to the cessation of building across the 1967 borders], but they have refrained from doing so... I don’t even know how they are dealing with us, because his entire administration is in chaos.”
In February, Trump declined altogether to box himself in on any of the so-called “core principles,” clarifying that he was instead “looking at two-state[s] and one-state... [and could] live with either.” The position was reiterated ahead of Abbas’s meeting with Kushner by the State Department, which asserted that, “we are not going to [pre-determine] what the outcome has to be – it has to be workable to both sides.
And I think that’s the best view [so] as to not really bias one side over the other.”
Moreover, according to reports, Kushner told Abbas that Trump would not take a firmer stance on Israeli construction of Jewish homes in the West Bank, as doing so could end up toppling Netanyahu’s government.
The White House denies these reports and claims that Kushner "never said" that.
Notably, the Palestinians were also unable to obtain a commitment to develop economically Area C.
On the flip side, Israeli media claimed that the Palestinian leadership reinforced its refusal to halt payments to prisoners in Israeli jails.
In the result, some Palestinian officials have warned that, in the absence of a public declaration by Trump on where he stands on these issues, the PA will once again turn to international bodies to achieve their goals. A senior official recently told The Media Line that the Palestinians would return to the UN and International Criminal Court irrespective of the outcome of the Trump envoys’ latest mission.
Nabeel Amro, a former Palestinian information minister, elaborated on the recent meetings. “The results are very humble,” he expressed to The Media Line, “as there was simply an agreement on the importance of scheduling further talks. While the Palestinian leadership has few options, this will be viewed as nothing more than an opportunity for Israel to entrench its occupation.”
The probability, he continued, “of gathering all sides at one table for negotiations is really small. The American administration is working from a perspective that supports Israel – this much is clear.”
In this respect, the engagement with the Israeli side did, in fact, appear more cordial, with Kushner affirming in advance that relations between Washington with Jerusalem were “stronger than ever.” For his part, Netanyahu said that there were “a lot of things to talk about,” not only including how to advance the peace process, but also regarding regional security, in general.
According to Omar Omran, a professor at Birzeit University, despite the US administration’s desire to convey a position of neutrality, the Palestinians are skeptical. “Kushner and his family support building illegal settlements in the West Bank – it is a problem,” he declared to The Media Line. “Kushner is not fair to the Palestinians, he only grasps the Israeli positions.
“The Palestinian leadership can say all it wants that the meetings were successful, but the actions and results on the ground are what matter.”
It is perhaps a lack of singular focus on Palestinian grievances that most irks the PA and most significantly differentiates Trump from his predecessors, who with laser-like determination previously honed in on extracting Israeli concessions as a precursor to unlocking the potential for reconciliation. For Trump, however, pressuring Jerusalem no longer seems like plan A, B or C; nor does it appear that Palestinian demands, some accepted as near-gospel for over a generation, will continue to guide the process or be used as an excuse to explain away the lack thereof.
The ball is now in Trump’s court; however, his range of action may be limited due to troubles at home.
“The US president is embroiled in his own domestic affairs,” explained Yossi Shain, the Romulo Betancourt Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University, to The Media Line.
“He came to the Middle East in March when he was in a very strong position, but he lost that touch and this is looming over him. That stature is difficult to regain and that impinges on his ability to act, as it will be very difficult for him to get collaboration from regional partners once they view him as weakened.”
According to Shain, also a professor of comparative government and Diaspora politics at Georgetown University, both Netanyahu and Abbas are similarly handicapped by internal politics, with the Israeli premier currently under investigation for “fraud, breach of trust and bribes;” whereas Abbas’s mandate technically ended nearly a decade ago and he faces a population of which a majority want him replaced and, in large part, has not been conditioned to make compromises for peace. As such, in Shain’s estimation, the process has arrived at “a stalemated situation unless Trump does something very dramatic in his deep need to feel legitimacy.”
After eight months of extensive shuttle diplomacy and feeling both sides out, will Trump in fact move to formulate a coherent policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? If so, will he hold firm and attempt to carve out a new peace path, conceivably within a regional framework somehow acceptable to all parties? Or will he, like many before him, stumble along the pre-existing winding road to “Never Never Land” – or perhaps altogether abandon the effort? As Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s envoy to Washington, succinctly put it following the latest high-profile push by American peace-processors: “We need them to tell us where the hell they are going.”
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
By ALON EINHORN, TZVI JOFFRE
Palestinian challenges PA, Greenblatt over daughter's treatment in Israel
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Book & CD Packages - International
Top 10 Books on Jaynes's Theory
Videos & Lectures
Books Related to Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory
Hypnosis: History, Theory, and Practice
Books in this section are related to Book III, Chapter 4, "Hypnosis" in The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. See also, "The Self as Interiorized Social Relations: Applying a Jaynesian Approach to Problems of Agency and Volition" by Brian McVeigh in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness.
Suggestion and Autosuggestion
Charles Baudouin, Sun Pub Company.
Hypnotism: Its History, Practice, and Theory
J.M. Bramwell, New York: Julian Press, 1956.
How to Practice Suggestion and Autosuggestion
Emile Coue, Kessinger Publishing Company.
A History of Hypnotism
Alan Gauld,Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Handbook of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
J.E. Gordon, New York: Macmillan, 1967.
Hypnotic Susceptibility
Ernest Hilgard, New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1965.
Cited by Jaynes on p. 394.
Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action
E.R. Hilgard, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1977/1986.
Personality and Hypnosis: A Study of Imaginative Involvement
Josephine Hilgard, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach
Clark Hull, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1933.
Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology
William S. Kroger, Lippincott-Raven Publishers, 1977.
The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature
Michael Murphy, Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1992.
Contains a good chapter on the history of hypnosis.
A Clinical Hypnosis Primer
G.J. Pratt, D.P. Wood, and B.M. Alman, John Wiley and Sons, 1988.
The Unconscious: The Fundamentals of Human Personality Normal and Abnormal
Morton Prince
The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology
John F. Schumaker, Prometheus Books, 1995.
This book challenges many of the ideas in the three disciplines of religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology and paves the way for an exciting, far-reaching and unified theory of conscious and unconscious behavior. Schumaker includes a historical and cross-cultural analysis which shows how reality reconstruction takes place and outlinesthe shortcomings of current psychotherapeutic approaches.
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Israel International Relations: India-Israel Relations
Category » International Relations
Humanitarian Operations
Diplomatic Missions Abroad
International Recognition of Israel
Terror Attacks Against Israelis Abroad
Center for International Cooperation
With the United States
Economic Cooperation
Strategic & Military Coordination
History of Israel's U.S. Embassy
With Latin America
Cooperation with Latin America
Chile-Israel Relations
Cuba-Israel Relations
With the Arab World
Amman Declaration
Casablanca Declaration
Khartoum Resolutions
Palestinian-Israel Peace Process
UAE-Israel Relations
Egypt-Israel Relations
Syria-Israel Relations
Jordan-Israel Relations
Lebanon-Israel Relations
Iran-Israel Relations
Iraq-Israel Relations
With Europe
Israel-EU Association Agreement
EU Upgrades Ties with Israel
Israel Invited to Join EU Horizon 2020 Program (2014)
Germany-Israel Relations
Britain-Israel Relations
Bulgaria-Israel Relations
Denmark-Israel Relations
France-Israel Relations
Greece-Israel Relations
Italy-Israel Relations
Malta-Israel Relations
Russia-Israel Relations
Turkey-Israel Relations
Vatican-Israel Relations
With Africa
Israeli Cooperation with Africa
Evolution of Israel's Africa Policy
ECOWAS-Israel Agreement
New Information on Israel-South Africa Nuclear and Military Cooperation
Nigeria-Israel Relations
Mauritania-Israel Relations
Sudan-Israel Relations
South Sudan-Israel Relations
Ghana-Israel Relations
South Africa-Israel Relations
With Asia & the Pacific
Israel's Pivot to Asia
Azerbaijan-Israel Relations
China-Israel Relations
India-Israel Relations
Japan-Israel Relations
Micronesia-Israel Relations
Singapore-Israel Relations
Thailand-Israel Relations
Israel International Relations: Table of Contents|U.S.-Israel Relations|China-Israel Relations
Military Cooperation
Ties Deepen
Historic Visit of India’s Prime Minister
Developments Following Modi’s Visit
India and Israel established full diplomatic relations in 1992 and since then the bilateral relationship between the two countries has blossomed at the economic, military, agricultural and political levels. Both countries see themselves as isolated democracies threatened by neighbors that train, finance and encourage terrorism, therefore both countries also view their cooperative relationship as a strategic imperative.
Relations between Jerusalem and New Delhi were not always warm. Although both countries gained their independence from the United Kingdom within months of each other, they found themselves headed in pointedly different directions for nearly four decades – India as a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement that maintained close relations to the Arab world and the Soviet Union; Israel which linked its future to close ties with the United States and Western Europe.
India’s large Muslim population was another major obstacle to building a relationship with Israel, as India feared that close relations with the Jewish State might somehow radicalize its Muslim citizens – numbering more than 100 million – and hurt its relations with the Arab world.
Although India publicly kept a distance from Israel until the late 1980’s, there was in fact a great deal of bilateral activities between the two countries in the preceding years. India extended de-jure recognition to Israel in 1950 and allowed Israel to maintain a consulate in Mumbai (Bombay) to facilitate the voluntary immigration of thousands of Indian Jews to Israel. Thousands of Indians have also traveled to Israel for special courses and training in agricultural technology and community development. Israeli supplied weapons aided India in winning the Kargil War against Pakistan in 1999. Israel also provided humanitarian relief to India. Following a devastating earthquake in 2001, Israel sent an IDF emergency response delegation to India for two weeks to provide humanitarian relief and treatment for the victims.
Since firmly establishing diplomatic ties, both countries have benefited immensely. India has become one of Israel’s largest trading partners, many of the world’s leading high-tech companies in Israel and India are forging joint ventures that are successfully competing in the tough international marketplace. Trade and cooperation between the countries now centers primarily on security-related deals and aid in areas such as agriculture and water desalination.
The key to the growing India-Israel ties, however, is in the realm of security and defense. In the early 2000s, the Indian army declared its intention to implement a modernization program to which resources of tens of billions of dollars would be allocated. Since then, defense deals with Israel have grown exponentially; today, India is the number one export target of Israel’s defense industries.
To give a sense of the tremendous growth in Israel-India trade, in 1992, total trade amounted to $200 million; the figure was $4.13 billion in 2016. Israel exported $1.15 billion worth of goods to India during 2016, not including diamonds, amounting to 2.5% of Israel’s total exports for the year.
Military Collaboration
Israel has sold radar and surveillance systems as well as electronic components for military aircraft and has helped India defense itself through training in counterterrorism methods. In November 2011, India’s elite Cobra Commando unit bought more than 1,000 units of the Israeli X-95 assault rifle to use in counterinsurgency operation. Also in 2011, India placed orders for four advanced Israeli Phalcon AWACS planes (airborne warning and control systems) which are capable of detecting hostile aircraft, cruise missiles and other incoming aerial threat far before ground-based radars.
In January 2012, India and Israel stepped up their counter-terrorism coordination strategy in the wake of Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s visit to the Jewish state. While in Israel, Krishna met with top Israeli government and defense leaders and agreed to work to boost their counter-terrorism cooperation. The two countries also signed an Extradition Treaty and a pact on Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners.
During a July 2014 visit to Tel Aviv, Indian Defense Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur outlined his goals for Indo-Israeli defense cooperation. The Indian government requested an unspecified number of Sword Fish ground radar trackers, precision-guided artillery, unspecified missiles, and two AWACS units (in addition to the four ordered in 2005). Mathur was especially interested in the delivery of long-range anti-missile defense batteries for deployment aboard Indian naval ships. The project was announced in 2005, and originally scheduled for delivery in 2012. Israeli and Indian government officials signed an intelligence-sharing agreement in July 2014, hoping to fight radical Islamic extremism in the region together.
Israel Aerospace Industries successfully tested a jointly developed Indian-Israeli Barak 8 air and naval defense missile system on November 10, 2014. The missile test was carried out by Israel’s Defense Ministry and India’s Defense research and Development Organization, and represents the first full successful test of the missile. A top advisor to India’s defense minister hailed the test as “an important milestone in the cooperation between India and Israel.”
India-Israel cooperation increased dramatically in 2014 with the election of India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Between Modi’s election in May 2014 and November 2014, Israel exported $662 million worth of Israeli weapons and defense items to India. This export number is greater than the total Israeli exports to India during the previous three years combined. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made the first ever official visit of an Israeli Defense Minister to India in February 2015. While in India, Ya’alon, along with many other top Israeli defense officials, attended the Aero India arms exhibition in Bangalore. The purpose of Ya’alon’s trip was to increase interaction and cooperation between defense industries in Israel and India. Photos surfaced online the following day of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing at the Israel Aerospace Industries booth at the exhibition, in a public display of Israel and India’s strategic relationship.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the Indian state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) began collaborating on a jointly developed surface-to-air missile system for the Indian Army in 2015. Indian officials purchased 321 launchers and 8,356 missiles from the Israeli military in 2015. India uses Israel-made unmanned drones for surveillance and military purposes, and ordered 16 drones during 2015.
The government of India quietly approved the purchase of 10 armored Heron TP drone vehicles from Israel on September 11, 2015, at a price of $400 million. These drones will help secure India’s borders, and will be operated by members of India’s air force. An original proposal for the purchase was presented in 2012, but the program did not receive political backing until 2015.
The Barak 8 long-range surface-to-air missile, developed jointly between India and Israel, was successfully tested on December 30, 2015. The test of the missile system, which cost the Indian government approximately $1.4 billion, was carried out on the Indian warship INS Kolkata. India again successfully tested the Barak 8 on June 30, 2016. An Indian defense official praised the test, stating “the test launch was a grand success and it met all the targets.” The Barak 8 was developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries, and can be launched from a ship or from land. Another successful test of the Barak 8 missile was carried out on September 20, 2016, at the Chandipur research and development base in Odisha, on the Bay of Bengal.
Indian firm Reliance Defense and Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems signed a cooperative agreement worth an estimated $10 billion at Defexpo India on March 30, 2016. Per the agreement, Rafael and Reliance will cooperatively produce air-to-air missiles, various missile defense systems, and surveillance balloons for the Indian military. The undertaking is projected to provide employment for 3,000 Indians at a facility in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
The Indian Navy launched a new, Israeli-developed Integrated Under Water Harbor Defense and Surveillance System (IUHDSS), in February 2017. The system will enhance the security of above and below-water vehicles operated by the Indian Navy in the Mumbai Naval Harbor.
In October 2014 India and Israel reached a deal for India to purchase 8,356 Spike anti-tank guided missiles and 321 missile launchers developed by Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. This contract was deferred prior to its signature however, due to costs and vendor issues. The Indian Ministry of Defense announced in March 2017 that the contract, worth approximately $1 billion, would finally be moving forward.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced in April 2017 that it had struck a deal with India’s Army and Navy to supply them with an advanced air defense system worth upwards of $2 billion. The deal was described by IAI as Israel’s largest ever defense deal.
On May 10, 2017, three warships from the Indian navy docked in the port of Haifa, ahead of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s scheduled visit during the Summer. The ships, the INS Mumbai, the INS Trisula, and the INS Aditya, participated in a Naval drill with the Israeli navy when they entered the port. This is the eighth time that Indian ships have docked at an Israeli port, the first being in 2000.
The Indian military carried out their first successful tests of the Israeli-made Surface-to-air Python and Derby missile system (SPYDER) on May 11, 2017. The launch of the SPYDER system went off without a hitch, and all three missiles that were launched hit their targets. Python and Derby missile comprise the SPYDER system, which also features an on-board radar for increased accuracy. The system, which is made for low-altitude missile strikes, has a range of 15km.
A new partnership between Indian security firm Punj Lloyd and Israel Weapons Industries, known as Punj Lloyd Raksha Systems, or PLR, was announced in May 2017. The firm produces small-arms from the Israel Weapons Industries product line, and is the first private small-arms manufacturer in India to produce equipment for both local and export use. Ashok Wadhawan, the president of manufacturing at Punj Lloyd, explained that the joint venture aims to target the supply of carbine, assault rifle, sniper rifle and light machine guns for armed forces, paramilitary forces and state police.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security service recruited 30 dogs from Israel in 2017, trained to attack, sniff for bombs and drugs, and track criminals.
The Indian military deployed an Israeli-developed comprehensive integrated border management system (CIBMS) along its border with Pakistan in August 2017. The fence will be monitored by sensors and security cameras, and will alert people in monitoring facilities when a breach has occurred. Indian officials announced plans to seal all of their 6,300km borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh with the Israeli smart-fence.
India participated in the Israeli Blue Flag military exercise for the first time in November 2017.
In 2006, Israeli and Indian ministers of agriculture signed a long-term cooperation and training deal, which has since been supervised by field experts from Mashav, an international development program of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. In 2008, the two nations started a $50 million shared agriculture fund, focusing on dairy, farming technology and micro-irrigation. This constituted the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project. In 2011, India and Israel signed an agreement to foster cooperation on urban water systems, which came after more than a decade of joint research, development and shared investment in the countries’ respective water technologies.
In May 2013, Israel announced that it would help India diversify and raise the yield of its fruit and vegetable crops under the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project, by offering the country its advanced technology and know-how. Israel pledged to set up 28 centers of excellence across India focused on specific fruit and vegetable crops. By March 2014, 10 centers of excellence operated throughout India offering free training sessions for farmers in efficient agricultural techniques using Israeli technological expertise. Vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization are some of what is taught at the centers. Farming at these centers focuses on mangoes, tomatoes, pomegranates, and citrus fruits. In the future, Israeli and Indian farmers hope to expand to flowers, bee keeping and dairying. Israel and India inaugurated their 23rd joint center of excellence in the Northeast Indian state of Mizoram on March 7, 2018.
The head of Israel’s space research program, Colonel Avi Hareven, and the head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Dr. K. Kasturirangan, signed an agreement on space cooperation between the two countries in November 2002.
In June 2013, a delegation of 16 high-ranking Indian officials of the water authorities of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Goa and Haryana came to Israel and visited wastewater treatment plants, met with some of Israel’s leading environmentalists and agronomists and listened to explanations of some of the newest technologies for water management. “In India, we have a major crisis of water,” said Rajeev Jain, an assistant engineer in the water department of Rajasthan. “Our problem is the same that Israel faced. But Israel is an expert at successfully implementing technologies that we aren’t able to implement. So we have come here to understand which technologies they use and how they manage these things.”
In a historic moment, the first meeting of the Prime Ministers from Israel and India in over a decade occurred on September 28, 2014. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi and the two spoke of economic, technological, and agricultural collaboration in the future. Netanyahu expressed his concerns about a nuclear Iran and the spread of radical Islam throughout the Middle East, and the two enjoyed a friendly conversation. The Indian Prime Minister acknowledged that Israel and India have a historic working relationship and stated that India is “the only country where antisemitism has never been allowed to come up, where Jews have never suffered and lived as an integral part of our society.” The meeting was left on a positive note, with Netanyahu inviting Modi to Israel for a return visit.
India-Israel cooperation increased dramatically with the election of India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, and the two countries continued their positive relationship into 2015. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made the first ever official visit of an Israeli Defense Minister to India in February 2015. While in India, Ya’alon, along with many other top Israeli defense officials, attended the Aero India arms exhibition in Bangalore. The purpose of Ya’alon’s trip was to increase interaction and cooperation between defense industries in Israel and India. Photos surfaced online the following day of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing at the Israel Aerospace Industries booth at the exhibition, in a public display of Israel and India’s strategic relationship.
In what was hailed as a “huge development for India” by local news agencies, India abstained from a vote at the UNHRC that approved their Gaza Commission of Inquiry report in July 2015. Forty-one countries voted in favor of adopting the findings of the biased report, and India was one of only five others who abstained. This marked the first time that India had ever voted against Palestinian interests at the UNHRC, signaling a potentially significant shift in India-Israel relations.
India’s ambassador to Israel, Jaideep Sarkar, encouraged the approximately 85,000 Israeli Jews of Indian descent to tour their country of origin in August 2015, amid warming ties between the nations. Sarkar stated that, “We want to tell the world proudly about the rich Jewish life in India with your efforts we are working to preserve the Jewish heritage in India. We hope to have a package tour to Jewish heritage sites in Mumbai and elsewhere by early next year.” He also suggested that these Indian-Israeli Jews consider enrolling in higher education courses at Indian universities.
During a 3-day visit to Israel in January 2016, Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj stated that the full development of positive Israel-India ties is of “the highest importance,” to the government in India.
In the first visit of its kind in 20 years, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited India for a week in mid-November 2016. Rivlin and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi held discussions and meetings pertaining to security cooperation and combatting terrorism, and also discussed the future of Israeli investment in India. While in India, the Israeli President also visited the Taj Mahal and observed Indian water treatment facilities. Indian officials signed contracts worth a combined $1.4 billion with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) during Rivlin’s visit, on November 16, 2016. The two defense contracts provide for the Indian purchase from Israel of two Phalcon/IL-76 Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), valued at $1 billion, as well as 10 additional Heron TP UAV drones, valued at $400 million.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first sitting Indian PM to visit Israel on July 4, 2017. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared with Modi throughout his three-day visit, accompanying him on visits to Yad Vashem and water desalination plants as well as various cultural events. Officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry emphasized that Netanyahu’s level of participation in the visit was not at all standard, and underscored the crucial importance of the trip. During Modi’s trip he did not meet with any Palestinian officials, although he met with Mahmoud Abbas in India two months prior.
The week before Modi’s historic visit to Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet agreed to measures to increase Israel’s non-diamond exports to India by 25%, and established a new $40 million joint innovation, research, and development fund. The government also approved incentives to film Bollywood movies in Israel and plans to increase the number of Indian firms doing business in Israel.
Multiple collaborative agreements were signed between Indian and Israeli entities during Modi’s visit. The Israel Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organization signed an agreement to foster partnership in the development of electric propulsion systems for small satellites, and creating systems to accurately measure the extreme conditions of outer space.
Israeli officials and their Indian counterparts signed an agreement to create the India Israel Innovation Initiative fund (I4F) on July 5, 2017, modeled after the US-Israel BIRD foundation. The two countries pledged $4 million per year each to I4F over a five-year period. Representatives from a number of India’s largest corporations signed eight trade agreements with Israeli firms including Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. A collaborative agreement was also signed during Modi’s visit to Israel between the Asher Space Research Institute at the Technion and the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. This agreement aims to establish joint study and research exchange programs.
Concluding his visit, Modi bid farewell to the people of Israel via a Twitter post in Hebrew and English that read I thank the people and Government of Israel for their hospitality. This successful visit will add more energy to India-Israel relations. Israeli prime Minister Netanyahu posted a message on Twitter in Modi’s native language of Hindi as well.
The Israeli National Emergency Medical Service, MDA-Magen David Adom (Hebrew for Red Star of David) and the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), held a joint training program during July 2017 aimed at improving and upgrading the IRCS first-responder skills. Trainers from the MDA worked with IRCS volunteers, teaching them to provid[e] first aid during emergencies, natural disasters and accidents and... teach life-saving skills that will save precious lives, said the director of the IRCS blood bank. IRCS trainees were taught the laws of first-aid and how to handle patients, in addition to how to bandage wounds, stop the flow of blood from an injury, and perform CPR on adults and children.
An estimated 70,000 Hindus in the Indian city of Kolkata marched in support of Israel on February 14, 2018. The rally was organized by Indian organization Hindu Samhati, which promotes close India-Israel relations and provides services to poor Indians. Hindu Samhati organized a similar, 20,000-strong rally in support of Israel during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) signed an agreement with India’s KSU in July 2018, to operate Israeli Taxibot semi-robotic vehicles at India’s New Delhi and Mumbai airports. Taxibot connects to planes to taxi the airplane from the airport’s jet bridge without using the airplane’s main engines. This saves a significant amount of fuel, as well as slashes noise levels and carbon emissions.
In 2017, a record 70,000 tourists from India visited Israel. This trend continued into 2018, with 40,000 Indian tourists visiting Israel during just the first six months of the year. Air India began running faster (approximately 7 hours) direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv four times per week in March 2018, so tourism numbers are expected to continue to climb.
The first recipients of grants from the Israel-India Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) were announced in July 2018, including companies working to better the lives of Indians and Israelis through efficient water use, improving communications infrastructure, solar energy use, and life-changing surgeries. The fund aims to help Israeli entrepreneurs enter the Indian market.
Sources: Anna Sharma, “CRPF gets Israeli assault rifles to combat Maoists,” India Today (November 7, 2011);
Rajat Pandit, “IAF will add two more Israeli AWACS to its fleet,” Times of India (November 8, 2011);
“India, Israel Pledge Cooperation on Counterterrorism, Trade,” Voice of America (January 2012);
“India, Israel agree to firm up anti-terror plan,” Hindustan Times (January 11, 2012);
Keshri, Gyanenda, “Israel to help India diversify fruit, vegetable crops,” Yahoo! News (May 27, 2013);
Debra Kamin, “India Seeks Water Management Lessons From Israel,” New York Times (June 12, 2013);
“India-Israel trade rises to $6 billion in 2012-13,” Hindu Business Line (July 7, 2013);
Amos Harel, “Sisters in Arms: The Burgeoning Defense Trade Between Israel and India,” Haaretz (February 22, 2014),
Rahul Vaishnavi,, “Revolutionising Indian farming - with Israeli technology,” Yahoo News (March 2, 2014);
Vivek Raghuvanshi, “India, Israel Discuss Increased Defense Cooperation,” Defense News (July 3, 2014);
“FM Liberman and PM Netanyahu meet with colleagues in New York,” IMRA (September 29, 2014);
Nc Bipindra, “Modi Revives India-Israel Ties as Terrorism Threat Grows,” Bloomberg (November 19 2014);
Gili Cohen, “Israel's Defense Minister to Make Historic Visit to India,” Haaretz (February 5, 2014);
PTI, “India's Abstention Against Vote on Israel Significant Shift,” The New Indian Express (July 5, 2015);
Manu Pubby, “Government approves $400-million plan to procure armed Heron TP drones from Israel,” Times of India (September 11, 2015);
Sankalp Phartiyal, “India test-fires long range surface-to-air missile developed with Israel,” Reuters, (December 30, 2015);
Herb Keinon, “Indian FM in Jerusalem: Ties with Israel of ‘highest importance’ to India,” Jerusalem Post (January 18, 2016);
“Israeli, Indian Defense Companies Announce $10 Billion Joint Venture,” The Tower, (March 30, 2016);
“India successfully tests missile defense system developed with Israel,” Times of Israel (June 30, 2016);
Yoav Zitun, “India conducts successful test of Barak 8 missile system,” YNet News, (September 20, 2016);
Nayanima Basu, “India seeks Israel’s help in containing terrorism from Pakistan,” Hindu Business Line, (November 15, 2016);
Underwater Harbor Defense, Surveilance System Launched, Mumbai Mirror, (February 4, 2017);
Vivek Raghuvanshi, India to buy Spike anti-tank missiles from Rafael, Defense News, (March 27, 2017);
Israel Aerospace Industries signs $2 billion missile deal with India, YNet News, (April 6, 2017);
Hemat Kumar Raut, Israeli Spyder missile test a hit, The New Indian Express, (May 12, 2017);
Anna Ahronheim, Indian Navy Ships Dock in Haifa Port Ahead of Historical Visit by Indian PM, Jerusalem Post, (May 10, 2017);
Vivek Raghuvanshi, India, Israel forge partnership for small arms production, DefenseNews, (May 10, 2017);
Herb Keinon, Netanyahu Hails Historic Visit by Indian Prime Minister, Jerusalem Post (June 25, 2017);
Josef Federman. India’s leader kicks off historic visit to Israel, Washington Post, (July 5, 2017);
Ilan Gattegno/Hezi Sternlicht/Shlomo Cesana/Yori Yalon. Israel, India sign sweeping bilateral trade, R&D agreements, Israel Hayom, (July 6, 2017);
Israel, India look past defense to broaden commercial ties, Reuters, (July 5, 2017);
Itay Blumenthal/Itamar Eichner/Ahiya Raved. Indian PM Modi bids Israel farewell in Hebrew, Israel Hayom, (July 7, 2017);
Rhythma Kaul. Israel is upgrading India’s first-responder skills to save lives during emergencies, Hindustan Times, (July 26, 2017);
India's Modi recruits Israeli 4-legged protectors, Jerusalem Post, (August 8, 2017);
Israel-made fence systems, QRT troops at Pak, Bangladesh borders: BSF DG, Business Standard, (August 13, 2017);
Souptik Mukherjee. 70,000 Hindus Rally for Israel Under Hindu Samhati Banner, Jerusalem Post, (February 19, 2018);
Swapna Merlin. Israeli technology is helping grow more tomatoes in Tamil Nadu & mangoes in Maharashtra, The Print, (March 7, 2018);
IAI's Taxibot to be deployed at Indian airports, Globes, (July 12, 2018);
Neha Madaan. Remarkable rise in Indian tourist arrivals to Israel in first half of 2018, Times of India, (July 14, 2018);
Shoshanna Solomon. First Israel-India projects get green light from joint $40 million tech fund, Times of Israel, (July 30, 2018).
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Does MMA deserve social acceptance?
There is no doubt that MMA is on the up, but there are a number of barriers to overcome before it becomes socially acceptable, writes Fergus Ryan.
Since Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) burst into sporting arena it has been battling hard to gain mainstream social acceptance, particularly in the US. However, MMA has more to offer society than critics would allow you believe.
The critics who oppose MMA from the political, medical and media communities are often coming from a position of ignorance and unfortunately command more attention than the proponents of the sport. When you parallel the sport of MMA with what is currently accepted in the mainstream, it’s hard to rationalise why it remains on the fringes. Here are some of the objections levelled against MMA:
1. It’s too violent!
This is the oldest but easiest argument to punch holes through (pun absolutely intended). This accusation is a hangover from the bareknuckle, limited rules days when the pot-bellied, bar room brawler was a legitimate contender and nobody really understood the sport. However, MMA has cleaned up its house since those humble beginnings by embracing regulation and increasing the importance of fighter safety. To continue to peddle the myth of two men fighting to the death, that every MMA event is accompanied by a body count and that the spectators watch on with an insatiable blood lust, is simply displaying an ignorance of the sport.
It is also hypocritical when you consider the violence on offer elsewhere. Professional wrestling has circumvented regulation by classifying itself as sports entertainment. Put another way, it’s sporting fiction pumped up on steroids. It has been responsible for more deaths by a multiple (in ring and out) than MMA, yet can be viewed on TV from dusk till dawn. Sledge hammers, chairs, bin lids, 2x4’s and wrestlers themselves from the top ropes can be seen bouncing off meaty, out-sized heads on numerous channels. What many don’t understand is that these hits actually happen. The matches may be fake but the hits are real.
Manny Pacquiao inflicted serious damage on Antonio Margarito in their bout last November
You will rarely see a prolonged beating in an MMA bout to the extent of the one boxers Miguel Ángel Cotto and Antonio Margarito received at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. There are numerous ways to finish an MMA fight and although many go to the final bell, they are often brought to a swift conclusion. The variety of skills at the disposal of MMA fighters means they have tended to avoid the repeated, prolonged head trauma endured by boxers. In any case, MMA fights are generally limited to either three or five rounds against 10 or 12 in boxing.
Also, an MMA fighter under pressure can generally take the fight to the floor. If the onslaught continues, referees are instructed to call the fight as soon as the fighter stops intelligently defending himself. In any case, a big KO, the most sought-after finish in boxing, doesn't carry the same weight in MMA - a submission finish in an MMA fight often occurs in the absence of spilled blood but is deemed as valid as a knock-out. This is not a criticism of Pacquiao or boxing, more an observation that violence, often with more serious health risks, already exists in sport for all to see.
Conor McGregor agrees to a fight against Donald Cerrone
2. It sets a bad example!
In a world where there is an acceptance of professional footballers earning disgusting amounts to dive and feign injury to gain advantage on the pitch, it’s a little rich saying MMA sets a bad example. There is something inherently honest about two men getting into a cage with no teammates, rackets or balls to hide behind and competing with everything they've got.
A bigger disappointment is how ingrained in life football’s bad example has become. Anyone playing FIFA 2011 on a games console will see players remonstrating with referees after blatant fouls and listen to a recently sacked Sky Sports pundit complain about how poor the referee is.
Colleen Rooney dreamt during her school days of becoming “famous”. She probably thought her dreams had come true when her Wayne hit the big time. Unfortunately, now she has to put up with Rooney’s infidelity or face her family being taken off the gravy train that has been further enriched by his “toys out of the pram” style contract negotiations. Yet Rooney is the role model for kids taking part in the Sky TV series Street Striker. Hardly appropriate.
To continue to peddle the myth of two men fighting to the death, that every MMA event is accompanied by a body count and that the spectators watch on with an insatiable blood lust, is simply displaying an ignorance of the sport.
The dedication required in the sport of MMA is possibly the best example you could give anyone. MMA training is relentless. In addition to the time commitment of 2-3 hours a day, 4-5 days a week, there are dietary and social sacrifices - and that’s just the amateur fighters competing in local promotions. Because of the nature of the sport, it’s easy to tag MMA fans and fighters as meat-head thugs.
Anyone who has spent time in an MMA gym will be aware that nothing could be further from the truth. MMA is based on the traditional martial arts of jiu jitsu, judo, boxing, Muay Thai and wrestling among others and at the bottom level, these are skills that are acquired through a continuous learning process and training. Many martial artists don’t compete regularly but enjoy the challenge of achieving the standard of the various belts in a quest for personal development. The same can apply for MMA. The training itself provides self-defence, self-confidence and an incredible level of fitness without any requirement to take a fight.
While not every MMA fighter is squeaky clean, their number include an ex-teacher in Rich Franklin, a fireman in Chris Lytle, a decorated army hero in Brian Stann, a law enforcement officer in Forrest Griffin and an engineer in Shane Carwin to name but a few. The vast majority are regular joes with a love of combat sports.
Tony Ferguson explains why he thinks he would beat Conor McGregor
In the US, MMA provides a viable career option for the collegiate wrestlers that don’t make the Olympics and who otherwise would be left with no outlet to continue after years of dedication and training. For those who have trained in the traditional martial arts, it allows them the chance to pursue a sporting life.
3. It's taking pleasure from the suffering of others!
The physicality of MMA is seen as barbaric due to the perception around fighting in a cage. But the physicality in rugby is celebrated as it contributes to the excitement. The main differences are the settings and the understanding of the sport. Two men stripped to the waist in a cage seems more sinister than 15 men in colourful kit on a pitch. But an MMA fighter has the option to submit or “tapout” at any stage, thereby ending the fight. Rugby players often don’t have that luxury. Substitutions in rugby can be tactical but are often as a result of injury.
MMA artist and UFC fighter Rich Franklin used to be a maths teacher
Professional wrestlers have long been considered sporting heroes by young males. However, we don’t often hear about the darker side of the ‘sport’. WWE stalwart Chris Benoit committed suicide after killing his wife and seven-year-old son in June, 2007. The murder/suicide was initially considered “roid rage” after Benoit’s years of ingesting performance-enhancing drugs.
However, another tragedy was revealed following tests conducted by the head of neurosurgery at West Virginia University. Results showed that: "Benoit's brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient."
Casting the suffering net even wider, the level of brain damage Benoit had suffered was similar to some retired NFL players, also tested, who had suffered multiple concussions. Many wrestlers are willing to endure this level of punishment while they can make a steady pay cheque.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is interested in a fight against Conor McGregor under boxing rules
In addition to the brain trauma, a Google search of ‘dead wrestlers’ will reveal an alarming number of 30 and 40-year-old pro-wrestlers dead from heart related issues after years of substance abuse. Whether it’s classed as a sport or not, the suffering pro-wrestlers endure is more real than its matches.
The physicality of MMA is seen as barbaric due to the perception around fighting in a cage. But the physicality in rugby is celebrated as it contributes to the excitement.
The sport of horse racing causes hundreds of deaths each year, although admittedly, most of them aren’t jockeys. But does that mean the suffering doesn’t count?
Boxing allows standing eight counts to fighters who’ve been knocked down, thus prolonging a beating to a struggling fighter. A solid knock-down is often enough to finish a fight in MMA.
MMA is still in its infancy and yet to be fully understood. In MMA, the referee can end a fight at any stage based on a fighter not being able to intelligently defend themselves. When you couple this with the tapout, you begin to realise that the suffering can often be minimal in an MMA fight.
The sports of soccer, rugby and boxing have been used in this discussion, but not to cast them in a bad light. They have been used merely to highlight that these sports are available on television almost nightly, and hypocritically contain some of the features similar to the objections pitched against MMA.
Mainstream media should not ignore MMA in Ireland any longer. JOE recently interviewed a UFC executive who said that, based on previous experience, the franchise would be returning to host a second event on our shores. When UFC 93 was held in Dublin in January 2009, it was the promotion’s fastest selling event in Europe at that point. Only scheduling issues have prevented an earlier return.
The growth experienced in recent years suggests MMA won’t remain under the radar for too much longer. Ireland has a flourishing MMA community and those active in the sport will remain so whether MMA is on primetime, free to air TV or not at all.
MMA.
WATCH: Conor McGregor is beaten by Khabib Nurmagomedov as all hell breaks loose at the end of the fight
WATCH: The Irish have taken over Las Vegas ahead of the McGregor fight
Channel 5’s Bellator MMA coverage shows Peppa Pig instead of the main event
Wil Jones
Tony McGregor will be a guest on the biggest MMA podcast in the world today
Rudi Kinsella
Conor McGregor signs up for SIX more fights in the UFC
Brian Kerr's reaction to Spurs' last minute winner against Ajax is absolutely brilliant
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Hixson's new CubeSmart part of record-setting year for self-storage facility construction
CubeSmart, a new self-storage facility in Hixson, came in handy for Jake Hindman.
Hindman needed a place to stash some stuff while he lives with family in Jasper, Tenn., until his new Hixson apartment is ready for move-in.
So he stows the excess baggage in a small, indoor storage unit at the new CubeSmart facility at 5056 New Country Drive near Hamill Road and Highway 153.
"I like it," said Hindman, who has never rented a self-storage space before. "It's secure. It's very clean. Everyone's been super-friendly."
The Hixson CubeSmart, built by Spartanburg, S.C.-based Johnson Development Associates, is one of about 900 new self-storage facilities constructed around the nation in 2017, a 50 percent increase from the 600 projects a year earlier, according to BBG, a Dallas-based commercial real estate valuation, advisory and assessment firm.
During the first eight months of 2017, spending to build U.S. self-storage units hit a record $2.27 billion — more than the $1.9 billion spent in all of 2016 and a 90 percent increase year-over-year, according to Inside Self-Storage.
"The surge in construction of self-storage facilities across the country has been one of the biggest growth areas in the commercial real estate market in 2017," BBG CEO Chris Roach said in a statement. "We anticipate that this sector will continue to show solid growth this year."
The industry seeks to be more appealing, BBG says, through new designs and other features, such as climate-controlled units and locations near shopping areas and multi-family neighborhoods.
The Hixson CubeSmart is the 21st storage facility opened under either the CubeSmart or Extra Space Self Storage brand by Johnson Development, a real estate developer of commercial and apartment projects across the country.
"We're excited about the growth in the Chattanooga market and we saw a demand for more self storage," said Henry Grimball, operations manager of the Johnson's self-storage division.
The Hixson store includes a three-story, climate-controlled indoor storage facility equipped with elevators, a fire sprinkler system and it's built almost entirely of fire-resistant materials: concrete, aluminum and steel.
Businesses favor climate-controlled storage for a number of reasons, including to store excess inventory, keep electronic equipment away from the elements — even to store office furniture during remodeling, said Bob Burch, general manager of the Hixson CubeSmart.
"It's just whatever the need is," Burch said.
The $5.5 million Hixson CubeSmart also offers 24-hour video camera surveillance and space set aside to store boats and recreational vehicles.
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Oct. 6: 31st annual Homecoming Day Fun Run, Tri-Valley Street Rod Association Car Show, downtown Fredonia. Call Shirley at 620-378-2600.
Oct. 6: 13th annual Whitewater Lions Club Car Show, 200 block of East Topeka. Call 316-729-5750 for info.
Oct. 6: Goddard Fall Festival Car & Bike Show, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Linear Park, Goddard. Call 316-734-5670 for info.
Oct. 6: Wheels and Wings Antique Car & Airplane Show, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wellington Airport. Call Rick at 620-719-1900.
Oct. 6: Udall Fall Festival Car Show, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Udall Park. Call 620-782-3512 for info.
Oct. 7: All Ford Day, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Salvation Army Hiawatha Campus, 1601 W. 51st St. North. Call Gilbert at 316-838-8420.
Oct. 7: AC Border Bike Run & 2nd annual Cowley County Big Brothers, Big Sisters Benefit Car & Bike Show, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Paris Park, Arkansas City. Call John at 620-442-8440.
Oct. 13: Sears/Breast Cancer Research Charity Car Show, Hutchinson Mall parking lot, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call Eddie at 620-694-0494.
Oct. 13: 11th annual A & Reds Car Show, 4-8 p.m., 3737 W. 29th St. South. Call Frank at 316-942-5300, ext. 110.
Oct. 13: 2012 Augusta Fly In/Drive In, Car Show, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Augusta Airport. Call Lloyd at 316-733-1326.
Oct. 14: 8th annual Kruz’n for Kids Charity Car Cruise, line up begins at noon at WSU parking lot, 21st & Hillside, departs at 1 p.m. for The Alley parking lot at 11413 E. 13th St. North, concluding at 3 p.m. Contact Cheryl at 316-685-6590 or cherylabs@hotmail.com.
Oct. 20-21: 28th annual Haysville Fall Festival Car Show, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Riggs Park. Call Mike at 316-293-9248.
Oct. 27-28: 12th annual Sedgwick Street Rodders Swap Meet, Kansas State Fairgrounds, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Call Troy at 316-832-0569.
Oct. 28: Horseless Carriage Day car show, 2 p.m. at Sedgwick County Park, Sunflower Bldg. parking lot. Call Dave at 316-371-4061.
Re-creating a 1957 F-Code Ford Custom
Reunited with a 1964 Chevy Nova SS
Some of the most unique cars in the country are coming to Wichita this weekend
The Cars for Charities Rod & Custom Car Show is this weekend at Century II, the 62nd year for the classic Wichita auto show. The show features classic and unique cars from around the country.
Wichitan becoming an online celebrity thanks to his crazy car collection
Wheels calendar (May 5)
Transforming a '63 Riviera into an even more beautiful automobile
Re-creating a 1957 F-Code Ford Custom race car ready for the street
042818carcalendar
Chevy guy enjoys his time behind wheel of a '64 Pontiac Tempest
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Home / Culture and Psychoanalysis
Fragile Learning: The Influence of Anxiety
Author(s) : David Mathew
Click here to read David Mathew's latest article for Karnacology
Publisher : Karnac Books
Published : August 2015
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Read all reviews (1)
What are the barriers and obstacles to adults learning? What makes the process of adult learning so fragile? And what exactly do we mean by Fragile Learning? This book addresses these questions in two ways. In Part One, it looks at challenges to learning, examining issues such as language invention in a maximum security prison, geography and bad technology, and pedagogic fragility in Higher Education. Through a psychoanalytic lens, Fragile Learning examines authorial illness and the process of slow recovery as a tool for reflective learning, and explores ethical issues in problem-based learning.
The second part of the book deals specifically with the problem of online anxiety. From cyberbullying to Internet boredom, the book asks what the implications for educational design in our contemporary world might be. It compares education programmes that insist on the Internet and those that completely ban it, while exploring conflict, virtual weapons and the role of the online personal tutor. The book also examines the issue of time as a barrier to learning and its links to unconscious thinking, as well as defining fragility in a summative essay.
Reviews and Endorsements
‘This fascinating collection of essays makes important links between the fields of higher education studies and psychoanalysis. At the heart of the book is a compassionate engagement with the fragile learner – someone who is “close to giving up at any point, close to breaking”. This book makes a very helpful contribution to the way we understand such learners, and indeed our own fragility, in the face of a fast and fragmented digital learning environment.’
— Elizabeth Chapman Hoult, Birkbeck, University of London, author of Adult Learning and la Recherche Féminine
‘Fragile Learning is a fascinating exploration from a psychoanalytic viewpoint of the nature of both learner and educator anxiety, in the context of a variety of higher education, education management, and community workplaces. The author considers problems of projective identification, retreat or claustrum situations, basic assumption and work groups, the impact of physical illness, and how to engage in productive conflict whilst acknowledging the anxieties of all parties. The book gains insights from original research into these matters, not only as applied to traditional educational environments, but also in relation to the particular forms they may take in distance and e-learning, where both students and teachers are often equally fragile learners, seeking to adapt humanistically to the new technological tools they are acquiring.’
— Meg Harris Williams, writer and artist
David Mathew works at the University of Bedfordshire, UK, and as an independent researcher and writer. His wide areas of interest include psychoanalysis, linguistics, distance learning, prisons and online anxiety. With approximately 600 published pieces to his name, including a novel based on his time working in the education department of a maximum security prison (O My Days), he has published widely in academic, journalistic and fiction outlets. In addition to his writing, he edits the Journal of Pedagogic Development, teaches academic writing, and he particularly enjoys lecturing in foreign countries.
Our customers have given this title an average rating of 5 out of 5 from 1 review(s), add your own review for this title.
Mike Dines on 25/01/2016 09:58:54
Review : Fragile Learning: The Influence of Anxiety by David Mathew. London: Karnac, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-7822025-92. £27.99.
Mike Dines, British Journal of Education
Fragile Learning: The Influence of Anxiety is an intriguing exploration of what David Mathew notes as the "wide variety of factors that might test a learner's resilience or make the process of learning precarious and problematic". These factors, he notes, include "such obstacles as technology, environment, culture, age, disease and incarceration" (p. xv). Fragile Learning, therefore, explores the complexity surrounding the perilous nature of the "new" (of the increasing intricacy of and reliance upon technology), the auto-ethnographical (such as pulling upon the author's own experience of teaching in a maximum-security prison), and the different ways in which anxiety in overcoming these barriers are important pedagogic tools for both learners and educators alike.
The volume is split into two sections. The first, "Challenges to Learning" incorporates a number of case studies such as Mathew's experience of observing language within a prison, concerns felt by international students and distance learning, and ethical issues surrounding the studying of a postgraduate qualification in Public Health. Co-written with Susan Sapsed, there is a particularly insightful chapter on Sapsed's own journey through ill health (she tore a ligament in her right knee), and her commentary on the constant pain endured through the proceeding months. Here, Sapsed draws upon the notion of Claustrum, recalling a sense of "physical unreadiness [of returning] to the world that [she] had inhabited before" (p. 87). The chapter is not only perceptive, but is evident of an intelligent and contemplative use of theory.
Part Two - written solely by Mathew - is entitled "Online Anxiety" and is, as the title suggests, an examination of the impact of the Internet on various learners. "As I come right out and say in several of these submissions", notes the author, "the Internet [has] a frightening presence on many people's lives - both educators' lives and lives of our students" (p. 121). As such, this latter section deals with concerns such as cyber bullying in the workplace, experiences surrounding distance learning and the role of the online learning personal tutor. The final chapter in the book, "The Internet is Unwell - And Will Not Be At School Today" is useful in presenting a picture of "Fragile Learner, struggling and anxious in the online milieu" (p. 201).
It is here that Mathews clarifies the notion of "anxiety". Although he sees anxiety as a "natural and unavoidable reaction to a perception of danger or risk". the author notes how "it is a healthy response - complete with its quirks and its sensibilities, and the emergence of a way of learner engagement that remains new to some educators" (p. 138). It is this unique relationship between learner, educator and the increasing complexities and intricate-nature of the Internet that is core to this section. In the first instance, Mathew questions the location of this anxiety. The Internet is not particularly new, he notes, and nor is the concept of online learning and education. Furthermore, the rapidity of technological change is apparent with most learners. Yet, what does remain problematic is the way in which educational institutions have problems with keeping pace with it.
As an example Mathew provides a case study of a university in the South-East of England. Here, the author looks in more detail at the relationship between the learner and educator, exploring ways in which technology continues to be an important medium in the areas of student support, assessment and facilitation of learning. Mathew's tackling of this complex subject area is symptomatic of the volume's content. Firstly, one is aware of the democratization of the issue at hand. Mathew provides equal credence to educator and student. It is obvious that for a compromise to take place both need to communicate. Secondly, Mathew approaches this subject in a reflective approach whereby definitive answers are not "pinned down".
In its place, the reader is given the opportunity to think for him or herself. "Let us hope that we have learned from our past as educators", writes the author, "the new generation of web tools will give educators this kind of pioneering freedom, not to mention the chance to learn - really learn - from the learner" (p. 144). This provides the reader with a real sense of empowerment. Mathew's writing style fosters an approach where the reader accompanies the narrative; and where he or she is subtly encouraged to work these issues out for themselves. Mathew is not giving you the answers. In fact, he is not (as some writers do) telling you he knows the answers. Instead, emphasis on placed on the dynamism of theory and application. Reflection takes the place of the polemicist.
A key strength of Fragile Learning also lies in the ease of expressing the complex. Although Freud is (obviously) referenced throughout, Mathew pulls upon a number of difficult and complex writers to provide depth and academic weighting. Slavoj Zizek is quoted to conclude Mathew's chapter "Prison Language", whilst the reflective chapter "On Empty Spaces: An Afterword" is framed around Lacan's Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1992). Especially in terms of the latter, where Mathew notes how the "following pages are a meditation on ethics, on violence [and] learning", the author frames the work of Lacan in a prose-style that scrutinizes but does not over-complicate. Nor is Mathew's style patronizing; instead Fragile Learning is a fine equilibrium between the academic and, dare I say, the accessible.
Importantly, it is a balance that highlights the author's grasp of a complex and fast-moving area of study. His interrogation of the psychoanalytical in particular is clear, relevant and concise, whilst the inclusion of case studies illuminates and grounds the theoretical. The prominence of the reflective also provides a delineation of good practice and introspection. This volume is a worthy contribution to the debates surrounding the notion of "anxiety" and its relation with the psychoanalytical and pedagogical. In particular, chapters concerning technology are especially relevant and provide discerning accounts of the relationship between the educator, the learner and the application of that technology.
Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety
David Smail
A Short Introduction to Helping Young People Manage Anxiety
Carol Fitzpatrick
Key Thinkers in Individual Differences: Ideas on Personality and Intelligence
Alex Forsythe
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Jailed: Sex offenders counsellor who raped a woman in Wembley Park in 1991
Lorraine King
Geoffrey Jones raped the women near Wembley Park station (pic: Google)
A convicted rapist who became a counsellor for sex offenders has been jailed again for a brutal attack on a young woman in Wembley almost 25 years ago.
Geoffrey Jones, 46, pounced on the 21-year-old victim as she left Wembley Park tube station on a summer’s night in 1991.
The father-of-four said he carried out the attack in a fit of ‘misogynistic rage’ whilst in a downward spiral of heroin addiction.
He dragged her to a basement where he forced her to perform oral sex and raped her – using her own jumper as a blindfold to prevent her identifying him.
Jones, who was born Geoffrey Pepper, threatened to kill the woman if she told the police or anyone else about the attack before releasing her.
Although the victim did go to police and swabs were taken, technology at the time could only identify Jones’ blood type, which is shared by one in four people.
Police did arrest and question Jones – who was sleeping rough at the time – but thought they had insufficient evidence to charge him. She was the second victim of three almost identical rapes Jones committed in the space of a few weeks that July.
He was convicted of the two identical attacks after trial at the Old Bailey in 1992 and jailed for 13 years.
When he was in prison he worked with other sex offenders, knowing that he was responsible for an unsolved attack.
A cold case review last year resubmitted swabs taken from the victim for analysis which proved a match with his DNA.
Jones, from Yeovil, Somerset, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape, one charge of robbery and two charges of indecent assault at Southwark Crown Court in December.
Last week he was jailed for seven years.
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STRiVE ready to say goodbye to outdated building
By Grace Reader |
Posted: Wed 8:28 PM, Jan 09, 2019 |
Updated: Thu 10:21 AM, Jan 10, 2019
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO/KJCT) -- STRiVE, a group in Grand Junction that supports people with developmental disabilities, is moving to a new location next week and they say it's not coming a day too soon.
From water damage, to not being able to use the internet, to having walls so thin it's hard to keep patient's information confidential, the building STRiVE is in right now isn't conducive to helping those they serve.
They say the new location, at 790 Wellington Avenue, has many benefits. The phones and internet work, for one, the building is sound and secure, it's in a central location that allows for easier access and the spaces inside will allow for services to expand.
STRiVE says this will help them serve people with developmental disabilities to a much greater capacity.
"We support them from birth to end of life," Doug Sorter, vice president of STRiVE, said. "That could be 90 years. We want to have a facility that is going to have a future along with them so that they know where to go, they know that they're going to receive those services and we're providing the longevity that's going to be instrumental in providing those services. So this is going to be a great fit."
STRiVE will be moving January 17 and 18. They will still provide all necessary services. They've also set up a temporary phone line which is (970) 462-8357.
Neighbors warn resident that his house caught fire
Mussels concern at Highline Lake
Hot first day at Mesa County Fair
Restaurant fire closes parts of Main Street in Grand Junction
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Statement on “Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and illegal occupation of Crimea”
posted 15 December 2017 19:32
International activity Law and order Policy
Delivered by Ambassador Ihor Prokopchuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, to the 1168th meeting of the Permanent Council, 14 December 2017
Mr. Chairperson,
The discussions at the OSCE Ministerial Council last week in Vienna have again testified to the broad recognition that the on-going Russian aggression against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine remains the gravest threat to the European security. The illegal occupation and attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, grave human rights violations in the peninsula constitute flagrant breaches of the OSCE principles and commitments. The hybrid warfare led by the Russian mercenaries and troops in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine continues to take away scores of lives of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen, sow destruction and bring sufferings and hardships to millions of people living in parts of Donbas under Russia’s effective control, with the flags of the Russian Federation flying “outside certain public buildings” in the Luhansk city as reported by the SMM.
On 4 December 2017 the International Criminal Court released its Report on preliminary examination activities 2017 where it recalls its assessment that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which entails application of respective international law. While examination of available information on the conflict in parts of Donbas is ongoing, it points out that “the existence of a single international armed conflict in eastern Ukraine would entail the application of articles of the Statute relevant to armed conflict of an international character for the relevant period”.
Russia’s presence as an invasion force in Donbas continues to be registered by the SMM even under the conditions of significant and systematic restrictions imposed upon the activities of the SMM in the areas controlled by the Russian hybrid forces.
The armed persons “with military-style clothing bearing the image of a black bat” (the emblem of the military intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) keep moving around Donbas, most recently spotted by the SMM in Dmytrivka 85km east of Donetsk.
The Russian heavy weapons continue movement in the non-government controlled areas of Donbas, while further intentions of the Russian military command are unknown. Enough is to look at the fluctuating numbers of combat tanks observed by the SMM in Manuilivka 65km east of Donetsk and reported in the daily reports of 30 October and 6 December, and weekly report of 29 October.
The large numbers of the heavy weapons and military equipment, including “military-type vehicles arranged in column formations”, as observed by the SMM on 28 November near Buhaivka 37km south-west of Luhansk, the constant supply of fuel and ammunition point out to the readiness of the Russian hybrid forces to launch military offensives at any time when Moscow deems necessary.
The SMM cameras at the Donetsk Filtration Station and in Shyrokyne continue to register daily dozens and hundreds of projectiles in flight from east to west, indicating Russia’s intent to maintain provocations and hostilities. Access of the SMM patrols to the towns of Siedove and Novoazovsk near the Ukrainian-Russian state border continues to be systematically denied which enables Russia to conceal its military presence in that area.
The Russian hybrid forces intimidate the SMM patrols, restrict their access to the permanent weapons storages and aim to damage the SMM assets with the purpose of “blinding” the Mission. A week after the SMM UAV had been fired at near non-government controlled Dovhe on 27 November, the SMM spotted newly dug trenches and underground bunkers near the same Dovhe on 2 December.
The Russian hybrid forces have no sympathy for civilians and their fate as they keep shelling the objects of critical civilian infrastructure at the contact line in Donbas and deliberately heighten the risk of ecological and humanitarian disasters. Last week, the Donetsk Filtration Station was shelled again and the SMM reported on 5 December about fresh impact sites “caused by a mortar round fired from a south-south-easterly direction”, where the positions of the Russian hybrid forces are located. Earlier, the SMM reported about attacks at DFS on 15 and 16 November, when the SMM camera recorded the incoming explosions very close to it. The projectiles were fired “from a southerly direction, in the vicinity of known “DPR” forward positions”.
The SMM weekly report of 29 November points out that the repairs of a number of installations, which have already been damaged by the shellings, “remain stalled due to lack of security guarantees from the armed formations”, as is the case with the Krasnohorivka gas distribution centre and the water pipeline near Avdiivka.
These observations are extremely important for clear understanding of Russia’s ongoing aggression and the utter cruelty of its behavior under the cover of Moscow’s political declarations to the contrary.
Distinguished colleagues,
This situation makes it imperative to maintain and even strengthen the international pressure on Russia to make it implement its commitments under the Minsk agreements. Russia must stop the aggression and withdraw its troops and weapons from the sovereign territory of Ukraine. It depends on Russia to allow the OSCE to play the role agreed to by Moscow as defined in the Minsk agreements. The rejection of this OSCE’s role by the Russian delegation during the negotiations on the draft Declaration on the OSCE’s response to the crisis in and around Ukraine in the run-up to the last week’s OSCE Ministerial Council can only be viewed as another testimony of Russia’s unwillingness to implement the Minsk agreements. In this connection we wish to remind the Russian delegation that the Minsk agreements assign a specific role of the OSCE in: monitoring and verification of the ceasefire regime; ensuring the permanent monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian border and verification with the creation of safety zone in the border regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation; monitoring the ban on the deployment of heavy weapons and military equipment in designated areas; monitoring the withdrawal of the heavy weapons from the specified line of contact; monitoring the withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, as well as mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine; and monitoring local elections, to be held in accordance with Ukrainian legislation and relevant OSCE standards.
The implementation by the OSCE of the above agreed functions is effectively denied by the Russian Federation and its forces in Donbas, which necessitates a heightened attention to this issue on the part of the OSCE Chairmanship and the CiO’s Special Representative.
Throughout this year a lot of attention was paid to the plight of civilian population in the conflict-affected areas of Donbas. To our deepest regret, these people continue to suffer as the Russian invasion force maintains hostilities and occupation, neglecting the needs, rights and freedoms of the civilians living in the certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
They refused to open a crossing point in Zolote when a crossing point in Stanytsia Luhanska, a single one in the Luhansk region, was closed for two days to enable repairs of the damaged bridge. Instead, the Russian proxies suggested that the civilians use the border check-point point in Izvaryne, at the uncontrolled segment of the Ukrainian-Russian state border. They keep preventing civilian traffic through the village of Nova Marivka by deliberately placing an 82mm mortar round in the surface of a road, as informed in the SMM daily report of 6 December. They cut electricity (which also affected the water supply) to the village of Travneve as stated in the SMM weekly report of 29 November. Electricity has been later restored by the Ukrainian authorities on 10 December.
When the SMM patrols attempt to establish contact with the local population, in order to gather information and to establish facts in full compliance with the SMM mandate, they are continuously denied such contacts by the Russian hybrid forces. The medical staff at hospitals in the non-government controlled areas of Donbas is intimidated and instructed “not provide information on reported civilian casualties to the SMM without the permission” of militants. As highlighted in the SMM daily report of 6 December, “while the SMM was speaking with staff at the hospital, another staff member told the SMM that the OSCE was not on the list of organizations with which he was allowed to talk.” On 8 December, when the OSCE monitors were talking to a group of civilians near a checkpoint in Horlivka, “armed “DPR” members approached the SMM” and “told the SMM to stop talking to civilians and leave the area”.
Last Sunday, the international community observed the Human Rights Day marking the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN GA nearly 70 years ago, in 1948. Presently in the OSCE area the most glaring violations of human rights happen in the territories, illegally occupied by the Russian Federation and placed by force under its effective control – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and a part of Donbas region in Ukraine.
Last week in Vienna two deputy chairmen of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz shared their personal experiences and shocking stories of persecution and impunity for crimes against Crimean Tatars and others. Thousands of people continue to suffer every day. On Monday, another Crimean Tatar and civil society activist Rustem Osmanov was detained in Bakhchysarai. His name is now added to the long list of civil society activists, journalists and lawyers persecuted by the Russia’s occupation regime and fake “courts” to silence opposition to the occupation.
In the next few days, the UN General Assembly will vote for the resolution “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”. We once again call upon all OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation to give their votes for this resolution as one of the instruments to put an end to grave violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Crimea.
As the ultimate restoration of numerous violated rights can only be achieved through de-occupation of Crimea, we again strongly urge the Russian Federation to return to the tenets of international law by reversing the illegal occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol, and by stopping its aggression against Ukraine, including by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian territory.
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
First Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine holds talks with representatives of International Committee of the Red Cross
Statement by H.E. Mr. Pavlo Klimkin, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, at the UNSC Ministerial Meeting on the Non-Proliferation of WMD/North Korea
By themes «International activity», «Law and order», «Policy»
19:50, 14 July Energy security Economy Policy Prime Minister NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine should pump up 20 billion cubic meters of gas at a reasonable price to the storage facilities in order to avoid raising it during the heating season, assures Volodymyr Groysman
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Please note: Sometimes, NPR publishes headlines before the story and/or audio is ready; check back for content later if this occurs. We also publish national/world news on our home page.
Dr. Daniel Bausch Knows The Ebola Virus All Too Well
By editor • Sep 22, 2014
The Ebola crisis in West Africa has been a "very personal outbreak for me," says Dr. Daniel Bausch. The virologist spent "quite a few years" working on hemorrhagic fevers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Ebola as well as Marburg and Lassa fever. He knows the Ebola virus all too well, and he knows many of the people who've been deeply involved in fighting the current outbreak, including Dr.
A Case Of Mistaken Identity Sends Healthy Boy To An Ebola Ward
As part of Sierra Leone's broader effort to contain the deadly Ebola virus, the country opened a new ambulance dispatch center in September in the capital, Freetown. Along with a new Ebola hotline, the center is considered an important step forward in the war on Ebola.
But on the center's second day of operation, a series of errors put the life of an apparently healthy 14-year-old boy at risk.
Fair-Trade Condoms: Latex That Lets You Love The World
Finding the right condom just got a little bit more like finding a good cabbage.
Picky shoppers might notice labels on condom boxes these days that say fair trade, non-GMO and all natural.
Condoms don't just fall off trees, but most of them do start there. The major ingredient in most condoms is natural latex, which comes from rubber trees. A lot has to happen to make tree sap into a Jimmy hat. A number of companies are trying to make that process more ethical, from tree to ... well, you know.
'It Is Hell Out Here,' Says Liberian Official
ARUN RATH, HOST:
Workers Hand Out Soap And Advice As Sierra Leone Locks Down
Sierra Leone is holding a country-wide experiment: For three days, no one is allowed to leave their home.
It's part of the country's strategy for controlling the deadly Ebola virus. While people across Sierra Leone stay at home, teams of workers go door-to-door, educating the public about the disease.
The effort got its shaky start on Friday.
The streets were empty in the heart of Freetown, the capitol. The only sound came from a few street sweepers and a police van blasting a song from an old speaker.
Ebola Battlers Can Learn From Venice's Response To Black Death
Patients "driven to frenzy by the disease, especially at night ... went here and there, colliding with one another and suddenly falling to the ground dead."
No, it's not a scene from the modern-day Ebola outbreak. It's a description from Venice of a hospital ward during the plague that first struck the city in the mid-1300s.
WATCH: The Boy Who Danced In The Face Of Ebola
This week has been tough. Maybe the toughest in the long, drawn-out battle against Ebola in West Africa.
Social Media Get The Right Stuff To India's Flood Victims
When the floods hit the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of September, Delhi resident Raheel Khursheed was preparing to visit his hometown, Anantnag.
"By the middle of the week I realized that it's not going to stop raining through most of the week, and I started to put my plans on hold," says the 31-year-old New Delhi resident, who directs news, politics and government at Twitter India. "By Friday, Anantnag was flooded."
Inside An Ebola Kit: A Little Chlorine And A Lot Of Hope
American doctor and Ebola survivor Kent Brantly had senators in Congress riveted this week, as he told them the story of a patient named Francis.
Francis lived in Liberia's capital, and as he lay dying of Ebola, he told Brantly he knew how he had gotten infected: while helping a sick neighbor into a taxi.
His Camera Takes Us To The World 'We Must Preserve'
They're silvery and stunning — and their beauty bears a message.
"Genesis" is a new exhibit of more than 200 black-and-white images from the noted Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. He wants to show us what the world and its peoples look like now, how climate change has already had an impact — and what might be lost if Earth's climate continues changing.
In Sierra Leone, A Lockdown ... Or A Time To Reflect?
Starting just after midnight, residents of Sierra Leone will be confined to their homes for a three-day lockdown.
It's the latest government plan meant to stem the tide of Ebola cases, which exceeded 1,500 last week in Sierra Leone.
But the plan has not won the support of the international medical community — and is causing concern among Sierra Leoneans as well.
A Frightening Curve: How Fast Is The Ebola Outbreak Growing?
In the past week, world leaders have started using a mathematical term when they talk about the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
"It's spreading and growing exponentially," President Obama said Tuesday. "This is a disease outbreak that is advancing in an exponential fashion," said Dr. David Nabarro, who is heading the U.N.'s effort against Ebola.
Some Airports Have A New Security Routine: Taking Your Temperature
Airports in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are relying on a familiar tool to stop the spread of Ebola: the thermometer.
Airport staff are measuring the temperature of anyone trying to leave the country, looking for "unexplained febrile illness," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is advising these countries on their exit screening processes.
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LACBA Sections >
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Family Law Section Home Page >
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Recent Case Summaries-August-September
VOLUME 16 | NUMBER 4 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016
Back to August/ September 2016 issue
Recent Case Summaries
Posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Order terminating reunification services after six months, based on finding that mother had "failed to participate regularly and make substantive progress" in her case plan, was unsupported by substantial evidence where mother's participation was excellent during the last three months of the six-month period.
J.F. v. Superior Court (Orange County Social Services Agency)
filed Aug. 30, 2016, Fourth District, Div. Three
Cite as 2016 S.O.S. 4483
Full text click here
Under Family Code Sec. 7822, which authorizes the termination of rights of a parent who has not provided support or communicated with the other parent "for a period of one year...with the intent...to abandon the child," the one-year period need not immediately precede the filing of the petition.
