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After U.S. Elections, Environmentalists Vow to Keep Fighting
By A.D. McKenzie
PARIS (IDN) - As news of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections spread around the world, some of the first reactions came from organisations working to combat climate change: they vowed to fight any attempts to block environmental action or the Paris Agreement.
The date of the elections, November 8, coincided with the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22) in Marrakech, Morocco, and a range of groups quickly made their positions clear.
“President-elect Donald Trump threatens our environment and we vow to fight him every step of the way,” stated Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S.
“Like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Trump tapped into a deep resentment about the governing establishment of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He spoke using fear, suspicion, racism and hate to people who felt the government had left them behind,” Pica added.
Friends of the Earth U.S. said that the “political establishment has ignored the fight for justice and the environment”. The group said it rejected the “politics of fear utilised by Trump”, while recognising that the “fundamental issues of equality, race and class that divide the United States” needed to be addressed.
“Some things have not changed: we are a nation divided and half of this country is determined to continue the progressive fights it started,” said Pica. “The People’s Revolution, the Standing Rock Sioux, the Movement for Black Lives and Keep it in the Ground activists will not go gentle into the night. We will fight to protect our land, air, water and the people who depend on them for survival.”
Trump and many of his supporters are climate-change sceptics or deniers. The President-elect has said that he intends to cut federal spending on clean energy and to discard the regulations that the Barack Obama government has implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has also called global warming a hoax.
In the face of such a stance, environmental coalitions such as Climate Action Network (CAN) have said they will mobilise to protect the Paris Agreement, which came into force on November 4. The main aim of that agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“The climate movement is a people’s movement. 103 countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, testimony to the power of people to push their governments to act on climate change,” CAN said from Marrakech.
“Climate Action Network is determined to build on and carry forward on this momentum despite uncertainties and political shocks that threaten to derail our focus, to defend the millions of people already impacted by the devastating consequences of climate change and to leave behind a safer, cleaner and more secure world for future generations,” it continued.
CAN (which describes itself as a “global network of over 1,100 NGOs in more than 120 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels”) said that its movement “goes beyond governments to represent a broad and diverse coalition” of cities, businesses, local communities and individuals".
The coalition stated: “No one government or individual, however powerful, can deny the transformational change that is unfolding before us and the growing scientific evidence that we need to act urgently to move away from destructive fossil fuels and embrace a 100 percent renewable energy future.”
“President-elect Trump must recognise the moral, economic and social imperative to lead and act on climate change and carry forward the commitments made by the United States under the Paris Agreement,” CAN said.
In a linked statement, Mohamed Adow, senior climate advisor for the UK charity Christian Aid, stressed that while the United States would suffer from any obstruction of the efforts to combat climate change, such action would also risk the “lives of millions of the world’s poorest people who have done nothing to cause the problem yet are the most vulnerable to its effects".
Meanwhile, May Boeve, executive director of the environmental organisation 350.org, said that “Trump’s election is a disaster”, but she warned that “it cannot be the end” of the international climate process.
“We’re not giving up the fight and neither should the international community,” Boeve stated. “Trump will try and slam the brakes on climate action, which means we need to throw all of our weight on the accelerator. In the United States, the climate movement will put everything on the line to protect the progress we’ve made and continue to push for bold action.”
Boeve said that American environmentalists needed the rest of the world to charge ahead and look beyond the White House to partner with civil society, businesses and local governments, which are still committed to climate action.
“Our work becomes much harder now, but it’s not impossible, and we refuse to give up hope,” she added.
Some NGOs have themselves faced criticism related to their work and fund-raising, and critics have questioned the value of a seemingly never-ending series of climate summits. But environmental activists say that pressure on policy-makers needs to be maintained to achieve results.
Even before the elections, the United Nations and NGOs had expressed their concerns that the road to turning the Paris Agreement into action would be long and difficult. At her opening address at COP22, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that while the early entry into force of the Paris Agreement was a cause for celebration, achieving the aims and ambitions were “not a given”.
“We have embarked on an effort to change the course of two centuries of carbon-intense development. The peaking of global emissions is urgent, as is attaining far more climate-resilient societies,” Espinosa said.
According to the United Nations, the “timetable is pressing because, globally, greenhouse gas emissions which drive climate change and its impacts are not yet falling”.
The incoming Trump administration could conceivably opt out of the Agreement because Republicans will control the U.S. Senate as well as the House of Representatives. But Michael Brune, executive director of the U.S.-based Sierra Club, was blunt about the choices facing the President-elect.
“Trump must choose whether he will be a President remembered for putting America and the world on a path to climate disaster, or for listening to the American public and keeping us on a path to climate progress,” Brune said.
“Trump better choose wisely, otherwise we can guarantee him the hardest fight of his life every step of the way.” [IDN-InDepthNews – 10 November 2016]
Follow the writer on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale
Photo: Indigenous environmental activists at COP21 in Paris in December 2015.
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Cleveland, OH Phone: 216-591-2613
Email: esearby@searby.law
Email Edmund Searby
Edmund ("Ned") W. Searby
Edmund (“Ned”) W. Searby is recognized by Chambers USA for his “excellent reputation in the area of federal criminal investigations and prosecutions and SEC enforcement actions.” He also represents clients in complex civil litigation, including antitrust, securities and general commercial litigation. A former federal prosecutor, he brings to contested matters substantial experience as a trial attorney and appellate advocate. Through his 25-year career, Ned has won a range of challenging and noteworthy cases, which are listed in part in the representative experience section for each practice area. He has also conducted significant independent investigations for leading corporations, government entities and a research university.
Prior to forming Searby LLP, Ned was a partner at an Am Law 100 firm. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Florida, a Special Deputy Independent Counsel in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Presidential Transition Team (Department of Justice Landing Team.) He is ranked by Chambers and Partners for White Collar Crime and listed by Best Lawyers in America for antitrust litigation. He has spoken at law schools, national bar conferences, and training programs for prosecutors and agents. He is also a longtime instructor in National Institute of Trial Advocacy programs.
He graduated from Dartmouth College (cum laude) and from the University of Michigan Law School.
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Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Return to the full list of Searby LLP attorneys →
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My Voyage
HomeFacultyLaurie McConnico
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Laurie McConnico
Laurie McConnico is a marine ecologist and biology professor at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA. She is a native Californian who grew up in Fresno (the very hot, land locked central valley). Her interests in marine biology developed as a child, often camping on the central coast with her family (although her mother does not like to admit to having once tolerated camping). She later earned a BS in Biology from UC San Diego and her MS in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Labs. While studying at Moss Landing, Laurie started working with seaweeds and fell in love with Baja California, where she completed her PhD.
Laurie teaches undergraduate courses in oceanography, marine biology, ecology, phycology, general biology, environmental science, applied and environmental microbiology, and field studies programs in CA and Baja, México. In 2017 she was awarded the Pete Pedersen Award for teaching excellence. She enjoys working with students and is grateful to teach field courses that take her students throughout the central coast of CA, Big Sur and the Channel Islands. Laurie and her colleague Dr. Favoreto recently launched a new field program in Baja, México where students explore the local ecology and gain undergraduate research experience.
Laurie got her start in Marine Biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working in Dr. Levin’s Lab as an undergraduate and was lucky to participate in an Alvin Submersible dive while in the Gulf of Alaska. She also moved to Florida for a bit and worked at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. Since then, Laurie’s own research interests focus on marine algae and invertebrates. She has explored intertidal and subtidal habitats in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii and México. She recently completed a project working on nutrient dynamics associated with rhodolith beds (free living coralline algae) on the Gulf and Pacific coasts of Baja. This research was done in association with Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur in La Paz, México where Laurie completed her PhD.
In addition to teaching and research, Laurie enjoys laughing, traveling, hiking and anything to do with the ocean. She speaks Spanish, considers salsa her favorite food, drives a Subaru Outback with 240K miles, and is still mourning the loss of Tom Petty. She will be sailing with Semester at Sea for the first time in Spring 2019 and is looking forward to the journey with all of you.
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You are here: Home / Archives for charlotte
Jeff Gordon Charlotte In-Car Audio
October 12, 2015 by admin 7249Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2015%2F10%2F12%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-in-car-audio-2015%2FJeff+Gordon+Charlotte+In-Car+Audio2015-10-12+15%3A28%3A20adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D7249
Jeff Gordon began the second round of the NASCAR Chase with an 8th place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon struggled at the outset with handling, but improved after the halfway point by racing his way into the top-10. He moved to 7th in the NASCAR standings, +8 over the Chase cutoff with 2 races remaining in the second round.
Gordon was running between 11th-15th at Charlotte before Karsyn came to watch the race on the couch. She gave me a very special bear as a gift. As I blinked away tears, Jeff gained three spots and finished 8th. I’ve probably watched 1,000 NASCAR races. This one was by far the most memorable for reasons well beyond the finishing order.
source: Jeff Gordon Online
Race Results [pdf] [html]
Driver Standings [pdf] [html] [jpg]
Owner Standings [pdf] [html]
Chase Standings [html]
MP3 Download – with spotter chatter
Jeff Gordon Charlotte Photos
Jeff gets a salute from the Charlotte Motor Speedway
Jeff leads a pack at the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte
Jeff Gordon pits during the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte
Jeff Gordon Charlotte
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: Bank of America 500, charlotte, In Car Audio, Top 10
Coca-Cola 600 In-Car Audio
May 28, 2015 by admin 6994Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2015%2F05%2F28%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-coca-cola-600-in-car-audio-nascar-2015%2FCoca-Cola+600+In-Car+Audio2015-05-28+15%3A52%3A06adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6994
At the outset of the Coca-Cola 600, Jeff Gordon struggled with handling, but he fully expected the handling on the #24 to be dialed in after nightfall. However, the car never performed to Gordon’s expectations and finished 15th in his final start in NASCAR’s longest race. At the front of the field, Carl Edwards scored his first win of the season and 24th of his career.
Gordon started 18th and worked his way into the top-15 by the end of lap 11. He ran 15th at the competition caution on lap 25. He restarted 13th on lap 30. Gordon took 11th from Jimmie Johnson on lap 36, but was unable to gain further ground. Paul Menard passed to take 11th on lap 64, and Greg Biffle sent Gordon back to 13th on lap 70. He came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 78 and cycled through in 18th place after adjustments. The next caution waved on lap 90 for Jimmie Johnson’s half spin in turn 4. Pit stops followed with Gordon restarting 21st on lap 94. He struggled on the restart and fell to 26th by lap 100. He steadily worked through traffic and ran in 21st place on lap 135. The third caution came on lap 136 for Justin Allagaier’s wall contact. Pit stops followed with Gordon restarting in 19th place on lap 140. He picked up two spots after the restart to run 17th on lap 150. He came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 188 and cycled through in 13th place. At the halfway point, Gordon ran in 14th place as dusk enveloped the track.
A caution for Trevor Bayne’s wall contact on lap 230 brought the lead lap cars to pit road. A miscue on pit road resulted in Gordon coming back in to tighten lug nuts. He restarted in 17th place on lap 235 and gained one spot over the next 30 laps. The caution waved on lap 273 for Jimmie Johnson’s crash off of turn 4. The caution allowed Gordon to make up a 20-second gap to the leader. Pit stops ensued with Gordon restarting in 15th place on lap 278. Ryan Blaney’s engine expired on lap 281 to bring out another caution. Gordon stayed on the track while most of the lead lap cars pitted. He restarted in 8th place with 110 laps to go. Gordon moved to 7th on the restart, but fell to 9th at the 300-lap mark as Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski passed. He rebounded to take 8th from Matt Kenseth with 91 to go, albeit briefly as Kurt Busch passed two laps later. Kasey Kahne sent Gordon back to 10th with 85 to go. A caution with 72 to go for Michael Annett’s spin brought the leaders to pit road. Gordon exited pit road in 11th place. However, he faded to 14th just a lap after the restart. A caution for Ricky Stenhouse’s wall contact slowed the field with 64 to go. Gordon came to pit road for tires and restarted in 13th place.
With 40 to go, Gordon moved to 12th with a move around Austin Dillon. He advanced to 11th when Denny Hamlin pitted with a loose wheel. As drivers began pitting, Gordon moved into the top-5 with 20 laps to go. He ran 3rd behind Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle with 19 to go. Gordon came to pit road with 18 to go and opted for 2 tires. He cycled through in 16th place and finished the event in 15th.
JG’s comments
“I never could get track position. We got it one time and held on to it OK and, I have no idea what sequence of events happened there at the end for us to finish 15th. That was a lot of darn work for us to finish 15th.”
Owner Standings [html]
Chase Standings [html] [jpg]
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: charlotte, coca cola 600, In Car Audio
All-Star Race In-Car Audio
May 18, 2015 by admin 6980Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2015%2F05%2F18%2Fjeff-gordon-all-star-race-charlotte-in-car-audio-2015%2FAll-Star+Race+In-Car+Audio2015-05-18+19%3A36%3A33adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6980
Jeff Gordon’s final start in the All-Star Race netted a 4th place finish. Gordon started 9th in the first segment of the event. He moved up to 6th place by the end of lap 3. He dropped to 7th when Kurt Busch went by on lap 11. He battled tight handling and took 6th from Greg Biffle at the end of the first segment. The drivers came to pit road with Gordon exiting in 7th place. On the restart, Gordon used the inside line to his advantage and moved to 4th place on lap 27. He took 3rd from Denny Hamlin on lap 29 where he closed the second segment of the event. The crew changed four tires and Gordon restarted in 7th place due to some drivers opting for two tires. The inside line struggled at the start of the third segment after Joey Logano and Jamie McMurray made contact. Gordon slipped to 8th on lap 52. He took 7th from McMurray on lap 56. Two laps later he took 6th from Matt Kenseth where he concluded the third segment. Gordon exited pit road in 8th place after taking four tires. On the restart, he slipped to 10th before regrouping to take 9th on lap 79 from Joey Logano. Five laps later he took 8th from Kenseth. Gordon passed AJ Allmendinger to take 7th place on lap 89 where he finished the segment. The drivers came to pit road based on their average finish in the first 4 segments. Gordon came to pit road in 5th place based on the average finish. He exited pit road in 5th place for the restart of the final 10-lap segment.
On the restart, Gordon moved up to 4th behind Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and Kurt Busch. As Hamlin pulled away to win, Gordon briefly battled with Kurt Busch for 3rd place before settling into 4th where he finished the event.
“Having Ingrid, the kids, my mom, and my dad there (pre-race) was amazing. That was a surprise to me. I asked my parents, ‘Why are you guys here? I never see you at driver introductions.’ So, that was special. Something I’ll never forget. We had a really solid performance overall as a team. I’m really excited about that performance that we can take to next week’s 600. I think our car is pretty good and we can make it a little better.”
ON THE RACE
“Homestead will affect me a lot more as it probably will be my last race. It’s awesome to see all the fans and all the things they did on the track. But as far as really putting it all in perspective – it sinking in that that was my last All-Star race – I wasn’t thinking like that. I was focused in on the race. We were solid. I was pretty happy with the performance of the car. It’s so hard to get that track position that you need. A couple of guys were able to make some moves and maneuver through. We made a few but not many. It was all about lining up on the inside. When we lined up on the inside a few times and made up some spots When we lined up on the outside we lost some. At the end we were on the inside (passing three cars) and had a decent average. We were decent and got a fourth-place finish for it.”
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: all star race, charlotte, In Car Audio, Top 5
Charlotte In-Car Audio
October 13, 2014 by admin 6739Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2014%2F10%2F13%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-bank-of-america-500-in-car-audio-2014-nascar%2FCharlotte+In-Car+Audio2014-10-13+04%3A51%3A52adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6739
Jeff Gordon took a step toward the third round of the Chase with a second place effort under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon finished where he started the event behind pole sitter (and race winner) Kevin Harvick. Heading into Talladega, Gordon has an 18 point cushion on the Chase cutoff as the second round concludes in Alabama. Gordon started on the outside of the front row and ran in 2nd behind Kyle Busch for the first 13 laps. He took the race lead from Busch on lap 14 and pulled away until the competition caution on lap 25. He exited pit road after a four tire change in 4th place after two drivers opted for two tires. On the restart, Gordon made quick work of Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr and moved to 2nd behind Busch. He re-assumed the top spot by passing Busch on lap 38. Gordon kept the race lead over Kevin Harvick through a round of green flag pit stops on lap 75. The next caution came on lap 95 after Clint Bowyer’s engine expired. Gordon again opted for four tires and restarted in 3rd place. He took 2nd from Jamie McMurray on lap 111, but ran 3 seconds behind Harvick. A caution on lap 135 for Paul Menard’s engine brought the leaders to pit road. Gordon restarted in 2nd along side Harvick on lap 144, but fell to 4th on the inside line. He came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 190 while battling a tight handling issue.
Following stops, Gordon ran in 5th place behind Harvick, McMurray, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson. A caution for Josh Wise’s engine on lap 222 brought the lead lap cars to pit road. He restarted in 5th place, but struggled on the inside and dropped to 9th on lap 228. Brian Vickers’ spin on lap 237 brought the caution. Pit stops ensued with Gordon opting for 2 tires. He restarted in 7th place on lap 242. The next caution came on lap 245 when Joey Logano spun Danica Patrick in turn 4. Gordon again restarted 7th on the inside line. He ran 8th when the next caution waved on lap 266. After pit stops, Gordon restarted 9th on lap 270. He moved to 7th within a lap of the restart, and took 6th from Kyle Busch. He re-entered the top-5 on lap 284 by passing Brad Keselowski. Three laps later he took 4th from Jimmie Johnson. With 39 to go, he passed Kyle Larson to take over 3rd. Gordon then tracked down and passed Denny Hamlin for the runner-up spot with 31 to go.
Gordon’s final green flag stop came with 22 laps to go. He had to deal with traffic coming off the pit lane and dropped 6 seconds behind Harvick for the race lead. Brian Vickers’ engine brought out the caution with 7 laps to go. Gordon lined up next to Harvick for the restart with 3 to go. He was unable to make headway on the inside line and finished the event in 2nd place. It was his first top-3 finish at Charlotte since he claimed the victory in October 2007 — a span of 14 races.
Gordon restarted in 9th place on lap 270. The car came to life on the short run, which put Gordon in position to challenge for the victory.
“I’m really proud of that effort. Kevin got out there on us after that last green flag stop. I didn’t want to see another restart because every time we start on the inside we seemed to lose positions. We were just trying to tune to make it better. We got off a little bit and lost some track position. I had some terrible restarts. At the end, four tires and good adjustments, good restarts, and we were able to get right up in the thick of it. Kevin was tough. I knew when he got out front that he was going to be hard to beat him. This new format has created some serious drama. I’m happy about this 2nd place. It doesn’t make us by any means very comfortable going into next week, but it’s a lot better than it could have been.”
“We had a great start to the race and got up there and took the lead from Kyle. I was pretty happy with my car, but rubber was laying down and track conditions were changing. We were trying to make some adjustments to keep up with it. I thought we made a really good adjustment, were able to keep the lead, and then we kind of lost a little bit of track position. We started on the inside there and just lost some positions and kind of fought it from there, tried to make some adjustments to make it better and it made it a little bit worse. But we stuck with it and finally there at the end we got a little bit out of cycle, some guys on two tires versus four tires. We put four tires on and made a really good adjustment to the car and were able to drive up through there all the way back to second and kind of closing on Kevin but just couldn’t get close enough to him and then that green flag stop, it was kind of disastrous for us from the cars that were pitting and a bunch of other things that went on. We just didn’t have some of the things that we needed to go a little bit better go our way. But really, really strong finish there to come back second, so I’m really proud of that.”
In New Hampshire, you talked a little bit about the danger potentially of having to go into Talladega with all the craziness that can happen there with your fates at hand. I wanted you to elaborate on that, and I wondered how much or how little the potential to have a huge race in Talladega factored into the way you dealt with the race today?
“Yeah, I think everybody was pushing hard and now how much was on the line, not just this weekend but last weekend. A win in this particular round, if you want to call it, nobody wants to deal with Talladega. Everybody would like to take the weekend off there if they could. Two guys in some ways get to, and the rest of us are going to have to go race there. We’ve got a little bit of a cushion but not near enough to be comfortable by any means. We’ll go and race the way we normally do there, which is just try to be smart, try to stay out of the mess and then put ourselves in a good position to get a good finish, hope it works out. But yeah, the format is definitely creating a lot of drama, a lot of intensity, a lot of pressure, and each round seems to intensify that much more. Today’s performance by us was huge and crucial, I think, because we do at least have a much bigger buffer than some other guys do. There’s going to be some guys that really have to win at that race and that have to maybe get a top 5 or make up a lot of points. Certainly these last two weeks have shaken things up quite a bit. I like our chances. I think we’ve got an excellent race team, and I really hope we can make it through Talladega because I think the next round suits us very, very well.
The final caution, did that pump you up thinking, okay, I’ve got another shot at this victory, or was it more pressure, worried that you might lose second place to someone?
“I would have liked it if Kevin decided to give me a shot and start on the inside. That would have got me pumped up. But I lost positions every single restart on the inside. I think I started on the outside once and made positions up and every other one I was on the inside and lost positions. I was thankful to be in that position. I knew our car was really good right then and I just didn’t want to spin the tires, and I knew Jamie was really good on the outside there. He got by me on the outside on a previous restart. I was just hoping that that clean air I had on the nose that the car would stick on the bottom, and it stuck pretty good. I got a good start and was able to fall in behind Kevin. At that point I was just kind of settling for second because my car just wasn’t doing what I needed it to do to make any move on him.”
Is this Chase turning into some bizarre psychological experiment? Seems like people are kind of coming unbolted here as you get down to these rounds.
“I mean, there’s a lot on the line. It’s not an experiment. It’s just the new format, I think we all knew would make the emotions get out of whack by who’s in, who’s out, who’s on the bubble, how your races are going. When you have just these three-race segments and then they clean the slate and start all over, it creates a lot of drama, and I think they knew that going in, and that’s why they did it. It’s going to shake things up from here on out. It’s going to make this championship that much tougher to win. It’s going to make it tough to make it to Homestead, and especially because you’re not just racing the other guys in the Chase, you’re also racing everybody out there, and they’re all racing hard, wanting to win races, as well, wanting to get good finishes for many different reasons. Everybody is pushing extremely hard. You throw in a green-white-checkered restart, and there’s your drama, and there’s already a lot on the line and emotions running high, then you do that, and you have guys on four tires, guys on no tires, it’s going to make things crazy. It’s only going to intensify from here on out.”
I’m just curious what is your team’s mindset heading to Talladega. You’re still not locked into the Chase. Was it a sense of relief for tonight even though you didn’t get the victory?
“My first question when I got out of the car was how many points did we gain or where are we at, 17 up on ninth, I guess. That is not what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that we were 35 or 38 or something like that up on ninth. But we knew that that was going to be tough to do. We’re going to have to just go race Talladega, which isn’t a bad thing. I don’t like leaving things up to chance, which happens a lot of times at Talladega, but at the same time if it’s meant to be, we go race hard and do what we need to do to try to win that race, and if it’s meant to be for us to move on to the next round, we’ll find out. If our team is good enough, if our cars are good enough, which I think we are, we’ll go through to the next round.”
You’re a guy who doesn’t lose his temper very often. How mad would Matt Kenseth have to be to do that?
“Yeah, he must have been pretty mad. I think Matt is a pretty calm and collected guy. Over the years he and I have had our incidents but that was because I was mad. I don’t think he was mad at me. I can’t remember. I wrecked him one time and I don’t remember him being mad at me that much.”
He wrecked you more than once
“Yeah. And he’s never come and tried to put a headlock on me. We usually talk it out. Obviously there was some built-up animosity towards Brad. I’d better hold the rest of my thoughts back to myself.”
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jeff-Gordon-2014-10-11-Bank-of-America-500-Charlotte.mp3]
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jeff-Gordon-2014-10-11-Bank-of-America-500-Charlotte-with-spotter-chatter.mp3]
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: Bank of America 500, charlotte, In Car Audio, runner up, Top 5
May 26, 2014 by admin 6502Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2014%2F05%2F26%2Fjeff-gordon-coca-cola-600-charlotte-in-car-audio-nascar-2014%2FCoca-Cola+600+In-Car+Audio2014-05-26+16%3A31%3A52adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6502
Jeff Gordon finished a hard fought 7th in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon battled back spasms in the days prior to the race and had Regan Smith standing by in case a relief driver was needed. Smith never put on his uniform as Gordon completed all 600 miles — and nearly scored his 90th career win in the process.
Gordon started 27th and moved into the top-20 within 10 laps. He entered the top-15 with a pass on Justin Allgaier on lap 27. Gordon moved up to 11th prior to a round of green flag pit stops on lap 48. Gordon Cycled through in 12th place. He entered the top-10 on lap 60 with a pass on Denny Hamlin. By lap 80, Gordon had advanced to 8th place as the #24 car exceled on the longer run. He came to pit road for tires and fuel on lap 92 and cycled through in 7th place. The first caution waved on lap 109 and brought pit stops. Gordon restarted 6th on lap 114 and took 5th from Dale Earnhardt Jr on lap 115. He took 4th from Matt Kenseth on lap 117. A debris caution on lap 149 brought the leaders to pit road. Gordon slipped to 6th place on lap 155 before a caution for David Gilliland’s cut tire and wall contact. Gordon restarted 8th on lap 168 after opting for four tires. He worked race traffic and moved into the top-5 on lap 183. One lap later he took 4th from Brian Vickers. Earnhardt Jr then passed Gordon on lap 195 for position. At the halfway point, Gordon ran in 5th place.
Gordon took 4th from Brad Keselowski on lap 205 and moved to 3rd around Earnhardt Jr on lap 210. Gordon led a lap during a green flag pit stop sequence on lap 213. Following stops, Gordon ran in 4th place. A debris caution on lap 222 slowed the field. He came to pit road and restarted in 10th place on lap 227. He advanced to 9th prior to a caution on lap 235 for Marcos Ambrose’s spin. Gordon took 8th from Kyle Busch on lap 246 and moved to 7th on lap 250. As the run progressed, he took 6th from Joey Logano on lap 257 and re-entered the top 5 on lap 261. He passed Jimmie Johnson for position and moved to the runner-up spot on lap 272. A caution for Kurt Busch slowed the field on lap 274. Gordon pitted for tires and restarted 3rd on lap 280. However, he slipped to 5th after the restart as Logano and Martin Truex went by. The next caution waved at lap 285 for Danica Patrick’s blown engine. At the 300-lap mark, Gordon ran in 7th place. He took 6th from Kyle Busch on lap 314 and moved to 5th by lap 320. Gordon came to pit road for green flag stop on lap 330.
Gordon cycled through in 3rd place and began closing on race leaders Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth with less than 50 laps to go. He came to pit road for a green flag stop with 25 to go. The crew changed two tires and Gordon emerged from the pit sequence ahead of Johnson and Kenseth on the track. Alex Bowman’s cut tire slowed the field with 21 to go. Gordon inherited the lead when Carl Edwards came to pit road for tires and fuel. On the restart with 17 to go, Kenseth got momentum on the outside line and took the race lead. Johnson took 2nd from Gordon with 15 to go. Edwards and Harvick moved around Gordon with 12 to go and McMurray pushed him back to 6th with 10 to go. As the laps wound down, the two tires hindered Gordon and he dropped to 7th by the checkered flag.
A late two-tire change gave Gordon a chance to win the race. However, a caution flag allowed Kenseth to restart alongside Gordon with four tires.
The procedures and the different work in therapy that I did helped. There’s quite a few people who were tending to me and I appreciate every one of them. I don’t think I would have gotten through this long race. It was tough. I was aching in there. There was one time I got on the brakes and it triggered something. I didn’t know what was going to happen after that. But it settled down. We had such a great race car. I love the call at the end, just like the call that was made when we won the 1st race here (1994). I don’t know if I could have held off Matt, but we were going to give him a heck of a run. The car was pretty good right there. It was just a matter of whether it was going to tighten up over 20-something laps. I got a decent restart, but when Matt got to my outside I got loose. At that point I was a sitting duck. It was a good effort. I’m happy that I got through it. It tells me a lot about what kind of (pain) threshold I have. I just want to show this team the kind of commitment I have to them because of what they’ve shown me this year.”
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jeff-Gordon-2014-05-25-Coca-Cola-600-Charlotte.mp3]
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jeff-Gordon-2014-05-25-Coca-Cola-600-Charlotte-with-spotter-chatter.mp3]
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: charlotte, coca cola 600, In Car Audio, Top 10
All Star Race In-Car Audio
May 19, 2014 by admin 6492Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2014%2F05%2F19%2Fjeff-gordon-sprint-all-star-race-in-car-audio-charlotte-nascar-2014%2FAll+Star+Race+In-Car+Audio2014-05-19+04%3A10%3A45adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6492
Jeff Gordon’s frustration in the All Star Race continued with a lap 61 crash which eliminated him from contention. Gordon has not posted a top-10 finish in NASCAR’s annual All Star showcase since 2006.
Gordon started 4th and took 3rd from Kevin Harvick on lap 11. He took the runner-up spot from Carl Edwards on lap 14 and finished the first 20-lap segment behind Kyle Busch. Gordon opted for four tires on the pit stop and started 7th at the start of the second 20-lap segment. He moved to 5th on lap 23 and took 4th from Kurt Busch on lap 24. One lap later, he dove to the inside entering turn 1 to take 3rd from Brad Keselowski. On lap 27, Kyle Busch spun and collected Joey Logano, which eliminated both drivers. On the restart on lap 31, Gordon dropped to 5th prior to AJ Allmendinger’s crash on the backstretch. On the next restart, Gordon was held up by Denny Hamlin on the inside line and dropped to 7th. He concluded the second segment in 7th place.
Gordon took four tires during the pit stop sequence and started 12th in segment three. He moved to 10th on lap 47 with a move around Greg Biffle and took 8th from Martin Truex on lap 49. He concluded the third segment in 8th place. Once again, Gordon opted for four tires during the pit stop between segments and started in 11th place for segment four. His night concluded on lap 61 when he slowed and moved up the track. Martin Truex got into the rear of Gordon’s car, which sent the #24 car into the wall with heavy right side damage. Gordon pulled to the garage for an early end to his night.
A suspension failure sent Gordon up the track and into the wall on lap 61.
“Something broke in the front end either a tire or something in the suspension. I was just going down the back straightaway. As I started to get into the corner, I felt the front end set down and just started going straight. I hate that we caught other guys up that were on the outside of me. But man what an awesome car we had tonight… We had the car to do it tonight, we didn’t have many breaks go our way. The 11 staying out, that killed us in the second segement. We got behind him a bunch. Every time he was weaving, we were behind him. But what an awesome car we had. It was super fast. We could go to the high side, middle, bottom. We were looking forward to the average working out if we could have made some ground up in that run, but unfortunately not to be for us tonight. I’m still just loving driving these race cars, they’re so good.”
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jeff-Gordon-2014-05-17-Sprint-All-Star-Race-Charlotte.mp3]
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: all star race, charlotte, In Car Audio, sprint all star race
October 13, 2013 by admin 62491 Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2013%2F10%2F13%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-bank-of-america-500-in-car-audio-2013-nascar%2FCharlotte+In-Car+Audio2013-10-13+19%3A48%3A35adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D6249
Jeff Gordon finished 7th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He remains 4th in the NASCAR points standings, 36 points behind Matt Kenseth. As the polesitter, Gordon led the first 26 laps of the event. He’s led more laps in the last 7 races (153 laps) than he did in the first 24 races (151 laps) this season.
Gordon started on the pole and led the first 25 laps before the caution waved for JJ Yeley’s wall contact. After opting for four tires, Gordon restarted 8th on lap 30. He worked through drivers who took two tires and ran 5th on lap 38. However, he was unable to gain further headway prior to a green flag pit stop on lap 77. The next caution waved on lap 83 for Mark Martin’s engine. On the restart, Gordon used the outside line to take 3rd from Jimmie Johnson. However, he battled a tight handling issue and dropped to 5th as Johnson and Kyle Busch passed by lap 125. Gordon came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 127. At the halfway point, Gordon ran in 5th place, more than 10 seconds behind race leader Kasey Kahne.
A debris caution on lap 172 brought the lead lap cars to pit road. Gordon gained two spots exiting the pits and restarted in 3rd. Kyle Busch went by shortly after the restart to send Gordon to 4th. Matt Kenseth passed on lap 217, which dropped Gordon to 5th. Three laps later Ryan Newman tracked Gordon down for position. He came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 228. Gordon took 6th from Newman shortly after the stops, but gave the spot back on lap 273. He came to pit road for a green flag stop with 52 laps to go.
Gordon once again took 6th from Newman after the round of pit stops. A debris caution with 28 laps to go took fuel strategy out of the equation. Gordon opted for two tires and restarted in 2nd place on the outside of Kasey Kahne. Two laps after the restart, Matt Kenseth went by on the high side to send Gordon to 3rd. Brad Keselowski passed the #24 car on the backstretch to send him to 4th. With 19 laps to go, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson passed Gordon for position. Kevin Harvick passed Gordon with 17 to go, which moved him back to 7th place where he finished.
Crew chief Alan Gustafson opted for two tires on the final pit stop, thus mirroring the strategy of Kasey Kahne. Gordon restarted 2nd alongside Kahne, but was unable to hold the spot due to tight handling.
“All weekend long other than qualifying we were just battling getting the car through the center of the corner having the rear security on fresh tires and then having the front turn once the pressures and heat got in the tires. So, it was a fantastic performance. That balance we could never really get it. Certainly it helps when you’re out front. That first run it was pretty good, but I could feel it going that direction. My car was really good on 4 tires. At the end I loved the call by Alan to take 2. It got us up there. I went through turns 1 and 2 and I was like, ‘oh boy, we might have something for them.’ But then I went through turns 3 and 4 and it got tight. Boy, it just kept getting tighter and tighter. I thought we were pretty fortunate to finish 7th. We put in a great effort to hang in there.”
“It was a solid night. I was really good out front there in the beginning. We really struggled all day on Friday and tonight we could just not get it to take off good and then be good on the long runs. It looked like some guys were maybe a little bit freer than us on the shorter runs, but we were still able to maintain some good laps times and then be good on the long runs. It was a solid effort. It was a great call there to try to make two (tires) work. Our car was just way too tight to be able to do it. We lost a few more positions than I was hoping. But it was still solid.”
Race Results [PDF]
Driver Standings [PDF]
MP3 Download – without spotter chatter
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Jeff-Gordon-2013-1012-Bank-of-America-500-Charlotte.mp3]
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Jeff-Gordon-2013-1012-Bank-of-America-500-Charlotte-with-spotter-chatter.mp3]
Coca Cola 600 In-Car Audio
May 27, 2013 by admin 5874Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2013%2F05%2F27%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-coca-cola-600-in-car-audio-2013%2FCoca+Cola+600+In-Car+Audio2013-05-27+16%3A56%3A58adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D5874
As the day became night during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, it appeared that Jeff Gordon’s #24 car was on its way to a top-5 finish. However, a pit stop and ill-timed caution flag trapped Gordon a lap down. He was later collected in a multi-car wreck and finished 35th — his 3rd DNF of the season. The restart came on lap 130 as dusk descended over the track. Gordon moved into the top-10 prior to a round of green flag pit stops on lap 176. He took 9th from Kevin Harvick on lap 194 and ran 8th at the halfway point of the race. Green flag stops came on lap 222 with Gordon holding 8th place. He took 7th from Carl Edwards on lap 233 before a debris caution slowed the field on lap 242. Gordon entered the top-5 with a move around Denny Hamlin on lap 254 and took 4th when Kyle Busch’s engine expired. The caution waved on lap 258 for a multi-car incident after Dale Earnhardt Jr, Greg Biffle, and Dave Blaney made wall contact. Gordon scraped the wall and came to pit road for two tires. He restarted in 4th place and closed in on Kurt Busch for 3rd as his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne took the race lead. However, he was unable to make headway and dropped to 5th behind Martin Truex on lap 295. He came to pit road on lap 303 just as a debris caution waved. Gordon was trapped a lap down and opted to come back in for left side tires.
Gordon restarted in 15th place with 90 laps to go. He fell to 16th prior to a debris caution with 88 to go. On the restart, Gordon dropped to 19th just before a crash involving Brad Keselowski and Danica Patrick. Gordon came to pit road for tires and restarted in 19th place. Just after the restart, Gordon was involved in a multi-car wreck in turn 1 that ended his night with a DNF.
Gordon came to pit road on lap 303 just as the yellow flag came out. By stopping, he was trapped a lap down and was later collected in a wreck racing backmarkers in the middle of the pack.
“We were a victim of the caution coming out when we were on pit road. We shouldn’t have stopped in the box to do that pit stop and we would have still been on the lead lap. Instead, we were racing three-wide. That’s what’s going to happen. I mean we were just going for the Lucky Dog you know, and you’ve got to be real aggressive back there. I got beat on the restart before that with (Marcos) Ambrose and messed that one up; so I just hate we were even back there.I loved the patriotic colors on our car this weekend and it’s just a shame we were even back there. We couldn’t win. Kasey (Kahne) is unbelievable. But we had a Top 5 car.”
Coca-Cola In- Car Audio
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Jeff-Gordon-2013-05-26-Coca-Cola-600-Charlotte.mp3
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: charlotte, coca cola 600, DNF, In Car Audio, wreck
Sprint All Star Race 2013 In Car Audio
May 19, 2013 by admin 5857Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2013%2F05%2F19%2Fjeff-gordon-sprint-all-star-race-charlotte-2013-nascar%2FSprint+All+Star+Race+2013+In+Car+Audio2013-05-19+22%3A39%3A35adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D5857
Jimmie Johnson claimed his fourth career win in the NASCAR All Star Race, breaking a tie with Jeff Gordon and the late Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.
Gordon started 10th and moved to 9th prior to a caution flag for rain on lap 8. The race was red flagged for heavier rain on lap 12. After nearly a one-hour delay, racing resumed just after 10:30/eastern time. Gordon moved to 7th at the end of the first 20-lap segment. At the start of Segment 2, Gordon dropped to 11th on the inside line. The next caution waved for Mark Martin’s spin on lap 25. He came to pit road for tires and restarted in 17th place on lap 28. The newer tires helped Gordon move to 13th on lap 33. He ran 11th at the end of the second segment. In the third segment, Gordon moved up to 10th on lap 51. However, he fell from 10th to 15th after the mandatory pit stop prior to the final 10-lap segment. He came across the line in 12th. Gordon has 0 top-10 finishes in the last 7 All-Star events
Race Results – SpeedTV
Sprint All Star Race In Car Audio
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Jeff-Gordon-2013-05-18-Sprint-All-Start-Race-Charlotte.mp3]
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Jeff-Gordon-2013-05-18-Sprint-All-Start-Race-Charlotte-with-spotter-chatter.mp3]
October 14, 2012 by admin 5323Leave a Commenthttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F2012%2F10%2F14%2Fjeff-gordon-charlotte-bank-of-america-in-car-audio-nascar%2FCharlotte+In-Car+Audio2012-10-14+22%3A49%3A29adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.scannerbytes.com%2F%3Fp%3D5323
Clint Bowyer held off Denny Hamlin in a fuel mileage battle to win the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Points leader Brad Keselowski dominated the event, but needed a late stop for gas and finished 11th. Jeff Gordon struggled with handling for the balance of the night. He added to his own problems by receiving a costly pit road speeding penalty and finished 18th. Gordon is now tied for 8th in the points standings, 50 points behind Keselowski with 5 races to go.
Gordon started 11th and moved into the top-10 within 2 laps. By lap 10 he had advanced to 8th place. The first caution waved on lap 11 for Matt Kenseth’s cut tire and spin in turn four. Another caution just after the restart on lap 16 collected Jeff Burton and David Ragan. Gordon dropped to 10th on the restart on lap 23. He was in 11th when the third caution waved on lap 36 for Paul Menard’s wall contact. Gordon came to pit road for tires and restarted in 18th place. He moved back into the top-15 on lap 52 and ran 12th before a cycle of green flag pit stops. Gordon stayed on the track to lead a lap before coming to pit road on lap 86. He fell to 14th after pit stops. Gordon ran 13th at the 100-lap mark of the event.
Gordon ran 15th before a green flag pit stop at lap 214. Gordon received a very costly pit road speeding penalty and lost a lap. He put himself into position to get back on the lead lap — as the first car one lap down. However, the race went into a long green flag run. With 30 laps to go, he ran in 16th place, one lap down. He made his final pit stop under green with 18 to go. Following the stop, Gordon ran in 20th place with 10 laps to go — hopelessly trapped off the lead lap. He finished the event 18th. It was his fourth finish of 18th or worse in his last 5 races at Charlotte.
A pit road speeding penalty took Gordon off the lead lap and effectively put a major wall between him and a possible fifth championship in 2012.
[audio:https://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/2012-10-13-Jeff-Gordon-Bank-of-America-500-Charlotte-with-spotter-chatter.mp3|titles=2012-10-13 – Jeff Gordon – Bank of America 500 – Charlotte – with spotter chatter]
Filed Under: Feature, Race Audio Tagged With: Bank of America 500, charlotte, In Car Audio
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https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Keanu-Reeves-Time-Magazine-Person-of-the-Year-14016121.php
Over 21,000 fans of Keanu Reeves create petition to make him Time Magazine's Person of the Year
By Dianne de Guzman, SFGATE
Actor Keanu Reeves attends the world premiere of "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" at One Hanson on Thursday, May 9, 2019, in New York. The actor has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts, as fans have dubbed him "the internet's boyfriend" and are now petitioning for the actor to become Person of the Year from Time Magazine. less
Actor Keanu Reeves attends the world premiere of "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" at One Hanson on Thursday, May 9, 2019, in New York. The actor has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts, as fans have ... more
Photo: Evan Agostini
After some 30-plus years of acting, it seems that 2019 has been dubbed a "Keanussance" for actor Keanu Reeves, so much so that much of the Internet seems determined to make him Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
A Change.org petition was launched last week to get Reeves' name into consideration as Person of the Year, with a straightforward pitch: "Keanu is the most wholesome person alive, make him the person of the year!"
The petition has more than 21,000 signatures as of this writing, and is quickly closing in on its (extended) goal of 25,000 signatures.
If you thought this was the only petition looking to get the "John Wick" star named Person of the Year, you'd be wrong. A second Change.org petition, this one in Spanish, is also looking to grab the attention of Time Magazine editors in the name of Reeves, wielding almost 2,500 signatures, Insider reported.
READ ALSO: Keanu Reeves is having a Keanussance with the John Wick series — but did he ever really go anywhere?
"Keanu Reeves has proven to be a person who positively influences everyone," the campaign statement reads, in a translation. "His humility, simplicity, character and human quality make him more than ideal to be named [Person of the Year].
The campaign went on to call Reeves "a great example to follow in every sense of the word" and state that "the world needs more people like him."
Reeves has inspired plenty of online fanaticism this year, as the actor has starred in — or at least made appearances in — a trio of high-profile movies this summer, including the latest installment of the "John Wick" series, the Netflix film "Always Be My Maybe" (in which Reeves starred as an over-the-top version of himself) and a voice role on "Toy Story 4." Reeves also made a surprise announcement at this year's E3 about his role with the video game "Cyberpunk 2077."
So while the actor has been doing the press rounds for his latest projects, the internet has also (somewhat organically, it seems) become Reeves' hype man, calling him "the world's crush" and "the internet's boyfriend." An outpouring of delightful and kind fan encounters have also entered the internet space, spawned from a recent New Yorker article unironically titled, "Keanu Reeves Is Too Good for This World," along with a call on social media for more Keanu stories.
Reeves, for his part, was apparently clueless to the online world's obsession with him, and when asked how he felt being called the internet's boyfriend, he called it "wacky" but "positively great."
READ ALSO: Keanu Reeves was 'striking poses' during Emeryville Pixar visit
As for whether the online petitions will help Reeves' case with getting him that nomination for Time Person of the Year? That part seems uncertain. As Insider pointed out, Time editors don't usually name celebrities as Person of the Year, but perhaps these petitions will at least get Reeves onto their radar.
Dianne de Guzman is an SFGATE producer. Email: dianne.deguzman@sfgate.com
Photos from article: Hilarious tweets tap into Bay Area psyche...
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I Carry
Sheriff Jim Wilson
AMERICA'S FIRST FREEDOM
APPEARS IN News Guns
The Thompson Turns 100
by SI Staff - Friday, April 1, 2016
When John T. Thompson first began researching a portable, hand-held automatic weapon in 1915, he didn't know that he would be changing history. Now, 100 years later, the Thompson semi-automatic rifle, sometimes referred to as the Chicago Typewriter, is a global icon.
John T. Thompson was born in Newport, Kentucky on December 31, 1860. His father, a graduate of West Point, served as Lt. Colonel during the civil war and, John, following in his father’s footsteps, also graduated from West Point and served in the Army. It was while he was in the Army that Thompson went to engineering and artillery schools and began researching small arms. He was later assigned to the Army Ordnance Department in 1890 as a 2nd Lieutenant and was responsible for arming and dispersing of weapons during the Spanish-American war.
During WWI, before the U.S. became involved, Thompson saw the need to assist the allies with better artillery, so he retired from the Army to dedicate his time to develop a fully automatic weapon. By 1916, while employed as Chief Engineer at Remington Arms, he created a gun that could be used to clear enemy trenches, nicknamed the “Trench Broom” and this was the beginning of the Thompson submachine gun.
When the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, Thompson re-enlisted into the Army and was promoted to Brigadier General. Once the war was over, Thompson continued to perfect the Tommy Gun and by 1920 it was patented.
With the war now over, there was little demand by the military for the arms, so Thompson began marketing the Tommy Gun to Law Enforcement Agencies and also to the general public. Historically, it also became infamous as the weapon of choice for gangsters, including John Dillinger, Al Capone, and Baby Face Nelson.
Thompson died in 1940 at age 79 and was honored with a burial on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Less than two years after his death, WWII broke out and the U.S. Army ordered significant quantities of the Thompson submachine guns.
Auto Ordnance is proud to honor the man and the legacy of the Tommy Gun with the introduction of the commemorative 100th Anniversary matched set edition of the Thompson 1927A-1 rifle and matching 1911A1 pistol.
The limited edition Thompson 1927A-1 Deluxe Carbine is offered in .45 ACP and comes with one 20-round stick magazine. It features a 16.5-inch finned barrel (18 inches with compensator) and is prominently engraved with the classic Thompson logo, limited edition numbers, and displays the words “100th Anniversary” on the matte black steel frame. The gun weighs 13 pounds and has an overall length of 41 inches. Other features include a pinned-in front blade and an open rear adjustable sight. The stock is fixed, has a vertical foregrip, and is made from luxurious American Walnut.
As a matched set, the limited edition series also comes with the Thompson 1911A1 GI Specs pistol. It comes in .45 ACP, has a 5-inch barrel and a matte black steel frame. Overall length is 8.5 inches and it weighs 39 ounces. The iron sights are front and rear dovetail cut low profile. The pistol is shipped with one 7-round magazine. Just like the Thompson 1927A-1, it too is engraved with the iconic Thompson logo, the words 100th Anniversary, and lists the limited edition numbers on the frame. Both guns must be purchased as a set, and the MSRP is $1,971. The guns are shipped together in a polymer hard case with the yellow Thompson Bullet logo and the words “Chicago Typewriter” in white stamped on the black case cover.
“We are proud to honor the name and the legacy of General John T. Thompson with this special 100th Anniversary matched set” states Frank Harris, VP of Sales and Marketing, Kahr Firearms Group. “There is a rich historical past attached to the Tommy Gun, and we feel General Thompson would be proud to see that what started as a research project in 1915 has served the military, law enforcement and shooting enthusiasts around the world so prominently for over 100 years.”