In re A.B.
filed Aug. 24, 2016, Fourth District, Div. One
Posted: Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Sitting as trier of fact, a trial court may draw its own inferences and conclusions from the evidence when hearing a matter brought pursuant to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. This includes the power to factually find a "dating relationship" within the meaning of the DVPA even though the parties characterize their relationship as a friendship that does not involve "dating" as that term is commonly understood. Order that defendant "not post photographs, videos, or information about [plaintiff] to any internet site" and to "remove the same from any internet site over which he has access or control" did not violate his First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and expression where he had engaged in such conduct in the past and the court found that his doing so constituted abuse of the plaintiff.
Phillips v. Campbell
filed Aug. 23, 2016, Second District, Div. Six
Juvenile court violated mother's due process rights when it failed to obtain a valid waiver of her right to a contested jurisdictional hearing. Although the court advised mother at the detention hearing of the rights she would have at the upcoming jurisdictional hearing, the court did not properly advise mother at the jurisdictional hearing itself before accepting the parties' submission. Lack of valid waiver was harmless where it could not be reasonably disputed that mother had a history of substance abuse and that she was driving under the influence when her car collided with an embankment, causing child to be injured, and that she failed to promptly seek medical care for the child.
In re S.N.
filed Aug. 17, 2016, Third District
Dependency jurisdictional finding relating to father based on his alleged failure to provide children with the necessities of life and his then-current incarceration on burglary charges suffered from several fundamental flaws. The court may not assume jurisdiction over an otherwise well-cared-for child simply because an absent parent has not provided support." A parent's incarceration may provide a basis for dependency jurisdiction only if that parent "cannot arrange for the care of the child." The court's interpretation of the petition as charging that father had failed to protect the children from mother's physical abuse did not provide a basis for jurisdiction because the social services agency never made any such allegation and father had no notice or opportunity to defend against it.
In re Andrew S.
filed Aug. 15, 2016, Second District, Div. Seven
Finding by a sister-state court that father placed minor in reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury, during the five years preceding California custody and visitation proceedings, triggered Family Code Sec. 3044's rebuttable presumption that it is not in the best interests of a child to award joint custody to a party who has perpetrated domestic violence. Family court, in rendering its custody and visitation order, committed error requiring reversal by relying on Sec. 3040's preference for frequent and continuing contact with the noncustodial parent in a case to which the Sec. 3044 presumption applied.
Ellis v. Lyons
filed July 14, 2016, publication ordered Aug. 11, 2016, Second District, Div. Five
Full text click here Posted: Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Posted: Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Family court lacks jurisdiction to consider request for presumed father status once a dependency petition related to the child has been filed. Orders granting such requests were void and juvenile court erred in ruling that it was bound by them.
In re Alexander P.
filed July 29, 2016, First District, Div. One
Posted: Friday, July 29, 2016
Family law court order requiring mother to submit to drug testing indefinitely as a condition to further visitation and ordering that a positive drug test result would immediately trigger a return to the reduced visitation schedule imposed by a dependency court "exit order" did not violate Family Code Sec. 3041.5, which specifies the circumstances in which drug testing of a party to a custody or visitation dispute may be ordered.
Heidi S. v. David H.
filed July 28, 2016, Second District, Div. One
Juvenile court committed reversible error by denying, on standing grounds, mother's request for an evidentiary hearing under Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 364 regarding termination of dependency jurisdiction, placement of child with father, and denial of future family services. Lack of a hearing made harmless-error review impossible.
In re Armando L.
filed July 14, 2016, Fifth District
Family law judge awarded physical custody of child to father rather than to mother living in another state, and based the ruling in part on the fact that mother's family in the area where father lived would be able to assist in child's upbringing, and stated that the relocation of that family would constitute changed circumstances in the event of a modification petition. Judge who later heard modification petition after mother's parents relocated to mother's home state was not bound by that statement. Finding that grandparents' relocation was not a sufficient change of circumstances to justify modification of custody order was not an abuse of discretion. There was substantial evidence that the relocation was not genuine and where other family members remained in the area.
Anne H. v. Michael B.
filed June 15, 2016, publication ordered July 12, 2016, First District, Div. One
Posted: Monday, July 11, 2016
Denial of request to renew domestic violence restraining order required reversal. Trial court erroneously concluded that there must be new evidence of abuse or threatened abuse to renew the order, that defendant's past abuse or violations of the existing order did not support renewal, that evidence of "new" abuse must be physical in nature, and that evidence of defendant's abuse of the couple's children was not relevant to the DVRO renewal.
Perez v. Torres-Hernandez
filed June 9, 2016, publication ordered July 11, 2016, First District, Div. Four
Substantial evidence supported juvenile court's finding that Indian child's foster parents did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that there was good cause to depart from the Indian Child Welfare Act's placement preferences, considering the bond child developed over time with the foster parents, as well as her relationship with her extended family and half-siblings. Evidence included the capacity of her extended family to maintain and develop her sense of self-identity--including her cultural identity and connection to tribal culture--and the foster parents' relative reluctance or resistance to foster child's relationship with her extended family or encourage exploration of and exposure to her tribal cultural identity.
filed July 8, 2016, Second District, Div. Five
Social services agency was informed that children subject to dependency proceedings were both eligible to enroll in two different Native American tribes, but no further efforts at ICWA notice were made by the agency or the juvenile court before the juvenile court found, on the agency's advice, that ICWA did not apply. It was error to terminate parental rights and parents were entitled to a remand for the limited purpose of allowing the agency to make active efforts necessary to secure tribal membership for the children, in compliance with rules 5.482(c) and 5.484(c)(2) of the California Rules of Court.
In re Miguel S.
filed June 7, 2016, publication ordered June 17, 2016, Fourth District, Div. Three
The juvenile court is terminating a probate guardianship pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 728, which permits such termination in a dependency proceeding if it is in the best interests of the minor, the best-interests finding need only be made by a preponderance of the evidence.
In re Z.F.
filed June 15, 2016, Third District
Juvenile court did not abuse its discretion in denying an evidentiary hearing on mother's Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 388 petitions to modify children's three separate placements and place them with their grandmother. Evidence that children were benefiting significantly from the placements supported the court's conclusion that the separate placements were in their best interests in the circumstances, and general assertions in mother's petitions that the children would be better off if they were removed from their placements and placed together with grandmother did not constitute a prima facie showing that required the juvenile court to hold an evidentiary hearing on the petitions.
In re K.L.
filed May 25, 2016, publication ordered June 13, 2016, First District, Div. Four
Juvenile court erred in requiring parental notice before appointing a guardian ad litem for a child who was seeking findings necessary for a "special immigrant juvenile" application under federal law.
Alex R. v Superior Court (Mirian R.)
filed June 13, 2016, Second District, Div. Seven
Posted: Friday, June 10, 2016
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act does not apply to adoptions.
Adoption of K.C.
filed June 10, 2016, Second District, Div. Six
Drug treatment ordered as the result of a deferred entry of judgment is "prior court-ordered treatment" for purposes of Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 361.5(b)(13), which permits the dependency court to bypass reunification if a parent resisted such treatment.
In re E.G.
filed May 17, 2016, publication ordered June 10, 2016, Fourth District, Div. Three
Posted: Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Juvenile court was not required to apply the beneficial parent-child relationship exception to termination of parental rights, pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 366.26(c)(1)(B)(i), where it reasonably concluded the mother failed to show her relationship with the children outweighed the benefits of adoption. Court properly considered the inconsistency of the mother's parenting, the stable nature of the proposed adoptive home, the strong relationship between the children and the proposed adoptive parent, and the mother's continuing substance abuse issues, among other factors.
In re Noah G.
filed June 6, 2016, Second District, Div. Five
Back to August/September 2016 issue
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307 Main - The Rose Building
Villa Vue at SOMA
Mission Heights
Thomas Lasiter
Ryan Lasiter
The Mann on Main
The project consists of a 90,000-square-foot office building at the corner of 4th and Main Streets, Mann Lofts, a 30,000-square-foot multifamily residential component, the ground floor retail of both buildings, and a four-level parking garage at the corner of Louisiana and 4th Streets.
The project occupies what was once the original seven-story Blass Department Store, built in 1906, its annex building, and a surface lot that was once the location of the offices of the former Union National Bank. The main building, designed by architect George Mann, is one of Little Rock’s most architecturally significant buildings and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The State of Arkansas is the exclusive office tenant and user, The Mann Building houses such state agencies as the Office of Child Support Enforcement, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, and the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy. The ground floor is occupied by Samantha's Tap Room.
The Mann Lofts are 19 fully occupied residential units located on the second and third floors of Mann Lofts, formerly the Annex.
In addition to the office and residential components, the buildings will serve as home to the reestablished Bruno's Little Italy in the Mann Lofts ground floor space, complete with outdoor patio.
The project was funded through New Market Tax Credits awarded by the Heartland Renaissance Fund of Little Rock and a construction loan from Iberia Bank. AMR Architects were the architects. Clark Construction was general contractor of the Mann Building and the parking garage, and Central Construction Group was general contractor for Mann Lofts. The Mann on Main was a joint venture project, and its equity partners include The Lasiter Group, Newmark Moses Tucker Partners, Inc., and Doyle Rogers Company.
The project is the recipient of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas 2013 Excellence in Preservation through Rehabilitation Award Winner.
The Lasiter Group
200 River Market Avenue, Suite 501
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
info@lasitergroup.com
Lasiter Real Estate
info@lasitergrouprealestate.com
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About Gorilla Lacrosse - www.gorillalaxva.org
Gorilla Lacrosse (GL) is a new youth lacrosse program based out of western Fairfax County, VA. The program is being established to allow boys to have fun and play lacrosse at a higher level, while promoting multi-sport athletes and addressing some of the major problems with youth sports; including pay-to-play, overuse injuries, and burn-out. Players and coaches are expected to come from many of the neighboring rec lacrosse programs in the area.
GL is an endeavor of CYA Lacrosse to provide a different kind of club experience than many of those in the region, but players do NOT need to play for CYA. We are powered by our parent organization, the Chantilly Youth Association, which enables us to hold down our costs and provide a great experience by utilizing their many resources including administrative, financial, and facility.
Player Commitment
Players will make a year-round commitment to the team which will include:
They must play a fall sport other than lacrosse.
They must play a winter sport other than lacrosse.
They must play for their local rec lacrosse club in the spring.
They will attend as many of the GL practices as possible throughout the year when they don’t have a conflict with their other sports. Other sports take priority during those seasons. (GL will have 1 or 2 practices a month throughout the year, and 2 or 3 a week for several weeks leading up to and during the tournament seasons).
They will play in 2 or 3 tournaments in the summer, and 1 or 2 tournaments in the late fall.
Self-guided practice plans will be provided on a monthly basis to encourage players to compete amongst each other within small groups as they develop their individual skills.
We do not expect players, nor do we want the players to completely dedicate themselves to the sport of lacrosse and Gorilla Lacrosse. However, we do hope the players will learn how a little extra effort and hard work on their own will help both themselves and their team improve, and therefore will result in having more fun when they play the game. It is also our strong belief that the skills and abilities they develop by playing other sports, under other coaches, and with other teammates will transfer over to the lacrosse field when they return making them better lacrosse players.
All players must be members of the US Lacrosse Association. This is a requirement of most of the tournaments we will play in. You can obtain this registration at www.uslacrosse.org.
Gorilla Lacrosse Commitment
We look to provide a fun learning environment throughout the year for the boys to enjoy the game of lacrosse and become better players. We will do this while understanding that these young boys and their families have many different interests and other commitments.
Playing time – It is our belief that if you are paying to have your son be a part of the club to become a better lacrosse player and have fun, then they need to play in games to make this happen. We believe players need to play to get better, and will attempt to provide all players significant, if not equal, playing time throughout the tournaments. That being said, we also want to win games and advance in the tournaments we play in. We leave it to our coaches discretion as to how they allocate playing time in the fourth quarters and overtime in order to win games.
The current estimated cost is expected to be $700-$800 a year. (Several other clubs in the area range from $1,800 to $3,000.) Our cost includes uniforms, tournament fees, field rental, coaching, and other miscellaneous costs. Players must provide their own equipment. We are in the process of establishing a team discount for helmets and gloves if families are interested in purchasing those, but this will be optional.
GL will field two separate teams for the 2019 club lacrosse season, a 2026 team and a 2027 team (current 4th and 5th graders).
Jonathan Hamby - Coach Hamby has over 35 years experience as both a player and coach. He grew up playing youth lacrosse in both the Boston and Syracuse areas, was a four year varsity starter at the US Air Force Academy and holds a US Lacrosse Level 1 coaching certificate. He has spent the last six seasons coaching in the Northern Virginia area. Coach Hamby lives in Centreville, VA with his wife and three kids.
Tom Tufts - Coach Tufts has been involved in lacrosse for 32 years as a player, referee, and coach. Along with lacrosse he grew up playing multiple sports, including soccer, basketball, racquetball, and golf. Coach Tufts is Level 2 certified in both Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse. He has coached lacrosse for the last 11 seasons at both the rec and club levels. Coach Tufts now lives in Herndon, VA with his wife, two kids, and a big black lab.
2026 (Current 5th graders) - Contact Jonathan Hamby at Hamby73@verizon.net
2027 (Current 4th graders) - Contact Tom Tufts at TTufts@msn.com
2028 (We plan to field a team in 2020, but check back in as we may begin some operations in mid to late 2019 for this age group.)
Practice Locations and Times
Field space will be available in the Chantilly/Centreville Virginia area for practices.
Practice dates and times will be posted as soon as available. Initial practices will start in mid/late April.
Tryout Dates
Tryouts will be held in late April 7th and April 28th with practices starting soon after. All kids interested are welcome to try out. You do NOT have to be a CYA player. There are a limited number of slots available, as we want to keep teams at a manageable size so the boys get adequate playing time. Tryout dates and tryout registration will be finalized soon.
Practices (To be announced)
Expected Tournaments
First tournaments will be in June/July 2019.
Even though Gorilla Lacrosse is a part of CYA, financially it is a stand-alone program and needs to be self-sufficient. Being part of CYA Lacrosse allows us to leverage lower costs and provide easier administration. However, all fees are final. We do not offer refunds once committed.
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Spreadsheet Program Definition and Uses
Animation & Video
How To Software
Ted French
by Ted French
A spreadsheet expert who is a master at Excel and Google Sheets.
Initially, a spreadsheet was, and can still be, a sheet of paper used to store and display financial data.
An electronic spreadsheet program is an interactive computer application such as Excel, OpenOffice Calc, or Google Sheets that mimics a paper spreadsheet.
As with the paper version, this type of application is used for storing, organizing, and manipulating data, but it also has a number of built-in features and tools, such as functions, formulas, charts, and data analysis tools that make it easier to work with and maintain large amounts of data.
In Excel and other current applications, individual spreadsheet files are referred to as worksheets or workbooks.
Spreadsheet File Organization
When you look at a spreadsheet program on screen - as seen in the image above - you see a rectangular table or grid of rows and columns. The horizontal rows are identified by numbers (1,2,3) and the vertical columns with letters of the alphabet (A, B, C). For columns beyond 26, columns are identified by two or more letters such as AA, AB, AC.
The intersection point between a column and a row is a small rectangular box known as a cell. A cell is for storing data in the spreadsheet. Each cell can hold a single value or item of data.
A collection of rows and columns of cells form a worksheet — which refers to a single page or sheet in a workbook.
Because a worksheet contains thousands of cells, each is given a cell reference or cell address to identify it. The cell reference is a combination of the column letter and the row number such as A3, B6, AA345.
So, to put it all together, a spreadsheet program, such as Excel, is used to create workbook files that contain one or more worksheets containing columns and rows of data storing cells.
Data Types, Formulas, and Functions
The types of data that a cell can hold include numbers and text.
Formulas are one of the key features of spreadsheet software and are used for calculations – usually involving data contained in other cells. Spreadsheet programs include a number of built-in formulas called functions that can be used to carry out a variety of common and complex tasks.
Storing Financial Data in a Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is often used to store financial data. Formulas and functions that can be used on financial data include:
Performing basic mathematical operations such as summing columns and rows of figures.
Finding values such as profit or loss.
Calculating repayment plans for loans or mortgages.
Finding the average, maximum, or minimum values in a specified range of data.
Other Uses for an Electronic Spreadsheet
Other common operations that a spreadsheet can be used for include:
Graphing or charting data to assist users in identifying data trends.
Sorting and filtering data to find specific information.
Although spreadsheets are used extensively for data storage, they do not have the same capabilities for structuring or querying data as do full-fledged database programs.
Information stored in a spreadsheet file can also be incorporated into electronic presentations, web pages, or printed off in report form.
The Original "Killer App"
Spreadsheets were the original killer apps for personal computers. Early spreadsheet programs, such as VisiCalc (released in 1979) and Lotus 1-2-3 (released in 1983), were largely responsible for the growth in popularity of computers like the Apple II and the IBM PC as business tools.
The first version of Microsoft Excel was released in 1985 and ran only on Macintosh computers. Because it was designed for the Mac, it included a graphical user interface that included pulled down menus and point and click capabilities using a mouse. It wasn't until 1987 that the first Windows version (Excel 2.0) was released.
Great Tips for Entering Data into Excel
How to Select Rows, Columns, or Worksheets in Excel
Learn What MS Excel Does Plus
Learn How to Group in Excel to Focus on the Data That Matters
Protect your data!
Spreadsheet Cells: What They Are and How They're Used
Here Are Easy Instructions on How to Create a Drop-Down List in Excel
How Are Worksheets and Workbooks Used in Excel?
Cell References - Relative, Absolute, and Mixed
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Learn Excel With This Step-by-Step Basic Tutorial
Discover How to Select a Range in Excel Worksheets
Here are the Basic Excel 2013 Screen Elements
Discerning the Different Types of Spreadsheet Data in Excel
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Top 10 Facts About Groundhog Day Movie You Never Knew Despite Multiple Viewings
Always Amaze to Watch.
Groundhog Day Movie – Imagine spending the same day of your life over and over again. How would you feel? What would you do if you find yourself in this situation? The cult-comedy Groundhog Day movie featuring Bill Murray attempts to explore this theme and emerges as an ultimate feel-good movie exploring the real meaning of life.
Related: Easter.
If you live in the states, it is highly unlikely you have not watched this film yet. Celebrating Groundhog Day on February 2 has almost become synonymous with repeat viewings of this movie even though people may eagerly await the prediction of Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania.
No matter how many times you have watched it, you’ll be surprised to know these top 10 behind-the-scenes facts about Groundhog Day movie:
1. Bill Murray was not the original choice for the lead role
Although the director Harold Ramis had worked with Bill Murray many times before this movie, he never considered him to play the lead role in Groundhog Day. He had offered the role to Tom Hanks initially who had to reject it as he was busy filming Sleepless in Seattle.
2. Originally the director planned to have the lead character stuck in one day for 10000 years!
Nobody knows exactly for how long Phil was stuck on Groundhog Day in the movie. However, its director had revealed that he was there for 10 years but originally they had planned for 10000 years!
3. A family of six groundhogs was raised just for the film production
To give an authentic look to the movie, the production crew also had an animal trainer who raised a family of six groundhog babies for the filming process. You can even see him in the movie as the wrangler who hoists the groundhog in the ceremony.
4. Bill Murray was bitten twice by the groundhog rodent during the shooting of the film
The lead actor of the Groundhog Day movie, Bill Murray has had to go through his fair share of injury while shooting for the film. The groundhog had bitten him twice during the entire process. It happened while shooting for the scene where he let the groundhog drive a car.
5. A crowd of nearly 30,000 people attended the real ceremony after the release of movie
When the movie released in 1992, it immediately showed signs of attaining a cult status although critics at that time did not consider it a classic. The impact of the movie became clear when 30000 people began attending the real Groundhog Day ceremony that takes place at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney.
6. One brother of Bill Murray also appears in the Groundhog Day movie
Brian Doyle-Murray who is one of the five brothers of Bill Murray also appeared in a cameo in Groundhog Day movie. He played the role of a Groundhog official at the ceremony.
7. Groundhog Day truly attained a classic status in 2006 when it was added US National Film Registry in the Library of Congress
In 2006, Groundhog Day became one of those evergreen movies that are considered “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. It was added to the reputed Library of Congress merely 13 years after its release.
8. The idea of the Groundhog Day movie was inspired from The Gay Science
German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche had called The Gay Science “the most personal of all [his] books”. It was based on the life of a man who lives same day again and again. Writers of Groundhog Day movie took inspiration from this book.
9. Late director Harold Ramis and Bill Murray never spoke to each other after this movie
Yes, as shocking as it may sound now, but Groundhog Day movie was the last outing of Ramis and Murray together. They frequently had arguments on the set throughout the shooting due to differences in their ideology about the movie theme. Ramis wanted it to be a comedy film whereas Murray wanted a philosophical touch to it.
10. The movie was never shot at the real place of ceremony in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
You might be under the assumption that the movie was shot at the real location. However, it is not true as the shooting took place in Woodstock, Illinois. Coincidentally, the place was situated around 45 miles from the real birthplace of Bill Murray.
It is hard to find a person who does not like the Groundhog Day movie. It is not just a comedy drama but also has a deep, spiritual significance that has made it the favorite topic of many religious discussions. The above trivia and facts will surely make it even more interesting to watch the movie again on February 2 this year.
Depending upon, whether Phil sees its shadow or not on the Groundhog Day, you may even feel like watching these Easter movies on the loop to get into the spirit of spring early.
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New $13.5M medical facility opens in Genoa Township
The new $13.5 million Ascension Medical Center in Genoa Township opened with fanfare and festivities Friday
New $13.5M medical facility opens in Genoa Township The new $13.5 million Ascension Medical Center in Genoa Township opened with fanfare and festivities Friday Check out this story on livingstondaily.com: http://ldpaa.com/2pPegAp
Laura Colvin, Livingston Daily Published 5:26 p.m. ET May 5, 2017 | Updated 11:15 a.m. ET May 6, 2017
Mammography technician, Cassandra Carter, left, chats with Imaging Services Manager, Jennifer Valenti near Ascension Medical Center's 3-D mammography unit during an open house May 5, 2017.(Photo: Jim Jagdfeld for the Livingston Daily)
The new $13.5 million Ascension Medical Center in Genoa Township opened with fanfare and festivities Friday as stakeholders from around the community heard from dignitaries, rubbed elbows and toured the facility.
The 60,000-square-foot outpatient center at 1225 S. Latson Road – on the northeast corner of the Interstate 96 interchange – offers family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics.
Genoa Township Supervisor Bill Rogers said the facility was “impressive” and believes it will not only provide needed services, but will also bring additional growth to the community.
“I think it’s going to be a great boon for the whole area,” Rogers said, noting new development anticipated with the completion of the Latson Road interchange is beginning to materialize. “We could become a nice medical hub; when you see something like this, with substantial class and professionalism, things tend to migrate around that.”
The new facility specializes in cardiology, pulmonology, and audiology; other services include lab, physical therapy, and occupational health and diagnostic imaging – including 3-D mammography.
During Friday’s self-guided tours, St. John Providence Ambulatory Imaging Manager Maureen Gorman talked with visitors about the importance of medical technology, which, she said, is state-of-the art at the new Ascension Medical Center.
The new Ascension Medical Center, located at 1225 S. Latson Road in Genoa Township, opened May 5, 2017. (Photo: Laura Colvin/Livingston Daily)
For example, the center’s 3-D mammography detects 41% more invasive breast cancers and reduces false positives by 40%.
“I know, I am a breast cancer survivor,” Gorman said, noting she lost her mother to breast cancer and opted in 2015 for a 3-D mammogram. “For me, it was detected very early – it would not have been found in the 2-D (mammography), and would have been stage-1 the next year.”
Today, she is cancer free.
“I’ve been on a soapbox ever since,” she said. “It’s incredible technology. I’m good to go.”
The facility also includes an urgent care open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The three-story center sits on the former site of Latson Road Elementary, which was closed in 2011 to make way for the Latson Road interchange; the school was torn down in 2014 before St. John Providence purchased the property.
"I want to give special recognition to our friends in the Howell Public Schools," said Jean Meyer, president and CEO of St. John Providence. "I assure you, we’ll continue the heritage of community service on this site.
"I hope this medical center will be a place of healing and wellness for the children and families of those who attended that school over the past many, many years," she added.
Several teachers and other staff from the school were in attendance at the grand opening.
“We were all sad to see that school close,” said Shirley Sechrist, a longtime teacher at the school. “It was really, really hard.”
“But (the new center) is much better than having a department store built here,” added Lorrie Urban, also a longtime teacher at Latson Road Elementary. “We were always trying to reach those kids and teach those kids, so it’s nice to have another form of care here.”
Technician Antoniette Brown explains the workings of the low-dose x-ray machine to Mike Fleetham of Medcraft Healthcare Real Estate, project developers during an open house at Ascension medical Center in Genoa Township on Friday, May 5, 2017. Brown’s son attended Latson Road Elementary, which formerly sat on the site, some 17 years ago. (Photo: Jim Jagdfeld for the Livingston Daily)
Ascension is the parent company to St. John Providence, with Crittenton, Genesys Health and other health facilities also under the Catholic organization’s umbrella. The new center in Genoa is the first in Michigan to use the Ascension name as the organization undergoes a rebranding process.
Ascension operates 15 hospitals and hundreds of related healthcare facilities in Michigan that together employ more than 27,000 associates.
Visit Ascension Medical Center's website, and see a time-lapse video of the center's construction, at stjohnprovidence.org/howell.
Contact reporter Laura Colvin at 517-552-2848 or lcolvin@livingstondaily.com
Read or Share this story: http://ldpaa.com/2pPegAp
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https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Chick-Fil-A-employee-accused-of-threatening-a-13819648.php
Chick-Fil-A employee accused of threatening a co-worker
By César Rodriguez, LMTonline.com / Laredo Morning Times
Updated 4:46 pm CDT, Saturday, May 4, 2019
Johnny Joe Gonzalez, 25, was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat.
Photo: /
An employee of a Chick-Fil-A in north Laredo has been arrested for allegedly threatening a co-worker.
Johnny Joe Gonzalez, 25, was arrested on an arrest warrant that charged him with making a terroristic threat. He remained behind bars as of Friday afternoon, Webb County Jail records show.
The case unfolded April 24 when a harassment report was filed at Chick-Fil-A, 2460 Monarch Drive. An employee identified as Gonzalez insulted a co-worker while they were in the restroom, according to LPD.
Gonzalez was then asked to leave. But he returned about 30 minutes later and threatened another employee before leaving the establishment, according to police.
Crimes against persons investigators took over the case and later obtained a warrant for Gonzalez’s arrest.
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Growing Number in High-Deductible Plans
The CDC says that 28.8 million Americans had no health insurance in the first half of 2017. That’s not all that different from the same period last year, when 28.6 million Americans lacked health insurance. The federal data also show that 19.8 million more Americans had insurance in the first six months of 2017 than in 2010, when Obamacare was signed into law.
However, according to the Washington Examiner, the report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics also shows that the percentage of people enrolling in high-deductible plans has gone up. For Americans younger than 65, the share of people with private health insurance in a high-deductible plan increased from 39.4% in 2016 to 42.9% in 2017.
HSAs Surge, Leaving HRAs in a Niche July 24, 2015
Fewer Moving Into the Uninsured Ranks September 13, 2016
Report: March of Rising Health Care Costs Has Slowed, but Pace Is Still Unsustainable June 15, 2017
States’ Transparency Rules Fall Short of Members’ Needs July 28, 2012
HDHPs: Cost Shift but No Swing to High-Value Care June 3, 2018
de Brantes misses mark about infant and maternal mortality
Fun Factor Added
By Peter Wehrwein
First Encounters of the QALY Kind
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Police beat: Police take reports of rape, kidnapping, assault
Marion Police Department and Marion County Sheriff's Office receive reports of rape, kidnapping, assault and theft.
Police beat: Police take reports of rape, kidnapping, assault Marion Police Department and Marion County Sheriff's Office receive reports of rape, kidnapping, assault and theft. Check out this story on marionstar.com: http://ohne.ws/2tNzYYe
From Public Records Published 2:02 p.m. ET July 4, 2017
File photo(Photo: Journal & Courier)
MARION POLICE DEPARTMENT
Police responded to a report of forcible rape.
A 32-year-old man reported a $4,000 ATV stolen in the 900 block of Adams Street.
Police responded to a report of breaking and entering at a garage or shed in Lincoln Park.
A 30-year-old man was arrested at the Tri-County Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and taken to the Multi-County Correctional Center on an active warrant. He was wanted on a charge of felony theft.
Police responded to an attempted suicide in the 200 block of West Center Street.
A 38-year-old man reported tools and audio equipment stolen from his home in the 600 block of North Greenwood Street. Among the items reported stolen were a $300 trim gun, a $250 drill, an $800 chop saw, a $300 amp and $700 worth of speakers.
A 25-year-old man was arrested at Olney and Bellefontaine avenues for suspicion of endangering children and possessing drug abuse instruments, both misdemeanors, and of felony drug abuse.
A 30-year-old woman reported a kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl in the 300 block of Executive Drive.
A 46-year-old man reported a $1,500 trailer stolen from the 100 block of North Grand Avenue.
A 45-year-old woman was arrested in the 500 block of Polk Street for suspicion of felony drug abuse.
A 50-year-old man was arrested for suspicion of felony domestic violence in the 200 block of Silver Street.
A 35-year-old woman reported a theft in the 100 block of Reed Avenue. Among the items she reported stolen were $350 in cash, a $150 iPod touch, a $100 mini iPod, an $80 pair of Air Jordan shoes and $50 in miscellaneous women’s clothing.
A 26-year-old man reported a theft from his yard in the 1000 block of Barbados Avenue. He reported that a $1,200 riding lawnmower and a $600 trailer were stolen.
Police responded to reports of felonious assault in the 500 block of East Center Street.
MARION COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Deputies responded to a report that a firearm was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in the 2900 block of Smeltzer Road.
A 48-year-old woman reported $266 and other items stolen from three unlocked vehicles in Green Camp. Also reported stolen were a pair of sunglasses, a backpack and an employee access badge.
Deputies responded to a report that a firearm was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in the 900 block of Somerlot Hoffman Road.
Deputies arrested a 22-year-old man after they allegedly found him using cocaine in a bathroom at the Wal-Mart in Marion. He was arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine, a felony, and illegally using or possessing drug paraphernalia and possessing drug abuse instruments, both misdemeanors.
Deputies responded to a report of a theft from a vehicle in the 7000 block of Prospect-Dublin Road. A laptop was reported stolen.
A 43-year-old man was arrested during a traffic stop in the 800 block of Toulon Avenue in Marion. The man was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, driving under suspension and speeding, all misdemeanors.
Deputies arrested a 24-year-old La Rue man after they allegedly found him in a fight at a party in the 100 block of North Section Street in La Rue. The man was arrested on one count of disorderly conduct and four counts of endangering children.
Read or Share this story: http://ohne.ws/2tNzYYe
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MarketScreener Homepage > Equities > TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE > Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd CA86277F8468
STRATEGIC OIL & GAS LTD
End-of-day quote TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE - 04/18
0.015 CAD -25.00%
05/07 Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Receives ASC Cease Trade Order
05/07 STRATEGIC OIL & GAS : IIROC Trading Halt - SOG.H
04/16 STRATEGIC OIL & GAS : IIROC Trading Resumption - SOG.H
Summary Charts News Calendar Company
News Summary Most relevant All news Official Publications Sector news
Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Files for Creditor Protection Under the CCAA
04/10/2019 | 06:25pm EDT
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 10, 2019) - Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Strategic Transmission Ltd. (TSXV: SOG) (collectively, "Strategic" or the "Company") announces that it has obtained creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") pursuant to an Order granted by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (the "Court") dated April 10, 2019.
As a result of the Company's working capital deficit, limited cash flows from operating activities and current inability to access capital markets, and after careful consideration of all other available alternatives, the Board of Directors of Strategic determined that it was in the best interests of the Company and its stakeholders to obtain creditor protection under the CCAA. The Court has appointed of KPMG Inc. as the monitor ("Monitor") to oversee the CCAA proceedings and report to the Court.
During the CCAA proceedings, it is expected that every day obligations to employees, key suppliers of goods and services and the Company's customers will, subsequent to the filing date, continue to be met. While under CCAA protection, management of the Company will remain responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Company under the general oversight of the Monitor. The Company intends to seek approval to initiate a sale and investment solicitation process ("SISP") to be conducted in conjunction with the CCAA proceedings, intended to generate interest in the business and/or the assets of the Company, with the goal of maximizing value for all stakeholders.
Further news releases will be provided on an ongoing basis throughout the CCAA process as may be determined necessary.
About Strategic Oil & Gas
Strategic is a junior oil and gas company with operated light oil assets, primarily in northern Alberta. Strategic's primary operating area is at Marlowe, Alberta.
Tony Berthelet
President & Chief Executive Officer
Aaron Thompson
Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd.
1100, 645 7th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2P 4G8
This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding meeting obligations to customers, suppliers and employees, management of the Company under the Monitor's oversight and the initiation and outcome of a SISP process, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.
The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. These factors include, but are not limited to, commodity prices, need for additional funding and availability of such funding, economic conditions, currency fluctuations, competition and regulatory changes. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law.
The TSXV has in no way passed on the merits of this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44019
© Newsfilecorp 2019
Latest news on STRATEGIC OIL & GAS LTD
04/15 Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Announces Transfer to NEX and Director Resignations
04/11 STRATEGIC OIL & GAS : IIROC Trading Halt - SOG
04/10 Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Files for Creditor Protection Under the CCAA
03/08 STRATEGIC OIL & GAS : Provides Financing Update
03/07 Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Provides Financing Update
02/27 Strategic Oil & Gas Ltd. Announces Year-End 2018 Reserves and Capital Program..
01/01 STRATEGIC OIL & GAS : Libra Advisors, LLC Acquires Common Shares of Strategic Oi..
Chart STRATEGIC OIL & GAS LTD
Tony Berthelet President, Chief Executive Officer & Director
Thomas Eugene Claugus Non-Executive Chairman
Amanda Reitenbach Vice President-Development & Operations
Aaron L. Thompson Chief Financial Officer
John W. Harkins Independent Director
STRATEGIC OIL & GAS LTD -66.67% 14
CNOOC LTD 8.22% 76 837
CONOCOPHILLIPS -4.17% 69 461
EOG RESOURCES INC. -0.24% 52 717
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION -15.88% 37 744
ANADARKO PETROLEUM 66.79% 36 163
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Law Enforcement Accountability
Become a Citizen Co-Sponsor of the Homeless & Supportive Housing Task Force
Xavier Becerra for California Attorney General
Posted by Mark Ridley-Thomas 87pc on May 18, 2018
Proud to support my friend Xavier Becerra as he stepped up to become California's Attorney General, and proud to endorse him for re-election now.
After Kamala Harris's election to the U.S. Senate, Governor Brown appointed Xavier Becerra to fill her shoes as our state Attorney General. He has done a fine job leading the resistance to Trump in California, and across the country. Xavier has filed over two dozen lawsuits, on every issue that matters to Californians from immigration to health care and environmental policy. He is standing up for us, and standing up to Trump every day.
Xavier Becerra has also made history as California's first Latino Attorney General. He's the son of working class Mexican immigrants, and became the first in his family to graduate from college. He has not forgotten his roots, and continues to fight for working Californians every day.
Xavier has served the public for more than two decades, as a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice from 1987 to 1990, then elected to the state assembly in 1990 and going on to serve in Congress until last year. He now fights for us in Sacramento as Attorney General.
"Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Tell me with whom you walk, and I’ll tell you who you are." I am proud to walk with Xavier Becerra.
Privacy | Rules | Contact
© Mark Ridley-Thomas ID #1376007
Developed by PowerThru. Created with NationBuilder.
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MMS Workshop: Comprehensive Sexuality Education
Sep 28, 2017 / Bern, Swiss Red Cross, Rainmattstrasse 10
Let’s dig deep into this topic together with Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli (WHO)
Medicus Mundi Switzerland
Sexual and reproductive ill-health is a major contribution to the burden of disease among young people. The right of access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is grounded in fundamental human rights. The objective of CSE is to ensure that young people can build their knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to responsibly enjoy their sexuality – physically and emotionally, individually and in relationships. It empowers young people to protect their health, well-being and dignity. There is clear evidence that CSE has a positive impact on sexual and reproductive health (SRH), notably contributing towards reducing sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and unintended pregnancy.
Photo: © Edm (El Salvador)
MMS Member organisations from the SRHR group expressed their desire to increase their knowledge and understanding about the current situation related to CSE:
What are the latest guidelines/ standard /concepts with regards to CSE?
What are the current best practices in the area of sexuality education?
How can they be adapted to different context?
Time: 9:15am – 12:15pm (approx. 3 h)
Please register by emailing to Mira Gardi (MMS): mgardi@medicusmundi.ch
Moderators: Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli (WHO) and Andréa Rajman (MMS)
We have the pleasure to learn from Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO.
Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli works on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) in the World Health Organization’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research. With over 25 years of experience, he focuses on building the evidence base on ASRH, and supporting countries to translate this evidence into action through well-conceived and well-managed policies and programmes.
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Hospital-Based Medicine > Hospitalists
Healthcare Spending Grows but at Slower Rate
by Emily P. Walker Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today January 05, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Healthcare spending in 2008 grew at its slowest rate in nearly 50 years, largely because of investment losses sustained by hospitals in the Wall Street meltdown -- but even with growth slowed, healthcare spending continued to account for a significant slice of the economy, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Healthcare spending grew at a rate of 4.4% in 2008, down from 6.1% in 2007, wrote CMS statistician Micah Hartman in the January issue of Health Affairs.
Real money, however, is still being spent on healthcare -- a whopping $2.3 trillion, or $7,681 per person in 2008. And health spending accounted for a larger share of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 than it did in 2007 -- 16.2% compared with 15.9%.
The slowdown in growth of spending is attributable to slower growth in spending on nearly all healthcare goods and services. This trend was especially evident in the hospital sector, which increased at its slowest rate since 1998, totaling about $718 billion in 2008.
CMS researchers cited losses on investments as the major factor contributing to the slowdown in hospital spending.
Private funding for hospitals decreased 20% in just one year, according to the report. Hospitals also saw a drop in other revenue sources as well, from philanthropic donations to cafeteria sales and parking lot fees.
Unemployment also had a dampening effect on healthcare spending, Hartman said in a call with reporters. As unemployment rose and income dropped, consumers were more reluctant to spend on medical goods and services.
Household spending on healthcare grew at a rate of 4.3% in 2008, compared with a 5.9% growth rate in 2007. But, here again, despite the slowdown, spending on healthcare goods still outpaced personal income growth.
Physicians took a hit in 2008 as the rate of spending on physician services dropped by almost a percentage point, down to 5% from 5.8% the previous year.
About half of physicians reported seeing fewer patients since the recession began, according to a recent survey cited in the Health Affairs article. Interestingly, while volume has decreased, rates of use and intensity of physician services have actually increased by 2% in 2008, suggesting that fewer patients are receiving more expensive treatments.
Rich Foster, chief actuary at CMS, speculated that the sinking employment rates of 2008 left many without an employer's health plan and unwilling to pay out-of-pocket for a doctor's visit to treat a minor illness. Instead, the unemployed might have chosen to go to the doctor only for a severe illness, which could account for an increase in the intensity of services provided in physician's offices and clinics.
Foster said he doubts that physicians are increasing their fees in order to offset a shrinking patient base.
"I don't think it's so much that physicians are saying 'We're losing business, let's charge a higher price for services,' as much as it might be the services that people need healthcare for tend to be the more complicated, more expensive ones," Foster told reporters.
Not surprisingly, prescription drugs were also a major driver of healthcare spending in 2008, although the rate of spending on drugs also slowed in 2008 possibly as the result of the increased number of generic versions of pricey brand-name drugs coming to market.
In 2008, the rate of distribution for generic drugs grew 2 percentage points, from 67 to 69 percent, said Olivia Nuccio, an economist at CMS and co-author of the report.
Also to blame for the drug spending slow-down is the economy: a recent Kaiser poll found 21% of survey respondents did not fill a prescription and 15% split pills or skipped doses because of cost.
Despite the slow rate of growth, the nation managed to spend $230 billion on prescription medication in 2008.
Other findings:
Most of the nation's healthcare dollar goes to hospitals, followed by physician and clinical services, and then prescription drugs.
Federal health spending increased a full percentage point since 2007 to account for 35% of all national health spending in 2008. The increased federal share is due to a decrease in taxes and also due to the stimulus bill passed by Congress in 2009 that retroactively shifted $7 billion in Medicaid funding away from the states and onto federal balance sheets.
Medicare spending increased at a rate of 8.6%; in 2007 it increased at a slower rate of 7.1%. Enrollment in Medicare increased by about 3% in 2008, as more people qualified for the program.
CMS will release its projections for 2009 healthcare spending in February.
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Cahill: One of the proudest moments of my career
Melbourne City FC striker Tim Cahill declared his match-winning performance in the Westfield FFA Cup Final 2016 as “right up there” with one of the proudest moments of his career.
Cahill continued his proclivity for netting match-winning goals, rising highest to meet Ivan Franjic’s cross with a textbook header early in the second half to secure City’s first senior Men’s trophy.
The script was written once again for Cahill to make his mark. So often throughout his career has the Socceroos striker produced for club and country when his team needed him most.
Now with a Westfield FFA Cup winner’s medal hanging proudly around his neck, Cahill encouraged his teammates to build on the historic achievement and use it as a springboard for future success.
"My feelings are pretty amazing,” he said. “Everything we spoke about for the past nine months, leading into this campaign and the FFA Cup... the culture of the club, to bring a winning mentality and a group of guys together.
"When it hit my head - it's the story of my life… people will say he's done it again but that's why I play. I play for moments like that. "Maybe for the other 50 minutes it was difficult to get on the ball and do whatever but that's not my job. My job is to be in the box."
"It's up there with the proudest moments of my career. You can have your wildest dreams... this is nice, it's in Australia, it's where I am from.
"I said I would give it everything, regardless of what people were saying about my age and my body.”
Experience and the ability to perform in big matches are two qualities which Cahill has in abundance, with the striker calling on his teammates to seize the opportunity during a heartfelt pre-match speech.
"Collectively as a group I said to the boys before we went out, you don't get a lot of chances like this in your career," he said.
“For one night only we will play our heart and souls out and give it everything, and when you are cooked put your hand up... I wanted to get the fire out of their bellies."
Cahill paid tribute to the Club’s professionalism and attention to detail which has set the standard for the rest of the competition to match.
"This club is run like a Premier League club. I am there from 8am every morning to 3 in the afternoons....I am so impressed with what we do in the community and with the Womens' team,” he said.
"This football club, we have to win things. Now we have won something, we take this momentum, we regroup; we stay humble, and go again.
"Silverware's silverware - whether people like it or not, Melbourne City have got a trophy and it's a good platform for us now to go on. So this is definitely up there as a massive moment in my career and it's even sweeter that I scored."
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Stability of Naturally Relevant Ternary Phases in the Cu–Sn–S System in Contact with an Aqueous Solution
Agates from Kerrouchen (The Atlas Mountains, Morocco): Textural Types and Their Gemmological Characteristics
MDPI — Minerals
Zhou, G.
Zhang, Q.
Bai, R.
Ni, G.
coal microscopic structure model
pores and throats
visualization of three-dimensional (3D) data cube
seepage simulation of water-injection
Gang Zhou
Qi Zhang
Ruonan Bai
Guanhua Ni
Minerals 2016, 6(3), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6030078
Characterization of Coal Micro-Pore Structure and Simulation on the Seepage Rules of Low-Pressure Water Based on CT Scanning Data
Gang Zhou 1,2,3,* , Qi Zhang 1,2, Ruonan Bai 1,2 and Guanhua Ni 1,2
State Key Laboratory of Mining Disaster Prevention and Control Co-founded by Shandong Province and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
College of Mining and Safety Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Gas and Fire Prevention and Control of Ministry of Education, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
Academic Editor: Kota Hanumantha Rao
Received: 27 April 2016 / Accepted: 20 July 2016 / Published: 26 July 2016
This paper used the X-ray three-dimensional (3D) microscope and acquired, through CT scanning, the 3D data of the long-frame coal sample from the Daliuta Coal Mine. Then, the 3D datacube reconstructed from the coal’s CT scanning data was visualized with the use of Avizo, an advanced visualization software (FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA). By means of a gray-scale segmentation technique, the model of the coal’s micro-pore structure was extracted from the object region, and the precise characterization was then conducted. Finally, the numerical simulation on the water seepage characteristics in the coal micro-pores model under the pressure of 3 MPa was performed on the CFX platform. Results show that the seepage of low-pressure water exhibited preference to the channels with large pore radii, short paths, and short distance from the outlet. The seepage pressure of low-pressure water decreased gradually along the seepage direction, while the seepage velocity of low-pressure water decreased gradually along the direction from the pore center to the wall. Regarding the single-channel seepage behaviors, the seepage velocity and mass flow rate of water seepage in the X direction were the largest, followed by the values of the seepage in the Y direction, and the seepage velocity and mass flow rate of water seepage in the Z direction were the smallest. Compared with the results in single-channel seepage, the dual-channel seepage in the direction of (X + Y) and the multi-channel seepage in the direction of (X + Y + Z) exhibited significant increases in the overall seepage velocity. The present study extends the application of 3D CT scanning data and provides a new idea and approach for exploring the seepage rules in coal micro-pore structures.
CT; coal microscopic structure model; pores and throats; visualization of three-dimensional (3D) data cube; seepage simulation of water-injection
Water injection into coal seams is one of the most significant methods to prevent and deal with rock bursts, coal and gas outbursts, and coal dust. However, coal is a complex porous medium which, besides coal matrix, contains many other components, such as pores, fractures, and minerals. The physical properties and micro-pore structure characteristics of coal components directly affect its macroscopic physical and chemical properties, such as adsorptivity and permeability. A thorough knowledge of these micro-properties provides the basis for the research on the seepage characteristics of water and gas in coal pores [1]. Accordingly, it is particularly important to quantitatively characterize the micro-pore structure with good precision. Computed tomography (CT) has become a dominant technique which is used to investigate the micro-pore structure of coal because of several advantages it offers, such as non-destructive, accurate and quantitative detection, as well as three-dimensional (3D) digitization.
Over the past several years, many researchers conducted a great deal of research on the micro-structure of coal. Van et al. [2] gained in-depth insight into the distribution of minerals, macerals, pores and fractures in coals by using the X-CT technique. Simons et al. [3] made quantitative characterization of coals using the CT reconstruction method, in which the precision of characterization was approximately 53 μm. By means of the CT technique, Mazumder et al. [4] investigated the cleats, pore diameters, and spacing in coal seams, and Golab et al. [5] analyzed the occurrence characteristics of the minerals in coals. With the CT imaging method, Karacan et al. [6] examined the adsorption and migration behaviors of gases in the micro-structure of coal and made corresponding assessments. Mathews et al. [7] used a high-resolution CT technique to observe the thermal drying process of subbituminous coals. By means of the micro-CT technique, Meng et al. [8] conducted a quantitative study on the morphological characteristics of the pore structure of coking coals. Yao et al. [9] adopted a quantitative method to characterize the development degrees and spatial distribution characteristics of pores and cracks in coals of various ranks. Song et al. [10] performed 3D scanning imaging on coal samples of different structures and precisely characterized their seepage pore properties. However, due to the limitation in the accuracy of CT equipment, the precise characterization of coal micro-pore structure still exhibits certain errors and needs to be further improved.
Based on the knowledge of coal micro-pore structure, many scholars further explored the seepage laws in coal pores with certain progress. Coles et al. [11] conducted an in-depth study on the characteristics of adsorption and migration of the gases in coal pores and cracks. Stauffer and Aharony [12] focused on the seepage mechanism in a single porous medium and concluded that the permeability of this porous medium decreases as the number of isolated pore groups increases. Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), Teng [13] and Jin et al. [14] performed simulations on the seepage rules of gas in the coals. Liu et al. [15] established the coupling numerical model of seepage and stress in the media with pores and fractures based on the discrete element method of continuous media. Perera et al. [16] reviewed the effects of coal physical properties and permeability on carbon dioxide sequestration in a coal seam. Despite all of these achievements, there is still a need for comprehensive and thorough understanding of the seepage laws of low-pressure water in coals at the micro-level. Therefore, it is quite necessary to perform scanning and reconstruction on coals using high-precision micro-CT equipment, then construct the coal’s micro-pore structure model and, finally, investigate the seepage rules of pressurized water in coal’s micro-pore structure at the micro-level through simulations.
In this paper, coals were firstly scanned using the high-precision X-ray 3D microscope (Nano Voxel-2000, Sanying Precision Instruments Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China) and the 3D reconstruction of coal was visualized by Avizo software so as to precisely characterize the model of the micro-pore structure of coal. Finally, the simulation on the single-channel, dual-channel, and multi-channel seepage behaviors of low-pressure water was conducted based on the geometric model of coal’s micro-pores. The present study offers a new way towards a deeper understanding of coal’s real micro-pore structure and the seepage rules of pressurized water in coals.
2. Principle of CT Scanning
According to photoelectric effect, when X-ray or γ-ray passes through an object, the incident photons can be absorbed by the object and thereby the incident intensity decreases, i.e., the intensity of X-ray or γ-ray is attenuated. Taking a uniformly-distributed material with a linear attenuation coefficient of μ as an example, when it is irradiated by X-rays with an incident intensity of I0, the attenuation of X-rays by the object obeys the Beer-Lambert law and the following expression can be obtained:
I = I 0 e − μ △ x
where I denotes the intensity of ray attenuated by the object and ∆x denotes the distance the ray travels in the object.
For a mixture or a compound material consisting of more than a single element, the following expression can be obtained:
μ = ∑ i a i μ i
where μi and ai denote the linear attenuation coefficient and mass percentage of the i-th component, respectively. The following expression can be obtained:
I = I 0 e − μ 1 Δ x e − μ 2 Δ x e − μ 3 Δ x … e − μ n Δ x = I 0 e − ∑ i = 1 n μ i Δ x
Equation (3) can further be converted into:
− ln ( I I 0 ) = ln ( I 0 I ) = ∑ i = 1 n μ i Δ x = ∫ L μ i d x
Based on Equation (4), one can find that the linear integral of the material attenuation coefficient along the ray transmission path equals to the logarithm of the ratio of input intensity to output intensity. In CT technology, the image is reconstructed through the calculation of the attenuation coefficient based on the projection data related to the ratio in Equation (4).
3. Coal Sample Processing and CT Scanning
During CT scanning, the layer with a certain thickness is scanned by the X-ray beam, and the transmitted X-ray signal is received by the detector and then transformed into visible light signal; then, the light signal is converted to electrical signal via photovoltaic conversion, which is then converted to a digital signal via the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and input to the computer for processing. CT can detect the internal structure of a material in a non-destructive way and generate high density resolution images of the cross-section. In a word, CT exhibits obvious advantages in investigating the micro-pore structure of coal [17,18,19].
In this paper, the X-ray 3D microscope (Nano Voxel-2000, Sanying Precision Instruments Co., Ltd.) was used for CT scanning, with a resolution up to 0.5 μm. The imaging quality and overall performance of this X-ray 3D microscope have already reached the top level of similar products in the world [20,21]. The equipment can be used for 3D characterization of the internal pore structure of coal and rock at the micro-scale. By using a combination of several types of software for finite-element and discrete-element analysis, such as Avizo, Ansys, COMSOL, EDEM, and Barracuda, the 3D connectivity of the internal pores and throats in the core can be calculated and the statistical results of porosity, pore size, throat size, and various seepage characteristic parameters can be acquired. Figure 1 displays the photograph of the X-ray 3D microscope.
In the present study, a long flame coal sample from the Daliuta Coal Mine, Shenmu County, Shaanxi, was selected, and an ore core with the diameter and length of 2 and 5 mm, respectively, was drilled for further analysis. To avoid the influence of coal shape change induced by water evaporation on the experimental results, the ore core was sealed with wax. After being sealed, the ore core of the coal sample was 3.31 mm in diameter, as shown in Figure 2. Then, the ore core was stuck to the end of a toothpick, placed on the sample stage of the X-ray 3D microscope (which can be rotated by 360°), and fixed by the screw. The main control computer interface was then initiated for adjusting the position of the sample stage to the central position in four dimensions (x, y, z, and r). Then the X-ray source was turned on, and 3D data of the coal sample was acquired viasuper-wide-field scanning. Table 1 lists the specific parameter settings in CT scanning. A 20× lens detector was used, the number of scanning frames was set as 900, i.e., the sample stage was scanned once when it was rotated by 0.4°, and the duration of exposure equaled to the duration of one full rotation of the sample stage. In Table 1, SOD denotes the distance between the X-ray source and the detector, and ODD denotes the distance between the stage sample and the detector.
4. Visualization of the 3D Reconstruction of Coal Sample
It should be noted that the Nano Voxel-2000X-raysystem is equipped with a set of special 3D reconstruction software and algorithms that can directly convert the 2D scanned images to a 3D data cube.
Avizo™ software is a set of all-in-one visual tools and can visually display, process, and interpret engineering and scientific data. Avizo provides powerful data processing ability, and it has an easy-to-use and user-friendly graphical interface. These features allow it to deal with complex 3D data. Avizo also has strong abilities in image information processing, geometry calculation, and reconstruction of high-resolution 3D images. Owing to its particular high-efficiency algorithm, Avizo can accurately reconstruct 3D image based on the data of slices collected by CT equipment, MRT equipment, 3D ultrasonic equipment, and confocal microscope.
In the present study, the used Nano Voxel-2000 system has the resolution of 1 μm × 1 μm × 1 μm. The 3D data acquired by scanning were imported to Avizo software for the visualization of 3D reconstruction, and the digital coal body with the characteristics of real pore structure was then acquired. The voxel size of the digital coal body was 1024 × 1024 × 1024 while the actual size of it was 1.024 mm × 1.024 mm × 1.024 mm. Two profile images on the XY and ZY planes, respectively, were selected for observation. Figure 3a shows four images of the reconstructed 3D model from different angles of view. Figure 3b displays the profile image of the 512th layer on the XY plane and Figure 3c displays the profile image of the 420th layer on the ZY plane.
The profile image on the XY plane was selected for further analysis. One can clearly observe the distribution of organic matter, minerals, and pores, as shown in Figure 4. For more precise characterization of the micro-pore structure of coal, an original profile image on the XY plane was arbitrarily selected, and the part on the yellow border was enlarged, as shown in Figure 5. The pores were marked in black in the originally measured data. To facilitate the identification and analysis of the single pore, the pore image was processed using an image segmentation technique. Figure 6 shows the pore image after such processing, where the pores were marked in white so as to more directly analyze the overall distribution and relative sizes of the pores on each cross-section. The single pore was calibrated and measured with the measurement tool of the software.
5. Construction and Optimization of the Model of Micro-Pore Structure of Coal
High-precision characteristics of the pore resolution lay the basis and provides the guarantee for the construction of the micro-pore structure model based on the actual pore structure. Meanwhile, to reduce the calculation load induced by oversized data in mesh generation and analysis, a data cube with the size of 60 pixel × 60 pixel × 60 pixel was selected in the reconstructed digital coal body, as shown in Figure 7. The actual size of the selected coal body is 60 μm × 60 μm × 60 μm. With the use of the gray-scale segmentation technique, the digital coal body was segmented and the model of the micro-pore structure of coal was acquired, as shown in Figure 8a. Using the option of vertical normal surface optimization in the software, the model of micro-pore structure of coal was optimized and, thus, the pore model with smoother surface was constructed. What still needs to be explained is, here, the optimization is only in terms of visual effects. Figure 9b displays the model of micro-pore structure of coal after the optimization.
Both pore and throat were defined based on the ball-and-stick network model. The maximum ball algorithm was used in this study for the construction of the ball-and-stick model. The specific procedure is described below. For any voxel point in the pore space, the inscribed sphere in this space with the maximum volume whose center is located at this voxel point, is firstly found; accordingly, the pore space is full of these spheres. It should be noted that these spheres overlap with each other and are mutually included. The included small spheres are then deleted, and the remaining spheres are divided into two types—primary spheres and secondary spheres—to describe the pore space. Finally, all of the primary spheres with local maximum volumes can be regarded as the pores while the spheres connecting the adjacent pores are used for characterizing the throats. This algorithm can accurately reflect the structural features of coal’s micro-pore space and, thus, quantitatively characterize the pore’s micro-structural parameters [22].
Figure 9 clearly shows the 3D distribution of the micro-pore structure of coal, from which we can observe that the channels of pores were extended in a complicated manner and the pores with different sizes exhibit local differences along different directions; additionally, most of the pores were formed horizontally and only a minority of pores were formed vertically. In order to gain in-depth knowledge of the microscopic size of the micro-pore model, the ball-and-stick model was developed using the digital core analysis software Sypicore provided by Nano Voxel-2000, and then the statistics on the coal’s micro-structural parameters was conducted using the ’MEASURE’ function of Avizo. The results indicate that the number of pores in this micro-pore model was 219, the maximum pore radius was 4.36 μm, the maximum pore volume was 3336 μm3, the mean pore radius was 1.17 μm, the mean pore volume was 124.23 μm3, and the bulk porosity was 15.47 % (including all of the pores, throats, and fractures). Table 2 lists the qualitative analysis results of the throat size.
The acquired pore-structure model was imported into ICEM CFD software (ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA) for further optimization. The model was meshed through high-quality mesh generation and set with boundary conditions. Accordingly, the single-channel and multi-channel seepage characteristics of low-pressure water in the model of the micro-pore structure of coal can be simulated. Specifically, the optimization process included three steps: the repair of the micro-pore structure model (i.e., to delete the redundant points, lines and surfaces, within the allowable tolerance of 0.05), the segmentation of islands (here, the islands refer to the pore geometries that were not connected to the maximum pore connected cluster and existed independently in the micro-pore model, while the maximum pore connected cluster refers to the portion with the greatest connected volume in the coal micro-pore model) and the deletion of islands, as shown in Figure 9a–c, respectively. The segmentation of islands was achieved using the setting of ‘break by connectivity’ on the micro-pore model. Figure 9 displays the whole process of the optimization of coal micro-pore model and mesh generation on the ICEM platform.
Due to the irregularity of coal pore structure, the global automatic mesh generation was firstly adopted; then the quality of meshes was checked and the low-quality meshes were deleted (i.e., the meshes with the quality lower than 0.4). After being repaired, the meshes were checked, and the irrelevant mesh points were deleted, through which the grid quality was further enhanced.
6. Simulation on the Seepage Characteristics of Low-Pressure Water in Coal Micro-Pore Structure Model
In this section, using CFX software, the numerical simulation on the characteristics of single-channel and multi-channel seepage was performed for low-pressure water in a coal micro-pore structure model. The simulation was based on the transient Navier-Stokes Equation, in which a k-epsilon standard turbulence model was adopted and the fluid was set as water at room temperature, in terms of material property. In addition, the inlet pressure was set as 3.1 MPa and the outlet pressure was set as 0.1 MPa. For a coal micro-pore structure model, the characteristics of single-channel, dual-channel, and multi-channel seepage were simulated both separately in three directions (X, Y, and Z) and comprehensively in the combined directions.
6.1. Numerical Simulations on Single-Channel Seepage Characteristics Along the X, Y, and Z Directions
Figure 10 and Figure 11 display the distributions of pressure and seepage velocity subject tolow-pressure water along a single-channel in X, Y, and Z directions.
One can observe that, although the pressure drops in three directions (X, Y, and Z) are identical (∆P = 3 MPa), the 3D distributions of the single-channel seepage pressure fields in three directions are different to a certain extent. This is because of the local differences in the shape, size, and connectivity, as well as the permeability of the pore channels. To be specific, one can observe that, along the water seepage direction, the pressure decreased gradually and the maximum pressure was present at the narrow pore near the inlet; at the narrow pore where water flowed, the pressure varied the fastest and decreased as a whole (generally, the pressure firstly decreased and then increased), which is mainly due to the fact that the pore channel bent sharply and its diameter decreased rapidly.
Figure 11 displays the overall velocity distributions of the single-channel water seepage in X, Y, and Z directions. Then, different sections at different positions along the axis directions (i.e., x = 0, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 μm; y = 0, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 μm; z = 0, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 μm, respectively, in which x, y, and z denote the distances from the inlet section) were selected, and the water seepage velocity distributions of different sections were acquired and shown in Figure 12, Figure 13 and Figure 14.
As shown in Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13 and Figure 14, under the same pressure drops along the three directions (X, Y, and Z), the single-channel seepage velocity distribution along three directions were different due to the differences in the distribution of seepage water pressure, as well as the connectivity and permeability of pore channels. The primary conclusions are as follows:
In the maximum pore-connected cluster, although all the pores were connected with each other, the seepage of low-pressure water was observed in only a few pores. The seepage of low-pressure water firstly selected the paths with large pore radii, short paths, and shorter distances from the outlet.
In terms of the seepage in a single pore channel, the seepage velocity of low-pressure water decreased in the direction from the pore center to pore wall until it became zero. In terms of the whole micro-pore structure, the maximum seepage velocity appeared in the center region where water seepage was fully developed. The maximum velocities of the single-channel water seepage in the X and Y directions were up to 75.3 and 64.4 m/s, respectively; in the Z direction, in spite of the gravity effect, the maximum seepage velocity still reached 39.2 m/s. Overall, at the micro-scale, the seepage velocity of low-pressure water in a single-channel was relatively large, with the minimum value near the pore wall where the low-pressure water passed through.
At different sections, the maximum seepage velocity appeared at the center of the small pore channel of the section where the water flowed. Moreover, the water seepage velocity increased as the pore radius and bending degree decreased.
6.2. Pressure, Seepage Velocity, and Mass Flow Rate of Single-Channel Seepage at Different Sections
In order to gain an in-depth insight into the rules of single-channel water seepage in X, Y, and Z directions, several sections at different positions along the axes (i.e., x = 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 and 60 μm; y = 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 and 60 μm; and z = 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 and 60 μm, respectively, in which x, y and z denote the distances from the inlet section) were selected for further analyses. Figure 15, Figure 16 and Figure 17 show the mean seepage pressure, mean seepage velocity, and mean mass flow rate at different sections.
As shown in Figure 15, the mean seepage pressure at different sections along different directions (X, Y, and Z) exhibited similar trend and range of variation, i.e., the average seepage pressure at each section decreased gradually as the distance from the seepage inlet section increased.
As shown in Figure 16, during the single-channel water seepage processes along the X, Y, and Z directions, the mean seepage velocity at each section gradually decreased as a whole, with the increase of the distance from the seepage inlet. However, at three different sections (i.e., 12–18 μm, 42–48 μm, and 48–54 μm, respectively), the mean seepage velocities exhibited obvious fluctuations. To be specific, in the X direction, the mean seepage velocity increased significantly at the 12–18 μm section, increased slightly at the 42–48 μm section, and decreased sharply at the 48–54 μm section; in the Y direction, the mean seepage velocity decreased notably at the 12–18 μm section, increased greatly at the 42–48 μm section, and decreased sharply in the 48–54 μm section; and in the Z direction, the mean seepage velocity decreased significantly in the 12–18 μm and 42–48 μm sections, and increased greatly in the 48–54 μm section. Through comparison and analysis, it can be concluded that the variation trend of seepage velocity in the Z direction was basically contrary to those in the other two directions. Additionally, the mean seepage velocity in the X direction was the largest, followed by that in the Y direction, and the mean seepage velocity in the Z direction was the smallest, which can also reflect the local difference in permeability.
As shown in Figure 17, the mean mass flow rate during the single-channel seepage processes in the X, Y, and Z directions reached the maxima at the inlet, then decreased gradually, and finally stabilized. The variation trend of mean mass flow rate was similar to that of mean seepage velocity. The mean mass flow rate decreased as a whole; moreover, the mean mass flow rate in the X direction was the largest, followed by the Y direction, and the mean mass flow rate in the Z direction was the smallest. In the Z direction, the mean seepage velocity and mean mass flow rate were influenced by gravity to a great extent.
6.3. Numerical Simulation on Seepage Characteristics of Dual-Channel and Multi-Channel Seepage
Firstly, we should explain the meanings of dual-channel and multi-channel seepages. The former refers to the water injection along the positive directions of X and Y simultaneously and the latter refers to the water injection along the positive directions of X, Y, and Z simultaneously. In this study, the direction of dual-channel is denoted as (X + Y) while the direction of multi-channel is denoted as (X + Y + Z), respectively.
Numerical simulation was performed to further investigate the dual-channel and multi-channel seepage characteristics of low-pressure water in the coal at micro-scale. X and Y directions (i.e., the positive direction of (X + Y)) were both selected for dual-channel simulation while the X, Y, and Z directions (i.e., the positive direction of (X + Y + Z)) were all selected for multi-channel simulation. Figure 18 and Figure 19 display the flow conditions and velocity distribution of dual-channel and multi-channel seepage.
As shown in Figure 18, compared with the results in single-channel water seepage in the direction of X or Y, the seepage velocity of low-pressure water in dual-channel water seepage in the direction of (X + Y) increased significantly, with the maximum seepage velocity up to 89.6 m/s. Due to the effect of water pressure in Y direction, 92.36% of water flow that entered the coal sample in the X direction would flow through the pressure outlet in Y direction. Similarly, due to the effect of water pressure in the X direction, 90.17% of water flow that entered the coal sample in the Y direction would flow through the pressure outlet in the X direction.
As shown in Figure 19, compared with the simulation results of single-channel water seepage in X, Y, or Z directions, the seepage velocity of low-pressure water in multi-channels in the direction of (X + Y + Z) increased significantly, with the maximum seepage velocity up to 140.2 m/s. Due to the effect of water pressure in the Y and Z directions, 97.29% of water flow that entered the coal sample in the X direction would flow through the pressure outlet in the Y and Z directions. Similarly, due to the effect of water pressure in the X and Z directions, 95.24% of water flow that entered the coal sample in the Y direction would flow through the pressure outlet in the X and Z directions. Due to the effects of gravity and water pressure in the X and Y directions, most of the water flow that entered the coal sample in Z direction would exit from the pressure outlets in the X and Y directions after it flows just a certain distance in the Z direction.
Compared with the results in dual-channel water seepage along the direction of (X + Y), the seepage paths and velocities in multi-channel water seepage along the direction of (X + Y + Z) exhibited significant differences. Due to the effect of water pressure in Z direction, the paths of multi-channel seepage in X and Y directions were significantly shortened compared with the dual-channel seepage path in the direction of (X + Y), but the overall seepage velocities along their respective directions were multiplied compared with the dual-channel seepage velocity in the direction of (X + Y). For example, the maximum seepage velocity in the X and Y directions increased from 89.6 m/s in dual-channel seepage by 1.56 times up to 140.2 m/s in multi-channel seepage.
The present study focused on the long-frame coal sample collected from the Daliuta Coal Mine, which was scanned by a high-precision X-ray 3D microscope to obtain 3D data. With the use of Avizo, an advanced 3D visualization software, the digital coal body model with actual pore structure characteristics was constructed. Then, the preprocessing and postprocessing functions in ICEM CFD software allowed the model generated by Avizo to be conveniently processed in CFX, a multi-field coupling finite element software. Accordingly, the numerical simulation on single-channel and multi-channel seepage of low-pressure water in coal micro-pore structures was conducted. The following conclusions were drawn.
The micro-pore structure model of the digital coal body in the present study had the actual size of 60 μm × 60 μm × 60 μm and contained a total of 219 pores in it. The micro-pore model of the coal had a maximum pore radius of 4.36 μm, a maximum pore volume of 3336 μm3, a mean pore radius of 1.17 μm, a mean pore volume of 124.23 μm3, a bulk porosity of 15.47%, a throat number of 311, a maximum throat radius of 2.77 μm, a mean throat radius of 0.62 μm, a maximum throat length of 13.89 μm, a mean throat length of 2.32 μm, a maximum pore-to-throat ratio of 20.50, a mean pore-to-throat ratio of 2.08, a maximum throat volume of 518 μm3, and a mean throat volume of 14.67 μm3.
During the seepage process of low-pressure water, the water flow did not pass through each path uniformly, but preferentially passed through the paths with large pore radii, short paths, and short distances from the outlet. In terms of a single pore channel, the seepage velocity of low-pressure water decreased gradually along the direction from the pore center to pore wall; in terms of the overall micro-pore structure, the maximum seepage velocity appeared at the center of small pore channel in the coal center region where the water flow was fully developed. For single-channel seepage in different directions, the seepage pressure decreased gradually along the direction of water seepage; moreover, the mean seepage velocity and mass flow rate of the seepage in the X direction were the largest, followed by those in the Y direction, and the mean seepage velocity and mass flow rate of the seepage in the Z direction were the smallest. At the micro-scale, the seepage velocities of low-pressure water in the dual-channel seepage in the direction of (X + Y) and the multi-channel seepage in the direction of (X + Y + Z) were greatly enhanced compared with the velocity in single-channel seepage. Due to the effects of the seepage water pressure and different numbers of channels in different directions, the dual-channel and multi-channel seepage characteristics of low-pressure water exhibited great changes and complex variation rules compared with the characteristics of single-channel seepage.
Using the software of Avizo, the related pore and throat data of the coal micro-pore structure model were extracted, and the coal micro-pore structure model could be converted into a geometric model in CAD format. The geometric model was then imported to many types of finite element and discrete element software, such as CFX, COMSOL, and EDEM for numerical simulations. Meanwhile, using 3D printing technology, we can use the coal powders to prepare the samples that can reflect the coal’s actual micro-pore structure for experimental investigation. The present study provides a new idea and a novel way to investigate the seepage rules in the micro-pore structure of coal. It also casts light on exploring the stress and strain analysis, as well as discrete element analysis of the micro-structure of coal.
This work was financially supported by State Key Program of National Natural Science of China (Grant No. U1261205); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51474139); SDUST Research Fund (Grant No. 2014JQJH106); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Special Project (Grant No. 2016T90642); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (Grant No. 2015M570602); Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Gas and Fire Prevention and Control of Ministry of Education (Grant No. 2015KJZX02); Science and Technology Project of Huangdao District, Qingdao (Grant No. 2014-1-30); Qingdao Postdoctoral Applied Research Project (Grant No. 2015194); Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Safety and High-Efficiency Coal Mining of Ministry of Education (Grant No. JYBSYS2014105); The Key Technology Projects of Chinese State Administration of Work Safety for Preventing Major Safety Production Accidents (Grant No. Shandong-0083-2015AQ).
Gang Zhou and Qi Zhang conceived and designed the experiments; Ruonan Bai and Guanhua Ni performed the experiments; Gang Zhou and Qi Zhang analyzed the data; Gang Zhou contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
CT Computerized Tomography
FEI Field Electron and Ion Co.
CFX ANSYS CFX Software
X-CT X-Ray Computed Tomography
SOD the Distance between the X-Ray Source and the Detector
ODD the Distance between the Stage Sample and the Detector
MRT Magnetic Resonance Tomography
ICEM CFD ANSYS ICEM CFD Software
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
CAD Computer Aided Design
LBM Lattice Boltzmann Method
SDUST Shandong University of Science and Technology
μ linear attenuation coefficient
I0 incident intensity
I intensity of ray attenuated by the object
∆x distance(m)
a mass percentage
p logarithm of the ratio of input intensity to output intensity
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Figure 1. X-ray 3D microscope (NanoVoxel-2000).
Figure 2. Diameter measurement of the ore core.
Figure 3. Profile image of the reconstructed 3D model: (a) Four-View; (b) 512th layer profile on the XY plane; and (c) 420th layer profile on the ZY plane.
Figure 4. Component distribution.
Figure 5. Original Pore image.
Figure 6. Pore image after processing.
Figure 7. Data cube selected in the reconstructed digital coal body.
Figure 8. Model of micro-pore structure: (a) Before the optimization; and (b) after the optimization.
Figure 9. Optimization of coal micro-pore model and mesh generation on the ICEM platform:(a) Repair on the micro-pore structure model; (b) segmentation of islands; (c) deletion of islands;(d) establishment of topological structure; (e) setting of the import and export conditions; and (f) mesh generation.
Figure 10. Distributions of pressure subject to low-pressure water along a single-channel in X, Y, and Z directions: (a) X direction; (b) Y direction; and (c) Z direction.
Figure 11. Distributions of seepage velocity subject to low-pressure water along single-channel in X, Y, and Z directions: (a) X direction; (b) Y direction; and (c) Z direction.
Figure 12. Water seepage velocity distribution of different sections of the single channel in the X direction: (a) x = 0 μm; (b) x = 12 μm; (c) x = 24 μm; (d) x = 36 μm; (e) x = 48 μm; and (f) x = 60 μm.
Figure 13. Water seepage velocity distribution of different sections of the single channel in the Y direction: (a) x = 0 μm; (b) x = 12 μm; (c) x = 24 μm; (d) x = 36 μm; (e) x = 48 μm; and (f) x = 60 μm.
Figure 14. Water seepage velocity distribution of different sections of the single channel in the Z direction: (a) x = 0 μm; (b) x = 12 μm; (c) x = 24 μm; (d) x = 36 μm; (e) x = 48 μm; and (f) x= 60 μm.
Figure 15. Mean pressure at different cross-sections.
Figure 16. Mean seepage velocity at different cross-sections.
Figure 17. Mean mass flow at different cross-sections.
Figure 18. Seepage velocity distribution of dual-channels in the X and Y directions: (a) X direction; and (b) Y direction.
Figure 19. Seepage velocity distribution of multi-channel in the X, Y, and Z directions: (a) X direction; (b) Y direction; and (c) Z direction.
Table 1. Setting of scanning parameters of X-ray 3D microscope.
SOD/ODD (mm/mm)
Voltage (kV)
Electric Current (μA)
Scanning Frame
Time (h)
Exposure Time (s)
Penetration Rate (%)
20× 35/13 41 240 900 19 65 57
Table 2. Quantitative analysis results of the throat size.
Number of Throats
Maximum Throat Radius (μm)
Mean Throat Radius (μm)
Maximum Throat Length (μm)
Mean Throat Length (μm)
Maximum Pore-Throat Ratio
Mean Pore-Throat Ratio
Maximum Throat Volume (μm3)
Mean Throat Volume (μm3)
311 2.77 0.62 13.89 2.32 20.50 2.08 518 14.67
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Minerals EISSN 2075-163X Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert
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You Should Play
By Andrew Hayward, Contributor, TechHive | PT
Games that are worth your attention.
Mojang on Minecraft: Pocket Edition's evolution into a mobile juggernaut
Minecraft is an absolute sensation of a game, having sold more than 54 million copies across platforms and spawning all sorts of officially licensed doodads—like branded LEGO sets, foam swords, and a seemingly endless array of t-shirts. Leading the pack in sales isn't the original PC version, nor any of the home console ports, which have collectively moved past the computer edition in total copies sold.
Instead, it's Minecraft: Pocket Edition for iOS and Android—the bite-sized, touch-centric take on the building block sensation, which had sold more than 21 million copies as of April. It makes sense on the surface: Pocket Edition is the lowest-priced version, and there are hundreds of millions of active devices that can run the game. But this is the same game that was critically shrugged off upon release less than three years ago, derided for being a hollow shell of the PC experience.
However, the Pocket Edition of today is significantly larger and more in-depth, and the recent Version 0.9 update added long-desired features like infinite worlds and explorable caves. Swedish indie studio Mojang continues to expand the game to make it bigger and better, and continue spreading the gospel of Minecraft to more and more players—and the developers aren't finished yet.
[ Further reading: Everything you need to know about iOS 12 ]
A quaint start
Minecraft: Pocket Edition first debuted in 2011 on Sony's Android-powered Xperia Play—a "PlayStation Certified" device with physical controls that looked much like the company's PSPgo handheld. But within a few months, the game made the leap to more traditional Android handsets, followed by an iOS edition, and Minecraft had officially joined the world of touch screen gaming.
When Minecraft: Pocket Edition first started, it was a much smaller and less refined experience than the one available today.
Initial reviews were surprisingly middling, with Metacritic reporting a 53 out of 100 average score from critics—much lower than other versions of the game. With only the Creative mode, plus small worlds, a lack of enemies, no day/night cycle, and no way to actually mine or even craft quite yet, initial reviews pegged the game as too compromised to be worthwhile. "Minecraft: Pocket Edition doesn't feel like Minecraft," asserted the original 2011 review from iOS game enthusiast site, Touch Arcade.
As developer Johan Bernhardsson—one of two Mojang employees working full-time on Pocket Edition these days—points out, the initial release of the phone and tablet version was labeled an alpha release. Even today's version is still considered an alpha, about three years later, although he concedes that such a tag probably means less to smartphone users than savvy PC players: "The first version was very limited, and people didn't care about an alpha label inside a mobile game as much as they would on PC," Bernhadrsson said in an interview with TechHive.
Simply getting Minecraft up and running on mobile devices wasn't as simple as quickly porting to new platforms—Pocket Edition had to be rewritten from scratch in the C++ programming language, as iOS doesn't support Java. From that point on, the team approached expansion much like it did with PC: Start small, and add new elements gradually over time. The difference was that Minecraft was already a cultural sensation by the time Pocket Edition came around, which invited scrutiny.
Expanding universe
While the initial impression may have been mixed, Minecraft: Pocket Edition grew significantly with each major version update. In February 2012, Mojang added Survival Mode with its mobs (enemies) and tools, along with the day/night cycle. A couple of months later came crafting via the new Minecraft Advanced Touch Technology Interface System (MATTIS), which was designed specifically to make item crafting feasible on smaller smartphone and tablet displays.
Walk in any direction and the world will continue expanding outward. Pocket Edition doesn't have maps yet, however, so don't forget the way back home!
Subsequent updates brought a litany of additional changes large and small. New blocks, enemy types, animations, items, and features made the world feel fuller. The addition of Minecraft Realms support allowed users to purchase premium access to shareable private servers, the graphics improved as devices became more powerful, and the controls and interface became more manageable.
Released in July 2014, version 0.9.0 is arguably the largest to date—and the list of features is extensive. The ability to generate infinite-sized worlds means there's always something to explore off in the distance, and the update adds a wider array of terrain types from the PC version. Caves are also added to the world, which not only adds richness to the environments, but also offers fresh opportunities for finding resources and adventure.
You can use Seed codes to generate certain kinds of worlds—ones with buildings, other block people, and curious sights.
And bucking a previous decision to have the entirety of Pocket Edition be playable on all supported devices, infinite worlds and caves are only intended for more recent tablets and phones that have the processing power to keep up with the computing demands.
"Minecraft has always had many ways to play it, however the exploration aspect was severely limited. Pocket Edition was mostly appealing to the subset of those who like to build for the sake of it," says Mojang developer Tommaso Checchi. "I play Minecraft in a more 'adventurous' way, with more exploring, functional building, and gathering resources from natural caves without strip mining… needless to say, it was nice to work on this update as it made Pocket Edition more fun to myself as a player."
Premium rush
While the tact of gradual enhancement may not have resonated with all players at first, that hasn't stopped Pocket Edition from becoming a massive mobile hit. It continuously hovers near the top of the paid charts on all platforms, and while many top iOS and Android games feature extensive in-app purchases and other frustrating tactics, Minecraft remains an undiluted premium experience that's well supported and isn't constantly fluctuating in price. Pay $7 and you'll get the full game, made better and better every few months or so.
"I think players know by now that they can trust us to add more content to the game, over time; plus, they also know the price will not go down, and that once you have the game, you get all of it. Probably this allows players to make a 'premium' investment in the first place, because hey, what would be the point of waiting?" notes Checchi. "I would say our strategy is that you pay money and get Minecraft. Simple as that!"
And they've found that the people paying for Pocket Edition might not be who you think they are. Namely, most players aren't PC version owners seeking an on-the-go version of Minecraft for a mobile fix away from home. "For most of our players, Pocket Edition is not the PC's plan B," says Checchi.
It's a cave! Bring a torch, as these dark locales offer terrifying enemy encounters as much as they do precious resources.
Pocket Edition players also skew younger than on other platforms—something I've seen with my own teenage and pre-teen nephews, who are crazy about it—and large numbers come from countries like Korea and Japan that increasingly prefer mobile devices to traditional computers. "Being on a platform so accessible and intuitive for kids is pretty great to cement the 'LEGO of our generation' reputation that the game has," adds Checchi, "removing all of the (admittedly not so much) complex setup and care that playing on a PC still requires."
And that initial decision to start small on mobile and expand over time has clearly panned out in the sales numbers. "It was fun seeing Pocket Edition surpass the PC version. We have put a lot of effort into making Pocket Edition as good as possible, but I think it is a bit unfair to compare it with the PC and console versions," asserts Bernhardsson. "We are just happy that so many people are having fun playing the game, and are now also starting to build up a community around the Pocket Edition. I [always thought] that Minecraft is Minecraft, but all the versions have different ways of playing, which makes it a lot more fun."
A bigger Pocket
Even with the huge recent update, Pocket Edition isn't done growing—but the way that enhancements arrive is changing. It took seven months for 0.9.0 to launch with its big heap of additions, but the planned 0.10, 0.11, and 0.12 updates will likely come faster and with just one big feature anchoring each set of tweaks. Checchi couldn't specify the order at which features will be added, but says he wants to redo the touch controls to add sprinting and crouching, as well as add boats for improved exploration. Bernhardsson has also mentioned on Twitter that 0.10 will add player skins, a much-requested perk.
And with a massive community of passionate players, there's a collective wish list put forth by vocal fans on message boards and over Twitter. Beyond what Checchi mentioned, fans are eager for physical controller support, maps, and the addition of the haunting soundtrack from the larger versions, among other tweaks.
Most of those features seem like reasonable expectations—but Mojang will continue to get there on its own terms. "When we feel that the game is 'complete' enough, we'll have a 1.0 [version] and we will drop the 'alpha' tag (which nobody cared about anyway)," notes Checchi. "But we'll get there at an incremental pace."
This story, "Mojang on Minecraft: Pocket Edition's evolution into a mobile juggernaut" was originally published by TechHive.
Andrew Hayward is a Chicago-based games, apps, and gadgets writer whose work has been featured in more than 70 publications. He's also a work-at-home dad to an unruly four-year-old.
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Alumni Spotlight: Samantha Seestrom
Samantha Seestrom, a 2012 Monticello High School graduate, has had an interest and a passion for the creative outlet of writing for as long as she can remember.
For a long time, however, Seestrom kept her jottings to herself. Early in her high school career she found herself dabbling with little notes and anecdotes in her notebook, with an occasional story idea mixed in. She loved it, but admits now that the idea of moving beyond that stage, and opening her writing up for the approval (and therefore the potential criticism) of others was an intimidating next step.
Just six years down the road, Seestrom may still deal with that anxiety occasionally, but the general public wouldn’t know it.
The Monticello graduate turned school district employee now has two novels to her name (“Surrender Your Soul” and “Ashes of the Sea”) and is scheduled to publish “Blood in the Sand,” which will complete her debut three-part series, by January of 2020. The series is about a water-breather (mermaid) named Marina who ventures into the human world under the orders of her adopted mother Cordelia to carry out a dark task but ends up countering a number of complications along the way. Through two books, the series has received a groundswell of fan support and acclaim on websites like Amazon.
“For so long I didn’t let people read my writing, not even my parents,” said Seestrom. “To finally have something published, and people can buy it, and they’re spending their money on it? It is just insane for me.”
It certainly wasn’t an easy path for Seestrom to get here, but it was a path fortified by her own self-motivation, as well as the support of family, friends, educators, and colleagues.
Seestrom, who now works as an Early Childhood Family Education and Preschool Paraprofessional at Eastview Education Center, found her original inspiration from teachers at MHS.
During her junior year, she took a science fiction and fantasy class with Mr. Russell.
“That was a big door opening experience for me,” she said.
With some experience writing for others under her belt, Seestrom signed up for a dystopian short story competition her senior year.
That opened up the opportunity for her to work more with Mr. Russell, who edited Seestrom’s story.
“He was awesome,” said Seestrom. “He was the first person to tell me that I should continue to do this.”
That seed of confidence that Russell planted grew slowly, and started to come to fruition the year after Seestrom graduated from Monticello High School.
In 2013, the 19-year-old read a book called “90 Days to your Novel.” Soon after, in the month of October, she sat down and wrote 50,000 words in 30 days.
“I was spending a good five to six hours a day writing,” said Seestrom, who was holding two other jobs at the time as well. “I did not have a social life, at all. I would literally lock myself away in the bedroom and just write for hours. I just cranked that book out.”
However, it would be another four years until Seestrom put the finishing touches on her first novel. She went through the regular process of quarrying agents, only to receive rejection after rejection. Still, at first, Seestrom took heart. Almost without fail, the agents told her they enjoyed her writing, they just weren’t looking for a mermaid story at the time. However, as the rejections piled up, so did the anguish.
Seestrom acknowledges that as time went by, she started to become discouraged. She knew self-publishing was an option, but she’d always viewed it as a last resort. With some hesitation, she decided to look further into it. Her research, and conversations with those in the industry, started to change her perspective.
“I kind of realized if you can self publish, and get the reviews and the feedback, and in the future you have this writing history ... then maybe people will look at it and say ‘OK, we can take a chance on you,’” said Seestrom.
Enough people directed Seestrom to go that route that she eventually pulled the trigger. Her first reaction? That was easy. Her second? Anxiety over the pending feedback.
But, that wouldn’t last long. The reviews, online and in person, started pouring in and they were overwhelmingly positive.
To date, the first book has 26 Amazon reviews. Seestrom’s debut effort has registered a remarkable 25 five-star ratings and one four-star rating. Her second book, Ashes of the Sea, was published earlier this fall and the first review for that novel is five stars as well.
“The feedback has been amazing and the supporters have been amazing,” said Seestrom. “I’m so so shocked and thrilled that people have enjoyed what I wrote, and that they want more. It’s just a really, really cool feeling.”
When Seestrom sat down to write her first novel, she envisioned it as a single book. However, once she started to quarry publishing agents, she learned that producing a series gave her a greater likelihood of attracting both publishers and readers. At that point, she decided to turn “Surrender Your Soul” into a three-part series titled Breathers.
She admits that she didn’t have the whole series planned out when she worked on book one, but she’s developed a clear vision as she’s worked through the series, and she knows what readers should expect in the final chapter, even if she won’t share.
“I have the whole thing in my head [now],” she said. “I know exactly how it’s going to end, I know who’s going to die, and who’s going to be happy … I just need to sit down and write it.”
Avid readers will be excited to learn that characters have been aged by five years for the third book, growing along with both the author and readers.
“They’re more adults now, and the book is going to take on a few more adult problems compared to the young adult problems they’ve had as teenagers,” said Seestrom.
The young author acknowledges that there are definitely certain aspects of the book that she’s taken from her own life. More surprisingly, however, is that aspects of the book have later shown up in her own life.
Seestrom relayed one such story, about a scene from the first book that involves the two main characters riding in the car and hearing the song Apologize by One Republic while on their first date. That portion of the book was written in 2013.
In 2015, Seestrom went on her first date with her now long-term boyfriend, and the scene essentially played itself out in his car, with the same song coming on the radio, and him asking the same question about it that’s asked in her book. It was all a surreal experience for Seestrom.
But in many ways, this whole experience has been surreal. From a high school student with a talent for writing but being unwilling to sign up for creative writing because she was hesitant to let others read it to a young adult with two published books available for sale on Amazon, book signings under her belt, and a third book on the way. It’s been quite a six year stretch since high school graduation for the Monticello product.
One thing she says she knows for sure is that she would have never reached this point if not for the help, support, and encouragement from so many people in her life.
The support of her family has been one of the most important factors in turning her into the writer she is, and giving her the strength to become a published author. There have been many others too, including her editor, friends and boyfriend. Then there’s been the support from her past educators, something that has completely blown Seestrom away.
Mr. Russell was the first one to really help push her down this path, and for that Seestrom dedicated the first book to him. Kari Green, Monticello Middle School Library Media Specialist, edited Seestrom’s first draft of her first book.
“She gave me so much good feedback, and she really encouraged my dream,” said Seestrom.
And Deb Rathbone, former English teacher at Monticello High School, has been one of Seestrom’s biggest cheerleaders.
“The way that the people who taught me back in high school or middle school have continued to support me since graduating is crazy,” said Seestrom. “It’s just so awesome that we have teachers that continue to teach beyond the time their students are in the classroom. And it makes me feel like I can continue to do this.”
Seestrom expects her third book to be out in January of 2020. Both Surrender Your Soul and Ashes of the Sea are available online at Amazon. Seestrom is also on Twitter at @SamWritesBooks and can be followed on both Facebook and Instagram at @samanthawritesbook. Information about future books, as well as book signing opportunities, can be found on her social media pages.
800 East Broadway Monticello, MN 55362 763-272-2100 Fax: 763-272-2109
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Posted by Harley Tucker | Oct 13, 2018 | Metal Music Review
Now, if you’ve already listened to Psychostick’s fifth album, then you know that no intro I write will compete with the opening track of “Do”. The self-proclaimed “Humorcore” band set the tone immediately with their latest addition to my music library. If you were unsure of what Psychostick are, the opening track “We Are A band” should clear that up for you. The track itself has an excellent build up with Rob Kersey taking a personal call in the middle. Wiyj great comedic style, he cuts the call short explaining that they’ve hired an orchestra. I was already grinning by the end of the “We Are A Band” and the rest, as they say, is history.
“You Can (Maybe) Do It” really had me laughing. I don’t know if it’s because its relatable and I can picture many circumstances where this song could be applied. Mostly to those “Inspirational” pictures you get on social media. You know, the one with a sunset in the background with “Stay Strong” or “If you get knocked down, always get back up”. I found this song poked a massive hole in those pathetic pictures to my enjoyment. One lyric in particular states “If I get knocked down, I get up. Sad about it”. The humor is simple but brilliant.
Now the next track is fairly pointless but that appears to be the point itself. The song is entirely about “Tuesday”, the day of the week if that was unclear. Whilst Kersey is clearly very enthused about the day as he “Has no responsibilities”, the other members of the band are not quite as keen. The difference and constant conflict of vocal styles are entertaining. I like this track for its simplicity but it doesn’t rank particularly high for me within the album.
“Adulting” is the following and fourth track of Pscychostick’s “Do”. This song is riddled with references to video games and television shows. It also has a little shout out to “Obey The Beard” from their fourth album “IV: Revenge Of The Vengeance”, one of their most popular tracks and one of my personal favourites. For those who are unsure or are over the age of 30, “Adulting” is completing an adult task. For a topic that is extremely uninteresting, Pyschostick go to great lengths to make it enjoyable. It is very relatable to any listener as no one wants to pay bills and do mundane tasks, but we all have too. Listen to this track whilst completing all your responsibilities makes it a lot easier. Hell, you may smile when your bank balance hits zero but, probably not.
The next track, is hands down, the best track on “Do”, if not one of their greatest tracks to date. “From The Heart” had me crying with laughter over and over. I would describe this track as an excellent break-up track or simply a track for someone you really do not like. I mean, really do not like. No obviously, no one wants harm for anyone else. At least, they won’t ever say it, “From The Heart” does that for you. Now, don’t get the wrong idea, this song is hilarious but with its constant name calling and the stories of what would happen to the person whom you dislike, it is fucking brutal but as much as it’s brutal, it’s funny as fuck. It has an excellent acoustic intro which, along with the lyrics, set the scene and prepares you for what is to come. If you can only listen to one track on this album, let it be this one. But really, you could probably make the time to listen to this whole album so don’t be a “douche canoe”.
“Do” which is the name of the next song, same as the album, holds a lot of similarities to “NSFW” which is also a track from “IV: Revenge Of The Vengeance”. As we already know, Kersey is able to make a whole song with only one word. This track is not a genius, nor as good as “NSFW” but it has an excellent sound which you can’t help but bob your foot and nod your head too. Unlike its counterpart, Psychostick has made their own music to “Do” and it’s great and consistent with who they are, which is funny as fuck. At the very end of the song, you can hear the band laughing themselves which is something I always love to hear. The music isn’t just for the listener. It’s a lot about the listener but it’s about the band and to hear that they are having fun and enjoying themselves makes this track legit.
Now I shall not review each and every track or skit in this 22 track album. After listening to the album several times, I will review the best ones or at least, the ones I think are the best. after all, I like this band a lot and want you to spend your money on their album so they make more and I keep laughing.
Psychostick is known now for the “humorcore” style and the skits within each album. “Keys” is certainly one of the best skits. It’s something we have all lived through at one time or another. Maybe each day if you’re like me. It’s a slow, beautiful song for which we live through the bands perspective. It’s hard to big up a skit which is essentially just about finding your keys. But, having said that, this skit speaks to the listener. It is certainly one of the more entertaining skits on “Do”.
The following track to “Keys” is “Gurrrrrr”. The best way to describe this track is to say when I am listening to heavier bands such as Cannibal Corpse, or other artists with a similar vocal style, this must be what my parents or anyone who doesn’t “get it” hears. If anything, this skit is an infomercial and a dig to people who don’t listen to any sort of metal. “Gurrrrrr” is the gift that keeps on giving.
“Moving Day” is a great song about exactly what it says on the tin, moving house or helping someone move. The song’s intro is genuinely funny and realistic. When someone asks you to help move them, you know it’s a pain in the ass but you’re a good person. So, you will agree even though every fibre in your body screams no. The song is a great expression of the emotions one goes through when agreeing and helping someone move. The heavy riffs take you on a journey as Pyschostick state all the faults with helping someone move and all the barriers you face. The lyrics are incredibly sarcastic at times with constant humor throughout their descriptions. This track is hilarious at points as you hear the band slowly getting more pissed off. It goes from “Up and down the stairs again” to “Fuck that door. We didn’t need it anyway”. Inevitably, the moving truck is set on fire and the possessions are attacked with a chainsaw. It’s beautiful and a real whirlwind of emotions. At 5:25, the song gets really “chuggy” with a sweet riff. Sadly, the band is interrupted by the cops and Psychostick’s infamous humor.
We are once again blessed with the band’s outtakes. If you’re anything like me, you will enjoy listening to it. It confirms what I said earlier about the band enjoying what they do. This is really important and them sharing their outtakes makes you feel apart of that experience. Pyschostick is touring the US from October 24th 2018 until November 12th 2018. You check out the dates and their merch at www.psychostick.com. I’m gonna try an’ get me a moose hat. Everyone should have a moose hat.
Everyone should check out the new review for @psychostick fifth album, “Do”. The link is in the bio. Don’t be a douche canoe. #HeavyMetal #Psychostick #Metal #MetalMusicReviewer #Band #Do #Humorcore #Funny #Music #Album #Review #MetalReview
A post shared by Metal Music Reviews (@metalmusicreviewer) on Oct 13, 2018 at 10:07am PDT
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“There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret” by Bring Me The Horizon Review
Just A Recommendation… ‘All That Remains’
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Shaken Review
Ben Williams casts his eye over the new high-end cocktail book inspired by Fleming and Bond
By Ben Williams
Nothing is as synonymous with James Bond as the dry Martini. Yes, he has the Aston Martin DB5, the Walther PPK, and the dinner jacket, but it is almost impossible to think of Bond and not hear the words “shaken, not stirred” or picture him sipping from a chilled Martini glass with a corkscrew of lemon peel in the clear-gold liquid within.
The ordering of what would become The Vesper Martini in 'Casino Royale' spoke volumes about Bond’s character. Here was a man who knew what he wanted, was very prescriptive in his tastes, wasn’t afraid to bend or break a few rules if the result justified the means. This was a direct reflection of his creator, Ian Fleming, a man who few will argue was an arbiter of good taste, but also a man who knew precisely what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it.
Because of Fleming’s prodigious drinking habits, it was perhaps inevitable that his creation should share his taste for a well-made cocktail and his literary adventures - as well as the cinematic - are peppered with various concoctions for his hero (and sometimes his villains) to imbibe.
Fleming notoriously frequented some of London’s best-known watering holes, the clubs and hotel bars of Mayfair becoming his hallowed haunts, and it was here that Fleming refined his taste and expanded upon his knowledge. Whilst the barmen of the day would have been well-versed in creating what would be considered classic cocktails, drawing, no doubt, on the concoctions listed in Harry Cradock’s bartender’s bible, The Savoy Cocktail Book, Fleming was keen to experiment, as is evidenced by The Vesper; there were certainly bartenders (and there no doubt still are) who would have baulked at the idea of vodka in a Martini, let alone the suggestion it be shaken.
Which brings us rather neatly to “Shaken”. This book, subtitled “drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming”, is certainly a reflection of Fleming’s experimental and yet prescriptive drinking habits and takes cues from classics whilst adding a few experimental twists. Within the pages are ten classic cocktails from the Bond novels themselves (including The Vesper, naturally), along with 40 other entirely new creations that take their inspiration from the world of the literary 007, all of which were created by the talented mixologists at Soho’s Swift bar.
Whilst Swift is a relatively new addition to the bar scene in London, it should be noted that Swift is the third bar from the couple who also brought us Nightjar and Oriole, both noted for reinvigorating the speakeasy-style bar and for the creation of some of the most outlandish (and utterly delicious) cocktails to be had. Because of this, it seems only natural that they should be responsible for this authorised cocktail book, rather than say Dukes, or The Dorchester. Fleming would no doubt approve.
The book itself is split into five categories: Straight Up; On The Rocks; Tall; Fizzy; and Exotic, with each section containing not only fabulous recipes and photography, but it is also littered with extracts from the novels, anecdotes, and interesting asides - for instance, the character Vesper Lynd is inspired by the real-life spy Christine Granville (whose real name was Krystyana Skarbek), a Polish agent of the British SOE during World War II. It has been suggested that Fleming had an affair with Granville, whose father’s nickname for her was “Vesperale”.
There are some wonderfully named new creations, such as “Fugu Poison”, which no doubt has a sting in its tail, or the “Trueblood”, which (although Mary Trueblood is only a minor character) seems like too good a name for a cocktail to pass up. Having sampled a Trueblood, a Moneypenny, and a Blofeld at Swift, it has to be said that these are finely-balanced and sophisticated creations that are beautifully presented and garnished, that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best classic cocktails and will no doubt become future classics in their own right.
It should be noted as well that some of the recipes call for the inclusion of Ian Fleming Gin. At the time of writing, this gin has not yet been brought to the market, but can be enjoyed in Swift, should you get the opportunity to go. Ian Fleming Gin is produced by Well Black Spirits, the same company who gave us Blackwell Rum and has been created with the London Thames Distillery and in close partnership with the Fleming Estate. Creator of Blackwell Rum is Chris Blackwell who is, of course, a successful music producer who also happens to own the GoldenEye estate in Jamaica and whose mother, Blanche, was Fleming’s lover - a connection which seems fitting for a gin bearing Fleming’s name.
Order Now (Amazon USA) - Order Now (Amazon UK)
Ultimately, “Shaken” is not a run-of-the-mill cocktail book. It might have been easy to simply lift the cocktails from the pages of the Bond books and put a hardcover on it, but it is a testament to the Fleming Estate that they chose to create something more meaningful, a book to nestle alongside Cradock’s own perhaps, one what is at once stylish and sophisticated, yet also directional and forward-thinking. Not unlike the man himself.
Ben is a freelance writer living in London, with a passion for architecture, design, fashion, food & drink, and travel. Ben has contributed to a number of event reports as well as historical content relating to James Bond lifestyle. He maintains the weblog: doubleonothing.com.
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The opinions expressed in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MI6-HQ.com or its owners.
Welcome (Back) To Scotland
Bond 25 (2020) Bond 25 will shoot on location in Aviemore, Scotland
Click Bait
Bond 25 (2020) You will not believe THIS story about James Bond
Events Aston Martin Red Bull Racing cars will be emblazoned with 007 livery for the British GP
London Filming (3)
Bond 25 (2020) Daniel Craig was in action today in Hammersmith on the banks of the Thames
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Bond 25 (2020) Christoph Waltz will reprise the role of James Bond's nemesis in Bond 25
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Another Writer
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It All Boyle's Down To...
When Harry Met Cubby
Albert Finney (1936-2019)
Bond 25 Location Update
MI6 Confidential Issue #48
She'll Be Back
You Can't Do One
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Michael Cohen: 5 claims he made about President Trump
Feb 27, 2019 at 12:04 PM Feb 27, 2019 at 12:16 PM
Michael Cohen, former fixer for President Donald Trump, came out swinging Wednesday, making all sorts of wild accusations — some new, some not — about the man leading the U.S.
Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in federal prison last year for the role he played in paying off women who made claims against Trump during the campaign leading up to the 2016 election, appeared before members of Congress. It wasn't his first time but, this time around, Cohen insisted, he would be honest.
Here are five of the most-shocking claims Cohen made about Trump:
Cohen claim No. 1: Trump is a racist
Among the examples of racism Cohen cited was a conversation the two had during a visit to Chicago.
“While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way,” Cohen said, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“And he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid,” Cohen continued. “And yet I continued to work for him.”
Cohen claim No. 2: Trump thinks Donald Jr. isn't smart
Donald Trump Jr. reportedly set up a now-infamous 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower. Cohen says he found this odd because President Trump has allegedly been very critical of Donald Jr. and his abilities.
"... Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world," Cohen said, according to GQ.
Both Donald Jr. and brother Eric were quick to bash Cohen on social media Wednesday.
Cohen claim No. 3: No records of bone spurs
President Trump has said he did not serve during the Vietnam War because of a medical issue: bone spurs. Cohen, however, says there are no records from doctors to back up that claim.
“When I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery,” Cohen said, according to The Daily Beast. “He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.”
“You think I’m stupid,” Cohen recalled Trump saying. “I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”
Cohen claim No. 4: Trump repaid hush money using a personal check
Cohen has said he paid women to keep quiet about their claims against President Trump. That money was repaid in at least one case using a personal check — a copy of which Cohen provided.
The $35,000 check was allegedly used to silence Stormy Daniels, CNN reports.
"He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did," Cohen said, according to Axios. "Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets."
Cohen claim No. 5: Trump knew about Roger Stone, Wikileaks
Information obtained by Wikileaks via a hack of computers at the Democratic National Committee made its way into the hands of political consultant Roger Stone — and President Trump knew about the alleged illegal activity, Cohen claims.
“In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone," Cohen said, according to HuffPost. "Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with (Wikileaks editor) Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great.’ ”
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Larry Lessig Says Donald Trump Is "Spot-On" When It Comes to Money in Politics
By Gregory Krieg
Sept 4 2015
Larry Lessig and Donald Trump might not agree on the cure, but the Harvard Law professor turned potential Democratic presidential candidate and the billionaire Republican frontrunner have similar ideas about what ails the American body politic.
"I've criticized Trump for lots of reasons, but I wouldn't criticize his views on the problem of money in politics," Lessig told Mic over the phone on Thursday. "I think they're spot-on right."
Lessig's assessment of Trump, for all its intellectual honesty, is unlikely to win him many friends in the Democratic Party. Trump has riled establishment figures across the partisan spectrum by boasting that his personal fortune makes him incorruptible. Lessig, however, is pursuing a more fundamental, and in many ways more controversial, change.
Here's the pitch: The popular online intellectual and TED Talk star announced his idea to run for president as a "referendum candidate" in August. His pitch is pinned to the Citizen Equality Act, a partially written bill that would mandate public financing for national political campaigns, overturn restrictive voting laws and put the brakes on partisan gerrymandering.
Most importantly though, Lessig said, the law would undo the taint created by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and pave the way for both federal and state elections to "protect themselves from this ridiculous outside money."
Upon its passage, Lessig has pledged to step down and turn over the White House to his vice president. Hillary Clinton, he told Mic, would "of course" be considered as a running mate.
With a self-imposed Labor Day deadline fast approaching, Lessig is closing in on the $1 million in crowdsourced funds he believes are necessary to launch and maintain a potential candidacy. By Friday afternoon, the ticker on the "Lessig 2016" website said the group had raised over $850,000 from more than 7,000 small donors.
"The way these things work, they kind of rally at the end," Lessig told Mic a day earlier. "So, we're hoping we can get a big push going and through the weekend. And if we do, then I'll be in the race."
Burning Sanders: In or out, Lessig has already made waves in liberal waters with his criticism of potential rival Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and dogged critic of the current campaign finance rules.
During an Aug. 25 AMA session on Reddit, Lessig seemed to question Sanders' motives, suggesting the self-described democratic socialist had been "seduced by the consultants" and become more concerned with winning an election than advancing the progressive cause.
"Seduced" by the lure of the White House? Lessig has been critical of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).Source: MCT/Getty Images
In his conversation with Mic, Lessig struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Sanders "doesn't get much wrong" on the policy front.
"The only difference between what Bernie is doing and what I'm describing is the mechanism for creating a kind of mandate I think is going to be necessary," Lessig said. "My concern is that if you think of it as one issue among many, you're not going to get this issue, or many other issues, passed."
Not buying it? Despite his populist sentiments, a number of critics, including many on the left, have their doubts about Lessig and his unconventional plan. The most persistent questions center on Lessig's ability, should he become president, to persuade establishment officials from both sides of the aisle to reject billions in campaign funds, while breaking off decades-old ties to corporate interests.
Lessig answers those concerns by describing a self-fulfilling loop in which the fact of his election would create something like a super mandate for Congress to act.
"I actually think this is not just a difference in degree, but a difference in kind," he said. "The difference in kind is this is the first time we've had something like a referendum. Would Congress follow it? If the referendum is framed the way I'm talking about it, mainly as a citizen equality referendum, then it's hard to resist citizen equality.
"It's not clear what the arguments are against equality like that."
Donald Trump might agree.
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End is nigh for Honiton Magistrates' Court
PUBLISHED: 12:59 24 June 2010 | UPDATED: 13:04 24 June 2010
Belinda Bennett
Honiton Magistrates' Court
After years of speculation, a squeeze on public spending looks set to put final nail in court's coffin.
AFTER years of speculation, Honiton Magistrates’ Court looks set to finally close.
Just hours after Lynda Price, an independent member of Devon and Cornwall Police Authority, warned courts faced the axe in Government budget cuts, it was announced a final consultation is being launched to decide the Dowell Street building’s fate.
The court has not heard criminal cases on a regular basis for some years and is now used only occasionally – to hear inquests and deal with cases brought by the likes of Devon Trading Standards.
Courts Minister Jonathan Djanogly said today (Thursday): “When public finances are under pressure, it is vital to eliminate waste and reduce costs.
“The arrangements we have are historical and now need to be re-assessed to ask whether they properly meet the needs of communities as they are today – we increasingly use the internet and email to communicate and access services and we travel further to work, for leisure and to do our weekly shop. We now have the opportunity to think afresh about how we can create a more modern, fit-for-purpose justice system in line with the way we live our lives today.”
And, as the Midweek Herald supports calls for a community justice panel to be established in Honiton, Mr Djanogly added: “Not all disputes need to be resolved in court.
“I want to explore whether more people can resolve their disputes in a way that leads to faster and more satisfactory solutions.
“Across the civil, family and criminal courts I want to explore ways we can harness technology more effectively so people don’t necessarily have to physically attend court when they give evidence or access court services.
“We should not think about access to justice as simply a question of length of the journey to the nearest court. In the future, we need to look at whether through the more effective use of video and telephone links and other technology including online services, we can improve the public’s experience of the justice system.”
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Assistant Minister for Defence - Visit to the United States of America
Assistant Minister for Defence Stuart Robert has returned from a visit to the United States where he met with key US interlocutors to further defence and security cooperation.
During his visit, Minister Robert called on the US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Mr Bob Work to discuss current bilateral engagement and opportunities to deepen collaboration in areas such as defence innovation and cooperation on science and technology.
Deputy Secretary Work and Minister Robert also discussed avenues for Australian collaboration in the US Department of Defense’s Innovation Initiative, a long-term US effort to leverage new technologies and systems to ensure it can best respond to emerging security challenges.
Minister Robert said discussions were also held on the ongoing reform efforts in their respective defence organisations, with Minister Robert detailing progress on Australia’s upcoming Defence White Paper and recently released First Principles Review.
They also discussed Australia’s current operational cooperation in the Middle East, and how the US and Australia can provide further support to service personnel returning from operational deployments.
During the visit, Minister Robert also met with Mr Al Shaffer, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Research and Engineering to further deepen cooperation on respective science and technology programs.
Mr Robert met with officials from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to discuss emerging defence technologies and visited the US Special Operations Command to examine research and development, acquisition and personnel issues associated with Special Forces.
As part of his visit Minister Robert also visited Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard and had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C.
Richard Briedis (Minister Robert's Office) 0477 391 174
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Catholic Commentary On Acts 16:4 - Council of Jerusalem, Galatians, Etc.
Bro. Peter Dimond
Following the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, St. Paul returned to Antioch. While in Antioch he had the desire to visit various cities where the word of the Lord had been preached. St. Paul wanted to check on the new converts, to see how they were doing. He originally intended to make this trip with Barnabas, but they had a sharp dispute about whether to bring John Mark with them. Consequently, Paul and Barnabas split up and Paul traveled with Silas. During the trip Timothy joined them. In Acts 16:4-5 we read:
“As they [Paul, Silas and Timothy] went on their way through the cities, they were delivering them to keep the decrees [δόγματα] that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”
GREEK: ὡς δὲ διεπορεύοντο τὰς πόλεις παρεδίδουν αὐτοῖς φυλάσσειν τὰ δόγματα τὰ κεκριμένα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων τῶν ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ. αἱ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησίαι ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει καὶ ἐπερίσσευον τῷ ἀριθμῷ καθ’ ἡμέραν.
This is very interesting for a number of reasons. First, the word frequently translated as “decrees” or “decisions” is, in Greek, δόγματα (dogmata). The English word “dogmas” is derived from it. As Paul, Silas and Timothy met with the communities of Christians, “they were entrusting/delivering them to guard/keep the dogmas decided/judged by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem” (παρεδίδουν αὐτοῖς φυλάσσειν τὰ δόγματα τὰ κεκριμένα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ). This is a reference to the “δόγματα” (dogmata) proclaimed by the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. However, since there were some disciplinary aspects to the decrees of the Council of Jerusalem, “decrees” or “decisions” is a better translation choice for this verse than “dogmas”.
Nevertheless, there were dogmatic aspects to the Council’s decisions. Thus, in Paul’s effort to have churches observe the δόγματα of the Council of Jerusalem we recognize the similarity to what true Catholics do today. True Catholics in our day likewise make sure that the dogmas (δόγματα) defined by popes at councils, etc. are guarded/kept. (It should also be noted that the same word for decrees or dogmas is used in Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14 about how the Old Law ceased after Christ’s passion.)
Second, notice the implications of Acts 16:4 for the false doctrine of sola scriptura. St. Paul made sure that the Christians kept what was decreed by the apostles at a council, not just what is in written in Scripture.
Third, this verse provides more powerful support for the view that the Epistle to the Galatians was written before the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, and consequently for our position that it was not St. Peter whom St. Paul rebuked (as recorded in Galatians 2:11-14). We discuss various aspects of the chronology in the video below. But, to put it simply: Acts 16:4 powerfully supports the position that Galatians was written before the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 because in Galatians St. Paul says nothing whatsoever about the “δόγματα” or “decisions” of the Council of Jerusalem, even though he was specifically writing about the topic of Judaizing and he could have used those “δόγματα” to his advantage when making his argument.
As Protestant scholar Douglas J. Moo notes:
“A second argument from silence is Paul’s failure to mention the Jerusalem decree anywhere in Galatians. In a letter that has at its heart an appeal to Gentile Christians not to undergo circumcision, we would expect Paul at least to mention the fact that the Jerusalem apostles themselves had agreed not to impose circumcision on Gentile converts. His silence about this decision only makes sense, it is argued, if that decision had not yet been reached.” (Douglas J. Moo, Galatians, Baker Academic, 2013, Introduction)
In Galatians St. Paul says nothing about the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem. Yet, in Acts 16:4 (quoted above), which is clearly after the Council of Jerusalem, we read that St. Paul had various communities of Christians guard/keep the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem. Ergo, St. Paul wrote Galatians before the Council of Jerusalem. That necessarily means that St. Paul’s rebuke of Cephas (which is recorded in Gal. 2:11-14) happened before the Council of Jerusalem. Why is this so significant to demonstrating that the Cephas whom St. Paul rebuked (as recorded in Gal. 2:11) was not St. Peter? The reasons are explained in the video below, but here’s a small additional detail that was not mentioned in the video.
Concerning the decree of the Council of Jerusalem, we read this:
Acts 15:22-29- “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, to whom we did not give instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
The Council is sending this decision to Antioch because, as we argue, that’s where the huge dispute during which St. Paul rebuked Cephas (Gal. 2:11-14) occurred before the Council.
Galatians 2:11-14- “But when Cephas had come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was blameworthy… But when I saw that they walked not uprightly unto the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: If you, being a Judean, live after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as the Judeans do, how do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Judeans?”
In our view, the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) met in response to that incident at Antioch involving St. Paul, Cephas and others. This dispute in Antioch, which led to the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, is also alluded to in Acts 15:1-2, as our video covers.
Acts 15:1-2 “But some men came down from Judea [into Antioch] and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them [in Antioch], Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.”
As our video explains, we believe that Acts 15:1-2 refers to the same incident that is recorded in Gal. 2:11-14: i.e. St. Paul’s rebuke of Cephas in Antioch, after which Paul and Barnabas were appointed to go to the apostles in Jerusalem to resolve the controversy. The controversy was then resolved at the Council in Jerusalem where St. Peter spoke first to end the debate. He was followed by Barnabas, Paul and James, and the Council issued its decree. Now, when issuing its decision to Antioch (Acts 15:22-29), the Council characterizes the troublemakers at Antioch, who caused the controversy during which Paul rebuked Cephas, as “some persons [who] have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, to whom we did not give instructions…”
Consider this carefully. The apostles (which includes St. Peter, who spoke first at the Council of Jerusalem to end the dispute) are describing the people who caused the problem at Antioch as men who were not instructed to do so by the apostles: “… to whom we [the apostles and elders] did not give instructions…” But if St. Peter himself was the one rebuked by St. Paul at Antioch, and thus heavily involved in the dispute which this decree was addressing and meant to resolve, it doesn’t make sense that the apostles would say “we did not give [them] instructions” about St. Peter (the chief apostle) or those allied with him or those who followed his example. That’s another indication that it was not the Apostle Peter who was involved with the dispute in Antioch before the Council during which Paul rebuked Cephas (the very dispute that this decision of the Council was meant to resolve). For additional reasons why it was not St. Peter whom St. Paul rebuked, but a different person with the same Aramaic name, see the video below.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 1.12.2, 4th century: “Clement [of Alexandria], in the fifth book of his Hypotyposes [circa AD 190], in which he also mentions Cephas, of whom Paul writes: ‘When he came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face’, says that one who happened to have the same name as Peter the Apostle was one of the Seventy.’”
Categories: Bible, Christianity and Catholicism
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There’s Something About Mary: Unmasking a Gun Lobby Mole
Mary McFate was a prominent gun control activist. Mary Lou Sapone was a freelance spy with an NRA connection. They are the same person. A Mother Jones investigation.
James Ridgeway
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
Daniel Schulman
Deputy Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
This is the story of two Marys. Both are in their early 60s, heavyset, with curly reddish hair. But for years they have worked on opposite ends of the same issues. Mary McFate is an advocate of environmental causes and a prominent activist within the gun control movement. For more than a decade, she volunteered for various gun violence prevention organizations, serving on the boards of anti-gun outfits, helping state groups coordinate their activities, lobbying in Washington for gun control legislation, and regularly attending strategy and organizing meetings.
Mary Lou Sapone, by contrast, is a self-described “research consultant,” who for decades has covertly infiltrated citizens groups for private security firms hired by corporations that are targeted by activist campaigns. For some time, Sapone also worked for the National Rifle Association.
But these two Marys share a lot in common—a Mother Jones investigation has found that McFate and Sapone are, in fact, the same person. And this discovery has caused the leaders of gun violence prevention organizations to conclude that for years they have been penetrated—at the highest levels—by the NRA or other pro-gun parties. “It raises the question,” says Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, “of what did she find out and what did they want her to find out.”
Using her maiden name, McFate, Sapone began posing as a gun control activist in the mid-1990s. Bryan Miller, the executive director of Ceasefire New Jersey, a grassroots gun control group, recalls first meeting her in the summer of 1998. The NRA was holding its annual convention in downtown Philadelphia, and the event drew the usual bevy of protesters. Among them was a middle-aged woman then living in Pennsylvania who made a point of introducing herself to Miller. In the following years, Miller would remember this encounter well, as he watched McFate rise from a street protester to a figure known nationally within his movement. She became a leader of Pennsylvanians Against Handgun Violence and later a board member of Ceasefire Pennsylvania. According to staffers at several gun violence prevention groups, she worked on the Million Mom March in 2000, when hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Washington, DC, to demand stricter gun laws. She joined the board of Freedom States Alliance, a network of nine state-based gun control organizations. At States United to Prevent Gun Violence, a nationwide coalition of anti-gun groups, she was the director of federal legislation, an unpaid position that placed her in charge of the outfit’s lobbying efforts in Washington. In that role, she collaborated with national organizations including the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center.
In 2005, McFate ran for a board position at the Brady Campaign, which would have placed her in the inner sanctum of the nation’s most prominent gun control group. On her ballot statement, she described herself as a “community activist and motivational speaker,” “a former presidential scholar,” and a recipient of the “Public Service Council’s Community Champion Award in 1999.” And she pitched her credentials for the position: “I believe my volunteerism over 30 years to nonprofit organizations with disparate program goals has given me practical insights on what strategies are most effective…My experience with broad coalitions working together for societal change has proven to me that our organization is on the right track to make our neighborhoods safer and to give our children their full life potential.”
McFate lost the election, but she did not give up. Several months ago, she told Paul Helmke that she was interested in an appointed board position for the Brady Campaign. (Helmke recalls that he was concerned about placing her on his board because she was already deeply connected to other groups. “I didn’t push the idea,” he says.) In 2007, she attended a summit convened by the International Association of Chiefs of Police that aimed to develop a strategy for reducing gun violence. As an advocate working with both state and national groups, she was privy to the gun control movement’s community’s internal deliberations and in a position to know what was happening throughout the movement. “She’s been active in everything and involved in every single major gun violence prevention organization,” says Barbara Hohlt, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence.
Despite her supposed commitment to the cause, her friends and colleagues in the gun control community considered McFate something of a curiosity. Among other things, she had a tendency to drop in and out of contact, explaining away her absences by saying she had been vacationing aboard luxury cruise liners. When the Brady Campaign’s communications director, Paul Hamm, occasionally asked her to talk to the media about gun issues, she adamantly refused. “I would say, ‘Please, Mary.’ She would say, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want to.'”
Looking back, gun control advocates who worked with McFate can now see what might have been faint warning signs. A few weeks ago, Hohlt says, she had what she considered an odd encounter with McFate when the pair was making preparations to take part in a conference call with other gun control advocates. Rather than face a long-distance charge for the call, McFate, who lives in Florida but was in New York City at the time, insisted on dropping by the offices of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence to participate in the discussion. Given that McFate appeared to be well off financially—she was always offering to travel to meetings and conferences, including NRA conferences, with no concern for cost—Hohlt couldn’t understand why she was demanding to come to this office for the call just to save a few bucks. Nor could she fathom why McFate often pushed to share a hotel room with other gun control advocates at conferences and events when she seemed able to afford accommodations of her own. Hohlt also thought it unusual that McFate served on the boards of several organizations simultaneously, since there was, as Hohlt puts it, “a certain amount of competition between all the groups.” But she never doubted McFate’s devotion to gun control.
Though McFate’s colleagues viewed her as a friend, some found it strange that they knew virtually nothing about her life outside the movement. She never explained the source of her personal wealth. And Toby Hoover, the executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and an activist who worked with McFate since the mid-1990s, says, “She never talked about what she had done prior to this work. I didn’t even know if she had a husband or kids.” Ceasefire New Jersey’s Bryan Miller adds, “She doesn’t talk about her family. I know nothing about her personal life other than that she lives in Sarasota, Florida. For my closest friends in this movement, who also know Mary, it was a matter of low-level discussion that we didn’t know anything about her.”
There was good reason for that.
Outside the gun control world, Mary Lou Sapone was, as Mother Jones has previously reported, a for-hire operative who spied on citizens’ groups for corporate clients. Property and phone records indicate that the two names belong to the same person. Last week, a reporter for Mother Jones called the Sarasota phone number that McFate had given her gun control allies and asked the woman who answered if she was Mary Lou Sapone. “Yes,” she responded. But Sapone then refused to answer any questions about Mary McFate or her work for gun control. She quickly hung up—and did not respond to subsequent calls and emails.
During Sapone’s ascent through the ranks of the gun control movement, she worked for the NRA, according to a business associate. In a 2003 deposition, Tim Ward, who had been president of the Maryland-based security firm Beckett Brown International, said that the NRA had been “a client” of Sapone’s. (As a subcontractor for BBI, Sapone had planted an operative within an environmental group in Lake Charles, Louisiana.) According to Ward, at his request Sapone had introduced BBI to the NRA in early 1999. And that introduction quickly paid off. Billing records obtained by Mother Jones indicate that between May 1999 and April 2000, the NRA paid BBI nearly $80,000 for various services.
In another 2003 deposition, Jay Bly, a former Secret Service officer who worked for BBI, was asked what type of work the security firm had done for the NRA, and he responded, “Those are very sensitive issues, and I’m just not comfortable going into it. I’m really not.” Later in the deposition, Bly said, “I did a number of different things for the NRA in the area of investigation, the area of personal protection, in the area of event security, in the area of intelligence gathering, okay?”
Ward, during his own deposition, explained what a typical BBI intelligence-gathering operation would entail: “We used informants that we would send to public rallies that these people were holding, public demonstrations. These informants developed relationships where they could pick up a phone up and call in to find out where the next event was, where it was going to be held…They are usually very eager to have somebody come and tote banners and scream and shout.” According to Bly’s testimony, he and Ward continued their intelligence-gathering operations for the NRA after BBI acrimoniously disbanded around 2001 and Ward opened his own security firm, Chesapeake Strategies. (These depositions were taken during a lawsuit filed against former BBI officials by John Dodd, the firm’s primary investor.)
In his deposition, Ward identified Sapone’s contact at the NRA as Patrick O’Malley. From the late 1990s until 2002, O’Malley was the deputy executive director of the Institute for Legislative Action, the NRA’s political arm. And according to billing records from BBI (which in 2000 changed its name to S2I Corporation), O’Malley was BBI’s liaison at the NRA. Recent emails indicate that in 2007 and 2008 Sapone was working with O’Malley, who lobbied for the NRA after leaving the ILA and went on to work for a government relations firm retained by his former employer. In recent years, O’Malley has served as the executive director of the Ballot Issues Coalition, an organization composed of hunting-rights groups, including the NRA.
O’Malley did not respond to numerous messages left at his office and home. Asked about Sapone, James Jay Baker, who was executive director of the NRA’s ILA when O’Malley was its deputy executive director, says, “I don’t have anything to say about any vendors at the NRA.” Baker notes, “We got information from whatever sources we can,” but he maintains that he was not aware of any infiltration of the gun control movement. Baker, now managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations, a high-powered lobbying shop, is currently registered as a lobbyist for the NRA. (After leaving the NRA in 2002, both O’Malley and Baker joined the Federalist Group, a lobbying firm that was acquired by Ogilvy in 2005.) Contacted repeatedly, the NRA declined to comment on its past or present relationship with Sapone, BBI, or Chesapeake Strategies.
Informed of McFate’s true identity, her friends and associates in the gun control community expressed shock and anger. “That astounds me,” says Barbara Hohlt. Of McFate’s ability to maintain her cover, she adds, “She was very, very good. Everybody knew her for years and trusted her.” Brian Malte, director of state legislation at the Brady Campaign, says, “Oh my…Of all the people.” Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, remarks, “This is totally bizarre.” And she adds, “I would find it hardest to believe this about her. She comes across as kind of dense—or she’s putting on a good act.”
McFate’s (now former) colleagues note that she was well-positioned for many years to provide the NRA—or any other gun rights groups—the plans, secrets, and inside gossip of practically the entire gun violence prevention movement. “She had access to all the legislative strategy for every major issue for years,” says Rand. Another gun control advocate who worked with McFate and asked not to be identified recalls, “She was one of those rare people. As a volunteer, she wanted to know more and more about what people were working on.” With intelligence gathered by McFate, Ceasefire New Jersey’s Miller says, the gun lobby could “learn a lot: what the grassroots of the gun violence prevention movement intended; where our priorities are shifting; which legislation we would be promoting or fighting against and what sort of effort we would be putting into that; who our targeted legislators would be; what states and districts we deemed important enough to put an effort into; our messaging, what our messaging would be before we put it out there.”
Hohlt recalled several recent episodes in which McFate maneuvered to place herself in the middle of issues important to the NRA and others in the gun lobby. One occurred this spring, when the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms was trying to persuade American gun control groups to attend a July meeting at the United Nations on small-arms control. (A 2001 UN conference ended up establishing a program weaker than gun control advocates had desired, thanks to the intervention of the Bush administration, which had been lobbied by the NRA.) States United to Prevent Gun Violence had never before been involved with international gun control issues. And to participate in the UN meeting, it had to apply for credentials. Hohlt says McFate pushed her to file for them. Hohlt did so, and McFate ended up being able to learn what the anti-gun forces were planning for the UN session—including the delegates they intended to lobby, and the arguments they would highlight.
McFate also took a keen interest in a gun matter currently under consideration by the Department of the Interior, Hohlt says. At the urging of the gun lobby, the agency has been mulling whether to change its regulations to allow people to carry loaded and concealed guns into national parks under certain circumstances. (At the moment, a gun carried into a national park must be unloaded and kept apart from ammunition.) The National Parks Conservation Association and current and former National Park Service officials have been fighting the proposed rule change. “When Mary heard about this,” Hohlt recalls, “she immediately asked to be on the email list [of the opponents] and she also got on the phone calls. So she now knows the strategy of the people trying to fight this.” Similarly, when Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group organized by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, mounted a campaign against the NRA-backed Tiahrt amendment—legislation advanced by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and first passed by Congress in 2003 that prevents the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from sharing gun-tracing data—McFate, according to Hohlt, made certain to participate in conference calls during which strategy for beating back the bill was discussed. “Whenever an issue comes up, she manages to get on the email list,” Hohlt says.
The McFate operation, says Miller, “would confirm for me the way that the gun lobby works, which is no rules, no question of fairness or honesty. Anything that they can do they will do to protect the profits of the gun industry.” He notes that his organization has experienced low-level attempts at penetration in the past—a pro-gun advocate once posed as a would-be volunteer to get on his group’s mailing list—but nothing on this scale.
Shocked to learn that McFate was a spy, gun control advocates have pondered the obvious questions: How did she manage to fool everyone for so long? How much money did she earn for being a mole? To whom in the gun lobby did she report? The NRA? The firearms manufacturing industry? Did her covert effort extend beyond mere intelligence gathering? Did she manage to shape the decisions and actions of anti-gun groups to the gun lobby’s liking? And was she the only one?
While Sapone was a spy with a big secret, as McFate she led a relatively high-profile life. In Sarasota, Florida, McFate heads the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She has served as a substitute teacher at a local military academy, and once joined a coalition of residents who fought to save a 112-acre forest from development. Several years ago, McFate cofounded an organization called Lead Our Leaders, which boasted the “audacious mission” of changing “the way politics is done in America” by creating “a mechanism for the American electorate to effectively communicate their policy instructions to our elected leaders.” A 2005 profile of her in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune began, “Mary McFate wants to save the world.” (She told the paper, “I’m an optimist by nature.”) During a short-lived attempt at blogging, she wrote a small number of postings using the handle “SolutionGal” and touted her Lead Our Leaders effort. (She stopped blogging in February 2006, and the website of Lead Our Leaders is no longer active.)
Sapone’s earliest known private intelligence operation occurred in the mid-1980s, when she served as an operative for Perceptions International, a Connecticut-based security firm. Working for Perceptions, which has since been shuttered, she infiltrated the animal rights community for US Surgical Corporation, a target of activists who objected to its testing on dogs. According to a 1989 article in New England Business, Sapone appeared on the animal rights scene in 1986 and quickly became “involved in at least a half dozen animal rights groups.” She “made a point of getting to know all of the key people in the movement,” and “traveled around the country to most protests, meetings and conferences.” At meetings, activists would later say, Sapone advocated taking illegal or violent action to advance the movement. She befriended a 33-year-old activist named Fran Trutt, who in November 1988 would be arrested for planting a remote-controlled pipe bomb near the parking space of US Surgical chairman Leon Hirsch. According to Trutt, on her way to carry out the bombing she lost her nerve and placed a call to Sapone, who convinced her to follow through with the plan—a fact that prompted activists to accuse Sapone of acting as an agent provocateur. (Another Perceptions International operative, Marcus Mead, drove Trutt to US Surgical on the day of the attempted bombing.)
In the 1990s—while working within the gun control community as McFate—Sapone formed her own intelligence-gathering business. And she enlisted family members for its operations. “In our business, it’s my daughter-in-law, Montgomery Sapone [who] does all the analytic reports, forecasting, and white papers,” Sapone wrote to a client in an August 1999 email obtained by Mother Jones. “She produces a very professional product.” Sapone continued, “We are warning our clients that activist groups are moving towards ballot initiatives…And it’s easy for groups like Greenpeace to emotionally shape a looming crisis in a 10 second TV spot 2 days before a referenda election. My daughter Shelley specializes in that aspect of our business. We are doing a lot of work now to help clients in the 2000 election.”
A resume that Montgomery Sapone used around 1999 describes her role within Mary Lou’s business: “Collect and analyze intelligence on European activities of major international environmental organization for a company specializing in domestic and international opposition research, special investigations, issues management and threat assessment. Write weekly intelligence update on European animal rights and eco-terrorist activity. Assist in confidential litigation support research.” Sapone’s son Sean, a Brown- and Harvard-educated paratrooper who served with the 82nd Airborne Division, was managing director of this firm, which at one point was called Strategic Solutions Group LLC and maintained an office in Washington, DC. According to a Strategic Solutions Group invoice sent to BBI in November 2000, Montgomery Sapone—a Harvard law school grad and Yale-trained anthropologist—once billed the security firm $400 for four hours of her time, which included a “visit to target’s office.”
Sapone made her gun control work a family affair as well. Around 2003, Montgomery volunteered at the Brady Campaign, according to Becca Knox, the group’s research director. Occasionally, Montgomery would also sit in for her mother-in-law at Washington strategy meetings attended by officials of the gun control movement, according to the Violence Policy Center’s Kristen Rand. And Sean Sapone once offered to help Rand’s group on a campaign against the civilian use of .50 caliber rifles, Rand recalls. But after attending one meeting, Sean Sapone never followed through.
These days, Sean and Montgomery Sapone are better known as Sean and Montgomery McFate, a successful Washington couple whose current bios make no mention of any past intelligence-gathering or opposition-research work. Sean is currently the program director of the national security initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank boasting an advisory board composed of four former Senate majority leaders: Howard Baker, Bob Dole, George Mitchell, and Tom Daschle. An expert on military affairs, he previously worked for Amnesty International and for military contractor DynCorp. According to an online biography, he helped to organize “the first major legal arms shipment to Liberia in 15 years.” Montgomery has made a name for herself as one of the primary architects of the US military’s human terrain program, which teams social scientists with military units in Iraq and Afghanistan to help soldiers better understand the local culture. (The controversial program has been sharply criticized by the American Anthropological Association, which fears it may cross an ethical line, and has been described by detractors as “mercenary anthropology.”) Now a top Pentagon adviser, Montgomery also contributed to the Army’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual drafted under the guidance of General David Petraeus.
Montgomery McFate did not respond to an email request for comment. Nor did Mary Lou Sapone’s daughter, Shelley McGonnigal. During a brief phone call, Sean McFate told Mother Jones, “I’m familiar with what you are doing. But I don’t want to talk to the media.” Asked to explain his mother’s double life as Mary McFate and Mary Lou Sapone, he said, “You have to talk to Mary Lou.” Then he hung up.
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Good Charlotte bass writing masterclass
By Claire Davies, Bass Expo 2014 2014-02-27T08:52:00.57Z Bass
Paul Thomas on writing bass for GC's biggest hits
Paul Thomas (right) playing live with Good Charlotte
(Image credit: Robb D Cohen / Corbis)
Good Charlotte live
Paul Thomas playing live with Good Charlotte at the Bamboozle Roadshow, Toronto
(Image credit: Brian Patterson / Corbis)
Paul Thomas of Good Charlotte
BASS EXPO 2014: When it comes to dance floor fillers, Good Charlotte have more than a handful to their name. Insanely catchy tunes with memorable basslines, guitar riffs, and big sing-a-long choruses, those Maryland boys sure know how to write a hit song.
Paul Thomas has been with the band since its inception. A rock bassist by nature, he knows exactly what makes a Good Charlotte bassline tick, having written them for each of the band's five hit albums. For Bass Expo 2014, we chatted to Thomas about his playing style, his various muses, and how he writes for Good Charlotte.