Thompson Auto Ordnance .45 ACP 1911
New for 2019: LWRCI SMG-45
Range Review: Charter Arms 3-Inch Mag Pug Revolver
New for 2019: Ed Brown KC9-LW
Range Review: Diamondback DB9 Gen IV
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IMAX Launches Institutional Upgrade Initiative; Signs Agreement with Smithsonian for Next-Generation Laser Technology
Smithsonian’s Three IMAX® Theatres to be Capable of Showing Full Spectrum of IMAX Content
IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and the Smithsonian Institution today announced an agreement to install IMAX’s next-generation laser digital projection technology in the Smithsonian’s three IMAX® theatres, enabling the Smithsonian to deliver the highest-quality digital content available – both documentaries and blockbuster films – and further enhance The IMAX Experience® for its millions of visitors annually.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theater at the National Museum of Natural History and the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater at the National Air and Space Museum, both in Washington, D.C., and the Airbus IMAX Theater at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., will transition to IMAX’s laser digital projectors in 2014.
IMAX’s next-generation projection system is expected to set a new benchmark as the industry’s premium entertainment experience. The system, which incorporates the laser digital intellectual property IMAX exclusively licensed from Eastman Kodak in 2011, represents the largest R&D initiative in IMAX’s history and will enable IMAX® dome theatres and IMAX screens larger than 80 feet to deliver the highest-quality digital content available with greater brightness and clarity, a wider color gamut and deeper blacks.
“Building on our shared legacy of excellence and discovery, we’re delighted that the Smithsonian has adopted this new technology, acting as a springboard for our institutional partners globally,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. “For over 35 years, our partnership with the Smithsonian has served as the gold standard in delivering immersive entertainment experiences that educate, inspire and showcase the wonders of our world. We believe the new laser digital projection system will usher in a new era of quality and innovation in projection technology and allow museum-goers to experience their favorite documentaries and blockbusters as never before.”
Since the National Air and Space Museum opened its doors to visitors in 1976, the Smithsonian/IMAX partnership has delivered exceptional-quality and critically acclaimed documentaries and world-class entertainment to millions. The partnership also has funded and produced groundbreaking IMAX® documentaries including The Dream is Alive, Blue Planet, Destiny in Space (with Lockheed Martin Corporation), and Cosmic Voyage (with Motorola).
“Laser digital projection offers our visitors a more immersive and visceral experience, as well as more programming opportunities,” said Christopher A. Liedel, President, Smithsonian Enterprises. “Today’s agreement continues our decades-long partnership with IMAX and strengthens our commitment to delivering the best educational and entertainment experience.”
The Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge", is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. The Smithsonian Institution holds a collection of 137 million items, and has facilities in Arizona, Maryland, New York City, Virginia, Washington DC, and Panama, and 168 other museums are Smithsonian affiliates. The Institution's thirty million annual visitors are admitted without charge; funding comes from the Institution's own endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, government support, and retail, including the three IMAX theaters, concession and licensing revenues. Institution publications include Smithsonian and Air and Space magazines.
About IMAX Corporation
IMAX, an innovator in entertainment technology, combines proprietary software, architecture and equipment to create experiences that take you beyond the edge of your seat to a world you’ve never imagined. Top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX theatres to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, and, as such, IMAX’s network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe.
IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, with offices in London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. As of Sept. 30, 2012, there were 689 IMAX theatres (556 commercial multiplex, 20 commercial destination and 113 institutional) in 52 countries.
IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, Experience It In IMAX®, An IMAX 3D Experience®, The IMAX Experience® and IMAX Is Believing® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information about the Company can be found at www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Facebook (www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter (www.twitter.com/imax) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/imaxmovies).
This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on IMAX management's assumptions and existing information and involve certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in IMAX’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Smithsonian Enterprises
Image courtesy of IMAX
3D Film in an IMAX Theater
Graphical representation of an audience enjoying an IMAX 3D film.
Photo courtesy of IMAX
Children Enjoying IMAX 3D
Children enjoying an IMAX 3D film.
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High Lighthouse Family Download 'High' on iTunes
John Travolta To Release Album 'Inspired By Elvis'
John Travolta is reportedly planning to release an album inspired by Elvis Presley.
The 59-year-old actor is also a keen musician with over ten records under his belt. His last was a collaboration with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John called This Christmas, in 2012.
Apparently Travolta believes he could rival the likes of Elvis if he had the right team around him.
"He has been hitting up some of LA's best producers and songwriters for material. This is his plan to stay relevant," an insider told the National Enquirer.
Now, no further details are known at the moment and there certainly hasn’t been an announcement of a release date, so until that happens, we’ll file this one under 'probably won’t happen'!
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Rhode Island Hospital, Hematology Laboratory - Providence, Rhode Island
Did you or someone you know work at Rhode Island Hospital, Hematology Laboratory in Providence, Rhode Island? If so, you should be aware that asbestos was present at that facility for some time, putting employees and anyone else who frequently visited the location in Providence at an increased risk for health concerns.
While asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral, it was once used in thousands of consumer, industrial and construction products. Despite its uses, asbestos is a known human carcinogen and the National Cancer Institute suggests that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
Learn More About Mesothelioma & Asbestos Related Diseases
While on our website, take some time to educate yourself on the signs and symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases. If you worked in a high risk occupation, we have guides available for you to download that highlight specific concerns based on your profession or trade.
Legal Rights & Compensation
For more than 40 years, Sokolove Law has worked to educate people about their rights. If you worked at Rhode Island Hospital, Hematology Laboratory or other locations in the greater Providence, Rhode Island area where you may have been exposed to asbestos - contact us today.
Our firm has helped to recover more than $3.6 Billion for victims and families of mesothelioma and asbestos exposure.
18 Attorneys General Call for Passage of Reinstein Act to Protect Americans From Asbestos
On July 12, attorneys general from 18 states signed a letter asking lawmakers to pass a bill that would fully ban asbestos in the United…
This Independence Day, Fight for an America Free From Asbestos Exposure
Every Fourth of July, Americans come together to celebrate the birth of our nation. Looking back, there is so much our country has to be…
Cancer Survivors Remind Congress of Long-Term Costs of 9/11 Attacks
After an impassioned hearing, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted to pass a bill that would shore up the financially troubled September 11th Victims…
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A Brief History of Solico Group Companies
To create and improve health using a perfect and healthy cycle of different dairy, meat, ice cream, and beverage products has long been a real concern in our country. Solico Group as one of the largest and best-known producers of food products has tried to follow this difficult path and provide the best quality products for the people.
Mr. GholamAli Soleimani, the founder, owner and manager of this group began his work in small scale in 1973 and gradually developed these factories to make the Solico Group what it is today. He is a graduate of Shahid Beheshti and after facing many difficulties at last in 1977, he officially began his work in the line of distribution of meat products. In fact, this can be considered as the first phase of the formation of the Solico Group.
Small Beginning for a Great Success
One of the first efforts of the founder of Solico Group to create this huge complex was establishing a hamburger production workshop in 1978 in the basement of the building that holds its current office.
It is because of his strong motivation and tireless efforts that the production increased and the Solico group began its work. Considering further developments and growths of the company, its location was later on moved to Ahmadabad Mostofi and the volume of production increased. The first products in the company included hamburgers, sausages (German and cocktails) and cold cuts (Lunchmeats) while the main production activities focused on the production of hamburgers.
With the growth of demand for meat products in 1983, The Amol Meat Products Company was founded in the city of Amol, with a capacity of two thousand tons of products per year. With the goal of producing top quality products on international level and keeping up the high quality, it managed to achieve increasing popularity and trust among the consumers and health inspection authorities. It has been so that its products have been greatly received both in Iran and in other countries in the region.
Expansion and Diversification of Production Cycle
The founder of the group has long had a progressive view with regards to functions and activities of the Solico Group in 1991 the Kalleh Amol Dairy Products Company was established in order to supply part of the needs for dairy products in the Amol city. This company aimed at producing a various range of dairy products with the highest quality and with the help of modern machinery and technical knowledge. The success of the company is such that today some of its products are strong competitors for their foreign equals. Kalleh Dairy Products Company began its work with five different lines of products, pasteurized products, UHT products, cheeses, ice creams, and sauces.
In 2006, the ice-cream sector of the company became an independent facility and formed a separate company named Aris, now one of the companies of the Solico Group. In 2011, the company began producing ice-cream products in Baharan Gol facility in Kordan area of Karaj city and thereby the ice-cream product range of the company was expanded, it now includes a variety of ice cream products with brand names such as Kalleh, Espitaman, Brimond, Jeeto and others produced in Aris and Baharan Gol Company.
In One Word: Development
In order to add sauces to the various products of the company in 2005 the Kuchin Company was founded and in fact, it became independent of the Kalleh Company in sauce production. Today this company works under two brands of Kalleh and Kuchin. The variety of sauces produced in this company is one of the distinctive characteristics of Kuchin Company that attracts many consumers every day.
In 2009, Iran Bartar Company started its working on production of non-alcoholic beer and thus opened a new horizon for producing a variety of beverages in Solico Group. The company's factory is located near the city of Shahriar. The company was renamed in 2013 to Castle Noosh; it produces beverages under brand names such as Castle, Shams, and Fruzz. None-alcoholic Beer in different flavors, sweet malt-Cola, carbonated fruit juice and other similar drinks are among the company's products.
In 2013, Kalleh dairy production plant near Shahriar began providing milk products in plastic containers and developing a variety of products for future as well.
Changes in the Path of Solico Products
With the expansion of the number of products and the market for Solico Group a significant change was made in the distribution sector of the company, a network system was developed for distribution of the products, and now it can send its products to 31 different parts of the country. This part of the company was founded in 2011 and with the establishment of the Banychav Company that helped provide professional distribution services in the country and played a leading role in the activities of the group. As of now, nearly 3000 staff members are active in the Banychav Company all over the country.
Stepping Beyond Iranian Borders
Now, after four decades of presence in the food industry, the Solico Group has around 15,000 active workers throughout the country and God willing, still has plans for the systematic advancement and expansion to export food products in the region and the world. Also at the moment, the Solico group exports a range of its products to other countries as well especially to Iraq.
Path to Development
The most important goals of Solico Group for now are the proper training of all personnel under the supervision of experienced and outstanding managers as well as changing the management methods in order to coordinate the company's sub-group facilities and limit the number of branching companies.
UAE HQ
Jumeirah Business Center 4, Plot No: N3, Unit No: 3302, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Colledge Crossroad, Jaderieh, Baghdad, iraq
Hoger, South Industrial Area, Erbil, Kurdestan
East Azerbaijan Ave. No.103, Tehran, Iran
Mr. Soleimani, Among the Elite in the World of Islamic Economy
A Teacher and a Great Entrepreneur
New Line of Gluten-free Products at the Baharan Gol Facility
Copyrights © 2015 All Rights Reserved by Solico Group.
[email protected] · +98-21-6647-5777
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Brown: Confident the goals will come
Phil Brown says Blues are still creating enough chances despite finding it tough in front of goal in recent weeks
Phil Brown says the goals will come for his side as they head into their home game against Mansfield Town in Sky Bet League 2 on Friday night.
Blues have found the back of the net 15 times so far this season in their 14 league games, while Mansfield Town have conceded just 12 this season.
Despite Mansfield’s strong defensive record and Blues’ failure to find the back of the net more often, he’s confident his side can get back to winning ways against Paul Cox’s side.
He said: “You need players to step up to the plate and in the last Friday night game against Fleetwood Town at home, Barry Corr did exactly that.
“It’s frustrating to have our top goalscorer on the treatment table at the moment, but the likes of Barry and Cauley Woodrow are still getting chances. It’s not like we’re not creating any, we’ve just got to try and take them.
“We have got to try and find the back of the net a bit more often, but we’re coming up against a solid defensive side in Mansfield Town.
“We’ll have to be patient, play our football and try to break them down. The goals will come if we can do that.
“Already this season teams have come to set up shop and made it difficult for us to break them down, but it’s our responsibility to do that.
“Cauley is playing well and I think once he finds the back of the net once in the league, he’ll go on a run. He’s a confident lad and he’s here to get Football League experience. We’ve all been impressed with his attitude and his work rate for the team.”
Brown is looking forward to welcoming his captain John White back to the starting line-up on Friday evening. He added: “He’s a captain on the pitch and off the pitch and it will be great to have his experience back in the side on Friday.
“Ryan Auger came in for his debut and it was a tough first fixture for him but he did well. At Newport we maybe lacked the experience in defence and John provides that.”
Marc Laird and Adam Thompson may also both be available for selection. Brown added: “Marc has trained this week and could well be in contention to play some part in the game.
“We’re hoping Adam comes through a session today (Thursday). If he does, both will be wanting to be involved to some extent which is good for us.
“Freddy Eastwood unfortunately probably won’t make tomorrow and may well be out for a couple of weeks. He gives everyone around the place a boost and no-one more than myself wants to see him back out on the training pitch.”
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Air Force Tries to Create a Warrior Culture in Space
By Jeff Foust 2018-03-08T16:07:11Z Spaceflight
Gen. Jay Raymond, Air Force Space Command commander, speaks at the Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower Conference in Montgomery, Ala.
(Image: © Air Force)
WASHINGTON — Skills to fight off enemies in space will be essential in wars against the likes of China and Russia, military strategists warn.
That presumption has put Air Force Space Command in the spotlight.
"We are at the war fighter table. We are not in the cheap seats anymore," said Maj. Gen. Joseph Guastella Jr., director of integrated air, space, cyberspace and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations at Air Force Space Command.
Guastella is a career fighter pilot who is now a "space operator." At Space Command, leaders are trying to bridge the cultural divide between the air and space professions to create a more cohesive force of space combatants. "We are in a cultural shift to a war fighting mentality," he said Friday at a Mitchell Institute breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill. [The Most Dangerous Space Weapons Concepts]
The Air Force is now staging "Space Flag" war rehearsals in virtual-reality simulations. Satellite technicians who operate communications, missile warning and navigation constellations are challenged to respond to enemy attempts to take down U.S systems. The next Space Flag is scheduled in April.
Satellite operators typically are viewed as technical support to war commanders, but increasingly they will take center stage, Guastella said. At Air Force training exercises like Red Flag, space has been a sideshow. Officials are trying to change that.
The idea is to give them "realistic training," Guastella said. "Operators have to decide: Can I maneuver my satellite and stay on mission? Or do I need to do something more drastic, come off mission and survive? What other assets out there can help me?"
Bomber and fighter pilots today can train in simulators that feel like real combat, there is no such thing for space. Current space simulators were designed for a "benign environment," he said. The Air Force has requested funds in the Pentagon's 2018 and 2019 budgets for systems that simulate contested space environments.
Separately, the Air Force conducts high-level strategic drills focused on space known as the Shriever War Games. These have taken place in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for many years but are now taking on additional importance as they have become a venue to experiment with new technologies and concepts.
The Shriever games give Space Command an opportunity to "fast forward five to 10 years, look at future capabilities that we're looking at buying," Guastella said. Officials want to "determine the relative value" of next-generation systems and "what really helps operators."
Space and intelligence operators are the primary target audience for Space Flag and the Shriever games, but increasingly the events are aimed at "big decision makers" who are in charge of budgets and policy but don't necessarily grasp the space world.
Another shift at Space Command has been the addition of intelligence officers and analysts. Foreign powers threatening satellites are a relatively new concern for the United States. As space forces take on war fighting and deterrence roles, they need better intelligence, Guastella said. "We have increased the intelligence manning across the command, from the squadron level, the group level, the wing level," he noted. "We are baking in the importance of intelligence into the space force."
A cadre of intelligence experts dedicated to space is "here to stay," Guastella said. "We'll build intelligence professionals that are steeped in space."
One of Space Command's missions, "space situational awareness," also will change, Guastella said. "We'll be paying less attention to benign objects and more attention to objects that may be adversarial," he said. "I'm really confident that with what we're doing in intelligence and space situational awareness, we are making a huge difference."
Intelligence reports about the capabilities of China and Russia to take out satellites or interfere with signals have alarmed U.S. defense leaders, and have sparked a heated debate in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill on what to do next.
Some officials have argued that current military satellites are attractive targets to enemies because of the their huge size and price tags. There is a push to transition to more resilient systems such as large constellations of small satellites. Guastella did not want to take sides on the matter. "Everything is on the table," he said.
The space force for now assumes that existing systems will be around for the foreseeable future. "We have the cards that we're dealt with right now," he said. "A lot of those cards we're going to have for a significant amount of time. But we're going to work to protect what we have."
Guastella suggested that there is nothing particularly unusual about enemies threatening the United State with some new technology. "Bad guys come up with new widgets. We figure out a way to change our tactics, techniques and procedures."
There is a growing focus, however, on "what we build into the future," Guastella said.
Unlike other generals who complain about the military's plodding procurement system, Guastella would not offer an opinion on the issue. "I've never seen a military commander that doesn't want stuff sooner. It's in our nature. Space is no different," he said. "The demand signal is off the charts."
He cautioned against rushing off to buy new systems, though. "These are important decisions. It's important we take our time. We need to move out, but we need to move out smartly." Meanwhile, "we are finding our way to fight with what we have right now."
Guastella also declined to weigh in on the escalating feud between the Air Force and leaders of the House Armed Services Committee over the congressional push to create a separate space corps. "The fact that we're thinking and talking about this is interesting.
This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
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NASA's Webb Space Telescope Mired By Budget Woes From the Start
By Mike Wall 2010-11-11T14:46:00Z Science & Astronomy
JWST will study every phase in the history of our Universe, from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth.
The delays and billion-dollar cost overruns afflicting NASA's next-generation space telescope stem from long-standing budgeting and management problems that began nearly a decade ago, an independent review panel has found.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope can launch no earlier than September 2015 and will cost at least $6.5 billion, the panel concluded in a report released yesterday (Nov. 10). That puts the telescope ? billed as the muscular successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope ? at least $1.5 billion over budget and more than a year behind schedule.
In a piece of good news, the panel found no fault with JWST's scientific progress, instead hailing its promise to become the world's next great space observatory.
"It has to do with the management and budgetary aspects of the project, not the technical aspects," panel chair John Casani, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters yesterday. "There was just not enough money in the budget to execute the work required."
Problems at the start
The James Webb Space Telescope, led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has huge light-collecting power. Its primary mirror is 21 feet (6.5 meters) wide ? more than twice as big as Hubble's.
While orbiting about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, JWST will scan the universe in infrared light, helping astronomers study the early days of the universe, the formation of alien star systems and much more, NASA officials have said.
"James Webb is a hugely more powerful facility than Hubble," said review panel member Garth Illingworth of the University of California Observatories. "It's 100 times more powerful, at least."
For its report, the review panel only considered what has gone wrong with the JWST project since 2008, when the telescope passed all of its preliminary design reviews and NASA formally committed to build it.
But the project has been underpriced from its inception, the panelists said.
JWST was named the top research priority by the 2001 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, a report put out every 10 years by the U.S. National Research Council.
The decadal survey pegged JWST's total cost at around $1 billion. While such a number may never have been achievable ? decadal surveys have issued some overly rosy budget prognostications through the years ? JWST's costs have undeniably exploded.
In its budget request for fiscal year 2011, NASA estimated the telescope would cost $5 billion over its lifetime, from design and development through the end of its operational life.
The space agency requested $445 million for JWST just for 2011. The telescope eats up about 40 percent of NASA's astrophysics division budget by itself, according to the review panel.
Costs have continued to rise because the budget ? the one the JWST project office gave to NASA when it officially committed to build the telescope in 2008 ? was too low, Casani said. And the problem was never fixed because NASA headquarters didn't realize there was a problem.
These issues are indicative of broader problems, the review panel concluded.
"The institutional cost and program analysis capability at the Directorate and Agency level continues to function without the skill and authority required," Casani wrote in a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden after the panel completed its review. "Demand for corrective action was absent, and poor management practices on the JWST Project went unquestioned for too long."
While the panel said that there was no way to reduce JWST's price tag below $6.5 billion at this point, it issued several recommendations to make the project leaner and more efficient in the future.
The panel suggested, for example, that the JWST program be restructured to improve accounting of costs and risks, and to give NASA's associate administrator stronger oversight capabilities.
NASA officials said they will take the panel's findings to heart, and that they have already implemented some of the recommendations.
"The report was very helpful in pointing out our flaws, and we intend to fix those," said Chris Scolese, NASA associate administrator. "We welcome the attention and the involvement."
Scolese added that NASA has already reorganized JWST, elevating it to a program that will report directly to him ? and that JWST team members will do so several times per week. And he said that NASA's Bolden is fully briefed and actively involved.
"The administrator is taking this very seriously," Scolese said.
Despite JWST's problems, the panel lauded the telescope's tremendous scientific potential, stressing that it will provide huge payoffs once it gets off the ground.
"This is an absolutely outstanding technical and scientific endeavor," Casani said. "This is a tough job, but it's just the kind of job NASA was created for, and just the kind of job NASA should be doing."
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Former Head of Pentagon's Secret UFO Program Has Some (Strange) Stories to Tell
By Mindy Weisberger 2019-05-31T10:41:12Z Search for Life
The former leader of the U.S. government's top-secret UFO program has stories to tell, and he is sharing some of them for the first time in a new documentary.
Intelligence officer Luis Elizondo served as the former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), an initiative launched in 2007 to study reports of UFO encounters. Elizondo departed the agency in 2017; that year, he spoke with reporters at The New York Times, confirming the existence of the shadowy agency and describing its mission.
Now, Elizondo is pulling back the curtain on his tenure with the AATIP, which he left because of a lackluster official response to the agency's findings, and their unwillingness to address potential risks from UFOs, according to the new show "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation," premiering May 31 on the History Channel at 10 p.m ET/9 p.m. CT.
Related: UFO Watch: 8 Times the Government Looked for Flying Saucers
No, there isn't a big reveal that UFOs were alien spacecraft all along. But delving into long-hidden accounts of UFO investigations will hopefully encourage people — and authorities — to overcome long-standing stigmas and talk more openly about these mysterious aircraft, some of which may pose a bigger threat than we realize, Elizondo told Live Science.
In 2014 and 2015, pilots with the U.S. Navy reported multiple UFO sightings during training maneuvers.
(Image credit: Copyright History 2019)
UFOs have perplexed and fascinated people for decades; they also pose a unique challenge to federal agents trying to determine if they represent a threat to national security. Before AATIP, the U.S. Air Force had launched Project Blue Book, which investigated more than 12,000 purported UFO sightings from 1952 to 1969.
During Elizondo's tenure at AATIP, observers reported UFOs flying at hypersonic speeds — more than five times the speed of sound. Yet there were none of the signatures that usually accompany aircraft flying at such fantastic speeds, such as sonic booms, he said.
The UFOs were also unexpectedly mobile, traveling so fast that they would have experienced gravitational forces, or G-forces, that far exceed the limits of endurance for both humans and aircraft. The F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, one of the most maneuverable in the U.S.'s arsenal, reaches its limit at around 16 to 18 G's, while the human body can withstand about 9 G's "for a very short time" before a person would start to black out, Elizondo said.
"These things that we were observing were pulling 400 to 500 G's," he said. "They don't have engines or even wings, and they are able to seemingly defy the natural effects of Earth's gravitational pull."
Some of the UFO sightings reported to AATIP were eventually resolved, as aerial drones or test firings of new types of missiles that were spotted from an unusual angle. But while many astonishing UFOs still defied explanation, there simply isn't enough evidence to suggest they belonged to extraterrestrials, Elizondo added.
However, another possibility is even more unsettling than the prospect of an alien invasion: that a foreign adversary had secretly developed technologies that are "strategic game-changers," unlike anything ever seen before, he said. Addressing that potential threat is a necessary step that government officials — even those that supported AATIP — don't take seriously enough, according to Elizondo.
What's more, the entrenched secrecy shrouding official UFO investigations only reinforces the association of UFOs with "tinfoil hats and ridiculous stories."
"We trust the American people to know that North Korea has nuclear warheads pointed at Los Angeles, yet we don't trust them with the knowledge that there's something in our skies and we don't know what it is? That seems counterproductive to me," Elizondo said.
Editor's Note: This story was updated with the correction that Luis Elizondo left the Pentagon in 2017, not 2011.
7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs
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Originally published on Live Science.
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Joe Ingles helped give Landon Carter the gift of sight. On Thursday, the boy saw the Jazz beat the Suns.
Jazz forward gave Carter $10,000 goggles that has helped him see despite being born legally blind.
(Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune) Landon Carter, 8, watches the Utah Jazz play Phoenix Suns at Vivint Smart Home Arena Thursday, March 15, 2018.
By Kyle Goon
· Published: March 16, 2018
For the first time in his life, Landon Carter was able to watch a live basketball game.
But he has been seeing so much more than that lately, thanks to Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles.
Imagine being born without irises like Carter was, a condition known as aniridia syndrome. He can focus on images that are 6 inches in front of his face, but the rest of the world is a blur. For the first eight years of his life, Carter lived in Utah without seeing a mountain. He couldn’t watch basketball unless the screen was directly in front of him.
“I can go to the movies and be able to see stuff,” he said. “Now I can go to museums and see all the stuff. And I really like the features of taking pictures and zooming in and out.”
Carter has been given the ability to see with electronic glasses made by eSight, which have high-definition cameras that capture images and broadcast them on LED screens that bring the pictures he’s never seen to where he can see them.
Previously, Carter had made headlines for wearing the glasses to a Jazz game in April, having spent all previous Jazz games playing on his father’s phone. When his dad, Jeff Carter, asked the Jazz if they had any devices for the visually impaired, the Jazz bought goggles for fans to use when they come to games. Landon saw his first live basketball game last season through his glasses, and they were a delight.
But he still had to leave the glasses at the arena when he went home. Ingles decided to fix that, buying Landon his own personal pair for an estimated $10,000. The Jazz arranged a meet-and-greet with the Carters and Ingles last July, and Ingles dropped the glasses as a surprise.
The family was floored — even more so when the Jazz forward spent the next hour of his time talking to Landon.
“The level of him giving back to the community is huge,” Jeff Carter said. “It’s not just, ‘Here’s a few dollars,’ it’s being invested in the community and really giving back.”
Since then, the Carters have taken the glasses well outside the confines of the arena — the outdoors, the movies, museums. Now with the ability to see the world beyond his reach, there’s always something else to look at.
That included Thursday’s game, when the Jazz played the Phoenix Suns. Carter was invited down to the floor to talk with Ingles on the bench as the Jazz warmed up. The two talked for 15 minutes. Hugs and high-fives were exchanged.
Joe Ingles chats pregame with Landon Carter, an 8-year-old fan. Ingles gifted Carter, who is legally blind, a $10,000 pair of goggles from eSight that allows him to see high-definition images of the world around him. Along with his father, Jeff Carter, Landon watched the game in the crowd at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 15, 2018. Photo by Angela Treasure. Courtesy of the Utah Jazz.
“He’s just a regular kid, and wants to play like the rest of the kids and sit in the back of class — to be able to give an opportunity to do that was just something I couldn’t not do,” Ingles said. “To be able to walk down the street and look at the trees or see his friends, it means a lot. It was awesome to see him and his dad. Pretty special.”
The Carters sat in the front row of the upper bowl because the technology works better when he doesn’t have to move his head drastically. When Landon wants to take occasional breaks, his father puts the glasses in a special hard-cover case — after all, this is among the family’s most treasured possessions.
He was able to see when his favorite player hit Utah’s first 3-pointer of the game. Ingles would finish with 17 points in the 116-88 win, which was in part dedicated to the boy proudly wearing his jersey up in the stands.
And most important, Landon saw it happen.
“He’s a great shooter,” Landon Carter said. “That’s what I really like about him. And he’s just, like, really, really nice.”
kgoon@sltrib.com
twitter Follow @kylegoon
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California, Sacramento
Exploring California’s Capitol: 30 Things To Do In Sacramento
Sacramento has a lot going for it beyond politics. There’s a thriving farm-to-fork food movement with local restaurants, an art scene that holds its own, plenty of outdoor activities to indulge in and the rich history of this city that is on display everywhere you go.
Here are 30 things to do in Sacramento that will help you explore the city’s diversity and all it has to offer.
State Capitol and Capitol Park
I know, I know, I said Sacramento is more than its politics, but this historical building is not to be missed. A visit gives insight into both the history of the state capitol as well as present day politics that are currently taking place under its roof. If you’re lucky you can catch state legislators at work from the assembly hall located on the second floor. Take a self-guided tour or a free-guided tour that run on the hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Afterward, head out onto the grounds and admire trees from around the world.
Old Town Sacramento
There’s so history in this state park, and I love how it feels like time traveling back to the Gold Rush Era, with the weathered wooden building facades. Check out spots like the Eagle Theater, Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum, and the Sacramento History Museum for a glimpse into daily life in the Wild West. If you have a sweet tooth, head over to Munchie’s, where you can sample all the saltwater taffy you can stomach.
There are plenty of interesting things to do in Sacramento, including going back in time in Old Town and experiencing the Wild West.
Governor’s Mansion State Historic Park
Worth a stop to see this historic building where many past governors called it their home. The house itself is no longer open to the public for tours since Governor Jerry Brown lives there now, but you can still admire it from the grounds and take as many picture as you want. If you’re around the area during the holidays, the house is decked out in lights and is bound to bring holiday cheer.
Leland Stanford Mansion
There’s so much of the city’s history within the walls of this Victorian mansion, from being built during the Gold Rush to the deals that took place within this building that helped create the transcontinental railroad. It’s now a state historic park and you can take a free one hour tour, which run hourly from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Afterward, don’t miss the 19th century gardens that surround the property.
Sutter’s Fort
If you need further proof of the rich history in Sacramento, look no further than this abandoned fort in the middle of Midtown. Historically, it’s one of the Central Valley’s earliest non-Native American settlements, and you can explore how life was like way back when with detailed exhibits and period demonstrations.
Delta King
If you ever wanted to stay on a riverboat, or just wanted to have dinner aboard one, this is worth a stop. The food is hit or miss and overpriced (as is usually the case on tourist attractions), but you can always order a drink at the bar and soak in the view without the hefty price tag at the end of the night.
One of Sacramento’s iconic landmarks, this bridge is worth passing by on the river pathway, but it’s even better to get up close and personal by walking on it. It was built in 1935 as a shortcut from West Sacramento to Sacramento. Make sure to come back at night when it’s illuminated in a golden glow.
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
No matter your religious beliefs, this building is worth checking out for its Italian Renaissance architectural details and vibrant stained glass windows. It also makes an ideal cool respite from the hot summer sun. Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament offers tours every Wednesday and Sunday.
Dragon House
This private home located in the neighborhood of Curtis Park immediately stands out from its neighbors with its mosaic tile designs of dragons, tigers and other mythical creatures coming to life on the side of the walls. Feel free to take photos, just be respectful of the people living there.
American River Parkway
Sacramento is a biking city, and there’s no better way to explore its natural beauty than riding a bike along this 23-mile pathway that winds its way along the scenic riverbank. It’s a great spot for a morning ride, where beating the crowds is motivation enough for getting there early.
Sacramento is surrounded by farmland and we are definitely spoiled with some of the freshest produce around. There are numerous farmers markets throughout the city. A popular one is the Capitol Mall Farmers Market every Thursday from May to October, where there’s a good assortment of food trucks amid the fresh produce. The Midtown Farmers Market also is another favorite, with tons of local character and excellent donuts.
From the beginning of May to the end of July, Cesar Chavez Park comes alive with free concerts in Downtown Sacramento. There’s nothing better than rocking out with hundreds of locals that says summertime in the city. The line up is nothing to scoff at-this year’s headliner was Scottish indie rock bank Franz Ferdinand. Concerts are on Fridays from 5-9 p.m.
Sacramento Historic City Cemetery
Founded in 1849, this tranquil spot in the city is perfect for learning about the final resting place of many of the city’s notable individuals from Captain John A Sutter to some of Sacramento’s earliest mayors and governors. Docent guided tours are available as well as self-guided tours, where you can pick up a map in the Visitors Center.
Take A Tree Tour From Sacramento Tree Foundation
Go on a free guided tree tour or take your own self-guided tree tour and learn more about tree identification, fun tree facts, and tree history in the City of Trees. Neighborhoods that are featured include Capitol Park, McKinley Park and Arden Park.
There is no better way to learn about the city than from the local tour guides who know it best. Local Roots Food Tours give three-hour food tours around Downtown, Midtown, and Sutter District, where you can sample local treats as well as learn about the surrounding history of the area.
One of my favorite things to do is walking around the beautiful homes and wide streets of the Fab 40s, especially during the holidays when whole blocks are lit up with lights. If you’re a fan of Lady Bird, the Blue House in the film can be found on 44 and M Street, and is hard to miss.
A large community park in East Sacramento that is great for a picnic on the lawn or admiring the blooms in the rose garden (of Lady Bird fame). There’s a walking path around the perimeter that’s great for people-watching. There is also a nice playground and duck pond for kids.
California Museum
There are a lot of good museums in Sacramento, but this one is my favorite because it gives detailed accounts on moments of California history that are not always given attention, including influential women throughout California’s history and the discrimination the Japanese Americans faced during WWII within the state. Make sure to stop by the Unity Center, which celebrates California’s diverse population, and the California Hall of Fame, which features notable individuals throughout California’s relatively short history.
Crocker Art Museum
This museum is an art lover’s dream. With part of it housed in the historical Crocker mansion, it’s worth dropping by for both the art and architecture of this impressive space. Created in 1885, the Crocker Art Museum is one of the longest running museums in the West and boasts an extensive collection of local California art, originating from the Gold Rush to current day. There’s also a good amount of European and American art as well to enjoy.
California State Railroad Museum
So many trains, so little time. Whether you are a train enthusiast or lukewarm toward locomotives, this museum located in Old Town Sacramento makes you appreciate the great invention of the railroad. The best part is on the first floor of the museum where you can explore the restored trains from classics locomotives to futuristic bullet trains.
California Auto Museum
With an impressive 150+ collection of cars on display, this is a great place to spend some time and browse everything from Ford Model T to rare European cars. Check out their Drive-In Movie Nights, where you can watch a classic film right outside the museum during the summertime.
Sacramento has a wealth of murals, and it seems like I’m always discovering a new one. A good place to start your mural tour is Downtown and Midtown, where murals including the newly created Lady Bird mural brighten up the sides of buildings. If you’re in town during early August, Wide Open Walls hosts a mural festival throughout downtown where you watch local artists in motion.
2nd Saturday Art Walk
Head over to Midtown to explore the local galleries, along with food and wine, and live music. It’s a great way to support local artists and mingle with locals in a relaxed environment. The art walk is on every 2nd Saturday of the month and starts around 5:30 pm.
The Tower Theater
I’m a sucker for historical movie theaters, and this one oozes nostalgia. It has been a local favorite for 80 years and shows independent films on its four screens. What it lacks in modern day amenities, it makes up with its charm. Parking in the lot can be difficult so make sure to come early to snag a spot.
Crest Theater
A beautiful historical venue located centrally in Downtown to catch a movie or see a concert in. The line-up is diverse from a Japanese film festival to an Indigo Girl concert, there’s a little something for everyone. If you’re into shows that thrive off of audience participation make sure to stop by for the popular Sound Of Music sing-a-long.
Sacramento Theater Company
As someone who was deeply involved in theater during high school, I always love a good local theater performance. This company puts on top-notch plays and musicals throughout the year and has an intimate seating set-up where there are no bad seats in the house. If you’re there during the holidays, check out their excellent version of A Christmas Carol.
Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera
From Vivaldi to Journey, this company puts on a show for a diverse number of musical tastes. The performances make for a great night out if you want to do something a bit different and take advantage of some of the city’s top musical talent.
Sacramento Ballet
A ballet company that puts on a range of different performances, from classical shows to events like the Beer and Ballet series, which combines a diverse range of dance numbers with a complentary glass of beer and wine. If you’re in town during December, The Nutcracker will definitely leave you in the holiday spirit.
Sacramento Kings Game at Golden 1 Center
Hometown pride runs deep with the city’s only major league team, and there’s no better place to witness it than at this shinny new downtown arena. Whether or not you are a basketball fan, a game is worth experiencing to see what all the (literal) noise is all about and sample the upgraded food options, like the pork sandwich from Porchetta House.
Asha Urban Baths
This spa is an oasis of calm in the middle of the city. It’s a small space, but very calming with a large warm water pool, a cold plunge pool, a sauna and a steam room. Classical music, lemon water, and numerous lounge chairs make you never want to leave. There are also yoga classes given on-site. A day pass costs $25.
What are your favorite things to do in Sacramento?
Photo sources: Dragon House
Exploring Gold Country: 48 Hours In Sutter Creek, California Where To Eat in Sacramento The Best Sacramento Day Trips A Perfect 2 Day Sacramento Itinerary
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Startup Analysis
Election 2019: A policy guide for startups
Stephanie Palmer-Derrien / Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas.
It’s finally federal election time, and come Saturday, startup founders across Australia will be heading to the polls to make their voices heard and enjoy a sausage.
We know the people in this space are a conscientious bunch, and their votes won’t be decided purely on startup and tech policy. But, if you’re on the fence, or wondering which PM will really help boost your business, we’ve got everything you need to know right here.
First of all, there are heaps of policies aimed at helping small businesses, some of which are more applicable to startups than others. If you’re interested in broader small-business policy, read SmartCompany’s small business policy explainer here.
The Liberal Party has committed $60 million to Export Market Development Grants to help Australian businesses —including those exporting services and intellectual property — to go global. However, to be eligible, you must have incurred at least $15,000 of eligible export promotion expenses, making the scheme a little more tricky for cash-strapped startups to access.
Equally, the Liberal Party has stressed it will support exports in farming, manufacturing and mining, as well as for service providers, without mentioning software or technology.
The Liberal Party has also promised to cut the tax rate for all SMEs with turnover of less than $50 million from 27.5% to 25% by 2021-22.
Unincorporated businesses with turnover of less than $5 million will also receive an 8% tax discount, capped at $1,000. This discount is set to double by 2021-22, although the $1,000 cap will remain.
The Morrison government has also pledged to increase the instant asset write-off threshold from $25,000 to $30,000 for businesses with an annual turnover of less than $50 million.
Finally, for any small businesses or startups working with the government, the Liberal Party plans to introduce a requirement that bills are paid within 20 days, for contracts up to $1 million.
On the other side of the fence, the Labor Party is also committing to dropping the corporate tax rate for small businesses to 25%, and to increasing the instant asset tax write-off threshold to $30,000.
But, it’s also pledging a 30% tax cut for small businesses hiring employees younger than 25 or older than 55. Startups with revenue of $10 million or less will receive the tax break on the wages of up to five employees, for their first year of employment.
While this policy has been largely welcomed by the small business community, and could help improve diversity in the startup ecosystem, it will not apply to startups that are not yet profitable.
It could also come with restrictive red tape.
Speaking to SmartCompany last week, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive Peter Strong said it would be important to make it easy for businesses to get the benefit of the policy, “without a lot of paperwork”.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Focus on tech
The Liberal campaign hasn’t had much of a focus on technology and innovation, which is perhaps telling in itself. And so we can only glean insight from the government’s track record.
Malcolm Turnbull’s National Innovation and Science Agenda appears to have gone out the window, and while things like the employee share scheme are getting underway, concerns have arisen the changes are happening slowly, and don’t go far enough.
The Liberal government has also removed the position of innovation minister from the cabinet, and the Federal budget last month included little about technology or innovation, and mentioned the word ‘startup’ precisely once.
Finally, earlier this year, the government passed new laws criminalising companies that host “abhorrent violent material” on their platforms. Again, this was widely criticised by those in the startup ecosystem, with many saying the rules are too far-reaching and will have a damaging effect on tech companies as a whole.
The Labor Party has failed to stop some of the most problematic changes of the past months from coming into effect. However, it has released several policies that could put innovation back on the agenda if it’s elected.
Shorten has promised $3 million to a national centre of AI excellence, and pledged to work closely with stakeholders on how the funding can best be used to support research and industry acceleration in Australia.
The policies also outline plans for a $3 million blockchain academy in Perth — the home of Aussie startup success story Power Ledger.
When it comes to the issue of an innovation minister, however, it’s unclear where the Labor Party stands.
On the face of it, with Kim Carr serving as Shadow Innovation Minister and Ed Husic — a vocal supporter of tech in Australia — as Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, one would hope at least one minister would make it to the final cabinet. But there’s no evidence here, so don’t take it as a given.
Ed Husic speaking at the Safe Encryption Australia event. Source: Supplied.
AA Bill
Now, to get down to specifics. Late-2018 saw the introduction of the Assistance and Access Bill 2018, which was heavily criticised by the startup community. Although there were promises of amendments to be discussed early this year, as of yet, nothing has come of them.
Again, the Liberal Party hasn’t made much mention of the bill in its campaigning, so we can only assume that if the party remains in power, things will pretty much be business as usual.
Speaking at a Safe Encryption Australia event run by StartupAUS and Innovation AUS in March, Ed Husic promised a Labor government would push to make amendments to the AA Bill, to “make sure we fix these terrible laws”.
Specifically, Labor’s changes will prohibit introducing systemic weakness into a tech company’s systems and strengthen the requirement for a judicial warrant before communications can be accessed.
Labor has also pledged to conduct an inquiry into the economic effects of the law.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Source: AAP Image/Sam Mooy.
This is another area in which an ongoing debacle has caused a headache for startups. In 2017, the Liberal government announced the scrapping on the 457 visa, sparking concern it could become more difficult for tech companies to recruit talent from overseas.
The Global Talent Scheme (GTS), under the new Temporary Skills Shortage subclass 482 visa was intended to address the talent shortage, but the launch was somewhat drowned out by last year’s cabinet reshuffle.
A high bar for applicants and a lot of red tape has led to a muted response to the GTS. As of February this year, not a single application had been lodged under the startup stream.
At the time of writing, the Liberal Party had not directly addressed startup-specific visas.
The Labor party proposed its SMART visa scheme in 2017, suggesting it would help attract leaders in science, medicine, academia, research and technology, all while protecting Australian jobs. So far, it’s unclear if this is still the plan.
However, last month, Labor announced a crackdown on what it called “457-style visas”, in a bid to prevent the exploitation of foreign workers, and to get more Australians into employment.
“We should be a country who doesn’t have a temporary worker filling a skills shortage one day longer than it takes to train an Australian,” Shorten said at the time.
However, this pledge is vague, and appears to be targeted at lower-skilled positions and trades, not tech companies. Could visa changes see startups caught in the crossfire once again? We will just have to wait and see.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Source: AAP/Mick Tsikas.
R&D and commercialisation
In the 2018 Federal Budget, the Coalition introduced a $4 million cap on research and development cash refunds available to companies with an annual turnover of less than $20 million, causing concern among the tech industry that R&D activity — particularly in the expensive biotech sector — could move offshore.
In this year’s budget, however, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government is “backing the industries of the future”, and laid out specific funding allocations for medical research commercialisation and genomics research.
The budget committed an additional $1.2 billion to Australia’s Medical Research Investment Plan, on top of the existing $1.5 billion investment.
Again, the Liberal Party hasn’t made any promises about R&D tax incentives, or the ongoing review into the scheme, if it is re-elected.
Labor also hasn’t focused on the R&D tax incentive in its proposed policies, although it has said it plans to further exempt startups from cuts to the scheme.
However, the opposition has promised to “end the war on science and research”, and to improve the relationship between the Australian government and the research community.
Labor has pledged to boost R&D to 3% of GDP per year by 2030, and to establish a Prime Minister’s Science and Innovation Council.
While this is not startup-specific, the council will provide advice on the implications of new technology and research, and advise on the strategic approach the government takes to technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation.
According to recent StartupSmart research, people in the ecosystem are notably concerned about climate change. While the Morrison government isn’t famously hot on renewables, Liberal policies do pledge a few targets intended to move the dial, and this could include support for startups working in this space.
The Liberal government intends to have a third of Australia’s electricity coming from renewables by the early-2020s, and it’s putting money into projects that can help make that happen.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will receive $6.4 billion to fund 110 projects.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will also receive $1.35 billion, for renewable energy projects including energy storage, integrating renewables into the grid, and exporting for renewable hydrogen.
Elsewhere, a $20 million Product Stewardship Investment fund will be set up to accelerate work on recycling schemes, and $20 million will be invested through the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) for innovative solutions for recycling plastic and managing waste.
Labor has gone a step further, pledging 50% of electricity will come from renewable energy by 2030, as well as targeting pollution reduction of 45%, and net zero pollution by 2050.
It is also promising to double investment into the CEFC, adding $10 billion to support new electricity generation and storage solutions, and the transformation and growth of new industries.
Labor has committed $60 million to a National Recycling Fund, including funding for innovative waste solutions, as well as $100 million to marine science and a $10 million boost for the CSIRO Climate Science Centre.
Finally, Labor is pushing for more uptake in electric vehicle sales, offering $200 million to roll out charging infrastructure, and targeting 50% of new car sales by 2030.
Finally, the Liberal Party has made a passing nod to women in startups, promising $3.6 million to a Future of Female Entrepreneurs program, and $18 million to a Boosting Female Founders startup fund.
Morrison has also said the re-elected government will invest $1.8 million to extend the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) to improve gender equality in higher education and research institutions.
Labor is planning to create a National Evaluation Framework for Girls and Women in STEM Initiatives, and also to further fund the SAGE program.
Shorten also plans to establish a national Women in Science Day.
NOW READ: You decide: Uncertainty prevails as small business emerges as defining factor in election
NOW READ: Fed up with politics? Let artificial intelligence tell you who to vote for
Stephanie Palmer-Derrien
Stephanie Palmer-Derrien is the editor at StartupSmart. You can contact her at [email protected].
Influencers are playing a greater role in marketing says international software brand
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Crazy For You Madonna Download 'Crazy For You' on iTunes
Macca Shares First Pic of His Pirates Of The Caribbean Character
15 May 2017, 11:41 | Updated: 2 November 2017, 15:29
We'd hardly recognise him!
Sir Paul McCartney has shared a preview of his upcoming role in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' on Twitter.
The 74-year-old musician delighted followers by sharing a poster for the movie which sees him dressed in full pirate gear holding a deck of cards.
#PiratesLife pic.twitter.com/9GXS5QB931
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) May 13, 2017
He's not the only rock star making an appearance in the film – Keith Richards has already been confirmed to play Jack Sparrow's father, Captain Teague.
It's not clear who exactly Paul will be playing, but according to IMDB, he's listed as 'Jail Guard 2'.
'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' is out on 26th May.
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Jon Hamm Biography, Life, Interesting Facts
Also Known For :
St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
Chinese Zodiac :
Birth Element :
Jon Hamm is an American actor and producer born on March 10th, 1971. He is best known for his role in Mad Men of AMC series as Don Draper. This earned him many awards and also critical praise. The talented actor has also starred in films such as The Town and Bridesmaids. His debut role in the film industry was in the first-grade production, Winnie-the-Pooh.
At the age of sixteen, he acted a role in the film Godspell as Judas. In the 2015 film Minions, he is the voice of Herb Overkill. Jon Hamm has always been a fan of St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, he was the 2011 Official World Series film narrator of the team after they hired him.
Sadly for the talented actor, he became an orphan at the age of 20 after he lost both his parents. His mother died when he was 10 and later his father when he was 20. Throughout his career, Jon Hamm has won some awards. In both 2008 and 2016, he won the Golden Globe Award. Additionally, his role in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt earned him the 2015 Emmy nod.