We also asked him to breakdown the basslines on three of Good Charlotte's biggest hits, explaining how he came up with them, what gear he used, and how you can play them at home.
To begin, how would you describe your bass playing style?
"It's rock bass. I play with a pick, which brightens the bass and adds more punch to it. This allows the bass to blend well with distorted guitars. The majority of GC songs recorded were played with a pick, but there are the occasional songs where I wanted a more fluid and smoother sound. So I would play on songs with my fingers when the song called for it (typically ballads).
How do you stay inspired when creating new music?
"My muse appears to me in a different form every time a new idea for a song is created. Sometimes I'm inspired by music or film, but more typically it's my surroundings that truly inspire me. Family, work, school, the city I live in, the books I read... All of these things inspire the creation of a song."
When writing Good Charlotte basslines, do you work closely with other members of the band?
"Actually, it's usually just me and the producer (or sometimes the engineer) who are in the room when I record my bass lines. I think the other guys are confident that I will come up with something that sounds good. It's more of a compliment really, knowing that the guys trust me and don't feel like they have to hover over my shoulder making sure I play the bass right."
What is your favourite Good Charlotte bassline to play and why?
"Mountain is my favourite to play live. It's not one of the bigger hits, so we only get to play it when we have a long set. I absolutely love the heavy riff at the end of the song and playing it live is always fun. Nobody's standing still during that part of the song."
"Family, work, school... All of these things inspire the creation of a song"
If you were suddenly unable to play with the band for a number of gigs and needed to hire a dep, what advice could you give them about playing your role in the band?
"This has actually happened for me - I had to miss some shows when my son was born. Dean [Butterworth, drummer] is a man with resources in the music world. He knows a great guitarist/bass player named Serge who filled in for me. We had a rehearsal and I walked him through the set and the bass lines. He did a great job according to the guys. The only advice I would give anyone on filling my shoes is to just play solid and stick with Dean."
We heard you and Dean have formed a band. What can you tell us about it?
"Yes, Dean and I have a side project called The Strayed with my buddy Phil who lives in the Bay Area. GC have been on sabbatical while Benji [Madden, guitars/vocals] and Joel [Madden, vocals] have been working on their Madden Brothers album. I have been in school pursing a CIS degree, but I just can't stop making music. The Strayed put out a six song EP last year and we will put out another EP this year, too. I'm really inspired by bands like Crosses and Phantogram with the idea of just putting out small EPs but doing it frequently."
In this next part of the interview, Thomas walks us through the basslines on three of Good Charlotte's biggest hits, explaining how he wrote them, and the gear and techniques used...
The writing: "I wanted the verses to have an 80s feel, so I took the feel from Cars by Gary Numan and incorporated into the notation of our song. It really took the song to the next level and I feel it was one of the biggest impacts I've had on a song."
The gear: "It was recorded with a 2002 four string American Fender Jazz. We went to Guitar Center and tried out every bass they had. The Guitar Center in LA on Sunset has a crazy large selection of classic basses from the 60s and 70s, but it was a cheaper new bass that we felt sounded the best. Almost all of The Young And The Hopeless was recorded on that bass.
"I usually play a five string bass but we found that a four string tuned down sounded better. I had to teach myself how to play the songs in dropped tuning. We used a classic Ampeg SVT through an Ampeg 8 x 10 cab. I also used GHS Boomer bass strings - the heavier gauge seemed to work better with the drop tuning."
The technique: "The verses are palm muted. I play the chorus all on the E string. I feel that an E played holding the 7th fret of the A string doesn't sound as strong as an E played holding the 12th fret of the E string. Other than that it's a pretty straight forward bass line. Not too many tricks."
I Don't Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem)
The writing: "This bass line already existed on the demo, played by either Benji or Don Gilmore [producer]. I made a few changes here and there and made the bass line into my own."
The gear: "Dance Floor Anthem was recorded with a five string Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay. Don was more of a minimalist when it came to recording bass. We used only direct signals, one from an Avalon DI and the other from a Sans Amp DI. That's it - no mics, no amps."
The technique: "When I play this song, I usually do down strokes only. It's a very simple and straight forward song. The rhythm of the verses is a little tricky, but all you have to do is follow the drums."
The writing: "This is one of my favourite bass lines. It's hard to say where the inspiration for the bass line came from. Eric Valentine [producer] helped me write the verses and the ending. He has such a good ear for melodic notes. So I would come up with the feel and the idea, and then he would help me fine tune it."
The gear: "We Believe was recorded on a '68 Fender Precision Bass - I managed to lose the Fender Jazz I used on The Young & The Hopeless - and we used a Classic Ampeg SVT. Once again, we used a four string bass and I had to tune down for the low notes I usually play on the B string."
The technique: "I played and recorded this song using my fingers instead of a pick. In the verses I'm basically playing a guitar chord and plucking the strings with my thumb, pointer and middle fingers. The end is my favourite part of the song. I love how the bass keeps moving - it's fun to play."
Interview: Claire Davies
You can find out more about Paul Thomas' new side project The Strayed by visiting their official website
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Letter | Published: 06 August 1992
Retrograde transport of endocytosed Shiga toxin to the endoplasmic reticulum
Kirsten Sandvig1,
Øystein Garred1,
Kristian Prydz1,
Juri V. Kozlov2,
Steen H. Hansen3 &
Bo van Deurs3
SHIGA toxin and some other protein toxins that act on targets in the cytosol have previously been shown to enter the trans-Golgi network1–9. Transport by this route may be necessary for translocation of the toxin to the cytosol and for intoxication5–9, but it is not known whether the enzymatically active part of the toxins actually enters the cytosol from the fraiw-Golgi network. It has been suggested that such toxins are transported in a retrograde manner to the endoplasmic reticulum and that translocation occurs in this organelle10, but retrograde transport of endocytosed material beyond the trans-Golgi network has never been demonstrated. Here we show that in butyric acid-treated A431 cells endocytosed Shiga toxin is not only transported to the trans-Golgi network, but also to all Golgi stacks, to the endoplasmic reticulum and to the nuclear envelope. Furthermore, butyric acid sensitizes the cells to Shiga toxin, which is consistent with the possibility that retrograde transport is required for translocation of the toxin to the cytosol.
van Deurs, B. et al. J. Cell Biol. 106, 253–267 (1988).
Hansen, S. H., Petersen, O. W., Sandvig, K., Olsnes, S. & van Deurs, B. Expl Cell Res. 185, 373–386 (1989).
Sandvig, K., Olsnes, S., Brown, J. E., Petersen, O. W. & van Deurs, B. J. Cell Biol. 108, 1331–1343 (1989).
Sandvig, K., Prydz, K., Ryd, M. & van Deurs, B. J. Cell Biol. 113, 553–562 (1991).
van Deurs, B., Petersen, O. W., Olsnes, S. & Sandvig, K. Int. Rev. Cyt. 117, 131–177 (1989).
Sandvig, K., Tønnessen, T. I. & Olsnes, S. Cancer Res. 46, 6418–6422 (1986).
van Deurs, B., Tønnessen, T. I., Petersen, O. W., Sandvig, K. & Olsnes, S. J. Cell Biol. 102, 37–47 (1986).
Youle, R. J. & Colombatti, M. J. biol. Chem. 262, 4676–4682 (1987).
Olsnes, S. & Sandvig, K. in Immunotoxins (ed. Frankel, A. E.) Vol. 1 39–73 (Kluwer Academic, Boston, 1988).
Pelham, H. R. B., Roberts, L. M. & Lord, J. M. Trends Cell Biol. 2, 183–185 (1992).
Kartenbeck, J., Stukenbrok, H. & Helenius, A. J. Cell Biol. 109, 2721–2729 (1989).
Lewis, M. J. & Pelham, R. B. Cell 68, 353–364 (1992).
Van, P. N., Peter, F. & Söling, H.-D. J. biol. Chem. 264, 17494–17501 (1989).
Seetharam, S., Chaudhary, V. K., Fitzgerald, D. & Pastan, I. J. biol. Chem. 266, 17376–17381 (1991).
Chaudhary, V. K., Jinno, Y., Fitzgerald, D. & Pastan, I. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 308–312 (1990).
Kozlov, Y. V., Kabishev, A. A., Lukyanov, E. V. & Bayev, A. A. Gene 67, 213–221 (1988).
Strockbine, N. A., Jackson, M. P., Sung, L. M., Holmes, R. K. & O'Brien, A. J. Bact. 170, 1116–1122 (1988).
Seidah, N. G. et al. J. biol. Chem. 261, 13928–13931 (1986).
Institute for Cancer Research at the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, 0310, Oslo, 3, Norway
Kirsten Sandvig
, Øystein Garred
& Kristian Prydz
W. A. Engelhardt Institute for Molecular Biology, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Vavilov str 32, 117984, Moscow, B334, Russia
Juri V. Kozlov
Structural Cell Biology Unit, Department of Anatomy, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark
Steen H. Hansen
& Bo van Deurs
Search for Kirsten Sandvig in:
Search for Øystein Garred in:
Search for Kristian Prydz in:
Search for Juri V. Kozlov in:
Search for Steen H. Hansen in:
Search for Bo van Deurs in:
https://doi.org/10.1038/358510a0
Toxins Utilize the Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Protein Degradation Pathway in Their Intoxication Process
Jowita Nowakowska-Gołacka
, Hanna Sominka
, Natalia Sowa-Rogozińska
& Monika Słomińska-Wojewódzka
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2019)
The role of PS 18:0/18:1 in membrane function
Tore Skotland
& Kirsten Sandvig
Nature Communications (2019)
Shiga toxin triggers endothelial and podocyte injury: the role of complement activation
Carlamaria Zoja
, Simona Buelli
& Marina Morigi
Pediatric Nephrology (2019)
Complement Activation Contributes to the Pathophysiology of Shiga Toxin-Associated Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome
Simona Buelli
, Carlamaria Zoja
, Giuseppe Remuzzi
Microorganisms (2019)
Roles of Shiga Toxins in Immunopathology
Moo-Seung Lee
& Vernon Tesh
Toxins (2019)
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NBC Connecticut News at 11
Full coverage on NBC through August 12
The latest local news, weather and investigative stories impacting your community.
Will.i.am Carries Olympic Torch
The Black Eyed Peas star was a surprise addition to the torch relay Monday
Published May 21, 2012 at 7:18 PM | Updated at 10:39 AM EDT on Jun 20, 2012
Olympic torchbearer Will.i.am carries the Olympic flame on May 21, 2012 in Taunton, England.
Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am has carried the Olympic flame in Britain, trotting through the western English city of Taunton to the cheers of thousands.
The 37-year old star was surprise addition to the torch relay on Monday and performed a short moonwalk as the crowd roared. He says he was thinking `'Me and Michael," a reference to the late Michael Jackson, who made the dance move famous.
The star, whose real name is William Adams, says he's known for about a year that he'd carry the torch but was told not to tweet about it. But when it all started, he held his phone in the air, asking residents to follow him on Twitter.
Unlike others, his torch will not be going up for sale. Will.i.am says "I don't eBay."
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Neptune Theatre Foundation Board of Directors
Rebecca Hiltz LeBlanc (President)
Rebecca Hiltz LeBlanc hails from the beautiful Halifax Regional Municipality and is a litigation partner with the law firm BOYNECLARKE LLP. Rebecca is committed to her community serving in a number of roles both inside and out of the legal community. Rebecca serves as a part-time instructor at the Schulic School of Law, has been a volunteer with the Pro-Bono Clinic at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia since its inception, has served as a Reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces for the past 27 years, and has been involved in a number of other community initiatives. Rebecca has a long history as a performing artist, and it is that passion for the arts that led her to the Neptune Theatre Foundation’s Board of Directors in 2009, and to become its President in 2015. Rebecca shares her love for the arts, for public service, and for our community with her husband, Mitch, and their beautiful son Luc.
Paul Laberge (Programming Committee Chair)
Paul Laberge joined Emera Energy as Executive Vice President, Legal, Regulatory and Public Affairs in August 2016. Prior to joining Emera Energy, Paul was Senior Counsel, Special Projects for Emera Inc. since 2013 where he led the legal and regulatory due diligence and legal aspects of the regulatory approval process for the acquisition of TECO Energy, was legal lead on a number of greenfield development projects and led the tidal energy and floating wind development teams. Paul brings over 20 years of legal, business development and executive management experience gained in private legal practice, at Alliance Atlantis Communications, where is served in a variety of increasingly senior roles, culminating in Executive VP, Corporate Development & General Counsel for the motion picture distribution division and at Magellan Fuel Solutions, a business he co-founded and co-developed from concept to successful commercial product launch and sale. Paul is a graduate of the law school at Western University and also has a MBA and science degree from McMaster University. He is a director of Neptune Theatre and an advisory board member for Prostate Cancer Canada Atlantic Region.
Virginia Jones (Secretary)
Virginia Jones isa native Newfoundlander who recently returned to the East Coast after a successful legal career in the arts and entertainment sectors in Ontario. Virginia's clients have ranged from major international film and television producers and distributors to independent playwrights. She has always exhibited a passion for the cultural sector and the valuable contribution that cultural engagement can make to a community. Now that she calls Halifax home she is excited to bring her skills and experiences to the Board of Directors of the Neptune Theatre Foundation. Virginia is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the Armour Group Limited. She obtained her law degree from Dalhousie University and her MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.
Charlene Milner
Charlene Milner, CA, CPA is the Vice President of Financial Reporting and Accounting at High Liner Foods Incorporated. Prior to joining High Liner in early 2016, she worked at AuRico Gold Inc. in progressively senior roles, with the most recent being Senior Vice President, Finance. Charlene also worked at Grant Thornton LLP for several years, and graduated from Dalhousie University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Rodney Belliveau, CA (Vice President)
Rodney Belliveau, CA, is an assurance partner with Grant Thornton LLP in the Halifax office and is a member of the Nova Scotia Institute of Chartered Accountants. Rodney graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in 1999. In his professional practice Rodney focuses on public and publicly accountable entities including not-for-profit entities, and provides advisory and consultation services on complex accounting and auditing matters. Rodney has been a proud member of the Neptune Theatre Foundation Board of Directors since 2011 and is the Treasurer and Audit Committee Chair. In addition to being actively involved in the Neptune Theatre Foundation, Rodney is also involved in a number of other community fundraising initiatives. Rodney and his wife, Nicole, and their two beautiful daughters, Mackenzie and Abigayle, live in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
Mary Clancy
Mary Clancy graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University, Dalhousie Law School, and the University of London(UK).She served as assistant-director of Continuing Legal Education (UBC/BC Bar Association) before returning to Halifax as Special Advisor to Nova Scotia`s Minister for The Status of Women. She practised law as a solo practitioner for nearly ten years, while writing a weekly newspaper column on public affairs and a political commentator for the CBC.She also appeared several times on the Neptune Stage and with other theatre groups in the city. In 1988 she was elected Halifax`s first female MP, her tasks included parliamentary secretary in Immigration, and Chair of parliament`s Defence committee. In 1997 She was named Consul General to Boston.Returning to Halifax, she is still opining on CBC radio, and sits on several boards.
Pete Clive (Development Chair)
Pete Clive (Development Chair) is very familiar with the city's evolving real estate market as a resident and property investor in downtown Halifax. He is also aware of the responsibility of managing what is often a clients' largest decision – where they will invest and where they will live. During his five years at Harbourside Realty, Pete was proud to have mentored with some of the city’s most respected and successful Realtors. This experience propelled him to establish his own brokerageSixEight Realty Group in 2011. Fully engaged in the quality lifestyle that Halifax has to offer, Pete is an avid boater, an enthusiastic supporter of local music and theatre and has a fondness for stepping out and enjoying the city’s many restaurants. He shares a home in Fleming Heights with his wife and daughter.
Kelly Boudreau
Kelly Boudreau was raised on the beautiful Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, in Canso, Guysborough County. After leaving small town life in 1989, she moved to Halifax to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University, graduating in 1996. In February 1994 she started working at TD Canada Trust. Kelly furthered her education by completing several financial industry educational accomplishments including Professional Financial Planning & Canadian Securities through the Canadian Securities Institute. During Kelly's career with TD Bank, she has been recognized as a top performing employee by receiving TD's Award of Excellence and Champion title seven times. She has also received TD's top employee recognition achievement – Vision in Action -- an award presented to only 0.1% of employees annually. Kelly is committed to giving back to her community and is an active supporter of Women in Leadership. She is a
Tracey Jones-Grant
Tracey Jones-Grant grew up and obtained her schooling in Halifax, graduating from Mount Saint Vincent University in 1984 and a Masters of Library Sciences at Dalhousie in 1986. The daughter of Joan and Burnley “Rocky” Jones, Tracey grew up at the height of the efforts to define Black identity and fight for civil rights. Tracey has worked in the area of diversity from being the Diversity Manager for Halifax Public Libraries to coordinator of Diversity Management for the Halifax Regional School board to most recently as the Manager, Diversity and Inclusion for the Halifax Regional Municipality in the newly created Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Tracey first came to Neptune theatre back in 1978 as the first African Nova Scotian front of house staff member under the leadership of Artistic Director John Neville.
Kate Mullan MacIsaac
Kate Mullan MacIsaac grew up in Kentville, Nova Scotia. After completing her Undergraduate Degree at Mount Allison University, she attended Theatre School in New York City. Kate then worked in film and television in California and British Columbia for approximately 7 years, before returning home to Nova Scotia to attend law school. Kate graduated from Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law with an L.L.B., and practiced both corporate and family law in Halifax for a number of years. Following the birth of her oldest son Robert, Kate decided not to return to the practice of law. Alongside her business partner, she opened Infusion Spa + Salon in Bedford in 2012, where she currently works full-time. While not working, Kate loves the company of her husband, Kyle, and her two boys; Robert and Owen. Kate remains active in the film and television industry in Nova Scotia.
Sara Scott
Sara Scott is a partner in the Halifax office of Stewart McKelvey. Called to the Nova Scotia bar in 2005 following her Bachelor of Law degree as well as Bachelor of Science (Engineering) degree from University of New Brunswick, Sara’s practice is focused on such areas as corporate/commercial, litigation,construction law, and bankruptcy and receivership.
James Spurr
James Spurr has been practicing law in Halifax for over 30 years in, both the public and private sectors, and currently serves as Corporate Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary at the Halifax Regional Water Commission. Jim has numerous professional affiliations, including involvement with the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, the Canadian Bar Association and the Institute of Corporate Directors. In addition to serving on Neptune’s Board, Jim also serves on the Board of Property Valuation Services Corporation and Green Power Labs. He is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Business Administration and a graduate of Dalhousie Law School.
Catherine Bagnell Styles
Catherine Bagnell Styles is a senior leader responsible for the overall strategic direction of Dalhousie University’s corporate communications and marketing functions. Prior to joining Dalhousie University, Catherine was Associate VP External Relations at the University of Calgary for seven years and taught Marketing in the Faculty of Continuing Education. A graduate of Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS, Catherine has also completed executive leadership training at Queens University and Royal Roads University. Catherine has served as Board Chair for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary, as a board member for the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education and as a volunteer with Voice Print Canada. In addition to serving with Neptune, she is also a board member for Laing House Association.
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Thank you, India! India-UN Fund grants $ 1.5 millions for rehabilitation of community health centers in Palau
United Nations, Jun 19: India’s contribution to the United Nations is unparalleled in many ways. India’s stand-in UN is well-appreciated in many events. India-UN Fund is always admired by other member countries. At this time, addressing the improvement in health care services in Palau, India-UN Fund grants $ 1.5 millions for community health centers.
A $1.5 million grant from the India-UN Development Partnership Fund (India-UN Fund) – managed by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation – will support the rehabilitation of six community health centers.
Speaking at the India-UN Fund’s second anniversary commemorations held at UN Headquarters in New York recently, UNOPS Executive Director Grete Faremo said, "India’s leadership has given the international community a dedicated avenue to helping those across the developing world, not least those countries who suffer most acutely from the impacts of climate change, poverty and a lack of resilient infrastructure".
Under the collaboration, UNOPS will assist Palau’s Ministry of Health to provide adequate facilities to deliver patient-focused care, and improved and safe working conditions for medical staff – both of which are key to efficient and sustainable healthcare systems that support a healthier population.
"I've been involved with the UN system since Palau's independence in 1994. India's generosity and commitment to supporting Palau's public health and UNOPS unparalleled administrative skill will literally save countless lives in my country," said President of the Republic of Palau, Tommy Remengesau.
The India-UN Fund works with developing countries in the spirit of South-South cooperation, providing assistance in support of achieving national development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals. Funding support is focused on the least developed countries, land-locked developing countries, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean and contains approximately 340 islands. As with other SIDS, Palau is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. With their small size and geographical isolation – as well as geological characteristics – small islands are more vulnerable to changing and extreme weather patterns triggered by climate change.
“Recognizing the challenges and vulnerabilities of the local communities in the Pacific SIDS, UNOPS is committed to taking immediate action to help increase their resilience,” said UNOPS Regional Director for Asia Sanjay Mathur.
“We are very excited to work with the government of Palau to improve the quality, availability, and access to primary healthcare across the island nation,” he added.
To date, UNOPS – through the UN-India Fund – is implementing projects in Montenegro, Marshall Islands, and Palau, and is designing a new project in partnership with the government of Nauru.
India-UN Fund UN Office for South-South Cooperation UNOPS Health services in Palau
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Annals of Technology
Goodbye, Cameras
By Craig Mod
This past October, just before the leaves changed, I went on a six-day hike through the mountains of Wakayama, in central Japan, tracing the path of an ancient imperial pilgrimage called the Kumano Kodo. I took along a powerful camera, believing, as I always have, that it would be an indispensable creative tool. But I returned with the unshakeable feeling that I’m done with cameras, and that most of us are, if we weren’t already.
My passion for cameras began when I was a teen-ager, but I took to them in earnest in 2000, when I arrived in Tokyo as a college student. Back then, the city was rife with used-camera shops overflowing with rows of dusty, greasy, and dented bodies and lenses. I spent several lazy weekday afternoons wandering through the stores, precociously bugging the grouchy owners about the benefits of one camera over another. Deep down, I wanted a classic Leica M3, which cost fifteen hundred dollars at the time, though a choice lens could easily double the price. Constrained by a student’s budget, I chose a used Nikon 8008 body, which the Times had named “the camera of the future” in 1988. I paired it with a cheap 50-mm. lens, then set off for a month hitchhiking the entire breadth of Japan, from Tokyo to Fukuoka, filling my backpack with delicately exposed rolls of film.
I shot exclusively with Fuji Velvia film, partly because of its famous lollipop-like color saturation and partly for the challenge of using I.S.O.-50 slide film. The lower the I.S.O. of a film, the less sensitive it is to light. This makes it more difficult to shoot with, but the images have a smooth, polished quality to them; while high-I.S.O. film needs only a trickle of light to produce a usable picture, the images look rough and grainy, like sandpaper. The experience of waiting for the slides to return from the developer was both petrifying and magical: Had any of the images that appeared in the camera’s viewfinder made it back intact? I was rewarded with hundreds of gorgeous, otherworldly images, and I pored over those slides for weeks.
Two years later, I used eBay to piece together a Hasselblad 500C, the classic medium-format camera. (It also has an impressive geek pedigree: Walter Schirra took one into space on the Mercury rocket, in 1962, igniting NASA’s long-standing love affair with the company, which is based in Sweden.) Depending on the type of medium-format film, the images can be anywhere from two to six times as large as standard 35-mm. photos. While the cameras are larger and less portable, they capture an incredible amount of detail: if you were to take a picture of a man holding a penny from a few feet away with an iPhone, a 35-mm. Nikon, and a medium-format Hasselblad—with equivalent lenses—you would notice the penny in the iPhone shot, you’d clearly see it in the Nikon shot, and you could read the date in the Hasselblad shot.
Holding the 500C, I could hardly believe that I had spent so much money on a box. That’s all a camera is, really: a box with a hole. Film rests at the back of the box and the lens is at the front. The shutter sits between them, and by opening for longer or shorter durations it exposes the film to certain amounts of light. Most cameras have some kind of automation, elevating them beyond a dumb box. The Hasselblad doesn’t: it has no electric parts, no automatic focus, no light meter; it doesn’t even have an automatic film-winding mechanism. It holds only twelve photos per (expensive) roll of film. But it is beautifully machined, with solid, precisely interlocking pieces.
Because of its simplicity, shooting with a 500C is deliberate in ways that few other cameras can match: you line up your shot, take a deep breath, and then, when everything comes together—light, shadow, and subject—squeeze the release and mumble a short prayer as the cloth shutter opens and closes with a thick, satisfying thunk. It almost feels like the camera is munching on the photons of light passing through it. I loved looking at the world through its precisely ground glass, though now it sits idly on my desk, its obstinate, mechanical simplicity a lifeless monument to the designer Sixten Sason’s hard-edged minimalism.
In late 2004, after graduating college, I scrounged together enough cash to buy my first real digital camera: the Nikon D70, which was almost identical to the 8008 except that, when the shutter opened, light hit an array of sensors rather than film. Even though that difference seemed small, the purchase made me nervous. I had developed hundreds, if not thousands, of rolls of black-and-white film in my badly ventilated, chemical-filled university apartment. Would I miss watching ghostly images appear from the silver halide salts, the sting of acetic acid on my hands and in my nostrils?
I stopped using film almost immediately. The benefits were too undeniable: results were immediately visible on the camera’s rear screen, and I could snap thousands of photos on a trip without worrying about fragile rolls of film, which were always an X-ray machine away from erasure. But the D70 was unromantic. It didn’t have the strangely alluring mechanical rawness of the 500C, while the shift to digital imaging disrupted the compartmentalized, meditative processes that had punctuated photography for the previous hundred and fifty years: shooting, developing, and printing. As anyone working in a creative field knows, the perspective gained by spending time away from work is invaluable. Before digital (and outside of Polaroids), photography was filled with such forced perspective. No matter how quickly you worked, it was common for hours—if not days, weeks, or longer—to pass between seeing the image through the viewfinder and reviewing it in the darkroom. Digital technology scrunches these slow, drawn-out processes together.
By late 2009, the five-year-old D70 felt about as fresh as the twenty-year-old 8008. It captured only 6.1 megapixels, less than a current smartphone, and the rear display was laughably small, the size of a postage stamp. On a whim, I picked up a brand-new Panasonic GF1, a so-called micro-four-thirds camera.
The GF1 and its oddly named technology heralded a subtly new type of device. Most professional 35-mm. cameras and their digital equivalents were single-lens reflex cameras. When you look into a typical S.L.R. viewfinder, you see a doubly reversed image, reflected once from a mirror in front of the film (or sensor) and twice more inside the viewfinder’s pentaprism. When you squeeze the button to take a picture, the mirror slaps upward—the loud clack that often echoes from professional-looking cameras—allowing the light to hit the film or sensor, capturing the image. The GF1 dispensed with both the mirror and the viewfinder, making it significantly smaller and lighter. When I went to Annapurna Base Camp, in central Nepal, the GF1 was so slight that I could keep it strung around my neck the entire trip, and the results were extraordinary. Not peering through the viewfinder to shoot provided a unique benefit: it altered the camera’s role in portrait photography. In an extensive field test from the trip, I wrote, “For better or worse, a camera without a viewfinder is less intimidating. You are no longer half-human half-camera … which is wonderful if you want candid, real photographs. Subjects focus on being human rather than being a subject.”
After two and a half years, the GF1 was replaced by the slightly improved Panasonic GX1, which I brought on the six-day Kumano Kodo hike in October. During the trip, I alternated between shooting with it and an iPhone 5. After importing the results into Lightroom, Adobe’s photo-development software, it was difficult to distinguish the GX1’s photos from the iPhone 5’s. (That’s not even the latest iPhone; Austin Mann’s superlative results make it clear that the iPhone 5S operates on an even higher level.) Of course, zooming in and poking around the photos revealed differences: the iPhone 5 doesn’t capture as much highlight detail as the GX1, or handle low light as well, or withstand intense editing, such as drastic changes in exposure. But it seems clear that in a couple of years, with an iPhone 6S in our pockets, it will be nearly impossible to justify taking a dedicated camera on trips like the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage.
One of the great joys of that walk was the ability to immediately share with family and friends the images as they were captured in the mountains: the golden, early-morning light as it filtered through the cedar forest; a sudden valley vista after a long, upward climb. Each time, I pulled out my iPhone, not the GX1, then shot, edited, and broadcasted the photo within minutes. As I’ve become a more network-focussed photographer, I’ve come to love using the smartphone as an editing surface; touch is perfect for photo manipulation. There’s a tactility that is lost when you edit with a mouse on a desktop computer. Perhaps touch feels natural because it’s a return to the chemical-filled days of manually poking and massaging liquid and paper to form an image I had seen in my head. Yet if the advent of digital photography compressed the core processes of the medium, smartphones further squish the full spectrum of photographic storytelling: capture, edit, collate, share, and respond. I saw more and shot more, and returned from the forest with a record of both the small details—light and texture and snippets of life—and the conversations that floated around them on my social networks.
In the same way that the transition from film to digital is now taken for granted, the shift from cameras to networked devices with lenses should be obvious. While we’ve long obsessed over the size of the film and image sensors, today we mainly view photos on networked screens—often tiny ones, regardless of how the image was captured—and networked photography provides access to forms of data that go beyond pixels. This information, like location, weather, or even radiation levels, can transform an otherwise innocuous photo of an empty field near Fukushima into an entirely different object. If you begin considering emerging self-metrics that measure, for example, your routes through cities, fitness level, social status, and state of mind (think Foursquare, Nike+, Facebook, and Twitter), you realize that there is a compelling universe of information waiting to be pinned to the back of each image. Once you start thinking of a photograph in those holistic terms, the data quality of stand-alone cameras, no matter how vast their bounty of pixels, seems strangely impoverished. They no longer capture the whole picture.
It’s clear now that the Nikon D70 and its ilk were a stopgap between that old Leica M3 that I coveted over a decade ago and the smartphones we photograph with today. Tracing the evolution from the Nikon 8008 to the Nikon D70 to the GX1, we see cameras transitioning into what they were bound to become: networked lenses. Susan Sontag once said, “While there appears to be nothing that photography can’t devour, whatever can’t be photographed becomes less important.” Today, it turns out, it’s whatever can’t be networked that becomes less important.
Craig Mod is an independent writer and designer who divides his time between Tokyo and New York. He is the co-author of “Art Space Tokyo” and author of the forthcoming novel, “Stosh.”
Photographs by Craig Mod
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Lightning-Sabres Preview
The Buffalo Sabres would like to forget their last outing, as they had one of their worst performances of the season. Fortunately, they should be able to bounce back against their next opponent.
The Northeast Division leaders look to continue their dominance over the Tampa Bay Lightning when they meet on Thursday night at HSBC Arena.
Buffalo (6-1-2) entered Monday's game against Ottawa allowing a league-low 1.6 goals per game. But its defense wasn't sharp as it gave up the first five goals en route to a 5-2 loss, making the Sabres the last Eastern Conference team to lose in regulation.
"We're going to dump this one in the trash can and move on," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.
Ryan Miller was given the night off on Monday, but is expected to be back in goal against one of his favorite opponents. Miller, who is 5-0-1 with a 1.60 goals-against average this season, has been in net for each of the Sabres' games against the Lightning (2-3-3) since 2005-06.
Miller has gone 11-1-0 with a 2.47 GAA in those contests, and has led Buffalo to victory in each of the last five meetings The Sabres have outscored Tampa Bay 54-30 in those 12 games.
Thomas Vanek had no trouble lighting the lamp in four meetings last season. Buffalo's top offensive threat recorded a hat trick in each of his last two games against the Lightning, and had seven goals and one assist versus them in 2007-08.
Vanek hopes to get back on track on Thursday, as he has just one goal and one assist in his last four games after recording seven goals and two assists in his first five.
Tampa Bay defeated Toronto 3-2 on Tuesday, and has won two of its last three games after losing five straight to start the season.
Vincent Lecavalier scored a pair of highlight-reel goals against the Maple Leafs to give him five tallies in his last six games.
"He's an immense talent, he's one of the top-10 most talented players in the world," Lightning coach Barry Melrose said of Lecavalier.
Although his team hasn't had much success against the Sabres lately, Lecavalier has an 11-game point streak against them, tallying nine goals and six assists in those contests.
Goaltender Mike Smith would like to see Lecavalier and the rest of the Lightning offense break out of their scoring rut. Smith has been solid in net, going 2-2-2 with a 2.11 GAA in 2007-08, but hasn't had much help from his offense, which is last in the NHL with 14 goals scored.
Smith, who has never faced the Sabres, had another busy day on Thursday, as he made 37 saves. It was the fourth time in six starts this season in which he has stopped at least 37 shots.
Backup Olaf Kolzig, who is 0-1-1 with a 3.00 GAA so far, is 2-4-0 with a 3.08 GAA in seven games against the Sabres since the start of the 2006-07 season.
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If you lived in New Caledonia instead of Cabo Verde, you would:
In Cabo Verde, the average life expectancy is 72 years (70 years for men, 75 years for women). In New Caledonia, that number is 78 years (74 years for men, 82 years for women).
make 4.5 times more money
Cabo Verde has a GDP per capita of $6,900, while in New Caledonia, the GDP per capita is $31,100.
In Cabo Verde, 30.0% live below the poverty line. In New Caledonia, however, that number is 17.0%.
In Cabo Verde, 9.0% of adults are unemployed. In New Caledonia, that number is 14.7%.
In Cabo Verde, approximately 21.9 children die before they reach the age of one. In New Caledonia, on the other hand, 5.2 children do.
be 11.6% more likely to be literate
In Cabo Verde, the literacy rate is 86.8%. In New Caledonia, it is 96.9%.
In Cabo Verde, there are approximately 20.0 babies per 1,000 people. In New Caledonia, there are 15.0 babies per 1,000 people.
be 53.5% more likely to have internet access
In Cabo Verde, approximately 48.2% of the population has internet access. In New Caledonia, about 74.0% do.
be 16.4% less likely to have access to electricity
In Cabo Verde, 71% of people have electricity access (84% in urban areas, and 47% in rural areas). In New Caledonia, that number is 59% of people on average (68% in urban areas, and 45% in rural areas).
Cabo Verde has a total of 965 km of coastline. In New Caledonia, that number is 2,254 km.
New Caledonia: At a glance
New Caledonia is a sovereign country in Australia-Oceania, with a total land area of approximately 18,275 sq km. Settled by both Britain and France during the first half of the 19th century, the island became a French possession in 1853. It served as a penal colony for four decades after 1864. Agitation for independence during the 1980s and early 1990s ended in the 1998 Noumea Accord, which over a period of 15 to 20 years will transfer an increasing amount of governing responsibility from France to New Caledonia. The agreement also commits France to conduct a referendum between 2014 and 2018 to decide whether New Caledonia should assume full sovereignty and independence.
How big is New Caledonia compared to Cabo Verde? See an in-depth size comparison.
Cabo Verde vs. Vietnam
Cabo Verde vs. Kenya
Cabo Verde vs. France
Cabo Verde vs. Cambodia
Cabo Verde vs. Iceland
Cabo Verde vs. New Zealand
Join the Elsewhere community and ask a question about New Caledonia. It's a free, question-and-answer based forum to discuss what life is like in countries and cities around the world.
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If you lived in Greenland instead of Lithuania, you would:
In Lithuania, the average life expectancy is 75 years (70 years for men, 81 years for women). In Greenland, that number is 73 years (70 years for men, 76 years for women).
Lithuania has a GDP per capita of $32,300, while in Greenland, the GDP per capita is $41,800.
In Lithuania, 22.2% live below the poverty line. In Greenland, however, that number is 16.2%.
In Lithuania, 7.0% of adults are unemployed. In Greenland, that number is 9.1%.
In Lithuania, there are approximately 9.9 babies per 1,000 people. In Greenland, there are 14.4 babies per 1,000 people.
In Lithuania, approximately 3.8 children die before they reach the age of one. In Greenland, on the other hand, 8.9 children do.
see 489.9 times more coastline
Lithuania has a total of 90 km of coastline. In Greenland, that number is 44,087 km.
Greenland: At a glance
Greenland is a sovereign country in North America, with a total land area of approximately 2,166,086 sq km. Greenland, the world's largest island, is about 81% ice-capped. Vikings reached the island in the 10th century from Iceland; Danish colonization began in the 18th century, and Greenland was made an integral part of Denmark in 1953. It joined the European Community (now the EU) with Denmark in 1973 but withdrew in 1985 over a dispute centered on stringent fishing quotas. Greenland was granted self-government in 1979 by the Danish parliament; the law went into effect the following year. Greenland voted in favor of increased self-rule in November 2008 and acquired greater responsibility for internal affairs when the Act on Greenland Self-Government was signed into law in June 2009. Denmark, however, continues to exercise control over several policy areas on behalf of Greenland including foreign affairs, security, and financial policy in consultation with Greenland's Self-Rule Government.
How big is Greenland compared to Lithuania? See an in-depth size comparison.
Lithuania vs. Italy
Lithuania vs. Germany
Lithuania vs. Ecuador
Lithuania vs. China
Lithuania vs. France
Lithuania vs. Spain
Join the Elsewhere community and ask a question about Greenland. It's a free, question-and-answer based forum to discuss what life is like in countries and cities around the world.
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If you lived in Bahamas, The instead of Sierra Leone, you would:
live 14.0 years longer
In Sierra Leone, the average life expectancy is 59 years (56 years for men, 61 years for women). In Bahamas, The, that number is 73 years (70 years for men, 75 years for women).
be 35.7% more likely to be living with HIV/AIDS
In Sierra Leone, 1.4% of people are living with AIDS/HIV. In Bahamas, The, that number is 1.9% of people.
be 3.6 times more likely to be obese
In Sierra Leone, 8.7% of adults are obese. In Bahamas, The, that number is 31.6% of people.
make 19.5 times more money
Sierra Leone has a GDP per capita of $1,600, while in Bahamas, The, the GDP per capita is $31,200.
In Sierra Leone, 70.2% live below the poverty line. In Bahamas, The, however, that number is 9.3%.
In Sierra Leone, approximately 1360.0 women per 1,000 births die during labor. In Bahamas, The, 80.0 women do.
In Sierra Leone, approximately 68.4 children die before they reach the age of one. In Bahamas, The, on the other hand, 11.3 children do.
In Sierra Leone, there are approximately 36.3 babies per 1,000 people. In Bahamas, The, there are 15.3 babies per 1,000 people.
be 20.0 times more likely to have access to electricity
In Sierra Leone, 5% of the population has electricity access. In Bahamas, The, 100% of the population do.
be 6.8 times more likely to have internet access
In Sierra Leone, approximately 11.8% of the population has internet access. In Bahamas, The, about 80.0% do.
be 57.2% more likely to have access to improved drinking water
In Sierra Leone, approximately 63% of people have improved drinking water access (85% in urban areas, and 48% in rural areas). In Bahamas, The, that number is 98% of people on average (98% in urban areas, and 98% in rural areas).
spend 30.6% less on healthcare
Sierra Leone spends 11.1% of its total GDP on healthcare. In Bahamas, The, that number is 7.7% of GDP.
Sierra Leone has a total of 402 km of coastline. In Bahamas, The, that number is 3,542 km.
Bahamas, The: At a glance
Bahamas, The is a sovereign country in Central America/Caribbean, with a total land area of approximately 10,010 sq km. Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher COLUMBUS first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas has prospered through tourism, international banking, and investment management. Because of its location, the country is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the US and Europe, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the US.
How big is Bahamas, The compared to Sierra Leone? See an in-depth size comparison.
Sierra Leone vs. China
Sierra Leone vs. Egypt
Sierra Leone vs. Vietnam
Sierra Leone vs. Austria
Sierra Leone vs. Ukraine
Sierra Leone vs. Mexico
Join the Elsewhere community and ask a question about Bahamas, The. It's a free, question-and-answer based forum to discuss what life is like in countries and cities around the world.
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NIRH Home
National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund
Advancing Reproductive Freedom Through Proactive Policy
Tracking Proactive Abortion Policy
Tracking Proactive Local Abortion Policy
Tracking Proactive State Abortion Policy
Press Releases and Statements
Resources for Advocates
Donate to NIRH
Champions of Choice 2019
Buy A ‘1973’ Shirt
Birth Control Roll Back Allows for Explicit Discrimination Against Women
Annie ZegersOctober 6, 2017Press Releases: NIRH|
Contact: Stephanie Reichin, 617-549-3745, [email protected]
Statement by National Institute for Reproductive Health President Andrea Miller
“Today’s announcement by the Trump administration of an interim final rule to weaken the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive coverage mandate will allow employers, insurance companies and universities to deny women insurance coverage for birth control. The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) strongly urges influencers, policymakers and other advocates to speak out against this action by the Trump administration that directly violates the ACA’s guarantee of no copay birth control for insured women in the U.S. The public comment period will remain open until December 5, but the new rule takes effect immediately.
“A woman’s ability to control whether and when to have a child can determine the course of her life. The roll back of the birth control mandate puts women’s health and lives at the mercy of their employers, insurance companies and schools. Without access to the full range of contraceptive options, women cannot ever be truly independent or equal in the United States of America. In particular, people of color, low-income individuals, youth, immigrants, rural residents, and LGBTQ populations will be disproportionately impacted by this new federal restriction on reproductive health care.
“People in the U.S. overwhelmingly support access to affordable contraception; legislators in at least 21 states and the District of Columbia have introduced legislation this year to safeguard birth control coverage and six states and the District of Columbia passed these policies to safeguard the ACA’s protections. Regardless of what happens at the federal level, NIRH will continue to pro-actively arm states and cities across the country with the tools they need to pass legislation that safeguards access to contraception. We will not be deterred by this anti-choice president’s continued attempts to strip away women’s rights.”
The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) builds power at the state and local levels to change public policy, galvanize public support, and normalize women’s decisions about abortion and contraception.
The National Institute works at the state and local level to promote reproductive rights and expand access to reproductive health care through bold advocacy, creative education campaigns, and high-impact partnerships.
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* The National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund, Inc. is not affiliated with NARAL Pro-Choice America. "NARAL" and "NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA" are trademarks of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
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News quick access
News Release 18-006
State of US science enterprise report shows US leads in S&E as China rapidly advances
NSF�s Science and Engineering Indicators 2018 report released by NSB.
Credit and Larger Version
According to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Science and Engineering Indicators2018 report released today, the United States is the global leader in science and technology (S&T). However, the U.S. global share of S&T activities is declining as other nations -- especially China -- continue to rise.
The National Science Board (NSB) is the governing body of NSF and publishes the congressionally mandated report on the state of the U.S. science and engineering (S&E) enterprise every two years. The 2018 report shows the U.S. invests the most in research and development (R&D), attracts the most venture capital, awards the most advanced degrees, provides the most business, financial and information services, and is the largest producer in high-technology manufacturing sectors. The complete report, which covers data on the domestic and global science and engineering landscape, is available online.
"NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators is the highest-quality and most comprehensive source of information on how the U.S. scientific and engineering enterprise is performing domestically and internationally,” said NSF Director France Córdova. "The 2018 report presents a wealth of easily accessible, vital data. It provides insights into how science and engineering research and development are tied to economic and workforce development, as well as STEM education, in the U.S. and abroad."
"This year's report shows a trend that the U.S. still leads by many S&T measures, but that our lead is decreasing in certain areas that are important to our country," said Maria Zuber, NSB Chair and Vice President for Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That trend raises concerns about impacts on our economy and workforce, and has implications for our national security. From gene editing to artificial intelligence, scientific advancements come with inherent risks. And it's critical that we stay at the forefront of science to mitigate those risks."
China's growth in S&E continues at an exceptional pace
R&D expenditures reflect a nation's commitment to expanding capabilities in S&T, which in turn drive innovation. While the U.S. led the world in R&D expenditures at $496 billion (26 percent share of the global total), China was a decisive second at 21 percent ($408 billion). China has grown its R&D spending rapidly since 2000, at an average of 18 percent annually. Its focus is geared primarily toward development rather than basic or applied research. During the same time frame, U.S. R&D spending grew by only 4 percent. Although emerging economies start at a lower base and therefore tend to grow much more rapidly, China's growth rate is exceptional.
Venture capital investment, which supports the commercialization of emerging technologies, totaled more than $130 billion globally in 2016. While the U.S. attracted the most investment (nearly $70 billion), accounting for slightly more than half of the global share, 26 percent of total venture capital funds went to China. Venture capital in China rose from approximately $3 billion in 2013 to $34 billion in 2016, climbing from 5 percent to 27 percent of the global share, the fastest increase of any economy.
Knowledge and technology-intensive industries -- in which S&T advances are key inputs -- are a major part of the global economy, comprising nearly one-third of world gross domestic product (GDP). America leads in providing business, financial and information services, accounting for 31 percent of the global share, followed by the European Union (EU) at 21 percent. China is the third largest producer of these services (17 percent global share) and continues to grow at a far faster rate (19 percent annual growth) than the U.S. and other developed countries. The U.S. is the largest producer of high-technology manufacturing (31 percent global share). This includes production of aircraft and spacecraft, semiconductors, computers, pharmaceuticals, and measuring and control instruments. China is second at 24 percent, more than doubling its share over the last decade.
Higher education provides the advanced work skills needed in an increasingly knowledge-intensive global economy. According to the most recent estimates, the U.S. awarded the largest number of S&E doctoral degrees (40,000) of any country, followed by China (34,000), Russia (19,000), Germany (15,000), the United Kingdom (14,000) and India (13,000). In contrast, the U.S. lags in bachelor's level degrees. India earned 25 percent of the more than 7.5 million awarded S&E bachelor's level degrees in 2014, followed closely by China (22 percent), the EU (12 percent) and the U.S. (10 percent). Nearly half of all degrees awarded in China are in S&E fields. Since 2000, the number of S&E bachelor's degrees awarded in China has gone up by 300 percent.
Over the past twenty years, students have become more mobile and countries increasingly compete for them as potential recruits for the S&E workforce. International student numbers in the U.S. dropped between the fall of 2016 and the fall of 2017, with the largest declines seen at the graduate level in computer science (13 percent decline) and engineering (8 percent decline). International students account for over 57 percent of graduate enrollments in computer sciences and engineering in the U.S. These students are a critical component of the U.S. workforce in these high demand fields. Seventy-nine percent of foreign doctoral graduate students choose to stay and work in the U.S. upon completion of their degree.
Businesses lead U.S. R&D
The business sector is by far the largest performer of R&D in the U.S., accounting for 72 percent of the $495 billion total in 2015. For several years, the annual rise in business R&D performance has accounted for most of the growth in overall U.S. R&D. Of the three main types of R&D -- basic research, applied research and experimental development -- businesses lead in both applied research (58 percent of $97 billion total) and experimental development (88 percent of $314 billion total). Higher education institutions continue to perform the largest share of U.S. basic research (49 percent of $83 billion total).
The business sector also leads in R&D investment, providing 67 percent ($333 billion) of the national total in 2015. In contrast, the federal government -- which was once the primary funder of R&D (67 percent in 1964) -- reached a historic low in 2015, funding 24 percent of the U.S. total. This decline has primarily been due to the faster growth in R&D investment by the business sector. In addition, federally funded R&D has been on a declining trend since 2011 (from $127 billion in 2011 to $120 billion in 2015).
Nonetheless, the federal government remains the largest funder of basic research ($36.9 billion, 44 percent of total share), and is the primary driver of both innovative research and the training of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce. The business sector accounted for $22.7 billion (27 percent of total share) in 2015.
"R&D -- basic, experimental and applied -- is the fuel that drives American business. Our ability to turn basic and experimental research results into practical applications is the stuff of legends," said Vinton Cerf, NSB member and Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. "We risk the continued success of the American enterprise if we fail to adopt policies that reinforce this boundless triad of opportunity. It is time to reverse the declining trend in federal research support and re-invigorate American innovation."
Advances in S&E cross national boundaries
The global S&T landscape is dynamic, fast-changing, and interdependent. Countries specialize in different sectors of S&E, resulting in advancements that can bring benefits across the globe.
"What is clear from Indicatorsis that even though there is a rise in many emerging economies, there's also more specialization areas emerging as top fields," said Geraldine Richmond, Chair of NSB's Science and Engineering Policy Committee and Presidential Chair and Professor Chemistry at the University of Oregon.
Invention is a good example of this specialization. Of the three leaders in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patents, U.S. and EU inventions are concentrated in chemistry and health, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Japan's patents are primarily in semiconductors, telecommunications, optics, and materials and metallurgy. Information and communication technologies -- including digital communications, semiconductors, telecommunications and optics -- are mainstays of South Korea and China.
"From my own experience working with a number of developing countries, I think one of our strengths is our ability to educate students to solve problems. Our innovations and patents really reflect that U.S. creativity remains one of our biggest assets," said Richmond.
At the same time, the world's scientists are increasingly collaborative in their research endeavors. Among the major producers of S&E publications, the United Kingdom had the highest international collaboration rate (57 percent) in 2016, followed by France (55 percent) and Germany (51 percent). The U.S. followed with a 37 percent international collaboration rate, up 12 percent from 2006. The impact of S&E publications has also become more global. Between 2004 and 2014, the share of U.S. publications with citations from abroad increased from 47 percent to 56 percent. Countries also specialize in different fields of research, with the U.S., EU and Japan publishing heavily across the medical and biological sciences, while India and China focus on engineering.
Science and Engineering Indicators is the most comprehensive source of high quality federal data on a wide range of topics that include trends in global R&D investments and knowledge-intensive industries, K-12 and postsecondary STEM education, workforce trends and composition, state level comparisons, public attitudes and understanding, and invention, knowledge transfer and innovation. Related products -- including state fact sheets -- are available on the Indicators 2018 resource page.
The National Science Board and the National Science Foundation's Director jointly head NSF. NSB identifies issues critical to NSF's future and establishes the Foundation's policies. The NSB also provides the President and Congress with Science and Engineering Indicators,a biennial report on U.S. progress in science and technology. Members are appointed by the President for six-year terms and selected for their eminence in research, education and records of distinguished service.
-NSF-
Nadine Lymn, NSB, (703) 292-2490, email: nlymn@nsf.gov
Sarah Bates, NSF, (703) 292-7738, email: sabates@nsf.gov
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, its budget is $8.1 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.
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Science and Engineering Statistics: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/
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Archives|ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: THE OVERVIEW; Agency Will Sue for Records Of Cheney Energy Meetings
ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: THE OVERVIEW; Agency Will Sue for Records Of Cheney Energy Meetings
By DON VAN NATTA JR. JAN. 31, 2002
The General Accounting Office said today that it would sue the White House to try to force Vice President Dick Cheney to release documents detailing contacts between corporate executives and the administration's energy task force.
In a letter to the White House and Congressional leaders, David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the United States and director of the accounting office, said he intended to ask a federal judge to order Mr. Cheney to give Congress the identities of energy industry executives who helped the Bush administration formulate a national energy policy last year. Mr. Walker said he was also seeking the subject that each executive discussed with task force members. Mr. Cheney was the chairman of the task force.
The announcement today sets up a legal showdown between the accounting office -- an investigative arm of Congress -- and the Bush administration with potential political consequences for the White House. The dispute over task force records has made it more difficult for the White House to distance itself from the collapse of the Enron Corporation, whose executives met with Mr. Cheney and other energy task force members a half-dozen times last year.
Also today, a Congressional committee asked Kenneth L. Lay, Enron's former chairman and chief executive, to explain what Enron did in response to a whistle-blower's assertion last summer that a major division had overstated profits by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The division, Enron Energy Services, was run by Lou L. Pai, who sold $353 million in Enron stock over the past three years, and Thomas E. White, who left to become secretary of the Army last June. In August a former manager, Margaret Ceconi, sent an e-mail message to Mr. Lay asserting that the company was shifting more than $500 million in losses out of the division.
Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of 10 Congressional committees investigating Enron's collapse, sent a letter to Mr. Lay demanding to know whether he did anything in response to Ms. Ceconi's accusations.
On another front, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill tried to calm financial markets one day after stock prices tumbled on concern among investors that other companies have hidden their financial problems. Mr. O'Neill said the administration was reviewing proposals to tighten or expand requirements for financial disclosure and reporting by companies. A decision on which proposals to pursue was likely within two weeks, he said.
Mr. O'Neill told reporters that the administration's disclosure plan would have a strict enforcement mechanism ''to assure that if there's a failure to perform, that the justice will be swift and sure.''
He said he did not believe there were systemic flaws in corporate accounting and financial reporting.
''It's clear there are some cracks we need to fix,'' Mr. O'Neill said. ''But I don't think the problems are fundamental. Therefore, I don't think there will be an enduring problem in the financial markets, even though there are obviously a few cases in the last few days that have been concerning people.''
Enron's fallout reached another of the nation's big banks today, as Bank of America confirmed that four employees whose units did business with Enron had left or had announced their resignations in the last few days.
Steve Bragg, the head of the natural resources group at the investment banking subsidiary, Bank of America Securities, resigned today. Mr. Bragg ''decided to pursue other interests,'' said Tara Burke, a spokeswoman for the bank. Three executives in Texas also ''left the bank at the end of last week,'' Ms. Burke said.
The departed Texas employees included James Allred and Jo Tamalis in Houston and Marcia Bateman in Dallas. Ms. Tamalis was an investment banker working with energy companies, and had handled loans by the bank to Enron. The other two worked on the lending side of the bank, Ms. Burke said. An executive close to the bank said Ms. Bateman and Mr. Allred had also done work for Enron.
Bank of America wrote off $231 million in loans tied to Enron at the end of the fourth quarter, another spokeswoman, Eloise Hale, said. It continues to hold $272 million in exposure to Enron.
A G.A.O. lawsuit would be the first against a member of the executive branch for failing to cooperate with a Congressional inquiry in the agency's 80-year history. Mr. Walker said in an interview today that he intended to hire an outside law firm to represent the agency, which plans to file the suit in Federal District Court in Washington within the next several weeks.
Democrats in Congress have sought energy task force documents since last April after reports that corporate contributors to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign were granted special access. The request has become more urgent in recent weeks as Congressional investigators have tried to learn whether Enron executives might have steered the administration's energy policy to serve its interests.
In his letter, Mr. Walker said that if the accounting office failed to try to gain access to the records, any future administration ''seeking to insulate its activities from oversight and public scrutiny could do so simply by assigning these activities to the vice president or a body under the White House's direct control.''
''We would have strongly preferred to avoid litigation in connection with this matter,'' Mr. Walker wrote in the three-page letter to the White House and Congressional leaders. ''But given the request by the four Senate committee chairmen and subcommittee chairmen, our rights to this information and the important principle and precedents involved, G.A.O. will take the steps necessary to file suit in United States District Court.''
Mr. Walker, who was appointed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton on the recommendation of a bipartisan Congressional panel, holds a 15-year term in the position. His job as comptroller general is to respond to requests from members of Congress to research various subjects.
The accounting office is seeking lists of people present at each meeting last year of the energy task force. It also seeks lists of people that each member of the task force met with, including the date, subject and location of each meeting. Mr. Walker described it as ''who met with whom, when and about what.''
Last spring, the agency had sought the minutes and notes of all meetings held by task force officials, but it is no longer seeking that information.
In recent days, the clash over access to the task force records has played out in a public way. President Bush and Mr. Cheney have spoken about the importance of protecting the identities of outside advisers to ensure they are able to receive ''unvarnished'' advice.
Mr. Walker has said the White House has rebuffed efforts to resolve the dispute through negotiation. Today, he accused the White House of misrepresenting the facts.
''One of the frustrating things about this to me is we have a very constructive working relationship with this administration,'' Mr. Walker said. ''And while we occasionally have had a few minor problems with records access, we have never had a situation like this.''
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said today that the administration believed that the agency had no authority to seek the information from the vice president. The official said that if the agency's request was granted, it would set a precedent for requests for records of discussions the president and vice president have with senior aides.
''It's very, very dangerous to have that kind of situation,'' the official said. ''And I think the interpretation of the statutes that G.A.O. is relying upon that would produce or would purport to produce that kind of power upon the G.A.O. would be unconstitutional.''
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said the administration was prepared to fight for the principle in court.
''The White House expects to win because our case is strong in law, it's strong in policy and it's strong in principle,'' Mr. Fleischer said in Winston-Salem, N.C., where the president tried to generate support for his new volunteer corps. ''Conversely, we do not believe the G.A.O. has a strong case to make, either in law, policy or principle.''
The documents were first sought by Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, and Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan. Mr. Dingell applauded the decision of the agency to go forward with a lawsuit, saying, ''It is unfortunate that since our request for information last April, the vice president has chosen to stonewall rather than cooperate.''
The White House learned about the agency's intention to file the lawsuit this morning shortly after the president presented Mr. Cheney with a cake in honor of his 61st birthday.
In another Enron-related matter, two Democratic lawmakers, Mr. Dingell and Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, criticized an effort to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Utilities and some members of Congress have long sought to roll back the law, which limits utilities' ability to acquire other power companies and to diversify.
The lawmakers warned that ''in light of the unfolding Enron scandal'' a repeal should be reconsidered. In the Senate, a spokesman for Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico Democrat who is chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the panel would hold a hearing next Wednesday to re-examine proposals to repeal the law.
A version of this article appears in print on January 31, 2002, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: THE OVERVIEW; Agency Will Sue for Records Of Cheney Energy Meetings. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Sunday Review|They Hook You When You’re Young
They Hook You When You’re Young
By Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
HOW do events from our childhood shape our adult preferences?
I recently studied this question using a classic American example: baseball. I tested how a team’s performance at every age of our childhood affects which team we root for as adults. From Facebook’s publicly available advertising platform, I downloaded data on how many fans every baseball team has, broken out by gender and age. (Facebook estimates whether someone is a fan of a team based on both “likes” and posts.)
This data is not perfect, but it does correlate pretty well with previous polling. According to Facebook, the most popular teams are the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cardinals and Braves; there are 1.65 Yankees fans for every Mets fan.
Facebook data can reveal patterns that polls generally do not have large enough sample sizes to detect. For example, Facebook tells us that among men, the ratio of Yankees fans to Mets fans fluctuates enormously depending on when those men were born. The Mets are popular among an unusually high number of men born in 1961 and 1978. (Interestingly, women’s fandom depends much less on when they were born.)
These huge swings appear to be driven by winning over young boys with on-the-field success. Fans born in 1961 and 1978 were both 8 years old when the Mets won the World Series. Fandom is determined by a huge number of factors, like what team your father supports, but winning when boys are young stands out clearly in the data.
This effect can be quantified more rigorously. I used data on all 17 current Major League franchises that had been established in their current city by 1965. I modeled the probability of an adult’s supporting a team today based on the adult’s age and gender, the team and how good the team was at every year of his or her childhood. Note that this model takes into account the fact that some teams, like the Yankees and the Red Sox, are more popular at all ages. And it takes into account the fact that baseball fandom, at least as expressed on Facebook, differs by age.
Let’s look at men. The model’s results were striking. They show that the years before a boy’s birth and the first couple of years of his life are, as you would expect, statistically irrelevant to his adult fandom. But then things start to matter in a big way.
The most important year in a boy’s baseball life is indeed age 8. If a team wins a World Series when a boy is 8, it increases the probability that he will support the team as an adult by about 8 percent. Remember, this is independent of how good the team was every other year of this guy’s life. Things start falling off pretty fast after the age of about 14. A championship when a man is 20 is only one-eighth as likely to create an adult fan as a championship when a boy is 8. Just winning games also matters, with a similar age pattern. But the data shows that there seems to be something really special about winning championships.
These results mean a successful team leaves a huge imprint long after all the players are retired. Consider a team like the St. Louis Cardinals. In a five-year period in the 1940s, led by Stan Musial, the Cardinals averaged more than 100 wins a season and won three championships. According to my model, roughly 20 percent of 80-year-old male Cardinals fans today would either support another team or not be a baseball fan if not for Musial and his teammates’ epic run.
Of course, winning is not all that matters for fandom. Long-suffering teams like the Cubs have plenty of fans. But winning helps in a big way, and the Cubs would have far more fans if they had won more.
What about women? In general, the patterns were less precise and less concentrated on particular ages. It seems that female fans of all teams are about equally likely to be won over at different points in their lives.
There is a broader implication here for baseball. Winning is much more valuable than economists previously thought. The traditional methodology to value winning is as follows: Measure how a team performs in a given year, and see how much more beer and how many more tickets and hot dogs it sells that year and perhaps the following year.
I did this analysis with data posted by the sports economist Rodney Fort of the University of Michigan. On average, if a team wins an additional 10 games in a season, it can expect about a 12 percent increase in attendance that year. But the effects die off completely the following year. Winning a World Series does increase attendance by about 12 percent the following year, but the effects die off shortly after. The long-term effects on hooking young boys, in other words, aren’t captured in the traditional data.
In 2012, the San Francisco Giants won 94 games and the World Series. That year, they made $129 million in gate revenues. The traditional analysis would say, relative to a .500 season, that the Giants’ 2012 run made them about $33 million in gate revenues — about $18 million from increased attendance during the pennant race and $15 million from more excited fans the following year.
But my model suggests that among 5- to 15-year-olds in 2012, 5 percent more fans will root for the Giants for the rest of their lives. Assume spending on baseball increases at roughly the rate of interest. And assume that these fans spend about as much as the average fan. The Giants can expect about $33 million, in net present value, from here on out, from their 2012 season, just from the boys they won over.
A championship season, in other words, is at least twice as valuable as we previously thought.
O.K., this is only baseball, hardly the most important arena of life. What are the implications of this research outside of sports?
The explosion of big data sets should lead to the rapid development of precise insights into how events at every year of our childhood affect how we think as adults. We can learn a lot about the formation of tastes and preferences, both trivial and fundamental. Do you like Coke or Pepsi as an adult? Cheerios or Raisin Bran? Obama or Romney? All these answers can now be compared to things that happened to us as children. Already, some scholars have found fascinating long-term effects of events that happened while we were young on our political and economic outlooks.
The economists Ebonya Washington of Yale University and Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard University found that if you are just old enough to vote in a presidential election, you will be more likely years later to be a partisan of the party you voted for than if you were slightly too young to vote in that election. Another pair of economists, Ulrike Malmendier, at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stefan Nagel, at the University of Michigan, found that if you grew up in bad economic times, you are more risk averse as an adult.
There is also a less serious implication of this study. It gives me ammunition for one of my favorite activities: whining.
I am obsessed with the Mets and this obsession, I suspect, plays a large part in my persistent disappointment with adult life. The Mets of the Dwight Gooden-Darryl Strawberry era hooked me as a boy, dangling in front of me the diving plays of Keith Hernandez at first, the dramatic escapes of Jesse Orosco on the mound and the surprising power of Howard Johnson at third. I assumed that being a Mets fan meant a lifetime of pennant races and championships. But after I became an adult, the Mets delivered more losses than wins and no additional championships.
The data shows that if I had just been born 10 years earlier or 10 years later, I would be significantly less likely to be in this mess. I could be out celebrating Derek Jeter’s farewell tour, instead of lying by my radio, listening to another Mets loss, clutching my Rey Ordóñez-signed mitt.
You could say this is my fault and nothing to complain about. I am a grown man and can choose whatever baseball team I’d like. But data analysis makes it clear that fandom is highly influenced by events in our childhood. If something captures us in our formative years, it often has us hooked for life.
A contributing opinion writer who recently received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section SR, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: They Hook You When You’re Young. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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Briefing|Billy Bush, Kennedy Center Honors, N.F.L.: Your Monday Briefing
Billy Bush, Kennedy Center Honors, N.F.L.: Your Monday Briefing
Shirin Gul, a convicted serial killer, and Meena, her 11-year-old daughter, at a prison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Meena was conceived in prison and has never been out, not even for a brief visit.CreditCreditMauricio Lima for The New York Times
By Chris Stanford
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)
Tax cut? Check. Now to avoid a shutdown.
• Fresh off their success in passing a sweeping tax overhaul in the Senate, Republicans are turning their attention to government funding, which expires on Friday.
They’re moving toward a two-week stopgap measure to buy time to negotiate a long-term spending package. But the effort is complicated by tensions between President Trump and Democrats, and by promises made to secure passage of the tax bill.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, spoke to our chief Washington correspondent about the difference between the tax debate and the one about repealing the Affordable Care Act: “Everybody really wanted to get to yes,” Mr. McConnell said. “There was a widespread belief that this was just a good thing to do for the country and for us politically.”
• We looked at some of the last-minute changes to the tax measure — some handwritten in the margins of the nearly 500-page bill — and at how one business in California plans to use the money it would save.
A new model for health care.
• “We think of it as creating a new front door to health care in America.”
That’s the chief executive of CVS Health, the drugstore giant that has agreed to buy the health insurer Aetna for $69 billion.
The merged company could better offer employers one-stop shopping for health insurance for their workers, but critics worry that customers could find their choices sharply limited.
• Consolidation in health care generally hasn’t been good for Americans. Here’s why this deal could be an exception.
F.B.I. “in tatters,” Trump says.
• President Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of law and order, is now in a public dispute with the country’s top law enforcement agents, our White House correspondent Michael D. Shear writes.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump accused the bureau of bias in its Russia investigation.
Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, admitted on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.
• Current and former F.B.I. officials, historians and lawmakers rebuked the president for undermining the bureau’s credibility.
Revered conductor is accused of sexual abuse.
• The Metropolitan Opera suspended its four-decade association with James Levine, its conductor and former music director, after three men said he had sexually abused them decades ago, when the men were teenagers.
Told of the accusations Sunday night, a spokesman for Mr. Levine didn’t comment.
James Levine at Carnegie Hall in 2016. He has led more than 2,500 performances at the Met.CreditRobert Altman for The New York Times
• Separately, the former TV host Billy Bush disputed President Trump’s recent assertions that the voice on the infamous “Access Hollywood” recording was not his. “He said it,” Mr. Bush said in an Op-Ed for The Times.
Ex-president of Yemen is said to be dead.
• Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed after his home was blown up in the war-torn capital, Sana, today, according to reports from both sides in the conflict.
The precise circumstances of his death remain unclear. Mr. Saleh stepped down as president in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising.
• The attack followed a rift two days ago with the Houthis, Mr. Saleh’s former allies in the fight against a Saudi-led coalition, which imposed a blockade on Yemen last month after a missile fired by the rebels was intercepted near the Saudi capital.
“The Daily”: Beyond taxation.
Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.
• Fueled by the soaring price for Bitcoin, the frenzy over virtual currency markets is feverish in South Korea.
University students visit Coinone, a virtual currency exchange office in Seoul, South Korea.CreditWoohae Cho for The New York Times
• American Airlines has resolved a scheduling problem that could have left thousands of flights without pilots over the holidays.
• A former Volkswagen executive is scheduled to be sentenced over the diesel emissions scandal. It’s among the headlines to watch this week.
• U.S. stocks were down on Friday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
• Rethink that activity tracker.
• A bonding activity for parents and children: baking.
• Recipe of the day: Start the week with a stellar farro salad.
• The White House denied that it was pursuing a plan for Mideast peace that would offer Palestinians limited sovereignty and not give them East Jerusalem as their capital.
• Lowell Hawthorne, a Jamaican immigrant, built the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill into a fast-food empire in New York City and beyond. He killed himself on Saturday.
• At the Kennedy Center Honors, the recipients spoke openly about the policies of President Trump, who skipped the ceremony.
The Kennedy Center honorees this year (clockwise, from top left): LL Cool J, Lionel Richie, Gloria Estefan, Norman Lear and Carmen de Lavallade. Sunday’s ceremony will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26 at 9 p.m. Eastern.CreditPool photo by Ron Sachs
• Alabama edged Ohio State for the final spot in the College Football Playoff, joining Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma.
• In the N.F.L., the Minnesota Vikings won their eighth straight game. Here are Sunday’s scores.
• “Coco” was again No. 1 at North American box offices, earning $26.1 million.
• Seven new wonders: Petra.
In today’s 360 video, visit the ancient city in Jordan, built by the Nabateans from the 4th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D.
The Nabateans built the city, now in modern-day Jordan, in a strategic spot located along early silk and spice trade routes.CreditCreditTamir Kalifa for The New York Times
• Partisan writing you shouldn’t miss.
Writers from across the political spectrum discuss Michael Flynn’s guilty plea.
• A national monument could shrink.
President Trump is set to announce an enormous reduction to Bears Ears National Monument in Utah today. The area has been at the center of a fight over how much land a president can reserve for protection.
• Quotation of the day.
“How do you think she feels? It’s a prison, how should she feel? A prison is a prison, even if it’s heaven.”
— Shirin Gul, a serial killer serving a life sentence in an Afghan prison, where her daughter was born and has lived all of her 11 years. Ms. Gul is permitted to keep her daughter at the prison until she turns 18.
Voting ends today for the readers’ choice of Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” with the final winner announced on Wednesday.
While the selection has been criticized as non-news, it is already getting attention from last year’s recipient, Donald Trump, who was then president-elect.
The once (and future?) winner.CreditNadav Kander/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Trump recently said that Time editors had called to tell him he would “probably” be named again, but that he “took a pass” because “probably” wasn’t good enough. (The magazine said the president was mistaken.)
If it is Mr. Trump, he will be the second person to be named for two consecutive years. The other was Richard Nixon, who was named in 1971 and 1972, when he shared the honor with Henry Kissinger.
The decision is based on impact, rather than good deeds. Previous selections have included Hitler and Stalin.
Most recipients have been white men, starting with the first, the American aviator Charles Lindbergh, in 1927. In 2015, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, became only the fourth woman to be named on her own.
The computer won the title in 1982, and Earth was picked in 1988.
In 2006, the traditional cover photo of the winner was replaced by a reflective panel, honoring “You” and the online contributions of millions of internet users.
Patrick Boehler and Jennifer Jett contributed reporting.
Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated all morning. Browse past briefings here.
If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.
What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com.
You can get the briefing delivered to your inbox Sunday through Friday. We have four global editions, timed for the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, and an Evening Briefing on weeknights. Check out our full range of free newsletters here.
Follow Chris Stanford on Twitter: @stanfordc.
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Bethany McLean | Saudi America
Bethany McLean discusses her new book which you can purchase here: https://www.strandbooks.com/product/s… The technology of fracking in shale rock — particularly in the Permian Basin in Texas — has transformed America into the world’s top producer of both oil and natural gas. The U.S. is expected to be “energy independent” and a “net exporter” in less than a decade, a move that will upend global politics, destabilize Saudi Arabia, crush Russia’s chokehold over Europe, and finally bolster American power again. Or Will it?
Investigative journalist and bestselling author Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that has plagued the American oil industry for the past decade, from the financial wizardry and mysterious death of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon, to the speculators who are betting on America’s ascendance and the collapse of OPEC in the great game of geopolitics. McLean finds that fracking is a business built on attracting ever-more gigantic amounts of capital investment, while promises of huge returns have often not borne out. Overeagerness in partaking in a boom can lead to all types of problems and just as she did with the Enron story, in Saudi America McLean points out the reality and the risks of the inflated promises of the fracking boom.
Source: www.youtube.com
Tags: bethany-mclean, fracking, fracking-finance, oil, opec, saudi-arabia
How The United States Got Hooked On Foreign Oil
The United States is predicted to become a net energy exporter by 2020. This will be the first time since 1953 that the country exports more fossil fuels than it imports. For almost a century prior, the United States of America was the largest oil producer in the world. So how did the United States get hooked on foreign oil.
Every American president since Richard Nixon has pledged energy independence as a way to strengthen us geopolitically, make us more secure, or boost our economy.
The story of American oil begins in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Small amounts of oil had seeped from the ground for a long time, but no one knew how to extract it. Until, Edwin Laurentin Drake, a former conductor, was hired. After many failed attempts, he finally struck gold — black gold.
The next FEW decades, major oil finds in Texas, California and Oklahoma contributed to U.S. emergence as a major economic power. The 1901 Spindletop gusher in Texas nearly tripled U.S. oil production.
Henry Ford’s Model T invention in 1908 – the first mass-produced car – made America the most motorized country in the world. Other industrialized countries like France, Britain and Germany were ways behind.
Tags: 1973-oil-embargo, energy, energy-independence, natural-gas, oil, opec, peak-oil, saudi-arabia, venezuela
OPEC Has a New Best Friend: Russia
Putin has helped resolve conflicts within the cartel, giving the country considerable influence over oil markets
When the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries met in Vienna in December, it was in danger of imploding.
Oil prices had plunged. Member states Iran, Venezuela and Libya were refusing to cut production. Qatar had quit. And U.S. President Donald Trump was pressuring Saudi Arabia to keep prices low.
With negotiations teetering on the brink of failure, rescue came from an unlikely place—Russia, which isn’t even an OPEC member. President Vladimir Putin agreed to cut Russian oil production in league with OPEC, provided that Iran was allowed to keep pumping.
The degree of acrimony that pervaded that critical meeting, and the critical role Russia played in resolving the crisis, hasn’t previously been reported. What happened behind closed doors in December was a pivotal moment in Russia’s transformation from a nation that didn’t cooperate with OPEC at all to one that has become an indispensable partner.
Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih recently joked that he talks more with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak than with some of his colleagues in the Saudi cabinet. “We met 12 times in 2018,” he said of Mr. Novak at a news conference in March.
At the next OPEC meeting, scheduled for May, Russia and Saudi officials will discuss whether to formalize what has been until now an temporary alliance.
For decades, the U.S. has embraced Saudi Arabia as one of its close geopolitical allies, selling it arms and encouraging its role as a stabilizing force in the Middle East. In exchange, Washington has come to expect a stable supply of oil to global markets to help damp price spikes and to prevent harm to the U.S. economy.
With its new ally in Russia, Saudi Arabia is no longer beholden only to Washington.
Under Mr. Trump, the U.S. has altered its longstanding, hands-off approach to the cartel. Mr. Trump has repeatedly tweeted for OPEC to boost output to drive oil prices down, and he has phoned the Saudi government directly asking the kingdom to open the taps.
“The United States-Saudi Arabia relationship plays a critical role in ensuring Middle East stability and maintaining maximum pressure against Iran,” said a senior Trump administration official. “The U.S.-Saudi relationship remains strong.”
The murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey last October created a fresh rift between the Saudi kingdom and the U.S.—and provided an opening for Russia to insert itself further into OPEC.
.. Oil prices had cratered in 2016 and didn’t look likely to rebound. The three men needed to orchestrate a deal to reduce crude output to lift global prices. Russia and OPEC agreed to cut production.
By the middle of last year, crude was soaring again, thanks to lower output from OPEC and Russia and renewed prospects for global economic growth. By the end of the year, however, amid a U.S.-China trade battle, the world’s economic outlook was dimming.
As the December OPEC meeting loomed, oil prices had plunged some 30% in six weeks. The Saudis needed unanimous agreement on proposed production cuts to shore up prices. Iran, already hobbled by U.S. sanctions that began in November, was reluctant to curb its output. Libya and Venezuela, with domestic troubles of their own, also were holdouts.
With the cartel about to meet in Vienna, Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s neighbor in the Persian Gulf, shocked global oil markets by announcing it was leaving OPEC. It was among a small group of member countries that felt overshadowed as the Saudi-Russia alliance grew stronger. OPEC has become “basically all about what [Prince Mohammed] and his buddy Putin want,” says a Qatari official.
.. When Mr. Falih asked Iran to join the collective production cut, Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh rejected the demand and blamed Persian Gulf countries for replacing Iran’s sanctioned oil. According to the people familiar with the conversation, he pointed his finger at Mr. Mazrouei, the Emirati minister in charge of the meeting, and said: “You are the enemy of my country.” Mr. Zanganeh then threatened to suspend Iran’s membership in OPEC, these people said. Spokesmen for the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s energy ministries couldn’t be reached for comment.
.. Mr. Novak acknowledged that Russia would benefit from the cartel’s cuts. “We need $60 a barrel and we are under sanctions” from the U.S., OPEC officials recall him saying.When Mr. Falih re-entered the OPEC meeting room, he was beaming.
The coalition began curbing output in January. Oil prices have risen 30% since the beginning of the year, their best annual start since the early 1980s.
Saudi Arabia says it has trimmed more than it promised. Russia had pledged to curb production by 230,000 barrels a day, but in March it had slashed daily output by just 120,000 daily barrels, according to OPEC and Russian officials.
Saudi officials say Riyadh is willing to overlook Russia’s shortcomings because it needs support on the international stage. “We cannot afford to lose them,” says one Saudi official.
Source: www.wsj.com
Tags: iran, jamal-khashoggi, oil, oil-prices, oil-production-cuts-increases, opec, qatar, qatar-opec, russia, russia-oil, saudi-arabia, saudi-arabia-russia, us-china-trade
The Flaw in Trump’s National Security Tariffs Logic
Levies don’t go far enough to eliminate reliance on foreign steel and aluminum, suggesting what’s really at work is plain old trade protectionism
.. You can’t make aluminum without bauxite, yet the U.S. is completely dependent on imports for bauxite; the last domestic mine closed nearly 30 years ago.
the U.S. has less than half the iron ore reserves of Russia and China “since we have been using up our iron ore at a substantial rate for more than 100 years” and U.S. ore has a much lower iron content than theirs. Stimulating domestic production via import tariffs, he said, will speed up the depletion of those reserves.
.. In fact, punishing trading partners can increase national security risk, which Mr. Horlick considers another lesson of the oil saga. After Eisenhower exempted Canada and Mexico from the quotas, Venezuela asked for the same, noting it had been a reliable supplier during World War II and hadn’t nationalized its industry, as Mexico had.
.. Venezuela’s oil minister went to Washington to propose a Western Hemisphere system under which Venezuela would be guaranteed a share of the U.S. market.
When he got nowhere, he traveled to the Middle East and helped found OPEC, which embargoed the U.S. in 1973.
Tags: aluminum, bauxite, history, iron-ore, national-security, oil, opec, tariffs, trade, venezuela
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Home News Reports Dalit organisation praises Modi govt, calls it a better performer than UPA
Dalit organisation praises Modi govt, calls it a better performer than UPA
Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh
Engagements4690
The Chairman of Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) – Milind Kamble on Sunday, praised the Modi government performance and called it better than the UPA government, PTI has reported.
As per Kamble, maximum work has been done for the betterment of the Dalits under the Narendra Modi led government. This as per the chairman included, formulation of pro-Dalit schemes and their effective implementation. One of the initiatives praised was the Mudra scheme, which as claimed by Kamble benefited about 2.75 crore youths belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Kamble even went on to say that the Modi government’s performance has been comparatively better than that of the erstwhile UPA government led by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Chairman also chose to be prudent in his expectations by asserting that no government could ensure employment for each of the total 19 crore educated Dalit youths in the country. He thus claimed that DICCI was trying to empower them by encouraging their indulgence in trade and business.
Incidentally just a day after the Chairman’s remarks, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath looked to bolster his party’s pro-Dalit outreach by demanding that seats be reserved for Dalits at minority-run institutions like the Aligarh Muslim University and the Jamia Milia Islamia. He also appealed to the Dalit rights activists to demand the same.
Such an endorsement by the DICCI might also provide a boost to the Modi government’s relations with the Dalits, which a few months ago were marred by mass protests and a violent Bharat Bandh by the SC/ST communities triggered by the Supreme Court’s verdict, which called for a curb on the misuse of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
modi government
UPA government
Rajasthan: Dalit woman gang raped, brutally beaten up inside police station, FIR against six police officers
Following her brother-in-law's death, the Dalit woman has alleged that the police officers gang-raped, tortured and brutally beat her up as well.
Since 2014, Modi government has forced 312 govt officials to retire over corruption and inefficiency
The central government had launched and had reviewed the performance records of 36,756 Group A and 82,654 Group B officers.
Prime Minister Modi, Hindus are under siege, and now is the right time to speak up
Nupur J Sharma - July 15, 2019
PM Modi will still win elections due to sheer inertia and the pathetic state of the country's opposition but the faith that he commands will take a hit and even if it's among a small section of the support base, it would be a travesty
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PDF Stats
Game-by-Game Results
Team Game-by-Game
Game date Opposing team Score r-h-e / r-h-e Inns Overall Mid-Con Pitcher of record Attend Time
Feb 13, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN W 13-0 13-11-0 / 0-3-4 9 1-0-0 0-0-0 Bigley (W 1-0) 250 2:35
Feb 14, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN W 10-1 10-10-0 / 1-6-5 9 2-0-0 0-0-0 Hancock (W 1-0) 210 2:37
Feb 15, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN W 11-1 11-12-1 / 1-4-3 9 3-0-0 0-0-0 McIntyre (W 1-0) 236 2:50
Feb 20, 2004 at #24 #24 Florida State 3-8 L 3-8-0 / 8-13-0 9 3-1-0 0-0-0 Tinkler (L 0-1) 2219 2:52
Feb 21, 2004 at #24 #24 Florida State 4-6 L 4-10-1 / 6-8-0 9 3-2-0 0-0-0 Sorrow (L 0-1) 2873 2:53
Feb 22, 2004 at #24 #24 Florida State 3-4 L 3-8-1 / 4-5-1 9 3-3-0 0-0-0 Lesko (L 0-1) 2158 2:43
Feb 27, 2004 SACRED HEART W 7-0 7-13-1 / 0-4-3 9 4-3-0 0-0-0 Bigley (W 2-0) 344 2:35
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART-1 W 8-4 8-13-0 / 4-7-1 9 5-3-0 0-0-0 Lesko (W 1-1) - 2:50
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART-2 W 11-1 11-9-1 / 1-4-2 9 6-3-0 0-0-0 McIntyre (W 2-0) 388 2:42
Mar 05, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY W 6-1 6-10-1 / 1-3-0 9 7-3-0 0-0-0 Bigley (W 3-0) 263 2:12
Mar 06, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY W 8-7 8-10-2 / 7-13-3 9 8-3-0 0-0-0 Towery (W 1-0) 315 3:05
Mar 07, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY W 15-2 15-17-0 / 2-7-0 9 9-3-0 0-0-0 Tinkler (W 1-1) 275 2:45
Mar 09, 2004 SOUTHWEST MO ST. W 5-1 5-10-1 / 1-6-1 9 10-3-0 0-0-0 Sorrow (W 1-1) 265 2:17
Mar 12, 2004 vs #18 UC-Irvine W 11-4 11-13-0 / 4-10-5 9 11-3-0 0-0-0 Robertson (W 1-0) 195 3:18
Mar 13, 2004 vs Washington State W 6-4 6-9-1 / 4-9-1 9 12-3-0 0-0-0 Ramsey (W 1-0) 212 2:43
Mar 14, 2004 at Pepperdine W 13-3 13-13-0 / 3-9-0 7 13-3-0 0-0-0 Sorrow (W 2-1) 362 2:38
Mar 16, 2004 KANSAS W 2-1 2-8-0 / 1-6-0 (10) 14-3-0 0-0-0 Robertson (W 2-0) 412 2:36
Mar 19, 2004 at TX-Pan American W 1-0 1-6-2 / 0-3-3 9 15-3-0 0-0-0 Bigley (W 4-0) 448 2:37
Mar 20, 2004 at TX-Pan American W 12-10 12-15-3 / 10-22-3 (13) 16-3-0 0-0-0 Ramsey (W 2-0) 429 5:04
Mar 21, 2004 at TX-Pan American 1-4 L 1-5-2 / 4-3-2 9 16-4-0 0-0-0 McIntyre (L 2-1) 512 2:25
Mar 23, 2004 OKLAHOMA W 6-4 6-9-1 / 4-7-2 9 17-4-0 0-0-0 Ramsey (W 3-0) 2418 3:40
Mar 26, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 2-5 L 2-7-0 / 5-10-2 9 17-5-0 0-0-0 Bigley (L 4-1) 429 2:35
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA-1 W 10-1 10-12-0 / 1-7-2 9 18-5-0 0-0-0 Lesko (W 2-1) - 2:42
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA-2 W 5-3 5-14-4 / 3-10-0 9 19-5-0 0-0-0 Sorrow (W 3-1) 299 4:33
Mar 31, 2004 at Oklahoma 4-5 L 4-6-1 / 5-11-5 9 19-6-0 0-0-0 Robertson (L 2-1) 1143 3:02
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE-1 W 21-6 21-21-1 / 6-10-2 9 20-6-0 1-0-0 Ramsey (W 4-0) - 3:08
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE-2 W 8-0 8-9-0 / 0-0-3 7 21-6-0 2-0-0 Bigley (W 5-1) 391 1:36
* Apr 04, 2004 CHICAGO STATE-1 W 11-2 11-14-0 / 2-6-2 9 22-6-0 3-0-0 McIntyre (W 3-1) - 2:55
* Apr 04, 2004 CHICAGO STATE-2 W 16-0 16-15-0 / 0-1-1 7 23-6-0 4-0-0 Sorrow (W 4-1) 394 2:00
Apr 06, 2004 at #10 Wichita State W 13-9 13-14-1 / 9-15-3 9 24-6-0 4-0-0 Ramsey (W 5-0) 3498 3:24
Apr 08, 2004 at #15 Arizona State W 9-7 9-15-2 / 7-8-1 9 25-6-0 4-0-0 Bigley (W 6-1) 2231 3:25
Apr 09, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 1-5 L 1-6-1 / 5-11-0 9 25-7-0 4-0-0 Recio (L 0-1) 2334 2:40
Apr 10, 2004 at #15 Arizona State W 6-5 6-11-0 / 5-12-2 9 26-7-0 4-0-0 Sorrow (W 5-1) 2157 4:06
Apr 13, 2004 at #18 Arkansas W 6-4 6-7-1 / 4-8-2 9 27-7-0 4-0-0 Lesko (W 3-1) 1889 3:15
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS-1 W 1-0 1-5-0 / 0-7-0 9 28-7-0 5-0-0 Sorrow (W 6-1) - 2:25
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS-2 W 13-2 13-12-1 / 2-7-2 7 29-7-0 6-0-0 Bigley (W 7-1) 588 2:12
* Apr 17, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS-1 W 3-2 3-7-0 / 2-7-0 9 30-7-0 7-0-0 Lesko (W 4-1) - 2:45
* Apr 17, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS W 7-4 7-10-0 / 4-7-2 7 31-7-0 8-0-0 Recio (W 1-1) 612 2:14
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary-1 W 5-2 5-14-0 / 2-9-0 9 32-7-0 9-0-0 Sorrow (W 7-1) - 2:43
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary-2 W 22-5 22-22-0 / 5-10-6 7 33-7-0 10-0-0 Bigley (W 8-1) 48 3:05
Apr 27, 2004 #12 ARKANSAS 4-8 L 4-10-3 / 8-9-0 9 33-8-0 10-0-0 Recio (L 1-2) 1944 3:00
* May 01, 2004 at Valparaiso-1 W 4-1 4-9-1 / 1-4-3 9 34-8-0 11-0-0 Bigley (W 9-1) - 2:30
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso-2 W 5-3 5-6-2 / 3-6-0 7 35-8-0 12-0-0 Sorrow (W 8-1) 112 2:18
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso-1 W 2-1 2-5-1 / 1-5-1 (11) 36-8-0 13-0-0 Robertson (W 3-1) - 3:02
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso-2 W 5-2 5-12-1 / 2-6-1 7 37-8-0 14-0-0 Lesko (W 5-1) 112 2:18
May 11, 2004 at Kansas W 4-3 4-11-1 / 3-8-0 (10) 38-8-0 14-0-0 Ramsey (W 6-0) 491 2:55
* May 15, 2004 OAKLAND-1 W 6-1 6-10-0 / 1-5-2 9 39-8-0 15-0-0 Sorrow (W 9-1) - 2:30
* May 15, 2004 OAKLAND-2 W 9-3 9-11-0 / 3-6-0 7 40-8-0 16-0-0 Bigley (W 10-1) 612 1:56
* May 16, 2004 OAKLAND-1 W 4-1 4-4-2 / 1-8-0 9 41-8-0 17-0-0 McIntyre (W 4-1) - 2:37
* May 16, 2004 OAKLAND-2 W 6-0 6-7-0 / 0-4-2 7 42-8-0 18-0-0 Lesko (W 6-1) 517 2:05
* May 21, 2004 at Southern Utah-1 W 8-1 8-12-1 / 1-8-3 9 43-8-0 19-0-0 Bigley (W 11-1) - 2:26
* May 21, 2004 at Southern Utah-2 W 9-4 9-9-1 / 4-8-2 (9) 44-8-0 20-0-0 Ramsey (W 7-0) 127 2:50
* May 22, 2004 at Southern Utah-1 7-10 L 7-10-1 / 10-14-2 9 44-9-0 20-1-0 Robertson (L 3-2) - 2:54
* May 22, 2004 at Southern Utah-2 W 7-3 7-11-2 / 3-6-0 7 45-9-0 21-1-0 Lesko (W 7-1) 179 2:36
$ May 27, 2004 vs Southern Utah W 28-8 28-27-1 / 8-12-2 9 46-9-0 21-1-0 Bigley (W 12-1) 318 3:14
$ May 28, 2004 vs Western Illinois W 8-5 8-9-2 / 5-11-1 9 47-9-0 21-1-0 Robertson (W 4-2) 318 3:15
$ May 29, 2004 vs Southern Utah W 12-4 12-16-2 / 4-9-1 9 48-9-0 21-1-0 McIntyre (W 5-1) 417 2:40
# Jun 04, 2004 vs TCU W 6-5 6-15-3 / 5-10-2 9 49-9-0 21-1-0 Bigley (W 13-1) 4453 3:06
# Jun 05, 2004 vs #2 Texas 5-7 L 5-9-2 / 7-9-1 9 49-10-0 21-1-0 Robertson (L 4-3) 5832 3:05
# Jun 05, 2004 vs TCU W 10-1 10-16-2 / 1-3-2 9 50-10-0 21-1-0 McIntyre (W 6-1) 4395 3:15
# Jun 06, 2004 at #2 Texas 3-7 L 3-6-1 / 7-9-0 9 50-11-0 21-1-0 Tinkler (L 1-2) 6277 2:45
* = Mid-Continent Conference game
$ = Mid-Continent Conference Tournament (Shreveport, LA)
# = NCAA Regional (Austin, TX)
() extra inning game
Batting (All games)
Date Opponent ab r h rbi 2b 3b hr tb bb ibb sb cs hbp sh sf gdp k po a e lob avg
Feb 13, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN 35 13 11 12 1 0 2 18 6 0 10 1 2 0 2 0 4 27 13 0 8 .314
Feb 14, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN 36 10 10 8 2 0 2 18 8 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 4 27 16 0 10 .296
Feb 15, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN 35 11 12 11 4 0 1 19 7 0 5 0 2 0 1 1 3 27 17 1 10 .311
Feb 20, 2004 at #24 Florida State 35 3 8 3 2 0 2 16 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 12 24 11 0 10 .291
Feb 21, 2004 at #24 Florida State 37 4 10 4 1 0 1 14 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 14 24 10 1 7 .287
Feb 22, 2004 at #24 Florida State 32 3 8 3 0 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 4 7 25 6 1 4 .281
Feb 27, 2004 SACRED HEART 33 7 13 7 2 0 0 15 7 1 3 1 2 0 1 1 5 27 10 1 12 .296
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART 34 8 13 8 3 0 0 16 5 0 3 1 3 0 0 0 5 27 8 0 10 .307
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART 32 11 9 10 3 0 1 15 10 0 4 0 0 0 2 1 6 27 11 1 9 .304
Mar 05, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 32 6 10 6 0 0 3 19 2 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 8 27 7 1 4 .305
Mar 06, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 30 8 10 6 1 0 0 11 5 1 2 0 0 2 1 1 7 27 17 2 6 .307
Mar 07, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 37 15 17 14 4 0 4 33 5 0 2 0 1 0 2 2 4 27 10 0 6 .321
Mar 09, 2004 SOUTHWEST MO ST. 32 5 10 5 3 0 1 16 5 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 3 27 13 1 9 .320
Mar 12, 2004 vs #18 UC-Irvine 40 11 13 9 3 0 0 16 2 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 4 27 8 0 9 .321
Mar 13, 2004 vs Washington State 31 6 9 5 1 1 1 15 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 27 12 1 4 .319
Mar 14, 2004 at Pepperdine 32 13 13 13 5 0 2 24 6 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 7 21 6 0 7 .324
Mar 16, 2004 KANSAS 34 2 8 2 1 0 0 9 4 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 5 30 14 0 10 .319
Mar 19, 2004 at TX-Pan American 32 1 6 0 0 0 0 6 4 0 2 0 2 1 0 0 10 27 12 2 11 .312
Mar 20, 2004 at TX-Pan American 49 12 15 12 3 0 1 21 8 1 1 0 2 2 1 2 10 39 17 3 11 .312
Mar 21, 2004 at TX-Pan American 28 1 5 1 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 4 24 14 2 3 .306
Mar 23, 2004 OKLAHOMA 31 6 9 5 2 1 0 13 5 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 14 27 9 1 7 .305
Mar 26, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 34 2 7 2 2 1 0 11 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 27 8 0 7 .301
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 33 10 12 6 2 0 1 17 4 0 2 0 2 1 0 3 3 27 7 0 6 .304
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 34 5 14 5 1 0 0 15 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 1 8 27 14 4 10 .308
Mar 31, 2004 at Oklahoma 35 4 6 2 1 0 0 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 24 9 1 6 .302
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 43 21 21 21 6 3 2 39 8 0 4 1 7 0 2 1 3 27 18 1 15 .311
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 27 8 9 8 3 0 1 15 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 21 2 0 5 .312
* Apr 04, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 33 16 15 15 4 0 3 28 5 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 3 21 9 0 5 .319
Apr 06, 2004 at #10 Wichita State 37 13 14 13 2 0 2 22 6 0 1 0 2 1 1 2 8 27 15 1 7 .321
Apr 08, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 38 9 15 8 0 0 0 15 7 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 6 27 7 2 12 .324
Apr 09, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 28 1 6 0 2 0 0 8 3 0 1 1 1 1 0 2 8 24 13 1 5 .321
Apr 10, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 38 6 11 5 3 0 2 20 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 27 12 0 10 .320
Apr 13, 2004 at #18 Arkansas 31 6 7 5 1 0 0 8 7 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 10 27 9 1 8 .318
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 27 1 5 1 1 0 0 6 6 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 5 27 13 0 10 .315
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 32 13 12 13 2 2 0 18 7 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 2 21 7 1 10 .316
* Apr 17, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 28 3 7 3 1 0 0 8 5 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 4 27 8 0 7 .315
* Apr 17, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 27 7 10 6 3 0 0 13 3 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 3 21 10 0 6 .316
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary 34 5 14 5 4 0 0 18 5 0 3 0 1 2 1 2 5 27 16 0 11 .318
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary 44 22 22 20 6 1 0 30 6 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 6 21 6 0 9 .324
Apr 27, 2004 #12 ARKANSAS 35 4 10 3 2 0 0 12 4 0 2 0 2 0 0 1 9 27 10 3 10 .323
* May 01, 2004 at Valparaiso 33 4 9 2 3 0 0 12 4 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 10 27 6 1 9 .322
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso 23 5 6 3 3 0 0 9 6 1 2 0 1 2 1 1 8 21 11 2 7 .321
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso 32 5 12 4 2 0 0 14 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 21 10 1 9 .318
May 11, 2004 at Kansas 37 4 11 4 5 0 0 16 1 0 0 0 3 3 1 0 8 30 15 1 11 .317
* May 15, 2004 OAKLAND 32 6 10 6 1 1 1 16 5 0 1 0 2 0 2 0 3 27 12 0 11 .317
* May 15, 2004 OAKLAND 27 9 11 9 2 0 1 16 3 0 5 0 3 1 0 1 3 21 10 0 7 .319
* May 16, 2004 OAKLAND 28 4 4 3 1 0 0 5 7 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 10 27 9 2 7 .316
* May 16, 2004 OAKLAND 24 6 7 5 0 0 1 10 5 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 3 21 8 0 7 .316
* May 21, 2004 at Southern Utah 38 8 12 8 5 1 0 19 3 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 5 27 6 1 9 .316
* May 21, 2004 at Southern Utah 31 9 9 8 4 0 0 13 8 1 0 0 1 4 2 1 6 27 17 1 10 .315
* May 22, 2004 at Southern Utah 39 7 10 7 2 0 2 18 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 24 11 1 8 .314
* May 22, 2004 at Southern Utah 30 7 11 6 1 1 0 14 5 0 8 0 1 1 1 0 4 21 5 2 10 .315
May 27, 2004 vs Southern Utah 49 28 27 27 5 0 6 50 5 0 1 0 4 0 1 1 0 27 8 1 7 .321
May 28, 2004 vs Western Illinois 34 8 9 8 4 0 0 13 7 0 3 1 2 2 0 0 9 27 15 2 10 .320
May 29, 2004 vs Southern Utah 36 12 16 12 4 1 1 25 3 0 0 0 4 0 1 3 1 27 11 2 8 .322
Jun 04, 2004 vs TCU 35 6 15 5 3 2 1 25 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 6 27 9 3 7 .324
Jun 05, 2004 vs #2 Texas 31 5 9 5 2 1 0 13 4 1 0 2 0 2 0 2 9 27 8 2 5 .324
Jun 05, 2004 vs TCU 43 10 16 10 5 0 2 27 5 1 4 0 1 0 1 0 2 27 11 2 13 .325
Jun 06, 2004 at #2 Texas 32 3 6 3 1 0 0 7 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 24 9 1 5 .323
Totals 2062 471 665 432 146 16 47 984 278 11 115 20 74 47 32 51 368 1582 650 59 506 .323
Pitching (All games)
Date Opponent ip h r er bb so 2b 3b hr wp bk hbp dp ibb score w l sv era
Feb 13, 2004 MISSOURI SOUTHERN 9.0 3 0 0 2 7 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 13-0 1 0 0 0.00
Feb 20, 2004 at #24 Florida State 8.0 13 8 8 3 7 0 0 2 1 1 0 3 0 3-8 3 1 0 2.31
Feb 21, 2004 at #24 Florida State 8.0 8 6 5 6 5 2 0 0 1 2 2 2 0 4-6 3 2 0 2.93
Feb 27, 2004 SACRED HEART 9.0 4 0 0 2 13 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 7-0 4 3 0 2.69
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART 9.0 7 4 4 3 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8-4 5 3 0 2.86
Feb 28, 2004 SACRED HEART 9.0 4 1 0 5 10 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 11-1 6 3 0 2.53
Mar 05, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 9.0 3 1 1 0 6 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 6-1 7 3 0 2.37
Mar 06, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 9.0 13 7 6 4 6 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 8-7 8 3 0 2.71
Mar 07, 2004 CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY 9.0 7 2 2 6 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 15-2 9 3 1 2.65
Mar 09, 2004 SOUTHWEST MO ST. 9.0 6 1 1 0 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5-1 10 3 1 2.52
Mar 12, 2004 vs #18 UC-Irvine 9.0 10 4 4 2 5 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 11-4 11 3 1 2.63
Mar 13, 2004 vs Washington State 9.0 9 4 3 0 7 3 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 6-4 12 3 2 2.65
Mar 14, 2004 at Pepperdine 7.0 9 3 3 2 7 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 13-3 13 3 2 2.71
Mar 16, 2004 KANSAS 10.0 6 1 1 1 9 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 2-1 14 3 2 2.59
Mar 19, 2004 at TX-Pan American 9.0 3 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1-0 15 3 2 2.44
Mar 20, 2004 at TX-Pan American 13.0 22 10 6 7 12 2 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 12-10 16 3 2 2.57
Mar 23, 2004 OKLAHOMA 9.0 7 4 4 6 9 1 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 6-4 17 4 3 2.72
Mar 26, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 9.0 10 5 5 2 13 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2-5 17 5 3 2.83
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 9.0 7 1 1 1 8 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 10-1 18 5 3 2.75
Mar 27, 2004 SOUTH ALABAMA 9.0 10 3 1 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 5-3 19 5 4 2.67
Mar 31, 2004 at Oklahoma 8.0 11 5 4 2 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4-5 19 6 4 2.74
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 9.0 10 6 3 3 4 3 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 21-6 20 6 4 2.75
* Apr 03, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 7.0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 8-0 21 6 4 2.67
* Apr 04, 2004 CHICAGO STATE 9.0 6 2 2 3 7 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 11-2 22 6 4 2.65
Apr 06, 2004 at #10 Wichita State 9.0 15 9 9 8 7 4 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 13-9 24 6 4 2.79
Apr 08, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 9.0 8 7 6 5 6 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 9-7 25 6 5 2.90
Apr 09, 2004 at #15 Arizona State 8.0 11 5 4 2 3 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0 1-5 25 7 5 2.94
Apr 13, 2004 at #18 Arkansas 9.0 8 4 3 5 11 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6-4 27 7 7 3.01
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 9.0 7 0 0 1 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1-0 28 7 8 2.92
* Apr 16, 2004 WESTERN ILLINOIS 7.0 7 2 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 13-2 29 7 8 2.91
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary 9.0 9 2 2 2 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5-2 32 7 10 2.91
* Apr 24, 2004 at Centenary 7.0 10 5 5 1 6 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 22-5 33 7 10 2.98
Apr 27, 2004 #12 ARKANSAS 9.0 9 8 4 5 8 1 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 4-8 33 8 10 3.01
* May 01, 2004 at Valparaiso 9.0 4 1 1 2 13 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 4-1 34 8 11 2.96
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso 7.0 6 3 2 2 7 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 5-3 35 8 11 2.95
* May 02, 2004 at Valparaiso 11.0 5 1 1 4 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 2-1 36 8 12 2.89
May 11, 2004 at Kansas 10.0 8 3 2 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 4-3 38 8 13 2.83
* May 15, 2004 OAKLAND 9.0 5 1 1 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6-1 39 8 13 2.79
* May 21, 2004 at Southern Utah 9.0 8 1 1 0 7 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 8-1 43 8 14 2.69
* May 22, 2004 at Southern Utah 8.0 14 10 10 3 7 3 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 7-10 44 9 14 2.87
May 27, 2004 vs Southern Utah 9.0 12 8 7 4 3 1 0 3 0 0 2 2 0 28-8 46 9 14 2.92
May 28, 2004 vs Western Illinois 9.0 11 5 4 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 8-5 47 9 15 2.94
May 29, 2004 vs Southern Utah 9.0 9 4 3 2 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 12-4 48 9 15 2.94
Jun 04, 2004 vs TCU 9.0 10 5 4 2 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 6-5 49 9 16 2.96
Jun 05, 2004 vs #2 Texas 9.0 9 7 4 5 5 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 5-7 49 10 16 2.98
Jun 05, 2004 vs TCU 9.0 3 1 1 5 9 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 10-1 50 10 16 2.95
Jun 06, 2004 at #2 Texas 8.0 9 7 6 4 2 3 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 3-7 50 11 16 3.00
Totals 527.1 468 211 176 180 405 73 7 22 32 10 31 67 0 471-211 50 11 16 3.00
* = Mid-Con game
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TUV America, Inc., Application for Recognition
[Docket No. NRTL2-2001]
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); Labor.
SUMMARY: This notice announces the application of TUV America, Inc., for recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) under 29 CFR 1910.7, and presents the Agency's preliminary finding. This preliminary finding does not constitute an interim or temporary approval of this application.
DATES: Comments submitted by interested parties, or any request for extension of the time to comment, must be received no later than December 24, 2001.
ADDRESSES: Submit written comments concerning this notice to: Docket Office, Docket NRTL2-2001, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Room N2625, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202) 693-2350. Commenters may transmit written comments of 10 pages or less in length by facsimile to (202) 693-1648. Submit requests for extension concerning this notice to: Office of Technical Programs and Coordination Activities, NRTL Program, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N3653, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20210.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bernard Pasquet, Office of Technical Programs and Coordination Activities, NRTL Program, Room N3653 at the above address, or phone (202) 693-2110.
Notice of Application
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hereby gives notice that TUV America, Inc. (TUVAM), has applied for recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL). The scope of this recognition would include testing and certification of the equipment or materials (i.e., products), and include the sites, described later in this notice. TUVAM also seeks to use the supplemental programs also described later herein. The applicant's NRTL activities will be handled by its TUV Product Services division.
OSHA recognition of an NRTL signifies that the organization has met the legal requirements in Sec. 1910.7 of Title 29, Code of Federal Regulations (29 CFR 1910.7). Recognition is an acknowledgment that the organization can perform independent safety testing and certification of the specific products covered within its scope of recognition and is not a delegation or grant of government authority. As a result of recognition, employers may use products "properly certified" by the NRTL to meet OSHA standards that require testing and certification.
The Agency processes applications by an NRTL for initial recognition or for expansion or renewal of this recognition following requirements in Appendix A to 29 CFR 1910.7. This appendix requires that the Agency publish two notices in the Federal Register in processing an application. In the first notice, OSHA announces the application and provides its preliminary finding and, in the second notice, the Agency provides its final decision on the application. These notices set forth the NRTL's scope of recognition or modifications of that scope. We maintain an informational web page for each NRTL, which details its scope of recognition. These pages can be accessed from our web site at http://www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl/index.html.
The current address of the facilities (sites) covered by this application are: TUV Product Services (TUVAM), 5 Cherry Hill Drive, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923, TUV Product Services (TUVAM), 10040 Mesa Rim Road, San Diego, California 92121, TUV Product Services (TUVAM), 1775 Old Highway 8 NW, Suite 104, New Brighton (Minneapolis), Minnesota 55112.
According to the application, TUV America, Inc., is a "privately held Massachusetts" corporation. At time of application, the applicant was TUV Product Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of TUVAM and also a "privately held Massachusetts" corporation, according to the application. However, TUVAM informed OSHA recently that TUV Product Services, Inc. (TPS), no longer exists as a separate legal entity but is now a division within TUVAM. As stated above, this division would handle TUVAM's NRTL activities. As a result, OSHA has primarily evaluated the testing and certification capabilities of this division and former separate entity.
The application states that TUV Product Services, Inc., was incorporated in 1990, and that it has "10 years of experience with [testing] medical, telecommunications, computing, industrial machinery and controls, software, consumer electronics, sporting, and appliance products." The applicant submitted information that traces its origins to German steam boiler inspection associations founded in the 1870's "to help regulate and supervise the safety of steam installations in the interest of public safety." TUV Product Services GmbH (TUVPSG), which is organizationally part of TUVAM's parent company, included similar information in its application for recognition. OSHA has already processed TUVPSG's application and granted it recognition on July 20, 2001 (see Federal Register notice: 66 FR 38032).
Although TUVAM and TUVPSG are affiliated, they have separate operations and are legally distinct, and their recognition would be separate. However, by their own arrangement, both organizations would utilize the same registered certification mark for purposes of their NRTL certifications. OSHA imposed a condition on TUVPSG regarding use of this mark and would impose a related condition on TUVAM, as described later in this notice.
The application showed that TUVAM was owned by TUV Suddeutschland and TUV Nord, both based in Germany. However, as mentioned in the March 16 notice for TUVPSG, recently TUV Suddeutschland became sole owner of TUVAM. Also, it provides testing and other technical services in a number of areas throughout the world. The on-site review report (see Exhibit 3) indicates that TUVAM "receives administrative and technical direction" from TUVPSG. Moreover, the report indicates that TUVAM owns and its TPS division operates laboratories at additional U.S. locations, i.e., sites not listed above. The application only covers the three sites listed above, of which the Danvers site is currently TUVAM's headquarters.
TPS and therefore TUVAM submitted an application for recognition, dated February 1, 1999 (see Exhibit 2). In response to a request from OSHA for clarification and additional information, TUVAM supplemented its application in a submission dated November 9, 1999 (see Exhibit 2- 1). In addition, the applicant provided additional documents on April 28 and May 1, 2000. It also supplemented its application on May 9, 2001 (see Exhibit 2-2), clarifying the test standards it requests for recognition and the supplemental programs it wishes to use.
The applicant originally requested recognition for 18 test standards. However, the NRTL Program staff determined that 3 of these test standards are not "appropriate test standards," within the meaning of 29 CFR 1910.7(c). The staff makes such determinations in processing NRTL applications. Therefore, OSHA would recognize TUVAM for the 15 test standards listed below (see List of Test Standards).
Some documents in the November 9 submission, and virtually all of its documents in the original application, have been designated as "confidential" by the applicant. We follow provisions of 29 CFR part 70 in determining whether we can or must disclose application information. This part generally deals with procedures to process a request for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Under subpart B of this part 70, information designated as confidential by a business submitter may be afforded protection under Exemption 4 of the FOIA. This exemption protects commercial or financial information, the disclosure of which would cause substantial competitive harm to the submitter.
As part of our normal process for handling applications, OSHA requested that the applicant provide reasons for designating application documents as confidential, and specifically whether disclosure would cause it substantial competitive harm. The applicant provided the necessary justification in its response dated November 9, 1999 (see Exhibit 2-1). Generally, the applicant maintains the 4 levels of operational documentation mentioned in international quality standards. It generally considers its level 3 and 4 documents to be confidential or privileged, and so stated in revising the designations in its November 9 response. These documents are detailed internal procedures that explain more specifically how the applicant does or will operate.
OSHA has evaluated the applicant's designations and determined that disclosure of certain documents in the original application, and all or a portion of the documents in the November 9, April 28, and May 1 supplements to the application described above, could potentially give to prospective or current competitors knowledge that could cause the applicant substantial competitive harm. Therefore, under the provisions of 29 CFR part 70, those documents could be withheld from disclosure under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Accordingly, we are not making them available for public review and have not included those documents in the public docket for the application, which we further describe later in this notice. OSHA has previously withheld from disclosure similar such documents in response to FOIA requests received concerning documents submitted by other NRTLs.
Staff of the NRTL Program performed an on-site review (assessment) of the Danvers, Massachusetts, facility on October 23-26, 2000. The staff performed the reviews of the sites at San Diego and New Brighton on December 4-8, 2000. In the on-site review report (see Exhibit 3), the program staff recommended a "positive finding," signifying that the applicant appears to meet the requirements for recognition in 29 CFR 1910.7.
Regarding the merits of the application, the applicant has presented detailed documentation that describes how it currently performs its testing and certification activities. The policies, procedures, work instructions, methods, and other practices described in this documentation would be used in its operations as an NRTL. Where appropriate, it has supplemented or modified the policies and procedures to conform to OSHA's requirements for an NRTL under 29 CFR 1910.7.
TUVAM currently performs product testing and certification activities, primarily for purposes of showing conformity to European based testing standards, such as EN and IEC standards, as indicated in the review report. It provided forms it uses when performing tests required under EN 60950. One of the test standards for which it requests recognition is UL 1950, which is equivalent to EN60950 but includes the US deviations. TUVAM has also performed testing to US- based test standards, such as UL 1950. As part of its current certification activities, it conducts initial and follow-up inspections at manufacturers' facilities, one facet of the activities that NRTLs recognized by OSHA must perform. It also authorizes the use of certification marks, another aspect of the work that NRTLs must perform. For purposes of its certifications under OSHA's NRTL Program, TUVAM will utilize a US certification mark. At the time of preparation of this notice, the registration of this mark is still pending. As already mentioned, both TUVAM and TUVPSG would utilize the same registered certification mark for purposes of their NRTL certifications.
The four recognition requirements of 29 CFR 1910.7 are presented below, along with an explanation illustrating how TUVAM has met or plans to meet each of these requirements.
Section 1910.7(b)(1) states that for each specified item of equipment or material to be listed, labeled or accepted, the laboratory must have the capability (including proper testing equipment and facilities, trained staff, written testing procedures, and calibration and quality control programs) to perform appropriate testing.
The application and on-site review report indicate that TUVAM has adequate testing equipment and adequate facilities to perform the tests required under the test standards for which it seeks recognition. Security measures are in place to restrict or control access to their facility, and procedures exist for handling test samples. The application and report also indicate that testing and processing procedures are in place, and the application describes the program for the development of new testing procedures. The applicant submitted a listing and examples of specific test methods that it currently uses and would utilize for its proposed NRTL testing activities.
It utilizes outside calibration sources and does not intend to perform internal calibrations of equipment used for its NRTL testing activities. The application indicates that TUVAM maintains records on testing equipment, which include information on repair, routine maintenance, and calibrations. The application and on-site review report address personnel qualifications and training, and identify the applicant's staff involved with product testing, along with a summary of their education and experience. Also, the report indicates that TUVAM personnel have adequate technical knowledge for the work they perform. Moreover, the review report describes the applicant's quality assurance program, which is explained in more detail in its Integrated Management System (IMS) manual. Finally, the applicant performs internal system and internal technical audits of its operations on a regular basis.
Section 1910.7(b)(2) requires that the NRTL provide certain controls and services, to the extent necessary, for the particular equipment or material to be listed, labeled, or accepted. They include control procedures for identifying the listed or labeled equipment or materials, inspections of production runs at factories to assure conformance with test standards, and field inspections to monitor and assure the proper use of identifying marks or labels.
The applicant has procedures and related documentation for initially qualifying a manufacturer and for performing the required follow-up inspections at a manufacturer's facility. In its procedures, TUVAM identifies criteria it will use to determine the frequency for performing these follow-up factory inspections. It has adopted the criteria detailed in OSHA policies for NRTLs, which specify that NRTLs perform no fewer than four (4) inspections per year at certain facilities and no fewer than two (2) inspections per year under certain conditions. The factory inspections would be one part of the activities that the applicant will utilize in controlling its certification mark. In its application, TUVAM included evidence of its application for registration of a TUV certification mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As previously mentioned, this mark is still pending approval by the USPTO.
The applicant has procedures for control and issuance of product certifications. According to the review report, TPS "has been involved in a certification program for over ten years." As indicated in the report, the TPS Certification Body has been recently established under the TPS division but will operate in a manner consistent with the applicant's current certification practices, under which a Technical Certifier issues the formal product certification. As stated in the report, only those certifiers that are "[TPS] employees and reside at one of the recognized sites will be authorized to certify" a product for purposes of TUVAM's NRTL operations. The applicant maintains a detailed database of the product certifications, which would serve as its listing record. The application contains policies and terms and conditions to address control of a certification mark, and the procedures for such control are integral to more detailed procedures that the applicant uses for processing its certification certificates. For purposes of OSHA's NRTL Program, control by the NRTL of its certification mark is uppermost in importance and procedures for such control must ensure that the NRTL's registered mark is applied to those products that the NRTL has certified. Such control must be proactive and not just reactive. TUVAM's control of a US registered certification mark under the type of certification process required in OSHA's NRTL Program regulations will be a new activity for the applicant, and we propose to include a condition related to this control.
Section 1910.7(b)(3) requires that the NRTL be completely independent of employers subject to the tested equipment requirements, and of any manufacturers or vendors of equipment or materials being tested for these purposes.
As previously stated, TUV Suddeutschland is currently the sole owner of TUVAM. In addition, the information reviewed by OSHA has not indicated that TUVAM has the kinds of relationships described in OSHA policy that would cause the applicant to fail to meet the independence requirement. This information shows that TUVAM does not own or control and is not owned or controlled by the kind of entities of concern to OSHA. In addition, OSHA's review of information on business activities and subsidiaries of TUVAM's parent company has not revealed any apparent conflicts of interest that could adversely influence the applicant's testing and certification activities. TUVAM has policies to protect against conflicts of interest by its employees.
Credible Reports/Complaint Handling
Section 1910.7(b)(4) provides that an NRTL must maintain effective procedures for producing credible findings and reports that are objective and without bias, as well as for handling complaints and disputes under a fair and reasonable system.
The applicant utilizes standardized formats for recording and reporting testing data and inspection data. It has procedures for evaluating and reporting the findings for testing and inspection activities to check conformance to all requirements of a test standard. The applicant provided examples of its test and inspection reporting forms.
Regarding the handling of complaints and disputes, the applicant's complaint and error management procedure provides the framework to handle complaints it receives from its clients or from the public or other interested parties. It maintains a detailed database that it uses as part of its quality assurance activities, which provides for recording and tracking complaint information. According to the review report, "there have not been any complaints received concerning any of the certifications that have issued" through the date of the review.
TUVAM seeks recognition for testing and certification of products for demonstration of conformance to the 15 test standards listed below, and OSHA has determined the standards are "appropriate," within the meaning of 29 CFR 1910.7(c).
OSHA recognition of any NRTL for a particular test standard is limited to equipment or materials (i.e., products) for which OSHA standards require third party testing and certification before use in the workplace. Consequently, an NRTL's scope of recognition excludes any product(s) falling within the scope of the test standard for which OSHA has no testing and certification requirements.
List of Test Standards
UL 45 Portable Electric Tools
UL 50 Enclosures for Electrical Equipment
UL 67 Panelboards
UL 73 Motor-Operated Appliances
UL 508 Industrial Control Equipment
UL 751 Vending Machines
UL 813 Commercial Audio Equipment
UL 1004 Electric Motors
UL 1012 Power Units Other Than Class 2
UL 1244 Electrical and Electronic Measuring and Testing Equipment
UL 1950 Technology Equipment Including Electrical Business Equipment
UL 2601-1 Medical Electrical Equipment, Part 1: General Requirements for Safety
UL 3101-1 Electrical Equipment for Laboratory Use; Part 1: General Requirements
UL 3111-1 Electrical Measuring and Test Equipment, Part 1: General Requirements
UL 6500 Audio/Video and Musical Instrument Apparatus for Household, Commercial, and Similar General Use
The designations and titles of the above test standards were current at the time of the preparation of this notice.
Many of the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) test standards listed above are also approved as American National Standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). However, for convenience in compiling the list, we use the designation of the standards developing organization (e.g., UL 1004) for the standard, as opposed to the ANSI designation (e.g., ANSI/UL 1004). Under our procedures, an NRTL recognized for an ANSI-approved test standard may use either the latest proprietary version of the test standard or the latest ANSI version of that standard, regardless of whether it is currently recognized for the proprietary or ANSI version. Contact ANSI or the ANSI web site (http://www.ansi.org) and click "NSSN" to find out whether or not a test standard is currently ANSI-approved.
Supplemental Programs
TUV America, Inc., also seeks to use the supplemental programs listed below, subject to the criteria detailed in the March 9, 1995 Federal Register notice (60 FR 12980, 3/9/95). That notice lists nine (9) programs and procedures (collectively, programs), eight of which (called supplemental programs) an NRTL may use to control and audit, but not actually to generate, the data relied upon for product certification. An NRTL's initial recognition always includes the first or basic program, which requires that all product testing and evaluation be performed in-house by the NRTL that will certify the product. The on-site review report indicates that TUVAM appears to meet the criteria for use of the following supplemental programs for which it has applied:
Program 2: Acceptance of testing data from independent organizations, other than NRTLs.
Program 3: Acceptance of product evaluations from independent organizations, other than NRTLs.
Program 4: Acceptance of witnessed testing data.
Program 5: Acceptance of testing data from non-independent organizations.
Program 6: Acceptance of evaluation data from non-independent organizations (requiring NRTL review prior to marketing).
Program 8: Acceptance of product evaluations from organizations that function as part of the International Electrotechnical Commission Certification Body (IEC-CB) Scheme.
Program 9: Acceptance of services other than testing or evaluation performed by subcontractors or agents.
OSHA developed these programs to limit how an NRTL may perform certain aspects of its work and to permit the activities covered under a program only when the NRTL meets certain criteria. In this sense, they are special conditions that the Agency places on an NRTL's recognition. OSHA does not consider these programs in determining whether an NRTL meets the requirements for recognition under 29 CFR 1910.7. However, these programs help to define the scope of that recognition.
As already indicated, TUVAM and TUVPSG plan to utilize the same U.S. registered certification mark for purposes of their NRTL certifications. This is a new undertaking for the applicant and although it has procedures for controlling a certification mark, it still needs to further develop and refine the detailed procedures it will use to control this particular mark. As a result, OSHA would conditionally recognize TUVAM subject to an assessment of the detailed procedures and practices for controlling this mark once they are in place.
The US registered mark is the only one that OSHA would recognize for TUVAM. In addition, only the sites listed in this notice will be able to authorize use of this mark for the TUVAM product certifications under the NRTL Program. Conversely, no other TUVAM laboratories or locations may authorize the use of this mark for product certifications under the NRTL Program. To ensure the applicant and the public understand this fact, OSHA plans to impose a condition to this effect. A similar condition was proposed in the March 16 notice for TUVPSG, mentioned above.
As also noted, the applicant has just adopted procedures concerning the criteria for the frequency at which it will conduct factory follow- up inspections. Here, too, it needs to refine these procedures to effectively and properly implement the criteria. OSHA would have to review TUVAM's approach in implementing the criteria for the twice-per- year inspections before it begins to conduct inspections at this frequency. As a result, OSHA would conditionally recognize TUVAM subject to an assessment of the details of this approach once it is in place.
Imposing the proposed conditions is consistent with OSHA's past recognition of certain organizations as NRTLs that met the basic requirements but needed to further develop or refine their procedures (for example, see 63 FR 68306 12/10/1998; and 65 FR 26637, 05/08/2000). Given the applicant's current breadth of activities in testing and certification, OSHA is confident that TUVAM would develop and implement procedures and practices to appropriately perform the activities in the areas noted above.
Therefore, OSHA would impose the following conditions in the final notice to officially recognize TUVAM as an NRTL. These conditions apply solely to TUVAM's operations as an NRTL and solely to those products that it certifies for purposes of enabling employers to meet OSHA product approval requirements. These conditions would be in addition to all other conditions that OSHA normally imposes in its recognition of an organization as an NRTL.
1. Within 30 days of certifying its first products under the NRTL Program, TUVAM will notify the OSHA NRTL Program Director so that OSHA may review TUVAM's implementation of its procedures for controlling its US registered certification mark in conjunction with use of this mark by TUV Product Services GmbH of Germany.
2. Only TUV America, Inc., or TUV Product Services GmbH may authorize the US registered certification mark currently owned by TUVAM, provided each one is recognized as an NRTL by OSHA. TUVAM may authorize the use of this mark, for purposes of its product certifications under the NRTL Program, only at the TUVAM sites recognized by OSHA.
3. Prior to conducting inspections of manufacturing facilities based on a frequency of twice per year, OSHA must review and accept the detailed procedures that TUVAM will utilize to determine when to use this frequency for such inspections.
TUV America, Inc. (TUVAM) has addressed the requirements that must be met for recognition as an NRTL, as summarized above. In addition, the NRTL Program staff has performed on-site reviews (assessments) of TUVAM's facilities at Danvers, Massachusetts, San Diego, California, and New Brighton (Minneapolis), Minnesota and investigated the processes, procedures, practices, and general operations used by TUVAM. Discrepancies noted by the review staff were addressed by TUVAM following the on-site reviews, as detailed above, and are included as an integral part of the on-site review report (see Exhibit 3).
Following a review of the complete application file and the on-site review report, the NRTL Program staff has concluded that the applicant can be granted recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory for the 3 sites and the 15 test standards described above, subject to the conditions noted. The staff, therefore, recommended to the Assistant Secretary that the application be preliminarily approved.
Based upon the recommendation of the staff, the Agency has made a preliminary finding that TUV America, Inc., can meet the requirements, as prescribed by 29 CFR 1910.7, for recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory for the 3 sites and 15 test standards described above, subject to the conditions noted. This preliminary finding, however, does not constitute an interim or temporary approval of the application.
OSHA welcomes public comments, in sufficient detail, as to whether TUV America, Inc., has met the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.7 for its recognition as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory. Your comment should consist of pertinent written documents and exhibits. To consider it, OSHA must receive the comment at the address provided above (see ADDRESSES) no later than the last date for comments (see DATES above). Should you need more time to comment, OSHA must receive your written request for extension at the address provided above (also see ADDRESSES) no later than the last date for comments (also see DATES above). You must include your reason(s) for any request for extension. OSHA will limit an extension to 30 days unless the requester justifies a longer period. We may deny a request for extension if it is frivolous or otherwise unwarranted. You may obtain or review copies of TUVAM's application, the additional submissions, the on-site review report, and all submitted comments, as received, by contacting the Docket Office, Room N2625, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, at the above address. You should refer to Docket No. NRTL2-2001, the permanent record of public information on TUVAM's recognition application.
The NRTL Program staff will review all timely comments and, after resolution of issues raised by these comments, will recommend whether to grant TUVAM's application for recognition. The Agency will make the final decision on granting the recognition and, in making this decision, may undertake other proceedings that are prescribed in Appendix A to 29 CFR 1910.7. OSHA will publish a public notice of this final decision in the Federal Register.
Signed at Washington, D.C. this 15th day of November, 2001.
John L. Henshaw,
[FR Doc. 01-29233 Filed 11-21-01; 8:45 am]
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The PCTA’s annual meeting showcases the best of the trail community
By Mark Larabee
Event, Partnerships, Trail Protection, Volunteer
It’s always a special time when the Pacific Crest Trail community gathers. After all, we care about this great trail and we’re working together to do something to ensure that it is the best it can be.
During the PCTA’s Annual Meeting, held Saturday, April 27, 2019, at PCTA headquarter in Sacramento, it was clear that our collective effort is paying off. The list of the association’s accomplishments for last year is long. What’s more, there surely wasn’t time to go into everything we are doing together to maintain and protect our beloved trail.
PCTA Executive Director and CEO Liz Bergeron (center) with Lisa Naito and Ken Schwarz, members of the PCTA’s volunteer Board of Directors.
But we hit the highlights!
Land Protection: Through partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service, several land trusts and private owners, the PCTA helped protect several parcels from development, investing $8.2 million in federal, state and private funding. These important properties include valuable watersheds and habitats for endangered or threatened species. They are now available for public use.
PCTA Associate Director of Trail Operations Justin Kooyman received an award of appreciation from the Tahoe Rim Trail Association’s Chris Binder (right).
Because of your support and volunteer efforts, the PCTA was able to:
Hire a new regional representative to oversee trail protection and maintenance for the Southern Sierra
Hire a volunteer programs associate to help manage our expanding volunteer efforts
Introduce a Trail Town Program and partner with Mount Shasta, California, as our pilot
Make significant strides in reopening fire-damaged trails in Southern California and the Columbia River Gorge
Replace the PCT’s Northern Terminus Monument
Complete the Sierra Buttes relocation
It was a joyous occasion to celebrate the accomplishments of the PCTA’s dedicated community.
Let’s look at the numbers
Your contributions of financial support and volunteer time are amazing, and all the users of the PCT are benefitting. $6.6 million worth of resources went to the trail in 2018.
Here’s a breakdown:
$2.7 million in private contributions
$2.9 million worth of volunteer labor
$1 million in government funding
Liz Bergeron speaks to the PCT community during the PCTA’s annual meeting.
More 2018 numbers:
2,215 volunteers donated 118,524 hours to the trail
3,143 acres protected along the trail
7,331 long-distance permits issued
2016 thru-hikers and PCTA members Jennifer Albinson, Justin Cohan-Shapiro and their daughter, Whitney.
Numbers surely don’t tell the whole story. The energy in the room completes the tale. Enthusiasm, goodwill, support, happiness, friendship, and trust were on hand during the annual gathering. It’s no wonder that our work together continues to strengthen and that we are able to expand our efforts.
Everyone loves a raffle!
It was wonderful to celebrate everything you put into the trail last year and to look back on all those accomplishments together. From the staff and Board of Directors, we especially want to say thank you for all your contributions to our mission to protect, preserve and promote the Pacific Crest Trail.
Read more about your contributions to the PCTA’s 2018 accomplishments in the annual report.
2017 thru-hikers and PCTA members Michael and Elizabeth Dorsi. Photos by the PCTA’s Jack Haskel and Ryan Brizendine.
Author: Mark Larabee
Mark Larabee is the PCTA's Associate Director of Communications and Marketing. He is editor of the "PCT Communicator" magazine and manages the association's advocacy efforts. He is co-author of "The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America's Wilderness Trail" published in 2016. Larabee is a journalist, part of a team who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for The Oregonian newspaper. He hiked the PCT across Oregon for a 2005 series for the paper and has been with PCTA since 2010. He lives in Portland.
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Tropical Cyclone 02E (Blanca) remains active in the northeast Pacific…located approximately 575 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
PDC Global Hazards Atlas displaying tropical cyclone Positions and Segments, and 3-5 day error cones for Tropical Cyclone 02E (Blanca)
Hurricane 02E (Blanca) a category 2 hurricane…taking aim on Baja California
Here’s a satellite picture showing Hurricane Blanca…and what’s left of former tropical cyclone Andres (from yesterday)
Hurricane Blanca had a rapid intensification (RI) earlier this week, going from a tropical storm with 70 mph winds on Tuesday morning, to a category 4 hurricane with 135 mph winds just 24 hours later…an usual 65 mph increase for winds from one day to the next. Hurricane Blanca peaked at 140 mph on Wednesday afternoon…making it the 4th strongest hurricane for so early in the year in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Here’s a real-time wind profile of the eastern north Pacific…showing hurricane Blanca
Here’s a NOAA looping satellite image – along with today’s NASA satellite picture (Red indicates coldest cloud tops)
This tropical cyclone was located approximately 575 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico…moving northwest at 12 mph.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the intensity of Blanca has been oscillating around 85 and 90 knots since yesterday. Latest satellite intensity estimates indicate that there has been no change, and the winds are currently 85 knots. Deep convection is beginning to increase and is becoming better organized around the large circulation center.
This could be an indication that some restrengthening is about to begin. The hurricane has about 24 hours to do so before the sea water temperatures decrease, which should result in gradual weakening. In fact, Blanca is forecast to be a tropical storm as it moves near the southern Baja California peninsula and become a remnant low over the high terrain of the peninsula.
An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft is en route to investigate Blanca, and will provide more information regarding the intensity and structure of the cyclone. The best estimate of the initial motion is toward the northwest or 320 degrees at 9 knots. The hurricane is moving around the southwestern periphery of a subtropical ridge of high pressure over the United States and northern Mexico.
As Blanca gains latitude, it will become steered by the southerly flow ahead of an approaching mid-latitude trough of low pressure, and turn more toward the north. The dynamical guidance is now in much better agreement, bringing the cyclone near or over the southern Baja California peninsula beyond 48 hours or so. The NHC forecast is similar to the previous one, and is in the middle of the very tight model guidance envelope.
Moisture associated with Blanca is moving northward and could help produce heavy rainfall over portions of southwestern Mexico during the next day or so…especially in areas of mountainous terrain. Here’s a precipitation forecast graphic from the GFDL model for the next 5-days
Maximum sustained surface winds, according the NHC’s warning #20, were 85 knots…with gusts to 105 knots.
Swells generated by Blanca are affecting the coast of southwestern Mexico and will reach the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula and the southern Gulf of California later today. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Meanwhile, in the Hawaiian Islands, there is still the expectation that some sort of east swell from former hurricane Andres will arrive over the next couple of days, and advisory level surf for east facing shores is possible this weekend.
On the current forecast path, the center of Blanca will approach the southern Baja California peninsula Sunday. NHC cautions that “Interests in the southern Baja California peninsula should monitor the progress of Blanca. A tropical storm or hurricane watch will likely be required for a portion of Baja California Sur later today.” Here’s a webcam for the beach at Cabo San Lucas
The NHC forecast track shows Blanca making landfall in the southeastern tip of Baja California on Sunday, June 7th, and then tracking north-northeast along the Baja California Peninsula…for several days thereafter.
Here’s what the hurricane models are showing – along with an animated graphic of what the GFS model is suggesting [click on the FWD button on the right]
PDC Global Hazards Atlas displaying 1-day precipitation accumulations
Meanwhile, there’s an area of disturbed weather circled in yellow above, being referred to as Invest 95A, in the north Arabian Sea…located approximately 565 NM south-southwest of Mumbai, India
According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) satellite imagery shows a broad low level circulation center, with formative cloud banding wrapping into an improving low level circulation center.
Upper level analysis indicates the disturbance is in an area of favorable conditions, with expanding poleward outflow…and low wind shear.
Sea surface temperatures are very favorable, with high ocean heat content values.
Weather models predict development of this area into a 35 knot tropical cycle within 36 hours.
Maximum sustained surface winds are estimated at 20-25 knots.
The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours has risen to medium.
Here’s what some of the hurricane models are showing for this system
Tropical Cyclone 02E (Blanca)
NOAA textual forecast
NOAA graphical track map
Latest NE Pacific Satellite Image
NO TROPICAL CYCLONES ARE EXPECTED THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING
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NORCO: Family seeks special van for disabled…
NORCO: Family seeks special van for disabled children
From left: Max, 10; Kelly Stacy; Kai, 7; Elijah, 13; and Bill Stacy. The Stacy family of Norco seeks help to raise money for a custom van to accommodate their children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive and degenerative muscle disease. As Elijah ages it has become difficult to transport him, and the family cannot all travel together in their 2007 Yukon-XL.
By Kevin J. Keckeisen | Press-Enterprise
Bill and Kelly Stacy first thought raising one child with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive and degenerative muscle disease, would be difficult.
Now multiply that by three.
These days, the Norco couple is seeking help to overcome its biggest challenge: transporting children and wheelchairs in the current vehicle. To help, a family friend has launched a campaign to raise cash for a custom van.
The couple’s first child, 18-year-old Wil, the eldest of the four boys, is healthy and a college freshman in Iowa. But his brother Elijah, 13, was diagnosed with the disease at 7 and entered a wheelchair at 10. He attends El Cerrito Middle School in Corona and loves wheelchair basketball.