Jon Hamm was born on March 10th, 1971. His place of birth was in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. He is the son of Daniel and Deborah. His father earned a living managing their family trucking company. His mother, on the other hand, served as a secretary. At the age of 2, his parents divorced.
His mother raised him on her own in St. Louis County, Creve Coeur. Sadly, she passed away a few years later following colon cancer. Jon was only ten years old at the time of his mother’s death. As a result, he was forced to move in with his father who lived in Clayton, Missouri. Sadly, Jon lost his father when he was 20 years old making him an orphan.
Jon Hamm attended a private school located in Ladue known as John Burroughs School. He participated actively in the baseball, football and swim teams of the school. He also dated Sarah Clarke who later became a prominent actress. He then graduated in 1989. Subsequently, he joined the University of Texas followed by the University of Missouri. In 1993, he attained his B.A degree in English.
After his graduation, Jon Hamm taught eighth-grade acting at his former high school. Among his students was the actress Ellie Kemper. He later moved to Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue his career in acting. However, it wasn’t easy for Jon to land an acting job easily as he had anticipated. Luckily in 2000, he landed his first role in The Hughleys, the comedy series. He was also featured in Space Cowboys and Providence.
The year 2007 marked a turning point in Jon’s career with his role in Mad Men. In the film, he was cast as Don Draper, a philandering ad executive. The film was a huge success and won the 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series among other many other awards. Jon himself won the Emmy Award in 2015 for this role. In 2014, Jon Hamm starred in The Million Dollar Arm movie of heartwarming sports.
Jon Hamm was involved in a long-term relationship with Jennifer Westfeldt since 1997 till 2015.
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Team GB at Baku 2015: Day three preview
15 June 2015 / 04:15
Attention turns 250km west of Baku this morning to Mingachevir where Jonathan Boyton and the women’s K4 500m team have the chance to make waves in their respective kayak finals.
Lani Belcher, Angela Hannah, Louisa Sawers and Hayleigh Mason will race for the medals in the K4 500m final from 06:00 BST while Boyton, a 16-time national champion, goes in the K1 1000m final and is loving every moment of his Team GB debut.
“This is my first time as part of Team GB and it is nice to feel part of something bigger than just my own sport and to represent my country in this way.
“I have felt on the edge of breaking through into the A final at the last two World Cup events, so I am pleased that it has come together in the European Games.
“This is my first A final at a major competition, so I’m really pleased with that and looking forward to it.”
Nile Wilson’s artistic gymastics team will be hoping to improve on their fifth-place ranking from the first session of the final to squeeze onto the podium.
The 19-year-old, together with Frank Baines and Brinn Bevan, scored a combined 85.231 points yesterday, performing best on the floor where they amassed 29.300 points.
Today, they are set to tackle the vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar and Bevan is full of confidence.
“This is only half the job done with some solid routines that we can build on and see where that places us,” he said.
“It’s a very high quality line up here, so we know we have to push for our best to be amongst the team medals.”
Team GB’s women are also in action, resuming in seventh place. The trio of Charlie Fellows, Georgina Hockenhull and Kelly Simm will be bidding to build on the 54.832 points accumulated inside the National Gymnastics Arena.
Jodie Cowie and Genevieve Randall are back in the pool in the synchronised swimming duets final and are also set to be part of Britain’s 10-strong team in the afternoon’s free routine final.
Wrestler Yana Rattigan gets her European Games up and running in the women’s 48kg freestyle competition and has fond memories of Baku.
The 28-year-old became the first female to win a medal at a European Championships for Great Britain when she claimed silver in the Azerbaijani capital in 2010.
Elsewhere the water polo team continue their Group A campaign against Israel.
Team GB at Baku 2015: Day three schedule
Gymnastics – Artistic
Event: Men’s individual qualification and team finals – 06:00-08:30 BST
Event: Women’s individual qualification and team finals – 06:00-08:30 BST
Where to watch: Both sessions will be live on BT Sport Extra from 5:55 BST, while both are also available to watch online at www.Baku2015.com
Event: Duet final – 06:00-07:45 BST
Event: Team final – 14:00-16:00 BST
Where to watch: Duet final will be live on BT Sport 2 from 06:00 BST, while the team final will be on BT Sport Extra from 14:00. Both are also available to watch online at www.Baku2015.com
Event: Women’s 48kg freestyle qualification, quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal bouts – 06:00-10:00 BST, 15:00-17:30 BST
Where to watch: Live on BT Sport 1 from 07:30-10:00 BST and on BT Sport 2 from 15:00-17:30 BST. All action available to watch live via the Baku 2015 website at www.Baku2015.com
Event: Finals men’s K1 1000m, women’s K4 500m – 06:00-07:00
Event: Men’s heats and semi-finals; K2 200m, C1 200m, K1 200m, women’s heats and semi-finals; K2 200m, K1 200m – 10:00-13:00
Where to watch: First session live on BT Sport 1 from 06:00 BST, while the second is live on BT Sport 2 from 10:00 BST/ Both also available to watch via the Baku 2015 website www.Baku2015.com
Event: Women’s Group Stage - Team GB v Israel – 11:00-12:00 BST
Where to watch: Watch live via the Baku 2015 website at www.Baku2015.com
Remember, you can keep up to date with all the result, video highlights and behind-the-scenes action through our social media channels via Facebook and Twitter as well as on TeamGB.com.
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Tree Pruning & Planting Workshop
7/20/2019 6:00:00 PM – 7/20/2019 8:00:00 PM
Saskatchewan Sports Field Training Day
Take the Lead!® Youth Leader Training
7/26/2019 4:00:00 PM – 7/26/2019 10:00:00 PM
Exercise Theory - Regina
9/12/2019 11:00:00 PM – 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM
Recognize excellence in the parks and recreation field by nominating a deserving individual or group for one of the 2019 SPRA Awards.
These Awards pay tribute to individuals and communities, who through their efforts and skills have made outstanding and extraordinary contributions to the parks and recreation movement in Saskatchewan. Read the 2019 Awards Brochure below for more information.
Excellence in Leadership Awards
The following Awards are presented to individuals, municipalities or community groups to recognize their valued leadership contributions toward promoting recreation, leisure and healthy active lifestyle in their communities.
Recipients are volunteers, professionals, involved citizens, youth or community groups. Recipients give their time, energy and commitment, develop relationships and partnerships, create opportunities for recreation, fitness and healthy living. As well, they engage and encourage others to use parks, open spaces and recreation facilities to achieve a healthy, active lifestyle.
Presented to a volunteer to recognize outstanding achievements in the improvement of recreation/leisure opportunities at the local level, including, but not limited to, volunteer efforts taking place in Saskatchewan in the last 12 months.
The recipient must be volunteering in Saskatchewan for a minimum of five years. The nominee’s achievements should promote the value and benefits of active living and support a healthier future for their community.
Youth Volunteer of the Year Award
Presented to a volunteer or group of volunteers 18 years of age or younger, to recognize outstanding achievements in the improvement of recreation/leisure opportunities at the local level, including, but not limited to, volunteer efforts taking place in Saskatchewan over the last 12 months.
The nominee’s achievements should promote the value and benefits of active living and support a healthier future for their community.
Presented to a municipality and/or community group(s) for substantial cooperative community effort with a large volunteer component. The initiative will be specific to Saskatchewan and should focus on the important role of volunteers in the development of a recreation program, event, project or park that has, or will enhance the quality of life for a significant number of people in the area.
Fitness Leadership Award
Presented to a current SPRA Certified Fitness Leader who is a strong and successful promoter of fitness and physical activity in their community. The individual demonstrates a healthy, active lifestyle and is a role model for others in the community.
The individual must have a minimum of five years’ experience working in Saskatchewan in the fitness industry as an active instructor and advocate for the field.
Efficiency and Innovation Awards
These Awards are presented to individuals, practitioners, volunteers, organizations or municipalities whose innovation and/or ingenuity has resulted in improvements in the day-to-day operations of recreational facilities.
The recipient’s attention to quality, accessibility and participation is evidenced by facilities and operations that are inclusive, attract community members and instill community ownership and pride; thereby contributing to the quality of recreation and leisure in the lives of community members.
Cecil Nobes Facility Award of Excellence
Awarded to a Saskatchewan municipality for construction of a new facility, where the unique or outstanding design contributes to the overall efficiency or accessibility of the facility operation component (i.e. functional for public use, efficient operation or maintenance, accessibility for persons with a disability). This Award may also be awarded for a retrofit or renovation project that has significantly improved service to users, saved significant operational costs through energy consumption and/or contributed to an overall operational improvement.
Note: A recreation facility is defined as indoor or outdoor areas and spaces utilized for recreation (i.e. fishing platform, sports complex, archery range, trail, etc.).
Facility Operations Award
Awarded to a long-term practitioner or volunteer group, working in Saskatchewan for a minimum of five years, whose leadership in the facilities sector demonstrates extraordinary or outstanding achievement in the enhancement or operation of a recreation facility/ facilities in the Province of Saskatchewan.
This Award recipient is either an individual or group that goes above and beyond regular job expectations and whose ingenuity and/or good management on a daily basis has increased the efficiency of facility operations and promoted facility development at the local, provincial and/or national level.
Possible areas of impact could include maintenance programs, energy efficiency, utilization of volunteers, invention of, or innovations to facilities maintenance equipment, innovations or outstanding achievement in general management, staffing programs, increased service or other areas of positive impact.
Parks and Open Space Award
This Award recognizes excellence in the planning, design and development/redevelopment (renewal of an existing space) of a private or public park or open space in Saskatchewan. Parks and open space refers to land that has been reserved for the purpose of formal and informal sport and recreation, preservation of natural environments, provision of green space and/or urban storm water management. This space must have been in existence for a minimum of one year and shall have demonstrated outstanding and/or innovative aspects which have or could have significant impact in the recreation and parks field.
Examples of eligible projects include renewal of a trail system, energy conservation (source water protection, etc.), ratio of green space to established property, open spaces (flexible for multiple use), skateboard parks, parks with interpretive features, accessible playgrounds, etc.
Outstanding Achievement Awards
The following Awards are presented to individuals, groups or member organizations for outstanding leadership contributions and accomplishments that have created a positive impact on the field of parks and recreation at the community, district, provincial or national level.
These Award recipients are agents of positive change, who through the development or strengthening of strategy, policy, programs, partnerships, networks and/or relationships, have increased the value people place on recreation and leisure, open spaces, parks, and/or the longevity of the field of parks and recreation.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious Award presented by SPRA. This Award recipient’s outstanding active and committed leadership, has resulted in a broad contribution to the recreation movement at the national, provincial, district and local level.
The individual must have contributed a minimum of 20 years of service through participation on committees including, membership on SPRA and/or CPRA Board of Directors and/or related subcommittees, development of partnerships, leaving legacy achievements, and recognition through other awards.
President’s Award of Distinction
The President’s Award of Distinction is one of the most prestigious Awards presented by SPRA for contributions to the recreation sector at the provincial, district and/or local level. Presented to an individual for their lasting achievement that has enhanced the public image and improved the services of parks and recreation provincially, districtly and/or locally.
This Award recipient has engaged new partners and stakeholders, strengthening the parks and recreation network. Their efforts have resulted in the continuation of quality and improved service, increased shared advocacy and promoted a strong belief in the benefits of parks and recreation in our Province. The recipient must be volunteering or working in Saskatchewan for a minimum of five years.
Presented to an individual, group or SPRA member organization for significant and distinguished contribution at the local, district and/or provincial level. The Award recipient has demonstrated creativity through the development of parkland, the promotion of active lifestyles and/or the revitalization of existing or creation of new programs and services.
The recipient must be volunteering or working in Saskatchewan for a minimum of five years. This Award winner’s valued contribution will lead to healthier futures by strengthening some aspect of parks and recreation services.
To learn more about our Awards program, please contact:
Lori Ross
SPRA Communications Consultant
lross@spra.sk.ca
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More Charles Townes
Back in the 1980s, Charles Townes developed a laser system that helped infrared telescopes get a sharper view of the center of the Milky Way. Other astronomers then used that system to make the first measurement of the mass of the giant black hole at the galaxy’s heart.
It was a remarkable achievement. And it’s all the more interesting because Townes was one of the fathers of the laser. He developed its predecessor, known as a maser, and he obtained the first patents for the laser itself. He even won the Nobel Prize for those accomplishments.
Townes was born 100 years ago this week. During his long career, he pursued many interests. He helped develop new applications for radar during World War II. After the war, he studied microwaves and the structure of molecules — work that led to the maser and laser. He provided scientific advice for the Apollo missions to the Moon. Then he turned to astrophysics — an area he pursued until shortly before his death early this year.
Townes and others turned his inventions and discoveries into tools for exploring the universe. Astronomers use natural masers to probe the composition of other galaxies, and to plot the sizes of black holes. They use lasers to sharpen the view of stars and other objects. And they bounce laser beams off special reflectors on the Moon to study Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity — pursuing the secrets of the universe with beams of light.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2015
First Director
Backyard Guide To The Night Sky
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Jill Hennessy performed songs on Crossing Jordan's stacked soundtrack
By: Start TV Staff Posted: March 12, 2019, 4:10PM
Listen closely to the soundtrack on Crossing Jordan, and you'll hear some of music history's finest players giving the drama its distinct tinge. Not only did we hear rock stars like Iggy Pop, country greats like Lucinda Williams and iconic songwriters like Bob Dylan, but we also heard virtuosos like jazz great Django Reinhardt. The show did not mess around when it came to its music.
And apparently, neither did the show's star Jill Hennessy. As Jordan Cavanaugh, Hennessy even performs songs on her own show, starting in the first season episode "Blue Christmas," where she covers the Pretenders' "2000 Miles."
How they got their start: Jill Hennessy
On that song, her voice is thin and frail, with a lilt like Joni Mitchell, but on the show's soundtrack, you can also hear covers of Tom Waits' "You're Innocent When You Dream," where the singer explores a deeper range of her register. On that same disc, you can find a cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," too, and you can bet your favorite blues album that Hennessy sings it with attitude.
Although Hennessy's career began in acting, her fans know she's also an active musician whose music picked up even more once Crossing Jordan ended in 2007. She released both of her records once she had the time to record, Ghost in My Head in 2009 and I Do in 2015.
Luckily, if you've missed out on all this music, she's got lots of music videos posted to her website for fans to catch up. And, of course, watching Crossing Jordan, you'll see her pick up the guitar, her fingers flying on the fret like a natural.
Watch Crossing Jordan on Start TV
EVERY DAY AT 1 PM & 2 PM
Phyllis Lockett, Founder & CEO, Leap Innovations
Alina Moran, CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan
Antonia Lofaso, Chef
You can read Nigel's actual blog from Crossing Jordan with this trick
Jerry O'Connell credits his time on Crossing Jordan for making him a better actor
Miguel Ferrer played a famous forensics expert before Crossing Jordan
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Social Media & User-Generated Content›
U.S. Millennials: time spent on social apps 2015
Monthly time spent on leading social apps by Millennials in the United States in June 2015 (in hours)
This statistic displays the total amount of time spent on leading mobile social networks via mobile apps in the United States in June 2015. During that month, Millennial users who accessed the service through an app spent an average of 3.5 per month on the social network. Facebook was ranked first with 25.7 hours of monthly app usage amongst Millennials.
Average monthly hours
Facebook 25.7
Snapchat 5.9
Tumblr 5.7
Twitter 3.5
Millennials in the U.S.
U.S. population share by generation 2018
U.S. unemployment rate by age 1990-2018
Election 2016 exit polls: percentage of votes by age
Global workforce by 2020, by generation
Everything On "Millennials in the U.S." in One Document: Edited and Divided into Handy Chapters. Including Detailed References.
Statistics on "Millennials in the U.S."
Millennial demographics
Millennials and technology
MIllennials and politics
Number of people in the United States in 2011 and 2030, by generation (in millions)Number of people in the U.S. by generation 2030
Population distribution in the United States in 2018, by generation U.S. population share by generation 2018
Percentage of Millennials aged 18 to 34 in the United States in 2011, by race or ethnicityPercentage of Millennials aged 18 to 34 in the U.S., by race or ethnicity 2011
Net percentage change in the Millennial population in the United States from 2010 to 2016, by stateInter-state migration of Millennials in the U.S. from 2010 to 2016
United States: Have you ever heard of these terms to describe generations?Awareness of generational labels in the United States in 2015
Millennials: Which of the following words or phrases describe your generation?Personality Characteristics of Millennials 2015
Employment worldwide by 2020, by generationGlobal workforce by 2020, by generation
Unemployment rate in the United States from 1990 to 2018, by ageU.S. unemployment rate by age 1990-2018
Expected duration with current employer among millennials around the world in 2015Expected duration with current employer among millennials worldwide in 2015
Difference in importance of career development between Millennials and Baby Boomers in the United States in 2015Importance of career development between U.S. Millennials and Boomers 2015
Top five reasons for millennial women in their early thirties to work in companies in the United States in 2016Five most common reasons given by millennial women for working in companies U.S. 2016
Top five reasons for millennial women in their early thirties to leave positions in companies in the United States in 2016Five most common reasons for women in their thirties to leave company U.S. 2016
Millennials: Which statement about jobs and technology do you agree with more?Getting a job through techology millennials in 2013
Millennials: At what age do you expect to retire?Planned retirement age among Millennials 2016
Number of 25 to 34 year olds with annual income of 100,000 U.S. dollars or more in the United States in 2017, by income source (in 1,000 people)Income sources of high earning 25 to 34 year olds in the U.S. in 2017
Share of Millennials who save part of their monthly income in 2013, by country and amountShare of Millennials in selected countries who save part of their income 2013
Millennials: What are your reasons for saving money?Reasons for saving money among twentysomethings 2012
Millennials: Which of the following debts or loans do you hold?Types of debts or loans held by twentysomethings 2012
Level of day-to-day banking knowledge among Millennials in the United States 2014, by genderBanking knowledge among Millennials in the U.S. 2014, by gender
Which of the following do you expect to be sources of income to cover your living expenses after you retire? (by generation)Sources of retirement income in the U.S. 2016, by generation
Share of Millennials in the United States whose monthly expenses were paid by their parents in 2014, by itemShare of U.S. Millennials whose monthly expenses were paid by their parents 2014
Housing affordability index among Millennials in the United States as of June 2015, by city (in U.S. dollars per year)Housing affordability among Millennials in the U.S. 2015, by city
Millennials: annual expenditure of U.S. consumers in 2013 and 2020 (in trillion U.S. dollars)Annual expenditure of U.S. Millennials 2013 and 2020
Millennials: share of retail expenditure in the United States in 2013 and 2020U.S. Millennials: share of retail expenditure 2013-2020
Most engaging brands among Millennials in the United States as of August 2015Most engaging brands among Millennials in the U.S. 2015
Millennials: Thinking of your favorite retailer, why do you shop here?Reasons why U.S. Millennials shop at their favorite retailers 2016
Level of brand loyalty among Millennials in the United States in 2015Level of brand loyalty among U.S. Millennials 2015
Share of U.S. consumers' store types most used for everyday essentials in 2012, by generation*U.S. consumers' most used store types for everyday essentials by generation 2012
Where do Millennials shop for groceries?U.S. Millennials' preferred grocery shopping location 2014
Factors influencing Millennials when choosing or purchasing snacks in the United States as of December 2016Snack selection criteria among Millennials in the U.S. 2016
Laptop computers: Difference in brand preference between Millennials and older generations in the U.S.Laptop computer brand preferences among Millennials and older generations 2016
What devices did you use to connect to the internet in the last 30 days? (by age)Devices used for connecting to the internet in Mexico 2016, by age
Most popular social network among Millennials in the United States as of August 2016, by age groupU.S. Millennials: most popular social network 2016, by age group
Monthly time spent on leading social apps by Millennials in the United States in June 2015 (in hours)U.S. Millennials: time spent on social apps 2015
Millennials: Best sources for entertainment in 2013, by regionBest sources for entertainment coverage for millennials in 2013
TV consumption methods of Millennials in the United States as of April 2017Ways in which Millennials watch TV in the U.S. as of 2017
Activities undertaken by Millennials in the United States while watching TV as of November 2016U.S. Millennials activities while watching TV 2016
Per person media spending among Millennials in the United States and Canada in 2015 (in U.S. dollars per person per year)Millennials: spending on media 2015
Opinion poll on which sociopolitical identities U.S. Millennials associate themselves with as of 2016Sociopolitical identity of U.S. Millennials in 2016
Millennial voter participation in U.S. presidential and congressional elections from 2006 to 2014Millennial voter participation in U.S. elections from 2006 to 2014
Favorability of 2016 United States presidential election candidates among millennialsView of millennials on 2016 U.S. presidential candidates
Who millennials would vote for if the 2016 U.S. presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were todayChoice of millennials between Trump or Clinton in 2016 U.S. presidential election
Most important issues for the next President of the United States according to Millennials in 2016Important issues for next president according to U.S. Millennials in 2016
Exit polls of the 2016 presidential elections in the United States on November 9, 2016, percentage of votes by ageElection 2016 exit polls: percentage of votes by age
Number of active duty United States Armed Forces personnel, by age group in 2017Number of active duty U.S. Armed Forces personnel, by age group in 2017
Share of American adults who say immigrants today strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents, by generationU.S. share of adults believing immigrants strengthen the country 2016, by generation
Mobile social networking penetration in Europe 2012
Mobile social media users as a percentage of the total population NZ 2015-2018
Most popular mobile social activities in Germany 2013
Number of Android social apps downloaded in China 2012
Social networks accessed via mobile in the United Kingdom 2013-2015
Social network penetration via smartphone in the United Kingdom (UK) 2014-2019
U.S. teens: digital activities 2012-2013
Top Twitter activities on mobile phone in the United Kingdom 2013
Number of mobile-only monthly active Facebook users 2011-2016
Frequency of users accessing mobile social media sites in Germany 2013
Mobile social media users as a percentage of the total population Australia 2015-2018
Mobile social networkers: use of check-in in the United Kingdom 2012-2013, by service
Number of social network users via smartphone in the United Kingdom (UK) 2014-2019
Age of the first account on social media among teenagers in France 2018
Mobile and non-mobile users of social networks in China 2011
Frequency of mobile social networking in the UK 2013, by gender
Frequency of mobile social networking in the United Kingdom (UK) 2011-2013
Number of mobile social network users in the United Kingdom (UK) 2011-2018
Social media usage of French teenagers owning a smartphone by social network 2018
Number of mobile phone Facebook users in the UK 2013-2018
Internet usage of Generation X in the United States
U.S. Millennials: Grocery Shopping Behavior
U.S. Millennials: Consumer Goods and Shopping Behavior
U.S. Millennials: Media & Marketing
U.S. Generation X (Gen X): Grocery Shopping Behavior
U.S. Millennials: Internet usage and Online Shopping
Social media usage in South Korea
Social media usage in Latin America
Social media usage worldwide
Mobile social media usage worldwide
Social media usage in the United States
Mobile social media usage in the United States
Social media usage in India
Social content sharing
Social media usage in the Netherlands
Social media usage in Belgium
Number of people in the United States in 2011 and 2030, by generation (in millions)
Population distribution in the United States in 2018, by generation
Percentage of Millennials aged 18 to 34 in the United States in 2011, by race or ethnicity
Net percentage change in the Millennial population in the United States from 2010 to 2016, by state
United States: Have you ever heard of these terms to describe generations?
Millennials: Which of the following words or phrases describe your generation?
Employment worldwide by 2020, by generation
Unemployment rate in the United States from 1990 to 2018, by age
Expected duration with current employer among millennials around the world in 2015
Difference in importance of career development between Millennials and Baby Boomers in the United States in 2015
Top five reasons for millennial women in their early thirties to work in companies in the United States in 2016
Top five reasons for millennial women in their early thirties to leave positions in companies in the United States in 2016
Millennials: Which statement about jobs and technology do you agree with more?
Millennials: At what age do you expect to retire?
How confident are you that you will be able to fully retire with a lifestyle you consider comfortable? (by generation)
Number of 25 to 34 year olds with annual income of 100,000 U.S. dollars or more in the United States in 2017, by income source (in 1,000 people)
Share of Millennials who save part of their monthly income in 2013, by country and amount
Millennials: What are your reasons for saving money?
Millennials: Which of the following debts or loans do you hold?
Level of day-to-day banking knowledge among Millennials in the United States 2014, by gender
Which of the following do you expect to be sources of income to cover your living expenses after you retire? (by generation)
Share of Millennials in the United States whose monthly expenses were paid by their parents in 2014, by item
Housing affordability index among Millennials in the United States as of June 2015, by city (in U.S. dollars per year)
Distribution of home buyers in the United States in 2018, by generation
Millennials: annual expenditure of U.S. consumers in 2013 and 2020 (in trillion U.S. dollars)
Millennials: share of retail expenditure in the United States in 2013 and 2020
Most engaging brands among Millennials in the United States as of August 2015
Millennials: Thinking of your favorite retailer, why do you shop here?
Level of brand loyalty among Millennials in the United States in 2015
Share of U.S. consumers' store types most used for everyday essentials in 2012, by generation*
Where do Millennials shop for groceries?
Factors influencing Millennials when choosing or purchasing snacks in the United States as of December 2016
Key factors for millennials choosing frozen foods in the United States in 2017
How often do Millennials purchase store brands?
Millennial digital buyer penetration in the United States from 2013 to 2019
Which product categories do Millennials shop online?
Share of Millennial shoppers who have used an online-only retailer for groceries in the United States from 2015 to 2018*
Most popular online apparel retailers for Millennials in the United States in 2016, by share of online fashion revenue
Leading reasons why Millennials are willing to spend money on high-end fashion or luxury items worldwide in 2017
Occasions when Millennials consider purchasing high-end fashion or luxury items worldwide 2017
Laptop computers: Difference in brand preference between Millennials and older generations in the U.S.
What devices did you use to connect to the internet in the last 30 days? (by age)
Most popular social network among Millennials in the United States as of August 2016, by age group
Millennials: Best sources for entertainment in 2013, by region
TV consumption methods of Millennials in the United States as of April 2017
Activities undertaken by Millennials in the United States while watching TV as of November 2016
Per person media spending among Millennials in the United States and Canada in 2015 (in U.S. dollars per person per year)
Opinion poll on which sociopolitical identities U.S. Millennials associate themselves with as of 2016
Millennial voter participation in U.S. presidential and congressional elections from 2006 to 2014
Favorability of 2016 United States presidential election candidates among millennials
Who millennials would vote for if the 2016 U.S. presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were today
Most important issues for the next President of the United States according to Millennials in 2016
Exit polls of the 2016 presidential elections in the United States on November 9, 2016, percentage of votes by age
Number of active duty United States Armed Forces personnel, by age group in 2017
Share of American adults who say immigrants today strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents, by generation
Percentage of Americans describing themselves as a supporter of gay rights, sorted by generation in 2014
American adults' view on the government's responsibility to provide health insurance in 2014, sorted by generation and race
Opinion of U.S. Millennials on whether the U.S. should expand free trade as of 2016
Opinion of U.S. millennials on whether government spending is an effective way to increase economic growth as of 2016
Opinion among U.S. Millennials on how often they trust major institutions in 2016
Share of individuals who access social networking via mobile devices in European countries in 2012
Active mobile social media users as percentage of the total population in New Zealand from 2015 to 2018
Most popular mobile social activities of users in Germany as of August 2013
Most downloaded Android social apps in China as of September 2012
Social networks ranked by share of users accessing the platform via mobile in the United Kingdom (UK) from September 2013 to April 2015
Share of social network penetration via smartphone in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2014 to 2019
Digital activities of teenage internet users in the United States in 2012 and 2013
Top activities of users who access Twitter via mobile device in the United Kingdom (UK) as of November 2013
Number of mobile-only monthly active Facebook users as of 4th quarter 2016 (in millions)
Frequency of users accessing social media sites via mobile in Germany as of August 2013, sorted by unique visitors (in millions)
Active mobile social media users as percentage of the total population in Australia from 2015 to 2018
Use of check-in services by mobile social networkers in the United Kingdom in April 2012 and 2013, by service
Number of social network users who access via smartphone in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2014 to 2019
Age at which teenagers possessing a smartphone* created their first account on social media in France in 2018, by age group
Distribution of mobile and non-mobile users of social networks in China in 2011
How often do you visit social networking sites or apps on a mobile phone?*
Number of mobile social network users in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2011 to 2018 (in millions)
Distribution of social media use among French teenagers possessing a smartphone* in 2018, by social network
Number of mobile phone Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2013 to 2018 (in millions)
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UTI And Confusion In The Elderly: Can A Urinary Tract Infection Cause Dementia-like Symptoms?
Because the elderly also suffers from the mental problems associated with UTIs, the physician may also prescribe a temporary antipsychotic drug to those who have not already developed dementia.
When it comes to the elderly, it’s important to respect them and their privacy, even when it comes to health. However, there are several instances that could be concerning and must be addressed quickly in order to avoid complications, and in many cases, the senior may not be aware of the underlying issue or may not notice the symptoms. This can be the case with a urinary tract infection, or UTI. Even more concerning, those symptoms may not be readily apparent to caretakers without proper education.
Could dementia and similar behaviors be signs of a UTI in the elderly?
A urinary tract infection is caused by bacteria or fungus that enters a part of the urinary system, including the urethra, bladder, ureters, and kidneys. When a typical individual contracts a UTI, there are common symptoms to look for, such as:
Greater urgency and frequency of the need to urinate
Greater amounts of urine
Burning, pain, and discomfort when urinating
Sensations of pressure in the lower abdomen, as well as in the pelvic region
Cloudy or smelly urine
Never quite feeling as though the bladder is empty
Pain in the back, flank, or lower abdomen
Blood in the urine
However, when it comes to seniors who are experiencing a UTI, these may or may not manifest. Other, more serious symptoms that are atypical in younger individuals could signal the presence of an infection.
UTI symptoms in seniors
For seniors, many of the symptoms of a UTI are linked to changes in behavior and may include:
Social withdrawal
Many of these mimic the signs of dementia, and the initial reaction to a senior acting in this way may be fear of developing or worsening dementia or Alzheimer’s. The first thing to do is to find out if the elderly individual has a UTI, since a UTI can exacerbate symptoms of dementia or cause these symptoms in an elderly individual who has not developed dementia.
Why are symptoms different in the elderly?
Scientists and the medical community aren’t completely certain of the exact reason for the change in physiology. However, the fact is that the immune system changes as people age, which could lead to a different reaction to the bacterial infection. In addition, some theorize that the blood vessels weaken with age, making the blood more susceptible to carrying the infection through to the nervous system and thereby affecting the brain functionality in seniors.
Risk factors for UTIs in the elderly
The elderly are sometimes already at greater risk for UTIs because they are often not as active as younger individuals. Extended immobility can lead to a UTI because the person isn’t able to expel urine as frequently, allowing for the bacteria to cultivate in the urine in the bladder. Other risk factors may be similar to those in younger people, though more significant, such as:
Weakened immune system
Being female (as well as postmenopausal)
Exposure to bacteria found in hospitals and care facilities
Enlarged or shrunken prostate
Complications from UTIs in seniors
A UTI that goes untreated in anyone can lead to complications. However, there is more at risk in the elderly than any other category of individual.
Kidney damage. A typical UTI can become more difficult to treat and tolerate if it moves into the kidneys. In addition, it can cause scarring on the kidneys, which leads to potential for hypertension and kidney failure.
Septicemia. Because kidney function can be reduced, some of the waste they would normally filter out and push from the body with urination may flow back into the bloodstream, leading to illness, which is difficult on the senior’s immune system.
Sepsis. In the same process, the infection may enter the bloodstream, leading to poisoning that is a life threatening issue.
Worsening dementia. While the symptoms of confusion that a UTI causes in the elderly may not cause dementia, if the condition develops in a patient who already has dementia, this infection could cause a quicker progression of dementia, leading to worsening overall health for the elderly patient.
Prevention of UTIs in the elderly
It’s important to address the issue in advance in the attempt to prevent UTIs in seniors. Several methods of prevention exist, including:
Reminding the individual to drink plenty of water (six to eight glasses a day)
Avoiding consumption of alcohol and caffeine as much as possible
Encouraging the senior to use the restroom frequently, at least every three hours
Promptly caring for soiled materials due to incontinence
Wiping from front to back when using the restroom
Promoting good hygiene, such as daily showers, and avoiding baths
Diagnosis and treatment in seniors
Diagnosis of a UTI begins with a physical exam and urinalysis. The urine sample is cultured to see what sort of bacteria grows so that the correct treatment is offered. In addition, other testing may include a CT scan, x-rays, and an ultrasound.
Depending on whether the infection is caused by bacteria or a fungus, doctors will prescribe an antibiotic or antifungal medication to clear up the issue. It’s important to note all medications the senior is currently taking so that the doctor doesn’t prescribe anything that could cause an interaction or be detrimental to the patient’s health. In extreme cases, with infections that have progressed and are severe, intravenous antibiotics may be required.
Because the elderly person also suffers from the mental problems associated with UTIs, the physician may also prescribe a temporary antipsychotic drug to those who have not already developed dementia. Depending on the individual, those who have dementia and are showing behavioral changes may be recommended for an increased dose until the infection clears.
Unless a senior already has dementia, it is unlikely that the symptoms of confusion and behavioral changes they experience during a UTI will be permanent. However, if not treated quickly in those with dementia, the infection could exacerbate symptoms and cause a faster progression of the neurological condition. Making sure the individual is following good practices for prevention of UTIs can help increase overall health and happiness, especially in the golden years.
www.alzheimers.net/2014-04-03/connection-between-utis-and-dementia/
www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/daily-living/urinary-tract-infections-utis-dementia
www.alz.org/blog/alz/october_2011/sudden_change_in_behavior_urinary_tract_infection
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Home / Services / Tours
Please consider including a visit to Capitol Hill on your trip to Washington. Take a few moments to stop by Senator Tester's office, Suite 311 of the Hart Senate Office Building, located just a few blocks from Union Station.
Senator Tester and his staff are happy to offer Montana constituents passes to the Senate gallery. The gallery is open whenever the Senate is in session and passes are always required.
PLEASE NOTE: Children under the age of six are not permitted in the galleries. All electronics including, but not limited to, cameras, video recorders, key chains with electronic functions, cell phones, Blackberry devices, as well as strollers, must be checked before entrance to the Gallery.
Every Wednesday morning the Senate is in session, Senator Tester and Senator Daines host a get-together for Montanans visiting Washington, D.C. It's a great time to enjoy coffee and conversation with folks from across our great state. A tour of the U.S. Capitol departs after coffee at 9:00 a.m.
Please call Senator Tester's office at (202) 224-2644 for more information or to R.S.V.P. for Montana Coffee.
Capitol Tours
Click Here to Request a Tour
Senator Tester's office is happy to schedule staff-led tours of the United States Capitol for families and groups from Montana. These tours are conducted Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. (9:00 a.m. on Wednesdays) and 2:00 p.m. Complete the online Tour Request Form and we will get back to you as soon as possible to confirm whether a tour is available during your stay. Staff-led tours are not available on weekends or federal holidays.
Public tours of the United States Capitol are available Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The building is not open on Sundays, but is open on national holidays. Groups leave each half hour from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Free, timed-tickets are distributed each day at 8:15 a.m. These tickets are good only for that day and often run out within a few hours, so it is important to get to the booth early. Tours begin next to the Garfield traffic circle on the southwest corner of the Capitol complex near the corner of Independence Avenue and First Street, SW, across First Street from the Botanic Gardens. Look for the Visitors Screening Facility kiosk; the guide service members wear red shirts with the Capitol logo on the pocket. More information is available on the Capitol Tour Line at (202) 225-6827.
*Please note that visitors to the Capitol are not permitted to bring any of the following items: aerosol sprays, liquids of any kind (including water bottles), unsealed food, oversized suitcases or backpacks, knives of any kind, razors, mace, pepper spray, matches, or lighters. However, Capitol police are authorized to make exceptions if the prohibited item is deemed to be necessary and required to serve child care, medical, or other special needs.
Directions to Senator Tester's Office
Senator Tester's office is located in Suite 311 of the Hart Senate Office Building. The most convenient entrance is located on the north side of the building on C Street, NE.
Click here for a map of the Capitol Complex.
Public transportation can save both time and money in Washington. Metro schedules and fares may be found at http://www.wmata.com/. You can also get more information by calling the Metro customer information hotline at (202) 635-6434.
To reach Senator Tester's office from the Union Station Metro (Red Line), exit Union Station and walk across the plaza (Columbus Circle) toward the ring of state flags. Cross the street encircling the plaza and continue south on First Street, NE. At C Street, NE turn left. The Hart Senate Office Building is the second office building you will reach.
From the Capitol South Metro (Blue and Orange Lines), follow First Street approximately 3 blocks (you will pass the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court on your right) until you cross Constitution Avenue, NE. Turn right and the Hart Senate Office Building will be the second building on your left.
White House Tours
Senator Tester's office can assist you in requesting a tour of the White House. All tours are self-guided and tour officers are positioned throughout the White House to help answer questions and provide information.
In order to best accommodate your request, please submit your Tour Request Form as soon as possible, at least three weeks in advance of a visit, and preferably closer to three months in advance. Please note that tours fill up very quickly in the spring and summer months and during holidays. Therefore, submitting a request before the deadlines above does not necessarily guarantee a request will be accepted by the White House.
Please indicate the days and times that you are available for a White House tour.
The White House receives approximately 80,000 tour requests a day from all 535 Congressional Offices. Please keep in mind that tours that are requested as far as 90 days in advance still have the chance of being denied due to volume.
Tours are typically 45 minutes long. Tours are scheduled Tuesday through Saturday between 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Specific times for tours cannot be requested.
Tours of the White House are scheduled by the White House Visitor Center earlier than two weeks before the requested tour date. As soon as the White House has confirmed or denied your request, they will update your party.
Once the request is submitted, you will receive an email including an encrypted RSVP link. You will have one week for everyone in your party to RSVP. Every group member's security information must be submitted. The link can be emailed to other members of your group to complete their individual information, or the point of contact can enter the entire group's security information. The White House and Senator Tester's office can track the number of RSVPs completed. After the one week deadline, any incomplete RSVPs will be voided. Completed RSVPs will be passed onto final approval by the White House Visitors Center.
The RSVP security information requires the full name, Social Security number (not required if guests are under 18), date of birth, current city and state of residence, gender, and country of citizenship for each member of the group.
Tour schedules always depend on official events taking place in the White House. Occasionally, the White House may change, reschedule, or cancel tour requests for a given day.
Please be aware that visitor access records to the White House Complex will be made publicly available 90-120 days after the date of visit. This policy includes all guests touring the White House. In the event that you are confirmed for a White House tour, your full name and the date of your visit will be part of the publicly released records. Your date of birth, Social Security Number and all other information provided will not be released.
Please understand that tour request acceptance or denial is solely at the discretion of the White House Visitor Center.
You can request a White House Tour by completing the Tour Request Form.
An alternative to a formal tour is a visit to the White House Visitor Center, located at the corner of 15th and E Streets, NW. The White House Visitor Center is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The center features information about many aspects of the White House, including its architecture, furnishings, first families, social events, and relations with the press and world leaders, as well as a 30-minute video presentation. The White House Historical Association also sponsors a gift shop.
Memorials & Monuments
Located on Memorial Drive in Arlington, Virginia
Open daily 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., April through September; 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., October to March.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
1850 West Basin Drive, SW
Open 24 hours a day. Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. Closed Christmas Day. Admission is free.
Iwo Jima Memorial
Located on Route 50 near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia
Open 24 hours a day. Admission is free.
Jefferson Memorial
Located on 14th Street, SW at the Tidal Basin
Open 24 hours a day, except Christmas Day. Admission is free.
Located adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool
Open daily, 8:00 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Admission is free.
West Potomac Park and 23rd Street, NW
Open daily, except Christmas Day. Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. Admission is free.
Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center
7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
November to February, open 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. March to October, open 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Bacon Drive and Constitution Avenue, NW
Open Daily 8:00 a.m. to midnight. Closed Christmas Day. Admission is free.
Washington Monument
15th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
The Washington Monument is currently closed for construction.
Open 24 hours a day. Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. Admission is free.
Here is some basic information about several Washington-area attractions. Because tour and security information can change frequently and without notice, we recommend you contact each attraction or visit each website for the most up-to-date information. At locations where it is required, my office is happy to submit requests on behalf of Montana constituents.
Official Tourism Website for Washington, D.C.
Holocaust Museum
Open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed only on Yom Kippur and Christmas Day. Admission is free, but tickets to the permanent exhibit are required.
Free public tours offered leave every 15 minutes between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
10 1st Street, SE
The historic Thomas Jefferson Building located just east of the Capitol. It is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Monday through Friday there are docent-led public walking tours at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. On Saturdays, tours begin at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. Groups of 10 or more participants must call (202) 707-0919 to reserve a private tour. The Library is closed all Sundays and federal holidays.
Open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tour reservations are not required. Admission is free.
National Gallery of Art and East Wing
6th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Open Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Closed Christmas Day and New Years Day. Admission is free.
Naval Observatory
34th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Public tours are offered by reservation only on selected Monday evenings from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. Visit website to request a tour.
Smithsonian Institution Museums
Located on the National Mall and at various locations in the Washington, D.C. area.
Open daily, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed Christmas Day. Admission is free.
First and East Capitol Streets, NE
The building is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. It is closed Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays.
Open daily 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Public tours offered daily at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
United States Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Guided tours are offered Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 2:45 p.m. The tour is 45 minutes in duration. Reservations are required.
United States Department of the Treasury: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
14th and C Streets, SW
Monday through Friday, tours leave every 15 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Free tickets are required for public tours during peak season (March through August).
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info@turnanewleaf.org
A New Leaf and AWEE Join Forces
(Phoenix, AZ) – A New Leaf and Arizona Women’s Education and Employment today announced that A New Leaf will make AWEE part of its organization as a key community program. AWEE is one of Central Arizona’s leading providers of workforce development and employment assistance.
Under the terms of the agreement, AWEE will operate as an affiliate subsidiary organization of A New Leaf with its own 501(c)(3) status. The combination will enhance the operation and sustainability of AWEE into the future and will expand the footprint and services of A New Leaf across the Valley. Both share a heritage of championing those in need and offering vulnerable individuals a pathway to independence. The synergies in missions and programs make the addition of AWEE into A New Leaf’s organization a natural fit.
“We are thrilled that AWEE will be a critical part of our life-saving programs,” said Brad Snyder, chair of the board for A New Leaf. “We are united in advocating and supporting individuals and families in their path to upward mobility. The positive results of AWEE’s community services and anti-poverty efforts are a testament to AWEE’s culture of service – its dedicated leadership, committed staff and generous supporters. Together, we are undertaking an exciting new chapter.”
The addition of AWEE will bring a history of program excellence and a robust business network to A New Leaf’s operational success and fundraising capabilities, ensuring a sustained path to the future.
“AWEE’s affiliation with A New Leaf marks a bold new direction for our organization,” said Carol Campbell, AWEE’s board chair. “We are delighted that by joining forces with A New Leaf, whose mission and vision are so well aligned with AWEE’s we can expand our reach and strengthen our programs.”
AWEE makes it possible for generous people in the community to help women and men overcome obstacles and get better jobs, creating better tomorrows for themselves, their families and the community. Because of AWEE’s long-term partnerships with Arizona’s top employers, AWEE clients are able to connect and find jobs with our state’s best organizations. Since 1981, AWEE has helped transform the lives of more than 200,000 individuals. Some of AWEE’s best known programs are CLASS: Career Ladders Achieving Success and Security, Women Living Free, BankWork$, Women’s Business Center and SheLEADS.
Go To -------------------- Home Find Help Contact Us Mission and History News
868 E University Dr
Contact info@turnanewleaf.org
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Derrick Todd Lee
Criminals & Crimes
Prevention & Safety
Investigations & Trials
The U. S. Government
U.S. Liberal Politics
U.S. Conservative Politics
Humanities › Issues
Profile of the Baton Rouge Serial Killer
Erik S. Lesser / Getty Images
Teenage Years
Money Creates More Problems
Collette Walker
Third Side of Derrick Todd Lee
Victims of Derrick Todd Lee
Possible Victims
Too Many Murders and Serial Killers
by Charles Montaldo
Charles Montaldo is a writer and former licensed private detective who worked with law enforcement and insurance firms investigating crime and fraud.
Derrick Todd Lee, also known as the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, prowled communities of south Louisiana for years before his capture and eventual conviction in two of at least seven cases of rape and murder of women in 2002 and 2003.
Derrick Todd Lee was born on November 5, 1968, in St. Francisville, Louisiana to Samuel Ruth and Florence Lee. Samuel Ruth left Florence soon after Derrick was born. For Florence and the children, having Ruth out of the picture was good. He suffered from mental illness and eventually ended up in a mental institution after being charged with attempted murder of his ex-wife.
Florence later married Coleman Barrow who was a responsible man that raised Derrick and his sisters as if they were his own children. Together they taught their children the importance of education and to follow the teachings of the Bible.
Lee grew up like many children in small towns around south Louisiana. His neighbors and play pals were mostly from his extended family.
His interest in school was limited to playing in the school band. Lee struggled academically, often being outshined by his younger sister who was a year younger than him but advanced in school faster. His IQ, ranging from below 70 to 75, made it challenging for him to maintain his grades.
By the time Lee turned 11 he had been caught peeping into the windows of girls in his neighborhood, something he continued to do as an adult. He also had a liking for torturing dogs and cats.
At the age of 13, Lee was arrested for simple burglary. He was already known to the local police because of his voyeurism, but it wasn't until he was 16 that his anger issues got him in real trouble. He pulled a knife on a boy during a fight. Charged with attempted second-degree murder, Lee's rap sheet was slowing beginning to fill up.
At age 17 Lee was arrested for being a Peeping Tom, but even though he was a high school drop out with multiple complaints and arrests, he managed to stay out of going to a juvenile detention home.
In 1988 Lee met and married Jacqueline Denise Sims and the couple had two children, a boy named after his father Derrick Todd Lee, Jr. and in 1992 a girl, Dorris Lee. Soon after their marriage, Lee pled guilty to unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.
Over the next few years, he drifted in and out of two worlds. In one world, he was the responsible father who worked hard at his construction job and took his family on weekend outings. In the other world, he cruised the local bars, dressed in dapper attire and spent time drinking and having extramarital affairs with women.
Jacqueline knew about his infidelity, but she was devoted to Lee. She also became used to his being arrested. The times he spent in prison became almost as a welcomed relief compared to the volatile atmosphere he created when he was at home.
In 1996 Jacqueline's father was killed in a plant explosion and she was awarded a quarter of a million dollars. With the financial boost, Lee was now able to dress better, buy cars, and spend more money on his girlfriend Casandra Green. But the money was spent as quickly as it came in, and by 1999 Lee was back to living off of his earned wages—except now he had another mouth to feed. Casandra had given birth to their son who they named Dedrick Lee in July of the same year.
In June 1999, Collette Walker, 36, of St. Francisville, La., filed stalking charges against Lee after he muscled his way into her apartment, trying to convince her that the two should date. She did not know him and managed to ease him out of her apartment. He left her with his phone number and suggested that she give him a call.
Days later a friend who lived close to Collette asked her about Lee who she had seen lurking around her apartment. On another occasion, Collette caught him peeping into her window and called the police.
Even with his history of being a Peeping Tom and various other arrests, Lee did very little time for the charges of stalking and unlawful entry. In a plea bargain, Lee pled guilty and received probation. Against the directions of the court he again went looking for Collette, but smartly she had moved.
Life was becoming stressful for Lee. The money was gone and finances were tight. He was arguing with Casandra a lot, and in February 2000 the fighting escalated to violence. She started the proceedings to get a protective order prohibiting Lee from getting near her. Three days later he caught up with her in a bar parking lot and violently assaulted her.