Max, 10, suffered a stroke during open-heart surgery at 3 months old. He was left blind and physically and cognitively impaired. His diagnosis with the disease was recently confirmed. Max attends Victress Bower Elementary School in Norco, a campus for children with disabilities, but also gets care from Kelly Stacy at home.
First-grader Kai, 7, attends Sierra Vista Elementary School in Norco. He enjoys playing with his friends and classmates, but symptoms of the disease, which include enlarged calf muscles, walking on tip toes and overall muscle weakness, often prevent him from engaging with his peers.
The Stacy family currently transports their family in their 2007 Yukon-XL. They place Max in his custom car seat and then fold and store his wheelchair in the back. They put Elijah into a middle seat and load his power chair onto a lift on the back of the Yukon. But as Elijah grows, it’s become tougher for one adult to lift and transport him.
When Elijah went into a wheelchair three years ago, the couple knew they would need to make changes soon.
“It’s wearing on us physically,” said Kelly Stacy, a former third-grade teacher.
Worse, almost every other week, the lift has fuse shortages and complications.
The Stacy family seeks help to raise money for a custom van. It will need seating for the driver plus three passengers, a loading ramp, and spots to anchor one wheelchair and two power chairs. The estimated cost ranges from $75,000 to $100,000.
A new van would mean “freedom to keep living and enjoying our lives,” Kelly Stacy said.
Today the entire family can’t travel together. Kelly Stacy needs help and can’t bring her children to doctors’
“It’s not really about us anymore,” she said. “It’s about them having a good, quality life.”
Cindy Young, a special education home instruction teacher for Corona-Norco Unified School District and a family friend, opened a donation account Oct. 28, and nearly $17,000 has been raised.
“We’ll do fundraisers until we make it,” Young said.
Kelly Stacy said the state can’t fully help because most of its programs account only for one child with disabilities in a family.
For Bill Stacy, a physical education teacher at Roosevelt High School in Eastvale and an assistant football coach at Centennial High School in Corona, the experience of raising his children has made him appreciate the simple things in life.
“Having a fire in the backyard, going to the movies, that’s a big deal for us,” he said. “I don’t take those for granted anymore.”
A teacher for 23 years, Bill Stacy said “I’ve always wanted to be in control and have every situation organized and planned out and play the numbers but … I’ve learned that you can’t control everything. Just do your best each day and enjoy that day, that time, whether you’re cleaning the garage, walking down the street, if you want to get an ice cream from McDonald’s, that kind of stuff is cool to me.”
Donation information: GoFundMe.Com/gff72s
Kevin J. Keckeisen
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The Roman Emperor Aurelian (Hardback)
Restorer of the World
Ancient History Military
By John F White
Published: 18th November 2015
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The ancient Sibylline prophecies had foretold that the Roman Empire would last for 1000 years. As the time for the expected dissolution approached in the middle of the third century AD, the empire was lapsing into chaos, with seemingly interminable civil wars over the imperial succession. The western empire had seceded under a rebel emperor and the eastern empire was controlled by another usurper. Barbarians took advantage of the anarchy to kill and plunder all over the provinces. Yet within the space of just five years, the general, later emperor Aurelian had expelled all the barbarians from with the Roman frontiers, re-united the entire empire and inaugurated major reforms of the currency, pagan religion and civil administration.
His accomplishments have been hailed by classical scholars as those of a 'superman', yet Aurelian himself remains little known to a wider audience. His achievements enabled the Roman Empire to survive for another two centuries, ensuring a lasting legacy of Roman civilization for the successor European states. Without Aurelian, the 'Dark Ages' would probably have lasted centuries longer. This is a new, revised edition.
Well written, The Roman Emperor Aurelian, one of a series on the Roman Emperors from Pen & Sword/Casemate, offers the lay reader an excellent picture of the Crisis of the Third Century and the life and work of Aurelian, which can be read with profit by those with a more serious interest in the subject as well, though marred by some irrelevant attempts to draw parallels with the state of the modern world.
Read the complete review here.
Strategy Page, A. A. Nofi
Incorporating new material, British historian White has revised and expanded his 2006 life of Aurelian… White weaves into this story not only Aurelian’s life, but that of several other emperors as well, plus an ongoing discussion of the evolution of the Roman Army.
New York Military Affairs
White builds a plausible picture of Aurelian, and often lays out the evidence for confusing or unsupported issues for the reader's interpretation. He also makes a convincing argument for attributing one of five imperial bronze busts, discovered beneath the pagan temple of Brescia in 1826, as an image of Aurelian.
Minerva, March/April 2017 – reviewed by Dominic Green
All things considered it is a powerful book, with no noticeable downsides. White is an engaging writer with a deep understanding of the subject matter. His book really is a landmark biography and a significant addition to classical scholarship.
Because of this I recommend it to anyone interested in Aurelian, the later Roman Empire, or the Roman world in general.
Read the full in depth review here!
UNRV - Martin Holmes
The subject matter of this book is fascinating. There is a lengthy section which describes the methods and tactics of the Roman army of the era, and it is possibly the best summary on that subject which I have read. There is a detailed history of the complex events of the disastrous 3rd century leading up to Aurelian, and a satisfying epilogue outlining the consequences post Aurelian.
Overall, an excellent and interesting read. Recommended.
John Viggers, Freelance
Without Emperor Aurelian, the demise of the Roman Empire would have occurred much earlier, and many of their amazing innovations and inventions would have been severely curtailed. One of the most influential of all the Roman emperors is examined in detail in this superb biography by John F White. Essential reading for students of Ancient Roman history.
Books Monthly, May 2016 - Paul Norman
A revised paper by John F. White on, what the author considers to be the savior of Roman world in the late third century.
VaeVictus No.125
More titles by John F White
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Artwork reproduced with permission of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd and The Ian Fleming Estate © Ian Fleming Estate 1961
Favourite AboutBooks
Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London in 1908. His first job was at Reuters news agency after which he worked briefly as a stockbroker before working in Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. His first novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 and was an instant success. Fleming went on to write twelve other Bond books as well as two works of non-fiction and the children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Bond books have sold over sixty million copies and earned praise from figures such as Raymond Chandler who called Fleming ‘the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England’ and President Kennedy who named From Russia with Love as one of his favourite books. The books inspired a hugely successful series of film adaptations which began in 1961 with the release of Dr No, starring Sean Connery as 007. Fleming was married to Anne Rothermere with whom he had a son, Caspar. He died in 1964.
Books by Ian Fleming
Double the 007: From Russia with Love and Dr No (James Bond 5&6)
Double the 007: Moonraker and Diamonds are Forever (James Bond 3&4)
Visit the official Ian Fleming website
Be the first to find out about Ian Fleming.
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Diminishing Checks and Balances for U.S. Commanders in Chief Considering War
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/diminishing-checks-and-balances-considering-war
Story Transcript
The last official declaration of war from the U.S. Congress was in 1941, but the United States has been engaged in frequent military conflict since then. Ray Suarez sits down with Marvin Kalb to discuss the evolving power of the president in his book "The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed."
Read the Full Transcript
JUDY WOODRUFF:
Finally tonight, presidents who send troops into conflicts around the world, sidestepping Congress' role. That's the subject of a new book.
Ray Suarez talked with its author.
RAY SUAREZ:
The Constitution establishes the president of the United States as the commander in chief of the nation's armed forces, but the power to make war is subject to the checks and balances found throughout the Constitution.
The president asks Congress to declare war, and it's congressional approval that clears the way for a state of war. But declarations of war are rare, and American forces have seen plenty of combat without them on the orders of the president.
Veteran journalist and teacher Marvin Kalb has taken a look at the evolving power of the president to commit the country to action around the world. His new book is called "The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed."
It's great to have you here.
MARVIN KALB, author, "The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed": Thank you, Ray.
And, as I was thinking about it as I was reading the book, the United States has been actively militarily engaged in a lot of places in the last 60 years without a declaration of war.
MARVIN KALB:
Without a declaration, which has now become essentially an antique, a rare remembrance of former times.
The last one was on Dec. 8, 1941, when Roosevelt went to the Congress after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the day before, and he said, "I need a declaration of war." And they gave it to him within a couple of days.
There were four other times in American history when that happened. But at no time since 1941 has the president ever gone to Congress and asked for a declaration.
And Vietnam is the centerpiece of your book. And you illustrate how successive presidents were able to escalate that conflict really on their own writ, without having to ask Congress much of anything.
What was happening was that from Harry Truman right on to Richard Nixon, we were all living under the shadow of the Cold War. And the Cold War essentially set the terms under which a president functioned.
So the president could ask for something, say, we're in the middle of the Cold War, the Soviet Union is just around the corner, so watch your step, and the Congress — no one in Congress was going to stand up against a president.
When the issue was war against communism and now the issue war against terrorism, and nobody in Congress is really standing up to the president.
What I found in this book is that one president after another ever since World War II can lead the country into war relatively easily. No one is standing up. There are no checks and balances. The president does it on his own.
But for all the questions about whether the request for a declaration of war would constrain a president, wouldn't it also give him cover, the kind of support that it is necessary to have when you're leading the country into this kind of venture?
But, at this particular point, the president doesn't feel that he needs cover. Jim Webb, the senator, retired senator from Virginia, did a recent article in which he said that the Congress has become irrelevant in the making and executing of American foreign policy.
I have certainly found that to be the case. The congressmen and the senators are very good on issues like Benghazi, but when it comes to an issue like declaring war, they say, let the president do it. Why do I have to bear responsibility for that? It takes too much time away from fund-raising. I have to answer to my constituents.
And right now, with the Congress out of the picture and the president having essentially his own army, like the European monarchs of old — they had their own army — the president can now go into a war without anybody saying anything. Maybe an editorial writer will say something, but that's about it.
You mentioned that the Cold War and then the war on terror strengthened the president's hand when he wants to make war.
Permanently? Or is this a presidential power that, with events, may wax or wane in coming decades?
It's a very good question.
And the only sense I have right now is that the evidence over the last 30, 40 years suggests that we're moving in that direction and are likely to continue to move in that direction.
One of the reasons that this book, by the way, has been on my mind to write for 40 years now because of one overriding concern. And that is when too much power rests in the hands of the president, even the president, I think we're all in trouble.
The whole idea, as you said at the very beginning, was checks and balances. And, increasingly, with the Congress abdicating its responsibility, with the president having his own army, in effect, and with the media more or less benignly going along with what's happening, you end up with the president having all of the power to do whatever he wants.
If he, tomorrow morning, decides we're going to put — we're going to go into an attack in Iran, who would stop him? No one. You would just learn about it and report it.
And that's the thing. After Dec. 8, 1941, FDR had a united nation and a united government behind him as a result of that war declaration.
And look at the wars, the invasions, the various things that have happened in the recent decades, often leading presidents down very bad roads because they were going it alone.
And this is one of the things that's so terribly important. We are fighting totally different kinds of war. So if you put this proposition to the president now, who's a very intelligent man, and say, Mr. President, are you really comfortable with this arrangement, he'd say no. I'm positive he'd say no.
But everything yields power to him. When you live in a world that is so unpredictable, so uncertain, with anything happening the next morning, you have to turn to somebody. And the American people at this point must turn to the president. There is no one else.
The Congress has said goodbye, and the Army is there to do what the president wants as commander in chief. He is the boss. Zbig Brzezinski told me in the course of researching this — he said, the president makes the key decision, and after that, it is the policy of the United States.
The book is "The Road to War."
Marvin Kalb, great to see you.
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Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Belief and Practice
Faith and Spirituality
US Domestic Issues
Interview with Peter Steinfels
Celibacy in the Priesthood
Teen Girls and Sex
In This Episode << SLIDE LEFT TO SEE ADDITIONAL SEGMENTS
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, a special report on the sexual pressures on pre-teenage girls. Parents, social critics, and many young girls themselves deplore it, but sex sells, so advertisers and entertainers use it to attract audiences. They use it without the regulation or social pressures that once were restraining forces. And they use it without censorship, which hardly anyone favors. Mary Alice Williams reports on the media and the children who are its targets.
MARY ALICE WILLIAMS: They’re sweet. The sexually debasing lyrics they’re mimicking aren’t. Ever since Elvis shimmied his pelvis, parents have worried about protecting their teens from the obscene. This is different. These aren’t 17-year-olds. They’re 11. And these self-confident sixth graders and even their younger siblings are increasingly exposed to torrents of overtly sexual messages by people selling things to preteens.
ALICE (Teenage Girl): It makes me feel like an object and feel really, really weird. And it is not like girls should be like that.
WILLIAMS: The culture tells them something different. They listen to music. Britney Spears made it big wearing a Catholic schoolgirl uniform. Look at her now. Most of BILLBOARD’s top 20 CDs are slapped with “Parental Guidance” stickers. They [kids] do homework on the Internet where there are lots of porn sites. They watch TV. The teen hit DAWSON’S CREEK on the WB alludes to oral sex and masturbation. In prime time, the Kaiser Family Foundation has catalogued an average of five sexual references per hour.
KERRY (Teenage Girl): This sexual stuff you don’t just see on TV. You see it day to day. It happens in middle school. It will happen in high school. You just see it around.
WILLIAMS: Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain is an ethicist with University of Chicago Divinity School.
Dr. JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN (University of Chicago Divinity School): There’s certainly a relationship between the culture and the increase of sex because of the many cultural messages that bombard young people daily.
WILLIAMS: According to studies, more girls than ever before are sexually active before their 15th birthday. One in 12 children has lost his or her virginity by the eighth grade. Almost a fourth of ninth graders have slept with four or more partners.
Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician who treats adolescents only, talks with his teenage patients daily about sexual issues. He says he is seeing more sexually transmitted diseases in younger and younger children and that expectations of sex have changed drastically.
Dr. MICHAEL RICH: What we are seeing now that is different from previous years, I think, is that sex is expected. Sex is part of the normal interaction, day-to-day interaction between boys and girls.
Jerry Della Femina
JERRY DELLA FEMINA (Advertising Executive): This is about as sexy as we get.
WILLIAMS: Advertising agent Jerry Della Femina doesn’t use sex to sell his clients’ products. But he knows why people do.
Mr. DELLA FEMINA: It’s easier to be lewd than to be creative, and people try to get attention, and the one thing that gets attention is sex. Sex sells. People turn around. They look at it.
WILLIAMS: Like many in the industry, he thinks it is up to the parents to monitor what their children see and hear.
Mr. DELLA FEMINA: I believe that it is the parents’ job to provide them with a sense of values so that if they do see something that is off, they are not affected by it.
WILLIAMS: Diane Levin, with the Coalition to Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children, studies the effect of culture on kids’ behavior.
DIANE LEVIN (Coalition to Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children): I have interviewed thousands of parents, and they agree it is their job and they try very hard to do it, but they can’t keep it out of their children’s lives. I resent that I have to struggle with this issue. I think that in the best of all possible worlds we would have a society that is trying to create an environment that helps parents in their job instead of making it harder.
Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain
Dr. ELSHTAIN: At one point in time in this culture, the assumption was that families and churches and schools, and even the wider culture, reinforced one another in helping to sustain children through a period of growing up. And I think that coherence has broken down.
STEPHANIE (Teenage Girl): The sixth graders learned how to do something they are not supposed to do. And it is called “giving booty.”
RACHAEL (Teenage Girl): The girl like gets in front of the guy and the guy is behind her.
CASEY (Teenage Girl): It’s like — I just don’t really want to tell you.
WILLIAMS: Like them, the majority of preteens don’t engage in sexual behavior, but they are aware of what they see around them. Sixth graders know about a concept many of their parents hadn’t heard of till college: oral sex. SEVENTEEN Magazine says 55 percent of teens have engaged in oral sex.
ALICE: According to a lot of people, it keeps you a virgin.
LEA (Teenage Girl): Because it is kind of like having sex, but you are not really doing anything and you can’t have a baby, and they don’t think there is any consequences.
Ms. LEVIN (referring to an ad): Her breasts look like they are about 50 percent of her weight.
WILLIAMS: Using sex to sell products starts early.
Ms. LEVIN: What they are seeing right now is a sexual relationship between males and females that is totally objectified — the sexuality that you see is not in the context of relationships. It is not in the context of caring and feeling. I am very worried about where this is going to lead. There is a whole set of problems that has to do with the relationships males and females are going to develop with each other.
Diane Levin
WILLIAMS: What messages are you getting about who you are supposed to be?
CASEY: Perfect — big boobs, hips, a strong stomach, you know, pretty face, no zits.
SARAH (Teenage Girl): So basically stuff that is on the outside. Not on the inside.
WILLIAMS: It’s how these children should be developing on the inside that concerns ethicist Jean Bethke Elshtain.
Dr. ELSHTAIN: To the extent that your time is devoted to engaging in these kinds of activities, it’s taken away from other sorts of possibilities at very crucial ages for young people, when they’re learning how to be to the kinds of adults that they’re going to become.
WILLIAMS: How did it get this far? Television producers, advertisers, movie producers, magazine editors outdoing each other for the big sell — with almost no limits imposed on them.
Ms. LEVIN: The entertainment industry is unethical in its practice of marketing sex and violence to children. They will use whatever techniques they can to capture the attention of an audience so they will be interested and engaged and hopefully buy what is being marketed.
RACHAEL: Everyone has something, you know, that is not perfect about them. So I think that magazines, TV shows should stop putting that message out to everybody.
WILLIAMS: Can you legislate the images coming at our children? Jerry Della Femina doesn’t think so.
Mr. DELLA FEMINA: I don’t like that this is the way we are going as a nation. It is time to censor these people. I don’t want to be part of that.
Dr. ELSHTAIN: People have to get licenses to broadcast. So it seems to me that there’s some way, without in any way moving into real censorship, there are ways that you could set up certain guidelines.
Ms. LEVIN: One of the reasons it is so important that government play some role in regulating and setting standards is that once it becomes a level playing field for the whole industry, then it will help the whole industry become more ethical.
Dr. ELSHTAIN: We have the responsibility to affirm that which is worthy and good about our culture. And there’s so much to affirm. We also have the responsibility to say no, and I think we have to do both in equal measure and find some balance between them.
CASEY: It does rub off on you a lot of times, and it makes you feel that this is the way that you are supposed to be and that guys will like you because you have big boobs, and then after a while you think that it is normal.
WILLIAMS: Perhaps normal to adults too, to the extent that they are increasingly desensitized to the saturation of sexual messages and squeamish about talking with their children. Sex education is left to the schools, which are restricted from teaching the realities of oral sex and doing “booty.” But our children are still learning and absorbing values from what they see around them. I’m Mary Alice Williams for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY in New York.
ABERNETHY: We tried to get comments from people in the TV, magazine, and record businesses who are using sex to sell, but their spokespeople all declined.
THE BODY PROJECT: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF AMERICAN GIRLS by Joan Jacobs Brumberg
THE VALUE OF MATERIALISM: A PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY by Tim Kasser
HONORING THE BODY by Stephanie Paulsell
THE CHILD IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT edited by Marcia J. Bunge
VIRTUAL FAITH: THE IRREVERENT SPIRITUAL QUEST OF GENERATION X by Tom Beaudoin
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
A coalition of more than 20 national and regional organizations working to counter the harmful effects of marketing to children.
Alliance for Childhood
Find information here about ending the commercialization of childhood as well as research on materialism and well-being.
The Vatican: Statement at the Second Conference on the Commercial Exploitation of Children, 2001
National Institute on Media and the Family / ParentFurther
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
National Study of Youth and Religion
UNICEF: Convention on the Rights of the Child
University of Chicago Divinity School: Religion, Culture and Family Project
Abstinence (November 10, 2000)
Tags: Jean Bethke Elshtain, Jerry Della Femina, media ethics, Sex, Sexuality, teens
Providing Support for pbs.org
Funding for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY is provided by Lilly Endowment. Additional funding is provided by individual supporters and Mutual of America Life Insurance Company.
Produced by THIRTEEN ©2015 WNET. All rights reserved.
BY FAITH:
Other World Religions
Zoroastrian
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1776dc: As Consumer Privacy Legislation Looms, Healthcare Offers Case Study in Challenges
Written by Grant Elliott on March 13, 2015
This article first appeared on 1776dc.com on March 10, 2015. Click here to see the original version.
by Chelsea Tyson
President Barack Obama’s proposed privacy legislation aims to create a universal standard for consumer privacy, which could cause a privacy-policy scramble amongst tech companies in every industry.
“If this passes, it would create a baseline,” said attorney Anna Watterson in a phone interview. “It would bring (companies) within a privacy and security regulatory framework.”
Since 2012, the White House has called for universal privacy standards that would apply to all businesses in every industry. Now, the president’s recently proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights has become the first piece of legislation to move toward that goal by increasing transparency and giving consumers more control over their personal data.
Yet, incorporating multiple industries and entities under a single set of privacy rules leads to challenges, and Obama’s proposal has already drawn a significant amount of criticism. The Center for Democracy and Technology recently released an analysis of the bill applauding its intentions while acknowledging significant room for improvement, namely in regard to enforcement and defining what is considered “personal information.”
“The United States produces cutting-edge technology but is in the dark ages when it comes to baseline privacy law. We are one of only two developed nations … that don’t have this type of basic protection,” CDT Deputy Director of Privacy Michelle De Mooy explained in an email. “Many consumers have expressed serious concerns about how their information is collected and used and are growing more wary of new technology with every privacy violation and data breach.”
The healthcare industry, long subject to restrictions such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, is no stranger to such privacy regulations. As such, it offers a case study in what it will take to implement and enforce privacy legislation across all sectors. According to Watterson, who specializes in health information privacy laws, the privacy issues that the healthcare industry is facing can be used to predict and prevent operational challenges that may arise if the CPBR is passed.
Enforcement is one such obstacle, as evidenced by multiple security breaches such as the recent attack on Anthem, a national health insurer. These hacks have turned public focus and concern to the ways in which companies are protecting, collecting and distributing consumers’ personal data. According to HIPAA Violations, a site dedicated to outlining breaches and problems in health privacy, over 41 million patients have been affected by HIPAA breaches.
When breaches do occur, they raise another operational issue: The difficulty with which these criminal cases are resolved. Unlike identity theft in the credit card and financial industries, healthcare fraud is harder to detect. According to Politico, only 10 percent of health fraud victims say they fully resolved the crime—but that was after they spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours recovering their personal information.
“(Health identity thieves) can be claiming for years before it gets noticed,” Grant Elliott founder and CEO of Ostendio, a data security and risk management solutions provider, said in a phone interview.
The complexities of consumer privacy create even more unique challenges for startups that don’t currently fall under HIPAA regulations. As a result, Cindy Oxenbury, an independent privacy consultant, stresses the importance of making privacy a priority from the beginning.
“I think the challenge for startups is (that) they are subject to the same regulatory compliance as large organizations,” she said.
According to Oxenbury, startups can implement simple, yet valuable preventive measures against privacy infringements: be aware of what data is really needed; minimize data collection, and identify how data will be used.
With the combination of the CPBR proposal and recent security breaches, healthcare companies—no matter the size—need to pay more attention to security and privacy.
“Healthcare industries spend 3 percent or less of their IT budget on security,” Elliott said.
According to Elliott, incentives and rewards, combined with regulations, will help institutions achieve higher quality of security for consumers. With the spotlight on healthcare privacy protection, the difficulty is to determine how much of the responsibility lies on the government to impose efficient regulations, and how much the industry is responsible to take the initiative and govern itself.
“This goes back to the age-old question: can it self-regulate?” Elliott said. “It can to a point, but the question is, where is that point?
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Taking a Workshop
Art Reach
Art on the Edge
Reaching Forward
The Lenore Ross Curating Program
Robyn Watson Scholarship
John Michael Gray Scholarship
Open Sessions
Artwork Reviews
Museum School History
Beverly Brodsky
Current Workshops:
Introduction to Watercolor
At Brooklyn College, Brodsky studied with Ad Reinhardt and Burgoyne Diller. Even before she graduated in 1965, her watercolors were included in a 1963 World House Gallery exhibition (Madison Avenue) which also showcased Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky.
Beverly is an internationally known artist in many private and corporate collections.. Her museum exhibitions include The Jewish Museum (1988), The Whitney Museum of American Art (2000), Sotheby’s (NYC 2001), The Mazza Museum, (On going), and The Hebrew Union College Museum (2015).
Brodsky has been awarded several painting fellowships and grants. These include The Connecticut Commission On The Arts (1979), The National Endowment For The Arts (1980), The New York Foundation For The Arts Fellowship (2000), and The Vermont Studio Center Fellowship (2010). In 2004 she was The Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant finalist, and a grant recipient in 2012. In 1977 she won the Randolff Caldecott Medal for her Illustrated book, The Golem.
From 2015-2018 Brodsky exhibited her work in several venues including Arts In Embassies in Bahrain(Bandar Seri Begawan), and Sierra Leone. Beverly’s work was also chosen to appear in the city wide Carnegie Hall Open Studios Festival event which was reviewed in New York Observer’s online news in connection with Westbeth Artists’s Residency. Beverly will soon be featured (beginning January) In DISCOVERIES IN AMERICAN ART, an on line magazine, (Peter Hastings Falk, editor).
She has been teaching at Parsons, The New School University for many years.
Beverly Brodsky Image Gallery
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Tracking the Tuna: How PacBio Sequencing Could Help Save the “King of the Sea”
Northern Bluefin Tuna
Their bodies are big, bony and… warm?
Unique among bony fish, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern bluefin tuna have a rare endothermic physiology that has garnered great interest among scientists. Like birds, mammals and some sharks, these kings of the sea are capable of conserving internally generated metabolic heat produced from their swimming muscles and viscera, and maintaining tissue temperatures above that of the environment.
The fish are also renowned among sushi enthusiasts for their delectable, fat-laden muscle, and prized by fisherman because of the high prices they command.
So the preservation of these species is paramount to many, and researchers are keen to monitor and manage their populations, which have suffered precipitous population decline and are now at the lowest levels of their spawning biomasses in recorded history. But progress is being hindered by a lack of knowledge about the evolutionary and genomic processes that have driven the physiological and ecological diversification of the bluefin tunas.
Conservation genomics using SMRT Sequencing could help.
In a recent webinar hosted by Nature, Barbara Block, the Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University, joined PacBio scientist Paul Peluso to describe a project to protect Pacific and Atlantic bluefin tuna by assembling their genomes and transcriptomes.
At the Monterey Tuna Research and Conservation Center, one of the world’s only captive bluefin centers, Block and colleagues are studying the physiology, energetics, hydrodynamics and transcriptomics of the fish. But tracking the activity of the fish in their natural habitat is also vital.
Among the questions they want to answer: How do these animals adapt to their ocean realms, and what is it about the bluefins that makes them uniquely different than all other tunas in their clade? What limits their performance in a warming world? How will they adapt to hypoxia, increased CO2 and ocean acidity?
“We’re interested in monitoring their genes and transcriptomes to help us understand the health of these tunas in an ocean, but that’s not easy,” Block said. “It’s not easy because the ocean is not transparent. When tunas slip beneath the surface, it becomes hard to follow them and to monitor their populations, their transcriptomics, their genomics, and where it is they go.”
Block said her lab uses a “fish and chips” approach. “We put computers on these animals that record their journeys beneath the sea along with the environmental conditions surrounding them,” she said. “By mapping the tunas on the globe, we are able to show visually, and spatially, how these animals use our planet.”
They’ve discovered that the fish travel far, able to go from Iceland to the Gulf of Mexico, or cross from North America to the Mediterranean, in just a few months. It is not so easy to tell populations apart, but genetics has helped.
As Peluso explained, the team generated approximately 118 Gb of sequence from just under 7 million reads for the Atlantic tuna (Thunnus thynnus), and 15 million reads, yielding just over 208 Gb of sequencing for the Pacific bluefin (Thunnus orientalis). Using FALCON-Unzip, they resolved haplotypes and identified structural variants along diploid assemblies of 1.6 Gb and 1.24 Gb, respectively.
Compared with an existing Pacific tuna (T. orientalis) genome from Japan assembled with short-read technology, the new PacBio assemblies contained much fewer fragments — around 2,000 contigs, compared to 16,802 for the Japanese assembly.
“It helped us to identify some genomic differences between these two species, as well as to develop a set of probes, or markers, that could be used to profile these species in a population scale across the globe,” Peluso said.
Further study could involve deeper dives into the assemblies to compare structural variants with gene models, such as correlations between the presence or absence of genes, as well as downstream implications of enhancer or promoter regions on gene expression.
“Having highly contiguous assemblies will help address these questions,” Peluso said.
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‘The Ship has been Righted’: Suttles Praised for Encana’s $10B Divestitures
in A&D Transactions / Canada / Closing Bell Story by— Oil & Gas 360
June 22, 2016 Share Print
From BNN
Three years into his tenure as CEO of Encana, Doug Suttles is still cleaning up the mess he was handed in 2013.
The Calgary-based energy producer sold some of its property in northeastern Alberta on Tuesday to Birchcliff Energy for $625 million, marking the ninth major asset sale spearheaded by Suttles since he took the top job in June 2013. In total, Encana has generated roughly $10 billion through divestitures over the past three years.
Suttles spent more than two decades with BP, where he’s best remembered as the British company’s public face at briefings on the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, before leaving to run Encana. When Suttles arrived in Calgary, his main focus was still on damage control.
Encana was bleeding cash trying to fund projects in different regions spread across North America. Randy Eresman, a 35-year veteran of the company who had served as chief operating officer since 2002 before taking on the CEO role in 2006, unexpectedly resignedbarely two weeks into 2013, roughly four years after he led an effort to spin off the company’s oil sands assets into Cenovus Energy, leaving Encana with nothing but natural gas assets just before prices for that commodity crashed.
“The timing was just terrible,” Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager with TriVest Wealth Council, told BNN on Wednesday. “Focusing on natural gas right at a time when the supply chain basically just became overwhelmed, that is why you need both [oil and liquids as well as natural gas] to provide risk management and diversification.”
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Members (MPPs)
Visit and learn
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Standing Committee on Government Agencies
Committee Transcript 2016-May-31 (PDF)
A038 - Tue 31 May 2016 / Mar 31 mai 2016
COMITÉ PERMANENT DES ORGANISMES GOUVERNEMENTAUX
Tuesday 31 May 2016 Mardi 31 mai 2016
Subcommittee reports
Intended appointments
Ms. Sharyn Vincent
Ms. Teresa Piruzza
The committee met at 0901 in committee room 2.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Good morning, everyone. Welcome to government agencies. Before we begin our intended appointments review this morning, our first order of business is to consider two subcommittee reports.
We have a subcommittee report for Thursday, May 12, 2016. Would someone please move adoption of the report?
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I move adoption of the subcommittee report on intended appointees dated Thursday, May 12, 2016.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Any discussion? All in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried.
We have a second subcommittee report, dated Thursday, May 19, 2016. Would someone please move adoption of the report?
Mr. Wayne Gates: I move the adoption of the subcommittee report on intended appointments dated Thursday, May 19, 2016.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Discussion? All in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried.
Review of intended appointment, selected by official opposition party: Sharyn Vincent, intended appointee as member, Ontario Municipal Board (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario).
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): We will now move to the appointments review. We have two intended appointees to hear from today. We will consider the concurrences following the interviews.
Our first intended appointee today is Sharyn Vincent, nominated as member, Ontario Municipal Board (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario). Please come forward and take a seat at the table. I wanted to welcome you and thank you very much for being here today. You may begin with a brief statement, if you wish. Members of each party will then have 10 minutes to ask you questions. Any time used for your statement will be deducted from the government’s time for questions. Welcome, and you may begin.
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Thank you. Good morning, Chair and members of the committee. My name is Sharyn Vincent, and I’m here this morning to discuss with you my interest and expertise, which I believe will make me an effective member of the Ontario Municipal Board.
I have both an academic background and a professional career in land use planning. As a land use planner and development consultant, I have worked in both the public and private sectors.
This Ontario Municipal Board appointment would allow me to bookend my career by working as an adjudicator in a realm in which I’ve been involved and for which I have tremendous respect.
My work experience as a planner in both sectors has given me considerable experience in interpreting and applying the relevant provincial and municipal policies and laws that guide land use and development in Ontario. I also work frequently as a member of multidisciplinary teams, encompassing the wide range of experience necessary to implement development projects.
My role as both a consultant and a municipal planner has given me broad exposure to policy documents, regulatory bylaws, methodologies, data sources and all forms of architectural tools, and I believe I’ve developed a solid expertise in testing the veracity of arguments formulated in support of development applications.
As an expert planning witness before municipal authorities and the OMB, I have acquired an intimate knowledge of the municipal approval process and the quasi-judicial mandate and adjudicative responsibility of the OMB.
As part of its practice, the board offers mediation to the parties before it. I endorse mediation as a proven approach to depolarize opposing interests to achieve settlement, with the resultant savings of time, expense and stress.
Not all matters can achieve settlement. It has been my experience that parties are given an opportunity to argue the conflict before an objective panel which has no interest other than weighing evidence and rendering decisions pursuant to the legislative framework set out by the province and the respective municipal jurisdiction. I believe, for all of the foregoing, that as a member of the OMB, I can and will make a meaningful contribution to the work of the board in resolving land use issues and meeting the planning objectives of the province.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you very much. We will now begin our questioning with Mr. Gates.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Good morning. How are you today?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: I’m well, thank you.
Mr. Wayne Gates: I just had a few questions for you. I’ll read it out so I get it right. I’ll read slowly. As you are no doubt aware, the OMB has often been accused of siding with developers in the face of local and municipal opposition to development projects. In fact, in some cases, the OMB has gone so far as to essentially rip up municipal planning documents created by duly elected members of local councils. Given this, do you believe that the OMB should continue to operate in its current format, or do you believe that changes are needed to better balance the system?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: As I’m sure the member is aware, there are a number of things that are actually being taken as very proactive initiatives by the Legislature. Bill 73—which has been approved, and I presume the imminent proclamation would come during this session—actually addresses a number of changes to the Planning Act which would allow municipalities, at their election, to bring practices back into their own control to allow for mediation at their level after the actual lodging of appeals at the municipalities.
I think that that recognizes the validity of actually going through the public process, bringing things to a decision, and then recognizing that where there are still conflicts, there’s still also the potential for mediation. I believe that the board practice in mediating outstanding matters and conflicts has actually proven to be very successful in trying to, as I said in my statement, depolarize the conflicts. They’re refocusing them, which, unfortunately, sometimes is not adequately put forward during public participation in the process. So I think there’s that.
I’m also aware that there is a commission looking into the actual workings of the Ontario Municipal Board. I know that it has been my experience—and I’m aware anecdotally of the types of measures—that they continuously look at themselves in terms of reviewing their practices to make them accessible to the general public.
I can only speak to my own experience, but I believe that in general, the board can only render decisions based on the evidence put before it, and that would be derived from the official plans and the zoning bylaws as put forward by the municipality. The act itself is looking at creating new time periods during which appeals would not be accepted to ensure that, for example, the ink is dry on the document before it’s being challenged before a provincial body after the municipality has put considerable time and effort into their public process and their deliberations.
I think there’s a whole series of things that are going on right now that will allow the local municipalities, at their election, to recapture the autonomy which I gather from your concern you think has been perhaps eroded from them.
Mr. Wayne Gates: No, I think what my question was about was: Do you believe that a better balance is needed for the system when you have duly elected representatives making decisions, and corporations and developers just going into the OMB and getting those decisions overturned?
A follow-up to your answer, because it was interesting to me: Right here in Toronto, do you believe the city of Toronto should be subject to the OMB, given that they have repeatedly asked to be removed from its jurisdiction? Obviously, you have big problems in Toronto because they want no part in the OMB, and there are reasons for that. Do you believe that the city of Toronto should be allowed to not go to the OMB?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: The City of Toronto Act was amended a number of years ago—and I apologize for not knowing precisely when, but I think that it was at least five or six years ago—to actually allow for the municipality to establish its own appeal jurisdiction. To date, they have not elected to invoke the permissions that have been allowed to them under the legislation, but that clearly exists for them. I presume that they’re looking at both the administrative and financial implications of that. But that possibility currently exists for them.
Again, the legislation has been responsive to the concerns expressed about local autonomy.
Mr. Wayne Gates: I actually was a city councillor for three and half years. We just had a situation in Niagara Falls where the elected reps—there are eight in Niagara Falls—and the mayor unanimously supported not to allow a service station at a very busy corner that is approximately half a block in front of a school, and they turned it down. They go the OMB, and the OMB turns it down. There’s a service station now that’s almost adjacent to the school.
These are the types of decisions that are happening that—certainly, for our community—aren’t the best decisions, yet people continue to go to the OMB. I guess the problem that we’re having is that elected representatives are making decisions based on what is in the best interests of communities, and the OMB continues—and you can say “evidence-based.” Sometimes, it’s how the case is presented. Those types of decisions are happening every day in communities right across the province of Ontario. I think that we have a problem.
The only other questions that I think that I’ll have for you is—I’ll just get to it here; it’s back here a page: What are some of the challenges facing the board?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Challenges facing the board? Well, I think that, despite the access through the Internet or through consultation, there are often individuals who appear unrepresented and may not fully appreciate the decorum of the board, despite the fact that there are resources to acquaint themselves. I think that, because that board has recognized that and has actually encouraged people as much as possible to go to a much—let’s call it—less formal but still as effective mediation process, that has proven to be a model that’s less stressful, less formidable and certainly less costly to, particularly, the individuals who might actually be attempting to represent themselves. I think that that continues both for the decision-maker and for appellants, be they third-party or the actual appellants themselves, to deal with.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Okay. Thanks. I have no questions. I’m good, thank you.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): You’re good?
Mr. Wayne Gates: Yes.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you so much, Mr. Gates. We’ll now go to Ms. Vernile. You have seven minutes and 42 seconds.
Ms. Daiene Vernile: I would like to, first of all, thank you for putting your name forward and for wanting to serve. Bear with me as we try to compete with the weed whacker outside trying to upstage us.
You mentioned Bill 73. I wanted you to comment on the positive aspects of the legislation and how it would assist the OMB in conflict resolution.
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: It has been my experience that once—to use the cliché—the lines are drawn in the sand between a proponent and the approval authority—or a neighbour, because it’s not always simply the appeal of a municipal decision or a council decision—it really takes the coming together, again, of the parties, to actually sit down and have somebody who is more fundamentally listening to what the individual parties are saying, as opposed to necessarily the prepared statements that are coming before them that are attempting to, either very intelligently or in a shotgun fashion, take away from the merits of a proposal.
I think that the changes to the act are going to allow municipalities to create an extended appeal period. After an appeal has been filed after the final date, which we now know it to be, there would a period of 90 days for the municipality, through a mediator at their own level—I’m not sure whether it’s to be determined at the provincial level or at the municipal level; I believe it’s at the municipal level—to bring those parties back to the table to see what in fact, if anything, can be done in terms of narrowing the issues. Sometimes narrowing the issues is a very significant matter in terms of eliminating or reducing the costs of a hearing, in terms of whether it can be determined through basically a statement of agreed facts that these particular aspects of a proposal are not at issue—that it really can bring things to a focus. That’s where I think mediation is most effective, and I think that the legislation will allow the municipality to have that brought back within their autonomous realm.
Ms. Daiene Vernile: What compelled you to want to put your name forward and to want to commit yourself to this kind of public service?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Having done it for a number of years—I mean, I’ve always been very much involved and interested in change and the management of change, obviously, from my academic background. I’ve really respected the work that the Ontario Municipal Board does, where they have to stand outside of the political, deal with the quasi-judicial responsibility that they’re given, and work within the framework of the documents. I think that my experience will give me the opportunity to contribute not only in terms of having broad exposure as to sometimes reading between the lines of the words, but also interpreting the actual documents, looking to what the intent of the document is.
Ms. Daiene Vernile: I see that you are a graduate of U of W, the urban planning course there. That’s in my backyard. I think that that has served you very well. Thank you very much.
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Thank you.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): We’ll now go to Mr. Pettapiece.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Good morning.
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Good morning.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I see that you’ve worked as a municipal planner and as a consultant, where I assume that you’ve advised developers. I also see you’ve been retained as an expert witness before the OMB. Can you speak about your experiences before the OMB and those different rules?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Typically, as a consultant, you’re not there under subpoena, which can often happen as a municipal planner, where you have actually made a recommendation to a council that they may not have elected to pursue or approve. That’s a little bit of a different type of experience.
But fundamentally, the role of the planner is to be there as an objective witness, to give opinion evidence. Unlike a lawyer, they’re not there as an advocate, even if they have supported an application or made recommendations to refuse an application. They’re still subject to having to defend their opinion evidence under cross examination. So the roles aren’t significantly different, other than when there is the potential additional stress of actually having to appear under subpoena.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Okay. You work for a planning and development consultation firm now?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: It’s my own firm, yes.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: That’s your own firm. Are you not going to work for your firm again if you get the appointment, or do you see that there may be a conflict of interest here?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Over the last five years, in particular, my practice has taken on a very different type of focus where I have, for all intents and purposes, almost been semi-retired from the very traditional high-paced role of a development consultant. I’ve been taking only files that are related to sole proprietor, commercial users, retail stores that are not part of a chain, residential property owners, individuals—so they’ve all been one-off types of files that have needed independent consultation, where either their other consultant hasn’t been able to actually be successful for them or where they’ve attempted to manage it with the consulting team in lieu of actually having a planner on the team. So my distance between my former corporate clients and myself is considerable.
I’m not exactly sure what I will do after the appointment, so I’m afraid that I can’t answer that. Clearly being part of change is—
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I think you might agree that people could perceive this to be a conflict of interest because of your firm and then going on the OMB—
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Well, the firm, for all intents and purposes, will be shelved during the time of the actual appointment. There is a very rigorous in-house vetting process at the Ontario Municipal Board to ensure that nobody who’s ever been associated with an appeal matter coming forward for adjudication would have any access to the matter or the file. That’s something that I would be keeping in constant review any time a matter came forward, but other than one very small file that I am aware of right now, I don’t perceive any matters that I’ve been involved with in the past actually coming before the board.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: You used the word “perceived.”
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: Pardon me?
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: You just used the word “perceived.” It may be a perception that this could happen, is what I’m suggesting, because of your background.
Interruption.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I’m glad that guy started up again. I’m glad we have Hansard.
I was a former municipal councillor, and I can tell you from our experience with the OMB that we tried to do everything in our power to not go there because of the expense, which was one of the bigger things. Even if we thought we had a chance of winning a case, expenses sometimes held us back from going to the OMB. That’s not good. That’s wrong.
There’s a perception that the unelected OMB controls much of Ontario development, and I would like your response to that claim. As an adjudicator, what kind of regard will you have for municipal decisions?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: As an adjudicator at the board, you can only look to the evidence that’s put to you. The Ontario Municipal Board does not have any independent authority to create policy or to do anything other than actually weigh the evidence of the experts that are put to them in terms of the interpretation of the official plan, the zoning bylaws, and the appropriateness of a development in terms of how it fits within its context. As in all disputes, there are winners and losers. I think that the approach of the board and certainly the initiatives through Bill 73 have come to recognize the merit of bringing matters to mediation prior to adjudication to see whether there are matters where sometimes a solution that’s not necessarily on the table can be very palatable to all parties and may not relate to what the development application is in terms of the specifics of the development but may go a long way.
Again, I think that the expense issue is being addressed through the promotion of mediation. There are some municipalities that I’m aware of, too, that also put together small reserves where there are individuals of a ratepayers’ group that can come to the municipality for some support for independent consulting where even the ratepayers’ group may not be ad idem with the council decision. So there are different ways of dealing with it, but I really think that mediation in terms of bringing the parties to the—
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I can assure you, we would try to do the mediation even if it wasn’t legislated, just because it was less money to do that—“Let’s work it out amongst ourselves”—but as you may understand or you may have heard of things that have happened where you have a legislative change, which you certainly don’t have control of on the OMB, yet some municipalities, especially rural areas, are very cynical of not only the OMB but of some of these legislative changes which take planning rights out of their hands.
I go to the Green Energy Act, which did that with the location of wind turbines, where municipalities had no say in that anymore. I think you can understand that there may be some lack of trust, if I could put it that way, especially when, if you can’t get it done in your own municipality by yourselves, it’s a very expensive legal cost involved in going to the OMB, or it could be. You have legislation that changes things where you can’t act anyway. So I think that’s why some municipalities are a little bit cynical of this whole system.
My friend here has a question.
Mr. Robert Bailey: Have I got some time left?
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): You’ve got two and a half minutes.
Mr. Robert Bailey: Oh, great. Thank you, Ms. Vincent, for coming in today. I think you answered most of the questions I had—the ones I heard, anyway. I didn’t hear them all. I had one question here about, as a number of people have talked about, reforms to the OMB, which have been called for as long as I can remember. I was on municipal council back in the 1980s, and I know that there were issues with the Ontario Municipal Board at that time. That hasn’t changed.
As you’ve worked closely with the OMB throughout your career, what are your thoughts on its effectiveness, and can you elaborate—I know you’re just going to go on there if this appointment is successful—on any ideas of how it could be more effective? Have you any ideas on how it could be made more effective and more user-friendly?
Ms. Sharyn Vincent: I think that there are many opportunities for people to come and witness a hearing so that they know what they’re getting into. I think that even just being in the physical room is very helpful for those that might not ultimately be represented. Sometimes people come from a committee experience at a local level or a committee of adjustment and aren’t quite aware of the fact that it is a little bit more formal.
It has been my experience that most of the board members or panels are very welcoming and are very helpful to people who may not be informed in terms of just what the decorum is before the board.
I think that we can all look forward to what the recommendations coming out of the ongoing commission will be. There’s certainly going to be considerable opportunity for people to input and to review the effectiveness at the board itself.
Then, of course, we’ll also have the opportunity of looking to what the city of Toronto experience proves to be, should they elect to take advantage of the authority that they have under their own legislation to pull back the appeal panel to their own jurisdiction.
I think that there’s a whole series of things that are happening. It’s a very dynamic time right now both for evaluating the process and for formally acknowledging, through the changes in the legislation, what the municipalities have been saying in terms of regrouping and reclaiming some of the autonomy.
Mr. Robert Bailey: Okay. I have nothing further.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): You only had a second left.
Thank you very much. That concludes the time allocated for this interview. You may step down. We will consider the concurrences following the next interview.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Our next intended appointee today is Teresa Piruzza, nominated as member, University of Windsor board of governors.
Please come forward, Ms. Piruzza. It’s wonderful to see you here. Welcome, and thank you for being here. You may begin with a brief statement, if you wish. Members of each party will then have 10 minutes to ask you questions. Any time used for your statement will be deducted from the government’s time for questions. When question time does begin, we will begin with the government side. Welcome, Ms. Piruzza.
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Thank you, and good morning. Let me just get settled here.
Good morning, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here this morning. I’m running from another meeting, so I guess some things don’t change when you’re in Toronto. You’re always running between meetings. I just need a moment to get focused.
Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies. It’s always a pleasure to be back here, and I am pleased to be here this morning to outline my experiences as they relate to my application to serve on the board of governors at the University of Windsor. It is my honour to be here, and I look forward to our discussion over the next half hour or so.
I thought I would start with a walk-through of my resumé, which outlines my education and experience and hence my attributes that will contribute positively to the University of Windsor. I’m sure that the members of the committee have been provided with a summary of my application, and I would like to provide more details.
My education and experiences have provided me with extensive experience in community partnerships, community development, relationship building and problem solving.
Starting with my education: I am a graduate of the University of Windsor, for both my BA in international relations, which consisted of studies of economics, history and political science, and my MBA. While it seems like graduation was yesterday, it was a number of years ago, and there have been some amazing changes on campus since I was a student there.
I also have a master’s certificate in municipal management from York University, training in alternative dispute resolution and communications.
I am currently with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA Canada, in the external affairs and public policy unit.
Prior to FCA, as you know, I was the member of provincial Parliament for Windsor West, the Minister of Children and Youth Services and the minister responsible for women’s issues.
As the MCYS minister, I led the fifth-largest ministry in government and co-chaired both the Healthy Kids cabinet committee as well as the poverty reduction and social inclusion committee.
As minister responsible for women’s issues, I led the Ontario Women’s Directorate, focused on championing equality, reducing violence against women and improving women’s economic security.
Prior to becoming a minister, I was the PA to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. As the PA, I led province-wide consultations to inform the development of Ontario’s first immigration strategy.
I think everyone in this room certainly knows the role of an MPP, so I don’t need to go into what I experienced through that period.
Prior to my election as the MPP, I worked at the city of Windsor. I was with the city for 10 years, moving through various positions, with my final position as the executive director of employment and social services. In the role of executive director, I was responsible for the overall management and monitoring of the department, which was the largest in the city, with about 200 employees and a budget of approximately $28 million.
The city of Windsor is the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager, or CMSM, for Ontario Works and Employment Services for the Windsor-Essex region. While at the city, I served on multiple provincial committees, including the OW Funding Principles Working Group, Human Services Implementation Steering Committee, and the Director-Administrator Reference Group. I was also a director with the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association, or OMSSA.
I’m also a founding member of Workforce WindsorEssex and led the Windsor Essex local immigration planning council, and served on Pathway to Potential, our local poverty reduction group.
I worked with all community agencies in the area, including the university and St. Clair College, to develop partnerships to provide support and services for our clients. Over the years, and as my children have moved through the education system, I always stayed involved in their schools, both at the primary and secondary levels.
Back in the fall, I received a call from a representative at the University of Windsor, canvassing my interest in applying for the appointment to the board. My name had come forward from the board committee of the university that recommends appointments. I was honoured to have been asked, and I indicated that I would be interested in joining the board and welcomed further discussion. This conversation was followed up with a call from the president of the university, Dr. Wildeman. I truly consider it as an honour and a privilege, given that I’m a graduate of the university, as I mentioned previously.
As far as why I’m interested in serving as a member of the board for the university, I believe that universities play a critical role in their communities, and I also believe that this is an exciting time for universities, bringing forward challenges and opportunities. Universities, of course, are institutions of higher learning, committed to advancement and the betterment of society.
As a board member, I will be part of the conversations as the University of Windsor prepares for the future. As well, my experiences as an MPP, a minister and an executive director of a large city department provide me with the background necessary to contribute to the overall governance of the university on issues of both strategic and operational priorities.
In terms of community development, the university, over the years, has partnered with many local agencies, ensuring that students experience the practical application of what they are learning in classes and see first-hand the impact they can have as individuals. The university is going further in this role by moving the school of social work downtown, soon to be joined by the school of creative arts.
The university also has a role to play with local industry. For example, the university and FCA Canada have had a long history of working together. In fact, this year, the Automotive Research and Development Centre in Windsor is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The ARDC is FCA Canada’s research and development centre; it began as a partnership between FCA and the University of Windsor. The ARDC opened in 1996 and was the first partnership of its kind in Canada.
This is just one example of the partnerships that the university has forged locally to support research across many different fields: in manufacturing, in the sciences and in health. From cancer research to vehicle technologies and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, there are exciting developments coming out of the University of Windsor.
The University of Windsor and FCA Canada are also partners in a unique education experience with the Politecnico di Torino for engineering students. Master-level students spend one year studying at Windsor and one year studying in Torino, Italy. The research, thesis and analysis are defined and supported by FCA Canada. This provides Canadian students the opportunity to study in Italy and learn in a different environment, while Italian students come and experience a Canadian university. Providing opportunities for an international education provides for richer experiences and perspectives for both the Canadian student and the international student.
The role of universities, as with all institutions, is evolving. While they’ve always been a reflection of the students they serve, I think the challenges and opportunities today are more complex than they have been in the past. Universities also face the global trends that we know exist: changing demographics, rapidly changing technology and student perspectives, to name a few.
I’m proud to be a graduate of the University of Windsor and see the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for the university. I’m honoured to be provided the opportunity to serve on its board. I hope that this brief introductory statement has outlined for you what I believe are the salient pieces of my education and experiences that I will bring to the table as a board member.
Madam Chair, I think I’ll stop here and provide some time for discussion. I look forward to responding to questions about my education, my experience and my interest in this appointment. Thank you.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you so much, Ms. Piruzza. We will begin with the government side. Ms. Wong, you’ve got one minute.
Ms. Soo Wong: One minute? Oh, my.
Thank you so much, Teresa, for coming back. It’s always great to see you again. I also want to personally say thank you for your continued interest in your community’s engagement but, more importantly, giving back as an alumni of the University of Windsor. So thank you. That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you.
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Thank you.
Ms. Soo Wong: I only had one minute; right? I can’t ask any questions.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Ms. Vernile?
Ms. Daiene Vernile: May I ask you, Teresa, what compelled you to want to stand for a position on the board of governors at the University of Windsor?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: As an alumna, I’m very proud to be from the University of Windsor. I believe, as I indicated, that these are exciting times for universities in terms of opportunities, in terms of really seeing what their role will be moving forward, and their role in the community as well.
But it was also an opportunity for me to be re-engaged in part of that discussion. As a member and as a minister, I had had a number of opportunities to meet with the president of the university and with the administration for various discussions, and I look forward to continuing that.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you very much, Ms. Piruzza. That concludes the time of the government. We’re now going to go to the opposition. Mr. Pettapiece.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Nice job; you limited the government from going on. Just perfect. One thing I’d like to ask you about: You’ve been involved in education—oh, good to see you again, by the way.
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Nice to see you, too.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: You’ve been involved with education for a long time. Were you involved in your high school organizations when your children were in high school? Were you involved with an organization in high schools?
I guess what I’m getting at is that we’ve certainly had issues where I’m from with children maybe not being pointed in the right direction as far as skilled trades and that type of thing. If you want to go to university, that’s fine, but some of these other opportunities haven’t really been put forward to kids, especially in the high school setting. Would that have been the experience of yours, or have you seen that?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: In terms of what you’re asking in terms of my volunteer involvement, yes, I’ve been involved. The high school my kids go to, and my younger son is still there, is Assumption in Windsor, so yes, I’m involved there.
But part of my experience—and what I didn’t suggest in my comments, because it was one of my first jobs out of university—was as a labour market analyst with the federal government, with Service Canada, or HRDC at the time, when local offices had labour market analysts.
So in terms of determining direction or skill shortages, what I’m suggesting is that that’s not a new question. That’s not a new concern. It’s one that has always been there: How do you get students, how do you get counsellors in high schools to recognize the broad array of opportunities that are available, and how do you expose students to that, as well?
That’s certainly something, both as the Minister of Children and Youth Services and the minister responsible for women’s issues, and as a member as well: How do you ensure those directions and that we’re responding to the needs of industry and the needs of our communities in terms of those positions? Certainly, there’s more work to be done, as we know, in terms of addressing that issue.
In a way, just as environment is becoming more complex for universities, the environment of what to study or what direction to go into I think is more complex because of the ever-changing and quickly changing technologies that are coming to fore as well in the economy. I don’t think we can say today what the technology is going to look like four years from now or five years from now. We have to look at what the basics are and ensure that students are aware of what different opportunities may arise. So I agree with you that there is work that needs to continue to be done at the post-secondary.
I have seen improvements over the years with the introduction of different types of apprenticeship programs in the universities, different types of certificate programs and the increase of co-op. When I was in high school, we didn’t have co-op. You now see high-school students having co-op and internship-type positions. So that is certainly an area.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Yes, I can see that technologies certainly have changed, and I agree with that, but some technologies haven’t. To wire a house is pretty much the same as wiring a house 10 years ago. Welding hasn’t changed a lot—
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: That’s the building of the apprenticeship program.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: —and things like that. I know that we have a shortage, where I’m from. In fact, it was brought up to me again last week at a factory that they can’t find people to do these things. So I think there has to be some attention paid to that. I was just wondering what your experience was at the high school level.
I’ll turn it over to my colleague.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Mr. Bailey?
Mr. Robert Bailey: Welcome back, Ms. Piruzza. Good to see you here at Queen’s Park again. Thank you for hosting us. We had a tour—I guess it’s a couple of years ago now—of the Chrysler facility at Windsor.
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: The ARDC, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Mr. Robert Bailey: Yes. I heard you mention that in your remarks. Good for you. I’m sure you’ll be a real asset if you go back to where you got your education as well and join the alumni. That would be good.
There’s a lot of discussion—we just had some here—about university education and whether it’s actually preparing students for skills that they need when they enter the workforce. First of all, do you see that as an issue, and, if so, what can be done to bring that skills gap together? The other one, the second part to that—and maybe if you want to answer it first because you probably answered it with Randy’s question there. What do you see as one of the greatest opportunities facing provincial universities, and Windsor in particular?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Again, in terms of the question on the skills gap, there’s not a one-type answer to that. You need the university involved. You need the colleges. You need the full education system. Where, in the past, some programs may have been introduced in the senior years of high school—in terms of what some of those trades were that we were just talking about—I think those need to be introduced at a younger age. So it’s really a full system that needs to respond to those types of skill gaps and skill shortages. In terms of the university’s role in terms of covering some of those gaps, it’s that continued partnership in community, it’s that continued discussion with industry, in terms of what they’re looking for or what’s required.
I think, too, what we forget and what we can’t overlook is those other skills that come from going into any type of higher education, be it college or post-secondary. That’s things like communication skills and team building and those softer skills as well that, I think, sometimes get underestimated in terms of their importance.
We also hear from employers—and now I’m going back to when I was at the city, as director of employment services, and when I was a labour market analyst. We also hear from employers that some of those soft skills are just as critical as the technical skills that they learn when they’re on the job. Those are skills I think that you attain in any program that you go into, in college or university, at any level of post-secondary education. I think that’s something that is critical, that we can’t underestimate those softer skills that are required.
In terms of opportunities for the university, as I said, the university looks much different today than it did when I was there about five years ago, when I was at the university as a student—a bit longer than five years ago. In terms of development, of really partnering with the community and really opening itself up—whereas the University of Windsor was always in its own location, I see its partnership with the community growing in terms of moving the school of social work downtown, where it can really work with community agencies and really ensure those opportunities for students, and bringing even the school of creative arts downtown so it’s really engaging itself with being a part of the community and really growing in that role.
On the other side as well, in terms of the research side, we also see growing partnerships across universities in terms of the research that industry needs, and really focusing on what our strengths are in terms of manufacturing and industry—even in terms of the cross-border institute, which is at the university and which is looking at the impacts of trade and the impacts of transportation and logistics across the bridge and across the border, because of our location. It’s really capitalizing on what our community is, who our community is, and really shining in that role.
Mr. Robert Bailey: That’s all I have.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): You have a minute and a half.
Mr. Robert Bailey: I’m done.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you, Mr. Bailey. We now go over to Mr. Gates.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Good morning. How are you?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Wonderful, thanks.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Good. I just have a few questions, and then I’ll expand as I go.
As a former Liberal MPP in Windsor West and a leadership contestant, it’s pretty clear which party you hold your ties to. In spite of these ties, are you prepared to serve in your role on the board as non-partisan?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Absolutely. Being an MPP wasn’t—I’ve been a Liberal, so to speak, for a number of years, whether as an MPP—and I think I’ve shown in my past experiences, when I was at the city for 10 years working with all community agencies across the city, that certainly I can serve in that role. Partisanship has no role to play when you’re working as a community across agencies and really listening to different perspectives and different ideas about how to better your community.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Thank you; I appreciate that.
You talked about employment. Being an MPP for one term, two terms—
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: One term.
Mr. Wayne Gates: —one term, and working for the city, you would also know that for the last number of years—certainly the last 10 years—Windsor has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, year after year, which really puts a lot of pressure on the students that are graduating, particularly the local students—I’ve got Brock University in Niagara. The kids want to stay at home. They want to stay with their parents; they want to live in the communities where they grew up. How do you see the university getting more actively involved in making sure that the students stay and have opportunities in Windsor, knowing that we’ve got an unemployment crisis in Windsor?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Again, that’s a full community response. It’s not something that the university can do on its own.
Just in terms of the unemployment rate, I will say that over the last number of months, the unemployment rate in Windsor has gone down, given the investment and the work that’s being done at the FCA plant in Windsor and the suppliers and the larger community impact. In fact, I will say that our unemployment has gone down. You’re right: There were a number of months where the Windsor region had the highest unemployment rate, but we don’t now. It has come down. I’m quite pleased to see the community working together towards that. But what role the university has: Again, it’s working with industry to make sure that they are providing the appropriate experiences and partnerships, even in terms of co-ops or internship-type positions. But it’s not an issue that the university in itself is going to be able to resolve. It’s being part of the community, working with other agencies, working with the colleges and, together, working towards that end.
Mr. Wayne Gates: I’m glad you raised the Chrysler plant. It’s my understanding you work there?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: I work at FCA Canada.
Mr. Wayne Gates: The University of Windsor has always been well known for their research in the automotive industry. Unfortunately, it has started to move away from that as the industry moves south. This year, the big three automakers will be going into bargaining, which will have a major effect on the industry as a whole. Given the university’s interest in and ties to the automotive industry, do you believe the board should actively support the auto workers during the negotiations to ensure the industry can survive in Ontario and particularly in Windsor?
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: Well, in terms of negotiations, as with all negotiations, negotiations are between the employer and the labour group, as you know, and I don’t know that either party would really welcome a third agency coming into those negotiations as well.
In terms of research, automotive research continues quite regularly at the University of Windsor. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to come down and see our research centre that we have in Windsor. The amount of research that is done there in celebrating our 20th year and the type of research and collaboration that the university does: That continues. There actually hasn’t been a reduction in terms of automotive research that’s done at the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation. That work does continue.
Mr. Wayne Gates: I appreciate the fact about the negotiations. I was the president of Unifor Local 199 at GM and participated in bargaining for 12 years, so I do know the importance of having universities support the workers during the bargaining process.
Some of the concerns around Chrysler—and your employer has been out very clearly talking about the fact that the plants in Canada are in jeopardy, for two reasons: One is the hydro costs, which the university can’t do anything about but, obviously, with you working there you have to have some concerns, and the other one is the trans-Pacific trade agreement, which they said has the potential to lose 20,000 jobs. The union there, Unifor, has come out against the trans-Pacific trade agreement very clearly, saying that it could be the death of the auto industry.
I know it might not have anything to do with your appointment on the board, but certainly—
Ms. Teresa Piruzza: It doesn’t.
Mr. Wayne Gates: Let me finish the question. It certainly would have an incredible effect on the university and the number of students who will be able to afford to go to university if Chrysler ends up leaving this country or drastically reducing its production in Windsor. We’ve already seen the effects of the transmission plant leaving Windsor and the Ford plant leaving Windsor and General Motors leaving Windsor, so Chrysler is really the heart and soul when it comes to manufacturing. I guess that’s the reason why I’m saying that it might help if the University of Windsor does support the auto workers there.
I don’t have any other questions for you. Thanks.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Thank you very much, Mr. Gates. Thank you, Ms. Piruzza; you may now step down.
We will now consider the concurrence for Ms. Sharyn Vincent, nominated as member, Ontario Municipal Board (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario). Mr. Kwinter will move the concurrence, I believe.
Mr. Monte Kwinter: I move concurrence in the intended appointment of Sharyn Vincent, nominated as member, Ontario Municipal Board (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario).
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Any discussion? All in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried. Congratulations, Ms. Vincent.
We will now consider the concurrence for Teresa Piruzza, nominated as member, University of Windsor board of governors. Once again, Mr. Kwinter.
Mr. Monte Kwinter: I move concurrence in the intended appointment of Teresa Piruzza, nominated as member, University of Windsor board of governors.
The Chair (Mrs. Cristina Martins): Any discussion? All in favour? The motion is carried. Congratulations, Ms. Piruzza.
Seeing that there is no further business, the committee is adjourned.
Subcommittee reports A-391
Intended appointments A-391
Ms. Sharyn Vincent A-391
Ms. Teresa Piruzza A-395
Chair / Présidente
Mrs. Cristina Martins (Davenport L)
Vice-Chair / Vice-Présidente
Mr. Robert Bailey (Sarnia–Lambton PC)
Mr. Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls ND)
Mr. Monte Kwinter (York Centre / York-Centre L)
Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde (Ottawa–Orléans L)
Mrs. Amrit Mangat (Mississauga–Brampton South / Mississauga–Brampton-Sud L)
Mr. Randy Pettapiece (Perth–Wellington PC)
Mr. Shafiq Qaadri (Etobicoke North / Etobicoke-Nord L)
Mr. Arthur Potts (Beaches–East York L)
Ms. Soo Wong (Scarborough–Agincourt L)
Clerk / Greffière
Ms. Sylwia Przezdziecki
Mr. Andrew McNaught, research officer,
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Comité permanent des affaires gouvernementales
G012 - Wed 16 May 2012 / Mer 16 mai 2012
STANDING COMMITTEE ON GENERAL GOVERNMENT
Wednesday 16 May 2012 Mercredi 16 mai 2012
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT
AGGREGATE RESOURCES ACT REVIEW
GREATER TORONTO COUNTRYSIDE
MAYORS ALLIANCE
LAFARGE CANADA INC.
CLEARVIEW COMMUNITY COALITION
EASTERN ONTARIO AGGREGATE PRODUCERS
SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE AGGREGATE
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE
ONTARIO FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
NORTH DUFFERIN AGRICULTURAL AND COMMUNITY TASKFORCE
COMMITTEE BUSINESS
The committee met at 1603 in room 228.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Good afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. We’re here to continue hearings on the Aggregate Resources Act. Before we do that, we’ve got a subcommittee report to discuss, so I’m going to ask Ms. Scott to read that into the record. Ms. Scott?
Ms. Laurie Scott: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Your subcommittee on committee business met on Monday May 7, 2012, to consider the method of proceeding on the motion moved by Mr. Smith pursuant to standing order 111(a) with respect to a study on grid-lock in the greater Toronto area and the national capital region, and recommends the following:
(1) That the committee meet for the purpose of holding public hearings on Monday, June 4, 2012, and Wednesday, June 6, 2012, in Toronto.
(2) That the committee clerk post information regarding public hearings in the Toronto Star, the Ontario edition of the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, and Le Droit for one day during the week of May 21, 2012.
(3) That the committee clerk post information regarding public hearings on the Ontario parliamentary channel, the Legislative Assembly website and Canada NewsWire.
(4) That interested parties who wish to be considered to make an oral presentation contact the committee clerk by 12 noon on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.
(5) That an invitation be sent to the Ministry of Transportation and that this organization be offered 20 minutes for their presentation followed up by 30 minutes for questions on a rotational basis by committee members.
(6) That an invitation be sent to Metrolinx and that this organization be offered 20 minutes for their presentation followed up by 20 minutes for questions on a rotational basis by committee members.
(7) That invitations be sent to the Toronto Transit Commission and OC Transpo and that these organizations be offered 15 minutes for their presentations and 10 minutes for questions on a rotational basis by committee members.
(8) That invitations be sent to the city of Toronto, city of Ottawa, York region and Durham region and that these organizations be offered 15 minutes for their presentations and 10 minutes for questions on a rotational basis by committee members.
(9) That if the city of Toronto, city of Ottawa, York region and Durham region are unable to present at committee, invitations to be sent out to Halton and/or Peel region and that these organizations be offered 15 minutes for their presentations and 10 minutes for questions by committee members.
(10) That the length of presentations for witnesses be 10 minutes, and five minutes for questions on a rotational basis.
(11) That, in the event all witnesses cannot be scheduled, the committee clerk provide the members of the subcommittee with a list of requests to appear.
(12) That the members of the subcommittee prioritize and return the list of requests to appear by 12 noon on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, and that the committee clerk schedule witnesses based on those prioritized lists.
(13) That the research officer provide the committee with background material by June 4, 2012.
(14) That the research officer provide the committee with a summary of presentations.
(15) That further public hearing dates be scheduled at a later date outside of Toronto, pending authority from the House.
(16) That the deadline for written submissions be determined at a later date.
(17) That the committee clerk, in consultation with the Chair, be authorized prior to the adoption of the report of the subcommittee to commence making any preliminary arrangements necessary to facilitate the committee’s proceedings.
I move that the subcommittee report be adopted.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Ms. Scott moves adoption. Any further comments? Seeing none, all those in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried. Thank you very much.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): We will move to the first order of business. The first presentation is the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance.
Good afternoon. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. You have 10 minutes for your presentation, and there will be five minutes for questions. Any time you don’t use for your presentation will be divided among members. If you can simply state your name for our recording purposes and proceed when you’re ready.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Rick Bonnette. Thank you very much for having me here today, and good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on General Government. My name is Rick Bonnette, and I’m the mayor of the town of Halton Hills. I am here today in the role of vice-chair of the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance to address the committee regarding the review of the Aggregate Resources Act.
By way of background, the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance is made up of 14 near-urban, predominantly rural communities representing more than 650,000 Ontarians in the greater Toronto area. Municipalities included are such places as Milton, Halton Hills, Caledon, Uxbridge, Scugog and East Gwillimbury, right through to the other side of Toronto, including Pickering.
Our 14 municipalities produce about 21.4 million tonnes of virgin aggregate, approximately 14% of the provincial total. The GTCMA communities are stewards of much of Ontario’s greenbelt lands, and while we accept and respect this important responsibility, it poses unique and difficult challenges. Quite simply put, the vast majority of the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance communities have a significant rural area, and their economic base and their ability to provide municipal services are affected by the substantial economic restraints imposed by various provincially mandated policies, plans and legislation.
These challenges have been detailed in a comprehensive economic analysis prepared by the GTCMA in 2011, but the bottom line is that there are restrictions placed on our local revenue streams that are not faced by other GTA mayors and neighbours. This, of course, has implications for our ability to service the needs of our citizens. We must be creative in order to plan for progressive economic development, and, like many of our municipal colleagues, we struggle to build and maintain the infrastructure that supports our residents and businesses.
Quarries are here to stay and have benefits to the economy, but the question is, do the benefits outweigh the costs to GTA countryside municipalities? We recognize the value of the aggregate industry to our communities in terms of jobs, assessment and spinoff revenue. We estimate the real cost of heavy vehicle traffic associated with aggregate production on local roads, bridges, and culverts to be about 12 times greater than the 7.5 cents a tonne we are paid in royalties each year. Any review of the Aggregate Resources Act must begin to align these royalty payments with the real costs of aggregate production to local taxpayers.
In a recent example of road resurfacing costs associated with damage caused by aggregate traffic, a 1.3-kilometre stretch of rural road in Halton Hills cost $344,000 to resurface—that’s not reconstruct, just to resurface. That is $250 a metre.
I’ve learned in the past couple of weeks that the aggregate producers have now initiated an appeal of their property assessments to MPAC. Of the 14 aggregate-licensed sites in the town, eight have appealed their 2009 to 2012 assessment, which, if obtained, would result in a $2.6-million overall decrease in assessment, bringing about an almost $1-million reduction in the town’s share. For a small community like mine, that is a huge hit.
Communities are made up of innumerable small villages and hamlets connected by rural roadways. As aggregate producers open up new sites in our municipalities, these heritage communities are faced with social, environmental and indeed economic impacts from which many will never fully recover. Example: There’s a new proposed Brampton Brick shale quarry 200 metres outside the Halton Hills border in the city of Brampton. The site is to be accessed by a two-lane roadway, Winston Churchill Boulevard. Heavy truck traffic will have significant infrastructure impact—cost to local tax base—not to mention the traffic safety issues. Environmental impacts include noise, excessive dust and a potential negative effect on water supply. These trucks will be going through the very heritage community of Norval, where Lucy Maud Montgomery had lived for eight years.
While the environmental and economic costs of aggregate production are challenging at best, the social, quality-of-life disruptions to our residents bring an indefinable, incalculable cost to the issue. Example: Holcim quarry/Dufferin has been a fixture in Halton Hills for 50 years. More than 100 trucks pass through the centre of Georgetown each day on rural roads, through school zones, residential areas and past retail business. Noise, dust and safety issues from the heavy truck traffic have all had an impact on the local residents’ quality of life in Georgetown and the surrounding rural area.
Depleted quarries have also posed a challenge to the GTCMA municipalities. We believe the ARA must encourage more innovative and impose more environmentally stringent strategies for progressive rehabilitation of sites. I can assure you, some landowners are very creative when it comes to quarry rehabilitation. Example: In Scugog, one of our communities, new owners of former quarries are claiming depleted sites are aerodromes, thereby using federal aviation legislation to bypass municipal oversight. When concerns are raised over the nature of the fill being dumped in the abandoned pit, municipal staff is told that local bylaws don’t apply since federal aviation regulations superseded them.
The source of drinking water for many rural areas is groundwater, and commercial fill is being dumped in pits that have been quarried below the water table—a serious health risk. Without access and authority to monitor these operations, local officials can’t be sure what is contained in the commercial fill. In January 2011, GTCMA passed a resolution insisting provincial and federal authorities spell out exactly who has jurisdiction with respect to fill operations in exhausted quarries.
We need to become much more deliberate in our efforts to manage not only the licensing and operation of our aggregate industry, but perhaps more importantly, ensure that the rehabilitation of spent quarries adds benefit to the economic, social and quality of life in the host communities.
The Aggregate Resources Act is perhaps one of the most complex and challenging pieces of legislation in Ontario, if not in Canada, and on behalf of my GTCMA colleagues, I would like to congratulate the provincial government for the desire to bring about real, positive change where it is needed.
I want to assure you the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance will continue to be a committed partner. We want to provide positive, meaningful input and advice to the government in its deliberations on this very important piece of legislation.
On behalf of the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance and its 14 member municipalities, Chair Orazietti, I want to thank you for having this opportunity to come before the standing committee. Thank you very much.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you very much for your presentation.
Folks, we fell a bit behind last meeting just trying to get through all the questions, and rather than have one caucus ask questions for five minutes, trying to get rotation in, I just ask that one person from each party ask a question of the presenter, if we’re going to get through that in five minutes.
Go ahead, Ms. Jones.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for your presentation, Mayor Bonnette?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Yes, that’s correct.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: My first question is, I guess, more of a comment. You’re not the first presenter who has talked about the need for the levy to be increased. Just for clarification, in fact, the levy and what the rate is is not set out in legislation, so that could be changed without opening up the ARA and has been changed previously. But point taken about the fact that you want to see it increased.
One of the comments relating to the levy was that part of the interest in increasing the levy is to put some transparency in it to see where the money has been spent and would be spent, both on the MNR side and I suppose, by extension, on the municipal side. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Yeah. If the levy is increased, I think it should go toward the local roads, the ones that are getting pounded every day. If it’s something that we have to have a report on every year for transparency, I’m sure every municipality would be pleased to say, “Well, $200,000 was spent on the 4th Line for restructuring or resurfacing.” I don’t think that’s a problem at all.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Does the Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance have a number that they’d like to see the levy increased to?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: A lot more than 7.5 cents.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: This is your opportunity.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Well, I’m sure we would have to be reasonable, and it would be probably around 10 cents. I would think at least 10 cents. That would be a huge increase. That’s up 25% from what’s going on now. But when you look at the cost of restructuring, the cost of repairs, they’ve almost gone up 25%.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you for that response.
Next question, Mr. Marchese.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you very much, Mr. Bonnette. Do you speak French?
M. Rick Bonnette: Un petit peu. Mon français est très mauvais.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Pas mal, merci. No, I agree, but you’re not the only one, as the previous speaker said, talking about the need for increasing infrastructure funds for local municipalities. So there’s agreement that we need to increase it.
Some environmentalists are saying that it would be good to raise the fees in order to be able to hire inspectors, because the ministry has lost 40% of its staff or its money over the last 15 years or longer. It would be nice to have inspectors to send to some of those sites as well. Maybe we should increase it enough so that we could have money for inspectors and money for infrastructure support for municipalities. What do you think?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: I think that’s a good point. I wasn’t thinking about the inspectors.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: I understand.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: I wasn’t thinking about that; I was thinking more about the municipality. But obviously, inspectors are very important. The example I gave in Scugog: They don’t know what’s in that fill. Obviously, you need the inspectors. I’m sure we’d be very supportive of that.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: And by the way, with respect to rehabilitation of some of these sites, the Canadian Environmental Law Association gave us a study that shows that about 8,000 or 9,000 places need to be rehabilitated, and at the rate at which we put money in, it would take about anywhere from 100 to 300 years to rehabilitate, and who knows in what state. It’s pretty sad, isn’t it?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Yeah. But there have been some good examples of quarries that have been rehabilitated: Butchart Gardens out in Victoria, and that wasn’t 100 years. So there are some that have been. If you have responsible quarry owners, they’ll start doing it immediately rather than waiting until it closes.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you. Mr. Colle.
Mr. Mike Colle: Yeah, just quickly, Mr. Mayor, thank you for the very clear presentation with a lot of meaning. What’s the rationale that the companies are using for the appeal to MPAC?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: To be honest with you, I just found out about this about a week ago, so I haven’t delved into it as much. I would just assume that they don’t want to pay as much taxes—
Mr. Mike Colle: So it’s with Halton Hills that they’re located?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: It’s across Ontario.
Mr. Mike Colle: So those 14—that’s what I was going to ask you—
Mr. Rick Bonnette: That’s 14 in our community, but many of the quarries across Ontario are all appealing, similar to what the golf courses did a couple of years ago—
Mr. Mike Colle: Okay, and we’ll follow up on that. Thanks for bringing that to our attention.
The second thing is in terms of this aerodrome scheme here. What is an aerodrome?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: I wish I could answer that. I’m not from Scugog, but this is just—an aerodrome is obviously—I won’t even try to pretend I know exactly what it is because it’s on the other side of Toronto. I’m sorry, I can’t answer that.
Mr. Mike Colle: And we’ll try and find out what it is. Anyway, thank you very much for the presentation.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: It’s an airport.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Well, it’s an airport.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: It is an airport.
Mr. Mike Colle: So they’re saying the quarry is now an airport.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Yes, to bring fill—
Mr. Mike Colle: Where float planes land now. But they got this exemption through the federal ministry of transportation?
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Yes, and that’s a huge issue in Scugog. Mayor Mercier is not pleased.
Mr. Mike Colle: Okay. Thank you for bringing that—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you. That’s the time for your presentation. We appreciate you coming in today.
Mr. Rick Bonnette: Thank you very much, everybody.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The next presentation: Lafarge Canada. Good afternoon and welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. As you’re aware: 10 minutes for your presentation. You can start by stating your name and proceed when you’re ready. Thank you.
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: My name’s Bruce Semkowski. Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today on this important public policy issue.
My name is Bruce Semkowski, and I’m the vice-president of aggregates in eastern Canada for Lafarge Canada.
I want to begin my remarks today by saying that we at Lafarge welcome the opportunity to participate in the review of the Aggregate Resources Act.
In the context of this review, as one of the largest players in the aggregate business with site locations in major markets in many rural communities, Lafarge brings a unique perspective to this committee. Our company ships more than 20 million tonnes of aggregate and has more than 160 licences to operate in communities across Ontario.
The Aggregate Resources Act was last modernized 15 years ago, and we support the legislative effort to update and renew this legislation. While we believe the existing act works, we think its application and intersection with legislation could be improved upon to better serve the needs of Ontarians and their communities.
Turning to page 3 in the handout, aggregate is a key industrial commodity that assists Ontario in creating jobs and economic growth through the construction and development of infrastructure. Our products build the roads, bridges, homes, hospitals and community centres that Ontario families use each and every day.
The Ministry of Natural Resources commissioned the State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario study, and it is a valuable reference point. Two key points that it identified are:
(1) The GTA must import 50% of its aggregate needs; Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Newmarket, Aurora, Whitby and Oshawa must import 100% of their needs.
(2) There will be shortages of high-quality aggregate reserves within a 75-kilometre radius of Vaughan within a decade if we rely upon existing aggregate sourcing.
Turning to page 4, this visual illustration shows where the demand for aggregates is coming from and where we and other partners in the industry are providing the supply from. The largest importers and users of aggregates are the municipalities that make up the GTA, or the greater Toronto area. The largest suppliers are communities that surround the GTA. It is unlikely that this dynamic is going to change in the foreseeable future.
Turning to page 5, therefore, the key issue is, where will the future demand for GTA aggregates be sourced? There are many factors to consider. However, the one that I want to place front and centre is that for economic prosperity and environmental sustainability it is essential that aggregate supply is sourced close to aggregate demand. Ontarians consume large quantities of aggregates. Each citizen annually consumes less than one tonne of food but consumes 13.5 tonnes of aggregate.
Aggregates are heavy. To save costs and reduce environmental impact, we must minimize the movement of aggregates. Every kilometre reduced shrinks expenditure on infrastructure, the emissions of CO2 and the overall cost to the environment and the economy.
In a market like the GTA, we have had the good fortune to have close-to-market reserves. This has eliminated the need for major urban and industrial rail and/or dockyard infrastructure to support the importing of millions of tonnes of aggregates from rural areas many hundreds of kilometres away. One must remember that once the material’s imported, it would still need to be transported by truck to its final destination.
Turning to page 6, the benefits to the economy and the environment of having a close-to-market supply of aggregate must be balanced against social impacts. We have a footprint in the communities where we are located. In order to be successful, we must work hard to reduce that impact. It is an important part of our day-to-day operations. We aim to be good neighbours and contribute to the social, environmental and economic well-being of the local communities where we operate.
We also place a great amount of importance in our company on working hard with community leaders, non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens. We know first-hand how important it is to engage with members of the communities where we’re located, and we try to be as proactive as possible in communicating and consulting with them on initiatives.
It goes without saying that even though we may have the operational licence to work in a community, maintaining our social licence to operate is just as vital. We need the ongoing support of those communities where we work, and the only way we maintain that support is through ongoing community and stakeholder engagement.
More broadly, we support initiatives that bring together industry and stakeholders in order to enhance collaboration and co-operation, such as the Aggregate Forum of Ontario, which has brought industry and ENGO leaders together to work towards more sustainable outcomes.
At Lafarge, we firmly support sustainable resource development and biodiversity. We are working with the province to protect species at risk, and we are committed to progressive and final rehabilitation of our aggregate sites.
Turning to page 7, in an integrated global economy, where competition has never been greater, we believe that the government has a responsibility to ensure that Ontario can compete against the very best in the world to create prosperity here at home. At the same time, government also has a responsibility to ensure that jobs and economic growth are adequately balanced with the environmental and social needs of our communities.
Lafarge supports amendments to the Aggregate Resources Act that modernize licence approvals and reduce the red tape involved in the process for aggregate site development. New aggregate licence applications are significant and require proper oversight from government, but government also needs to be responsible to the industry in the process of reviewing applications.
All combined, there are more than two dozen laws and regulations that span the federal, provincial, and municipal sectors governing the licence application process. This process needs to be reformed. The current process is cumbersome, costly and subject to lengthy delays due to overlapping of various responsibilities.
By providing regulatory certainty and transparency, the government can ensure access to local aggregates so that we can grow the Ontario economy. Ultimately, greater business investment will provide more jobs and increased economic activity, which in turn will benefit all Ontarians. The federal government has recently introduced administrative and regulatory changes with respect to resource development projects, and we encourage the committee to look at this as an example of reducing overlap and red tape and reducing timelines to reach important decisions on these complex projects.
One thing that cannot be overlooked, however, is the importance of community engagement through the permitting process. We believe it is important to have local community partners at the table when discussing local projects, and we support a longer time period for community engagement and consultation under the Aggregate Resources Act.
Turning to page 8, our second recommendation today is specifically related to the aggregate levy. Lafarge supports a significantly increased levy in order to sustain ongoing community development where quarries are located and to further support the Ministry of Natural Resources aggregate program and the management of abandoned aggregate properties program.
With respect to our municipal partners and our communities, we believe the revenues from an increased levy should be directed to infrastructure development and community projects. These funds should not be pooled into the general revenue base of municipal budgets; they should be put into a dedicated envelope to be used for vital and necessary infrastructure projects that benefit local communities in an environmentally responsible way.
With respect to the Ministry of Natural Resources, we also believe that increased revenue from an increased aggregate levy should be explicitly directed to the MNR’s aggregate program and not to general revenues for the government of Ontario. Lafarge believes that the program is not adequately supported and requires additional resources to effectively review and process licence applications and enforce existing provisions of the act and the site plan. As such, this increased revenue will go towards greater compliance and enforcement of provisions under the act, so that every aggregate producer is operating on a level playing field and to the highest environmental standards.
In closing, the Aggregate Resources Act has served Ontario well. Continued economic growth will result in increasing demand for aggregates. This means that government, industry and the NGO community must continue to work together to ensure Ontario has a long-term and sustainable supply of aggregates to meet the current and future needs of all Ontarians. At Lafarge, we are committed to working with all interested parties in order to strengthen our industries and our communities.
Ontario needs smarter regulation and more certainty around the licensing process. This will lead to increased business investment in Ontario. Higher aggregate levies can lead to greater investment in community infrastructure and stronger enforcement of regulatory provisions. These are competitive advantages that will continue to keep Ontario’s economy competitive. We believe these changes are evolutionary and strengthen an already robust piece of legislation.
And one last item before I finish—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): I need you to wrap it up.
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: I’ve tabled a letter with the clerk inviting the committee to visit and tour our sites.
I’d be pleased to answer any questions.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. Mr. Marchese, go ahead.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you. Mr. Semkowski, some quick questions. Do you export any aggregates to the US?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: Yes, we do.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: How much of the total?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: It’s a much smaller amount this year, and the last several years. It’s probably in the range of about three million tonnes.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: And what’s that percentage-wise?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: Of our business?
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Yes.
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: About 15% of the Ontario business, and we also operate many quarries on the Great Lakes as well, in the US.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: There are a number of environmental groups who say that applicants for aggregate licences under the ARA should be required to demonstrate need for aggregate extraction in a particular area. Do you agree or disagree with that?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: I disagree with that. I’ve said in the presentation here that we have many communities that don’t have any resource available to them. I look at the resource, and we believe that the resource is something for all Ontarians, not for one particular municipality. We have “have” and we have “have-not” municipalities in the province.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you. Next question?
Mr. Mike Colle: I want to applaud you for working with the government in protecting our endangered species in Ontario, and I hope you continue to do that.
The question I had is, in terms of the difference between using virgin aggregates and recycled aggregates, is there a possibility of developing a hybrid aggregate which mixes both so you get a high-grade aggregate that supposedly all municipalities want?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: We do, in some instances, blend recycled with virgin aggregate. However, there are a lot of instances in the standards today in concrete and asphalt where you can’t do that, although we do recycle a large amount of asphalt and make it available. We recycle as much as we can.
Mr. Mike Colle: And your amount of recycling over the last number of years—is there any idea you can give us about the increase in the use of recycled material in your operations?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: Well, with Lafarge, we’ve just come out with a branded product for recycle. We’d like to do more of it. The challenge is getting the feed of the recycled material into the —
Mr. Mike Colle: The what?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: The feed. So you need a source of the rubble to be able to be close to where the demand is.
Mr. Mike Colle: Okay, thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you for your question. Conservative caucus, question? Ms. Scott, go ahead.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Thank you very much for appearing here today, and for your presentation.
I’ll just follow up a little bit with what Mr. Marchese said about shipping some of your product. Now, you have the—I guess the quarry, I’m sorry, at—
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: Manitoulin Island.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Manitoulin, right. Is that the only spot that you ship from?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: No, we have quarries in Presque Isle, in Michigan; we have in Marblehead on Lake Erie as well. So we are moving aggregates around the Great Lakes.
The one thing I would say, too, is that coming from Manitoulin to the GTA is a long, long way and it’s very hard on the carbon footprint. It takes a lot of fuel to come through Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie.
The other thing I would say is that there is not the infrastructure, once you get it here—remember that each time that you handle it, you have to drop it and then you have to truck it to where it’s needed, so the carbon footprint isn’t exactly the same as just putting it on a boat and that’s the end of it. I think people need to recognize that.
Ms. Laurie Scott: That’s what I was wanting you to highlight. It’s just not as easily done as said.
Now, do you ship all that product to the States from Manitoulin?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: No. We’ve brought material into downtown Toronto. We have a dock in downtown Toronto, but it’s economically very challenging to get it here. You’re travelling it a long, long way, as I said, and environmentally, I don’t believe it makes sense. The carbon footprint of that material coming out of Manitoulin to downtown Toronto is not very good.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Okay. I just wanted to clarify, because some people thought it was 100% that you sold to the States from the Manitoulin quarry. I just wanted to clarify that.
One quick question: You also mentioned in your presentation about streamlining the review process but enhancing local input, and you talked about extending the time frame available to receive comments. How long do you think it would be appropriate to extend it to?
Mr. Bruce Semkowski: Presently, it’s at 45 days. We think it should go to at least 120, and it could go to 180 days.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): I need to stop you there. Thank you very much. That’s the time for your presentation.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The next presentation is Clearview Community Coalition.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Do we want to start, or do we—
Ms. Laurie Scott: It’s only eight minutes.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): I think we should try and start the presentation; otherwise, we’re going to be here for quite a while with individuals who have come and expected to be on at a certain time. We’ll be here after 6, and if somebody makes a point of that on the time, we’ll be calling the time at 6 if somebody makes an issue of that and the hearings will be over, so people who have scheduled to come—
Ms. Sylvia Jones: I have no issue with sitting beyond 6 o’clock to ensure that the people who have driven here can present. The reality is that we will need to stop for the vote, so the question is, is it better to get halfway through a presentation or—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): I understand that. Thanks, Ms. Jones. Let me just discuss that with the presenter.
Folks, are you comfortable with—there’s seven minutes on the clock here. We can wait. We have to adjourn to allow members to go and vote, because, as you can tell, the bells are ringing in the Legislature, so—
Mrs. Ruth Grier: I can probably do my presentation in seven minutes if you want to then come back for questions. I’m happy to do that.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): You know, we need 30 seconds to get over there, but we’re certainly prepared—
Mrs. Ruth Grier: It’s up to you, Mr. Chair. I can wait.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Why don’t you start, then, if you’re comfortable with that. We’re prepared to come back and give you the balance of the time.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: Thank you. With me is Bill Saunderson, another former member of this place, and we are both members of the Clearview Community Coalition, and our chair, Janet Gillham, is in the audience.
CCC is a group of citizens who are concerned about the destruction of the Niagara Escarpment and the adverse effects of quarries on local communities. Clearview is a municipality in the northwest corner of Simcoe county, and the Niagara Escarpment, from Blue Mountain to Devil’s Glen, is a wonderful resource for hiking, snowshoeing, nature study and other outdoor activities.
CCC was formed in 2009 when residents became concerned about an application by Walker Industries for a new quarry just north of the highest and most scenic part of the escarpment west of Duntroon. CCC opposed the application at the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and the commission voted against the application. Walker Industries took the NEC refusal to a hearing. CCC and the NEC were then parties at a joint board hearing. That hearing began in May 2010 and ended in October 2011, and as yet, there has been no decision from the hearing board.
CCC is supported by hundreds of full- and part-time residents of Clearview as well as people from all over southern Ontario. Just last Saturday, we had over 250 hikers out hiking on the Bruce Trail as part of a fundraiser, and over 1,000 people made donations, large and small, to help us in our efforts to protect the escarpment.
We want to support the points the Environmental Commissioner made in his submission to this committee. The commissioner was subpoenaed as a witness on behalf of CCC at our hearing, and we share his concerns.
But we want to make five recommendations:
(1) The Niagara Escarpment plan area should not be considered as a long-term source of aggregate supply.
(2) To achieve an orderly phase-out of aggregate extraction in the NEP area, no new aggregate operations should be approved.
(3) Existing licensed aggregate operations should be permitted to fulfill all the provisions of their current licences but should not be permitted any expansions in either size or depth of the extraction area.
(4) The Ministry of Natural Resources should no longer remain the host ministry for the Niagara Escarpment Commission. Instead, responsibility should be returned to the Ministry of the Environment, where Premier Peterson placed it in 1990.
(5) Lastly, MNR must have the capacity to monitor aggregate operations and ensure compliance with licence provisions rather than allowing the industry to be self-monitoring.
The Niagara Escarpment is one of the most beautiful and cherished parts of Ontario, and runs from Niagara Falls to Tobermory. Public concern about protecting the escarpment began to emerge in the early 1960s. The concern was focused on the need to regulate—guess what?—the establishment and environmental impacts of aggregate operations on or near the brow. After much consultation, dozens of public meetings, and many compromises with the original recommendations, in 1985, then-minister Norm Sterling announced that cabinet had approved a Niagara Escarpment plan.
The 1,837 square kilometres protected by the Niagara Escarpment plan is only 0.17% of the area of all Ontario. It is 1.63% of the area of southern Ontario. That 1,837 square kilometres is 63% smaller than the area originally proposed to be protected by the Niagara Escarpment Commission in 1979. One of the compromises made in order to get the plan approved was that pits and quarries would be a permitted use in the “escarpment rural area” designation after application for a plan amendment.
Nearly 30 years later, pits and quarries have become enormous mines, many escarpment rural areas have re-naturalized into woodlands, farms have been severed into lots and new homes built. Yet the boundaries of the “escarpment natural” and “escarpment protection” land use designations in the plan have not been updated in 27 years, allowing new aggregate applications to proceed in areas that clearly should be protected. It’s long past the time that aggregates should be removed as a permitted use in the Niagara Escarpment area. The escarpment has been designated by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve.
The policy titled “New Mineral Resource Extraction Areas” in section 1.9 of the Niagara Escarpment plan should be repealed. It’s that simple and all you have to do.
In addition, as CELA has so cogently argued in their submission to this committee, applicants for aggregate licences should be required to demonstrate the need for extraction in a particular area, and the 2005 PPS should be modified to be consistent with this recommendation.
Furthermore, existing licensed aggregate operations should not be permitted any expansions in size or depth so that aggregate extraction is gradually phased out of the NEP.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Ms. Grier, thank you very much. We’re going to just hold that thought. We’re happy to continue and give you the time. I just need members to be able to have the opportunity to vote.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: Thank you. You should take my submission with you; you can look at the maps at the back while you’re voting.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Folks, if everyone can grab a seat, we’ll continue. Thank you very much. I know that seating’s tight. Everybody’s finding a seat. That’s great.
Ms. Grier, it looks like you’ve got about five minutes or so. I’m being flexible on that, so just a ballpark for you. If you want to just continue. We appreciate your co-operation.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to move on to my recommendation number 4, anyway, and talk a bit about the plan.
When the Niagara Escarpment plan was approved in 1985, the Niagara Escarpment Commission was made an agency of municipal affairs. When Jim Bradley was Minister of the Environment, in his first incarnation, the commission was moved to MOE and remained there until 1997. Then responsibility was moved to MNR, where it remains today.
The purpose of the Niagara Escarpment plan and its underlying legislation is as follows: “To provide for the maintenance of the Niagara Escarpment and land in its vicinity substantially as a continuous natural environment, and to ensure only such development occurs as is compatible with that natural environment.”
Having the aggregate industry as a client of MNR and hence the NEC, while at the same time being responsible for protecting the escarpment, puts the ministry in an impossible position of irreconcilably competing interests. In the case of the Walker hearing, which we were involved in, the NEC opposed the application at the consolidated hearings board, while MNR continued to work with the applicant to help them secure approval.
You’ve already heard time and again from the industry, from the planners and from environmental groups that the existing aggregate approval regime is a mess. To quote the Ontario Professional Planners Institute: “Since MNR is responsible for both aggregate planning and (to a large extent) the protection of natural heritage, there is a perception that tradeoffs between these areas of interest should not be taking place within a single ministry.”
Moving the Niagara Escarpment Commission back to MOE would be a first step in reducing some of the conflicts that have been described to you.
You’ve also heard before that MNR’s capacity to enforce compliance with licences and rehabilitation plans is very limited. At the Walker hearing, we heard evidence that one official was responsible for monitoring, investigation and conducting enforcement for 180 quarries in the Midhurst district and that the ministry had one hydrogeologist for the entire province. MNR itself recommends no more than 150 pits for any one inspector. The capacity crisis has to end.
Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights emphasizes the need for precautionary principles to be applied to all environmental decisions. From the first steps in the aggregate approval process to the final rehabilitation of a worked-out quarry 30 or 40 years later, it seems that taking precautions to ensure the protection of our natural heritage is low on the priority list. This committee has an opportunity to make some long-overdue improvements to the way the Ontario government deals with aggregates. There are many, many people hoping you will do just that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you very much for your presentation. The Liberal caucus is up. Mr. Flynn, go ahead.
Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn: Thank you, Ruth, for coming today. I really appreciate your presentation and the clarity and the recommendations that are contained therein.
Fate has a funny way of working out. The first speaker, Rick Bonnette and I, were newly elected to Halton regional council in about 1985; we were both in our 20s. One of the first things we had to deal with was a landfill site. We were shipping our landfill to the States at that point in time. Nobody wanted it but we knew we needed it, and I think there’s a lot of similarities that I’m hearing today from a variety of presentations.
Somehow in your role as minister, my role as council, regional chairs, somehow we worked that out, and we’ve got a landfill site in Halton today that, as much as landfill is the last resort, I think, by all indications, is working well. Somehow we got it right through all that.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: I think I gave it final approval.
Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn: That’s right; exactly. So is there anything you can draw from that exercise and this exercise?
Mrs. Ruth Grier: Well, certainly there’s a lot to be drawn about consultation. It’s laid out in the aggregates act. There is some pro forma consultation but there isn’t the kind of discussion about options and alternatives that I think there ought to be.
Secondly, look at the recycling. I heard some of the figures in some of the presentations to you, but when you look at what’s happening in other jurisdictions you can see that virgin aggregate is much less used. What’s it, 14 tonnes per person here? I think it’s six or seven tonnes per person in some countries in Europe. So I think we are profligate because it has been close to the GTA, and in doing so we are destroying irreplaceable parts of our province.
Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn: Thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Ms. Jones?
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Nice to see you, Ms. Grier, Mr. Saunderson. I have a question related to page 3 in your presentation when you talk about the Walker hearing, and “the NEC opposed the application at the” hearing board “while MNR continued to work with the applicant to secure approval.”
Now, I’ve never felt that it was MNR’s role to work with applicants. I always felt that MNR’s role was to make sure that the application was complete, but never to advocate for it. You are sending quite a different message there. Can you explain that or expand on that?
Mrs. Ruth Grier: I think I’m probably making a distinction between advocacy and providing all the information and assisting the applicant to update the various applications that had been in. The process was ongoing, while the hearing was there, that was going to look at the fundamental question of whether or not the quarry ought to be allowed.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Okay. So you’re not saying that they were playing an advocate’s role. MNR was not playing an advocate’s role in supporting the application; they were playing a regulatory role in ensuring that the application was complete before it went before a hearing?
Mrs. Ruth Grier: As an opponent at a 15-month hearing with not quite the legal, planning and professional assistance at our fingertips as the proponents had, when requests for information got answered very quickly for one side and it took much more digging for us to get it, we are in an adversarial position. These hearings are an incredible burden on citizens and on community groups. MNR is certainly not seen by many of us as an independent entity.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: That’s concerning.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Very briefly, we need to move on to the next question, so if you want to add something, go ahead.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Bill, did you want to comment?
Mr. Bill Saunderson: No, I—well, yes, I do, but I know you’re under time constraints.
The other thing from our point of view is, from an economic development, trading and tourism point of view—and that was my ministry here at Queen’s Park—I think little consideration has been given to the economic development aspects and of the tourism aspects that quarries can damage. No doubt that is happening up there in Collingwood, where we have a huge tourism industry growing all the time. It started off as skiing; it has now moved into many other sports. From an economic development point of view, gravel pits, although they are bringing the gravel to the city for construction purposes, I think it’s hurting the economic development of a community where you get the roads and the environment not as pleasant as it should be.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Mr. Marchese?
Mr. Rosario Marchese: I want to thank you both for being here as former members, cabinet ministers, and now as interested citizens who have a huge interest in aggregates and the effects they have on the environment.
I had two quick questions, if there’s time. First of all, to you, Ruth: When you were Minister of the Environment the Niagara Escarpment Commission reported to you. Maybe you can tell us what you did to prevent the escarpment from being used as a source of aggregates for the GTA, and, if you have time, to talk about the need. You heard the Lafarge representative saying that they ought not to do any studies with respect to need for aggregates. If there’s time, you might want to comment on that as well.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: On the first point: Yes, the escarpment was one of my responsibilities and one I loved. We began a review of the Aggregate Resources Act. As part of that, we put a moratorium on any new quarry applications during the time in which the review of the act was being done. Sadly, the review of the act, as you will find, took longer than we had anticipated, so when the next government came in, the review of the act was not completed and the moratorium was lifted. The act, as it’s emerged today, is what we have.
The other thing we did was that we were very careful in our appointments to the commission. The commission is made up of citizen appointees as well as municipal representatives. We were very diligent in ensuring that the people who were appointed as citizen members to what is almost, in many times, a sort of quasi-judicial commission were people without any interest in any particular industry and were there as advocates for the escarpment and the natural heritage and able to be totally independent in the views that they took.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thanks very much. I don’t know whether you have a comment on Bruce Semkowski’s response to my question about demonstrating the need for extraction in a particular area.
Mrs. Ruth Grier: I think it’s essential that the need, both in the area but also in a broader area—I mean, to say the need in that particular township where the quarry is is perhaps not realistic, but there has to be a better handle on what we need, what we use, where it’s coming from and how much we can reduce what we’re using. Applicants have to be cognizant of that and the applications have to be reviewed in that spirit.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you both.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you very much for coming in. We appreciate your presentation.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The next presentation: Eastern Ontario Aggregate Producers. Good afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government.
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Erwin Schulz.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): As you’re aware, you have 10 minutes for your presentation. You’re on it already. Go ahead. You can proceed when you’re ready. Just state your name for our recording purposes.
Mr. Erwin Schulz: We did bring a handout.
Good afternoon. My name is Erwin Schulz. I’m with the Karson Group in Ottawa. My colleague here is Domenic Idone of the Tomlinson Group, also based in Ottawa.
Eastern Ontario produces over 30 million tonnes of aggregate per year, 20% of the province’s total. We also provide employment for over 8,000 people directly and indirectly. We would like to offer this committee some perspective on behalf of 14 companies that produce and use the lion’s share of that 30 million tonnes.
Most of the companies that we represent are vertically integrated. In other words, we supply aggregates to consumers and to the projects that our own construction divisions undertake. These projects include hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, housing developments and the manufacturing of concrete and asphalt.
You’ve been inundated with facts regarding the importance of aggregates to the province of Ontario. Without regurgitating all of the data and based on our practical, hands-on experience, we wish to offer some additional emphasis.
We understand that we are not a popular industry. But we also know that we are an essential industry. Just ask the patient who requires medical care in a new hospital; ask the drivers how they like their newer, safer road. Even the people who brush their teeth in the morning probably don’t even realize that aggregate forms the base of their toothpaste, but we do.
As contractors and consumers, we can tell you that on virtually any one of our construction sites on any given day, if our trucks don’t deliver aggregate, the job stops. It doesn’t slow down; it stops. We are forced to shut it down and send everyone home.
We are not opposed to the review of the Aggregate Resources Act. We believe that the act has served the provincial interest well since its inception in 1997. We believe that this review can serve to streamline the application process and enhance the operational compliance of existing sites. We are also aware that this review has the potential to undermine the economic health of this province. And having read the Hansard, we are comfortable that this committee is dedicated to finding balance in an extremely complex issue, and we can ask no more than that.
The first issue I’d like to address is recycling. We can sit here and hypothesize that recycling 100% of construction site materials is simply a matter of will, but if you talk to job site supervisors, and we have, most will tell you that we need to improve the way we process recyclable materials. If a job site has enough room to set up proper processing equipment, one can produce an engineered, acceptable material that can be reused on-site. Those conditions don’t always exist. So, rather than reusing an inferior conglomerate material, they put it on a truck and haul it to the nearest waste facility that will accept it.
The answer to that problem is really quite simple. All recyclable aggregate-based materials that cannot be properly reprocessed and reused on a construction site should come back to a licensed pit or quarry on the returning truck. These facilities have all the necessary equipment to reprocess the material and add it to the virgin aggregate. Provincial standards and specifications already allow for a significant percentage of recycled material to be added to the virgin aggregate. The next step is to demonstrate the reliability of the blended products to the municipal engineers who will, in turn, recommend their use. Reuse and conservation: Everybody wins.
Secondly, we recently read a blog where the author expressed a fear that mega quarries were the future. He or she suggested to this committee, “Address what will happen to the operators of small aggregate resources if a mega quarry becomes the sanctioned approach. What will small operators do when they are subjected to the monopolistic power of the Goliath-like mega quarry?”
So let’s do that. Let’s address that one. But as a prelude, I’d like to play out a scenario for you. You’re a banker. I come into your bank and, after some small talk, you ask me what I need. I say, “Well, I’ve got a 200-acre parcel of land that has quality aggregate on it, and I’d like to borrow some money and develop a quarry.”
“Okay. What’s the value of your land today?”
“Oh, it’s worth about a million dollars, $5,000 an acre.”
“Okay. How much do you need?”
“Well, I’ll need anywhere between $3 million and $10 million.”
“Really? And how long will you need that for?”
“Well, let me see. The process can take anywhere between three and 10 years, so I guess I’ll need it for 10 years.”
“Really? And what are your chances of success?”
“Well, I’m not sure, but lately it seems like 50-50.”
“Really? Now, let me get this straight. You want me to give you a $10-million line of credit on a piece of property with a collateral value of $1 million for an application that could take up to 10 years with no guarantee of success? Am I hearing this right?”
Would you, as a banker, lend me that money? I doubt it. There is not a bank in Ontario that would lend any business or person that kind of money on those terms.
The government has always assured us that if we diligently followed the process as prescribed in the Aggregate Resources Act, and if our application was consistent with the provincial policy, we could be confident in the process.
Ray Pichette, in his deputation, assured this committee that the conditions imposed upon the applicant were very rigorous, and I quote: “Then there is a requirement with regard to reports. Reports are predominantly the science side of the equation—hydrogeology reports, particularly if there is potential for below-water extraction. Natural environment reports are required. Cultural heritage reports are required. Haulage road reports are required. There can be noise requirements etc. These are all articulated in the standards, in terms of upfront, minimum-requirement reports that we expect to see. Also in there now is a requirement we introduced in 1997 that they need to be done by qualified individuals.”
We agree with Mr. Pichette. The Aggregate Resources Act does have rigorous requirements. Unfortunately, the consistency that we, as investors, have historically relied upon is being eroded. We have witnessed the introduction and application of conditions and tactics that are clearly superfluous to the process.
We can assure the blogger that if this review does not streamline the process and return confidence to the investment community, there will be no new small operators.
Concurrently, larger operators and investors, faced with a much riskier return on investment, will be forced to offset that risk with size and, by default, mega quarries will become the sanctioned approach. That’s a mathematical certainty.
Finally, we’d like to comment on close-to-market sources. The Environmental Commissioner has stated that close-to-market aggregates are a moot point. He and much of the concerned public suggest that future aggregate will eventually come from sources in northern Ontario anyway, so let’s just bite the bullet and get it done.
Assume we do that. Let’s bite that bullet. As a businessman, why would I care if the source is 300 kilometres from the market? One of my primary concerns is the bottom line, so I’d just transport my aggregates in bulk, either by rail, marine or truck. My top line would be about the same, and my bottom line, if I manage the business properly, should be the same also. It’s a wash, so why would I care?
Well, I care because I read the 2010 State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario Study and then spent a little time with a calculator. The SAROS report suggests that the massive distribution network for marine or rail is currently not in place and is going to require a dedicated infrastructure program of massive proportion. We can’t imagine how and when this will happen. So the short answer is, we’re probably going to truck it.
The province’s current infrastructure budget is $35 billion over three years. We realize that without increasing taxes, cutting programs or, even worse, borrowing money, that $35 billion is a finite pot of money. Over the three-year period, the province will produce approximately 510 million tonnes. Let’s make an assumption that 50% of the aggregate will remain close to market. That leaves 255 million tonnes that we need to truck. You know from the SAROS report that the public authorities consume about 60% of that aggregate. Again, from the report, the average cost of delivering one tonne of aggregate to the market in 2009 is $9.46. The cost of owning, operating, maintaining, and realizing a return on a truck is about 10 cents a kilometre. If we have to go another 250 kilometres for the aggregate, the cost of the province’s aggregate supply has increased by $3.8 billion, or 11% of the infrastructure budget. I think if we call the infrastructure ministry and tell them to cancel 11% of their planned projects, they might give us a quick lesson on the economic consequence of increasing the infrastructure deficit.
(1) Recycling materials and adding to virgin aggregates will create quality products and conserve aggregate resources.
(2) Uncertainty in the application process will paralyze new investment.
(3) Far-from-market sources will negatively impact the infrastructure deficit and, ultimately, the economy of this province.
We understand that the task before you is not an easy one. You have, and will continue to have, input from a huge variety of interests. Everyone here, including us, has some vested interest in the outcome of your deliberation. The task ahead of you is, to say the least, daunting. As producers, consumers, investors and taxpayers, we ask that in your deliberations you don’t ignore the math.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you, folks. Given the time on the clock, I think we’ll postpone until—
Mr. Mike Colle: This has been going on for two months: bells, bells, bells.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: David, are we coming back for questions?
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Folks, members need to vote, so we’re going to just recess until members have that opportunity. We’ll come back, and we’ve got five minutes to ask you questions about your presentation if you—
Mr. Erwin Shulz: That gives you guys too much time to ask questions I won’t have the answer to.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): We appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for your co-operation.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, folks, we’ll continue. Thanks for your co-operation and indulgence here. We’ve got a few minutes for questions, so Ms. Scott will start off the Conservative caucus. Go ahead.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Thank you very much for appearing here today and for noticing what went on in committee before and rebutting some of the comments and analysis. It is good to put things in perspective every once in a while.
You mentioned several things, and I can only ask about one question here, I think, but recycling: We’ve heard that the province is doing a good job at using recycled materials and the municipalities are not. You mentioned municipal engineers. Is there something—that they do not feel the recycled material is of good quality? Because it seems from all the reports we’ve got that it is. I just didn’t know what was the municipal barrier.
Mr. Domenic Idone: In eastern Ontario, in Ottawa in particular—I think the city of Ottawa is taking a more proactive approach with it—we’re not having those problems. We have the ability to request—to ask—to substitute materials, and sometimes, in a lot of the cases, we are successful.
The reason why we do it is because the product and the message we’re trying to get across is that getting these recycled materials into a facility, a licensed facility like a pit or a quarry, which has the equipment and is properly sited, has the safeguards that can actually produce a quality material. You can control the input and the output and you can get it. So we’re having good luck in the east.
I think that should be something that, as part of this review, you continue to be encouraged about. I know that with any new applications that we’ve gone through with the MNR lately, that’s been one of the issues that they’ve pushed as well, to be able to recycle material in our—
Ms. Laurie Scott: I don’t know what you need to recycle, but is there a problem getting any type of rezoning or permitting for recycling on your sites at all from the MNR? Is that something we need to look at?
Mr. Domenic Idone: There have been some concerns. In some of the processes at the municipal level, I know there have been concerns about the material coming in. That’s why I say, in a licensed facility like we have, you have the safeguards already in place. You have not only the licence, but you have the other pieces of legislation: your permit to take water and your testing of that water as it goes off-site, the sewage discharge permit. You have those safeguards that are in place that allow you to control and see what’s coming off to ensure that you’re not contaminating. So we’ve been able to work with our local politicians to address those issues.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you. NDP caucus: Mr. Marchese.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you both, Mr. Idone and Mr. Schulz.
Mr. Schulz, I’ve got a question for you. Of the 30 million tonnes of aggregate that you extract, how much goes to the US?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: None.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: So none of your—that’s good to hear. Many people are concerned, as you would imagine, because it does create jobs, I understand, your industry, but a lot of people who have come here in the last week and a half have huge concerns about the environment, about the taking away of good farmland, about water problems, including infrastructure damage to municipalities. So there are huge concerns. You’re going to have to deal with them on a regular basis, and we politicians are going to have to deal with that on a regular basis.
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Absolutely.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: So we’re concerned about how much is extracted that goes outside of the country, in terms of what we need versus what we extract that goes elsewhere. That’s a concern for me and many. Connected to all this is that there is a growing desire, of course, to conserve based on what we need, and recycling. You touched on that. I’m very keen, and many people are keen, on the need to recycle as much as we can. Then we need to ask: Who should be doing that? Are you a big part of that?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Yes.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Is it government regulations that need to happen? What do we need to do?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Well, we need to produce a product that we can take to the municipal engineers who have a ring and look for the gold standard. They’re not going to take crappy material. They want good material. So if we can give them a good product and demonstrate to them that this is a product where your building is not going to fall down, your bridge is not going to fall down, then they recommend it to the municipality and the whole thing will take off.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): You have something brief? Go ahead.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Many have said that we need to increase the levies. Many in your industry said that we should do that. You probably agree with that, right?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: I agree that a lot of people have said that, yes.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: But you don’t agree with increasing levies? Is that what I hear you saying?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Well, actually, there are benefits to it.
Do you want to take this one?
Mr. Domenic Idone: Yeah. Again, in eastern Ontario, we’re finding that the levy—from our standpoint we feel it’s adequate, but if there is going to be an increase in the levy, where we would like to see it go is towards the MNR’s aggregate program. That will help with some of the concerns that people have had with—
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Enforcement, inspectors.
Mr. Domenic Idone: —enforcement, compliance.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: We agree with that. What about infrastructure for municipalities?
Mr. Domenic Idone: Well, if there’s any left after that, that’s where we think it should go. We don’t want to see it go into the general coffers of the province. It should go back into an infrastructure fund.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Good. Thank you. We appreciate the response.
Liberal caucus: Mr. Colle.
Mr. Mike Colle: Thank you. Yes, your vested interest aside, Mr. Schulz, an excellent presentation; excellent.
I was just thinking that it takes nine or 10 years for the process for approval. What if we scoped it down to five years? You would save money, right? Because time is money, big money. All the lawyers and planners certainly might not like that, but if we scoped it down to five years and, in return, you would pay higher levies to support the impacts of the industry and also put more money in the rehabilitation trust—if we could work out those figures to the industry’s satisfaction, would it make sense, or am I just being too naive in saying—
Mr. Erwin Schulz: I think absolutely we should sit down and try to figure out how to streamline the process and see where we can help and where—a contribution to the municipalities or whatever we need to do, we’re certainly willing. We’re members of the community; we have kids and stuff. We want to see everyone be successful. So, absolutely, we’re willing to sit down.
Mr. Mike Colle: And then this very interesting point you made about these mega quarries: that perhaps we’re almost driving the whole situation into more mega quarries, because a small quarry can’t get through the process.
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Absolutely. It’s going to end up there.
Mr. Mike Colle: So should we look at ways of perhaps, again, streamlining, scoping the applications for small quarries, so we won’t get the mega quarries?
Mr. Erwin Schulz: Well, you need to re-evaluate the process that the smaller quarries have to go through because, as I explained in my presentation, it’s almost financially impossible. Unless you are self-financed, you’re not going to borrow money to open a quarry. You’re just not going to be able to do it.
Mr. Mike Colle: So therefore, we get the derivative guys coming in from Boston to basically finance the quarries.
Mr. Erwin Schulz: I don’t know anything about that. I’m sorry; I can’t comment.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you very much. That’s time for your presentation. We appreciate you coming in today.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The next presentation is Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. You have 10 minutes for your presentation, as you’re aware. I don’t hear bells yet, so we might get through all of this in one shot. Just state your name for the purposes of our recording Hansard, and you can begin when you’re ready.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Great. Lorne Johnson. I’m the executive director of Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate. It’s a bit of a mouthful. We tend to use the term SERA to refer to it.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for accepting our request to appear here this afternoon.
As I said, I am the executive director of SERA. It is a not-for-profit organization with a mandate and mission to create, administer and promote widespread support for certification of responsibly sourced aggregates in Ontario.
In the last year, our organization has been convening a diversity of stakeholders—industry, municipal voices, First Nations, local community groups and NGOs—in what has developed into a consensus-based process to develop a set of voluntary standards on social and environmental issues for the aggregate sector in Ontario.
As you continue review of the ARA, you will hear from a number of the individuals, companies and organizations that participate in our work; I think you already have. I just want to be clear about something: I am here today not speaking on behalf of any of them but, rather, I’m speaking on behalf of myself and the organization I represent that is the convenor of these organizations and helps to resolve some of the disputes, helps bring them closer together on some of the hot-button issues and to try to codify those in a set of voluntary standards.
I guess I’d also say that I am not an aggregate expert by any stretch of the imagination. I suspect that every person behind me right now in this room knows far more about the aggregate sector than I ever will, but I have spent the bulk of my career working around resource conflicts and environmental conflicts, and helping industry, First Nations, local communities and environmental groups to actually resolve those differences, often the result being trying to codify those and other agreements or practices, so it’s in that background and experience that I’m largely coming to you.
If you’re interested, copies of our draft standards are available on our website. We’re in the process of revising those standards based on the input from that array of stakeholders I just said, and we will be releasing those for public comment later in the summer and the fall.
Before proceeding, I also want to recognize that there is indeed another organization called the Aggregate Forum of Ontario, or AFO, that is also in the process of developing voluntary certification standards for the aggregate sector. It too is a mixture of NGOs and progressive industry with a similar mandate to ours.
Just in order to kind of avoid a question I often get asked and to kind of pre-empt it, I would just go on the record as saying, for the sake of trying to avoid duplicating efforts, competition for scarce resources and simply embracing the spirit that there is safety in numbers: Representatives of our organization and the Aggregate Forum of Ontario are in the midst of good-faith discussions around a potential integration or a merger of those two initiatives.
Before taking on my current role, I spent a large chunk of time developing voluntary, third party environmental and social standards for the forest industry in Ontario and elsewhere in this country. In fact, up till last week, I was serving as the acting president of the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada, which is the FSC. It’s the little logo you often get on paper or lumber that certifies it as coming from a responsibly managed or well-managed forest.
From those experiences, I’ve seen first-hand the ways that voluntary standards can interact with regulations, regulation review and revision of regulations. In a nutshell, I think I’ve got really three key messages, but the first of them today is that voluntary standards, in my view, can be a great complement to good and smart regulations but are in no way a replacement for those.
Regulations are there to set a clear industry-wide—across the whole industry—bar for what are acceptable practices on a range of issues. On the flip side, voluntary standards and voluntary best practices can provide incentives for individual companies to go above and beyond regulatory requirements. So, simply put, in my view, regulations and voluntary standards offer uniquely different niches and are somewhat complementary.
While not universally true, in my experience, voluntary standards initiatives like ours and like others—there are lots of them out there on different sectors—can also be helpful by providing a space for these disparate interests to try to resolve their issues in a way that is unencumbered by potential policy outcomes that are always at stake whenever government convenes those discussions.
In my experience, often, when government is convening stakeholders around those discussions, you tend to get quite positional bargaining or positional negotiations and points of view. Interestingly, while we do have the MNR as an observer at our table, they’re actually not the primary convenor. So I find that voluntary standards initiatives can be helpful in actually, to some extent, kind of toning down the conflict in the debate surrounding some of these policy discussions. While not always true, at least in my experience, as a rule, generally, the lower the temperatures and the less the conflict, the more thoughtful and deliberate the policy review and revisions can be made.
The second point that I was going to make—and to some extent you’ve kind of pre-empted me on this—was to encourage you to take the time to hear from the diversity of views that are out there in the course of your work. I suspect you were somewhat surprised by the degree of public interest in this issue. Maybe not; okay. It is about as topical an issue as you can get in this province right now. In short, I just want to say that I am very pleased to hear that the standing committee has decided, in the second phase, to travel to some of the communities where these issues, these debates have been front and centre and actually hear from the voices that are out there.
While there are strong opinions on all sides in the debate in these regions, in my experience in talking and working with a number of these folks, even the most ardent supporter or detractor of an aggregate application, in my view, has ideas and even solutions that can be built upon. Often, it requires kind of cutting through some of the stuff and trying to get at what the underlying interest is, but doing that and taking the time to do it can be quite helpful.
Finally, I just wanted to share with you some of the hot-button issues that we’ve been hearing from the different stakeholders that we’ve been convening over the course of our work over the last year. Again, I just want to reinforce, at least in our experience, that there seems to be a surprising appetite out there from a number of the groups, a number of the folks at the back of this room, to work towards sort of mutually acceptable solutions. There is a strong appetite for that.
The first, and I think you’ve heard it here already: time limits. We’ve heard from many stakeholders at our organizations that establishing some degree of certainty amongst communities as to when operations will cease would address a number—not all of the concerns but a number—of the concerns that the communities have. A one-size-fits-all approach saying, “The term is going to be X” is not going to work, but there are approaches that could be developed that I think are workable.
In terms of rehab, you’ve heard it. More needs to be done. We still have a large inventory of unrehabilitated pits. I think the history and legacy of those no doubt actually plays into the degree of public scepticism that’s out there. More can be done in terms of accelerating the rehabilitation of this legacy of unrehabilitated sites that we’ve got.
Municipal and community involvement: There is clearly an appetite for more and earlier community and municipal involvement in proposed new aggregate operations. I was taught a new term over the last year from some of the community groups, and they referred to is as the DAD principle. They refer to that as the decide, announce and defend paradigm that they feel that we’re in today. I’m not offering a comment on that, but there seems to be a sense that that’s where we’re at today, and they would really like to get out of that. There is an appetite for early involvement in some of these decisions. On the flipside, if you talk to the industry, on the first hand they’ll say that they have legitimate concerns about raising alarm bells in communities on what is potentially a purely hypothetical development. On the flipside, I think they’re also concerned, and they’re legitimate concerns about, for instance, revealing their hands to their competitors too early in the process. That being said, these two views, the desire for municipalities and community groups to be involved earlier on and the legitimate interest around competitiveness and not fanning the flames of communities, can be addressed.
Last but not least, I’ll just say that enforcement is an issue that has been raised time and again. While our voluntary standards can help with transparency, they’re not a solution for it. Clearly, MOE and MNR need a stronger mandate and more resources to do it.
Actually, one last thing, if you’ll give me about 30 seconds: You’ll hear about “closer to market” over and over again. I’m not really sure that Gord Miller actually meant to say that it’s a moot point. It’s not a moot point, but at some point it’s going to be a moot point. At some point in the next 10 years from now, 20 years from now, we will have depleted these close-to-market resources, but the demand is not going to go away. The demand for aggregate resources is going to continue to be there—and I think this is the role of government, to be honest, and it may not be your role right now as the standing committee—but somebody in government needs to start thinking about: How do we access resources beyond that close-to-market fringe in a way that is economically viable to the point of the eastern Ontario manufacturers and that can be done in a way that respects the interests of the environment and local communities?
Anyway, thank you very much.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you for your presentation. The NDP caucus is up: Mr. Marchese.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Yeah. Mr. Johnson, welcome. I have to tell you, I’m not a big fan of self-regulation—never have been, never will be, I don’t think. I don’t think it works.
I understand what you say, that “voluntary standards can provide incentives for individual companies that are willing to go above and beyond regulatory requirements.” It’s a nice thought. It may be even true. I just don’t think it is. I really believe that when you have oversight and greater transparency, particularly through oversight, people are more honest. Transparency and oversight make people honest, in general, is my view. When you see that the ministry has been cut by 40% in terms of their budget, there is no enforcement and there are very few inspectors, we are at the mercy of the aggregate sector doing the right thing. I don’t see it. A quick comment?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one. I mean, I agree with you that there is a strong role for smart regulation—this is no substitute for that—but I personally have seen dramatic changes in practices and transparency in sectors like fisheries, forestry, trade in diamonds; all sorts of things as a result of voluntary standards.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting it’s a replacement. But have there been massive changes in terms of social and environmental performance as a result of it? Absolutely.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: I should also say that with respect to time limits, I think that the communities in general and citizens and other groups feel strongly that there should be time limits in terms of when operations will cease, and I tend to lean in that direction. I understand one size doesn’t fit all, but I think it would give communities a great sense of satisfaction to know that it begins here, might end there, and then we rehabilitate, and I would like to have time-specific limits for rehabilitation so that it doesn’t take 100 to 300 years.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: I agree, and the companies that I’ve worked with are also trying to wrestle with this issue around certainty and to provide some greater certainty. I think there are solutions. I don’t think it’s one-size-fits-all, but there are solutions to provide greater certainty around time limits.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay. Thanks. We’re going to move on. Mr. Colle.
Mr. Mike Colle: Thank you very much for an excellent presentation, Lorne. I really commend you and SERA for really being proactive and bringing some of the good players together in trying to find some co-operative solutions. I think part of our long-term strategy that the government’s got to look at is bringing people together and at least doing some of the work in a co-operative way. I think that is to be commended—the First Nations, municipalities and everyone.
I guess the question that I had is, perhaps—there is the Forest Stewardship Council. Is there a comparable body here for aggregates, an aggregates stewardship council?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Not at present. In fact, that’s what we’re almost trying to get going here.
Mr. Mike Colle: And getting there would, you think, help get more upfront co-operation, more upfront good things done, rather than waiting till after the process at the Ontario Municipal Board etc.?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: That’s clearly the hope of the communities, the representatives who are at our table and the companies themselves, which is: Is this a way to, while government does its work, the ARA review has to take place, but is there a way that we can try to resolve our differences and codify them in a form of standards that, in effect, if applied and then monitored and audited by independent third party auditors, may not completely get rid of those 10-year, $20-million processes, but will they expedite them? I think the hope is that they will.
Mr. Mike Colle: Because up until now, that hasn’t gone on at all, basically. It’s been very ad hoc, piecemeal, municipality-to-municipality. There’s been no coordinated attempt between all the stakeholders to try to come together at least to mitigate some of the contentious issues.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: I wouldn’t disagree.
Mr. Mike Colle: Okay.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): All right. Thank you. Ms. Jones.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Just a point of clarification: While you were absolutely correct that we did pass a motion in committee expressing our interest to travel, we have not received the approval to do so.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Okay, I’m sorry. I misunderstood.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: So I do not want to leave that on the record as thinking—
Mr. Lorne Johnson: I hope you do.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Well, amen, brother. I agree.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: It’s being worked out.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: We’re working on it.
My question is—and I understand you are relatively new to SERA?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Well, SERA itself is only about a year old.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: A year old?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Yeah.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: And you’ve been the executive director for—
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Right from the get-go.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Okay. Who pays you?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: The bulk of our funding, three-quarters of it, comes from charitable foundations. That would include the Trillium Foundation, thanks to the Ontario government. I mean, it’s on our website, all of our funders. The Schad Foundation contributes funding; the EJLB Foundation, which is a foundation out of Montreal; the McLean Foundation, which is based here in Toronto; and we had some initial seed funding from Holcim, which was one of the early founders, along with Environmental Defence, behind—
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Right, Lafarge.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: —SERA, yes.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Okay, thank you. My question is: Have you had any discussions about the value or interest in having aggregate mapping in official plans of municipalities?
Mr. Lorne Johnson: No, we haven’t.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Okay, thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks for your presentation. We appreciate you coming in today.
Mr. Lorne Johnson: Thank you. Thanks for letting me appear.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The next presentation: Environmental Defence. Good afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. You get, as you’re aware, 10 minutes for your presentation. Simply state your name for our recording purposes and you can start when you’re ready.
Mr. Rick Smith: Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Rick Smith. I’m the executive director of Environmental Defence. My colleague David Donnelly, our legal counsel, is here with me today.
We’re here to represent the views of Environmental Defence, and I’d just like to start by congratulating all parties on your thorough investigation of this critical matter. We’ve talked to all the parties around this table about this issue over the last few years, and I’m really pleased that this constructive dialogue is happening.
Since 1984, Environmental Defence has been inspiring change by connecting people with the environmental issues that affect their daily lives and their homes and their workplaces and their neighbourhoods, and this mandate has included working with numerous community partners in opposition to inappropriately-sited new aggregate resource quarries. This has been happening and has been on our priority list for nearly three decades.
I’m quite sure that we can safely make the claim that no non-profit organization has fought as many quarries under the ARA as Environmental Defence. As a result, we’re just as tired of its vague and loose rules as everybody else you’ve heard from.
Since our inception, our organization has also played an important role in land use reforms, such as protecting the Oak Ridges moraine, the establishment of the greenbelt and the all-party-supported Lake Simcoe Protection Act. I think it’s safe to say that while the world around aggregate quarries and the aggregate issue has changed substantially—most especially, the public’s engagement with environmental protection has dramatically increased—not much has changed under the Aggregate Resources Act in almost 50 years.
So, our primary submission today is that aggregates need to be subject to tight regulation that requires consumers to recycle as diligently as homeowners currently do; operators to conduct themselves as cordially as civil neighbours around this province are expected to do; and sites to respect ecological planning criteria in the same way that municipalities and other land developers already must. Under the present ARA, all of these things rarely occur.
In the past three years alone, we’ve fought alongside four citizens’ groups, opposing over 100 million tonnes of new aggregate operations, covering an area equal to something approaching Central Park. Together, the extraction from these quarries would constitute an amount roughly equivalent to the proposed Melancthon mega quarry. All told, these four licence appeals required 46 months of hearing time—almost a year each, on average. It bears repeating here that your average criminal trial, your average murder trial, seldom runs more that three months, so something is clearly out of whack with the ARA.
Our second primary conclusion is that the process is broken and needs to be fixed. Lengthy ARA licence hearings consume resources better applied to environmental protection and mitigation, and through our work and that of Mr. Donnelly with our community partners, that has led us to conclude that the public and the industry are ready to adopt a green building standard that incorporates a proper certification system. Quite simply, such a system would ensure future aggregate extraction is more, so that a developer building a LEED-standard building or a homeowner repaving their driveway don’t inadvertently blow a hole in a Jefferson salamander habitat.
It has been through our work over the last three decades that we’ve come to believe that a standard like SERA, like Mr. Johnson has just outlined, would be a huge step forward. I’d like to add our voice to his and others to commend that standard to your attention.
With respect to our specific recommendations for ARA reform, I’d like to turn to my colleague David.
Mr. David Donnelly: Thank you, Dr. Smith. My name is David Donnelly. I’m counsel to Environmental Defence and also three of the citizens’ groups that participated in the aggregate licence hearings over the past three years: the Clearview Community Coalition, Grey Matters, and PERL—you may have heard it as Sarah Harmer’s advocacy group.
First and foremost, the groups involved in these hearings have asked that a new ARA put fixed terms to the licences of all new aggregate quarries. This is not an academic matter. In the Duntroon quarry hearing, there is an existing quarry up there on the highest point of the Niagara Escarpment that the Clearview Community Coalition fought, including Ms. Grier. That quarry opened when the Toronto Maple Leafs were winning Stanley Cups.
Mr. Mike Colle: That’s 1967.
Mr. David Donnelly: It’s 1965.
In the case of Mount Nemo and Burlington and PERL, the existing quarry up there started before professional hockey was invented. By the time you add these new expansions, including rehabilitation, those quarries will be operating into the 22nd century. That’s not fair, and this industry needs to have a fixed limit upon which it can impact communities.
The second matter that I want to raise is with respect to a commitment to efficient resource use. You’ve heard that there are many other jurisdictions doing far better than Ontario. It’s inexcusable that we don’t do better. We talk to the municipalities that buy the aggregate from these virgin aggregate producers, and they want to use recycled material. By and large, they’re frustrated by a building code that lags behind in this area. A simple updating of the building code and some other standards would allow us to use a lot more recycled aggregate. It’s something that can be easily fixed, just not through this process.
With respect to best operational processes, there are aggregate quarries in this province that operate without fixed operating hours. Trucks queue up at 4:30 in the morning, disturbing sleep. The compromise that is often offered by the industry is that the trucks won’t queue up until 6 a.m. Who wants to be awoken by Jake brakes in the middle of the night? It’s just not fair, and it should be fixed.
I should also add on the close-to-market: There was an interesting discussion with Mr. Flynn about garbage. We don’t impose a close-to-market standard for garbage; why do we for aggregate? It’s a political choice; it’s a choice around costs. But we should have the same standard for everything from food to almost anything else we consume. The aggregate industry shouldn’t enjoy this preferential advantage.
With respect to siting, it is high time that we updated and harmonized our land use plans with respect to new siting activities. The Niagara Escarpment plan is 27 years out of date. There are regionally significant woodlands, provincially significant wetlands that have not been evaluated, that are the subject of site applications or will be the subject of future applications. It’s time that the environmental protection mandate made its way into the Aggregate Resources Act, which currently only has one line, a single line, outlining environmental protection standards under the act.
Finally, the most important thing that you can do here through this review exercise is to fix a broken review process. I was involved in 36 months out of the 46 undertaken in those four aggregate reviews, and I can tell you that a conservative estimate is that proponents spend, on their own lawyers, their own experts and funding the municipalities and their experts, $1 million a month in those hearings. That means that in Ontario, the proponents in the aggregate industry have spent $460 million advocating on behalf of their licence applications. Their opponents, including three of my clients, have spent just over $2 million. That’s $460 million applied to approvals versus $2 million. Nobody in their right mind would consider that a fair process.
Now, there is a change that’s required in the Planning Act to level the playing field. Currently, under section 69 of the Planning Act, municipalities may have their legal and expert planning fees paid by the proponent, if the proponent supports the quarry application. In a case where a municipality opposes a quarry application, no such relief is provided. This is a dangerous loophole and it makes people cynical about the process. The act should not allow this kind of favouritism of proponents over citizens.