Casandra pressed charges, and his probation was revoked. He spent the following year in prison until his release in February 2001. He was placed under house arrest and was required to wear monitoring equipment.
In May he was found guilty of violating the terms of his parole by removing the equipment. Instead of having his probation revoked, he was given a legal slap on the hand and not returned to prison. Once again the opportunity to remove Derrick Todd Lee from society was lost, a decision that likely haunts those who made it.
When Derrick Todd Lee committed his first or last rape and murder of an unsuspecting woman is unknown. What is known is that in 1993 he allegedly attacked two teens who were necking in a parked car. Equipped with a six-foot harvesting tool, he was accused of hacking away at the couple, only stopping and fleeing as another car approached.
The couple survived and six years later, the girl, Michelle Chapman, picked Lee out of a lineup as her attacker.
Lee's raping and killing spree would last another 10 years, with DNA evidence eventually linking him to seven victims who suffered from his vicious attacks.
April 2, 1993 - A teenaged couple were parked in an isolated area when they were attacked by a large man who hacked at them with a six-foot harvesting tool. Both survived and the girl, Michelle Chapman, identified Derrick Todd Lee as the attacker in a police line-up in 1998.
Other victims include:
April 18, 1998 - Randi Merrier 28
September 24, 2001 - Gina Wilson Green, 41
January 14, 2002 - Geralyn DeSoto, 21
May 31, 2002 - Charlotte Murray Pace, 21
July 9, 2002 - Diane Alexander
July 12, 2002 - Pamela Kinamore, 44
November 21, 2002 - Dene Colomb, 23
March 3, 2003 - Carrie Lynn Yoder
Visit the victims of Derrick Todd Lee page for more information about how the victims lived and how they died.
August 23, 1992 - Connie Warner of Zachary, LA. was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Her body was found on Sept. 2, near the Capital Lakes in Baton Rouge, La. So far no evidence has linked Lee to her murder.
June 13, 1997 - Eugenie Boisfontaine lived on Stanford Ave., near the Louisiana State University campus when she was murdered. Her body was discovered nine months later under a tire along the edge of Bayou Manchac. There has been no evidence linking Lee to the murder.
Investigations into the several unsolved murder cases of women in Baton Rouge was going nowhere. There are many reasons why Derrick Todd Lee, who is somewhat mentally challenged, managed to avoid getting caught. Here are just a few:
Derrick Todd Lee stayed on the move. In the 10 years it is known that he committed rape and murder, he was also constantly changing jobs, moving to different cities in south Louisiana and doing time in and out of prison. It was not until he focused on areas around LSU and left the bodies of two of his victims at a boat launch at Whiskey Bay that investigators moved from solving murders to looking for a serial killer.
Communications among detectives from one city to another were rare and Lee jumped from one parish to another to strike and kill.
From 1991 to 2001 there were 53 unsolved murders of women in Baton Rouge. The women came from all different backgrounds and ethnicities, as did the way that they died. The city was on high alert and the government was on the hot seat.
In August 2002 the Baton Rouge area Multi-Agency Task Force was formed and communications between parish detectives broadened. But instead of catching a killer, the task force ended up having more murders to solve.
For the next two years, 18 more women were found dead and the only leads police had headed them in the wrong direction. What investigators did not know at the time, or did not tell the public is that there were two, maybe three serial killers responsible for many of the murders.
When it came to discovering and capturing Derrick Todd Lee, serial killer profiling did not work.
He was black and most serial killers are white males.
Most serial killers pick victims of their own race. Lee killed both black and white women.
Most serial killers use the method of killing like a signature so that they receive credit for the kill. Lee used different methods.
Lee did do one thing that fit the profile of a serial killer—he kept trinkets from his victims.
In 2002 a composite sketch of the suspected serial killer was released to the public. The picture was of a white male with a long nose, long face, and long hair. As soon as the picture was released the task force became inundated with phone calls and the investigation became bogged down on following up on tips.
It was not until May 23, 2003, the Baton Rouge area Multi-Agency Task Force released a sketch of a man wanted for questioning about attacks on a woman in St. Martin Parish. He was described as a clean-cut, light-skinned black male with short brown hair and brown eyes. It was said that he was probably in his late 20s or early 30s. Finally, the investigation was on track.
Around the same time as the new sketch was released, DNA was being collected in parishes where there were unsolved murders of women. At the time Lee was living in West Feliciana Parish and was asked to give a swab. Not only did his criminal history interest investigators, but so did his appearance, which resembled the newly distributed composite sketch.
Investigators asked for a rush job on Lee's DNA, and they had their answer within a few weeks. Lee's DNA matched samples taken from Yoder, Green, Pace, Kinamore, and Colomb.
Lee and his family fled Louisiana on the same day that he volunteered his DNA. He was caught in Atlanta and returned to Louisiana a day after his arrest warrant was issued.
In August 2004 he was found guilty of murder in the second degree of Geralyn DeSoto and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
In October 2004 Lee was found guilty of the rape and murder of Charlotte Murray Pace and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In 2008, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld his conviction and the sentence of death.
Lee was awaiting execution on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.
At age 47, Derrick Todd Lee was transferred to the Lane Memorial Hospital in Zachary, Louisiana, from death row for emergency treatment and died on January 21, 2016.
8 Victims of Serial Killer Derrick Todd Lee
Profile of the Coast to Coast Killer, Tommy Lynn Sells
Serial Killer Sean Vincent Gillis
How the Dating Game Killer Evaded Justice for 40 Years
7 Disproven Myths About Serial Killers
Follow the Deadly Path of Serial Killer Arthur Shawcross
Serial Killer Thought Murdering 23 Men Would Help Him Avoid Prison
The Most Notorious Serial Killers in History
Profile of Serial Killer John Armstrong
H.H. Holmes: King of the Murder Castle
Differences Between Mass, Spree and Serial Killers
Known as the Freeway Killer, Who Was William Bonin Really?
Serial Killer Richard Cottingham Was Called "The Torso Killer"
How Debra Brown Started Her Killing Spree at Age 21
Profile of Serial Killer Henry Louis Wallace
Serial Killer Randy Kraft's Scorecard
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TNT opens new air route to Malta
Express delivery company TNT today launches a new air route between its main European air hub in Liege and Malta, making it easier to trade with and invest in this dynamic economy.
Benefits to customers include shorter transit times for Economy consignments, later departure times for exports, earlier arrival times for imports, and the ability to send larger and heavier consignments. The flight will run five times a week on a Boeing 737-400 aircraft, with a stopover in Marseilles on both outbound and inbound journeys. The flight arrives at Malta International Airport in the morning and departs in the evening, allowing for afternoon pickup in Malta and next day delivery to all of Europe.
"The addition of Malta to our European air network increases the choice and flexibility of delivery options for businesses that send parcels and freight to and from the country. It also gives us the capacity to further grow our business in and out of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean," said Ian Clough, Managing Director International Europe.
Malta is home to several industries, including electronic, medical and pharmaceutical production. According to the IMF, Malta’s GDP growth has been one of the highest in the euro area in recent years, supported by relatively diversified exports, a recent recovery in domestic demand, and a stable banking sector. Growth is expected to remain robust in 2015 at 3.1%.
TNT continues to improve its delivery service to customers, a priority under its Outlook strategy, by strengthening its air and road networks. The new route to Malta follows the recent start of flights to Venice and Tel Aviv and additional road connections to Turkey and the Balkans.
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If Murdoch Steps Down, Who Will Take Over News Corporation?
Nicholas Jackson
If both Murdochs are forced to step down because of the hacking scandal, expect to see Chase Carey finally get his chance at the top
News of the World has ceased publication after 168 years. But that hasn't been enough to quiet the rumors and accusations surrounding ongoing investigations into a phone-hacking scandal that may have touched as many as 4,000 people.
One of those people, according to the latest reports out of Great Britain, was former prime minister Gordon Brown. "Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted [Brown], attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account and legal file as well as his family's medical records," the Guardian reported.
With that bombshell, the well-known media critic Jeff Jarvis tweeted, "Good God ... We've now stepped beyond Watergate." Even before the Guardian's latest reporting was released, Jarvis was calling for Murdoch to unload his newspaper business. And he wasn't alone. On Monday, the New Yorker's John Cassidy admitted that, while seeing Murdoch leave Fleet Street would come as a shock to many (himself included), it shouldn't be ruled out. "From a business perspective, ditching the newspapers would be an eminently defendable move," Cassidy wrote. "In recent years, they have contributed relatively little to News Corp.'s profits."
Worse, they could be stifling News Corp.'s growth, actively hurting the company. For nearly sixty years, on and off, Murdoch has subsidized the news, taking profits from his other ventures to produce traditional ink-on-paper reporting -- and now, with the Daily, he's one of few leaders embracing a shift to a digital reading experience. But nobody believes that he will allow the entire company to be dragged under because of this scandal in the news division. And there are signs the phone-hacking stories are already crippling Murdoch's long-in-the-works bid for 61 percent of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), a fabulously wealthy operation with more than 10 million subscribers.
If Murdoch closes News International, the division of his company that owns four -- now three -- papers across Great Britain and steps down from the top of News Corp.'s ladder in an attempt to clear the air so that a BSkyB deal might go through, who will take over?
There's a long history of grooming and nepotism in media. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., became the publisher and then chairman of the New York Times only after his father had readied him for the positions -- and stepped out of them himself. Similarly, S.I. Newhouse, Jr., took the reins of Advance Publications, which, among other things, owns Conde Nast, the publishing house responsible for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and a number of other influential titles, when his father, the company's founder, moved on. And, continuing the tradition, it has long been suspected that James Murdoch would take over for his aging father, Rupert Murdoch, when Rupert could no longer handle the day-to-day operations at the top of News Corp., his massive media conglomerate that has been growing -- almost never shrinking, rarely static -- for decades.
He's only 38, but James Murdoch has had a long and successful career as the chairman and chief executive officer of News Corporation, Europe and Asia, overseeing all operations for News Corp. across those continents. There's little doubt that he would be a strong executive cut from the same aggressive cloth as his father. Just one problem: Thanks to a law that covers the "criminal liability of directors," James could face prosecution over whatever role he has played in the phone-hacking scandal, according to Business Insider's Henry Blodget. "James Murdoch is being groomed to take over the company when his father retires. The threat of criminal prosecution, therefore, could throw this succession plan into doubt."
Murdoch has other children, but they have never played significant roles in the development of News Corp. It's unlikely that any of them would be given the keys to the kingdom. Instead, expect the man pictured above, Chase Carey, to take over. As the president, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of News Corp., Carey knows how to run the operation. And, with all of those titles, we assume he's been playing a large role behind-the-scenes for years; it's hard, though, to step out from Murdoch's shadow.
Carey has been with Murdoch and News Corp. for decades now. He first joined the company as a senior executive in 1988 and moved through many offices: chief operating officer of Fox, Inc.; chief executive officer of Fox Broadcasting; co-chief operating officer of News Corp.; chief executive officer of DirectTV. When News Corp. sold its controlling stake in DirectTV in 2006, Carey stayed with the satellite television provider and made a name for himself in the larger business world by adding one million new subscribers a year. In 2009, Carey returned to News Corp. to assume the roles that he still has today, which put him in charge of overseeing global operations. Last year, he made at least $26 million.
In a profile, AdWeek described Carey as "a 'cleaner' -- think Harvey Keitel as Mr. Wolf in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, but with a Rollie Fingers mustache." And that, Business Insider points out, "is exactly what News Corp. needs" right now.
Image: Getty Images.
Nicholas Jackson is a former associate editor at The Atlantic.
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The Thin Line Between War and Peace in Gaza
“Neither Israel nor Hamas want a war right now … But both are dangerously close to participating in one.”
David Kenner
Mohammed Salem / Reuters
Apart from the destruction and death and sometimes paralyzing fear, one memory sticks in my mind from reporting in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip during the 2014 war with Israel. It occurred on the terrace of Gaza City’s al-Dera hotel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. A few days earlier, an Israeli airstrike had killed four young boys playing soccer on the beach below the terrace, in full view of the assembled foreign press corps. This day, my translator, a middle-aged Palestinian man, looked out at the sea and sighed: “The Israelis are going about this all wrong.”
There was nothing to live for in Gaza, he said. People couldn’t earn a salary, couldn’t get married and start a family, and constantly feared dying just as senselessly as those boys on the beach below. Life was hard in the West Bank, to be sure—but Palestinians had enough to lose that they thought twice about heading down the road to war.
Four years later, the line between war and peace in Gaza remains paper thin. Of the dozens of mortars fired into Israel on Tuesday, one in particular served as a stark reminder of this fact: The shell came crashing down near a kindergarten in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Ein Hashlosha in the early morning hours before children had arrived. If it had landed in the same spot a half hour later, as parents milled around at the beginning of the school day with their sons and daughters, Israel and Hamas would likely be at war today.
More than 100 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel since Tuesday morning, according to the Israeli military, marking the largest barrage by Gaza militants since the devastating 2014 war. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching 65 airstrikes on positions belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist faction close to Iran. An Egypt-brokered truce appears to be holding, as Hamas has unilaterally declared a ceasefire and Israeli officials have suggested they have no intention of further strikes at this moment. Whether this represents an end to this round of fighting, or a mere lull, remains to be seen.
Since 2014, life for those in Gaza has only become more difficult. The reconstruction effort has stalled, leaving much of the area still in ruins; a UN report found that the Strip had become effectively “unlivable.”
There is a minority within the Israeli military establishment who argue that it is precisely these conditions which make further conflict inevitable. Giora Eiland, a former general who served as head of Israel’s National Security Council, made the case to me that Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, was not akin to al Qaeda or the Islamic State, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed—rather, it was an authentic representative of the people of Gaza. What’s more, he said, a serious reconstruction effort would better serve Israeli security interests than constantly waging war on the Strip. “All of these [reconstruction projects] can create a good motivation for the government of Gaza, and will give them some assets that they will not want to lose,” he said. “Because they understand that if they resume another cycle of violence against Israel, the final result may be a destruction of all these important projects.”
The official Israeli policy, however, aims to keep the peace in Gaza through brute strength. This was evident in the Israeli response to the mass protests dubbed the “Great March of Return” demanding Palestinians’ right of return to present-day Israel, which spurred this week’s military confrontation. During the protests, Israel bombed Hamas facilities unrelated to the protests, Nathan Thrall, the director of the International Crisis Group’s project on the Arab-Israeli conflict, wrote in an email. “Under normal circumstances, Hamas and other organizations would retaliate in some way to such attacks,” he said. “Because all of the organizations in Gaza wanted the protests to continue, they bit their tongue in the hope of avoiding a new war or escalation that would put a premature end to the demonstrations.”
As the protests wound down, that reason for restraint disappeared as well. The current conflagration began after Israel killed three fighters belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad after the group, which is close to Iran, planted an explosive device near the border. Palestinian Islamic Jihad retaliated with the barrage on Tuesday. “Israel viewed the barrage as Islamic Jihad and Hamas seeking to ‘change the rules of the game,’” said Thrall. “But for Islamic Jihad and Hamas, [it] was precisely the opposite: It was an attempt to restore the old rules of the game, in which Israel was to expect a response when it attacked targets in Gaza.”
The Israeli military sees an Iranian hand behind the violence. Palestinian Islamic Jihad “takes its marching orders from Tehran,” said Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence. Iran enlisted the group to strike Israel in retribution for Israeli strikes against Iranian soldiers and facilities in Syria in recent months, he said, and once the clashes had begun Hamas had no choice but to join in. “It could not allow itself to be perceived as marginalized in the context of the Palestinian struggle against Israel.”
It is indeed true that Hamas has repaired its alliance with Iran over the past year. When I last met with Hamas officials, several weeks ago, they told me that their ties with Tehran were stronger than what they had been before the Syrian war—a conflict in which Hamas found itself on opposite sides from its powerful patron, and which resulted in a severe deterioration of the relationship. Given this regional dynamic, it is possible that Hamas did not believe it was in a position to restrain Islamic Jihad, Tehran’s ally, once it decided to retaliate.
But Hamas’s relationship with its southern neighbor, Egypt, might pave the way for a de-escalation of the conflict. Egyptian officials see Hamas as an organization with ties to both the Muslim Brotherhood, the military-backed government in Cairo’s mortal enemy, and to Tehran, the preeminent foe of its primary regional ally, Saudi Arabia. Hamas supported former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but officially severed its links to the Brotherhood last year in a bid to improve ties with Egypt and Gulf states.
Despite their differences, Hamas officials are well aware that they cannot afford to ignore Egyptian wishes. Geography, in this case, is destiny: Egypt controls the southern crossing with Gaza, and also has the power to destroy tunnels used to smuggle goods that run under the border. For this reason, Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, visited Cairo shortly before this month’s “March of Return” protests in a bid to assuage Egyptian concerns about the demonstrations. And it may account for Egypt’s success so far in reestablishing the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
“Neither of the two sides wants a war now because Hamas knows it will pay a very heavy price, and Israel is focused on its northern front [with Lebanon and Syria],” said Yadlin. “Israel is also cognizant of the fact that it is difficult to produce any strategic achievements through another round of fighting in Gaza.”
That might be the logical response, but wars have a logic all of their own. If that mortar shell landed in that kibbutz’s kindergarten while it was full of children, the furious Israeli response would have no doubt provoked a furious Hamas retaliation—and the two sides would have come to believe that there was no alternative to war. “Neither Israel nor Hamas want a war right now,” Thrall said. “But both are dangerously close to participating in one.”
David Kenner is a journalist based in Beirut.
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A$AP Rocky, Gucci Mane, and 21 Savage share “Cocky”
The collaboration is taken from the Uncle Drew soundtrack.
By Jordan Darville
A$AP Rocky, Gucci Mane, and 21 Savage have shared a new track called "Cocky." The collaboration combines big brags and basketball references in the lyrics and music – London On Da Track's beat is decorated with the sound of sneakers on a court, for example. The sport's outsized presence in the song is thanks to the soundtrack album "Cocky" appears on, for the upcoming film Uncle Drew. The feature stars Kyrie Irving as an elderly basketball player, and is based on a series of Pepsi Max commercials. Uncle Drew, which co-stars Nick Kroll, Shaquille O'Neal, LilRel Howery, is in theaters June 29.
A$AP Rocky Gucci Mane 21 Savage
21 Savage, A$AP Rocky, Gucci Mane, Hip-Hop
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Grace Mugabe: the rags to riches rise and fall of 'Gucci Grace'
The first lady of Zimbabwe has support from the ruling party’s Youth League, but is widely disliked among the general population
Simon Allison
Wed 15 Nov 2017 10.40 EST Last modified on Thu 8 Mar 2018 08.48 EST
Grace Mugabe addresses a rally in Harare earlier this month. Photograph: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
Even before Tuesday night’s dramatic events, which could yet mark the end of her rags-to-riches story, it had not been a great year for Robert Mugabe’s mercurial wife, Grace.
There was the extraordinary incident in which she allegedly assaulted a young model in Johannesburg – and needed diplomatic immunity to avoid an embarrassing court case.
There was the bitter feud with the vice-president and rival to succeed her husband, Emmerson Mnangagwa, which resulted in her denying she plotted to poison him.
Then there was the decline in both the Zimbabwean economy and her own personal popularity ratings. The two may be connected, given that her detractors like to refer to her as the “First Shopper”.
Grace Mugabe’s political ambitions may have been as much about self-preservation as an instinct to lead. She has two sons and a daughter with the 93-year-old president. Libya is not the only case study to demonstrate that history is not always kind to family members who outlive a long-term authoritarian ruler.
On Wednesday morning, it was reported that she was in Namibia on business as her husband remained detained at home in Harare, her attempts at future-proofing herself and her family having apparently backfired.
Robert and Grace Mugabe. Photograph: Aaron Ufumeli/EPA
At the heart of Grace Mugabe’s extraordinary journey from struggling single mother to the most powerful woman in Zimbabwe is a love story. In the early 1990s, Grace, a young married woman who had secured a job in the president’s typing pool, found that the president kept sticking around to say hello.
“He came to me and started asking about my family,” she told South African journalist Dali Tambo in 2013, in a rare interview. “He just started talking to me, asking me about my life. Were you married before, things like that … I didn’t know it was leading somewhere. I was quite a shy person, very shy.”
The anglophile president wooed Grace over tea and scones, but there were a couple of obstacles to their relationship. One was the age gap – President Mugabe is 40 years older than Grace. Another was the fact that the president was already married, to Sally Mugabe, who at the time had terminal cancer. “I felt a bit uncomfortable when he proposed to me since he was still married to Sally,” she said.
Robert Mugabe, never a great romantic, took a practical approach. “It was necessary for me to look for someone and, even as Sally was still going through her last few days, although it might have appeared to some as cruel, I decided to make love to [Grace]. She happened to be one of the nearest and she was a divorcee herself. And so it was,” he said in the same interview.
Zimbabwe timeline: the week that led to Mugabe's detention
Mugabe fires vice president
Robert Mugabe fires his powerful vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, clearing the way for his wife, Grace, to succeed him as leader of Zimbabwe. Grace had accused 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief, of being the “root cause of factionalism” in the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Mnangagwa defiant
Mnangagwa reportedly flees to South Africa, but vows to return to Zimbabwe to lead party members. The party "is not personal property for you and your wife to do as you please," Mnangagwa tells Mugabe in an angry five-page statement.
Army chief issues warning
Zimbabwe’s army chief demands a halt to the purge in Zanu-PF, and warns that the military could intervene. “We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in,” General Constantino Chiwenga told a media conference attended by about 90 senior army officers.
Army denies coup
A convoy of tanks is seen moving on the outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital but the military denies a coup. In an overnight declaration on state television, they say Mugabe is safe and they are "only targeting criminals around him".
Mugabe detained
Military vehicles take control of the streets of Harare in the early hours. South Africa says Mugabe has told its president, Jacob Zuma, by telephone that he is under house arrest but is "fine".
Sally died in 1992. Grace and Robert were married in 1996 in a lavish ceremony attended by 40,000 people, including Nelson Mandela. By then the couple already had two children and a third would arrive a year later.
At first, as she struggled to emerge from the popular Sally’s shadow, Grace was a quiet first lady. She appeared by her husband’s side for official functions but she rarely got involved in politics herself. Publicly she focused on charity work; privately on legendary shopping expeditions. Also, nicknamed “Gucci Grace”, she has a penchant for Ferragamo heels. On one spree in Paris she is widely reported to have racked up a £75,000 bill.
But the seeds of the first lady that Grace would become – more involved, more powerful – were already being sown.
In 2009, a British photographer, Richard Jones, tried to take her photograph outside a hotel in Hong Kong. She wasn’t happy. Jones alleges that he was chased down by her bodyguards, who pinned back his arms while she punched him repeatedly in the face. She has since been implicated in several incidents outside Zimbabwe: in Singapore, in Malaysia and most recently in South Africa, where in August she was accused of assaulting a young model with the plug at the end of an extension cord. Only a diplomatic pass enabled her to return to Harare with her dignity just about intact.
Outside her role as Zimbabwe’s first lady, she has also run several failed mining businesses and built her own dairy farming empire on five previously white-owned farms. The former owners had been evicted during Zimbabwe’s controversial “land reform” process.
Grace was learning from her husband, she explained. “I was very young when I started living with President Mugabe. But he was patient with me and took time to groom me into the woman that I am now,” she said in a 2012 speech.
In 2014, she was slowly unveiled as a potential successor to her husband. She became head of the ruling party’s women’s league, a position that gave her a seat on the party’s all-powerful decision-making body, the politburo. She was awarded a doctorate from the University of Zimbabwe, although she was only registered at the institution for three months, giving her the necessary academic background (her thesis, on the changing structure of the family, has never been publicly released).
The state propaganda machine began talking up her political acumen – and so did she. She started holding rallies where she would rail against the president’s perceived enemies, telling one crowd: “They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?”
The first lady had the active support of Zanu-PF’s Youth League, and some politicians coalesced around her to form a faction called Generation 40 (G40) – a grouping of younger leaders that deliberately draws a distinction with the party’s old guard.
But she remained deeply unpopular with wider population, who have been incensed by reports of her extravagant spending. Nor was she ever the only contender for the throne.
In recent years, Mnangagwa had emerged as her husband’s likely successor, partly because of his support within the country’s powerful security establishment and among veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s guerrilla war.
Robert Mugabe’s move to sack Mnangagwa last week appeared to settle the contest in favour of Grace. The army’s intervention this week means the opposite result is now all but certain.
Mugabe is 'safe and sound' Zimbabwe's army says – video
West stirring up unrest in Zimbabwe to force regime change, says Zanu-PF
Party briefing blames ‘rogue NGOs’ and ‘hostile intelligence services’ for violence
Published: 7 Feb 2019
Zimbabwean police files implicate army in widespread abuses
Exclusive: documents seen by Guardian suggest soldiers have been responsible for murder and rape during crackdown
Zimbabwe: beatings and abductions continue despite Mnangagwa pledge
Reports say brutal crackdown persists after president vows to rein in security forces
Mnangagwa promises investigation of brutal Zimbabwe crackdown
Security forces apparently targeted opposition and union officials during fuel protests
Zimbabwe high court orders government to restore full internet
Zimbabwe warns brutal crackdown is 'foretaste of things to come'
Zimbabwean activists on run as protests crackdown raises spectre of Mugabe era
Zimbabwe: activist pastor arrested for 'inciting violence' – video
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SportsCollege
Indiana and Purdue face off in the Bucket Bowl Sunday
Posted: 12:07 PM, Nov 25, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana and Purdue head into their regular-season finale with the same Bucket list.
Both want to reclaim the series’ coveted trophy — and both want the bowl bid that will accompany this year’s Old Oaken Bucket celebration.
It’s an unprecedented showdown for the ages: Win and advance, lose and go home.
“This is a position you cherish being in,” Boilermakers coach Jeff Brohm said. “Like I said, there’s a lot riding on this football game. We’ll make sure they’re going to come ready to play and be jacked up to play in this one.”
Why wouldn’t they be?
The first 119 games of his bitter rivalry have been full of emotion and drama.
In 2007, Austin Starr made a 49-yard field goal with 30 seconds left to end Indiana’s 14-year postseason drought — five months after coach Terry Hoeppner died. His widow, Jane, shed tears when the final gun sounded.
In 2000, Drew Brees led Purdue to a 41-13 rout, clinching a share of the conference of the conference title and a bucket full of roses. The Boilermakers walked away with their first Rose Bowl bid since 1967 and the second ever.
In 1989, freshman Scott Bonnell missed a 26-yard field goal as time expired, giving Purdue its third win. The loss knocked Indiana out of the bowl picture and may have cost Anthony Thompson the Heisman Trophy.
But never before has it been winner takes all.
Ticket sales have surged this week and there’s been talk of a possible sellout to catch the improved Hoosiers (5-6, 2-6 Big Ten) and the surprising Boilermakers (5-6, 3-5) one more time, perhaps one last time.
“It’s going to be an absolute dogfight, and that’s the way it should be,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “I’m sure every year, and I haven’t gone back and studied every single Bucket game, but I know for sure this year everything we’re saying is what the environment is going to be and the circumstances for the game, so that makes it really extra special.”
There are other bragging rights at stake, too.
Brohm is trying to end Purdue’s four-year bowl drought and become the first Boilermakers coach to reach a bowl game in his debut season since the late Joe Tiller in 1997.
The Hoosiers can set a new school record by winning their fifth consecutive Bucket game.
Nice, yes.
But three weeks after each team’s postseason hopes seemed to be dangling on the edge, they are here with a chance to capture the Bucket and the postseason ticket.
“I think that’s exciting for this game, and to be able to be in a game like this that has so much passion and meaning outside of anything else other than just the game itself,” Allen said, referring to Purdue’s upset at Iowa last week. “Then you add in the component of how they’re playing, how we’re playing, and what we’re playing for, it just makes it pretty special.”
Here are some other things to watch Saturday:
THE SCOREBOARDS
While the winner becomes bowl-eligible, the loser may not necessarily be eliminated.
After last weekend 70 teams had the required six wins to qualify for one of the 39 bowls and the four playoff spots. Four games Saturday, including this one, have two five-win teams essentially competing in play-in games.
That means as many as six 5-7 teams could make the postseason and that will be determined by Academic Progress Rate scores. If that happens, Indiana (982) would have the edge over Purdue (971).
Full-time first-year Purdue coaches are 12-12-1 all-time against Indiana. But the Boilermakers have had the upper hand when both coaches are new.
The last time it happened was 1997 when Tiller’s team beat Cam Cameron’s Hoosiers 56-7. It also happened in 1973, when Purdue’s Alex Agase beat Indiana’s Lee Corso 28-23. In 1922, the two teams played to a 7-7 tie under first-year coaches James P. Herron (Indiana) and Jim Phelan (Purdue).
THE COACHES
Allen and Brohm will be on opposite sidelines, but they have plenty in common.
Both grew up the sons of successful high school coaches. Both took unconventional turns in their coaching careers. And they have mutual respect for one another.
“He’s coached a lot of football. He’s a very good defensive coach, is a good person, does things the right way,” Brohm said of Allen.
THE DEFENSES
Purdue and Indiana have traditionally relied upon high-scoring offenses.
This year, they are being led by stout defenses.
Indiana has given up 14 points over the last two weeks, its fewest in back-to-back conference games since 1993, and has posted two shutouts this season.
Purdue has limited four consecutive opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing and, through 11 games, has allowed the fewest points (208) in school history under a new coach.
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Veteran: I tried to take my life twice – my salvation was in people
James Leatherbarrow and his wife Emma. James was a survivor of the IRA bomb attack on an army bus at Ballygawley in 1988 and has overcome PTSD to move on with his life.
Philip Bradfield
A soldier who survived the Ballygawley bomb attack tried to take his life twice as a result of the post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) he suffered – but turned his life around by opening up to trusted friends and family.
In 1988 James Leatherbarrow was a 21-year-old private with the 1st Battalion of the Light Infantry. Based in Omagh, traumatic events on patrol in Londonderry and at Ballygawley have dramatically shaped him.
The remains of the army bus that James was travelling in when it was blown up by the IRA on 20 August 1988 at Ballygawley. Photo: Pacemaker
He was travelling back to his Omagh barracks after a weekend visit with his fiancée in England, when the IRA roadside bomb went off on 20 August 1988, killing eight of the 36 soldiers on board. Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the attack which left him with a broken back, perforated eardrums, various scars and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
His personality changed almost immediately.
Security fears stop veterans asking for critical support
“After that I started doing weird stupid things that weren’t me. Other people noticed that I started drinking a lot more and started being violent.”
James Leatherbarrow attending a remembrance event for his eight army colleagues at the IRA bomb scene at Ballygawley. He suffered severe PTSD but has moved on with his life.
“I became very sensitive to disrespect and if I thought people were being silly and disrespectful I would go off on one.”
In 1989 he sought help. He was having flashbacks and drinking heavily, but notes that PTSD “wasn’t really big then… nobody really knew what it was”.
After a hospital diagnosis of PTSD he saw a counsellor for anger management. His wife at the time of the bombing could see the impact the bomb had on him.
The symptoms were nightmares, flashbacks, depression, heavy drinking and being “very angry”.
“I was physically and mentally abusive to people and mentally and verbally abusive to my wife.”
A GP helped him address the anger management and he also went to AA to address his drinking.
“I was very depressed. I just wanted it to end. I was a totally different person. I was a horrible person.”
The only way out he could see was suicide.
“I just got sick and tired of hurting people.
The suicidal thoughts began about 1993-1994, some five or six years after the bomb.
“I was a civilian then... I had nobody basically.”
What sent him “really over the edge” was when in a joint counselling session one day his wife let “everything out”. The counsellor asked her: “Do you know you are suffering PTSD as well, through your husband?”
James felt horribly guilty and thought “enough is enough”.
“I just walked away. I was just sick and tired of hurting her, not physically, but mentally and verbally.
“I had enough of hurting people. I lost all my friends because they were scared to talk to me in case they said the wrong word.
The first attempt on his life came in the mid 1990s. “Somebody found me. It was a friend of mine. If they had not have found me when they did I would have been dead.”
The second attempt was in 1999.
The trigger was that he got “over-possessive” in a new relationship, something he would never have done before the bomb.
He has since made huge progress, but still bears emotional scars.
A range of things can still put pressure on his mental health.
Because he currently earns £5.75 a week over a certain threshold, he lost part of his war pension - £75 a week. This forced him to work harder and longer hours, meaning more time away from home as a lorry driver. The result is a feeling he is being “penalised by government”.
The decision to charge English veterans like Denis Hutchings and David Holden over fatal shooting incidents from the Troubles also weighs heavily on him.
“Now that sent me on a downer. I am getting annoyed just thinking about it.”
Like many other veterans he knows, he now fears having the police knock at his door - even though he did nothing wrong.
While serving in Londonderry he was paint bombed, petrol bombed, shot at, women and children swore at him and dogs chased him.
“I was proud to serve with the lads that died. But why did we go through all that stuff to be betrayed today?”
FORMER COLLEAGUES
Former colleagues also suffer PTSD he says, but not all will admit it. There are different ways that PTSD sets in, you have depression, drinking, aggression.
“Some of them are in denial. They won’t talk about it. A lot of people don’t they just like to keep in locked away.”
But he sees the symptoms in them. “If you talk to them they get a little bit upset, because we lost eight young lads.”
CHANGES FOR VETERANS
What he feels would be most helpful for veterans like him would be to be recognised.
“We actually served and got injured, because all we are hearing nowadays is Afghanistan this and that. The poor soldiers from Northern Ireland and the Falklands and Bosnia don’t even get mentioned anymore.”
He contacted one veterans charity, he says, which told him it could not help him unless he had served in Afghanistan.
“I was just looking for somebody to talk to.”
The most helpful thing to his recovery has been “people”.
“My friends, my extended family. Friends that are now like brothers, always on the other end of the phone.”
Some of them are in Northern Ireland and some are members of the marching bands that tended to him in the aftermath of the bombing. They had been travelling in a bus which came upon the carnage.
“I later met the young girl who saved my life by the roadside.”
His family and children have also been crucial. He places little faith in counselling, but at one point decided for himself “I have got to do something”.
There were three key planks to his recovery; taking up fishing, going on “quite a lot” of holidays and meeting new people - including his second wife Emma, whom he has now been with for 19 years.
“Thank God for Facebook.”
It helped put him in touch with other veterans with PTSD. A key feature of the condition is that it makes sufferers feel isolated, he says.
“You think to yourself - am I the only person in the entire world that has got something wrong with me? And then you hear other people telling similar stories, and you say to yourself - ‘I am not the only one. Thank God for that. It’s not me’.”
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Quotes by Arsene Wenger
About Arsene Wenger:
Arsène Wenger is a French football manager and former player. He has been the manager of Arsenal since 1996, where he has since become the club's longest-serving manager and most successful in terms of major titles won. Football pundits give Wenger credit for his contribution to the revolutionising of football in England in the late 1990s through the introduction of changes in the training and diet of players.
At a young age winning is not the most important thing... the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.
Football is an art, like dancing is an art - but only when it's well done does it become an art.
I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art.
I believe one of the best things about managing people is that we can influence lives in a positive way. That's basically what a manager is about. When I can do that, I am very happy.
English players are as easy to coach. The problem is that the Premier League has the best players in the world, and statistically not all of them can be born in England. But we don't have enough English players: we are working very hard on it.
The best football players in the world still earn very little money compared to people who really earn money.
Sol has experience, pace and physical power, which nobody else has together.
Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players... they should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure.
If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all.
As a coach you can influence the diet of your players. You can point out what is wrong.
I believe in work, in connections between the players, I think what makes football great is that it is a team sport. You can win in different ways, by being more of a team, or by having better individual players. It is the team ethic that interests m...
I think in the future we need to look at our youth department to provide more players for the first team think it is important for a club to have a good amount of players that have roots with the club and region.
Private life is private life. Off the pitch, there is private life, and the rest is social life, where of course you have to behave responsibly.
Behave
The moral values I've learnt in my life I've learnt through football.
I also think we live in a competitive world, and I love competition.
As a club, we have an educational purpose: to give back to those people who love Arsenal so that they learn moral values from our game and how we behave.
If you have the money and you find the one player who can make you win and make the difference, no matter how expensive he is, you should do it. But there are not many players in the world who will make a real difference.
My target is to make the players as rich as possible within the financial constraints of the club. My target is not to give them less money. I'm happy to make them rich.
In some ways England is more liberal than France, but I also find it more intrusive. But when you go abroad you have to accept the ways of where you live. I have to respect that.
A manager is a guide. He takes a group of people and says, 'With you I can make us a success; I can show you the way.'
NameArsene Wenger
Descriptionfootball manager
BornOctober 22, 1949
CountryFrance
ProfessionAssociation Football Player; Economist
AwardsKnight Of The Legion Of Honour; Officer Of The Order Of The British Empire
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NEWS BRIEFS: WHA, UC Davis Medical Group Still Options
By Dateline Staff on September 12, 2017 in University
Western Health Advantage will remain a benefit choice for employees and retirees in 2018, and those who choose WHA will have access to the UC Davis Medical Group.
‘We’re looking for your healthy ideas’
‘Retirement 101 Short Course’: Oct. 3
Celebrating Betty Irene Moore Hall
Contributing to the ‘public good’ — that’s us!
Blood drive collects 239 pints
UC announced that Western Health Advantage will remain a benefit choice for employees and retirees in 2018, and that those who choose WHA will have access to UC Davis Medical Group.
This had been up in the air since earlier this summer when UC Davis Health announced that it would no longer be a provider of primary care to WHA members starting Jan. 1. That is still true for WHA members who are not UC Davis employees or retirees.
However, UC continued its talks with WHA and other health care plans, to decide UC’s menu of health plan options for 2018. (Open enrollment is scheduled from Oct. 26 to Nov. 21; booklets are due to go in the mail on Oct. 20 for delivery the week of Oct. 23.)
The decision regarding WHA came Aug. 22 in an email to benefits representatives around the UC system: “As a follow-up, we are pleased to confirm WHA will continue as an option within our medical plan portfolio for 2018, and UC Davis Medical Group will be available to UC WHA members currently assigned to that medical group and to any new UC WHA members who select the UC Davis Medical Group.”
The memo announced these changes:
UC Davis Health will not participate in WHA’s “Advantage Referral” program, whereby members can self-refer for specialty care across medical groups. “Effective Jan. 1, 2018, WHA members who want to access UC Davis specialists or facilities must be assigned to UC Davis Medical Group for primary care.”
Self-referrals for ob-gyn care and annual exams by those assigned to the UC Davis Medical Group must remain within the UC Davis Medical Group.
The Healthy Campus Network steering committee has settled on a framework to make UC Davis “the healthiest place to work, learn and live,” and now is reaching out to the campus community — Davis and Sacramento — for “support and creative ideas” on how to get there.
The committee has four focus areas: food/nutrition, physical activity/movement, mental/emotional well-being, and smoke- and tobacco-free.
“We’re looking for your healthy ideas,” said Eric Kvigne, associate vice chancellor, Safety Services, who leads the steering committee. “With a goal of launching new projects January 2018, our HCN steering and subcommittees are asking for your support and creativity to help transform the health and well-being of UC students, staff and faculty.”
Healthy Campus Network is an outgrowth of UC’s Global Food Initiative, established in 2014. Each UC location is participating.
The UC Davis steering committee assessed existing health and well-being programs across the campus, and decided that within each focus area, the subcommittee will deliver one expansion project (of a program that already exists) and one signature project — that is, create an entirely new way to promote the subcommittee’s goals.
More information is available on the Healthy Campus Network webpage. It includes a link (upper right-hand corner) to share your ideas.
The Retiree Center is piloting the “Retirement 101 Short Course,” a one-day course designed to help staff and faculty plan for a successful transition to retirement. Topics include UC pension options, retiree health benefits, financial planning for retirement, and an overview of social security benefits and programs.
This is an abbreviated version of the center’s “Transitioning to Retirement” course that meets one day a week for four weeks.
Note: If you take the one-day course, you cannot take the more in-depth, four-week course this coming January. (Registration for the four-part “Transitioning to Retirement” course will open in late October.)
Sign-ups are being taken now for the one-day pilot, to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, in AGR Hall at the Buehler Alumni Center. Space is limited.
A grand opening ceremony for Betty Irene Moore Hall, the new home for graduate health education on the Sacramento campus, is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 13. RSVPs are requested by Sept. 25.
The opening comes 10 years after the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation committed $100 million to launch the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing — still the largest gift ever to UC Davis. Today, the School of Nursing includes five graduate-degree programs: Ph.D., physician assistant, leadership, nurse practitioner and the master’s entry program into nursing.
Besides housing the School of Nursing and its programs, the new building also supports interprofessional health sciences education. Built at a cost of $50 million, the 70,000-square-foot building features collaborative learning spaces rather than traditional classrooms, to engage students, actively involve faculty and foster collaboration across disciplines. From writeable walls in small areas to propeller-shaped tables in large learning studios, the building encourages teamwork and active instruction. Read more about the new building.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m., and an interactive open house will follow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
UC Davis moved up one spot to ninth in Washington Monthly magazine’s annual ranking that measures social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s) and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). Read the UC Davis news release.
Blood drive helping all over
The quarterly blood drive that came to campus late last month had even more importance given the recent natural disasters around the country.
“Our sister blood centers in Texas and Louisiana are counting on blood donors in other parts of the country, like Davis, to give blood now to support emergency and routine blood needs of patients in that area,” said Felicia LaMothe of BloodSource, adding that BloodSource is part of a national coalition that supports the needs of other regions.
The campus blood drive held Aug. 29-30 collected 239 pints of blood, with 339 participants volunteering to donate.
Next up: the 10th annual Causeway Classic Blood Drive, Tuesday-Thursday, Nov. 7-9. UC Davis is the defending champion.
Dateline Staff Dave Jones, editor, can be reached at 530-752-6556 or dljones@ucdavis.edu. Cody Kitaura, news and media relations specialist, can be reached at 530-752-1932 or kitaura@ucdavis.edu.
Dateline News Briefs
Open Enrollment 2018
Healthy Campus Network
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in Bizarre, Mysterious, People
by Unbelievable Facts Jul 5, 2019, 5:33 pm 1.9k Views
Boris Kipriyanovich must be one of the most famous people in Russia. When Boris, who is lovingly called “Boriska“ meaning “little Boris,” was just seven years old, he held an entire audience in awe at a camping trip by recounting stories of his past life on Mars. There was a German professor in the audience, Gennady Belimov, who recorded Boriska’s monologue. It went viral, and a premier newspaper picked up the story.
Boris Kipriyanovich, a 22-year-old man, allegedly claims that he had lived on the red planet Mars before being reborn on Earth. He started talking about planets and space when he was just seven years old.
Image credits: Project Camelot
Boris Kipriyanovich was born on January 11, 1996, to Nadya Kipriyanovich. Since his birth, he has not been a normal child but has demonstrated super capabilities that are very rarely in a child his age. His mother, Nadya, claims that he was able to hold his head up without her support when he was just 15 days old! That’s odd considering it usually takes months for babies to be able to lift their head on their own. Nadya is a doctor, and she found this very strange, but at the same time, she believed her son to be gifted.
Boriska baffled his parents when he started speaking when he was just a few months old. By the age of two, he was able to read, draw, and paint. He started talking about Mars and other space-associated phenomena even though his parents never talked to him about Mars or space.
Image credits: Project Camelot, Kevin Gill/Flickr
Well, Nadya’s suspicions turned into reality when Boriska started speaking in full sentences and perfect vocabulary when he was just one and a half years old. And, to her surprise, he started recalling his past life on Mars and shared detailed stories with her. Boriska’s parents never talked to him about Mars or space, and he was too young to read everything on his own. His mother once said, “No one has ever taught him. Sometimes he would sit in a lotus position and start telling us detailed facts about Mars, planetary systems and other civilizations which really puzzled us.”
The family took a camping trip when Boris Kipriyanovich was just seven years old. During a campfire gathering, Boris asked the people to sit down around him so that they could listen to his stories of being a Martian in his past life. He held the audience in awe for more than an hour. There was a professor in the audience who recorded Boris’s stories. This is how the world came to know about him.
Scientists were baffled when Boris Kipriyanovich made claims that the Martians measure around seven feet tall, live underground on the Red Planet, and can breathe carbon dioxide. He also said that people from Mars were immortal! Moreover, he claimed to have visited Earth, especially Egypt, multiple times as a Martian pilot. He believes that Earth is going to change significantly when the Great Sphinx of Giza is “unlocked.”
Image credits: Pixabay
Boris’s claims and knowledge of the cosmos bewildered scientists. He had expert knowledge on the galaxy and the Solar System at such a young age. His claims turned interesting when he described life on Mars in detail.
So, according to Boris Kipriyanovich, he had been a Martian a long time ago. This was at the time when Earth had only one continent and Lumeria was in existence. Both Earth and Mars had advanced societies that had time travel and teleportation technologies. He worked as a military pilot for Mars then and had visited Earth a couple of times. Mars and Earth had a very close partnership, and Boris used to fly triangular-shaped spacecraft powered by plasma and ion. Martians used to visit Egypt a lot.
He also said that Martians had the ability to breathe carbon dioxide. The people on Mars used to be really tall and almost reach as high as seven feet in height. Also, they would stop aging when they reached 35 years of age and would be immortal unless they were killed.
Moreover, Boris believes that there are secrets hidden inside the Great Sphinx in Giza – secrets that would change the world forever. He even said that the way to unlock those secrets is hidden behind one of the ears of the Great Sphinx. Considering that the Martians had such a great relationship with Egypt, this might be possible. And surprisingly, about 10 years after Boris made this claim, a sensory scan of the Great Sphinx revealed that there is something odd behind one of the Sphinx’s ear! There may be a hidden chamber hidden there.
But, when Boris as a Martian teenager, a nuclear war erupted on Mars that destroyed the atmosphere. The Martians tried to create a sun out of Jupiter but failed. He claims that the procedure left a spot on Jupiter which we know as the “Great Red Spot.”
Great red spot. Image credits: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Seán Doran/Flickr
We have never been able to find any evidence of life on Mars even though there’s strong speculation on the existence of life there. Boris’ stories explain why we have not been able to find life on Mars yet. According to Boris, when he was 14 or 15 years old, a nuclear war broke out on Mars. The war destroyed the atmosphere and the environment completely. The Martians tried to create a sun out of the planet Jupiter but were unable to. This is what the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is, according to Boris.
Since the atmosphere was no longer habitable, the remaining Mars population moved underground and adapted to breathing carbon dioxide. They still live there, and we have been looking in the wrong places, Boris advises.
An artist illustration of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Boris’ stories are in line with certain theories by experts. Dr. John Brandenburg, a plasma scientist, believes that the earlier civilizations on Mars were wiped out by a nuclear war. Dr. Alfred McEwen, planetary geology professor, strongly believes that there might be water and life in the interior of Mars. This puts Boris’ stories into perspective.
Another claim that Boriska made is that he is not the only Martian reborn on Earth. Known as “Indigo children,” there are many children like him who survived the Martian wars and were reborn on Earth. They are in a mission to protect Earth from destruction.
Boris made another claim. He said that he is not the only Martian to have ever been reborn on Earth. There are others like him, known as “Indigo children,” who are on a mission to Earth. They have been sent to Earth to help humanity avoid an apocalyptic nuclear war.