Finally, I draw your attention to the matter of transparency. Ms. Grier was asked about the MNR competing, in essence, with the Niagara Escarpment Commission. In the case of the Walker application, it was the MNR continuing to deal with site plan changes, changes to conditions, even including changes to the adaptive management plan. In a more egregious case, involving Sarah Harmer and PERL, the Ministry of Natural Resources went back with the proponent and devised an entirely new mitigation system to protect the threatened Jefferson salamander on the Harmer property, not on Nelson’s property but on the Harmer farm, and yet they didn’t advise the Harmers, they didn’t advise the Niagara Escarpment Commission that that mitigation and negotiation was going on, even though the proponent was sitting in on part of it, and now that application is subject to a freedom-of-information request that the MNR is denying. There should be transparency for the proponent and for the citizens’ groups.
With that, I would like to ask you to consider one last thing, which is participant funding for citizens’ groups opposed to aggregate licence applications. We subsidize, in many, many ways, the aggregate industry in the province of Ontario. There should be enough in the tonnage fee to rehabilitate pits, which is favouring proponents. There should also be money available to citizens’ groups for participant funding so that they can scope issues at the outset of the hearing process.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thank you for your presentation. Mr. Colle, go ahead, briefly.
Mr. Mike Colle: Thank you, Mr. Smith and Mr. Donnelly. I just, again, want to put on the record, because many people don’t realize the incredible role that Environmental Defence did play in establishing the Oak Ridges Moraine Protection Act, the greenbelt, and that in itself saved millions of tonnes of aggregates from being used to pave all of the Oak Ridges moraine and pave all the greenbelt. I want to just remind folks of the incredible leadership that the Environmental Defence had, way before this started.
The question I have, though, is: In terms of section 69, Mr. Donnelly, you said that the act says that the proponent, if he or she gets support from the municipality, then the municipality can have their costs offset. I think you had it reversed. Can you just explain that section 69 again?
Mr. David Donnelly: Section 69 of the Planning Act allows municipalities to collect reasonable fees associated with the processing of development applications. That clause in the act is supposed to be for reasonable processing fees, administrative fees. It was never intended to be allowed to have municipalities write bylaws that permit them to then have their expert and legal fees funded by proponents.
In the case of Walker, for example, in Duntroon, Ontario, both Clearview township and the county of Simcoe had their legal expert fees paid for by the proponent through this part of the Planning Act.
Mr. Mike Colle: But as long as the municipality was on favour of the application?
Mr. David Donnelly: Right, but in the case of Nelson Aggregate and PERL and Sarah Harmer, both the region of Halton and the city of Burlington were opposed to Nelson’s licence application, but they could not avail themselves of taking money or having money given to them by the proponent, because they were in opposition. So what you have is, you have the proponent getting two bites at the apple in the hearing process. You have a proponent that says—their expert comes on and says, “We won’t disturb the hydrogeology,” for example, and then you have a second expert that appears on behalf of the municipality, who says exactly the same thing, and yet he’s being paid by the same actor.
Mr. Mike Colle: By the proponent.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you. Next question, Ms. Scott.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Thank you for appearing here before us today. You mentioned that the building code has restrictions, so the municipality doesn’t want to use recycled matter. It’s just that we were under the impression that the MTO uses 40% recycled, and so they don’t seem to have a restriction. I just wondered if I was missing something with the municipalities being different. Whoever wants to take that.
Mr. David Donnelly: Roadways require different materials than, for example, foundations for housing or different types of building materials. Municipalities are too conservative. There’s a concern that the material that might be used might be contaminated, that it might not be structurally sound, but all the engineers and developers that I’ve talked to, including many people in municipalities, insist that there can be a much higher proportion of recycled aggregate material in all kinds of building processes and projects unrelated to roads.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Okay, so there is a restriction, you think, in the building code right now that’s prohibiting them? That’s why I was confused. Somebody mentioned the building code, anyway.
Mr. Rick Smith: One other thing, just before I get to that.
Ms. Laurie Scott: Sure.
Mr. Rick Smith: You’ve heard about SERA. Lorne Johnson was just here talking about SERA. We’ve been trying to take a look at acknowledging that through a voluntary certification process we’re not going to be able to straighten out all these various municipal bylaws and building codes that penalize the use of recycled material. I think what you’re going to see—I hope what you’re going to see through the SERA process is organizations like ours and companies coming together to advocate separately that these things be changed.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks. I need to stop you there, folks.
Next question: Mr. Marchese.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you both. We are getting a number of presenters who are talking about fixed-term licences. Apart from the industry, I think everybody else is in agreement with that, including me.
More and more people are talking about the need to recycle. Your suggestion was that changing the building code was the necessary thing to do.
You heard Mr. Schulz, his presentation, because they’re eager to do recycling as well. Do you have any comment on the presentation he made with respect to recycling? Did you hear it?
Mr. Rick Smith: I didn’t. I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what his presentation was.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: They were talking about making sure that we get the experts to get that right, getting the reliability of blended products. Did I get that right, more or less? So we need to pay the experts to do that well.
Your point is: Change the building code in terms of what is allowable by way of reusable stuff, and that should do it. Is that correct, or is there more that you want to add to that?
Mr. David Donnelly: Well, I think that the SERA process may offer the answer. I think that two things have to happen. One, there has to be a total review of all the types of building, whether it’s road construction, infrastructure like bridges, or home building or development, and changes to the building code is one element of that that would improve things, as would a government-wide review of just increasing the content of recycled material.
SERA comes into the picture by actually inducing people to use a higher proportion of recycled material to gain certification points. So just like with a LEED standard, for example, you get a point for putting a bicycle ring outside of your office building; under SERA, if you would have a higher degree of recycled—if SERA gets rolled out across a broad range of materials, then having a higher component of recycled material in that product will then give the developer additional SERA points, or the seller of the product additional SERA points, that will contribute to your green building standards. That would be an incentive built in. So it can work both ways.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks. That’s time for your presentation. I appreciate it.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Next presentation: Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Good afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. As you’re aware, you’ve got 10 minutes for your presentation. Whoever may be speaking, just state your name before you speak, and you can start when you’re ready. Thanks.
Mr. Mark Reusser: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll introduce us all. My colleague here to my left is Keith Currie. He’s a cash crop farmer from Collingwood. He’s a director on the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. My colleague to my far left is Peter Jeffery. He’s a senior researcher with the OFA. I am Mark Reusser. I’m a chicken farmer from near Kitchener, also a director on the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
Just by way of introduction: The OFA is the voice of Ontario’s farmers, supported by approximately 37,000 individual members. The OFA represents farm-family concerns to governments and to the general public. Constituted in its present form since 1970, the organization is active at the local level through 51 county and regional federations of agriculture. OFA is also a member of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the farmers’ voice on the national stage.
It has been said that despite all of the accomplishments humans have made during their existence, the fact is that our existence depends on some soil and the fact that it rains. We’re here today to talk about the soil and agriculture.
While Ontario covers approximately one million square kilometres, a mere 5% of Ontario’s land mass is suitable for agriculture. Of that 5%, approximately half of it or two-and-a-half per cent of Ontario’s land mass is class 1 through 4 farmland.
Currently, there are almost seven billion people in the world. The UN projects that number to rise to over nine billion by 2050, less than 40 years from now. Feeding ourselves on an ever-reducing supply of productive agricultural land will be an ever-increasing challenge. To do so, Ontario needs to maintain as much of its limited arable land as possible in agricultural production. So, too, must every other nation across the globe. We must ensure that our actions and policies do not unduly limit our ability to produce food, fibre and fuel from our limited agricultural base.
According to the 2006 census, there were 13.3 million acres of farmland in Ontario. Recently released data from the 2011 census shows an alarming decline in the area being farmed. Ontario farms now encompass 12.6 million aces, down 636,000 acres over the previous five years. While this loss is due to urban expansion, aggregate extraction or both, Ontario cannot sustain an annual loss of 127,000 acres of land per year. Just so you know how big that is, that is bigger than the city of Toronto.
As the stewards of highly productive agricultural land, the majority lying in southern Ontario, farmers require and deserve certainty and clarity that the presence of aggregates on or adjacent to one’s farm will not be the death knell for that farm.
The OFA believes that society places too little value on our agricultural lands, the finite resource that we depend on for our very existence. We need and deserve legislation that protects domestic agricultural land. Unfortunately, our prime agricultural lands are the one land use designation that seems to be sacrificed for urban uses, aggregate uses and others.
The OFA, as Ontario’s largest general farm organization, does not apologize for its strong agricultural land protection bias. Our mandate is to advocate on behalf of our 37,000 individual farm families for prosperous and sustainable farms.
We cannot diminish the critical role played by primary agriculture, i.e. farmers, in the production of our food. As a province, we must minimize activities that lead to the loss of our agricultural lands and endeavour to strike a more appropriate balance between the need to protect agricultural land and the need for aggregates.
We have some recommendations with regard to the aggregates act. First of all, the OFA recommends that the Aggregate Resources Act regulations and operating standards be amended to reflect and protect the vital role of our agricultural lands. The public policy statement makes some regard to agriculture. It says, for instance, that long-term economic prosperity should be supported by “Promoting the sustainability of the agri-food sector by protecting” farmland. It also says, “Prime agricultural areas shall be protected for long-term use for agriculture.”
The protection and preservation of our valuable food-producing agricultural lands must not be treated in such a confusing and conflicting manner because the PPS and the aggregates act also allow for extraction of aggregate on those very same lands.
The OFA recommends that the Aggregate Resources Act, regulations and operating standards be amended to reflect and protect the vital role of our agricultural lands.
Secondly, the OFA recommends that aggregate extraction be prohibited on prime agricultural land, classes 1 through 4, including specialty crop areas. We see little solid evidence of widespread rehabilitation of former aggregate extraction sites, which likely were agriculture before extraction, back into agricultural uses. Too often rehabilitation means the creation of new recreational uses—for instance, parks and golf courses etc., residential developments and/or woodlots, grasslands and wetlands—not that any of those are bad, but they’re not agriculture. Agricultural land is a strategic resource, just like aggregates, necessary to grow food for an increasing population—provincial, national and global.
The OFA firmly believes that long-term protection of agricultural land for food production provides a greater societal value than does aggregate production. In our 2010 submission on the public policy statement review, we wrote this: “aggregate extraction be prohibited on prime agricultural land, classes 1 through 4, including specialty crop lands.”
In the interim, nothing has changed to convince us otherwise. Agricultural land is not only a strategic resource; it is a perpetual resource. It is a non-renewable resource.
The OFA also recommends that the provincial government, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, report on the state of the agricultural soils resource in Ontario. Agricultural potential and the value of agricultural lands for food production have not been assessed, neither have they been acknowledged in the State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario study, February 2010, or the State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario study, aggregate resource advisory committee recommendations, June 2010.
These deficiencies emphasize the low value placed on our agricultural lands. Nevertheless, we view undisturbed agricultural soils as a perpetual resource, meaning that they can produce food forever if left undisturbed, providing food for Ontario, Canada and beyond.
The OFA also recommends that in areas where agriculture is the predominant land use, rehabilitation must be to restore to agriculture. No other option is acceptable. So many times we see site plans that call for land to be restored back to agriculture restored back to something else. That’s just not right.
We also have some views with regard to rehabilitation. Keith, would you like to address those?
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Your time is just about up, so I need you to be brief.
Mr. Keith Currie: Okay. Thank you.
Aggregate extraction below the water table will definitely lead to the permanent loss of agricultural land. Reflecting on what Mark just touched on about rehabilitation, quite often companies will come in, extract the aggregate just above the surface, do a slight rehabilitation, leaving the licence open to go back and extract later when it’s convenient for them. While the site may undergo rehabilitation, it is nevertheless permanently lost to agricultural production, a loss that Ontario cannot afford to allow to continue.
Currently, the provincial policy statement does not require rehabilitation to an agricultural use if there is a substantial quantity of mineral aggregates below the water table, and nowhere is “substantial quantity” defined or described. Who determines the parameter and on what basis is that decision made? Otherwise, we have no means to measure the success of rehabilitation. There needs to be a stronger commitment to rehabilitation in general, and rehabilitation back to agriculture, in particular.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): I need to stop you there. We’re over the time allotted for your part of the presentation. We’ve got some questions, so we’re going to move to that. We’re obviously going to get all of your material and your written submission for part of the record. Ms. Scott or Ms. Jones, who’s—Mr. Yurek?
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Surprise, surprise.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): There we go. Go ahead.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Thanks, Chair. Thanks for your presentation. I appreciate the work the OFA does in our province. Coming from a rural riding, I really respect the work that you do.
A question, just a quick one: You talk about fees being levied and you don’t know how high to increase them. You say on the crown lands, 50 cents a tonne. You talked about rehabilitation of lands. Do you think some money should be set aside from that fee in itself to help the rehabilitation back to agricultural land when it’s done or do you think that should be an additional fee added on?
Mr. Keith Currie: I think the fees need to be set to meet appropriate rehabilitation. We are strongly advocating to have that rehabilitation back into agricultural production. We are certainly not experts in the field of setting levies or fees to adequately assess what needs to be paid out to rehabilitate it. We’re leaving that up to the experts. Currently, we know that that level’s not high enough, because it’s obviously not being done.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Okay, thank you. Mr. Marchese?
Mr. Rosario Marchese: I know that a lot of people in the agriculture sector think that city people don’t think about agriculture very much, but I think a growing number of people do, and they do worry about the loss of agricultural land. I think a growing number of people realize that only 5% of landmass is prime agricultural and 0.5% of Canada’s landmass is class 1 farmland. I think more and more people understand that, and they want to protect it. Your sector does contribute billions to the economy.
You get the other side, the aggregate sector, saying, “We contribute too. We create jobs. We need the aggregates. They should be close to markets”—which means in agricultural land. “If we go further north”—which is what some people are suggesting—“the cost will be greater to society in terms of infrastructure costs, trucking and environmental problems.” How do you respond to that?
Mr. Keith Currie: We certainly understand the value of aggregates and the need for our society to have them, but let me answer that in the form of a question: Would our society, or yourself, like to take a bumpy road to the supermarket or a smooth road to starvation?
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): All right. Thank you. We need to move on.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Just remember, I’m on your side.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): All right. Anything, Mr. Colle?
Mr. Mike Colle: Yeah, I agree. I think we should all be taking more bumpy roads.
But I guess the root of the problem is, we’ve got such demand. Everybody wants spanking new hospitals, spanking new roads, spanking new community centres, spanking new arenas, and then they say, “Oh, they’re putting another aggregate pit over there.”
So how do we get the public to maybe temper their demand for those smooth highways and start thinking that it’s better to have rolling fields of hay or apple orchards? How can we get the public to do that? What could we, as the government, do to help?
Mr. Keith Currie: Well, for me to use the term “long-term vision” is probably something that won’t work within government, because that doesn’t seem to happen, but that, essentially, is what we need. There seems to be a hierarchy in place with aggregates right at the top. Agriculture, as has been mentioned many times—we are the ones that are first sacrificed for roads, for shopping malls, for urban sprawl, for natural heritage, for aggregates, for everything.
Mr. Mike Colle: Housing.
Mr. Keith Currie: There has to be a balance. We understand the important need for aggregates, but there has to be a balance.
We’ve heard lots of talk today about recycling. Somehow this industry has to understand how recycling fits into the big picture, because, let’s face it, when building codes require a specific specification, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s virgin material or recycled material, if it meets the specification. There’s an avenue for the government to play a role there. We need food to survive. We have to have food to survive. That’s a no-brainer.
Mr. Mike Colle: And another pet peeve of mine is, I can’t read the writing—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks, Mr. Colle.
Mr. Mike Colle: —on some of these food products, the imported products, because I’m looking for the Canadian ones. Can’t we get a big sticker that says, “Grown in Ontario. Grown in Canada. Buy the Canadian fruits and vegetables and products”—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks, Mr. Colle. I appreciate the comment—
Mr. Mike Colle: —shouldn’t we have a sticker on our food so we can buy—
Mr. Keith Currie: Foodland Ontario.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Mike, respect the Chair.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks. That’s time for your presentation. We appreciate you coming in.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): All right, folks, the next presentation, final presentation: Carl Cosack. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Standing Committee on General Government. You’ve got 10 minutes for your presentation.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The troops are getting restless here. Go ahead.
Mr. Carl Cosack: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll make good use of my time.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks.
Mr. Carl Cosack: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Carl Cosack and I am the chair of the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce, or NDACT. Thank you for the time you’re allowing me to speak to you and to share some of our thoughts with regard to the review of the Aggregate Resources Act.
A bit of background: NDACT was formed three years ago when the larger North Dufferin community learned abut the Highland Companies plans for a massive quarry in the potato fields of Melancthon, which is 90 minutes from where we all sit right now. We have several hundred members and thousands of supporters actively engaged in the effort to save the land and its water. My comments will address agriculture and water issues only.
While these hearings are not about the proposed Highland Companies mega quarry, it is because of the mega quarry application that we’re here today. The application for the largest quarry in Canadian history in the midst of a 15,000-acre plateau of farmland has highlighted the ongoing conflict between aggregate and agriculture. This committee has a unique opportunity to bridge those conflicts because, really, aggregate operators and agriculture have much in common. We all use aggregate, we all raise children, we all eat food, and we all need clean, fresh water. Non-partisan thinking will develop better policies for a better Ontario.
Representatives from the aggregate industry argue that Ontario must maintain a close-to-market approach when it comes to aggregate. That approach is part of the PPS. The PPS is policy, not law, and it is within your mandate to improve those policies that are not working for the people of this province. In southern Ontario, “close to market” means too close to prime farmland, the very land that is extremely rare, highly productive and a major factor in the province’s economy. Close-to-market policy should not be restricted to the aggregate industry. “Close to market” is equally important to the food-producing sector of our economy.
You already know that a mere 0.5% of the Canadian land mass is class 1 agricultural land. It’s the finest soil in which we grow our food. Of that 0.5%, more than half of it is right down here in southern Ontario. In fact, the farmland at the centre of the mega quarry controversy is class 1 soil known as Honeywood silt loam. It exists nowhere else in Ontario in this contiguous manner.
Agriculture contributes to the economic well-being of this province 100 acres at a time, just like aggregate contributes to the province’s economy one pit or quarry at a time. I can only second the voices you heard from Mark and Keith: Our prime farmland is a unique resource, and it is providing Ontario with tremendous economic benefits.
Our food sector is bigger than the auto sector. The industry contributes some $33 billion to the provincial economy every year, and jobs for 700,000 Ontarians who draw some $7 billion in wages. Our agri-food industry is the largest in the country. According to the government’s own figures, agri-food exports hit a record high last year of nearly $10 billion. Ontario, our beloved province, contributes 22% of Canadian agri-food exports.
We’re truly blessed with land that will always produce crops, fruit, vegetables, dairy products and meat, thanks to our soil and climate conditions. The land is a resource that will continue pouring billions of dollars into our economy, providing jobs and food for as long as humans need to work and eat, but we have to protect it. It is vital to our province’s economy and its citizens.
ARA policy should recognize that we cannot support the aggregate sector of the economy at the expense of the agricultural community. ARA policy should ensure that the sector that is renewable deserves at least the same considerations as aggregate does.
NDACT strongly argues that our prime farmland, which includes classes 1, 2 and 3 soils, whether in Melancthon or elsewhere in the province, should be protected from all aggregate extraction.
As Keith says, we’re not against aggregate. We need it for our roads, buildings, and many other products. We believe we should pursue other options, such as recycling—already discussed—alternative technologies, and investigate other kinds of rock to build our infrastructure and other locations which don’t impact prime food-producing lands.
One example: The Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association has some really bright people working on research to recycle old concrete, a process that would allow old concrete to be used as concrete again—a couple of years away likely, but good work is being done. Your committee can help create polices that will lever the expertise that is out there to find solutions. We have the technology today that we didn’t have 40 years ago to develop those new products. We can develop criteria, a framework, for willing host communities.
There is unprecedented public involvement in the issue and unprecedented offers to help find solutions. As an example, you will receive a written submission, prepared by Garry Hunter for Rutledge Farms, and we endorse most of the technical recommendations it includes. You can challenge us collectively to do better than the status quo, because we must do better.
In addition to the ongoing threat to prime farmland, there is also the issue of water. The aggregate industry states that aggregate operations are not “water consumers” but “water handlers.” This makes it seem as though water handling is like a benign process. We respect that the hearing is not about the mega quarry, yet the Highland application symbolizes all that is wrong with the current ARA legislation. A policy that would even consider permitting excavation 200 feet below the water table and the handling of 600 million litres of fresh water daily, in perpetuity, is not putting the needs of the people of this province first.
We believe that any application involving below-the-water-table extraction should automatically be referred to a full environmental assessment and that source water regions and watersheds should be protected in perpetuity, not pumped in perpetuity.
Any policy that would allow a private company, foreign or domestic, to effectively control the amount of fresh water used by eight million Ontario residents is deeply flawed and, at best, reckless and irresponsible.
The Highland Companies’ application would impact the drinking water of up to one million people downstream, along with fish, wildlife and whole ecosystems. All would have to depend on this “water handling” to operate without complications, human error or contamination.
As a society, we have learned, through the Walkerton tragedy and other water contamination issues, that our number one priority today, and for our children tomorrow, is to ensure safe drinking water and to eliminate all man-made risks to our fresh drinking water sources. The Aggregate Resources Act must not allow applications that pose such an enormous risk to the health of Ontarians.
We are not alone in this sentiment. Last October, NDACT helped organize an event called Foodstock—some of you were likely there—and it was held on a potato farm adjacent to the proposed mega quarry site. Some 28,000 people came out from across the province to enjoy gourmet dishes prepared by 100 chefs, using local ingredients. The slogan of the day was, “Save the Land that Feeds Us.” It is an appropriate motto for all of Ontario’s food-producing regions facing aggregate applications.
In conclusion, I would like to say that NDACT’s position is clear, and we thank the committee for giving it careful consideration. There are some additional notes attached to this written presentation which can help kick-start dialogue. I also thank you for agreeing—and I was just told differently—to travel the province, because you just must go out there and see what things are like out there. You owe it to your constituents in all regions that you engage and allow them to engage in that critical debate.
I understand an invitation has already been sent to the committee to visit us in Honeywood. Our community would be happy to give you all a tour of the proposed mega quarry site, and we would enjoy offering you some real rural hospitality and toss in a barbecue. You probably could use some home cooking while you’re on the road. Thank you so much.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): That’s certainly the best offer yet. Thanks, Mr. Cosack, for your presentation. We appreciate you coming in. We’ve got some brief questions for you. Ms. Jones, go ahead.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Thank you, Carl. I think you have a faster car than I do if you get here in 90 minutes.
My question is related to page 3, where you talk about the soil that is Honeywood silt loam. I am by no means an expert on soil, but as I understand it, part of the reason why it drains so effectively and is such an excellent producer of agricultural product is in fact the makeup of the subsoil and basically the aggregate that is underneath it. So the suggestion that, post-extraction, that site could go back to agriculture, I’d like your feedback on.
Mr. Carl Cosack: It’s ludicrous. That’s all I need to say.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Mr. Marchese.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Thank you, Carl, for your very balanced and sincere presentation.
I agree with everything you say. I like the reminder: “Close to market” means close to farmland, which is a problem. Aggregates not at the expense of our agriculture—that was a good reminder.
For me—and I think some of us are talking about recycling as a big issue for us. We’ve got to get the industry to work with us and we’ve got to get the provincial government to establish the appropriate policies to make that happen. We can’t continue to extract forever—we just can’t do it—for a variety of reasons that everybody’s talking about. We’ve got to do recycling better. The technologies are there, and we simply have to get this right. I hope we do. Thank you.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Mr. Colle.
Mr. Mike Colle: Well, thank you for the passionate and very comprehensive presentation, Carl.
I’m wondering if you could help us with the whole issue of agricultural sensitivity. I don’t think the public understands the connection between water, agricultural land and future generations. How can we get people to understand that, rather than put the needs of the smooth highways and these new fancy buildings always ahead of what’s been here, as you said, for a millennium, and only 0.5% of all the land in Canada, right? It’s 0.5%. How can we do that?
Mr. Carl Cosack: Well, I think the government is doing a good job with Foodland Ontario. It’s not all up to the government. Local food: Ontario is playing a major role. You cannot escape the local food movement, 100-mile diet—you name it; it’s out there. Just establish a policy framework to allow it.
Mr. Mike Colle: I’m wondering, through this act—see, this is one of the challenges: This act is quite narrow. But the good thing is that it’s the first time it has been looked at since 1997, and things have changed dramatically. I think the ideas you and others put forward could help us reshape this with the urgency to save farmland. I think that’s what our committee’s going to try to grapple with—how we get that sense of urgency—and maybe use this as a lever or a wedge to get this on the table through this act.
Mr. Carl Cosack: I think part of the urgency is well-established, because you had a record number on fairly short notice trying to present to your committee; and the public involvement—the gallery has been full at every time. So the public knows there’s urgency. Now government needs to know there’s urgency.
Mr. Mike Colle: And the public needs to buy Canadian, locally grown food and stop—
Mr. Carl Cosack: And they do.
Mr. Mike Colle: Oh, they’re buying Chinese garlic and they’re buying all this fruit from the States and berries from Florida. They also have to play that role: Buy local, buy Canadian, buy Ontario.
Mr. Carl Cosack: You’re right.
Mr. Carl Cosack: Thank you to the committee.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): That’s all the presentations for today. Other committee business? Ms. Jones.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: I have a motion. The government and the minister called for a legislative review of the Aggregate Resources Act. Stakeholder and public interest in the legislative review is high. The Standing Committee on General Government has had overwhelming response vis-à-vis interested parties wanting to present and speak before the committee. It is essential that any legislative review of the ARA needs to include holding public hearings and conducting investigations and studies in communities that actually produce and/or process aggregates or aggregate by-products. I move that the committee again reinforce with the government House leader—sorry, with all House leaders—
Mr. Mike Colle: With all three House leaders, please—
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Fair enough.
Mr. Mike Colle: —not just one. You two have the majority, so—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Mr. Colle, let her read the motion, please. Thanks.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: —again reinforce with the three House leaders that the committee wishes to extend the number of days for public hearings for the legislative review of the ARA in Toronto and from place to place in Ontario, to hold meetings, hearings and investigations once the House rises.
Chair, I have had an opportunity to put together a list of some of the communities where we have already received requests for deputations. They include, but are not limited to, London, Lanark, Port Elgin, Waterloo, Shelburne, Stratford, Schomberg, Port Perry, Erin, Guelph, Walkerton, Meaford, Midland, Hamilton, Bradford, Wasaga Beach, Creemore, Singhampton, Bracebridge, Caledon, Brampton, Kitchener, Dundalk, Mansfield, Port Colborne, Orangeville, Caledonia, Alliston, Barrie, Timiskaming, Southhampton, Maxwell, New Lowell, Bracebridge, Woolwich, Oakville, Blue Mountain, Ingersoll, Woodstock and a lovely community called Annan in Grey county.
Ms. Sarah Campbell: You forgot Dryden.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: And Dryden.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Thanks for your motion. As everyone on the committee is aware, the subcommittee dealt with this request—it’s a matter of record—May 9, last week, on Wednesday. We approved the motion that was read into the record, that was made as a request to all of the House leaders. On Thursday, May 10, as a follow-up, I sent on behalf of the committee a letter doing absolutely what you’re requesting. So thank you for reading that on to the record yet again, to reinforce that point, but the motion has been dealt with, so I’m going to rule it out of order and indicate that—
Ms. Sylvia Jones: But that means we’re done on this until we hear anything back from the House leaders.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): We’ve all agreed. We’ve made the motion and approved it in subcommittee and by letter to the House leaders, and we would expect to hear back from the House leaders on that. So, as much as the committee—
Ms. Sylvia Jones: So we can’t send a reinforcement?
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): As much as the committee wants to continue to discuss this and talk about it—and I think we’ve made it crystal clear for our House leaders to bring this back—I would say that the motion is redundant, it’s out of order and that’s it. We’re not going to have further debate on it.
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Can I ask you, Mr. Chair, just for a second—I don’t know what Mike feels or the others, but this is a repetition of what we already said. I understand that. But if it makes the Conservative member feel better and if the Liberals are okay, I’m okay with sending it again. I’m okay with reaffirming it again.
Mr. Mike Colle: Yeah, it could be as a letter from the committee, if it’s not—
Mr. Rosario Marchese: We are sending it again—
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Further to the letter we sent last Thursday?
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Further to, exactly.
Mr. Mike Colle: Yes, appended to the other motion.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Is the existing letter that we’ve already agreed on—
Mr. Rosario Marchese: We all agree.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): —okay, re-dated?
Mr. Rosario Marchese: Further to.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Further to. Reinforced. Put the word “reinforced” in there.
Mr. Mike Colle: And just to reaffirm that—
Mr. Rosario Marchese: That we all support it.
Mr. Mike Colle: —that when we come back—the House reconvenes some time in September, October—we want to continue this process so it’s not just during the summer. I’d like to see it go on right up until Christmas, if possible.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): The House isn’t in recess yet. We’ve got a constituency week; we’ve got a couple more weeks of session here in the Legislature. I would expect that we’ll hear something back from the House leaders, so that’s fine—
Mr. Rosario Marchese: But Mr. Chair, it’s no skin off your back. If you just allow us to re-send it. If we agree, let’s just re-send it.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): Fine.
Ms. Sylvia Jones: Call it a friendly reminder.
The Chair (Mr. David Orazietti): A friendly reminder. All in agreement? Okay, carried.
The committee is adjourned.
Aggregate Resources Act review G-221
Greater Toronto Countryside Mayors Alliance G-221
Mr. Rick Bonnette
Lafarge Canada Inc. G-224
Mr. Bruce Semkowski
Clearview Community Coalition G-227
Mrs. Ruth Grier
Mr. Bill Saunderson
Eastern Ontario Aggregate Producers G-230
Mr. Erwin Schulz
Mr. Domenic Idone
Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate G-233
Mr. Lorne Johnson
Environmental Defence G-236
Mr. Rick Smith
Mr. David Donnelly
Ontario Federation of Agriculture G-239
Mr. Mark Reusser
Mr. Keith Currie
North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce G-241
Mr. Carl Cosack
Committee business G-243
Mr. David Orazietti (Sault Ste. Marie L)
Mr. David Zimmer (Willowdale L)
Ms. Sarah Campbell (Kenora–Rainy River ND)
Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East / Don Valley-Est L)
Mr. Joe Dickson (Ajax–Pickering L)
Mr. Rosario Marchese (Trinity–Spadina ND)
Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock PC)
Mr. Todd Smith (Prince Edward–Hastings PC)
Mr. Jeff Yurek (Elgin–Middlesex–London PC)
Mr. Mike Colle (Eglinton–Lawrence L)
Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn (Oakville L)
Ms. Sylvia Jones (Dufferin–Caledon PC)
Clerk pro tem / Greffière par intérim
Ms. Tamara Pomanski
Mr. Jerry Richmond, research officer,
Legislative Research Service
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The Ins and Outs of an ESOP
When the owners of Mountainland Supply in Orem, Utah, were ready to get liquidity for their ownership, they could have sold to an outsider.
But Brandon Johnson, Mountainland's CFO, says, "We were afraid of what it would do to the culture of our company. We figured about 1/3 of our employees would be dismissed."
Instead, the owners turned to an employee stock ownership plan or ESOP. The ESOP paid the owners a fair price and preserved the legacy of the company.
For the many baby boomers now retiring, this combination of preserving the legacy of the business and getting a fair price seems almost too good to be true. But as at Mountainland, as well as other companies in the distribution industry, an ESOP can make it very practical.
ESOPs are a company-funded employee trust that uses pre-tax future corporate profits to buy out the owners. Employees do not buy the stock, the company does. Congress has provided companies sponsoring ESOPs and sellers to ESOPs with substantial tax advantages.
An ESOP is a kind of retirement plan, similar in some ways to a 401(k) plan. The company sets up an employee stock ownership trust. The trust can borrow money to buy shares, with the company repaying the loan by making annual tax-deductible contributions to the trust to repay the loan. The company can borrow money from a bank and/or the seller can take a note, repaid with a reasonable rate of interest. The trust puts the shares in a suspense account and releases them to employee accounts as the loan is repaid.
Alternatively, the company can make discretionary annual cash contributions to gradually buy shares over time. This is, in effect, a stock redemption, but normal redemptions are not tax-deductible. Contributions to ESOPs to buy shares are. So if a company is sold for $5 million, it does not need about $7 million in profits to redeem the shares, it just needs $5 million.
For an owner of a C corporation where the ESOP ends up with at least 30% of the stock, proceeds on the gain from the sale to the ESOP can be tax-deferred by reinvesting in the securities of other domestic companies. Tax is due when these securities are sold. If the company is an S corporation, LLC or partnership, it can convert to a C-corp. before the sale to take advantage of this tax deferral. If the company stays S, the owner does pay capital gains tax on the sale, but reaps all the other benefits of selling to an ESOP. S-corp. ESOPs, however, pay no tax on the profits attributable to the ESOP, so a 100% ESOP pays no income tax. Many companies are C corps at the time of sale, then convert to S status right afterwards to cut their tax bill.
The sale can be all at once or gradual, for as little or as much of the stock as desired. For the employees, no contributions are required to purchase the owner's shares. The owner can stay with the business in whatever capacity is desired. The plan is governed by a trustee who votes the shares, but the board appoints the trustee so changes in corporate control usually are nominal unless the plan is set up by the company to give employees more input at this level.
Stock is held in the trust for employees until they leave. At least all employees with 1,000 hours or more in a plan year must be included. Their accounts vest over up to six years. Contributions allocated to employees are based on relative pay or a more level formula, then distributed after the employee terminates. ESOPs cannot be used to share ownership just with select employees, nor can allocations be made on a discretionary basis.
The payoff
The price the ESOP will pay for the shares, as well as any other purchases by the plan must be determined annually by an outside, independent appraiser based on what a hypothetical willing buyer would pay. This occasionally is less than what a company might be able to get from selling to a third party, although those sales do not generate tax benefits.
ESOPs have a stellar track record. Research shows they grow about 2.5% per year after than they would have without an ESOP and employees end up with about 2.2 times the retirement assets. At Dakota Supply Group, a long-time ESOP and the 2017 Supply House Times Supply House of the Year, many employees are now millionaires.
All this may sound appealing, but it is not feasible for every company. Several factors must, at a minimum, be present:
The company is making enough money to buy out an owner and keep up with its other business costs.
If the company is borrowing to buy the shares, its existing debt must not prevent it from taking out an adequate loan.
If the seller wants to take the tax-deferred rollover, the company must be a regular C-corp. or convert from S to C status.
Management continuity must be provided.
The company must be willing to put up with the added costs and complexity of an ESOP. ESOPs cost about $100,000 to $150,000 to set up (sometimes more), although any sale involves substantial fees and, often, a brokerage percentage that ESOPs do not. ESOP sales also do not require contingencies, such as earnouts, that are common in other sales.
If all this seems to fit, find someone who has experience in the ESOPs world (and not just someone who claims it) to see if this makes sense for you.
As seen in Supply House Times.
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PROJ3CTM4YH3M Urban Exploration
A Covert Urban Ninja Traveller, taking my camera to places where most people never get the chance to visit. Exploring the abandoned and derelict areas of towns and cities around the world
Site Reports
Abandoned Correctional Facilities
Abandoned Education & Leisure Sites
Abandoned Hospitals & Asylums
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Abandoned Religious Buildings
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Miscellaneous Abandoned Sites
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Urbex: Morgues and Mortuaries
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Copyright and use of images
Urbex: RAF Driffield, Driffield Yorkshire – June 2009
January 22, 2013 2 CommentsMilitary Sites, Site Reports, UrbexBy PROJ3CTM4YH3M
RAF Driffield
Visited twice within a week of each other. The first time I didn’t have a flash torch or a tripod so had to revisit with my gear 🙂 Highlight of these trips had to be when exploring with Harriet we scoped out the first floor then when going round the same rooms again Harriet screamed having just spotted the Creepy looking doll featured in the first few shots! Harriet swears that she looked in that room and it wasn’t there the first time, 45 minutes later after we’d been on the room it was there, place beneath a whole in the roof for an air vent which was illuminating it! I though I heard noises below while we were up on the roof but I cant say for sure! Either way it made for a weird storey to go along with the visit! Only really accessed this one building. I really liked the look of the abandoned streets full of houses but they were in a more secure part of the site and I was unsure on whether that part was still in use so we kept our distance! Lots of history on this place so scroll down if you want to skip right to the photos 🙂
RAF Driffield was a Royal Air Force station situated near Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Situated between Kelleythorpe and Eastburn on the A614 road, there stands an aerodrome. In recent times, it was known as Alamein Barracks and used as an Army driving school. But the site was once a busy military airfield that operated for many years – spanning the development of aviation technology, and the history of the Royal Air Force.
The first aerodrome to occupy the site was made up of wooden and brick buildings, similar to those found at Duxford or Hendon. Known as Eastburn, No.21 Training Depot was the first unit to occupy the site from July 15, 1918, joined later by Nos. 202 and 217 Squadrons from March 1919. However, by early 1920, these units had disbanded, leaving a deserted airfield, which was removed some years later.
During the early 1930s, Driffield was selected for one of the RAF’s expansion scheme aerodromes, with construction work beginning in 1935.[1] This new airfield consisted of five large aircraft hangars, curved round the grass runways that stretched towards the north-west. Placed neatly behind these hangars were the many buildings that made up the camp. Opened in July 1936, RAF Driffield became home to a number of bomber squadrons. By 1938, these had been replaced by No.77 and No.102 Squadrons, and were eventually equipped with the twin-engined Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber.
[edit] World War II
Crews of both No.77 and No.102 Squadrons endured a series of training courses and exercises, so that on the outbreak of war, Driffield was ready for action.
The morning of September 4 brought great activity to RAF Driffield. Three aircraft from No.102 Squadron were to drop leaflets during that second night of the war. The fuselages of these bombers were crammed with large parcels of propaganda leaflets, wrapped in brown paper. Access that was normally difficult because of the retracted ventral gun turret, was now extremely challenging through the narrow gaps, between the parcels on either side of the turret. Flying at 15,000ft, the three aircraft crossed the enemy coastline and maintaining strict radio silence, flew down the Ruhr Valley and into France, releasing their load of leaflets, which were dropped through the aircraft’s flare chute. The following night of September 5, No.77 Squadron was given its opportunity to drop leaflets, when two aircraft repeated the operation.
On March 15/March 16, 1940, two aircraft of No.77 Squadron alone dropped 6,000,000 leaflets during a raid over Warsaw; a mission successfully accomplished, despite difficulties encountered with navigation and atrocious weather conditions. This was followed on March 19 by the first deliberate bombing on German soil, when Whitley aircraft from both Driffield squadrons joined those from RAF Dishforth, who together bombed the mine-laying seaplane base at Hornum on the Island of Sylt.
On Thursday, August 15, 1940 there was a German air raid on the airfield. At approximately midday, some 50 Junkers Ju 88 bomber aircraft attacked the aerodrome, killing 13 military personnel and 1 civilian , and destroying 12 Whitley aircraft. The 169 bombs dropped caused extensive damage, with many buildings, including all five hangars, being either damaged or destroyed.
Weeks later, the surviving aircraft from both Whitley squadrons departed, leaving Driffield to repair the damage, which remained non-operational until early 1941. With repairs to the airfield complete, Driffield saw a new role in the early months of 1941, as fighters replaced bombers, when No.13 Group Fighter Command took control of the airfield. Equipped with Spitfires and Hurricanes, the three squadrons based at Driffield patrolled the North Sea. April 1941 saw the return of No.4 Group Bomber Command and the formation of two new squadrons, both equipped with the Wellington twin-engined bomber. No.104 Squadron and No.405 Squadron RCAF (the first Royal Canadian Air Force bomber squadron formed) commenced bombing operations against Germany.
The first operation by No.104 Squadron, when six Wellington aircraft were despatched to bomb Bremen. One aircraft failed to reach Germany and returned to Driffield with a jammed rear gun turret. Flying at 16,000ft, four aircraft managed to release their bombs over Bremen, but were unable to see the results, due to the bright glowing haze of the already burning city. One other aircraft failed to reach the target due to intercom failure, but was able to bomb the secondary target of Wilhelmshaven. Despite both targets being heavily defended, all aircraft and crews returned safely. Other Wellington squadrons based at Driffield during the war were No.158 Squadron, No.466 Squadron RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and No.196 Squadron.
In 1943, RAF Driffield was temporary closed for the construction of three concrete runways, the longest stretching 6,000ft, linked by a perimeter track, along the length of which were situated the aircraft dispersals and bomb dump. The airfield became operational again in June 1944 with the return of No.466 Squadron RAAF, now equipped with the heavy four-engined Handley Page Halifax bomber. This unit began operations supporting the Allied invasion of Europe by bombing targets in the Normandy area.
August 12, 1944 saw the formation of No.462 Squadron,[6] a second Australian unit. During the months that followed, both squadrons joined forces to hit targets across Europe. On September 10th 1944, a small force of some 69 bombers, including 30 from Driffield, targeted the German occupied garrison and coastal defence battery at Le Havre. This was immediately followed by a much larger force of some 930 aircraft, which dropped 47,000 tons of bombs. The following day, the raid was repeated when 22 aircraft from Driffield, combined with a total of 218 from Bomber Command, again attacked the target. Ten hours later, the German garrison surrendered to allied ground forces. In December 1944, No.462 Squadron moved to Norfolk, leaving No.466 Squadron to fight on from Driffield. The Australians carried out their final raid of the war on April 25, 1945, when a force of 18 aircraft bombed gun emplacements on the island of Wangerange.
After the war, Driffield became home to a number of training establishments. The first, No.10 Air Navigation School, flew from 1946, equipped with Avro Anson, twin-engined aircraft, which were employed to fly student navigators on short three hour flights. The unit’s Wellington aircraft, endured flights of up to six hours, flying sometimes at night, down to the Channel Islands, along the English Channel and up the North Sea to Scotland. Replaced in 1948 by No.204 Advanced Flying School, this unit taught pilots how to fly the fast twin-engined de Havilland Mosquito fighter/bomber, an aircraft built entirely out of wood.
In 1949, the jet age reached Yorkshire, when No.203 Advanced Flying School formed at Driffield – replacing the Mosquitoes, which departed with their parent unit. This new school would be the first in the world responsible for teaching a new breed of pilot how to fly fast jet aircraft. There were two sections within the school: No.1 Squadron operated the Gloster Meteor – Britain’s first operational jet fighter, while No.2 Squadron flew the de Havilland Vampire.
Before climbing into the cockpit, students underwent four weeks of ground training, learning about jet engines, airframes and the different flying techniques associated with the new and much faster aircraft. This was followed by actual flight training, when pilots were taught basic manoeuvres, aerobatics, formation flying, instrument flying and navigation. Renamed No.8 Flying Training School in June 1954, the unit continued at Driffield before moving to Lincolnshire in July 1955.
That September, RAF Driffield reverted back to the role of a fighter station, when No.13 Group Fighter Command again took control of the airfield. During this period, Nos. 219 and 33 Squadrons, equipped with the de Havilland Venom night fighter, occupied the base until June/July 1957, when both units were disbanded. The following October saw the arrival of the Fighter Weapons School from RAF Leconfield, a unit equipped with a variety of jet aircraft, which itself departed in March 1958.
In 1957, the British Government announced that the RAF would deploy 60 nuclear intermediate range ballistic missiles. From November 1958, Driffield would be home to No.98 Squadron, which was equipped with three Douglas Thor missiles, each with a range of 1,750 miles and capable of reaching Moscow. With the length of 60ft, these missiles were stored horizontally on the ground and were erected only when ready for firing or during training exercises. Although the missiles were British owned, the nuclear warheads were still under American ownership. Accordingly, the United States Air Force maintained a sizable presence at Driffield. In good bureaucratic fashion, the RAF Launch Officer was expected to sign for the warhead after it had been launched, because technically it was then under British control. The missiles at Driffield were never used and the system was dismantled in 1963.
During the late 1960s, Blackburn Buccaneer naval aircraft were flight tested at Driffield, and in the early 1970s, gliders of No.642 Volunteer Gliding School also occupied the airfield, albeit briefly, while RAF Linton on Ouse had its main runway resurfaced. Sadly, there were to be no more happy landings, and in 1977, the airfield and camp were taken over by the British Army, who renamed it Alamein Barracks. By the early 1980s, the runways were removed and the hardcore used in the construction of the Driffield bypass. The control tower and air-raid shelters disappeared, while the hangars that protected aircraft for many years were converted to protect Government surplus grain from the elements.
The army used Driffield as a driver training centre, until RAF Leconfield (which was also taken over by the Army in 1977) was enlarged to accommodate those who lived and trained at Driffield. In 1992, the RAF regained ownership of this historic aerodrome, naming it: RAF Staxton Wold – Driffield Site. Once again, the RAF ensign flew over Driffield, but not for long. In 1996, the RAF itself transferred its own personnel and facilities to RAF Staxton Wold, thus bringing an end to 60 years of service. On June 28, 1996, the RAF ensign was lowered for the last time, bringing to an end RAF Driffield.
The Photos:
RAF Driffield – The Creepy Doill!
RAF Driffield – Kitchens
RAF Driffield – Peeling Paint in the Corridors
RAF Driffield – Corridors
RAF Driffield – Entrance Hall
If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂
Limited Edition and Canvas prints, as well as regular prints, are available for all of the images above just ask me about prices.
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Urbex: Thorpe Marsh Power Station, Doncaster, South Yorkshire – June 2009 Urbex: The Leeds Reformatory for Boys aka Eastmoor Approved School Adel, Leeds – June 2009 (Revisit) Urbex: Hunslet Mills, Leeds, Yorkshire – March 2009 (Revisit) Urbex: RAF Church Fenton, Yorkshire – June 2016 Urbex: CMH aka The Cambridge Military Hospital, United Kingdom – February 2013 Urbex: Holdsworth Mill, Mirfield, Kirklees, Yorkshire – April 2009 (Revisit) Urbex: RCH Asylum, Scotland, United Kingdom – June 2013 Urbex: Pioneer House, Dewsbury, Yorkshire – September 2008 Urbex: The Grange Nursing Home, Stamford Bridge, North Yorkshire – September 2008 Urbex: Gledhow Grove Mansion, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom – September 2008
AbandonedAir Force BaseArmy BaseCanon 40DCookerCorridorDecayDerelictDialsDining RoomDollDoorsDressDriffieldEerieExplorationExploreExtractorFenceFencingFisheyeFloor BoardsForgottenGirlGreenHDRHigh Dynamic RangeHoodKitchenMachinesMain HallMilitaryOvenPeeling PaintPhotographyPROJ3CTM4YH3MRAFScarySigmaSigma 8mmSigma 8mm FisheyeSkylightUrbanUrban ExplorationUrbexWide AngleWindows
Andy bell says:
Hi there. I was wondering about going to have a look at Driffield. Is it ok to just wander round or do you need to get permission from anyone?
Best wishes, Andy
PROJ3CTM4YH3M says:
Hi Andy, sadly this like many of my other visits was a none permission trip… I also think part of this site is still utilised by the RAF you could always try asking but from my experience land owners are not often very inviting to photographers, its a shame really… all the best and thanks for your comment 🙂
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Iovance Biotherapeutics Announces Clinical Trial Updates with Collaborators MD Anderson and Moffitt Cancer Center
- First Patient Dosed with LN-145 in Phase 2 Trial with MD Anderson for Treatment of Sarcomas and Ovarian Cancer -
- Preliminary Data from Moffitt NSCLC Study to be Presented at the Upcoming 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer in September 2018 -
SAN CARLOS, Calif., Aug. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IOVA), a biotechnology company developing novel cancer immunotherapies based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technology, today announced updates from its clinical collaborations with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) and Moffitt Cancer Center (Moffitt). Under the MD Anderson collaboration, the company announced that the first patient was dosed with LN-145 in the Phase 2, multi-arm clinical trial (NCT03449108). The company also announced that preliminary data from an investigator-sponsored Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) study with Moffitt will be presented at the upcoming IASLC 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) on September 24, 2018 in Toronto, Canada.
“The start of patient dosing in the study at MD Anderson allows for exploration of TIL as a platform for treatment of multiple new solid tumors. Furthermore, this targeted patient population is left with very few treatment options and therefore is an unmet medical need. We are extremely pleased to be collaborating with MD Anderson as we investigate the potential of LN-145 to treat these patients with sarcomas and ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Maria Fardis, PhD, MBA, president and chief executive officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics. “We are also pleased that the preliminary data from the investigator-sponsored study at Moffitt has been accepted for presentation at the upcoming World Lung Conference in September. We look forward to further exploring the possibility of TIL as a potential treatment option for patients with lung cancer.”
The first MD Anderson study will enroll up to 54 patients. The endpoints for the trial are safety and efficacy of Iovance-manufactured LN-145 for the treatment of patients with soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The trial utilizes Iovance’s Gen 2 manufacturing process. A second clinical study is also in start-up under the collaboration using TIL manufactured by MD Anderson and using urelumab as a co-stimulatory agent during the manufacturing process. Additional information on this study is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier number NCT03610490.
The ongoing investigator-sponsored study in NSCLC is currently underway in collaboration with Moffitt, Stand Up To Cancer, and other collaborators and is designed to allow dosing of the combination of TIL manufactured by Moffitt and nivolumab in NSCLC patients. An abstract titled, Safety and Clinical Activity of Adoptive Cell Transfer Using Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) Combined with Nivolumab in NSCLC, has been accepted for presentation at the upcoming WCLC. The full details of the presentation are expected to be released in September. Additional information on this study is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier number NCT03215810.
About Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc.
Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of cancer immunotherapy products for the treatment of various cancers. The company's lead product candidate is an adoptive cell therapy using tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technology being investigated for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma, recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, recurrent, metastatic or persistent cervical cancer and locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.iovance.com.
Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward-looking statements”. We may, in some cases, use terms such as “predicts,” “believes,” “potential,” “continue,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “might,” “will,” “should” or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. In particular, the Company’s statements regarding clinical trials for NSCLC, soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer are examples of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to the success, timing, projected enrollment, dosing, and cost of our ongoing clinical trials and anticipated clinical trials for our current product candidates (including both Company-sponsored and collaborator-sponsored trials), such as statements regarding the timing of initiation and completion of these trials; the timing of and our or our collaborator’s ability to obtain and maintain U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory authority approval of, or other action with respect to, our product candidates; the strength of Company’s product pipeline; the successful implementation of the Company’s research and development programs and collaborations; the success of the Company’s license or development agreements; the acceptance by the market of the Company’s product candidates, if approved; and other factors, including general economic conditions and regulatory developments, not within the Company’s control. The factors discussed herein could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such statements. A further list and description of the Company’s risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and the Company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov or www.iovance.com. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Sarah McCabe
Stern Investor Relations, Inc.
sarah@sternir.com
John Capodanno
john.capodanno@fticonsulting.com
Thursday, August 16, 2018 - 08:01
Iovance Biotherapeutics Reports First Quarter 2018 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update
Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. Announces Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock
Iovance Biotherapeutics Reports Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update
Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. Announces Pricing of Its Public Offering of Approximately $220 Million of Common Stock
Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. Announces Closing of $252 Million Common Stock Public Offering
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Over Half of Americans Have Nothing Saved in a Retirement Account
Among all working Americans, the median retirement account balance is zero, according to a report from The National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). Further findings were that four out of five working Americans have less than one year’s income saved in retirement accounts. Read more >
Correlation Found Between Profitability and Quality of 401(k) Plans
Above-average-rated retirement plans are more apt to be found at companies with 20% to 80% higher profitability than are average-rated plans, says T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services Inc. in new research. “Where 401(k) Design and Corporate Profitability Cross Paths,” finds that companies with strong performance have quality 401(k) plans. The study evaluated 485 401(k)s with more than $50 million in assets and a BrightScope rating, which served as a proxy for 401(k) plan quality. Read more >
An Accurate Perception of Their Finances Eludes Many Americans
One-third of Americans do not have an accurate handle on the state of their own finances, thinking they are better or worse off than they actually are, according to Prudential Financial Inc.’s Financial Wellness Census. More than 50% think they will be able to achieve their financial goals, but less than 50% are on track to achieve them. Read more >
Prudential Financial Inc. is undertaking a three-pronged effort “to kick-start a conversation among Americans from all walks of life about their relationship with money and its impact on their well-being,” a representative from the company says. Prudential also launched a new campaign created in partnership with Droga5 called “The State of US,” which includes a series of films that spotlight the financial challenges facing Americans, particularly young parents, women, pre-retirees and the self-employed. Read more >
Monday, the Dow was down 92.55 points (0.35%) at 26,062.12, the NASDAQ was down 114.25 points (1.43%) at 7,895.79, and the S&P 500 was down 16.18 points (0.56%) at 2,888.80. The Russell 2000 closed 18.17 points (1.06%) lower at 1,703.55, and the Wilshire 5000 decreased 206.80 points (0.68%) to 30,068.73.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was up 1/32, decreasing its yield to 2.994%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond increased 1/32, bringing its yield down to 3.134%.
Five-Year Market Forecast Sounds Mostly Optimistic Note
Northern Trust’s Capital Market Assumptions Working Group has updated the firm’s five-year capital market forecast, used both to promote industry discussion about risk and return and to inform strategic asset-allocation decisions. Broadly speaking, Northern Trust expects relatively steady economic growth, controlled inflation and accommodative monetary policy to combine to drive “good-but-not-great” risk asset returns and “low-but-mostly-positive” fixed-income returns. Read more >
Institutional Investors Entering New Asset Classes, Paying Less in External Fees
The investment consulting firm bfinance released its 2018 Global Asset Owner Survey, compiling the responses of approximately 500 investors, the majority which are pension funds, with combined assets of $8 trillion. “There is a gulf between the returns that many investors require and the widespread expectations for what a traditional portfolio may be expected to deliver through the coming decades,” warns David Vafai, bfinance CEO. Read more >
ON THIS DATE: In 1789, Alexander Hamilton negotiated and secured the first loan for the United States. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was repaid on June 8, 1790, at the sum of $19,608.81. In 1793, President George Washington laid the actual cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. In 1837, Tiffany & Co. was founded in New York City. In 1891, Harriet Maxwell Converse became the first white woman to ever be named chief of an Indian tribe. The tribe was the Six Nations Tribe at Towanda Reservation in New York. In 1927, Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System made its debut with its network broadcast over 16 radio stations. The name was later changed to CBS. In 1946, Mound Metalcraft was founded in Mound, Minnesota. The company later changed its name to Tonka Toys Incorporated. In 1947, the United States Air Force was established as a separate military branch by the National Security Act. In 1955, the “Ed Sullivan Show” began on CBS-TV. The show had been “The Toast of the Town” since 1948. In 1963, “The Patty Duke Show” premiered on ABC-TV. In 1965, the first episode of “I Dream of Jeannie” was shown on NBC-TV. In 1981, a museum honoring former U.S. President Gerald Ford was dedicated in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2003, Robert Duvall received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Not this week.
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Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski | EPA/GRZEGORZ MOMOT
New tech helps Poland’s old guard
The conservative right-wing opposition becomes a social media powerhouse.
By Annabelle Chapman and Jan Cienski
10/21/15, 5:30 AM CET
WARSAW — Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party built its core support among older, poorer people far from the largest cities; its leader Jarosław Kaczyński didn’t even have a bank account and a driver’s license when he became prime minister in 2006.
But now the party and its supporters have built a cutting-edge social media operation — with an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope and a host of other platforms — one of the reasons that Law and Justice (PiS) is breaking through with younger, urban voters and looks set to win parliamentary elections on October 25. A new opinion poll, by the IPSOS organization, has PiS at 36 percent and the ruling Civic Platform (PO) trailing with 22 percent.
"That's been the biggest surprise of this campaign," said Eryk Mistewicz, a political marketing expert and publisher of the Nowe Media quarterly. "Until now PiS was a very traditional 20th century party, relying on long speeches by its leader. But in this campaign the party has built a much better social media presence, while Civic Platform has slept through the new media revolution."
The two parties have similar numbers of followers on more traditional social media like Twitter, and Law and Justice had 108,000 likes on its Facebook page last week while Civic Platform had 73,000. But PiS's biggest breakthrough has been in the harder-to-measure outlets like Snapchat, where building a core of followers is largely a matter of trust between friends, Mistewicz said.
With its new Internet mantra in mind, PiS held its third-ever “tweetup” two weeks before the election, in an underground Warsaw student club. The format is simple: invite young activists, bloggers and journalists, give them a chance to meet party bigwigs, have a good time — and tweet about it.
"You, me, them, him too — we have an influence on the result of the elections" — party video.
After a briefing on the importance of social media, guests sat down to watch Poland play Scotland in a qualifier for the European 2016 football championships. The guest of honor was Beata Szydło, the party's candidate for prime minister, who sported a red-and-white Poland football scarf over her neat navy-blue jacket.
“The Internet has a huge meaning in our current campaign,” Szydło told POLITICO, pointing to the role of social media in Andrzej Duda’s upset victory in May’s presidential election, a campaign she managed.
The party recently released a step-by-step video clip on how to use social media. “In this era of new media, we are an information service. You, me, them, him too — we have an influence on the result of the elections,” the voiceover said, encouraging supporters to share content on Facebook and Twitter. “Then repeat, again and again, but not so that all your friends block you on Facebook,” it joked.
Although senior PiS politicians such as Szydło are taking the Internet seriously, the offensive is being powered by millennials like Paweł Szefernaker, head of the PiS Youth Forum. His team has a dozen members and works "like a well-oiled machine," he said.
Just like during Duda's presidential campaign, they are banking on relatively cheap, fun video clips that can go viral online, like one involving a chuckling Duda reading out negative Twitter comments about himself. PiS also has a vast network of volunteers to post material online. An army of right-wing trolls? “Not trolls. They only post official material,” said Szefernaker.
The effort to court young voters dovetails with an anti-incumbent mood in the country. A recent poll by CBOS found Poles under the age of 25 to be most hostile to the Civic Platform-led government, with 45 percent opposed.
The problem for Civic Platform is that it has largely relied on television, daily papers and weekly magazines "to get into the brains of voters," said Mistewicz, which has reinforced its image as a slightly fusty party of power, while neglecting to build highly motivated cadres of social media activists.
"That's not something you can go out and buy. It has to be built up over time, and PO didn't do that," he said.
The social media campaign has also changed perceptions about PiS. Until last year, and the departure of the fairly charismatic Donald Tusk, who quit as prime minister to become president of the European Council in Brussels, Law and Justice was the kind of party that younger people were embarrassed to admit they supported. But now that label is stuck to Civic Platform as a party exhausted after eight years in government with no verve and ideas to offer younger voters.
Spirits high after the football match (a 2-2 draw), PiS's youthful supporters gathered on stage for a final photo with Szydło.
They are not only a valuable resource that can be mobilized ahead of the elections, but also a “circle of friends who work hard and then enjoy their success together,” Szydło said.
Annabelle Chapman
Jan Cienski
Beata Szydlo
UK Brexit secretary denies claim he told Michel Barnier deal is ‘dead’
Stephen Barclay says reports about the alleged spat are ‘misleading.’
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The Ponzi Scheme Authority
Top Ponzi Schemes
Ponzi Scheme Database
Ponzi Case Websites
Ponzi Scheme Map
Top Ponzi Recoveries
2012 Ponzi Schemes
Navigation Home About Top Ponzi Schemes Ponzi Scheme Database Ponzi Case Websites Ponzi Scheme Map Top Ponzi Recoveries 2012 Ponzi Schemes 2013 Ponzi Schemes 2014 Ponzi Schemes 2015 Ponzi Schemes 2016 Ponzi Schemes 2017 Ponzi Schemes 2018 Ponzi Schemes
CFTC Alleges Florida Forex Venture Offering 12% Guaranteed Returns Was $75 Million Ponzi Scheme
April 22, 2019 by Jordan Maglich in New Schemes
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently unsealed an action in Florida federal court accusing five men of operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least $75 million from at least 650 investors nationwide. The action, filed in the Middle District of Florida, charges Michael DaCorta, Joseph S. Anile, II, Raymond P. Montie III, Francisco “Frank” Duran, John Haas, and various entities with violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and seeks various relief including a permanent injunction, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, restitution, and imposition of civil monetary penalties. A temporary receiver was also appointed at the Commission’s request to marshal assets for the benefit of defrauded victims.
The Complaint alleges that the Defendants operated several entities, Oasis International Group Ltd., Oasis Management LLC, and Satellite Holdings Company, collectively as “Oasis” and began soliciting victims in mid-2014 to invest in two commodity pools - Oasis Global FX, Limited (“Oasis Pool 1”) and Oasis Global FX, SA (“Oasis Pool 2” (collectively, the “Oasis Pools”) with promises of minimum 12% annual returns derived from trading forex. Potential “lenders,” as investors were called in an apparent effort to avoid implicating federal securities laws, were told that the Oasis Pools had never had a losing month (indeed, one Defendant allegedly claimed the operation had never had a down day), that there was no risk of loss, and that the only way forex trading could be a bad investment was “if all the banks in the world closed.” Oasis also allegedly offered a referral program designed to incentivize the recruitment of new investors.
Potential investors were told that DaCorta was the “brains of the operation” who was able to obtain consistent returns by trading forex, with the Oasis Pools purportedly returning 22% in 2017 and 21% in 2018. Investors were also told that the guaranteed annual return of 12% was a minimum return, as investors would also be entitled to share the daily profits their funds purportedly generated from trading. Oasis also allegedly made numerous representations concerning the safety of investor funds, including Defendant Duran’s purported statements that Oasis owned at least $15 million in real estate and precious metals that served as collateral for its investments and that “the Oasis Pools’ trading platform could not lose money unless there was a bigger problem in the financial markets and people were going to supermarkets with shotguns.” Investors were received regular account statements showing the purported growth of their account. Oasis ultimately raised roughly $75 million from at least 650 investors nationwide (despite claiming on its website that it was not open to U.S. investors).
According to the Commission, however, all of these claims were false and designed to conceal Oasis’s operation of a classic Ponzi scheme by paying fictitious returns using investor funds. For starters, the Commission alleges that potential investors were not told that DaCorta was effectively permanently banned from the forex trading industry in 2010 after several rules violations during his time as President of a forex trading firm. While Oasis did engage in some legitimate trading, the Commission alleges that it suffered near total losses of investor funds (and not the consistent above-20% returns in 2017-2018). For example, Oasis’s actual returns in 2017 and 2018 were -45% and -96%, respectively. And contrary to Defendants’ representations regarding the safety of investor funds, the Commission alleges that the forex trades in the Oasis accounts had a 100:1 leverage ratio.
Of the approximately $47 million that was not invested as promised, the Commission claims that Defendants misappropriated those funds to, among other things, make $28 million in Ponzi payments, purchase nearly $8 million of real estate, live a luxurious lifestyle, and make transfers to related third parties.
A copy of the complaint is below:
April 22, 2019 /Jordan Maglich
Ponzi, ponzi scheme, commodities
Hawaii Woman "Bestowed by Jesus to Trade Commodities" Sentenced to Prison for $1 Million Ponzi Scheme
October 15, 2011 by Jordan Maglich
A Hawaii woman who told investors that she had been "bestowed by Jesus Christ to with the ability to trade commodities", but instead operated a Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to federal prison on Friday. Kapua Keolanui, 36, was sentenced to thirty-three months in federal prison by United States District Judge David Ezra, who called her behavior callous and also ordered her to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution to her victims. Keolanui, who had previously pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, was sentenced to the maximum sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of up to twenty years in federal prison.
The scheme derives out of Keolanui's association with Rachelle and Perry Griggs, who were recently sentenced to prison for masterminding the scheme. Previous Ponzitracker coverage of the Griggs is here. Perry Griggs became associated with Keolanui's husband when both were incarcerated; ironically, Perry Griggs was serving time for his role in a previous Ponzi scheme. Through his relationship with Keolanui's husband, Perry Griggs convinced Keolanui to form Paradise Trading, LLC with Rachelle Griggs in late 2006. Keolanui then solicited friends and family, telling them that she had been given the gift of finding money by Jesus Christ. In total, six different individuals gave Keolanui over $1 million to invest. Instead of using the money to invest, Keolanui funnelled some of the money to Aloha Trading, which was Perry Grigg's operation that he was running from behind prison walls. When Grigg's scheme was uncovered, nearly all of the victims' money had disappeared.
Keolanui was scheduled to report to prison on November 28, 2011. She was also ordered to three years of probation upon release from prison.
A copy of the Complaint filed against Griggs and Aloha Trading by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is here.
October 15, 2011 /Jordan Maglich
cftc, commodities, religion
Hip-Hop Promoter Accused of $4 Million Ponzi Scheme
Federal authorities arrested a former hip-hop mogul and accused him of operating a $4 million Ponzi scheme that purported to invest in derivatives of United States Treasury bonds. Tyrone Gilliams Jr., 44, was arrested last week on federal wire fraud charges, which carry a maximum prison sentence of twenty years and up to a $250,000 fine. If convicted, he may also be ordered to pay restitution to victims.
Gilliams, a former hip-hop promoter, is now an internet preacher, and maintains a page at StreamingFaith, a provider of internet broadcast services to faith-based corporations. According to a bio on the site, Gilliams formerly worked with "music mogul Sean Puffy Combs creating Bad Boy Sports. Tyrone was eventually called to collaborate with the ultimate mogul our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
According to a recently unsealed criminal complaint, Gilliams operated TL Gilliams, LLC, and held himself out as a successful investor in United States Treasury Strips. Treasury Strips are derivatives of Treasury bonds, and operate by separating each periodic interest payment and corresponding future return of principal into individual securities. During the spring of 2010, an individual investor made a $4 million investment with Gilliams' company with the stated purpose of obtaining income to operate a charitable foundation. Two contracts signed between the victim and an intermediary stated that the funds would be invested in "treasury strips, treasury bills [and] U.S government paper."
Instead, Gilliams is alleged to have misappropriated at least $2 million of the original $4 million investment, using over $1 million to fund a black-tie gala called the 'Joy to the World' festival at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton. Additionally, approximately $1.6 million was sent to Ghana in what Gilliams described as an investment in gold. Funds were also used to sustain a lavish lifestyle that included international travel. Gilliam represented himself in an earlier civil suit filed by the victim, and in a motion to dismiss, alleged that the original contract called for an investment in gold and commodities in West Africa, specifically Ghana.
Gilliams was arrested on October 5th, and was scheduled to be arraigned later that day.
A copy of the Justice Department's press release is here.
A copy of the unsealed criminal complaint is here.
commodities, treasury strip
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