Boris was interviewed by Project Camelot when he was 11 years old. His interview can be seen here:
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Victoria's main site Future students International students Current students Research About Victoria
Te Kura Whakahaere
Management's home
School of Management Te Kura Whakahaere
Geoff Plimmer
Dr Geoff Plimmer
Senior Lecturer School of Management
geoff.plimmer@vuw.ac.nz
Room 1007, Rutherford House 23 Lambton Quay
Teaching in 2019
HRIR 306 Remuneration and Performance Management
as Course Coordinator and Lecturer
MGMT 405 Human Resource Management
MMBA 519 Human Resource Management
Career and organisational development, public sector reform, bad workplace behaviours.
I’m interested in how people and organisations make judgements about themselves and the world around them, and then use those judgements to change (hopefully in a good way). My approach tends to be practical – I’m more interested in what works than grand theory. Some example areas of interest are:
Current projects in varying levels of activity are:
Leadership, and its impact on commitment. In particular how the Michelangelo effect (the eliciting of someone's best self) creates good outcomes.
Workplace dynamics, in particular how work systems, employment systems, and management attitudes interact to create good (or bad) workplaces.
Worker victimisation/ bullying – my current interest is in the interaction between individual and organisational characteristics that are associated with bullying. I’m also interested in how alleged bullying is resolved (or not), and what the outcomes are for targets, perpetrators and organisations.
Union revitalisation, and what unions can do to be relevant to and effective for workers.
The use of a ‘possible selves’ approach with student transitions, criminal offending reduction, leadership and case management. I work with FutureSelves – a private company – that develops possible selves based programmes. Clients in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand all use it in slightly different ways – making it an interesting lens into different cultures (information).
You can find out more about the BCom(Hons) & MCOM-HRIR programmes here.
PHD - Doctor of Philosophy – Industrial and organisational psychology
BA (Hons) - Bachelor of Arts with Honours (1st class)
BA - Bachelor of Arts
Vu TA, Plimmer G, Berman E, & Sabharwal M. (2019). Managing employee performance in transition economies: A study of Vietnamese public organizations. Public Administration and Development. 39, 89–103.
Englert, P., & Plimmer, G. (2019). Moving From Classical Test Theory to the Evaluation of Usefulness: A Theoretical and Practical Examination of Alternative Approaches to the Development of Career Tools for Job Seekers. Journal of Employment Counseling. 56(1), 20-32.
Zeier, K., Plimmer, G., & Franken, E. (2019). Developing shared leadership in a public organisation: Processes, paradoxes and consequences. Journal of Management & Organization, 1-18. doi:10.1017/jmo.2018.78
Löfgren, K., Macaulay, M., Berman, E. and Plimmer, G. (2018), Expectations, Trust, and ‘No Surprises’: Perceptions of Autonomy in New Zealand Crown Entities. Australian Journal of Public Administration. doi:10.1111/1467-8500.12305
Plimmer, G., Cantal, C. & Qumseya, T. (2017). Staff perceptions of performance and effectiveness in the New Zealand State Sector: Further analysis of the 2016 Public Service Association survey for the New Zealand Productivity Commission. Centre for Labour, Employment and Work, Victoria University of Wellington.
Plimmer, G., Bryson, J. & Teo, S. T. (2017). Opening the black box: The mediating roles of organisational systems and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance link in public sector organisations. Personnel Review, 46(7), 1434-1451.
Plimmer, G., Bryson, J., Donnelly, N., Wilson, J., Ryan, B. & Blumenfeld, S. (2017). The legacy of new public management (NPM) on workers, management capabilities, and organisations. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 42, 1, 19-34.
Plimmer, G., Proctor-Thomson, S., Donnelly, N. & Sim, D. (2017). The mistreatment of public service workers: identifying key risk and protective factors. Public Money & Management, 37, 5, 333-340
Plimmer, G., Cantal, C. (2016). Workplace Dynamics in New Zealand Public Services. Wellington: Centre for Labour, Employment and Work, Victoria University of Wellington.
Shields, J., Plimmer, G., & Robinson, J. (2015). Collective incentives. In J. Shields, M. Brown, S. Kaine, C. Dolle-Samuel, A. North-Samardzic, P. McLean, J. Robyn, P. O'Leary, G. Plimmer, & J. Robinson (Eds.), Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies (pp. 291 - 319). Melbourne: Cambridge.
Shields, J., Robinson, J., & Plimmer, G. (2015). Executive incentives. In J. Shields, M. Brown, S. Kaine, C. Dolle-Samuel, A. North-Samardzic, P. McLean, J. Robyn, P. O'Leary, G. Plimmer, & J. Robinson (Eds.), Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies (2 ed., pp. 336 - 366). Melbourne: Cambridge
Richard, J. E., Plimmer, G., Fam, K.-S., & Campbell, C. (2015). Publishing success of marketing academics: antecedents and outcomes. European Journal of Marketing, 49(1/2), 123-145.
Bryson, J., Wilson, J., Plimmer, G., Blumenfeld, S., Donnelly, N., Ku, B., & Ryan, B. (2014). Women workers: caring, sharing, enjoying their work–or just another gender stereotype? Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 24(4), 258-271.
Richard, J., Fam, K. S., Plimmer, G., and Gerschewski, S., (2012) ‘An update of the Vox Populi approach to academic journal rankings: 2011 in review’, Asian Journal of Business Research, 2 (1), 12-29, [ISSN: 1178-8933].
Plimmer, G. & Blumenfeld, S. (2012). Trade Union delegate Leadership and Union Commitment: A Cross-sectional Analysis. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 33 Issue: 8.
Donnelly, N., Proctor-Thomson, S.B. & Plimmer, G. (2012). The role of ‘voice’ in matters of ‘choice’: flexible work outcomes for women in the New Zealand Public Services. Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(2).
Plimmer, G. (2012). Adult Career Counselling Using Possible Selves—A Quasi-Experimental Field Study in Naturalistic Settings. Journal of Career Assessment, 20(1), 53-70.
Plimmer, G. (2012). HRM and the new workplace. In J. Bryson & R. Ryan (Eds.), Human resource management in the workplace (pp. 92 - 124). Auckland: Pearson.
Proctor-Thomson, S.B., Donnelly, N. & Plimmer, G. (2011). Constructing workplace democracy:Women’s voice in New Zealand public services. Wellington: Public Service Association (PSA) & Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.
Plimmer, G., Gill, D. & Norman, R. (2011). Skills and people capability in the future state: Needs, barriers and opportunities. In B. Ryan & D. Gill (Eds.), Future State. (pp 281–305). Wellington NZ: VUW Press.
Plimmer, G., Willie Clarke-Okah, W., Donovan, C. & Russell, W. (2011). COL RIM: Lowering the cost and increasing the effectiveness of QA. In I. Jung & C. Latchem (Eds.). Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education. (pp. 162–172). New York: Routledge.
Schmidt, A., Plimmer, G. & Donovan, C. (2010). Handbook for the Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Mode.
Commonwealth of Learning (2009). Conceptual Framework for Low Cost Model of Effective Instituitional Quality Audit for Higher Education. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, 61pp. (Co-author with Alison Schmidt).
Plimmer, G., & Schmidt, A. (2007). Possible selves and career transition: It's who you want to be, not what you want to do. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2007 (114), 61-74.
Parkin, F., & Plimmer, G. (2004). Managing the Presence of Personal Issues in Career Counselling: Using Transactional Analysis with Possible Selves. Australian Journal of Career Development, 13(1), 7-14. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/103841620401300103
Parkin, F. & Plimmer, G. (2003). Integration of Career and Personal Counselling: Future Selves as an Organising Theme. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 24, (1), 51 – 65.
Harrison, G., Sheffield, J., & Plimmer, G. (2015, December 5). Business acceleration: A springboard for learning and development?. Paper presented at Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management: Managing for peak performance, Queenstown, New Zealand.
Plimmer, G. (2015). Public service dynamics. Presented to Creating High Performing Public Sector Organisations Seminar. Centre for Labour, Employment and Work. 14 April, Wellington.
Plimmer, G. & Crimp, H. (2015). Prevention of bullying in the public sector. Presented to Public Sector Integrity Network on 6 April, Wellington.
Plimmer, G. (2014). "Public service workers after 25 years of new public management: Committed and motivated despite weak managers and organisations" (2015). Paper presented at the Australian New Zealand Academy of Management Conference, Sydney NSW December 3 – 5.
Plimmer, G. and Teo, S. (2013). Does Workplace Aggression in the Public Sector Indicate Low Organisational Capability? Symposium Chairs and Presenters. British Academy of Management Conference, Liverpool, September 3 – 6.
Plimmer, G., Wilson, J., Bryson, J., Blumenfeld, S., Donnelly, N., & Ryan, B. (2013). Workplace Dynamics in New Zealand Public Services. Wellington: Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.
Plimmer, G., & Sim, D. (2012) Bullying as a marker of low performance work systems. Paper presented at the Australian New Zealand Academy of Management Conference 2012, Perth, Western Australia, December.
Plimmer, G., Norman, R. & Gill, D. (2011). Overcoming new public management calcification: Skills and capability implications. Paper presented at Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Conference, Washington DC, November.
Plimmer, G. (2010, July). Cost-effective institutional quality audit: The Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model (COL RIM). Paper presented at IIAS -IASIA Congress, 12-15 July. Bali, Indonesia.
Plimmer, G. (2005). Career Development in Organisations: What the research shows works and doesn't work. 14th AACC Inc National Conference, Canberra, ACT Conference 30th March - 1st April.
Plimmer, G. (2005). Career Development in Organisations: What the research shows works and doesn't work. HRINZ Professional Interest Group, Auckland, April. Download presentation.
Plimmer, G. (2004). Picking What's Useful Out of Recent Research. Presentation at the Organisation Development Network Eleventh National Conference, Wellington.
Centre for Labour, Employment and Work (CLEW)
Professional Programmes (including MBA)
Faculty of Commerce (VBS)
Human Resources and Industrial Relations (HRIR)
som@vuw.ac.nz
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Name: Victor Snyder
Congress: Arkansas, District: 2, Democrat
0% (111th Congress: 2009-2010)
Motion: Table the Appeal of the Ruling of the Chair
Lame-duck Session. We are used to Congress convening "lame-duck" sessions of Congress in even-numbered years between the general elections in early November and the beginning of the new Congress on January 3 of the next year. We've had an unbroken string of lame-duck sessions every even-numbered year since 1998. Although these post-election sessions include many lawmakers who were either defeated or didn't run for reelection, what we call lame-duck sessions of Congress were actually business as usual for the first 140 years of our nation's history. However, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution in 1933 included two provisions to greatly reduce the time available to convene such sessions by moving the beginning date for new terms of Senators and Representatives from March 4 to January 3 of odd-numbered years and mandating that Congress begin meeting on January 3 each year.
Even though the time during which lame-duck sessions can be convened has been greatly shortened by the 20th Amendment, they are once again business as usual for Congress. Although lame-duck sessions are prohibited in 39 state legislatures, public sentiment so far has not been sufficiently mobilized to prohibit such sessions for Congress. The heart of the problem, of course, is that recently defeated and retired Senators and Representatives are still voting on legislation in these sessions, even though the voters have already elected their replacements. This problem is greatly heightened when a massive swing in voter sentiment leads to a change in which party controls one or both houses of Congress, which appears likely in November 2010.
The House agreed to a motion to table (kill) a draft resolution which would pledge that the House would not convene a lame-duck session between November 2, 2010 and January 3, 2011 on September 23, 2010 by a vote of 236-172 (Roll Call 534). We have assigned pluses to the nays because even though a lame-duck session is not unconstitutional, it undermines the representative government established by the Constitution.
H R 1586: To modernize the air traffic control system, improve the safety, reliability, and availability of transportation by air in the United States, provide for modernization of the air traffic control system, reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes.
Vote Date: August 10, 2010
Vote: NONE
No Vote.Medicaid and Education Assistance. This legislation (H.R. 1586) would provide $26.1 billion in state aid for Medicaid ($16.1 billion of the total) and education ($10 billion). The latter is for the purpose of creating or retaining education-related jobs.
The House agreed to this legislation on August 10, 2010 by a vote of 247-161 (Roll Call 518). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government has no constitutional authority to pay for healthcare for the poor or to fund education. Also, there is no statistical evidence showing that federal involvement in education has increased learning -- though it certainly has increased federal bureaucracy and control.
H.Amdt. 17 to H. R. 5850: On Agreeing to the Amendment 17 to H R 5850
Transportation-HUD Appropriations (Spending Cut). This bill (H.R. 5850) would appropriate $126.3 billion in fiscal 2011 for the Transportation Department, HUD, and related agencies. During consideration of the bill, Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) offered an amendment to cut the spending in the bill by $18.6 billion -- about 15 percent of the total.
The House rejected Rep. Jordan's amendment on July 29, 2010 by a vote of 159-265 (Roll Call 493). We have assigned pluses to the yeas not only because federal spending needs to be cut back, but also because of the unconstitutionality of the appropriations.
H R 5850: Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes
Transportation-HUD Appropriations. This legislation (H.R. 5850) would appropriate a whopping $126.3 billion in fiscal 2011 for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and related agencies. The bill would provide $79.4 billion for the Transportation Department, including $11.3 billion for transit programs; and $46.6 billion for HUD, including $19.4 billion for the Section 8 rental-assistance program.
The House passed the bill on July 29, 2010 by a vote of 251-167 (Roll Call 499). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill is unaffordable and most of the spending is unconstitutional.
H R 4899: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Supplemental Appropriations. The supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4899) would provide an additional $58.8 billion in "emergency" funding for the current fiscal year (2010). The supplemental appropriations in the bill include $37.1 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, $5.1 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and $2.9 for earthquake relief in Haiti.
The House passed the bill on July 27, 2010 by a vote of 308-114 (Roll Call 474). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the spending is over and above what the federal government already budgeted, Congress never declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the spending (e.g., foreign aid) is unconstitutional.
H R 5618: Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act
Vote Date: July 1, 2010
Unemployment Benefits Extension. This bill (H.R. 5618) would extend unemployment insurance benefits through November 30, 2010 (retroactive to June 2, 2010) and provide 100 percent federal funding for the extended benefits. The unemployment insurance program is run by the states and overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor. The program allows for up to 26 weeks of benefits, but Congress has extended it several times as a response to the recession and high unemployment rates.
The House passed the bill on July 1, 2010 by a vote of 270-153 (Roll Call 423). We have assigned pluses to the nays because extending unemployment benefits provides a disincentive for finding work while adding to the cost of government and doing nothing to create jobs. Indeed, if unemployment benefits were a good solution to the unemployment problem, then why not make unemployment benefits permanent? The solution, instead, is to end government and Fed intervention in the market so the market can create more and better jobs.
H R 4173: Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009
Financial Regulatory Reform. This sweeping legislation (H.R. 4173) would tighten federal control of the financial sector on the false premise that the financial crisis was driven by free-market forces, as opposed to government and Fed policies (e.g., artificially low interest rates) that encouraged excessive borrowing and risk-taking. The legislation would create a new Financial Stability Oversight Council that would monitor the financial sector for system-wide risks, and could (by a two-thirds majority vote) subject non-bank entities to Fed regulatory powers and approve Fed decisions to break up large companies. It would also create a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection run by the Federal Reserve.
According to the American Bankers Association, the legislation would subject traditional banks to 5,000 pages of new regulations.
The House adopted the final version (conference report) of H.R. 4173 on June 30, 2010 by a vote of 237-192 (Roll Call 413). We have assigned pluses to the nays because ramping up regulatory control of the financial sector by the Fed and the federal government is not only unconstitutional but will make it exceedingly more difficult for the economy to recover.
H R 5175: Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act or the DISCLOSE Act
Campaign Finance Disclosure. The DISCLOSE Act ("Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections"), H.R. 5175, was introduced in response to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (January 21, 2010) that unexpectedly upheld the Constitution and free speech. The court ruled that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individuals in regard to spending their funds to broadcast "electioneering communications"; however, the case did not affect the federal prohibition on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties.
President Obama and certain special interest groups along with liberals in general wanted to curb the effects of that Supreme Court decision, so Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md.), who called the Supreme Court's ruling "radical," and 114 cosponsors acquiesced by introducing H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE Act. This act would establish new regulations for corporations, unions, and advocacy and lobbying groups for campaign-related activities. Conservative advocacy groups, as well as the liberal ACLU, are opposed to this bill on the basis that it infringes on their freedom of speech.
The House passed H.R. 5175 on June 24, 2010 by a vote of 219-206 (Roll Call 391). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government should not infringe on the right to free speech of corporations, unions, and other interest groups.
H R 5486: Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010
ObamaCare (Repealing the Individual Mandate to Purchase Health Insurance). On June 15 the Republicans lost the first vote in their efforts to repeal either the entire healthcare bill or at least important parts of the overhaul bill commonly known as ObamaCare. They were trying to repeal the ObamaCare individual mandate that will require virtually all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or else pay a penalty. This individual mandate is so widely considered to be unconstitutional that 20 states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses have filed a lawsuit based on the unconstitutionality of this provision and over 30 states have introduced legislation to nullify the individual mandate.
Although the best solution would be for Congress to repeal the entire ObamaCare law (Public Laws 111-148 and 111-152) on the basis of its unconstitutionality, repeal of the individual mandate would be a good first step toward full repeal later. On June 15 Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) took this first step by making a motion to recommit the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010, H.R. 5486, to the Ways and Means Committee with instructions that it be immediately reported back with language that would repeal the individual mandate to purchase health insurance in the 2010 healthcare overhaul law.
The House rejected the Camp motion on June 15, 2010 by a vote of 187-230 (Roll Call 362). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because of the unconstitutionality and wrongness of requiring anyone to purchase a product or service -- in this case health insurance.
H R 5116: America COMPETES Reauthorization Act
Science and Technology Programs. This legislation (H.R. 5116) would authorize $85.6 billion over five years for science and technology research and education programs. The funding includes $44 billion for the National Science Foundation and $30.2 billion for the Energy Department's Office of Science. The bill would also create a new loan-guarantee program to help manufacturers invest in innovative technologies.
The House passed the bill on May 28, 2010 by a vote of 262-150 (Roll Call 332). We have assigned pluses to the nays because entrepreneurs and not government should decide which technologies to invest in and to what extent.
Science and Technology Programs. This legislation would authorize $48 billion over three years for science and technology research and education programs. The funding includes $24.4 billion for the National Science Foundation and $16.9 billion for the Energy Department's Office of Science. The bill would also create new programs such as loan guarantees to help small- and medium-sized businesses invest in innovative technologies.
The House failed to pass the bill on May 19, 2010 under a suspension of the rules that requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage (Roll Call 277). The vote tally was 261-148, but 273 were needed to obtain the two-thirds majority. We have assigned pluses to the nays because entrepreneurs and not government should decide which technologies to invest in and to what extent.
H R 4872: Reconciliation Act of 2010
ObamaCare Reconciliation. This bill (H.R. 4872), officially titled the "Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010," was passed to amend the ObamaCare bill at the insistence of disaffected House Democrats. Among other things, it increases subsidies to help uninsured individuals buy health insurance and increases some taxes and fees to help pay for the expanded coverage provided by ObamaCare. This bill also makes the federal government the sole provider of student loans after July 1, which is just one more example of a complete government takeover of a significant sector of our economy.
The House agreed to the motion on March 25, 2010 by a vote of 220-207 (Roll Call 194). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government has no constitutional authority to manage the healthcare industry or the student-loan industry.
H R 4899: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Supplemental Funding for FEMA and Youth Summer Jobs. This bill (H.R. 4899) would provide an additional $5.7 billion in emergency supplemental funding over and above regular appropriations. Most of the money ($5.1 billion) would be for the Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Relief Fund and another $600 million would be used to fund youth summer jobs programs.
The House passed H.R. 4899 on March 24, 2010 by a vote of 239-175 (Roll Call 186). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government cannot afford to add to existing spending and because the federal government has no constitutional authority to provide disaster relief or jobs funding.
H R 3590: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
ObamaCare. ObamaCare. This historic bill (H.R. 3590), officially titled the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," went on to be signed into law (Public Law 111-148) by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Popularly known as "ObamaCare," this bill essentially completed the government takeover of the American healthcare system that was begun with Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The ObamaCare law creates 159 new government agencies, which will inevitably drive private healthcare insurers out of the market, just as its pilot program, RomneyCare, is already beginning to do in Massachusetts. Although its official cost estimate was $1 trillion for the first 10 years, ObamaCare will soon join Medicare and Medicaid in the list of unfunded healthcare liabilities of the federal government, which together add up to tens of trillions of dollars.
ObamaCare would create an exchange in each state for the purchase of government-approved health insurance, mandate that most individuals purchase health insurance, fine individuals who don't purchase health insurance, subsidize the purchase of health insurance for individuals earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, require employers with 50 or more employees to provide healthcare coverage or pay a fine if any employee gets a subsidized healthcare plan from the exchange, and prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
The House agreed to a motion to concur with the Senate version of H.R. 3590 on March 21, 2010 by a vote of 219-212 (Roll Call 165). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government has no constitutional authority to require individuals to purchase health insurance or to manage the healthcare industry.
H CON RES 248: Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan
Withdrawing U.S. Soldiers From Afghanistan. This legislation (House Concurrent Resolution 248) would direct the President to remove the U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan within 30 days of enactment, or by the end of the year if the President determines they cannot be safely removed sooner.
The House rejected H. Con. Res. 248 on March 10, 2010 by a vote of 65 to 356 (Roll Call 98). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan cannot be justified on the basis of defending the United States, there has been no declaration of war, and Congress needs to assert constitutional authority to decide when we do go to war.
H R 3961: Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act
Patriot Act. This bill (H.R. 3961) would extend by one year three Patriot Act provisions that were set to expire on February 28, 2010. The provisions allow the federal government to exercise wide-ranging surveillance and seizure powers with few limitations. For instance, the records provision allows the government to obtain "any tangible thing" that, it says, has "relevance" to a terrorism investigation. "Relevance" is a much lower standard -- if it can even be called a standard at all -- than the "probable cause" and a court warrant standard explicitly required by the Fourth Amendment.
The House agreed to extend the provisions on February 25, 2010 by a vote of 315-97 (Roll Call 67). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the provisions violate the right of the people to (in the words of the Fourth Amendment) "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."
H J RES 45: Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act
Vote Date: February 4, 2010
Debt Limit Increase. This bill (House Joint Resolution 45) would raise the national debt limit from $12.4 trillion to $14.29 trillion -- a $1.9 trillion increase. This increase, reported Congressional Quarterly, "should be large enough to cover borrowing into early next year." Really? To put this astronomical $1.9 trillion increase in perspective, consider that the total national debt did not top $1 trillion until 1981.
The House approved the debt limit increase on February 4, 2010 by a vote of 233-187 (Roll Call 48). We have assigned pluses to the nays because raising the national debt allows the federal government to borrow more money and continue its gross fiscal irresponsibility.
H R 2847: Making Appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Vote Date: December 16, 2009
Jobs Funding. This legislation (H.R. 2847) would appropriate $154.4 billion for infrastructure and jobs programs to aid state and local governments. Nearly half of the money would be redirected from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The money for the jobs programs would have to be siphoned out of the economy in the first place and so would result in a loss of jobs in the economy as a whole in order to create other jobs in government-favored sectors, based on the premise that government can allocate resources better than the private sector. As Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) noted during floor debate on this bill, "You cannot spend your way into more jobs, you cannot borrow your way into more jobs."
The House agreed to the jobs funding on December 16, 2009 by a vote of 217-212 (Roll Call 991). We have assigned pluses to the nays because spending federal dollars to create jobs is unsustainable and unconstitutional.
H R 4173: The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009
Financial Regulatory Reform. This legislation (H.R. 4173), described by the Washington Times as "the most sweeping regulatory overhaul of the nation's financial sector since the new Deal," would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and in general tighten federal control of the financial sector on the false premise that the financial crisis was driven by free-market forces, as opposed to government and Fed policies (e.g., artificially low interest rates) that encouraged excessive borrowing and risk-taking.
The House passed H.R. 4173 on December 11, 2009 by a vote of 223-202 (Roll Call 968). We have assigned pluses to the nays because more government control of the economy will do more harm than good.
H R 3288: Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, HUD, and related agencies for FY 2010
Omnibus Appropriations. This catch-all legislative package (H.R. 3288) is comprised of six appropriations bills for fiscal 2010 that Congress failed to complete separately -- Commerce-Justice-Science; Financial Services; Labor-HHS-Education; Military Construction-VA; State-Foreign Operations; and Transportation-HUD. The total price tag in the final version (conference report) of H.R. 3288 is about $1.1 trillion, including $447 billion in discretionary spending.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 3288 on December 10, 2009 by a vote of 221-202 (Roll Call 949). We have assigned pluses to the nays because many of the bill's spending programs -- e.g., education, housing, foreign aid, etc. -- are unconstitutional. Moreover, lawmakers should have been able to vote on component parts of the total package.
H R 3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act
Vote Date: November 7, 2009
Healthcare "Reform." The provisions in this bill (H.R. 3962) would cost about a trillion dollars (although such estimates are notoriously unreliable) over the next 10 years and complete the government takeover of our healthcare industry that was started with congressional passage of the original Medicare bill in 1965. This bill would overhaul the nation's health insurance system and require most individuals to buy health insurance by 2013. A Health Choices Administration would be created that would be tasked with establishing a federal health insurance exchange, including a government-run public health insurance option to allow individuals without coverage to obtain insurance. A federal excise tax would be levied on those that do not obtain coverage. Employers would be required to offer health insurance to employees or contribute to a fund for coverage. Failure to provide coverage would subject businesses to penalties of up to eight percent of their payroll. This bill would also bar insurance companies from denying or reducing coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions.
The House passed H.R. 3962 on November 7, 2009 by a vote of 220-215 (Roll Call 887). We have assigned pluses to the nays because a federal government takeover of our healthcare system is not authorized by the Constitution and will cost most Americans more for healthcare.
H R 2996: Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations, 2010
Interior-Environment Appropriations. This appropriations bill (H.R. 2996) would authorize $32.3 billion in fiscal 2010 for the Interior Department, the EPA, and related agencies. The bill would provide $11 billion for the Interior Department, $10.3 billion for the EPA, $3.5 billion for the Forest Service, and $4.1 billion for the Indian Health Service. Additionally, H.R. 2996 would authorize $168 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and provide $761 million to the Smithsonian Institution.
The spending in H.R. 2996 is about $4.7 billion, or roughly 17 percent, more than what was received in fiscal 2009 for the same programs. Representative Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) argued that the increased spending is "irresponsible, especially in light of the fact Congress must soon consider legislation to increase our national debt limit."
The House adopted the conference report for H.R. 2996 on October 29, 2009 by a vote of 247-178 (Roll Call 826). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the majority of funding in the bill is unconstitutional and wasteful.
H R 2997: Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Agriculture Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 2997) would authorize $121.2 billion in fiscal 2010 for the Agriculture Department and related agencies. This social-welfare bill would include $21 billion for the Agriculture Department, $2.4 billion for the Food and Drug Administration, $58.3 billion to fund the food stamp program, $17 billion for the child nutrition program, $7.3 billion for the Women, Infants, and Children program, and $1.7 billion for the Food for Peace program.
Excluding emergency spending, H.R. 2997 would represent a $2.7 billion increase from the 2009 appropriations level. More than 80 percent of the funds for H.R. 2997 would be reserved for mandatory programs such as food stamps and crop support.
The House passed the final version of H.R. 2997 on October 7, 2009 by a vote of 263-162 (Roll Call 761). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 3183: Making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies, FY 2010
Energy-Water Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 3183 would appropriate $34 billion in fiscal 2010 for energy and water projects. The funds would provide $27.1 billion for the Energy Department, $5.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, and $1.1 billion for the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation.
The House passed the final version of H.R. 3183 on October 1, 2009 by a vote of 308-114 (Roll Call 752). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Department of Energy is not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 3435: Making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2009 for the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Program
Cash for Clunkers Funding. After running out of funds almost immediately, Congress quickly introduced yet another bill (H.R. 3435) that would provide an additional $2 billion for the "Cash for Clunkers" program.
The "Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act" (H.R. 2751) would authorize $4 billion for an auto trade-in program that's also known as "cash for clunkers." Under the program consumers were offered rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in their old cars for more fuel-efficient ones. The vehicles traded in were destroyed, meaning cars not ready for the junkyard would be taken off the road, reducing the stock of used vehicles and inflating the prices of used cars.
The House passed H.R. 3435 on July 31, 2009 by a vote of 316-109 (Roll Call 682). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government should not be subsidizing the car industry and because it is unconstitutional and wasteful.
H R 3293: Making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. This fiscal 2010 spending bill (H.R. 3293) would appropriate a massive $730.5 billion for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. This bill, which is the largest of all the annual appropriations bills, includes $67.8 billion for the Department of Education and $603.5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, including $518.8 billion in "mandatory" spending for Medicare and Medicaid.
The House passed H.R. 3293 on July 24, 2009 by a vote of 264-153 (Roll Call 646). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the array of social welfare programs funded by this bill is unconstitutional and has failed historically.
Transportation-HUD Appropriations. The fiscal 2010 Transportation-HUD appropriations (H.R. 3288) would authorize a whopping $123.1 billion for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. This includes $68.8 billion for discretionary spending for the two departments and their related agencies, a 25-percent increase from fiscal 2009 levels. The bill would provide $1.5 billion in federal grants for Amtrak and $18.2 billion for the Section 8 Tenant-based Rental Assistance program.
The House passed H.R. 3288 on July 23, 2009 by a vote of 256-168 (Roll Call 637). We have assigned pluses to the nays because virtually every dollar assigned to this bill, whether it is for transportation or housing assistance, is unconstitutional and unaffordable.
H R 3081: Making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes
State-Foreign Aid Appropriations. This fiscal 2010 spending bill (H.R. 3081) would appropriate $49 billion for the State Department and various foreign-assistance and international activities. The foreign assistance in the bill includes $5.8 billion to help combat HIV/AIDS, $2.7 billion for Afghanistan, $2.2 billion for Israel, $1.5 billion for Pakistan, $1.4 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (a United Nations-inspired entity), and $1.3 billion for Egypt.
Though foreign aid is supposed to help the poor and suffering in foreign countries, ultimately it transfers the wealth from American taxpayers to Third World elites who have become deficient in running their socialist regimes.
The House passed H.R. 3081 on July 9, 2009 by a vote of 318-106 (Roll Call 525). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional and unworkable.
H R 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act
Cap and Trade. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), also known as the cap-and-trade bill, would not merely "cap" carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gas emissions, ostensibly to fight global warming, but would reduce the amount of allowable emissions over time -- to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, 42 percent by 2030, and 83 percent by 2050. The government would auction or freely distribute a limited number of emission allowances, which companies would be able to buy or sell. Of course, as the total amount of allowable emissions is reduced, the price of the allowances would skyrocket -- and with them the price of electricity and whatever else is produced from burning fossil fuel. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the effect of the House committee version of the bill would be to raise federal taxes by $846 billion and direct federal spending by $821 billion over the 2010-2019 period.
The House passed the cap-and-trade bill on June 26, 2009 by a vote of 219-212 (Roll Call 477). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this legislation would be devastating to the economy if enacted and the federal government has no constitutional authority to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.
H R 2346: Supplemental Appropriations, FY 2009
Supplemental Appropriations. This final version (conference report) of the fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 2346) would provide an additional $105.9 billion in so-called emergency funds over and above the regular appropriations for 2009. This outrageous supplemental package would include $79.9 billion for defense funding (including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), $10.4 billion for foreign aid programs, $7.7 billion to address the national flu scare, and $5 billion for International Monetary Fund activities. This supplemental bill would also include $1 billion for the Cash for Clunkers program.
A day prior to the House vote, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) urged his fellow lawmakers to reject the bill, stating, "I continue to believe that the best way to support our troops is to bring them home from Iraq and Afghanistan.... Our continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan does not make us safer at home, but in fact it undermines our national security."
The House adopted H.R. 2346 on June 16, 2009 by a vote of 226-202 (Roll Call 348). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the spending is over and above what the federal government had already budgeted, the United States never declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the spending (e.g., Cash for Clunkers and foreign aid) is unconstitutional.
H R 2751: Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act
Cash for Clunkers. The "Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act" (H.R. 2751) would authorize $4 billion for an auto trade-in program that's also known as "cash for clunkers." Under the program, consumers would be offered rebates of up to $4,500 if they trade in their old cars for more fuel-efficient ones. The vehicles traded-in would have to be destroyed, meaning that cars not yet ready for the junkyard would be taken off the road, reducing the stock of used vehicles and inflating the price of used cars.
The House passed H.R. 2751 on June 9, 2009, by a vote of 298-119 (Roll Call 314). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government should not be subsidizing the automotive companies via vouchers to customers. Besides, it's unconstitutional.
Body Imaging Screening. During consideration of the Transportation Security Administration Authorization bill (H.R. 2200), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) offered an amendment that would prohibit the use of Whole-Body Imaging (WBI) as the primary method of screening at airports. The amendment would allow passengers the option of a pat-down search rather than being subjected to a WBI search that shows extremely intimate details of one's body. The Chaffetz amendment would also prohibit TSA from storing, copying, or transferring any images that are produced by WBI machines.
Since its creation, TSA has become infamous for its meddlesome searches and disregard for an individual's right of privacy. Evidence shows that corruption and mismanagement have been commonplace within the relatively new federal department for years. The Chaffetz amendment would do very little to scale back the power held by the TSA, but it does offer some hope that our representatives are not wholly unaware of how the TSA and its policies would threaten the privacy of American citizens through a process that has been called a "virtual strip-search."
The House adopted the Chaffetz amendment by a "Committee of the Whole" on June 4, 2009, by a vote of 310-118 (Roll Call 305). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because such technology is obtrusive for American citizens and violates our right of protection against unwarranted searches and seizures.
Supplemental Appropriations. The Fiscal 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill (H.R. 2346) would provide an additional $96.7 billion in "emergency" funding for the current fiscal year over and above the regular appropriations. Included in the funds for H.R. 2346 is $84.5 billion for the ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, $10 billion for foreign aid programs, and $2 billion for flu pandemic preparation.
The House passed H.R. 2346 on May 14, 2009, by a vote of 368-60 (Roll Call 265). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the spending is over and above what the federal government had already budgeted, the United States never declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the spending (e.g., foreign aid) is unconstitutional.
S CON RES 13: Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2010
Budget Resolution. The final version of the Fiscal 2010 Budget Resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 13) calls for $3.56 trillion in federal spending for the fiscal year beginning on September 1, 2009. This level of spending would be significantly less than the $4.0 trillion the Obama administration forecast in May that the federal government would spend in the current fiscal year (which includes the $700 billion TARP program), but significantly more than the $3.0 trillion the federal government spent in fiscal 2008. And the deficit for fiscal 2010 would be more than $1 trillion.
The House passed the final version (conference report) of the budget resolution on April 29, 2009, by a vote of 233-193 (Roll Call 216). We have assigned pluses to the nays because much of the budget is unconstitutional (e.g., foreign aid, education, healthcare, etc.), and the federal government should end deficit spending and live within its means.
H R 1913: Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Hate Crimes. The passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913) would expand the federal hate crimes law to include crimes that are based on sexual orientation, gender, or physical or mental disability. (Current law covers crimes based on race, color, religion, or national origin.) This bill would allow for harsher sentencing for individuals who commit violent crimes because of politically incorrect hateful motives. This legislation begs the question, are not all violent crimes committed with some hateful motive? If so, H.R. 1913 would ensure that some victims will receive more "equal protection under the law" than others. In a guest commentary in the Denver Post editorial, criminal defense lawyer Robert J. Corry, Jr. opined: "The 'hate crime' law does not apply equally, instead criminalizing only politically incorrect thoughts directed against politically incorrect victim categories."
The House passed H.R. 1913 on April 29, 2009, by a vote of 249-175 (Roll Call 223). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this legislation would further federalize the criminal code as well as punish not only criminal acts, but the thoughts behind them.
H R 1139: COPS Improvements Act of 2009
COPS Funding. The Community Oriented Policing Services bill (H.R. 1139) would authorize $1.8 billion a year from fiscal 2009 through 2014 for the Justice Department's COPS program. This is up from the $1.05 billion that was authorized for the COPS program for fiscal years 2006 through 2009. The funds authorized for H.R. 1139 would aid in the hiring of law-enforcement officers.
The House passed H.R. 1139 on April 23, 2009, by a vote of 342-78 (Roll Call 206). We have assigned pluses to the nays because providing federal aid to local law-enforcement programs is not only unconstitutional, but also further federalizes the police system.
H R 1388: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act
National Service. The Serve America Act (H.R. 1388) would reauthorize Corporation for National and Community Service programs through 2014, and expand the number of "volunteer" positions (which are actually paid positions) in national-service programs such as AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House version of this legislation would cost $6 billion and the Senate version would cost $5 billion over five years.
The House passed H.R. 1388 on March 18, 2009, by a vote of 321-105 (Roll Call 140). We have assigned pluses to the nays because national-service programs are not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 1: Making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year ending 2009
Economic Stimulus. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1) would provide $787 billion -- $575 billion in new spending and $212 billion in tax cuts -- to stimulate the economy. The "stimulus" spending is supposed to create jobs, yet the money that the government spends for this purpose would have to be drained from the economy in the first place, thereby destroying jobs throughout the economy in order to give the government the means to create jobs in selected sectors. Even the tax cuts, which constitute less than a third of the stimulus package, would not reduce the burden that government spending places on the economy, since there are no corresponding spending cuts. Since the federal government is already operating in the red, the entire $787-billion "stimulus" would translate into another $787 billion in federal debt, as well as inflation when the money to finance the debt is created out of thin air by the Fed and pumped into the economy. In fact, the legislation would increase the national debt ceiling by $789 billion, a little more than the bill's price tag.
The House passed the final version (conference report) for H.R. 1 on February 13, 2009, by a vote of 246-183 (Roll Call 70). We have assigned pluses to the nays because most of the spending would be unconstitutional and government cannot stimulate the economy by draining money from the private sector.
H R 2: Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
SCHIP. H.R. 2 would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly referred to as SCHIP, for over four and a half years and increase the funding for the program by $32.8 billion. SCHIP is designed to provide health insurance to children of families whose incomes are up to four times above the poverty level (and therefore would have too much income to qualify for Medicaid), yet would have little income to buy private insurance. Often SCHIP crowds out private insurance: the Congressional Budget Office found that between 25 and 50 percent of children who enroll in SCHIP dropped their private insurance to get "free care." Because SCHIP, like Medicaid and Medicare, pays doctors and hospitals only a fraction of the actual cost of care, the unfunded costs get passed to holders of private insurance. Additionally, SCHIP would apply to 400,000 to 600,000 children of legal immigrants whose sponsors had agreed to cover the children's healthcare needs for at least five years after arriving to the United States.
The House passed H.R. 2 on February 4, 2009, by a vote of 290-135 (Roll Call 50). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal healthcare programs are unconstitutional and would likely lower the quality of healthcare.
H J RES 3: Relating to the disapproval of obligations under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Vote Date: January 22, 2009
TARP Funding. House Joint Resolution 3 would have prevented the release of the remaining $350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out banks and other institutions. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 had authorized a total of $700 billion, only half of which was initially released, for TARP. The act was written so that the Treasury Department, which administers the program, could start spending the second $350 billion unless both chambers of Congress disapproved.
This joint resolution to disapprove the release of the second $350 billion was passed on January 22, 2009, by a vote of 270-155 (Roll Call 27). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the Constitution does not authorize Congress to grant financial aid or loans to private companies, e.g., banks and automakers.
H R 1424: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Bailout Bill. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (H.R. 1424) passed 263-171 (Roll Call 681) on October 3, 2008. This bill authorizes the Treasury Department to use $700 billion of taxpayer money to purchase troubled mortgage-related securities from banks and other financial-related institutions, on terms set by the Treasury Secretary, who now has authority to manage and sell those assets. The bailout plan also expands FDIC protection from $100,000 to $250,000 per bank account, extends dozens of expiring tax provisions, expands incentives for renewable energy, provides a one-year adjustment to exempt millions of Americans from the alternative minimum tax, and requires health insurers who provide mental-health coverage to put mental-health benefits on par with other medical benefits.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill establishes an unconstitutional merger of government with banks and businesses -- in other words, corporate fascism -- and greatly increases the national debt and monetary inflation by forcing taxpayers to pay the price for the failures of private financial institutions.
H R 6899: Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act
Bogus Offshore Drilling Compromise. The Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 6899) passed 236-189 (Roll Call 599) on September 16, 2008. The plan would allow limited offshore drilling for oil and gas in some areas previously banned by Congress since 1981. Public pressure for action to reduce energy prices motivated the Democrat majority to push through an energy bill before the election, a plan purported to increase offshore drilling, but with overwhelming disincentives.
The measure would permit drilling no nearer to the coast than 100 miles, unless states choose to reduce that to 50 miles. However, it is the first 50 miles that has been exceedingly productive and where infrastructure is ready to expedite drilling in some areas. All royalties from new oil and gas leases permitted under the bill would go to the federal government. States are thus deprived of a revenue incentive for granting the 50-mile privilege. A better alternative to this phony compromise is to let the moratorium on offshore drilling expire and not renew it. That expiration did occur on October 1.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to assume regulation, much less micromanagement, of the energy industry.
H R 6633: Employee Verification Amendment Act of 2008
Employee Verification Program. H.R. 6633 would reauthorize the E-Verify (Internet-based) pilot employment eligibility verification program allowing employers to verify employment eligibility of new hires. The program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security, which would be required to provide funding to the Social Security Administration for checking Social Security numbers submitted by employers under the program.
The House passed the bill on July 31, 2008 by a vote of 407-2 (Roll Call 557). We have assigned pluses to the nays because Social Security numbers were not intended to be used and should not be used as the basis for a national ID database. An alternative measure (H.R. 5515) would have the screening for employment eligibility verification provided by state-administered private companies that already track employee verification for child-support enforcement.
H R 5501: Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act
Global HIV/AIDS Program. This version of H.R. 5501, as modified by the Senate, was agreed to 303-115 (Roll Call 531) on July 24, 2008. The bill would authorize $48 billion for fiscal 2009 through 2013 to combat AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis overseas. Currently one-third of the funding for HIV prevention is required to go to abstinence education. The bill would change that allocation to balance funding between condom, fidelity, and abstinence programs. It would also authorize $2 billion to fund programs for American Indian health, clean water, and law enforcement.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
H R 3221: Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008
Mortgage Relief. This legislation (H.R. 3221) would grant authority to the Treasury Department to extend new credit and buy stock in the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). As described by Congressional Quarterly, "It also would create an independent regulator for the two mortgage giants and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. It would overhaul the Federal Housing Administration and allow it to insure up to $300 billion worth of new, refinanced loans for struggling mortgage borrowers. It also includes a $7,500 tax credit to some first-time homebuyers, higher loan limits for FHA-backed loans, a standard tax deduction for property taxes and revenue-raisers to offset part of the costs. It also would authorize $3.92 billion in grants to states and localities to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed properties, and increase the federal debt limit to $10.6 trillion."
The House passed H.R. 3221 on July 23, 2008 by a vote of 272-152 (Roll Call 519). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government acting as an insurer, a micromanager of markets, and a wealth redistributor is unconstitutional and will undoubtedly affect market behavior, leading to more and worse market strife.
H R 6346: Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act
No Vote.Energy Price Gouging. A motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6346, the Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act, was rejected 276-146 (Roll Call 448) on June 24, 2008. Under suspension of the rules, a two-thirds majority would have been required for passage. The bill would have permitted states to sue retailers believed to have been price gouging for fuels sold in areas where there was an energy emergency. The bill also would have set civil and criminal penalties for price gouging.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because no federal or state government investigation (and there have been many over the years) has ever found broad market manipulation in the oil industry. Furthermore, there is no clear definition of "price gouging." Hence, this bill would likely have been counterproductive, as it would have created an incentive for retailers to close, rather than risk penalties for simply following the economic laws of supply and demand. Besides, the federal government has no business trying to dictate prices in the private sector, under any circumstances.
H R 6304: FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Warrantless Searches. H.R. 6304, the bill to revamp the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), would allow warrantless electronic surveillance, including monitoring telephone conversations and e-mails, of foreign targets, including those communicating with American citizens in the United States. The final version of the bill would not explicitly grant immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. But it would require courts to dismiss lawsuits against such companies if there is "substantial evidence" they were insured in writing the program was legal and authorized by the president. The provision would almost certainly result in the dismissal of the lawsuits.
The House passed H.R. 6304 on June 20, 2008 by a vote of 293-129 (Roll Call 437). We have assigned pluses to the nays because warrantless searches are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that any searches be conducted only upon issuance of a warrant under conditions of probable cause. Moreover, Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution forbids "ex post facto laws" -- laws having a retroactive effect.
H R 6124: To provide for the continuation of agricultural and other programs of the Department of Agriculture through the fiscal year 2012, and for other purposes
Farm Bill (Veto Override). H.R. 6124 would authorize the nation's farm programs for the next five years, including crop subsidies and nutrition programs. The final version of the legislation provides $289 billion for these programs, including a $10.4 billion boost in spending for nutrition programs such as food stamps.
After this legislation was vetoed by President Bush, the House passed the bill over the president's veto on June 18, 2008 by a vote of 317-109 (Roll Call 417). A two-thirds majority vote is required to override a presidential veto. We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 6028: Merida Initiative to Combat Illicit Narcotics and Reduce Organized Crime Authorization Act
Aid to Mexican Military. H.R. 6028 would authorize $1.1 billion in fiscal years 2008-10 to train and equip the Mexican military and law-enforcement agencies for the stated purpose of combating drug trafficking and organized crime. The Mexican government is rife with corruption, and there is no guarantee the expenditure would have the intended effect. "It is inexcusable, it is intolerable to send one dime to the Mexican government when they can afford to pay for this equipment themselves," Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) said. "But more importantly, our southern border is not secure." H.R. 6028 would also authorize $405 million during the same period for aid to Central American countries.
The House passed H.R. 6028 on June 10, 2008 by a vote of 311-106 (Roll Call 393). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is not authorized by the Constitution.
S CON RES 70: The Congressional Budget Resolution
Budget Resolution. The final version of the Fiscal 2009 Budget Resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 70) was adopted 214-210 on June 5, 2008 (Roll Call 382). Drafted by the Democrats, this $3.03 trillion budget sets nonbinding limits for the 12 annual appropriations bills. Last year's $2.9 trillion budget allowed $145.2 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new budget included only $70 billion for the two wars in 2009 and nothing thereafter, an unrealistic notion that understates true spending intent and necessitates more war funding in a supplemental bill. The budget would be significantly higher if war funding were not largely off-budget. The plan predicts a hypothetical budget surplus by 2012, which is meaningless.
All spending bills would be increased over 2008. The budget assumes that revenue will be stable or increase and that some tax cuts will expire. An increase was called for in the statutory debt ceiling by $800 billion to $10.6 trillion. That promptly occurred in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout. We have assigned pluses to the nays because inflation and the national debt are skyrocketing as Congress persists at disregarding constitutional limits on spending.
H R 2419: Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act
Farm Bill. H.R. 2419 would authorize the nation's farm programs for the next five years, including crop subsidies and nutrition programs. The final version of this legislation worked out by House and Senate conferees (known as a conference report) provides $289 billion for these programs, including a $10.4 billion boost in spending for nutrition programs such as food stamps.
The House passed the conference report on H.R. 2419 by a vote of 318-106 (Roll Call 315) on May 14, 2008. We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
Mortgage Relief. Amendment No. 1 to H.R. 3221 was passed 266-154 on May 8, 2008 (Roll Call 301). It would provide $300 billion in new authority for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to help borrowers facing foreclosure refinance into FHA-insured, fixed-rate mortgages, provided that mortgage loan holders are willing to take a write-down on the original value of a loan to allow refinancing to be on an amount not to exceed 90 percent of the current appraised value of the property.
Thus lenders who made unwise loans can do partial write-downs in order to offload to the government the risk associated with their loans most likely to be defaulted on. The plan is a bailout of both troubled lenders and borrowers, ultimately sticking taxpayers with the default risk. Moreover, the program would unfairly make a gift of partial home equity to borrowers facing foreclosure, a gift not offered to those who are managing to make their mortgage payments on time, have no mortgage, or who rent.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the federal government acting as an insurer, micro-manager of markets, and wealth redistributor is unconstitutional. Also, the morphing of H.R. 3221 from an energy bill into a foreclosure prevention bill was a procedural travesty.
H R 5036: Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008
State Voting Assistance. H.R. 5036, The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, was rejected 239-178 on April 15, 2008 (Roll Call 188). The act purportedly would increase the security of U.S. elections by reimbursing jurisdictions that voluntarily replace Direct Recording Electronic voting systems with voter-verifiable paper ballot systems in time for the 2008 elections. The bill would grant the Election Administration Commission (EAC) new audit regulatory powers and funding to pay for random vote count audits and hand counts of paper ballots cast in the 2008 elections. The cost could be as high as $685 million.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the act would expand an unconstitutional federal power grab to control elections that was initiated through the disastrous Help America Vote Act of 2002 with its establishing of the EAC. That act fostered and financed a huge increase in the use of electronic voting equipment which can be hacked, lacks credible auditing, and vastly increases the potential for wholesale voter fraud. Politicians who caused that problem now seek its remedy through even more federal control and tax dollars. It is better (and constitutional!) for each state to manage and pay for its own elections.
Global HIV/AIDS Foreign Aid Program. H.R. 5501 would authorize $50 billion over five years to provide assistance to foreign countries for the stated purpose of combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The program was established five years earlier to fill an "emergency" function, but this legislation shifts the purpose (in the words of Congressional Quarterly) "toward a long-term, sustainable plan" including (for example) training 140,000 new healthcare workers. Prior to voting on the bill itself, the House rejected a motion to recommit the bill to lower the cost to $30 billion -- the funding level President Bush had requested.
The House passed H.R. 5501 on April 2, 2008 by a vote of 308-116 (Roll Call 158). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
H CON RES 312: Revising the congressional Budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2008, establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2010 through 2013.
2009 Federal Budget. House Concurrent Resolution 312, the House plan for the fiscal 2009 budget, was adopted 212-207 on March 13, 2008 (Roll Call 141). This Democrat-drafted, nonbinding budget recommends outlays of about $2.6 trillion for FY2009, with a deficit of $536 billion. The budget would allow some Bush tax cuts to expire or sunset in 2010, thus increasing federal revenues without overtly raising taxes.
The House Republican Conference, in opposition to the plan, points out that taxes would increase $683 billion over the next five years, the child tax credit would be cut, the marriage penalty would come back, small business tax credits would be reduced, and dividends and capital gains taxes would be raised.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the American welfare state this budget expands is unconstitutional. It should initially be frozen at least and then reduced.
H R 5351: Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008
Targeting American Oil Companies. H.R. 5351, the $18.1 billion Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act, passed 236-182 on February 27, 2008 (Roll Call 84). It would provide tax deductions and incentives for the production of renewable energy (including wind, solar, and ethanol) and for energy conservation. To offset $13.7 billion of the bill's cost, the domestic manufacturing tax deduction would be taken away from the five largest integrated oil companies operating in the United States. Specifically targeted were ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and foreign-headquartered Shell and BP. Citgo Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of the government-owned oil company of Venezuela, would not lose its six-percent deduction.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because increasing taxes for the largest U.S. oil producers would drive gasoline prices higher and because Congress should not be subsidizing energy development, including renewable energy. The increased tax expense to corporations would simply be passed on to consumers. Targeting the top U.S. oil companies for making record profits is a disincentive to increasing exploration and production; undermines the exceedingly large capital base required to rebuild when Katrina-type hurricanes devastate the oil patch; and is unfair. Other companies and sectors with record profits would be untouched, not to mention foreign oil producers larger than Exxon.
H R 5140: Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008
Economic Stimulus. H.R. 5140, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, passed 385-35 on January 29, 2008 (Roll Call 25). It would provide about $150 billion in economic stimulus, including $101.1 billion in direct payments of rebate checks (typically $600) to most taxpayers in 2008 and temporary tax breaks for businesses.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because creating money out of thin air and then spending the newly created money cannot improve the economy, at least not in the long term. (If it could, why not create even more money for rebates and make every American a millionaire?) The stimulus has no offset and thus increases the federal deficit by the amount of the stimulus because the government must borrow the rebate money. A realistic long-term stimulus can only be achieved by lowering taxes through less government and by reducing regulatory burdens.
H R 3963: Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007
Children's Health Insurance. H.R. 3963, a bill to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, was rejected 260-152 on January 23, 2008 (Roll Call 22) when the House failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority of those present to override President Bush's veto. The bill would have authorized the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at nearly $60 billion over five years, expanding the program by $35 billion. It also would have put an additional tax on cigarette manufacturers, would have undermined private insurance plans, and would have pushed us further down the slippery slope to socialized medicine.
We have assigned pluses to the nays, because federal healthcare programs are unconstitutional.
H R 3043: Making appropriations for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. H.R. 3043, a bill to appropriate funding for fiscal 2008 labor, health, human services, and education programs, was rejected 227-141 on November 15, 2007 (Roll Call 1122) in a failed veto override requiring a two-thirds majority. Total appropriations would have been $606 billion. The bill included $150.7 billion -- $6.2 billion more than for fiscal 2007 -- in "discretionary" spending, that is spending the government has not deemed mandatory, such as the big entitlement programs. It also contained more than 2,200 earmarks totaling about $1 billion.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because social-welfare programs are unconstitutional.
H R 1429: Improving Head Start Act
Head Start. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 1429, a bill to reauthorize the Head Start program through 2012, was adopted 381-36 on November 14, 2007 (Roll Call 1090). Head Start provides educational activities and social services for children up to age five from low-income families. The program received $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2007. $7 billion was authorized in the fiscal 2008 omnibus bill, but H.R. 1429 increased funding to $7.4 billion for fiscal 2008, $7.7 billion for 2009, and $8 billion for 2010. The income level at which families are eligible to participate was raised from 100 percent of the poverty level to 130 percent ($26,728 for a family of four). Some members opposed the bill because Head Start grants will not be allowed to faith-based organizations that hire employees on the basis of religious preference.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill advances the federalizing of the educational system, and federal involvement in education is unconstitutional.
H R 3688: United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement
Peru Free Trade Agreement. The Peru Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 3688) is another in a series of free-trade agreements to transfer the power to regulate trade (and other powers as well) to regional arrangements. Other examples include the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). However, the Committee on Ways and Means Report accompanying H.R. 3688 noted that "the Peru FTA has become the first U.S. free trade agreement to include, in its core text fully enforceable commitments by the Parties to adopt, maintain, and enforce basic international labor standards, as stated in the 1988 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work." The ILO, or International Labor Organization, is a UN agency.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 285-132 (Roll Call 1060) on November 8, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Peru FTA and other so-called free-trade arrangements threaten our national independence and (as we've seen with NAFTA) harm our economy.
H R 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
Thought Crimes. This bill (H.R. 1955), known as the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007," could more aptly be titled the "Thought Crimes Act." The bill would establish a National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and establish a grant program to prevent radicalization in the United States. However, critics charge that the bill is a thinly disguised attempt to criminalize dissent, based on the bill's vague and open-ended language that could be used to trample basic rights to free speech and assembly, and turn legitimate dissent into thought crimes. For instance, the bill defines "violent radicalization" as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." The bill does not define either "extremist belief system" or "facilitating ideologically based violence." The bill also states that "the Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."
The House passed H.R. 1955 by a vote of 404-6 (Roll Call 993) on October 23, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill threatens legitimate dissent.
S 1927: Protect America Act
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance. This bill (S. 1927) would allow warrantless electronic surveillance (eavesdropping) of targets outside the United States regardless of whether they are communicating with someone within the United States. This surveillance had been conducted illegally by the CIA. Under this legislation, communications companies would be required to comply with surveillance requests and would be provided lawsuit protections.
The House passed S. 1927 by a vote of 227-183 (Roll Call 836) on August 4, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because warrantless surveillance of American citizens is a violation of the Fourth Amendment provision against "unreasonable searches and seizures." Although the bill includes a sunset provision causing it to expire after six months, President Bush has already called for making the bill permanent.
H R 3161: Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes.
Agriculture Appropriations. The 2008 Agriculture appropriations bill would provide $90.7 billion for the Agriculture department, the Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. It would include funding for the food-stamp ($39.8 billion) and child-nutrition programs ($13.9 billion), farm subsidies and crop insurance, conservation programs, rural development programs, etc.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 237-18 (Roll Call 816) on August 2, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized in the Constitution.
H R 3162: Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007
SCHIP. This bill (H.R. 3162) would authorize about $86 billion over five years for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The federal funds are given to state governments to provide healthcare for low-income, uninsured children. However, this expansion would extend the program to others from higher-income families who are already covered by private insurance plans.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 225-204 (Roll Call 787) on August 1, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal healthcare funding is unconstitutional.
NAFTA Superhighway. During consideration of the fiscal 2008 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill, Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) offered an amendment to prohibit the use of the funds in the bill for participation in "a working group under the Security and Prosperity Partnership," including the NAFTA Superhighway. A news release issued by Hunter's congressional office explained that "SPP working groups are advancing a plan to build the NAFTA Super Highway -- an international corridor extending between the U.S., Mexico and Canada." The NAFTA Superhighway is part of a broader plan to gradually integrate the three countries in a North American Union.
The House adopted the Hunter amendment by a vote of 362-63 (Roll Call 707) on July 24, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the NAFTA Superhighway threatens our national security and economy.
H R 1851: Section 8 Voucher Reform Act
Proof of Legal Residency for Federal Housing Vouchers. During consideration of the bill to authorize the Section 8 housing voucher program through 2012, Representative Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) offered a motion to recommit the bill back to committee to add language requiring that all occupants of Section 8 low-income housing establish proof of legal residency. The proof could consist of one of the following: a Social Security card along with a state or federal photo ID card; a U.S. passport; a driver's license; or a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services photo ID card. The intent of Capito's motion is to prevent illegal aliens from receiving federally subsidized housing.
The House agreed to Capito's motion by a vote of 233-186 (Roll Call 628) on July 12, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the federal government should not subsidize the housing of illegal aliens. (Of course, it should end housing subsidies to American citizens as well since such aid is unconstitutional.)
Global Climate Change. During consideration of the fiscal 2008 Interior appropriations bill (H.R. 2643), Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas) introduced an amendment to strike from the bill nonbinding language calling for a mandatory program to combat global warming. Specifically, this provision of H.R. 2643 expresses "the sense of the Congress that there should be enacted a comprehensive and effective national program of mandatory, market-based limits and incentives" to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. An example of so-called "market-based limits" would be to allow companies that want to exceed their allowable emissions output to buy permits or allowances from companies that choose not to use their full allotment.
The House rejected the Barton amendment, and thereby kept the global-warming language in the bill, by a vote of 153-274 (Roll Call 555) on June 26, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would harm the economy.
H R 2764: Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations for FY 2008
Foreign Aid. The fiscal 2008 foreign-aid appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) would authorize $34.4 billion for foreign operations and economic assistance. This amount represents another huge increase over similar House-passed appropriations for previous fiscal years -- $21.3 billion for 2007, $20.3 billion for 2006, and $19.4 billion for 2005.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 241-178 (Roll Call 542) on June 22, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID). During consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill, Representative Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) offered an amendment to reallocate $150 million of the bill's funding to provide grant money for assisting states in conforming to the REAL ID Act of 2005. The REAL ID Act requires all states to issue standardized driver's licenses that would serve as national ID cards. It was supposed to go into effect three years after the enactment of the act, but because of resistance from the states, the deadline has been extended to 2010 for states that request an extension. Once enacted, a federal agency would not be allowed to accept for any official purpose a driver's license or ID card issued by a state that fails to meet the act's requirements.
The House rejected the Bilbray amendment by a vote of 155-268 (Roll Call 479) on June 15, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the act would effectively create a national ID card.
Iran Military Operations. During consideration for the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (H.R. 1585), Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) offered this amendment that would require President Bush to get specific congressional authorization before engaging in military operations in Iran.
The House rejected the DeFazio amendment in a Committee of the Whole on May 16, 2007, by a vote of 136-288. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the power to declare war belongs solely to Congress, not the president. Under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress alone has the power to declare war.
H R 1700: COPS Improvement Act
COPS Funding. This bill (H.R. 1700) would provide the annual funds for the Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program for fiscal 2008 through 2013. The bill would authorize $1.15 billion per fiscal year to aid in the hiring of law enforcement officers. The funding would include up to $600 million each year for "officers hired to perform intelligence, anti-terror or homeland security duties."
The House passed H.R. 1700 on May 15, 2007, by a vote of 381-34 (Roll Call 348). We have assigned pluses to the nays because providing federal aid to local law enforcement programs is not only unconstitutional, but it also further federalizes the police system.
H R 1773: Safe American Roads Act
Mexican Trucks. This bill (H.R. 1773) would subject President Bush's pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to travel freely on U.S. highways to microscopic scrutiny. Current law requires cross-border traffic to unload their cargo onto American trucks within 20-25 miles of the border. This new bill would place certain conditions on Bush's pilot program, including the establishment of an independent review panel to uncover any problems with the program that would require the government to abort the program for good.
The Transportation Department has opposed this legislation, claiming NAFTA established the framework for open roadways for U.S. and Mexican truckers.
The House passed this bill on May 15, 2007, by a vote of 411-3 (Roll Call 349). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because allowing Mexican truckers to travel freely on U.S. roads would not only threaten U.S. security, but would also displace numerous American truckers who would lose their jobs to Mexican drivers who are willing to work for a much lower wage.
H R 2237: To provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq
Iraq Troop Withdrawal. This bill to withdraw U.S. troops and Defense Department contractors from Iraq (H.R. 2237) was purely a symbolic bill with little chance of passage by the House. The bill would require the withdrawal of troops and contractors to begin within 90 days of the bill's enactment, and to be completed within 180 days from the beginning date of the withdrawal.
The House rejected this bill on May 10, 2007, by a vote of 171-255 (Roll Call 330). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because, according to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, only Congress can declare war, and consequently our soldiers are not fighting under a constitutional mandate.
H R 1592: Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007
Hate Crimes. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592) would expand the federal hate-crimes law to make certain crimes stand-alone offenses. The legislation would make it a federal offense to commit a crime against an individual based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Current hate-crime laws extend to sentencing but do not provide for additional charges to be brought against an individual. Opponents of this legislation argue that H.R. 1592 would punish an individual for not only the crime, but the thoughts behind it. During floor debate on H.R. 1592 Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said, "This unconstitutional bill would effectively give the federal government authority to punish American citizens for 'thought crimes' -- a concept that has Big Brother written all over it."
The House passed this bill on May 3, 2007, by a vote of 237-180 (Roll Call 299). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this legislation would further federalize the criminal code as well as punish not only the criminal and his actions, but the presumed thoughts behind them.
Head Start Funding. The Head Start reauthorization bill (H.R. 1429) would authorize $7.4 billion for the Head Start program in fiscal 2008. The bill would also disburse "such sums as may be necessary" for fiscal years 2009-2012. The bill would also place more strict requirements on Head Start teachers, such as requiring them to have completed a bachelor's degree by 2013. The funding for the Head Start program is up from the $6.9 billion that it received in fiscal 2007.
The House passed this bill on May 2, 2007, by a vote of 365-48 (Roll Call 285). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill perpetuates a federally funded educational program, and federal aid to education is unconstitutional.
H R 1591: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes
Supplemental Spending -- Conference Report. The final version (conference report) of this supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 1591) would provide an additional $124.2 billion for the previous fiscal year (fiscal 2007), over and above previous appropriations.
Although the bill would set a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, it would also authorize an additional $95.5 billion to carry out military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, this seemingly catchall bill also would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and provide nearly $5 billion in small-business incentives. Even if the spending in this supplemental bill were constitutional, it should have been added to the federal budget in the annual appropriations process.
The House passed H.R. 1591 on April 25, 2007, by a vote of 218-208 (Roll Call 265). We have assigned pluses to the nays for several reasons: it contained an enormous amount of unconstitutional spending, raised the federal minimum wage, and authorized money for the Iraq War, which itself was never authorized by Congress under Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution.
H CON RES 99: Congressional Budget for the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2008
Budget Resolution. The 2008 budget resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 99) would increase the fiscal 2008 budget to approximately $2.9 trillion, an almost $150 billion increase from fiscal 2007. The bill's spending would include an astronomical $955.8 billion in discretionary spending, including $145.2 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House passed H. Con. Res. 99 by a vote of 216-210 (Roll Call 212) on March 29, 2007. We have assigned pluses to the nays because Congress must not continue to support massive amounts of irresponsible and unconstitutional spending.
H R 3: Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act
Embryonic Stem-cell Research. The stem-cell research bill (H.R. 3) would allow federal funds to be used for research on embryos donated by in vitro fertility clinics. Embryonic stem-cell research is both immoral and unethical because it cannibalizes and destroys human embryos in the name of science. Supporters of embryonic stem-cell research argue that the cell lines could cure diseases such as cancer and diabetes. But rather than destroying human life, science should focus on cures from stem-cell lines derived from other sources, such as amniotic fluids.
Under threat of a presidential veto, the House passed this stem-cell research bill on January 11, 2007, by a vote of 253-174 (Roll Call 20). We have assigned pluses to the nays because it violates the right to life for millions of unborn babies and unconstitutionally mandates federal funds for scientific research.
H R 2: Fair Minimum Wage Act
Minimum Wage. The minimum-wage increase bill (H.R. 2) would increase the federal minimum wage by $2.10 over two years to $7.25 an hour. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) had repeatedly attempted to pass a minimum-wage increase in recent years, but the Republican-led Congress had always rejected his minimum-wage amendments. The minimum-wage increase represents one of the first major pushes of the newly elected Democratic Congress and was high up on the 100-hour legislative agenda pushed by House leaders at the beginning of the congressional year.
In 1996, the federal minimum wage was increased by 90 cents to the current $5.15 an hour. Though many people believe that raising the federal minimum wage is a solution to national poverty, allowing the market to dictate wages allows entry-level workers to get the experience and job training they need to get higher paying jobs.
The House passed H.R. 2 on January 10, 2007, by a vote of 315-116 (Roll Call 18). We have assigned pluses to the nays because it is unconstitutional for the government to prohibit citizens from working for less than a government-set wage.
H R 5825: Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act
Electronic Surveillance. The warrantless electronic surveillance bill (H.R. 5825) would allow electronic surveillance of communications with suspected terrorists without first obtaining approval from the secret courts established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Furthermore, the bill would authorize unwarranted surveillance for up to 90 days in some instances if a threat was considered "imminent." Intelligence agencies would be allowed to conduct warrantless surveillance for seven days prior to gaining court approval if the threat was considered an "emergency situation." This controversial bill had full support of the Bush administration as a means to provide greater national security in a post-9/11 world.
The House passed H.R. 5825 on September 28, 2006 by a vote of 232-191 (Roll Call 502). We have assigned pluses to the nays because such a law would violate the Fourth Amendment by subjecting U.S. citizens to unreasonable searches and seizures.
H R 6166: Military Commissions Act
Military Tribunals. This bill (H.R. 6166) would authorize a new system of military tribunals to try persons designated "unlawful enemy combatants" by the president. The bill defines an unlawful enemy combatant to include a person who "has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents." Once designated an unlawful enemy combatant, a defendant's rights would be curtailed: he would be denied the right of habeas corpus; he could be detained indefinitely; and evidence obtained through coercion could be used against him--so long as the coercion falls outside the administration's definition of torture.
Critics of the tribunals bill are planning to file suit in order to test the constitutionality of the legislation. This legislation was in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 29 ruling on the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which declared that the administration's current system for trying military detainees was unconstitutional.
The House passed the military tribunals bill on September 27, 2006 by a vote of 253-168 (Roll Call 491). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill would curtail defendant rights.
H R 6061: Secure Fence Act of 2006
Border Fence. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 (H.R. 6061) would authorize the construction of nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The border fence is just the first of a series of border security initiatives that House Republicans intend to merge into the Homeland Security spending bill. If implemented, the 700 miles of fencing along the border would be a good first step toward protecting our borders from the massive influx of illegal immigration facing our country today.
The House passed H.R. 6061 on September 14, 2006 by a vote of 283-138 (Roll Call 446). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because such a border fence would help prevent illegal immigration and further protect our borders.
H R 5013: Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006
Gun Seizure. The Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 5013) would prohibit the confiscation of firearms in the wake of a natural disaster. This bill is a response to the illegal confiscating of firearms from the victims of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
H.R. 5013 was passed by the House on July 25, 2006 by a vote of 322-99 (Roll Call 401). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens is a clear violation of the Constitution -- the Second Amendment guarantees that our "right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
H R 5684: To implement the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement
Oman Trade Agreement. The Oman Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 5684) would reduce most tariffs and duties between Oman and the United States. H.R. 5684 was considered under fast-track authority, which requires Congress to expedite consideration of presidentially negotiated trade pacts without offering amendments.
The Oman agreement is just one steppingstone in the White House's effort to form a Middle Eastern Free Trade Area (MEFTA) by 2013. These so-called free- trade agreements have historically failed because they encourage the relocation of U.S. jobs to foreign countries so that the companies can get cheap labor. Meanwhile, they don't provide the United States with trade benefits -- largely because the people in those countries cannot afford to buy our products -- thereby harming the U.S. economy. The agreements also put our economic destiny in the hands of unelected foreign bureaucrats, such as those at the World Trade Organization.
The House passed H.R. 5684 by a vote of 221-205 on July 20, 2006 (Roll Call 392). We have assigned pluses to the nays because such trade agreements damage the U.S. economy and threaten U.S. sovereignty by the imposition of international regulations.
H R 2389: Pledge Protection Act
Pledge Protection Act. The Pledge Protection Act of 2005 (H.R. 2389) would counter judicial activism to prevent the removal of the words "under God" from the pledge by restricting federal courts from hearing cases on this matter, as opposed to protecting the pledge by amending the Constitution.
The House passed H.R. 2389 on July 19, 2006 by a vote of 260-167. (Roll Call 385). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because H.R. 2389 would protect the Pledge of Allegiance from federal court activism.
H R 4761: Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act
Offshore Drilling. This bill (H.R. 4761) would end the federal moratorium on most offshore oil and gas drilling. It would continue the ban within 50 miles of shore, while allowing the states the option of extending that ban out to 100 miles. It would also allow states to share in the drilling proceeds.
The House passed H.R. 4761 on June 29, 2006 by a vote of 232-187 (Roll Call 356). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the United States should reduce its dependency on foreign oil and utilize its own energy resources.
H R 4890: Legislative Line Item Veto Act
Line-item Rescission. The legislative line-item rescission bill (H.R. 4890) would allow the president to propose cuts in spending bills already enacted by Congress. The cuts would then receive an up-or-down vote with no opportunity to filibuster or add amendments.
The House passed H.R. 4890 by a vote of 247-172 on June 22, 2006 (Roll Call 317). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the rescission bill, though not a full-fledged line-item veto, would still shift some legislative power from Congress to the president, disrupting the U.S. system of checks and balances.
Iran Military Operations. Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) offered this amendment to the 2007 Defense appropriations bill (H.R. 5631). The amendment would bar any funds to initiate military operations in Iran unless it is in accordance with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which delegates to Congress alone the power to declare war.
The House rejected Hinchey's amendment by a vote of 158-262 on June 20, 2006 (Roll Call 300). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the power to declare war belongs to Congress, not to the president, and that much power should not be in the hands of one man.
H R 5522: Making appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes
Foreign Aid. The fiscal 2007 foreign aid appropriations bill (H.R. 5522) would authorize $21.3 billion for foreign operations and economic assistance in fiscal 2007. Though foreign aid is supposed to help the poor and suffering in other countries, it instead has served to prop up economically deficient socialist regimes and to transfer wealth from American taxpayers to third-world elites.
The House passed H.R. 5522 on June 9, 2006 by a vote of 373-34 (Roll Call 250). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional and unworkable.
H R 5429: American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act
No Vote.ANWR Oil and Gas Leasing. This bill (H.R. 5429) would authorize the Department of the Interior to grant leases for oil and gas development in a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), along Alaska's northern coast. There are an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil in the targeted portion of ANWR that could bring tens of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
The House passed H.R. 5429 on May 25, 2006 by a vote of 225-201 (Roll Call 209). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the United States should reduce its dependency on foreign oil and develop its own energy resources.
No Vote.Defunding the NAIS. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced this amendment to the fiscal 2007 agriculture appropriations (H.R. 5384). Paul's amendment would bar the use of funds in the bill to implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a government program that would electronically track farm cattle and poultry in hopes of preventing the spread of disease. Writing about the program, Paul stated, "NAIS means more government, more regulations, more fees, more federal spending, less privacy, and diminished property rights."
The House rejected Paul's amendment on May 23, 2006, by a vote of 34-389 (Roll Call 184). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the program would unconstitutionally allocate federal spending, place useless regulations on farmers, and threaten the privacy rights of American citizens.
H R 5384: Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes
No Vote.Agriculture Appropriations. This bill (H.R. 5384) would provide $93.6 billion in fiscal 2007 for the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. The funding includes $37.9 billion for the food-stamp program, $13.3 billion for the child-nutrition program, and $19.7 billion for the Commodity Credit Corporation, a federally funded program that aids farmers.
The House passed H.R. 5384 on May 23, 2006 by a vote of 378-46 (Roll Call 193). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
Katrina Funding. During consideration of the 2006 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4939), Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) introduced this amendment to eliminate the $19.2 billion appropriated in the bill for Hurricane Katrina relief. Neugebauer argued that the supplemental Katrina aid, and the supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are separate issues and should be voted on separately.
The House rejected the Neugebauer amendment on March 16, 2006 by a vote of 89-332 (Roll Call 57). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because it would have significantly cut unconstitutional federally funded disaster relief.
H R 4939: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes
Supplemental Appropriations. This legislation (H.R. 4939) would appropriate a whopping $91.9 billion for emergency supplemental funding in fiscal 2006, including $67.6 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $4.3 billion for foreign aid, and $19.2 billion for Hurricane Katrina relief. Congressional Quarterly noted that the funding in the bill "for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would push to more than $390 billion the war-related supplemental funds appropriated since Sept. 11. It would be the sixth major emergency spending measure for the Bush administration."
The House passed H.R. 4939 on March 16, 2006 by a vote of 348-71 (Roll Call 65). We have assigned pluses to the nays because -- even if the spending were constitutional -- the funding should be voted on as part of the regular appropriations process and not introduced after the fact as "emergency" spending, ignoring fiscal responsibility.
Ports Security -- DP World. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-Md.) introduced this amendment to the 2006 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4939) that would strike language from the bill to prohibit the sale of operations at several sea ports to DP World, a state-controlled company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The House rejected the Gilchrest amendment in March 15, 2006 by a vote of 38-377 (Roll Call 43). We have assigned pluses to the nays because, as a matter of national sovereignty, American personnel must manage, maintain, and monitor our own sea ports.
H R 4437: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act
Border Security. The House immigration bill (H.R. 4437) would improve border security by authorizing 700 miles of security fence to be built along parts of the U.S.-Mexican border, making unlawful entry into the United States a criminal rather than a civil offense, and increasing penalties for immigrant-related crimes. It would also require employers to verify immigrant status of new employees. It does not include the guest-worker/amnesty provisions found in the Senate bill.
The House passed H.R. 4437 on December 16, 2005 by a vote of 239-182 (Roll Call 661). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the bill would improve border security. The House-passed bill is very different from the Senate-passed version. For immigration legislation to become law, the House and Senate versions would have to be reconciled and a final version sent back to both houses of Congress for their approval and then to the president for his signature.
H R 3199: USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act
Patriot Act Reauthorization. This is the final version (conference report) of the Patriot Act reauthorization (H.R. 3199). In the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress quickly passed the so-called Patriot Act, which gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies vast new powers to combat terrorism. The act increased the ability of law enforcement to secretly search home and business records, expanded the FBI's wiretapping and surveillance authority, and expanded the list of crimes deemed terrorist acts. When passed in 2001 the bill included a "sunset" provision under which the new surveillance powers "shall cease to have effect on December 21, 2005." The Patriot Act reauthorization bill (H.R. 3199) considered by Congress last year would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions included in the bill, and extend for four years the two remaining provisions.
The House passed the final version of the bill to reauthorize the Patriot Act on December 14, 2005 by a vote of 251-174 (Roll Call 627). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Patriot Act tramples on the constitutionally protected rights of U.S. citizens.
H R 3010: Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. This massive social-welfare appropriations bill (H.R. 3010) would provide $601.6 billion in fiscal 2006 for the Labor Department ($14.8 billion), the Education Department ($63.5 billion), the Health and Human Services Department ($474.1 billion), and related agencies. H.R. 3010 is the largest of the appropriations bills considered by Congress this year. In total, H.R. 3010 would provide a 21 percent increase over a similar appropriations bill for fiscal 2005.
The House passed the bill on December 14, 2005 by a vote of 215-213 (Roll Call 628). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill would provide an increase in spending, and social-welfare programs are unconstitutional.
Foreign Aid. The final version (conference report) of this appropriations bill (H.R. 3057) would provide $21 billion for U.S. foreign aid programs in fiscal 2006.
The House passed the final version of this legislation on November 4, 2005 by a vote of 358-39 (Roll Call 569). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
H R 1606: Online Freedom of Speech Act
Online Freedom of Speech. The Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606) would exempt the Internet -- including blogs, e-mail, and other online speech -- from being subject to campaign finance laws and Federal Election Commission regulation.
Because supporters attempted to pass the bill under a suspension of the rules, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting was required for passage. Supporters got a solid majority but not the necessary two-thirds, and the legislation was rejected on November 2, 2005 by a vote of 225-182 (Roll Call 559). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the bill would protect free speech.
U.S. Treasury Borrowing. During consideration of a bill to overhaul the regulation of government-sponsored enterprises, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) offered this amendment to "eliminate the ability of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to borrow from the Treasury." During floor debate on his amendment, Paul stated, "I hope my colleagues join me in protecting taxpayers from having to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when the housing bubble bursts."
The House rejected Paul's amendment on October 26, 2005 by a vote of 47-371 (Roll Call 544). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because Paul's amendment would (in Paul's words) seek to end a "massive unconstitutional and immoral" transfer of income from working Americans to government-sponsored enterprises.
H R 2123: School Readiness Act
Head Start Funding. This legislation (H.R. 2123) would reauthorize the Head Start program through fiscal 2011 and provide $6.8 billion for the program in 2006. The bill would also increase educational standards for Head Start teachers.
The House passed the Head Start bill on September 22, 2005 by a vote of 231-184 (Roll Call 493). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill would further federalize the educational system, and federal aid to education is unconstitutional.
Hate Crimes. During consideration of the Children's Safety Act of 2005 (H.R. 3132), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced this amendment to add a separate federal criminal charge for committing an act of violence based on race, color, religion, or national origin; and to broaden the category of hate crimes to include sexual orientation, gender, or disability. Current hate-crime laws extend only to sentencing and do not provide for additional charges to be brought against an individual.
The Conyers amendment was passed by a vote of 223-199 on September 14, 2005 (Roll Call 469). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this legislation would further federalize the criminal code as well as punish not only criminal acts but the thoughts behind them.
H R 3673: Further Emergency Supplemental Appropriations, Hurricane Katrina, 2005
Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations. In the wake of the devastating hurricane disaster in the Gulf Coast, Congress quickly passed legislation that would appropriate $51.8 billion in emergency supplemental funding for fiscal 2005 (H.R. 3673) to be used for relief in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Commenting on how the tragic images of Katrina were used to justify more federal welfare and interventionism, as opposed to private charity and initiatives, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) noted on September 15, after the House and Senate votes: "These scenes prompted two emotional reactions. One side claims Katrina proved there was not enough government welfare.... The other side claims we need to pump billions of new dollars into the very federal agency that failed (FEMA).... Both sides support more authoritarianism, more centralization, and even the imposition of martial law in times of natural disasters."
The House passed the Katrina appropriations bill on September 8, 2005 by a vote of 410-11 (Roll Call 460). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federally financing disaster relief is unconstitutional.
H R 3: Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users
Surface Transportation. The final version (conference report) of this bill (H.R. 3) would authorize $286.5 billion for federal highway, mass transit, and safety and research programs through fiscal 2009. The bill is laden with thousands of "pork barrel" transportation projects requested by individual lawmakers.
The House adopted the final version of this legislation on July 29, 2005 by a vote of 412-8 (Roll Call 453). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill increases transportation spending and is fiscally irresponsible.
H R 3045: Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
CAFTA. This bill (H.R. 3045) would implement the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), thereby expanding the devastating consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), including the job losses wrought by NAFTA. CAFTA is intended by the Power Elite to be a steppingstone from NAFTA to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would include all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere except (for now) Cuba. Like NAFTA, which has already begun imposing its trade rulings on America, CAFTA and the FTAA would not be genuine free trade arrangements; they would instead manage trade and would gradually exercise more powers on the road to a supranational government modeled after the European Union.
The House passed CAFTA on July 28, 2005 by a vote of 217-215 (Roll Call 443). We have assigned pluses to the nays because CAFTA would further damage the U.S. economy and threaten U.S. sovereignty.
Patriot Act Reauthorization. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the so-called Patriot Act, which gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies vast new powers to combat terrorism. The act expanded the list of crimes deemed terrorist acts; increased the ability of law enforcement to secretly search homes and business records; expanded the FBI's wiretapping and surveillance authority; and provided for nationwide jurisdiction for search warrants and electronic surveillance devices, including the legal extension of those devices to e-mail and the Internet. The bill included a "sunset" provision under which the new surveillance powers "shall cease to have effect on December 31, 2005."
The Patriot Act reauthorization bill (H.R. 3199) considered by the current Congress would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions set to expire at the end of this year and extend for 10 years the remaining two provisions. The House passed the reauthorization on July 21, 2005 by a vote of 257-171 (Roll Call 414). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Patriot Act tramples on the constitutionally protected rights of U.S. citizens.
Foreign Aid. This appropriations bill (H.R. 3057) would provide $20.3 billion for U.S. foreign aid programs in fiscal 2006.
The House passed the foreign aid bill on June 28, 2005 by a vote of 393-32 (Roll Call 335). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. This mammoth social-welfare appropriations bill (H.R. 3010) would provide a total of $601.6 billion in fiscal 2006 for the Labor Department ($14.8 billion), the Education Department ($63.7 billion), the Health and Human Services Department ($473.8 billion), and related agencies. The bill is by far the largest of the 11 appropriations bills written by the House this year. In total, H.R. 3010 would provide a 21 percent increase over a similar appropriations bill for the previous year.
The House passed this bill on June 24, 2005 by a vote of 250-151 (Roll Call 321). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill represents a significant increase in spending, and social-welfare programs are unconstitutional.
Mental Health Screening. During consideration of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3010), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) offered an amendment to "prohibit the use of funds in the bill to create or implement any universal mental health screening program."
The House rejected Paul's amendment on June 24, 2005 by a vote of 97-304 (Roll Call 317). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because federally funding such programs is unconstitutional.
H R 2745: Henry J. Hyde United Nations Reform Act
UN "Reforms." On the surface, this United Nations "reform" bill (H.R. 2745) appears to be a "conservative" get-tough response to UN corruption. It would withhold up to 50 percent of U.S. dues to the UN unless the UN makes certain operational changes, and many "conservatives" voted for it. In reality, the legislation calls for strengthening the UN in the name of "reform." Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) warned in his June 13 Texas Straight Talk column that the "reform" bill supports creation of a "Peace-building Commission," which "will serve as the implementing force for the internationalization of what were formerly internal affairs of sovereign nations."
The House passed the UN "reform" bill on June 17, 2005 by a vote of 221-184 (Roll Call 282). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the reform bill is a trap, and the solution to the UN threat is not to reform the world body but to get the U.S. out.
UN Dues Decrease. During consideration of the Commerce-Justice appropriations bill (H.R. 2862), Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment to cut the U.S. "contribution" to the United Nations by $218 million.
The House rejected Hayworth's amendment on June 15, 2005 by a vote of 124-304 (Roll Call 253). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because reducing U.S. dues to the UN is a step toward defunding it and getting the U.S. out.
H J RES 27: Withdrawing approval of the United States from the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization
WTO Withdrawal. Representatives Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) sponsored this measure (House Joint Resolution 27) to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization. The WTO is often portrayed as a "free trade" arrangement by its supporters, but it is actually an international bureaucracy that manages trade and imposes its rulings on member nations including the United States -- even when those rulings are contrary to U.S. laws. In fact, U.S. membership in the WTO is unconstitutional, since under our Constitution, Congress -- not an international body -- "shall have the power ... to regulate foreign commerce." That power cannot be transferred short of a constitutional amendment.
The House rejected the WTO withdrawal measure on June 9, 2005 by a vote of 86-338 (Roll Call 239). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because our participation in the WTO is unconstitutional and threatens our sovereignty.
H R 810: Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act
Embryonic Stem-cell Research. This bill (H.R. 810) would allow federal funds to be used for research on embryonic stem-cell lines, which can be created only by cannibalizing and destroying human embryos -- innocent human life. Proponents contend that the research is needed to combat various diseases, but stem cells from sources other than embryos may provide more promising results, without killing some human beings for the supposed benefit of others.
The House passed the bill on May 24, 2005 by a vote of 238-194 (Roll Call 204). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the research would violate the right to life.
Supplemental Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of this supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 1268) would add another $82 billion to the federal budget for fiscal 2005. The supplemental spending, even if needed and constitutional, should not have been added on to the annual federal budget after the fact, but should have been included as part of the regular appropriations process. The supplemental spending in this bill includes $75.9 billion for defense-related purposes, most of it for the military occupation of Iraq, and $907 million for tsunami victims, the latter clearly unconstitutional.
One particularly objectionable element of this legislation is the REAL ID Act, which was added to the supplemental appropriations bill by the conference committee. The REAL ID Act would authorize the federal government to impose national standards for driver's licenses and thereby develop a national ID system.
The House adopted the final version of H.R. 1268 on May 5, 2005 by a vote of 368-58 (Roll Call 161). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the bill contains both unconstitutional spending and the REAL ID Act.
H R 366: Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act
Vocational/Technical Training. This bill (H.R. 366) would reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, which funds vocational and technical education programs. The bill would authorize $1.3 billion in fiscal 2006 and "such funds as necessary" in fiscal 2007-11. It would also merge Perkins funding with "Tech-Prep," a program that provides certain math and science courses to high school students to "ease the transition" from high school to a vocational or community college.
The House passed this bill on May 4, 2005 by a vote of 416-9 (Roll Call 154). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to education and job-training programs is unconstitutional.
Fuel Efficiency Regulations. During consideration of the energy policy bill (H.R. 6), Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) introduced an amendment to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to at least 33 miles per gallon by model year 2015 for automobiles. The standard is now set at an average of 25 miles per gallon. Since neither legislators nor manufacturers have a magic wand to reduce the amount of gas required to move a certain mass a certain distance, this legislation would effectively force manufacturers to reduce vehicle size and weight, thereby limiting consumer choices and making vehicles less safe.
The House rejected Boehlert's amendment by a vote of 177-254 on April 20, 2005 (Roll Call 121). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal regulations limiting consumer choices are unconstitutional.
Alaskan Drilling. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) offered an amendment to delete language in the energy policy bill (H.R. 6) that would allow leases for oil and gas exploration and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. Drilling in ANWR is now banned, and Markey wants to keep it that way despite the fact that ANWR likely contains billions of barrels of oil and could be on a par with Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest oil field.
The House rejected Markey's amendment on April 20, 2005 by a vote of 200-231 (Roll Call 122). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the United States should develop its own energy resources and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.
H R 8: Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act
Permanent Repeal of Estate Tax. Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) sponsored this bill (H.R. 8) to permanently repeal the estate tax, commonly known as the "death tax." Under current law, the estate tax will be phased out by 2010, but because of a "sunset" provision the tax will be fully eliminated for only one year before being reinstituted. Hulshof's bill would eliminate the sunset clause, making the repeal permanent. The estate tax has forced many cash-poor but asset-rich individuals to liquidate their family farms and other small private businesses rather than bequeath those assets to their loved ones.
The House passed this bill on April 13, 2005 by a vote of 272-162 (Roll Call 102). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because permanently repealing the estate tax would be a constitutional tax cut that would benefit the elderly and their families.
Pledge Protection Act. This bill (H.R. 2028) would counter judicial activism by reining in the federal courts as opposed to amending the Constitution. H.R. 2028 states: "No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance ... or its recitation." This legislation would prevent the federal courts from ruling that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.
The House passed H.R. 2028 on September 23, 2004 by a vote of 247 to 173 (Roll Call 467). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because H.R. 2028 would protect the Pledge of Allegiance from federal court activism.
H R 1308: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to end certain abusive tax practices, to provide tax relief and simplification, and for other purposes.
Extending Tax Cuts. The final version (conference report) of this tax-cut legislation (H.R. 1308) would benefit most Americans by extending the life of several middle-class tax breaks set to expire at the end of this year. It would extend provisions providing relief from the "marriage penalty" through 2008, extend the $1,000 per child income tax credit through 2009, and keep a greater number of taxpayers in the 10 percent income tax bracket through 2010. It would also revive some expired business tax incentives.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 1308 on September 23, 2004 by a vote of 339 to 65 (Roll Call 472). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the bill would extend the life of tax cuts, benefiting a large number of Americans.
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. This mammoth appropriations bill (H.R. 5006) would provide $496.6 billion in fiscal 2005, including $374.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, $60.3 billion for the Department of Education, and $14.9 billion for the Department of Labor. Total fiscal 2005 appropriations would be 3.5 percent higher than fiscal 2004 appropriations.
The House passed H.R. 5006 on September 9, 2004 by a vote of 388 to 13 (Roll Call 440). We have assigned pluses to the nays because these departments are not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 3313: Marriage Protection Act of 2004
Marriage Protection Act. This bill (H.R. 3313) would protect marriage from judicial activism by restricting the federal courts as opposed to amending the Constitution. Specifically, H.R. 3313 would stipulate that "no court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction" to interpret, or rule on the constitutionality of, Title 28, Section 1738C of the U.S. Code. Section 1738C states that no state, territory, or possession of the U.S "shall be required to give effect" to same-sex "marriages" performed under the laws of another state, territory, or possession.
H.R. 3313 would not prohibit the federal courts from hearing all same-sex "marriage" cases, since it is narrowly worded. A more broadly written measure would have been better. Nevertheless, H.R. 3313 would be a step in the right direction.
The House passed H.R. 3313 on July 22, 2004 by a vote of 233 to 194 (Roll Call 410). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because H.R. 3313 would help protect marriage via a long-neglected congressional check on the federal judiciary.
Millennium Challenge Account. During consideration of the foreign aid appropriations bill (H.R. 4818), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) offered this amendment to eliminate all of the funding for the Millennium Challenge Account. H.R. 4818 would provide $1.25 billion for this account in fiscal 2005, 25 percent more than in fiscal 2004, for the purpose of rewarding nations for progress in human rights, economic policy, and democracy. During floor debate, Paul noted that this year-old program was originally viewed as "a transition from one form of foreign aid to another," but it instead "was just added on."
The House rejected Paul's amendment on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 41 to 379 (Roll Call 383). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
UN Inspections of U.S. Elections. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) proposed an amendment to add the following language to the foreign aid appropriations bill: "None of the funds made available in this Act [H.R. 4818] may be used by any official of the United States Government to request the United Nations to assess the validity of elections in the United States." Buyer was responding to the fact that nearly a dozen members of the House had written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan requesting "to have election observers to monitor the Presidential election in the United States" on November 2.
The House adopted Buyer's amendment on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 243 to 161 (Roll Call 385). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because such UN monitoring could open the door to UN interference in our elections.
H R 4818: Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2005
Foreign Aid. The foreign aid appropriations bill (H.R. 4818) would provide $19.4 billion in fiscal 2005, an 11 percent increase over fiscal 2004 funding.
The House passed H.R. 4818 on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 365 to 41 (Roll Call 390). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
H R 4766: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005
Agriculture Appropriations. This bill (H.R. 4766) would appropriate $83.7 billion for agriculture, rural development, and nutrition programs in fiscal 2005. Over half ($50.2 billion) of the funding in the so-called agriculture appropriations bill would be for domestic food and nutrition programs, including $33.6 billion for the food stamp program and $11.3 billion for child nutrition programs. Another $27 billion would be for agriculture programs, including $16.5 billion for the Commodity Credit Corporation.
The House passed H.R. 4766 on July 13, 2004 by a vote of 389 to 31 (Roll Call 370). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are unconstitutional activities of the federal government.
Defunding U.S. Participation in UNESCO. This amendment to the appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice, and State Departments (H.R. 4754) would effectively end U.S. participation in UNESCO by defunding it. Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the amendment stated: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to pay expenses for any United States contribution to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)." The U.S. rejoined UNESCO in 2002 after withdrawing from it in 1984.
The House rejected Paul's amendment on July 7, 2004 by a vote of 135 to 283 (Roll Call 333). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because our national independence must be preserved by getting out and staying out of the UN and all of its agencies, including UNESCO.
Defunding U.S. Participation in the United Nations. In addition to sponsoring an amendment to defund U.S. participation in UNESCO, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) also proposed an amendment to defund U.S. participation in the UN as a whole. The latter amendment stated: "None of the funds made available in this Act [H.R. 4754] may be used to pay any United States contribution to the United Nations or any affiliated agency of the United Nations."
The House rejected Paul's broader defunding amendment on July 7, 2004 by a vote of 83 to 335 (Roll Call 335). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because blocking U.S. funding of the UN would be a significant step toward getting out of the world body and fully restoring U.S. independence.
H R 444: Back to Work Investment Act
Job Training and Worker Services. This bill (H.R. 444) would authorize the creation of "personal re-employment accounts" of up to $3,000 for unemployed workers at risk of exhausting their state unemployment benefits. Money in this account could be used for such expenses as education, childcare, healthcare or transportation. Those workers who find a job within 13 weeks would be allowed to take the balance in their account as a "reemployment bonus." This bill would authorize $50 million in fiscal 2005 for these "personal re-employment accounts."
The House passed H.R. 444 on June 3, 2004 by a vote of 213 to 203 (Roll Call 225). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid for job training or unemployment services is unconstitutional.
H J RES 83: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the appointment of individuals to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives
Continuity of Congress Constitutional Amendment. This joint resolution (House Joint Resolution 83) proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow state governors to appoint new House members in the extraordinary circumstance where many have been killed or incapacitated. This amendment would require each newly elected House member to present a list of two or more nominees to the governor of his state. The governor would be required to appoint a member's replacement from this list.
The House rejected H.J. Res. 83 on June 2, 2004 by a vote of 63 to 353 (Roll Call 219). A two-thirds majority vote of those present and voting (279 in this case) is required to pass a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment. We have assigned pluses to the nays because amendments to the Constitution should only be considered as a last resort and because House members should be elected, not appointed.
Abortion at Military Facilities. This amendment to H.R. 4200 (Fiscal 2005 Defense Authorization) would allow women who are in the military or are military dependents to obtain supposedly privately-funded abortions in overseas military facilities.
During the debate on this amendment, Jim Ryun (R-Kansas) correctly stated: Although this amendment is presented by the other side as providing for solely self-funded abortions, the fact is the American taxpayer will be forced to pay for the use of the military facility, the procurement of additional equipment needed to perform abortions, and the use of military personnel to perform abortions.
The House rejected this amendment to H.R. 4200 on May 19, 2004 by a vote of 202 to 221 (Roll Call 197). We have assigned pluses to the nays because all forms of abortion constitute the murder of unborn children.
H R 4181: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend the increased standard deduction, and the 15-percent individual income tax rate bracket expansion, for married taxpayers filing joint returns
"Marriage Penalty" Relief. This bill (H.R. 4181) would permanently eliminate the "marriage penalty" by making the standard deduction double that of single taxpayers and by increasing the upper limit of the 15 percent bracket for married couples to twice that of singles.
The House passed H.R. 4181 on April 28, 2004 by a vote of 323 to 95 (Roll Call 138). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill would make permanent the tax savings of the "marriage penalty" relief.
H R 2844: Continuity in Representation Act of 2004
Continuity of Congress. This bill (H.R. 2844) would require special elections to be held within 45 days to fill vacant House seats in the extraordinary circumstance of more than 100 vacancies. This requirement would be waived if the vacancies occur within 75 days of an already-scheduled general election.
This bill is a good example of Congress using its legitimate power under the Constitution to solve a problem rather than proposing a potentially dangerous constitutional amendment. A year ago the Continuity of Government Commission (CGC) recommended that governors appoint House members (perhaps from a list of candidates provided by individual congressmen) in the event a substantial number of congressmen are killed or incapacitated, presumably in a terrorist attack.
However, H.R. 2844 would solve the problem of the loss of a large number of congressmen through the already-existing congressional power to determine "the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives" (Article I, Section 4). And it would do so through special elections rather than appointment.
The House passed H.R. 2844 on April 22, 2004 by a vote of 306 to 97 (Roll Call 130). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill utilizes an already-existing congressional power to address a bona-fide concern and preempts a dangerous alternative proposal for a large number of vacant House seats being filled by appointment.
H R 3550: Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users
Surface Transportation. This bill (H.R. 3550) would authorize $284 billion in federal aid for highway, mass transit, and safety and research programs for fiscal years 2004-2009. This total includes $217 billion for highways, $51.5 billion for mass transit, and $11.1 billion for House members' transportation projects.
The Bush administration had wanted to limit the spending in the bill to $256 billion, which, noted White House spokesman Scott McClellan, would still increase
spending by 21 percent. But the House added an additional $28 billion to the bill (11 percent more than the president had requested).
The House passed H.R. 3550 on April 2, 2004 by a vote of 357 to 65 (Roll Call 114). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this double-digit increase in spending on surface transportation is fiscally irresponsible at a time of record-breaking federal deficits.
H R 254: An Act to authorize the President of the United States to agree to certain amendments to the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Mexican States concerning the establishment of a Border Environment Cooperation Commission and a North American Development Bank
North American Development Bank. This bill (H.R. 254), as amended by the Senate, would implement a U.S.-Mexico agreement that would allow the North American Development Bank (NADBank) to make below-market-loans. It would also extend the area in Mexico served by the bank to a zone along the border 186 miles wide (compared to the current 62 miles wide). The NADBank was established by the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to finance development on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The bank is funded by both the United States and Mexico.
The House agreed to a motion to suspend the rules and passed H.R. 254 on March 25, 2004 by a vote of 377 to 48 (Roll Call 87). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid to Mexico in the form of below-market-loans funded by U.S. taxpayers is unconstitutional. A two-thirds majority of those present and voting (284 in this case) is required for passage under a suspension of the rules.
H CON RES 393: Congressional Budget for the U.S. Government for FY 2005
Fiscal 2005 Budget Resolution. This resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 393) would establish broad spending and revenue targets over the next five years. It calls for $871.3 billion in "discretionary" spending (including $50 billion for supplemental funding of operations in Iraq) and another $1.5 trillion in "mandatory" spending for fiscal 2005. Based on these targets, the "mandatory" spending portion of the budget would increase by 5 percent over last year, and the total budget -- a whopping $2.4 trillion -- would increase by 3 percent.
This resolution projects that the budget deficit would be cut significantly by fiscal 2009 (from $376.8 billion in fiscal 2005 to $234 billion in fiscal 2009); however, according to a Congressional Quarterly Fact Sheet, "Budget Resolution for FY 2005," these projected deficits are deceptively low due to an accounting sleight-of-hand whereby "these deficits are calculated by using the surpluses in the Social Security trust funds to offset spending on other programs. If these Social Security surpluses are not counted, the projected deficits in each fiscal year would be $550.7 billion in FY 2005 and $471.8 billion in FY 2009."
The House adopted this resolution on March 25, 2004 by a vote of 215 to 212 (Roll Call 92). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this budget perpetuates the fiscally irresponsible, largely unconstitutional federal spending with its attendant record-breaking deficits of recent years.
H R 3873: Child Nutrition Improvement and Integrity Act
Child Nutrition Programs. This bill (H.R. 3873) would reauthorize through fiscal 2008 several child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the After-School Snack Program. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R. 3873 would increase direct spending on these programs by about $226 million over the 2004-2008 period.
Since obesity in school-age children has greatly increased since 1980, the school lunch program reauthorization bill has become a popular vehicle for proposals aimed at reducing obesity. This bill would require schools to develop "wellness policies" that establish nutritional guidelines for all food sold in schools; however, it stops short of setting mandatory federal standards.
The House agreed to the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3873 on March 24, 2004 by a vote of 419 to 5 (Roll Call 82). We have assigned pluses to the nays because providing food for citizens is an unconstitutional activity of the federal government. A two-thirds majority of those present and voting (283 in this case) is required for passage under a suspension of the rules.
Extended Unemployment Benefits. This amendment to H.R. 3030 (Community Service Block Grants) would authorize a six-month federal program to provide an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits for people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless benefits.
According to Congressional Quarterly for February 7, 2004, this federal unemployment benefits amendment is part of "an election year strategy by Democrats and labor advocates to try to attach worker-related legislation to other bills.
The House adopted this amendment to H.R. 3030 on February 4, 2004 by a vote of 227 to 179 (Roll Call 18). We have assigned pluses to the nays because payment of unemployment benefits is an unconstitutional activity of the federal government.
H R 1: Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
Prescription Drug Benefit. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 1 would create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. Beginning in 2006, prescription coverage would be available to seniors through private insurers for a monthly premium estimated at $35. There would be a $250 annual deductible, then 75 percent of drug costs up to $2,250 would be reimbursed. Drug costs greater than $2,250 would not be covered until out-of-pocket expenses exceeded $3,600, after which 95 percent of drug costs would be reimbursed. Low-income recipients would receive more subsidies than other seniors by paying lower premiums, having smaller deductibles, and making lower co-payments for each prescription. The total cost of the new prescription drug benefit would be limited to the $400 billion that Congress had budgeted earlier this year for the first 10 years of this new entitlement program.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 1 on November 22, 2003 by a vote of 220 to 215 (Roll Call 669). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this landmark legislation establishes a major new unconstitutional entitlement program.
H R 3289: Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan for FY 2004
Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 3289 would appropriate $87.5 billion in supplemental fiscal 2004 spending for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the largest supplemental that Congress has ever passed. Of this total, military operations would receive $65.8 billion. Iraq reconstruction would be funded by grants totaling $18.6 billion, while reconstruction in Afghanistan would receive $1.2 billion.
William Norman Grigg predicted in the March 24 issue of this magazine that "the impending war on, or occupation of, Iraq is intended to carry out the UN Security Council mandates, not to protect our nation or to punish those responsible for the September 11th attack. The war would uphold the UN's supposed authority and vindicate its role as a de facto world government." In its November 20 report on President Bush's speech at London's Whitehall Palace the Guardian of London provided a concise confirmation of Mr. Grigg's prediction in its headline "Iraq war saved the UN, says president." Now American taxpayers must pay tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions ultimately, for this latest military intervention to empower the UN.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 3289 on October 31, 2003 by a vote of 298 to 121 (Roll Call 601). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the U.S. military was sent into Iraq to enforce UN resolutions, when the only proper use of our nation's armed forces is to protect the lives and property of American citizens, and the huge U.S.-funded infrastructure rebuilding program in Iraq and Afghanistan is another example of unconstitutional foreign aid.
S 3: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Partial-birth Abortion Ban. The final version (conference report) of S. 3 would ban partial-birth abortions. Although on March 12 the Senate had amended their version of S. 3 to include a reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade, on September 30 a 10-member House-Senate conference committee agreed to report out a final version of the bill identical to one (H.R. 760) that passed the House earlier this year without any reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade.
Of course, all abortion procedures should be banned. But this bill is still a step in the right direction in that it is better to ban one abortion procedure than to ban none at all
The House adopted the conference report on S. 3 on October 2, 2003 by a vote of 281 to 142 (Roll Call 530). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because all forms of abortion constitute the murder of preborn children, and the Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, overstepped its proper authority by "legalizing" abortion in the first place.
H R 2739: United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
U.S.-Singapore Trade. This bill (H.R. 2739) would implement a trade agreement to reduce tariffs and trade barriers between the United States and Singapore. A similar bill, the U.S.-Chile Trade Agreement (H.R. 2738), was presented to Congress at the same time as the U.S.-Singapore Trade Agreement. These are the first in a series of bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) that the Bush administration is negotiating, which will culminate in 2005 in the largest and most significant FTA of them all, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The model for the FTAA is the European Union (EU), formerly the "Common Market," which has grown by design from a supposed free trade agreement into a supranational government for Europe. The world order architects intend for the FTAA to follow the same trajectory for the Americas.
The House passed H.R. 2739 on July 24, 2003 by a vote of 272 to 155 (Roll Call 432). We have assigned pluses to the nays because these bilateral "free trade" agreements are intended to be stepping stones to the FTAA, which would set trade (and eventually other) policies for the member nations. However, under the U.S. Constitution only Congress has the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states...."
H R 2738: United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
U.S.-Chile Trade. This bill (H.R. 2738) would implement a trade agreement to reduce tariffs and trade barriers between the United States and Chile. The significance of this trade agreement, like that of the U.S.-Singapore Trade Agreement (see House bill below).
[ U.S.-Singapore Trade. H.R. 2739 would implement a trade agreement to reduce tariffs and trade barriers between the United States and Singapore. A similar bill, the U.S.-Chile Trade Agreement (H.R. 2738), was presented to Congress at the same time as the U.S.-Singapore Trade Agreement. These are the first in a series of bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) that the Bush administration is negotiating, which will culminate in 2005 in the largest and most significant FTA of them all, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The model for the FTAA is the European Union (EU), formerly the "Common Market," which has grown by design from a supposed free trade agreement into a supranational government for Europe. The world order architects intend for the FTAA to follow the same trajectory for the Americas. ]
Rejoining UNESCO. This amendment to H.R. 2799 (Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2004) by Ron Paul (R-Texas) stated that "none of the funds made available in this Act may be made available for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)."
The House rejected this amendment to H.R. 2799 on July 22, 2003 by a vote of 145 to 279 (Roll Call 405). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because our national sovereignty must be preserved by getting out and staying out of the United Nations and all of its agencies, including UNESCO.
Millennium Challenge Account. This amendment to H.R. 1950 (Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005) by Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) would authorize $9.3 billion over the next three years for a new foreign aid program to promote the key development objectives described in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. According to the amendment, "It is, therefore, the policy of the United States to support a new compact for global development...." Furthermore, the amendment asserts: "Economic development, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, must be a shared responsibility between donor and recipient countries."
The House adopted this amendment to H.R. 1950 on July 16, 2003 by a vote of 368 to 52 (Roll Call 368). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is not authorized by the Constitution.
Ban on UN Contributions. This amendment to H.R. 1950 (Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005) by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) stated that "none of the funds authorized ... by this Act may be obligated or expended to pay any United States contribution to the United Nations or any affiliated agency of the United Nations."
The House rejected this amendment to H.R. 1950 on July 15, 2003 by a vote of 74 to 350 (Roll Call 364). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because blocking the funding for the United Nations in this bill would be a first step toward getting our nation out of the UN and fully restoring our national sovereignty
Agriculture Appropriations. This bill (H.R. 2673) would appropriate $77.5 billion for agriculture, rural development and nutrition programs in fiscal 2004. Over half of the money appropriated by this agriculture bill is earmarked for so-called mandatory spending on nutrition programs, including $28 billion for food stamps and $16 billion for school lunch and other nutrition programs. Total spending for traditional agricultural programs is $26.8 billion, a 5 percent increase.
The House passed H.R. 2673 on July 14, 2003 by a vote of 347 to 64 (Roll Call 358). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are unconstitutional activities of the federal government
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. This bill (H.R. 2660) would appropriate $470 billion for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Departments for fiscal 2004, a 10 percent increase over fiscal 2003. This bill, the biggest of the fiscal 2004 domestic spending bills, includes $138 billion for discretionary spending, including $55.4 billion for education and $22.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health. That leaves $332 billion for so-called mandatory spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance.
The House passed H.R. 2660 on July 10, 2003 by a vote of 215 to 208 (Roll Call 353). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill represents a significant increase in spending, and these departments are not authorized by the Constitution.
H R 760: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban. This bill (H.R. 760) states: "Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both."
The House passed H.R. 760 on June 4, 2003 by a vote of 282 to 139 (Roll Call 242). We have assigned pluses to the yeas on the basis that all forms of abortion constitute the murder of unborn children -- and that the Supreme Court was overstepping its proper authority by "legalizing" abortion in the first place.
H R 2: Jobs and Growth Reconciliation Tax Act
Tax Reductions. The final version of the $350 billion tax-cut package (the conference report on H.R. 2) would provide tax breaks over 11 years. Dividends, currently taxed the same as other earned income, would instead be taxed at 15 percent for most taxpayers through 2008. Lower-income dividend recipients would be taxed at 5 percent through 2007 and nothing in 2008. The current 20 percent top rate on capital gains on investments held at least one year would drop to 15 percent, with lower-income investors paying 5 percent through 2007 and nothing in 2008. Both dividend and capital gains tax reductions would expire after 2008. Among other tax reductions, income tax cuts enacted in 2001 for individuals and scheduled to be effective in 2006 would be accelerated; parents would receive refunds of up to $400 per child this summer.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 2 on May 23, 2003 by a vote of 231 to 200 (Roll Call 225). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill will cut taxes for individuals and businesses.
H R 2185: Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 2003
Unemployment Benefits. This bill (H.R. 2185) would extend the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 through December 31, 2003. This would provide an additional 13 weeks of federal aid to workers in all states who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits. It would also provide another 13 weeks of federal benefits to workers in states with high unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R. 2185 would increase federal outlays by a total of $7.9 billion over the fiscal years 2003 and 2004.
The House passed H.R. 2185 on May 22, 2003 by a vote of 409 to 19 (Roll Call 223). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to unemployed workers is unconstitutional.
H R 1261: Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act
Job Training. This bill (H.R. 1261) would reauthorize the nation's main job-training program. One of its provisions would allow faith-based groups to receive federal funds while maintaining their religious identity, including hiring based on religious preferences. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this bill would increase "mandatory" spending by $17 billion for the years 2006-2011 and "discretionary" spending by $31 billion over the years 2004-2008.
The House passed H.R. 1261 on May 8, 2003 by a vote of 220 to 204 (Roll Call 175). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid for job training and education is unconstitutional.
H R 1298: United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act
Global AIDS Initiative. This bill (H.R. 1298) would authorize $15 billion ($3 billion annually) for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 to provide assistance to foreign countries for the stated purpose of combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Much of this funding will be funneled through the Global AIDS Fund and other UN agencies and programs notorious for promoting abortion, as well as encouraging promiscuity through "sex education" courses supposedly aimed at stemming AIDS.
The House passed H.R. 1298 on May 1, 2003 by a vote of 375 to 41 (Roll Call 158). We have assigned pluses to the nays because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
H R 1350: To Reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
No Vote.Special Education. This bill (H.R. 1350) would reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. One of its provisions would authorize increasing federal grants to defray more of the state cost of educating special education students, from the current 18 percent to 40 percent by 2010. Other provisions would allow school personnel to discipline special education students the same as non-disabled students, reduce paperwork requirements for special education teachers, and limit parents' ability to sue school districts. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R. 1350 would cost $50 billion over the 2004-2009 period.
The House passed H.R. 1350 on April 30, 2003 by a vote of 251 to 171 (Roll Call 154). We have assigned pluses to the nays because federal aid to education is unconstitutional.
H CON RES 95: Congressional Budget for FY 2004
Budget Resolution -- Final Version. The final version (conference report) of the budget resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 95) would authorize federal spending for fiscal 2004 of $1,861 billion dollars with a deficit of $558 billion and an increase in the public debt ceiling of $984 billion. This planned deficit of $558 billion dwarfs the previous record federal deficit of $290 billion in 1992. The $984 billion increase in the public debt ceiling authorized in this bill constituted, under Rule XXVII of the House, approval of the debt limit increase bill (House Joint Resolution 51) without having to cast a separate vote just on increasing the debt ceiling. Subsequently the Senate passed H. J. Res. 51 and President Bush signed it into law, increasing the public debt ceiling by $984 billion (for a new total of $7.4 trillion) and giving Congress a green light to continue its fiscally irresponsible ways. This resolution also includes $400 billion for a Medicare prescription drug benefit for 2004-2013.
The House adopted the conference report on H. Con. Res. 95 on April 11, 2003 by a vote of 216 to 211 (Roll Call 141). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this budget resolution was fiscally irresponsible.
Oil Consumption. This proposed amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2003 (H.R. 6) would require the secretary of transportation to increase average fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks (including SUVs and vans) manufactured after model year 2004. These new regulations would need to "ensure that the total amount of oil required for fuel for use by automobiles [both passenger cars and light trucks] in the United States in 2010 and each year thereafter is at least 5 percent less than if the average fuel economy standards remained at the same level as in 2004." This convoluted language is an attempt to close the "light truck loophole" in the current regulatory standards for Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) for motor vehicles. Currently the CAFE standard is 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg) for passenger cars and 20.7 mpg for light trucks. Whereas 20 percent of new automobiles in 1980 were light trucks, 51 percent of new automobiles were light trucks in 2001. Of course, the highly popular SUVs played a major role in this shift. The result has been a larger proportion of lower fuel economy vehicles on the road. This amendment would mandate increased fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks considered together, an obvious attempt to force Americans into smaller vehicles.
The House rejected this amendment to H.R. 6 on April 10, 2003 by a vote of 162 to 268 (Roll Call 132). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this amendment would have authorized unconstitutional regulation of vehicle size.
H CON RES 95: On Agreeing to the Amendment 4 to H CON RES 95
Budget Resolution -- Democrat Substitute. The Democrat substitute amendment for the budget resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 95) would authorize federal spending for fiscal 2004 of $1,868 billion dollars with a deficit of $376 billion and an increase in the public debt ceiling of $839 billion. Although the proposed deficit of $376 billion would be smaller than the $558 billion deficit finally authorized in the conference report, it would still be much larger than the previous record deficit of $290 billion in 1992. Similarly, although the proposed $839 billion increase in the public debt ceiling would be smaller than the $984 billion increase finally authorized in the conference report, it would still be a record-breaking debt limit increase approaching $1 trillion in size. This amendment would also include a $528 billion prescription drug benefit for 2004-2013.
The House rejected the Democrat substitute amendment on March 20, 2003 by a vote of 192 to 236 (Roll Call 81). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this substitute amendment was fiscally irresponsible.
H J RES 2: Making Further Continuing Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2003, and for other purposes
Fiscal 2003 Omnibus Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of House Joint Resolution 2 would provide $397 billion in fiscal 2003 for all Cabinet departments and government agencies covered in 11 unfinished spending bills from the 107th Congress. The bills included are: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-State, District of Columbia, Energy and Water Development, Foreign Operations, Interior, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, Transportation, Treasury-Postal Service, and VA-HUD. The problem with the omnibus approach is that thousands of unconstitutional activities are lumped together with legitimate legislation in one massive bill. Thus, big government is perpetuated with a minimum of accountability.
The House adopted the conference report on H. J. Res. 2 on February 13, 2003 by a vote of 338 to 83 (Roll Call 32). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill perpetuates huge amounts of unconstitutional federal spending.
H J RES 114: To Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq
War Authorization Against Iraq. This joint resolution (House Joint Resolution 114) authorizes the president "to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to -- (1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and (2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." However, since the Constitution gives Congress the sole responsibility for declaring war, this resolution represents congressional abdication of its responsibility.
Furthermore, the main thrust of the joint resolution is that the president is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States to "strictly enforce through the United Nations Security Council all relevant Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." That is, the purpose of the resolution is to enforce UN Security Council dictates. The House passed H. J. Res. 114 on October 10, 2002 by a vote of 296 to 133 (Roll Call 455). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3009: Andean Trade Preference Act
Trade Promotion Authority. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 3009 would give President Bush Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for congressional consideration of trade agreements reached before June 1, 2005. President Bush has made it abundantly clear that he intends to use TPA to complete negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by early 2005. The FTAA could be modeled after the EU, but is designed to evolve toward a full-blown regional government at a greatly accelerated pace.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 3009 on July 27, 2002 by a vote of 215 to 212 (Roll Call 370). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 5005: Homeland Security Act
Homeland Security. This bill (H.R. 5005) would consolidate 22 federal agencies into a new Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department with a $37.5 billion budget and 170,000 employees. Far from being a response to 9-11, the Office of Homeland Security had been in the works long before the terrorist attacks. The basic blueprint for the department was created by the Council on Foreign Relations-dominated Hart-Rudman Commission. Creating the Homeland Security Department would be a giant step toward integrating federal, state, and local law enforcement under federal supervision, the hallmark of a police state. For example, the Bush administration's "National Strategy for Homeland Security" states: "[T]he homeland security community will view the federal, state, and local governments as one entity...."
The House passed H.R. 5005 on July 26, 2002 by a vote of 295 to 132 (Roll Call 367). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Treasury-Postal Service Appropriations Across-the-Board Cut. This amendment by Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) to H.R. 5120 would reduce all discretionary appropriations in the bill by one percent across the board. This amendment amounts to an extremely modest, but certainly commendable, approach to reducing the size of government.
The House rejected Hefley's amendment on July 24, 2002 by a vote of 147 to 282 (Roll Call 338). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 4965: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban. This bill (H.R. 4965) would ban one type of abortion, known as partial-birth abortion. Of course this measure, while commendable, would only slightly reduce the rate of routine killing of pre-born babies in this nation. This is the fourth consecutive session of Congress where the House has passed a bill banning partial-birth abortions. However, the Senate has only passed similar legislation once (106th Congress, 1999-2000). But the conference committee charged with reconciling the House-and Senate-passed versions never began work.
The House passed H.R. 4965 on July 24, 2002 by a vote of 274 to 151 (Roll Call 343). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H J RES 101: Disapproving the Extension of the Waiver Authority Contained in Section 402(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 with Respect to Vietnam
Vietnam Trade. This measure, sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), would reverse President Bush's decision in June to extend normal trade relations status to Vietnam for next year. To grant this extension, Bush waived a provision of the 1974 Trade Act restricting U.S. trade with Communist nations limiting emigration. However, the president's decision can be repealed by Congress under expedited procedures. "It is this procedure that was undertaken again this year by Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who views the Vietnamese government as 'gangsters that repress their own people' and who should not be rewarded with the expanded economy that freer trade might bring," Congressional Quarterly summarized.
The House rejected H. J. Res. 101 on July 23, 2002 by a vote of 91 to 338 (Roll Call 329). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Cuban Embargo. During consideration of the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill (H.R. 5120), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds made available in this bill "to implement, administer, or enforce the economic embargo of Cuba."
The House rejected Rangel's amendment on July 23, 2002 by a vote of 204 to 226 (Roll Call 333). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H RES 488: Providing for the consideration of H.R. 5120, Treasury and General Appropriations Act, 2003
Congressional Pay Raise. Freshman Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) hoped to offer an amendment to the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill (H.R. 5120) to kill an automatic cost of living adjustment (COLA) in fiscal 2003. Congress did not block the automatic COLA increases any of the last three years, and without intervening this year congressmen will receive a $4,700 pay increase, boosting their salaries to $154,700.
But Matheson was never able to offer his amendment. He was blocked, by design, by a procedural motion to "order the previous question," and thus end debate and the possibility of amendment, on adopting the rule governing House floor consideration of H.R. 5120. The vote on the motion was 258 to 156 on July 18, 2002 (Roll Call 322). We have assigned pluses to the nays. By blocking consideration of Matheson's proposal, the congressional majority obviously hoped to receive their next COLA increase without being accused of voting for it.
Prohibit Coastal California Drilling. This amendment to the Interior Department appropriations bill (H.R. 5093) "provides that none of the funds in the bill may be expended by the Department of the Interior to approve any exploration plan, any development and production plan, any application for permit to drill or to permit any drilling on certain Outer Continental Shelf Southern California Planning Area leases." According to Congressional Quarterly, this amendment "would prevent the government from allowing drilling in California waters on 36 leases held by oil and gas companies.... [Amendment sponsor Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.)] said Californians fear that if an oil spill occurred, it would harm the state's tourist industry." This NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude has led to our present heavy dependence on imported oil from the Middle East and other potentially unfriendly regions.
The House adopted Capps' amendment to H.R. 5093 on July 17, 2002 by a vote of 252 to 172 (Roll Call 315). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 5093: Department of Interior Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2003
Interior Department Appropriations. This bill (H.R. 5093) would appropriate $19.8 billion in fiscal 2003 for the Department of the Interior, including emergency funds to fight western wildfires. Congress persists in gradually restoring funding for the entirely unconstitutional National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities to the level they enjoyed in 1994 before the Republicans won control of Congress. This bill would award $126 million to the National Endowment for the Arts, a $10 million increase, and $131 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities, a $5 million increase. According to Congressional Quarterly, "The goal of arts supporters is eventually to match, if not surpass 1994 funding levels: $162 million for NEA and $177 million for NEH."
The House passed H.R. 5093 on July 17, 2002 by a vote of 377 to 46 (Roll Call 318). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 4635: Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act
Arming Commercial Pilots. This bill (H.R. 4635) would "establish a program to deputize volunteer pilots of air carriers providing air transportation or intrastate air transportation as federal law enforcement officers to defend the flight decks of aircraft of such air carriers against acts of criminal violence or air piracy." The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) would be required to begin this program within two months after enactment of this bill. Only pilots who volunteer for this program would be trained and deputized to carry guns aboard airlines. The TSA would provide all training, supervision, and equipment necessary for a pilot to be a federal flight deck officer under this section at no expense to the pilot or the air carrier employing the pilot.
H R 4954: Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2002
Prescription Drug Plan. This motion by Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) to recommit H.R. 4954 to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee carried instructions that it be reported back quickly with plans for a prescription drug program through Medicare. Under this new program patients would pay $25 monthly and would have a $100 annual deductible. They would have to pay 20 percent of drug costs up to $2,000, then Medicare would pay all costs beyond $2,000. This prescription drug program would cost an estimated $800 billion over 10 years.
The House rejected Gephardt's motion to recommit H.R. 4954 on June 28, 2002 by a vote of 204 to 223 (Roll Call 281). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Prescription Drug Plan -- Republican Alternative. This bill (H.R. 4954) would subsidize private insurance companies for offering prescription drug policies to Medicare beneficiaries. Under this Republican plan, the cost would be $33 per month with a $250 annual deductible. Patients would pay 20 percent of costs from $251 to $1,000 and 50 percent from $1,001 to $2,000. Patients would pay all costs from $2,001 to $3,700, with anything above that covered 100% by the insurers. The estimated cost of this socialist-lite prescription plan for seniors is $350 billion over 10 years.
The House passed H.R. 4954 on June 28, 2002 by a vote of 221 to 208 (Roll Call 282). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
S 2578: To amend title 31 of the United States Code to increase the public debt limit.
Debt Limit. This bill (S. 2578) would increase the public debt limit by $450 billion for a new ceiling of $6.4 trillion on the National Debt. The supposed need for increasing the debt ceiling by $450 billion demonstrates that the federal government is still on a trajectory of out-of-control spending. Instead of raising the legal limit on what the federal government may borrow, Congress should cut spending.
The House passed S. 2578 on June 27, 2002 by a vote of 215 to 214 (Roll Call 279). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 4931: Retirement Savings Security Act
Pension Benefits. This bill (H.R. 4931) would permanently extend the new incentives for pension and retirement contributions included in last year's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut law. It would make permanent the increase in the maximum annual contribution levels to IRA and 401(k) plans now slated to end after 2010. The bill would also allow "catch-up" contributions for those age 50 and older, and permit quicker vesting and easier rollovers of pension plans. Furthermore, the bill would encourage more businesses to offer employee pension plans by reducing administrative requirements.
The House passed H.R. 4931 on June 21, 2002 by a vote of 308 to 70 (Roll Call 248). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 4019: Marriage Penalty Relief Provisions Made Permanent
Married Couples Tax Relief. This bill (H.R. 4019) would permanently extend breaks for married couples included in last year's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut law. It would make permanent an increase in married couples' standard deduction, and increase their income taxable at the 15 percent rate to double that of individuals. Unless the Congress passes and the president signs this bill, this tax relief for married couples will end after 2010.
The House passed H.R. 4019 on June 13, 2002 by a vote of 271 to 142 (Roll Call 229). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 2143: Permanent Death Tax Repeal Act
Estate Tax Elimination. This bill (H.R. 2143) would permanently extend the repeal of the "death tax," now scheduled to be phased out by 2010, then reinstated in 2011 as per last year's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut law.
The House passed H.R. 2143 on June 6, 2002 by a vote of 256 to 171 (Roll Call 219). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
S 1372: Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act
Export-Import Bank. The final version (conference report) of S. 1372 would reauthorize the Export-Import bank through fiscal 2006, and would allow it to provide up to $100 billion (a $25 billion increase) in international trade assistance at any one time. In recent years the bank has been used to build up China at the expense of American jobs. For example, the New York Times
on September 1st reported that "Export-Import policies in recent years have had the perverse effect of sending American jobs, rather than goods and services, overseas. There was, for example, the case of a Chinese steel mill, the Benxi Iron and Steel Group, that received an $18 million Export-Import backed loan in December 2000 to buy American-made equipment only to be found a year later to be dumping steel into American markets.... In that year, steel companies in the United States laid off 30,000 workers and more than 20 of the companies filed for bankruptcy." The Times went on to state: "By far the biggest user of the bank's financing is Boeing, which last year received $2.5 billion in loan guarantees, more than one-quarter of the bank's $9.2 billion in transaction volume. This aid helped win aircraft sales for Boeing to China.... In the last two years, the bank has provided $791.5 million in aid to help Boeing sell planes to Chinese airlines in deals that often require some parts of the planes to be built in China."
The House adopted the conference report on S. 1372 on June 5, 2002 by a vote of 344 to 78 (Roll Call 210). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 4664: Investing in America's Future Act
National Science Foundation. This bill (H.R. 4664) would authorize $5.5 billion (a 15% increase) for the National Science Foundation for fiscal 2003, then increase that amount by an additional 15% annually for each of the next two years.
The House passed H.R. 4664 on June 5, 2002 by a vote of 397 to 25 (Roll Call 212). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3717: Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This bill would merge two FDIC insurance funds and increase the amount of FDIC-protected money in individual bank accounts from $100,000 to $130,000. As is the case with most agencies created by Congress, FDIC is just another example of an unconstitutional activity of the federal government.
The House agreed to a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3717 on May 22, 2002 by a vote of 408 to 18 (Roll Call 190). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Welfare Renewal -- Democratic Substitute. The Democratic substitute to the welfare renewal bill (H.R. 4737) would "expand state flexibility to provide training and education to welfare recipients, increase mandatory funding for child care by $11 billion over the next five years, and remove various barriers to serving legal immigrants." This amendment is a perfect example of how socialism is incrementally advanced by appealing to our humanitarian impulse to help people. However, what is missing from this picture is how such unconstitutional measures are being used to build an all-powerful, socialistic government.
Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) offered the Democratic substitute to H.R. 4737 in the form of an amendment. The House rejected Cardin's amendment on May 16, 2002 by a vote of 198 to 222 (Roll Call 168). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
International Criminal Court. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced this amendment to H.R. 4546 (Fiscal 2003 Defense Authorization) "to prohibit funds authorized in the bill from being used to assist, cooperate with, or provide any support to the International Criminal Court." The resulting 264 yea votes represent a welcome high-water mark for congressional repudiation of sovereignty-destroying supranational organizations.
The House adopted this amendment to H.R. 4546 on May 10, 2002 by a vote of 264 to 152 (Roll Call 155). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H J RES 87: Yucca Mountain Repository Site Approval Act
Nuclear Waste. This joint resolution (House Joint Resolution 87) would override Nevada's veto of President Bush's plan to use Yucca Mountain as a repository for the nation's spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Nuclear energy is a key to energy independence; the Yucca Mountain repository for spent nuclear fuel is the key to increased utilization of nuclear energy.
The House passed the resolution on May 8, 2002 by a vote of 306 to 117 (Roll Call 133). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 2646: Farm Security Act
Farm Bill. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 2646 amends and extends the major farm income support, land conservation, food assistance, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, and energy programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When combined with estimated spending already authorized prior to enactment of this law, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that "H.R. 2646 will bring total spending for the above programs to $73.7 billion in 2002 ... and $869.3 billion over the 2002-2012 period. Of these totals, food assistance programs account for $51.3 billion in 2002 ... and $626.8 billion over the 2002-2012 period." Constitutionalists have denounced H.R. 2646 because it repudiates free-market principles and authorizes vast amounts of unconstitutional spending.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 2646 on May 2, 2002 by a vote of 280 to 141 (Roll Call 123). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
S 2248: To Extend the Authority of the Export-Import Bank until May 31, 2002
Export-Import Bank. This bill (S. 2248) would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank through May 31, 2002. Although S. 2248 was a temporary measure to reauthorize the bank for only another month, the vote provided a record of how congressmen stood on the issue. (Unfortunately, when the House subsequently passed a bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for three years, it did so by voice vote.) The bank is projected to have $10.4 billion in financing commitments in fiscal 2002, and $11.5 billion in fiscal 2003.
The House agreed to suspend the rules and pass 5. 2248 on April 30, 2002 by a vote of 318 to 92 (Roll Call 118). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Food Stamps for Non-citizens. Senate provisions of the farm bill (H.R. 2646) would give food stamps to recently arrived immigrant children, the disabled, refugees and legal permanent residents living in the United States for at least five years or working here for a total of 16 quarters or more.
The House adopted the motion to instruct conferees to agree with these Senate provisions on April 23, 2002 by a vote of 244 to 171 (Roll Call 106). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 586: Fairness for Foster Care Families Act
Tax Cuts. Senate amendments to H. R. 586 would make permanent the cuts in last year's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax reduction package, scheduled to expire in 2010. It would make permanent last year's reductions in income tax rates, relief of the marriage penalty, elimination of the estate tax, doubling of the child tax credit, and expansion of pension and education savings provisions.
The House moved to concur with the Senate amendments to H.R. 586 on April 18, 2002 by a vote of 229 to 198 (Roll Call 103). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H RES 365: Providing for the concurrence by the House with amendments in the amendment of the Senate to H.R. 1885.
Illegal Aliens. (H.Res. 365) - This bill (H.R. 1885) would extend the "Section 245 (i)" program allowing certain illegal immigrants to remain in this country while applying for legal residency. The applicant must have been in the U.S. as of December 21, 2000; a family member or employer must sponsor the application and the familial or employer relationship must have existed by August 15, 2001.
Passage came on March 12, 2002 in the form of a resolution incorporating the text of a separate bill on border security and then sending the package to the Senate. The vote was 275 to 137 (Roll Call 53). We have assigned pluses to the nays. Congressional Quarterly noted that the vote "was a sign that a long-term move toward liberalization of immigration laws has been delayed, but not stopped, by Sept. 11."
H R 2356: Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Campaign Financing. This bill (H.R. 2356) would restrict our God-given right of free speech through banning "soft money" donations to national political parties and preventing issue ads from mentioning specific candidates within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary. In contrast, the First Amendment to the Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech...."
The House passed H.R. 2356 on February 14. 2002 by a vote of 240-189 (Roll Call 34). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 700: To reauthorize the Asian Elephant Conservation Act
Asian Elephants. This bill (H.R. 700) would authorize up to $5 million per year for four years to help preserve the habitat of the Asian elephant. The program is merely another pretense to waste U.S. taxpayer dollars abroad.
The House agreed to suspend the rules and concur with the Senate amendment to HR. 700 on January 23, 2002 by a vote of 349 to 23 (Roll Call 2). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3061: Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2002
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 3061 would appropriate $407.7 billion for fiscal 2002 for the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education departments, including $123.4 billion in "discretionary" spending. This bill would provide more than $51 billion for federal aid to education, including funding for the education overhaul bill (H.R. 1) with its new annual state testing program. Total spending for HHS would increase by nearly 14 percent over fiscal 2001. The Education department would receive 15 percent more than last year.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 3061 on December 19, 2001 by a vote of 393 to 30 (Roll Call 504). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 2506: Foreign Operations Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2002
Foreign Aid. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 2506 would appropriate $15.4 billion for foreign aid in fiscal 2002, $403 million more than fiscal 2001. This bill would provide about $3 billion in aid to Israel and about $2 billion to Egypt. Nearly $1 billion would be earmarked for the Export-Import Bank, and another $1 billion for the World Bank. Most of the remaining funds would be used for "bilateral economic assistance." Lawmakers left intact a ban on federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or promote abortions; however, in a setback for conservatives, H.R. 2506 includes $34 million for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, $9 million more than last year.
H R 1: No Child Left Behind Act
Education. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 1 would overhaul education proposals to increase school accountability and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for six years. This bill would require states to test students in reading and math in grades three through eight annually, provide new accountability measures for schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress, and give schools greater flexibility to spend federal funds. It would include about $26.3 billion for federal elementary and secondary education programs and $13.5 billion for Title I programs for disadvantaged children in fiscal 2002. According to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas): "H.R. I will lead to de facto, if not de jure, national testing.... Under the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority to hold states 'accountable' for their education performance. In the free society envisioned by the founders, schools are held accountable to parents, not federal bureaucrats...."
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 1 on December 13, 2001 by a vote of 381 to 41 (Roll Call 497). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3295: Help America Vote Act
Elections. This bill (H.R. 3295) would overhaul the nation's election procedures, including authorizing $400 million in one-time payments for states and counties to replace or upgrade punch card voting machines. The bill would also authorize $2.25 billion for states over three years to improve the administration of elections and mandate "minimum" federal election standards. This intervention by Congress in state elections threatens our federal system. According to Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution, Congress is authorized to alter state election procedures for federal offices: "The times, places and manner of holding elections, for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations...." However, Founder Alexander Hamilton asserted that Congress should only use this authority to "make or alter such regulations" in "extraordinary circumstances."
The House passed H.R. 3295 on December 12, 2001 by a vote of 362 to 63 (Roll Call 489). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3005: Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act
Vote Date: December 6, 2001
Trade Promotion Authority. This bill (H.R. 3005) would give President Bush Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), formerly known as fast-track authority, to negotiate so-called free trade agreements. Under the TPA rules, Congress would only be allowed to vote yes or no on any free trade agreements presented to it by the Bush administration. President Bush has repeatedly stated that he would use TPA to complete negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by the end of his first term. Under the guise of "free trade," the FTAA would put us on the path to loss of sovereignty in a regional government of the Western Hemisphere, in the same manner that European nations are now losing sovereignty to the EU.
The House passed H.R. 3005 on December 6, 2001 by a vote of 215 to 214 (Roll Call 481). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3210: Terrorism Risk Protection Act
Terrorism Insurance. This bill (H.R. 3210) would authorize a three-year federal loan program to help the casualty and property insurance industry cover future terrorist-related losses. The loans would pay 90 percent of claims arising from acts of terrorism next year that result in more than $1 billion in insured claims. The loans would be repaid through assessments on insurance companies to repay insured claims for up to $20 billion. Loans for insured claims beyond $20 billion and up to $100 billion would be repaid through surcharges on commercial policyholders. This bill would also restrict terrorist-related lawsuits to federal court, ban punitive damages in such suits, and limit non-economic damages and attorneys fees.
The House passed H.R. 3210 on November 29, 2001 by a vote of 227 to 193 (Roll Call 464). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 2330: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations for FY 2002
Agriculture Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 2330 would appropriate $75.9 billion for agriculture programs in fiscal 2002. This unconstitutional spending includes $31.9 billion for agricultural programs including crop subsidies, $23 billion for the food stamp program, $10.1 billion for child nutrition programs, and $1.1 billion for foreign food aid and export assistance.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 2330 on November 13, 2001 by a vote of 379 to 33 (Roll Call 436). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 2620: Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations for FY 2002
VA-HUD Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of H.R. 2620 would appropriate $112.7 billion for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development and 20 independent agencies in fiscal 2002. HUD's portion is $30 billion. The agencies include NASA, the EPA, and FEMA. Congressmen arguing that they voted for this legislation to preserve VA programs should have voted against it, insisting that the myriad (and often unconstitutional) spending programs it contains be divided into separate parts, allowing for a vote on each.
The House adopted the conference report on H.R. 2620 on November 8, 2001 by a vote of 401 to 18 (Roll Call 434). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3167: Gerald B.H. Solomon Freedom Consolidation Act
NATO Expansion. This bill's self-described purpose (H.R. 3167) is: "To endorse the vision of further enlargement of the NATO Alliance articulated by President George W. Bush on June 15, 2001, and by former President William J. Clinton on October 22, 1996...." In this bill the House "... reaffirms its [Congress'] previous expressions of support for continued enlargement of the NATO Alliance contained in the NATO Participation Act of 1994, the NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act of 1996, and the European Security Act of 1998...." This bill also authorizes a total of $55.5 million in military aid for fiscal 2002 for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania. However, Congress should be acting to preserve our national sovereignty by getting our nation out of NATO. NATO was established as a subsidiary of the United Nations by the North Atlantic Treaty (April 4, 1949), which stated in its Article 1: "The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, ... to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations."
The House passed H.R. 3167 on November 7, 2001 by a vote of 372 to 46 (Roll Call 431). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Aviation Security. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) offered a substitute amendment that would have replaced the text of the House version of the aviation security bill (H.R. 3150) with that of the Senate version (S. 1447). The Senate version would make airport baggage and passenger screeners federal employees.
The House rejected the substitute amendment on November 1, 2001 by a vote of 214 to 218 (Roll Call 423). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 3090: To Provide Tax Incentives for Economic Recovery
Economic Stimulus. This bill (H R. 3090) would grant businesses and individuals $99.5 billion in federal tax cuts in fiscal 2002, and a total of $159.4 billion in reductions over 10 years. The bill would also accelerate reducing the 27 percent tax bracket to 25 percent, lower the capital gains tax rate from 20 percent to 18 percent, and eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax.
The House passed H.R. 3090 on October 24, 2001 by a vote of 216 to 214 (Roll call 404). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 3162: To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world
Anti-Terrorism Authority. H.R. 3162, known as the "USA Patriot Act," was passed by the House on October 24th, passed by the Senate the next day, and signed into law the day after that. The Act, introduced in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks, gives law enforcement and intelligence agencies vast new powers to combat terrorism. It expands the list of crimes deemed terrorist acts; increases the ability of law enforcement to secretly search homes and business records; expands the FBI's wiretapping and surveillance authority; and provides for nationwide jurisdiction for search warrants and electronic surveillance devices, including the legal extension of those devices to e-mail and the Internet. The bill includes a "sunset" provision under which the new surveillance powers "shall cease to have effect on December 31, 2005." The very presence of that provision underscores the justifiable concern of some lawmakers that those new powers could be abused.
The House passed H.R. 3162 on October 24, 2001 by a vote of 357 to 66 (Roll Call 398). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations. The mammoth spending bill (H.R. 3061) would appropriate $396 billion -- including $123 billion in "discretionary" spending -- for the Labor Department, the Health and Human Services Department, the Education Department, and related agencies in fiscal 2002. The "discretionary" spending includes $53 billion for HHS and $49 billion for the Education Department.
Agriculture Authorization. The farm bill, H.R. 2646, would authorize $167 billion over 10 years. Congressional Quarterly reported that level of spending would represent "a nearly two-thirds increase over current levels, most of it to maintain and expand subsidies for those who grow row crops."
The House passed H.R. 2646 on October 5, 2001 by a vote of 291 to 120 (Roll Call 371). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Boy Scouts. During consideration of the District of Columbia appropriations bill (H.R. 2944), Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) offered an amendment to bar the use of funds in the bill to "issue, administer, or enforce" a D.C. Commission on Human Rights ruling that the Boy Scouts reinstate two homosexual leaders and compensate them $50,000.
The House adopted the Hostettler amendment on September 25, 2001 by a vote of 262 to 152 (Roll Call 354). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 2926: Air Transportaion Safety and System Stabilization Act
Airline Bailout. After the September 11th terrorist attacks, the House voted on a bailout for the airline industry known as the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (H.R. 2926). This Act would provide $5 billion in cash, and up to $10 billion in loan guarantees, for air carriers.
The House passed H.R. 2926 on September 21, 2001 by a vote of 356 to 54 (Roll Call 348). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 4: On Agreeing to H. Amdt. 288 to H R 4
CAFE Standards. During consideration of the omnibus energy bill (H.R. 4), Rep. Sherwood Boehiert (R-N.Y.) offered an amendment to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Under the current standards, a manufacturer's car fleet must average 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg), and its light trucks -- including SUVs and minivans -- must average 20.7 mpg. Boehlert's amendment would have required that a manufacturer's combined fleet of cars and light trucks must average 26 mpg for model years 2005 and 2006 and 27.5 mpg for model year 2007 and beyond. Better fuel efficiency can be achieved through improved technology -- or through smaller and lighter (and more dangerous!) vehicles.
The House rejected the Boehlert amendment on August 1, 2001 by a vote of 160 to 269 (Roll Call 311). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 4: On Agreeing to H.Amdt. 298 to H R 4
Oil and Gas Exploration in Alaska. Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) could contain as many as 9.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil according to an Interior Department study published more than a decade ago. Yet oil and gas exploration in the ANWR has been banned. The omnibus energy bill (H.R. 4) contained language allowing for limited exploration, but Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) offered an amendment to delete this language from the bill, thereby preserving the ban.
The House rejected the Markey amendment on August 1, 2001 by a vote of 206 to 223 (Roll Call 317). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
VA-HUD Appropriations. H.R. 2620 would appropriate $112.7 billion for the Departments of Veteran Affairs ($51.3 billion) and Housing and Urban Development ($30 billion) and 20 independent agencies in fiscal 2002. The agencies include NASA ($15.0 billion), the EPA ($7.5 billion), and FEMA ($3.6 billion). Congressmen who argue that they voted for this legislation in order to preserve VA programs should have voted against it with the insistence that the myriad spending programs it contains be divided into separate parts, allowing for a vote on each.
No Vote.Vietnam Trade. House Joint Resolution 55 would have disapproved a presidential waiver that allows U.S. companies doing business with Vietnam to qualify for federal aid, including import and export financing and loan guarantees.
The House rejected H. J. Res. 55 on July 26, 2001 by a vote of 9l to 324 (Roll Call 275). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
No Vote.U.S. Embargo Against Cuba. During consideration of the Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment prohibiting the use of funds in the bill "to implement, administer, or enforce the economic embargo of Cuba." The amendment would have effectively ended the embargo against the oppressive Communist regime, which is on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The House rejected the Rangel amendment on July 25, 2001 by a vote of 201 to 227 (Roll Call 271). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Export-Import Bank. During consideration of the foreign aid appropriations bill (H.R. 2506), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) offered an amendment to eliminate the subsidy appropriation account for the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Paul, who had voted five days earlier to extend Normal Trade Relations with China, noted that "the largest foreign recipient of the foreign aid from this bill is Red China, $6.2 billion." An advocate of free trade, Paul told his colleagues: "I do not believe this Congress should be in the business of subsidizing anyone."
The House rejected the Paul amendment on July 24, 2001 by a vote of 47 to 375 (Roll Call 261). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Foreign Aid. H.R. 2506 appropriates $15.2 billion for foreign aid programs in fiscal 2002.
H J RES 50: Disapproving Normal Trade Relations for China
China "Normal Trade Relations" Disapproval. House Joint Resolution 50 would have overturned President George W. Bush's decision to extend Normal Trade Relations (NTR) with China for another year. NTR, which used to be known as Most Favored Nation trade status, allows the oppressive Communist government to participate in subsidy programs through such agencies as the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the sponsor of H.J. Res. 50, pointed out that NTR "has nothing to do with free trade.... It has everything to do with subsidizing and guaranteeing big businessmen who cannot get their loans guaranteed in the private sector because it is too risky to go and set up factories in China."
The House rejected H. J. Res. 50 on July 19, 2001 by a vote of 169 to 259 (Roll Call 255). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 2500: On Agreeing to the H. Amdt. 190 to H R 2500
Defunding the United Nations. During consideration of the appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice, and State Departments (H.R. 2500), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) offered an amendment that stated: "None of the funds appropriated in this Act may be used for any United States contribution to the United Nations or any affiliated agency of the United Nations." Paul's intent was to effectively get the U.S. out of the UN by cutting off U.S. contributions to the UN.
Defunding UN Peacekeeping. In addition to his amendment to defund the United Nations or any affiliated agency (see House Vote #25 above), Rep. Paul also offered an amendment to prohibit the use of any funds in the bill for United Nations "peacekeeping" operations. Paul noted that "we pay 31.7 percent of the peacekeeping missions" and that "we have lost control of our destiny when it comes to military operations. We now go to war under U.N. resolutions, rather than this Congress declaring war and fighting wars to win."
Abortion. The fiscal 2002 appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice, and State Departments (H.R. 2500) included a provision prohibiting the use of funds for abortions in federal prisons. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) offered an amendment to strike this provision from the bill.
The House rejected the DeGette amendment on July 17, 2001 by a vote of 169 to 253 (Roll Call 235). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
Corporate Welfare. During consideration of the agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 2330), Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) offered an amendment to defund the Market Access Program. This program, a form of corporate welfare, provides businesses with funding to promote their agricultural products overseas.
The House rejected the Royce amendment on July 11, 2001 by a vote of 85 to 341 (Roll Call 220). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Agriculture Appropriations. H.R. 2330 would appropriate $74.4 billion for agriculture programs in fiscal 2002. The spending includes $31.8 billion for agricultural programs including crop subsidies, $22 billion for the food stamp program, $10.1 billion for child nutrition programs, and $1.1 billion for foreign food aid and export assistance.
H R 2311: On Agreeing to H.Amdt.127 to H R 2311
Oil and Gas Drilling in the Great Lakes. During consideration of the energy and water appropriations bill (H.R. 2311), Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) offered an amendment to ban any new drilling for oil or natural gas beneath the Great Lakes. Congressional Quarterly reported that, "Since 1979, 13 such wells have been drilled in the region, with seven currently in operation."
The House adopted the Bonior amendment on June 28, 2001 by a vote of 265 to 157 (Roll Call 203). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 700: Asian Elephant Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2001
Funds for Asian Elephants. This bill would authorize up to $5 million per year for four years to help preserve the habitat of the Asian elephant. The program is merely another pretense to waste U.S. taxpayer dollars abroad.
The House voted to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 700 on June 12, 2001 by a vote of 401 to 15 (Roll Call 156). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 1836: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
Tax Cut Reconciliation Conference Report. This conference report would cut all income tax rates slightly, double the per child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, alleviate the marriage penalty, phase out and finally abolish the estate tax in 2010, and increase income tax exemptions for IRAs and Educational Savings Accounts. Unfortunately, all provisions of the bill are sunset after 2010, meaning that the estate tax and current high income tax rates would be restored in 2011 unless Congress acts to make the cuts permanent. Despite this flaw, the bill would nevertheless give beleaguered taxpayers several much-needed breaks in their tax bills.
The House adopted the conference re-port on H.R. 1836 on May 26, 2001 by a vote of 240-154 (Roll Call 149). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 1: On Agreeing to H. Amdt. 69 to H R 1
Education Spending Increase Cut. This amendment by Representative Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) would limit the increase in funding in the elementary and secondary education package "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" to 11.5 percent. That may not sound like much of a limit; and it isn't. But, said Representative Cox, "if we do not adopt this amendment, the rate of increase will be 23.5 percent." Actually, without adoption of the Cox amendment, the underlying $22.8 billion bill would represent a 28 percent increase over the nearly $17.8 billion authorized for fiscal 2001. The vote on the Cox amendment is a useful test for determining which congressmen are willing to waste large amounts of taxpayer monies on unconstitutional federal education boondoggles.
The House rejected the Cox amendment to H.R. 1 on May 23, 2001 by a vote of 101-326 (Roll Call 143). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Education Reauthorization. The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," the main elementary and secondary educational authorization bill for fiscal 2002, would increase spending for fiscal 2002 by an unbelievable 28 percent over fiscal 2001. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total cost of this bill (which, by the way, is only a portion of federal education spending) "would total approximately $23 billion in 2002 and about $135 billion over the 2002-2006 period...."
The House passed the bill on May 23, 2001 by a vote of 384-45 (Roll Call 145). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
National Educational Testing. This amendment to the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," the main education spending package, would strike pro-visions in the bill which would impose upon states the requirement to test students in grades three through eight in reading and math. The amendment would replace the national testing requirement with a requirement that the states measure students in areas in which the states have set their own "performance standards."
Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) supported the amendment because the national testing requirement of the underlying bill would naturally lead to a national test and a national curriculum. "[A]s much as I object to the new federal expenditures in H.R. 1, my biggest concern is with the new mandate that states test children and com-pare the test with a national normed test such as the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). While proponents of this approach claim that the bill respects state autonomy as states can draw up their own tests, these claims fail under close observation.... H.R. 1 will lead to de facto, if not de jure, national testing. States will inevitably fashion their test to match the 'nationally-normed' test so as to relieve their students and teachers of having to prepare for two different tests.... National testing will inevitably lead to a national curriculum as teachers will teach what their students need to know in order to pass their mandated 'assessment.'"
The House rejected this amendment to H.R. 1 on May 22, 2001 by a vote of 173-255 (Roll Call 130). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 1646: On Agreeing to H. Amdt. 34 to H R 1646
Abortion Funds in Foreign Aid. This amendment would preserve the Mexico City policy that bans the distribution of federal family planning foreign aid to abortion providers and associated groups in the international abortion industry. The Mexico City policy was initiated by the Reagan administration in 1984, but was reversed by the Clinton administration. President Bush reinstated the policy shortly after his inauguration, but this amendment would make the provision law rather than merely an executive decree.
"This amendment will greatly improve the bill by deleting a provision that would re-quire the United States to subsidize abortionists and abortion lobbyists in foreign countries," the amendment's author, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), explained.
The House adopted the Hyde amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 16, 2001 by a vote of 218-210 (Roll Call 115). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Tax Cut Reconciliation. This bill consists of President Bush's tax cut proposals. H.R. 1836 would cut all income tax rates slightly and provide $958.3 billion in tax relief over 11 years.
The House passed the bill, H.R. 1836, on May 16, 2001 by a vote of 230-197 (Roll Call 118). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 1646: Foreign Relations Authorization Act
Foreign Aid and State Department Authorization. This two-year foreign relations authorization bill would authorize outlays of $16.2 billion over fiscal years 2002-06. The foreign operations bill includes funds for a wide range of foreign aid programs, contributions to inter-national organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and funds for the operations of the Department of State. The bill contains authorizations of $844 million in fiscal 2002 for U.S. participation in United Nations "peacekeeping" wars and $65 million per year for U.S. re-entry into UNESCO).
The House passed the bill, H.R. 1646, on May 16, 2001 by a vote of 352-73 (Roll Call 121). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
U.S. Government Immunity from International Criminal Court Prosecution. This amendment notes that "any American prosecuted by the International Criminal Court will, under the Rome Statute, he denied procedural protections to which all Americans arc entitled under the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, such as the right to trial by jury." The amendment therefore prohibits any form of assistance to the ICC, prohibits military foreign aid to the ICC, prohibits the operation of ICC officials on U.S. soil, and prohibits the deployment of U.S. forces to nations that have ratified the ICC treaty or areas where U.S. servicemen are likely to be prosecuted. Nevertheless, this is a weak, milquetoast amendment that does not go nearly far enough. It does not protect the average American citizen from prosecution. Furthermore, it gives the president the option to waive prohibitions in the amendment against prosecuting American officials without a jury trial or constitutionally protected due process if the president determines that "it is in the national interest of the United States for the International Criminal Court's investigation or prosecution of the named individual to proceed."
The House adopted the amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 10, 2001 by a vote of 282-137 (Roll Call 106). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
Withhold UN "Dues." This amendment would withhold the final $244 million payment on the $1 billion balance the U.S. agreed to pay in "back dues" to the UN until such time as the United States is offered a seat on the UN Economic and Social Council's Commission on Human Rights. Although the withholding of the back dues is conditional and motivated upon the flawed premise that the United States should entrench itself ever more deeply into the United Nations, any withholding of funds from the United Nations -- however conditional -- will serve the cause of freedom.
Rejoining UNESCO. This amendment would eliminate the $67 mil-lion which the underlying State Department authorization bill designates toward re-establishing U.S. membership in UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) explained that "in light of our summary exclusion from U.N. Economic and Social Council, the International Narcotics and Drug Control Board and the Commission on Human Rights, now is the time to critically review our existing memberships in the United Nations organizations and not the time to rejoin another U.N. body at enormous expense." This is especially the case with UNESCO, which is in charge of designating the UN's World Heritage sites as well as the sovereignty-sapping Man and the Biosphere project. The U.S. with-drew from UNESCO in 1984 after the organization recommended global press censorship through a "New World Information Order."
The House rejected the amendment to H.R. 1646 on May 10, 2001 by a vote of 193-225 (Roll Call 108). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 8: Death Tax Elimination Act of 2001
Death Tax Repeal. This legislation g would phase out and completely repeal the Marxist federal inheritance tax that has been on the statute books since 1916. While opponents of the legislation painted the bill as a means of helping the rich, the truth is that this tax traditionally has put poor people out of work by liquidating family farms and small privately owned businesses that are asset "rich" but cash poor. No other tax contributes more to the trend toward the amalgamation of business into huge corporate empires than the death tax; the only way many small businesses and farms can stay in operation after the death of the owner is either through incorporation or through the sale of the private firm to a large corporation.
The House passed the bill on April 4, 2001 by a vote of 274-154 (Roll Call 84). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 6: Marriage Penalty and Family Tax Relief Act
Marriage Penalty Elimination. This bill would eliminate the "marriage penalty" in the income tax laws by the year 2009 and double the per child income tax credit to $1,000 by the year 2006. Representative Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) explained that the bill was needed because the "current Tax Code punishes married couples where both partners work by driving them into a higher tax bracket. The marriage penalty taxes the income of the second wage earner at a much higher rate than if they were taxed as an individual...." The current tax code, said Gilman, "penalizes marriage and encourages couples to live together without any formal legal commitment to each other."
The House passed H.R. 6 on March 29, 2001 by a vote of 282-144 (Roll Call 75). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H CON RES 83: Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2002
Fiscal 2002 Budget -- House Progressive Caucus Substitute. The annual budget proposal by the House Progressive Caucus, a group affiliated with the Socialist International, would slash military spending but increase overall spending in the already bloated Republican leadership budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 83) by about $180 billion over 10 years. The substitute would also gut the $1.6 trillion tax cut. The Progressive Caucus substitute is an important litmus test of radical socialism for members of Congress.
The House rejected the substitute to H. Con. Res. 83 on March 28, 2001 by a vote of 79-343 (Roll Call 66). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H CON RES 83: Flake Substitute H.Amdt. 20 to H CON RES 83
Fiscal 2002 Budget -- Conservative Substitute. This conservative substitute to the big-spending Republican majority's 10-year budget resolution would trim discretionary spending by about $150 billion and increase the tax cut from $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion. The conservative budget substitute would still increase overall federal spending, but it is significantly better than the Republican leadership budget it would replace.
The House rejected the substitute to H. Con, Res. 83 on March 28, 2001 by a vote of 81-341 (Roll Call 68). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 3: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act of 2001
Bush Tax Cut Bill. Under this measure (H.R. 3), the number of tax brackets would be ratcheted down from five to four, resulting in tax brackets of 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, and 33 percent. The legislation, part of President Bush's tax cut plan, would cut taxes by $947.4 billion over fiscal years 2001-11. The income tax cut would gradually reduce all income tax brackets over the 2001-11 period, and a rate reduction for the lowest bracket would be retroactive to the beginning of the 2001 calendar year.
The House passed H.R. 3 on March 8, 2001 by a vote of 230-198 (Roll Call 45). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
S J RES 6: Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted by the Department of Labor Under Chapter 8 of Title 5, United States Code, Relating to Ergonomics
Ergonomics Regulation Repeal. Congress had long demonstrated a complete lack of interest in enacting ex-pensive and unconstitutional national ergonomics standards. So President Bill Clinton dumped onerous OSHA-instituted ergonomics rules on the American people in the closing days of his administration, and arranged for those rules to take effect a mere four days before the inauguration of George W. Bush. "Ergonomics" is the design of equipment and work environments to best suit a worker's health and productivity, and ergonomic regulations are generally federal rules mandating standards of worker comfort in the workplace. Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.) described the expansive scope of the OSHA regulations: "By OSHA's own estimates, this ergonomic rule will cover over 102 million employees, 18 million jobs, and 6.1 million businesses and cost almost $100 billion a year to implement." Passage of S. J. Res. 6 would provide congressional disapproval of the OSHA ergonomics rule and declare that the "rule shall have no force or effect."
The House adopted S. J. Res. 6 on March 7, 2001 by a vote of 223-206 (Roll Call 33). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 333: Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act
No Vote.Bankruptcy Reform. As the National Chamber of Commerce noted in its analysis of the bankruptcy reform bill, this legislation was aimed at the "more than 100,000 bankruptcy filers [who] are abusing the system every year by discharging debts that they have the ability to repay." Under this underlying bipartisan bill, "Abusers of the bankruptcy system, those median income who earn more than the and can afford to repay a significant portion of their debts, will be required to pay back what they can afford." This legislation would allow persons saddled with unexpected medical bills or other hardships a fresh start through bankruptcy while generally preventing the abusive or habitual use of bankruptcy by sheltering fewer assets from seizure under bankruptcy proceedings.
The House passed H.R. 333 on March 1, 2001 by a vote of 306-108 (Roll Call 25). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
H R 524: Electronic Commerce Enhancement Act
Commerce Subsidies. This bill (H.R. 524) would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to institute a "pilot program" to assist small- and medium-sized businesses with the conduct of electronic commerce (sales over the Internet). Although virtually all electronic commerce is "interstate," making the legislation nominally constitutional, the program is completely unneeded. There are thousands of small businesses that have prospered -- and even become big businesses -- without federal intervention on their behalf.
The House passed the bill on February 14, 2001 by a vote of 409-6 (Roll Call 14). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
H R 554: Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act
Federal Assistance to Railway Accident Victims. This legislation would institute a new program under the National Transportation Safety Board to provide assistance to families of victims of passenger railway accidents. The assistance would take the form of a toll-free number victims' families can call for help, as well as funding for counseling programs through a designated non-profit organization.
The House passed H.R. 554 on February 14, 2001 by a vote of 404-4 (Roll Call 15). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
No Vote.Clemency for the FALN. Following the President's grant of clemency to convicted terrorists of the Puerto Rican FALN, Congress considered a concurrent resolution which would express its disapproval with the Clinton administration's decision.
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Award first for Morecambe theatre group
Members of Morecambe Warblers Amateur Dramatic Society posing with the chairman Chris Isherwood and the trophy.
Morecambe Warblers Amateur Operatic Society have won Best Musical Award from the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA).
The award is for their performances of Half a Sixpence at Lancaster’s Grand Theatre last October.
This is the first time that the Warblers have won this prestigious award and it is also the first time it has been won by an amateur theatre society in North Lancashire and the South Lakes.
The award was collected by members of the Warblers’ committee, performers and the show’s director.
As well as Best Musical, Warblers were also nominated in the Best Staging and Best Leading Male in a Musical categories.
Morecambe Warblers chairman Mr Chris Isherwood praised the whole company for their achievement saying: “I am absolutely delighted.
“Bringing a classic musical to the Grand stage and giving it a contemporary twist that thrilled audiences and critics alike is testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment of all involved – the creative team, performers, musicians, back stage and technical crew and musical director Angela Pearson all worked incredibly hard to support the vision of our director/choreographer, Sharon Bell.”
The society hope to repeat the success of Half A Sixpence with their next production – Monty Python’s Spamalot!, a comedy full of outrageous shenanigans that is an
absolute must for fans of comedy legends Monty Python and musical theatre lovers alike.
Spamalot! can be seen at Lancaster Grand Theatre from October 2-6 2018.
Tickets are available from Lancaster Grand box office by telephoning 01524 64695 or by visiting the theatre website at www.Lancastergrand.co.uk.
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Since it was founded, the University of Pennsylvania has adapted to reflect the values of the community that has supported it, charting a course between innovation and convention. These changes are evident in the architecture and character of the three campuses that are its home. From Franklin's adaptation of a non-sectarian chapel as the institution's first quarters to Frank Furness's innovative University Library and Louis Kahn's momentous Richards Medical Research Laboratory, Penn's buildings represent the evolving visions of the University's leaders.
Claudia Cohen Hall
The ARCH (Arts, Research, and Culture House)
c. 1927 - formerly the Christian Association
Originally built for the medical school, Claudia Cohen Hall was appropriately named Medical Hall, was later changed to Logan Hall, and in 2008 became Claudia Cohen Hall in honor of Penn alumna and journalist Claudia Cohen. The building was originally used as the Wharton School, then the School of Arts & Sciences and now holds the Dean of College, Dean of Freshman, and a number of academic advising services for different departments. The building is also a part of Penn's historic district.
View from Spruce Street - 1900
Click on below thumbnails to enlarge images. Photos courtesy of University Archives.
Houston Historical Photos
The original design concept for Houston Hall was the result of a contest the Trustees put together for recent graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's Architecture Program in 1893. The final design was a combination of designs from two winners, William C. Hays and Milton Bennett Medary Jr. The Hall originally contained a bowling alley, swimming pool, music room, gymnasium, theater, billiards room, and several reception areas. The Hall underwent renovations in both 1936 and 2000. Houston Hall now contains a market along with stand-alone eating establishments, study rooms, and event spaces such as auditoriums, meeting rooms, and offices.
Irvine Historical Photos
A beautiful inspiration from 1920s' Gothic Revival architecture, Irvine Auditorium holds the University's most impressive performance spaces. The Great Hall is decorated with symbols that depict the philosophical history of the University. The Great Hall is also home to Philadelphia's famous 10,731-pipe Curtis Organ.
Known for its large ornamental gate at the main entrance, the Iron Gate Theater is a registered national historic landmark. It contains oak paneling, stain-glassed windows, carved angels, and detailed masonry. The building also houses the Tabernacle Church and can be used for large performances with its large dressing rooms. The building was renovated in 1998 to provide additional rehearsal space.
Penn Commons architecturally joins the other four buildings of the Perelman Quadrangle through a series of staircases, ramps and bordering walls, which also serve as outdoor seating areas. Penn Commons is nestled in the center of campus, an ideal spot for both formal and informal gatherings. A raised Penn seal is found at the east side of the Quad, making it a focal point for all events.
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My Westfield Matildas Story: Teigen Allen - 'The best thing that's ever happened'
Benito Carbone 1557884695
A dream that began as a three-year-old is on the brink of being realised for Westfield Matildas defender Teigen Allen as she looks forward to the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019™.
In a series of exclusive interviews for www.w-league.com.au, we will be catching up with Ante Milicic's 23-player squad in the build-up to the World Cup, which kicks-off in France in 23 days' time, starting today with Melbourne Victory's Teigen Allen.
BEYOND EXCITED: How social media reacted to the Westfield Matildas squad announcement
GET KITTED OUT: All you need to know about the Westfield Matildas new Nike shirts
COMING NEXT: Australia re-affirms bid to host FIFA Women's World Cup 2023
Teigen Allen has been named in Australia's squad for the Women's World Cup
"I've been playing football since I was three," the 25-year-old Melbourne Victory defender said. "Ever since I realised there was an Australian national team for women’s football, that's [been] my biggest dream – always has been and still is.
"It just feels amazing accomplishing that … and that there’s so many bigger things out there as well."
WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN: 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23 days to go
WATCH: The Women's World Cup squad announcement
CATCH UP: All the glitz and glamour from the 2019 Dolan Warren Awards
Having previously represented Australia at the 2011 World Cup in Germany, the two-time Westfield W-League Championship winner (with Sydney FC in 2009 and Melbourne City in 2017) is looking forward to her second chance at competing on the biggest stage.
"It feels like something I've been working for my whole life," she said.
I remember getting told I was playing for the Westfield Matildas at the 2011 World Cup and I was absolutely stoked. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Allen in action for Australia against Argentina in 2019's Cup of Nations
"It feels like everything that I’m doing right now – from when I was younger, from when I first started representing my country – everything I'm investing my time into, is to represent my country and to make my dreams reality.
"Everything I'm doing is to be where I am right now."
Watch the full video at the top of this page.
Click below to #GetOnside for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™ in Australia
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Tradition, Quality and Character
The name Marques de Vargas instantly recalls the saga of four generations dedicated to producing and marketing excellent wines from Rioja. Wines produced in the family's lands were warmly welcomed by the market, encouraging the family to expand their legacy into other denominaciones de origen in Spain: Ribera and Rías Baixas. Wines from these regions are also top range limited production wines from the company's own vineyards.
Marqués de Vargas
The winery is found in the centre of the vineyard, similarly to a château, in the Ebro valley, an area commonly known as Los Tres Marqueses because the vineyards of three important Riojan wineries founded by their respective marquises meet here.
The property covers 60 hectares and the following red grapes varieties, typical to La Rioja, are grown: tempranillo, garnacha, mazuelo, graciano and maturana.
Conde San Cristóbal
The Bodega Conde de San Cristóbal, located in the historic Pago de Valdestremero, in the heart of Ribera del Duero, was founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The historic property was built in an outstanding setting and the Pago de Valdestremero vineyards were producing grapes to make wines for the 16th century court of King Philip II at Valladolid.
Pazo de San Mauro
In 2003, Bodegas y Viñedos del Marqués de Vargas acquired Pazo de San Mauro, a 30 hectare vineyard in Rías Baixas in the Condado de Tea sub-zone. The winery is surrounded by its own vineyard which has been growing for over 40 years; it descends in south-facing terraces to the banks of the Miño river, creating a natural amphitheatre and imbuing it with the magic and mystery of Celtic legends.
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Keywords: long sixties (4 Results)
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Keywords: long sixties x
[[missing key: search-facet.tree.open-section]] Religion (2)
The American Catholic Revolution: How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever
Mark S. Massa, SJ
Religion, Religion and Society
This book examines the Catholic participation in the “Long Sixties” in the United States, a decade that, for Catholic Americans, began in 1964 (the year the first reforms mandated by the Second ... More
This book examines the Catholic participation in the “Long Sixties” in the United States, a decade that, for Catholic Americans, began in 1964 (the year the first reforms mandated by the Second Vatican Council began to be implemented) and continued into the 1970s. The book argues that the most important result of that era was the emergence of the awareness among many of the Catholic faithful that everything in history changes, including the Church. This seemingly obvious insight generated considerable turmoil within the American Catholic community, which was accustomed to thinking of their religious beliefs and practices as timeless. The battles generated by that insight largely shaped the debates within the community during the final quarter of the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. In the process of narrating those turbulent events, the book offers a new master narrative of American Catholicism during the 1960s that seeks to displace the older politicized narrative of “liberals versus conservatives.”Less
The American Catholic Revolution : How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever
This book examines the Catholic participation in the “Long Sixties” in the United States, a decade that, for Catholic Americans, began in 1964 (the year the first reforms mandated by the Second Vatican Council began to be implemented) and continued into the 1970s. The book argues that the most important result of that era was the emergence of the awareness among many of the Catholic faithful that everything in history changes, including the Church. This seemingly obvious insight generated considerable turmoil within the American Catholic community, which was accustomed to thinking of their religious beliefs and practices as timeless. The battles generated by that insight largely shaped the debates within the community during the final quarter of the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. In the process of narrating those turbulent events, the book offers a new master narrative of American Catholicism during the 1960s that seeks to displace the older politicized narrative of “liberals versus conservatives.”
Keywords: Catholic Americans, Second Vatican Council, reform, long sixties, American Catholic
Hotel Mexico: Dwelling on the '68 Movement
George F. Flaherty
10.1525/california/9780520291065.001.0001
History, Latin American History
In 1968 a street and media-savvy democratization movement led by students emerged in Mexico City. The 68 Movement was targeted in a state-sponsored massacre at a massive new housing complex ten days ... More
In 1968 a street and media-savvy democratization movement led by students emerged in Mexico City. The 68 Movement was targeted in a state-sponsored massacre at a massive new housing complex ten days before the city hosted the Olympic Games. Both the complex and the mega event were symbols of the country’s rapid modernization but also decades-long political disenfranchisement and urban redevelopment that rendered citizens “guests” of the government and its allies. In spite of institutional denial, censorship and impunity, the massacre remains a touchstone in contemporary public culture thanks to the public memory work of survivors and narrators among Mexico’s intelligentsia. Hotel Mexico asks: How was urban space—material but also literary and cinematic—harnessed as a recalcitrant archive of 1968 and continues to serve as a framework for de facto modes of justice. The 68 Movement’s imaginary and tactics are interwoven and compared with other efforts, both official and countercultural, to reevaluate or renew Mexico’s post-revolutionary modernity: in architecture, urbanism, literature, visual arts, and film—among them, Mario Pani’s housing complex Nonoalco-Tlatelolco (1958–64), kinetic environments created for the 1968 Olympics, and David Alfaro Siqueiros last major mural, The March of Humanity (1964–71).Less
Hotel Mexico : Dwelling on the '68 Movement
In 1968 a street and media-savvy democratization movement led by students emerged in Mexico City. The 68 Movement was targeted in a state-sponsored massacre at a massive new housing complex ten days before the city hosted the Olympic Games. Both the complex and the mega event were symbols of the country’s rapid modernization but also decades-long political disenfranchisement and urban redevelopment that rendered citizens “guests” of the government and its allies. In spite of institutional denial, censorship and impunity, the massacre remains a touchstone in contemporary public culture thanks to the public memory work of survivors and narrators among Mexico’s intelligentsia. Hotel Mexico asks: How was urban space—material but also literary and cinematic—harnessed as a recalcitrant archive of 1968 and continues to serve as a framework for de facto modes of justice. The 68 Movement’s imaginary and tactics are interwoven and compared with other efforts, both official and countercultural, to reevaluate or renew Mexico’s post-revolutionary modernity: in architecture, urbanism, literature, visual arts, and film—among them, Mario Pani’s housing complex Nonoalco-Tlatelolco (1958–64), kinetic environments created for the 1968 Olympics, and David Alfaro Siqueiros last major mural, The March of Humanity (1964–71).
Keywords: Student Movement, Mexico, Mexico City, Democratization, Urbanism, Memory, 1968, Long Sixties
The Age of Youth in Argentina: Culture, Politics, and Sexuality from Peron to Videla
10.5149/northcarolina/9781469611617.001.0001
This social and cultural history of Argentina’s “long sixties” argues that the nation’s younger generation was at the epicenter of a public struggle over democracy, authoritarianism, and revolution ... More
This social and cultural history of Argentina’s “long sixties” argues that the nation’s younger generation was at the epicenter of a public struggle over democracy, authoritarianism, and revolution from the mid-twentieth century through the ruthless military dictatorship that seized power in 1976. It demonstrates how, during this period, large numbers of youths built on their history of earlier activism and pushed forward closely linked agendas of sociocultural modernization and political radicalization. Focusing also on the views of adults who assessed, and sometimes profited from, youth culture, the author analyzes countercultural formations—including rock music, sexuality, student life, and communal living experiences—and situates them in an international context. She details how, while Argentines of all ages yearned for newness and change, it was young people who championed the transformation of deep-seated traditions of social, cultural, and political life. The significance of youth was not lost on the leaders of the rising junta: people aged sixteen to thirty accounted for 70 percent of the estimated 20,000 Argentines who were “disappeared” during the regime.Less
The Age of Youth in Argentina : Culture, Politics, and Sexuality from Peron to Videla
This social and cultural history of Argentina’s “long sixties” argues that the nation’s younger generation was at the epicenter of a public struggle over democracy, authoritarianism, and revolution from the mid-twentieth century through the ruthless military dictatorship that seized power in 1976. It demonstrates how, during this period, large numbers of youths built on their history of earlier activism and pushed forward closely linked agendas of sociocultural modernization and political radicalization. Focusing also on the views of adults who assessed, and sometimes profited from, youth culture, the author analyzes countercultural formations—including rock music, sexuality, student life, and communal living experiences—and situates them in an international context. She details how, while Argentines of all ages yearned for newness and change, it was young people who championed the transformation of deep-seated traditions of social, cultural, and political life. The significance of youth was not lost on the leaders of the rising junta: people aged sixteen to thirty accounted for 70 percent of the estimated 20,000 Argentines who were “disappeared” during the regime.
Keywords: Argentina, long sixties, democracy, authoritarianism, revolution, military dictatorship, sociocultural modernization, political radicalization, youth culture, rock music
Waking from the Dream: The Dream of the 1950s and Early 1960s
Linda A. Mercadante
in Belief without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious
Whether aberration or heritage, the surge in organized religion during the 1950s and early 1960s still functions as the “gold standard” for many today, especially Protestants and Catholics. Athough ... More
Whether aberration or heritage, the surge in organized religion during the 1950s and early 1960s still functions as the “gold standard” for many today, especially Protestants and Catholics. Athough there was still a common meta-narrative that many shared, giving stability to public and private life, it was soon to disintegrate. This seemingly idyllic picture also contained problems, which are discussed. The dramatic change in the ensuing years, especially during the later 1960s and beyond, as well as the parallel rise in conservative evangelicals and “nones” during the 1990s, is explored. The chapter refers to Robert Putnam’s work on the cultural shocks that promoted this change. It also discusses the rise in those disaffiliated and non-affiliated from religion. It looks more closely at the specifics about the “nones” and those who describe themselves “spiritual but not religious.”Less
Waking from the Dream : The Dream of the 1950s and Early 1960s
Whether aberration or heritage, the surge in organized religion during the 1950s and early 1960s still functions as the “gold standard” for many today, especially Protestants and Catholics. Athough there was still a common meta-narrative that many shared, giving stability to public and private life, it was soon to disintegrate. This seemingly idyllic picture also contained problems, which are discussed. The dramatic change in the ensuing years, especially during the later 1960s and beyond, as well as the parallel rise in conservative evangelicals and “nones” during the 1990s, is explored. The chapter refers to Robert Putnam’s work on the cultural shocks that promoted this change. It also discusses the rise in those disaffiliated and non-affiliated from religion. It looks more closely at the specifics about the “nones” and those who describe themselves “spiritual but not religious.”
Keywords: Protestants, Catholics, Jews, 1950-present, evangelicals, nones, spiritual but not religious, Long Sixties, aftershock meta-narrative
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California police shooting suspect in court wearing bandage
by: DON THOMPSON, Associated Press
Posted: Jun 24, 2019 / 10:53 PM UTC / Updated: Jun 25, 2019 / 12:05 AM UTC
Adel Sambrano Ramos, center, enters a Sacramento County Superior Court room for his first court appearance in the shooting death of Sacramento Police officer Tara O’Sullivan in Sacramento County Superior Court in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, June 24, 2019. Ramos did not enter a plea. A bandage covers Ramos’ forehead after he was treated at an outside hospital after he smashed his head against a bed frame Sunday morning, according to officials. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man charged with killing a rookie California police officer made his first brief court appearance Monday wearing a four-inch gauze pad covering what officials said was a self-inflicted head injury.
Adel Sambrano Ramos was appointed a public defender during a five-minute court hearing, and spoke only to acknowledge his name.
Ramos, 45, faces a murder charge that could bring him the death penalty in Wednesday’s slaying of 26-year-old Sacramento Officer Tara O’Sullivan. He’s also charged with attempting to murder her training officer and with possessing two illegal assault-style rifles.
He did not enter a plea.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard defended police from criticism that they took 45 minutes to rescue O’Sullivan. Police said they were waiting for an armored vehicle because they were pinned down by rifle fire that could penetrate standard bulletproof vests.
“There was nothing that could have been done to save her life,” he said after the hearing. “The nature of that injury is such that it could happen in an emergency room and she would not be save-able. So I find it very disheartening that people are criticizing the police response time to evacuate her. That has no merit whatsoever.”
He also took exception to questions of whether O’Sullivan was properly trained.
“Nothing in the training or lack thereof is the cause of this,” he said. “There is an individual responsible for this, not law enforcement.”
Assistant Public Defender Diane Howard declined comment, as did Police Chief Daniel Hahn, who sat quietly in the back of the courtroom. Hahn was one of at least a dozen uniformed police officers and deputies watching as the hearing unfolded.
Ramos was shackled at the hands, waist and ankles and surrounded by three deputies in the courtroom’s holding cage. Two more stood just outside the cage.
He was wearing a standard orange jail uniform during the hearing, though officials said that has been taken away from him at the jail after he tried to harm himself Sunday morning.
Ramos suffered “some self-inflicted head wounds. He had smashed his head against a bed frame in his cell,” Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tess Deterding said before the hearing.
Jail employees immediately stopped him from further injury and took him to an outside hospital, she said. He was returned to the jail 12 hours later.
He’s now in a psychiatric wing of the jail “where we’ve taken even further precautions to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself like that,” Deterding said.
He is under constant watch in what is called a safety cell, which has no bunk or other furnishings.
“Obviously we can’t take away the walls and floor,” she said, but “there’s nothing inside the room. It’s just basically four walls.”
He is provided a thin mattress and what is known as a suicide smock instead of regular jail garb: “It’s tear-resistant, things like that, they can’t turn it into a noose,” she said. There are mental health employees in that unit in the event they are needed or requested by Ramos.
Ramos also has had no contact with other inmates since he arrived.
Memorial services for a O’Sullivan are set for Thursday at the Bayside Church’s Adventure Campus in Roseville, California. She was fatally shot during a domestic violence call as she and other officers helped an unidentified woman pack her belongings from the garage of a North Sacramento home, authorities said.
Authorities said Ramos was heavily armed with assault rifles, a shotgun and a handgun and fired dozens of times at officers during an hours-long standoff before surrendering.
by TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press / Jul 18, 2019
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York is set to announce Thursday whether to grant bail to financier Jeffrey Epstein while he awaits trial on sex trafficking charges .
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Mexico resort served tainted alcohol, says lawsuit in student's 'tragic, senseless' death
Abbey Conner's family's lawsuit alleges that Iberostar and its website operator, Visit Us, “knew that alcoholic beverages being served ... were tainted, substandard, poisonous, unfit for human consumption."
Mexico resort served tainted alcohol, says lawsuit in student's 'tragic, senseless' death Abbey Conner's family's lawsuit alleges that Iberostar and its website operator, Visit Us, “knew that alcoholic beverages being served ... were tainted, substandard, poisonous, unfit for human consumption." Check out this story on USATODAY.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/28/lawsuit-students-death-mexican-resort-served-tainted-alcohol/2138296002/
Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 6:29 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2018 | Updated 9:07 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2018
Many other families nationally report experiencing the same problems at Mexico's resorts that we reported last week through the case of the Pewaukee family, whose daughter died and son was injured. Wochit
Abbey Conner in an undated photo.(Photo: Family photo)
MILWAUKEE – Calling her death “tragic, senseless and entirely avoidable,” the family of Abbey Conner filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday in Florida against the Mexico resort where Conner drowned last year and the U.S.-based website company that manages the resort’s bookings.
The 24-page wrongful death complaint outlines the events that unfolded the afternoon Conner and her family arrived in Playa del Carmen at the upscale, all-inclusive resort for a vacation.
It asserts that Iberostar and its website operator, Visit Us, “knew that alcoholic beverages being served at the Hotel Iberostar Paraiso del Mar were tainted, substandard, poisonous, unfit for human consumption and/or otherwise failed to meet bare minimum standards for food and beverage safety” and failed in their “duty to protect Abbey against risks of physical harm.”
“I think it’s about time that somebody is held responsible for something that has been going on for far too long,” said Bill Conner, Abbey’s dad. “We’re looking for justice for my daughter and for others behind us that have never been vindicated.”
The death of Conner, a 20-year-old University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, sparked an 18-month investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that has since exposed dozens of tragedies experienced by tourists visiting resorts in Mexico in recent years.
The investigation revealed how travelers blacked out after drinking small and moderate amounts of alcohol, in some cases just one drink.
Aug. 8: Still waiting for answers, family of woman who drowned at Mexico resort gathers for her 22nd birthday
Feb. 23: Mexico police shut down second black market tequila still, investigate whether tainted alcohol headed to resorts
Couples and friends reported blacking out simultaneously and regaining consciousness hours later to learn they had been assaulted, robbed, taken to the hospital and, in some cases, jail.
Several reported their loved ones drowned.
It’s unclear whether the vacationers were deliberately drugged or became random victims of adulterated alcohol. Some reported getting violently ill, vomiting, foaming from the mouth and nose, and other physical symptoms. Others blacked out and woke up with no ailments.
In each case, the victims said hours of their memories were voided out.
They told of being forced to pay thousands of dollars before receiving medical care and getting little to no help from police in Mexico and the resorts themselves. They said they tried to warn future travelers by posting their stories to TripAdvisor, but the website had repeatedly deleted their posts.
And what surprised most of them: The U.S. consular offices and Department of State did little to help.
The Journal Sentinel has received more than 200 reports from tourists with troubling or terrifying experiences at luxury resorts. The most recent from two couples who visited Los Cabos earlier this month. Three of the four blacked out and later became violently ill after drinking a couple of margaritas. One woman in the group drank something different and did not get sick. She took pictures and later described to the others, all of whom had no memory, some of the things that transpired.
Abbey Conner was on a winter break with her brother, Austin, mom and stepdad in January 2017 when she drowned under suspicious circumstances in a shallow area of the resort pool before dinner time.
Austin nearly drowned at the same time and was pulled from the pool with a golf-ball sized lump on his head and a concussion. Medics later noted that Abbey had a cracked collarbone. Austin remembered that he and Abbey were drinking tequila at the swim-up bar but he lost consciousness after doing a shot with a group of people. He awoke later in an ambulance with no idea what happened.
The Conner family’s lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Florida, contends Iberostar and affiliated companies failed to take adequate safety measures such as preventing tainted alcohol from entering the premises, ensuring staff was properly trained and providing adequate surveillance cameras and lifeguards around the pool.
Dec. 2017: Mexico blackouts, injuries and deaths at resorts spark investigation of State Department
July 2017: Expert tips for avoiding tainted alcohol in Mexico
Furthermore, Iberostar failed to warn guests about the known threats and refused to cooperate with the family’s investigation into the death, denying an investigator access to the property, the suit contends.
The complaint, seeking unspecified damages, recounts how a guest reported to a security guard that it appeared two people were drowning in the pool. Abbey was floating face down, Austin was kicking and splashing uncontrollably. The guard radioed other guards and pulled the siblings from the pool. They attempted CPR on Abbey.
Abbey Conner (left), the 20-year-old who recently died from alcohol poisoning on a vacation to Mexico, poses at Big Cedar Lake in West Bend on July 4, 2016, with her family, including brother Austin Conner (far right), 22, who also suffered from alcohol poisoning. (Photo: Family photo)
Ginny and John McGowan, Abbey’s mom and stepdad, had been waiting for Austin and Abbey in the hotel lobby to go for dinner. When the kids never arrived, Ginny asked a receptionist at the lobby desk to call their room.
That’s when hotel staff told her that her children were at the hospital.
When John and Ginny McGowan arrived at the hospital, they found Austin had regained consciousness but was sedated.
Abbey was on a ventilator and unresponsive. She would need to be transferred to another hospital in Cancun.
Before the first hospital would transport, they said the family would need to pay the $6,371 bill and put down a $10,000 deposit for the Cancun hospital.
The family spent the next day arranging an emergency airlift back to the U.S. The closest available trauma center was Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Doctors there determined Abbey was brain dead.
Abbey had made it clear years earlier that she wanted to be an organ donor and the family kept her on life support until organ recipients were found.
“Abbey’s plight was reasonably foreseeable,” and “despite their knowledge that tainted alcohol festered within local supply chains in Mexico, particularly in resort areas such as Playa del Carmen,” Iberostar and affiliated companies failed to protect her, the complaint says.
Iberostar has repeatedly denied any of its alcohol has been tainted and said its supply chains are secure.
Mexican authorities have long acknowledged a problem with illicit alcohol but deny a widespread issue with it being tainted. A 2017 report by government officials and industry representatives found as much as 36 percent of the alcohol consumed in the country is illicit, meaning it is produced under unregulated conditions.
In February, Mexican officials shut down two black market tequila distilleries and seized nearly 20,000 gallons of illegal alcohol. Preliminary tests found 235 gallons were contaminated with dangerous levels of methanol.
Methanol is commonly used in windshield washer fluid and as a solvent and is extremely toxic even in small quantities.
They did not say where the supply was headed.
In a sweep through tourist hot spots last year, in the wake of initial Journal Sentinel reports, government authorities seized 90 gallons of illicit alcohol, temporarily shut down a bar in a resort within the Iberostar complex where the Conners stayed and uncovered a clandestine distillery with 10,000 gallons of alcohol produced with “bad manufacturing practices.”
The government in Mexico has long promoted a public service campaign that encourages bars and restaurants to destroy liquor bottles once they're empty so they can’t be refilled with bootleg booze.
Prior to the Journal Sentinel’s investigation, the U.S State Department had not been tracking rapes, injuries or other troubling incidents experienced by U.S. citizens vacationing in Mexico.
The department has since begun doing so, but has refused to release the details describing when or where the events took place. A department spokesman told the Journal Sentinel the reports are being used to “provide consular assistance and raise concerns with our Mexican counterparts.”
The Office of Inspector General opened an investigation into the State department’s handling of the cases nearly a year ago. Officials have said repeatedly in recent months the findings would be released soon.
Follow Raquel Rutledge on Twitter: @RaquelRutledge
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/28/lawsuit-students-death-mexican-resort-served-tainted-alcohol/2138296002/
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Boston Harbor & South Shore, MA
42.3533’ N, 71.0533’ W
H 70°
L 67°
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Information about Boston, MA
For the first-time cruising visitor, Boston Harbor and approaches might seem intimidating. This is one of America’s busiest ports with ships, tugs, barges, commercial fishing boats plying the waters at all times. But if you stick to the channels it’s a fairly easy and boater-friendly place to navigate. And the city offers world-class cuisine, iconic sites for the history buff (sail by the USS Constitution, for instance), theater, shops, and museums, and much more, all within reach of your anchorage.
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Boating in Boston, MA Map View
The port of Boston has excellent facilities for making all types of hull and engine repairs to vessels of all sizes. Several of these firms operate waterfront facilities for the vessels of all sizes. In addition, there are a number of firms without waterfront facilities that are engaged in marine repair work. These companies maintain shops and portable equipment for making repairs on all types of craft at their berths.
Small-craft Facilities
Public float landings for small craft are at Summer Street, Northern Avenue, on Charles River, and several other places along the waterfront. Small-craft facilities at Boston and Charlestown can provide berths with electricity, water, ice, marine supplies, wet storage, and sewage pump-out; complete hull, engine, and electronic repairs are available.
The Jeffries Yacht Club is in the cove adjacent westward of Logan International Airport. A boatyard, close southwestward of the yacht club, has a marine railway that can handle vessels up to 100 tons for hull and engine repairs; a 10-ton crane is also available.
Tides: Mean tidal range is 9.5 feet.
Boston Harbor branches into several distinguishable areas. Chelsea is separated from Charlestown, on the western side of the harbor, by the Mystic River. Charlestown is separated from Boston proper by the Charles River. Charleston Navy Yard is located on the north side of the mouth of the Charles River and is home to the USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young.
South Boston is on the peninsula southeast of the city proper, from which it is separated by Fort Point Channel. Logan International Airport is between Governors Island Flats and East Boston. The airport area, almost entirely filled land, is low, flat and quite extensive. The airport control tower is conspicuous. Governors Island, on the northeast side of Boston Main Channel and at the southerly end of the airport, is a low grass-covered peninsula.
Castle Island, on the southwest side of Boston Main Channel 1 mile northwestward of Spectacle Island, is marked by Fort Independence. It is connected to the shore westward by filled land. Several boulders bare at low water are a short distance southeastward of Castle Island. This area should be avoided. On the northeast corner of the island is the 52-foot granite Donald McKay Monument, erected in 1933 to commemorate the famous East Boston builder of clipper ships.
Pleasure Bay, just westward of Castle Island, is closed by an earth-filled dam extending from the southern end of the island to the jetty light southeastward of City Point.
Reserved Channel, 0.5 mile northwestward of Castle Island, is a dredged unmarked channel that leads westward from the Boston Main Channel for about 1 mile. The channel has a depth of 40 feet to about 0.5 mile above the entrance, thence 28 feet to the head of the project. A fixed bridge near the head of the dredged channel has reported clearances of 40 feet (horizontal) and 6 feet (vertical).
Fort Point Channel separates Boston proper from South Boston. A dredged channel leads from the entrance to the Summer Street Bridge. The controlling depth is 11 feet to the Northern Avenue Bridge and 14-15 feet to the Summer Street Bridge. Using the chart, Fort Point Channel is navigable to just below Dorchester Avenue Bridge.
The navigable section of Fort Point Channel is crossed by four bridges. Northern Avenue Bridge, at the entrance, has a swing span with a clearance of 7 feet. Moakley bridge, a highway bridge just above the Northern Avenue bridge, has a fixed span with a clearance of 16 feet. The Congress Street Bridge has a fixed span with a clearance of 6 feet, and the Summer Street Bridge has a fixed span with a clearance of 8 feet.
Charles River, on the western side of the harbor between Boston proper and Charlestown, is the approach by water to Cambridge and Watertown. The entrance of the river to the Charlestown Bridge, the first bridge, has a controlling depth of 26 feet. A wreck, covered 29 feet, is near the middle of the entrance and an obstruction, covered 13 feet, is near the southern limit of the channel, 240 yards east of the bridge.
Charles River Dam is about 0.55 mile above the entrance to the river. The dam has three locks; the large north lock has a usable length of 300 feet and width of 40 feet with 14 feet over the sill; the other two locks have usable lengths of 200 feet with widths of 25 feet and 6 feet over the sills. An overhead walkway with a monorail beneath it across the downstream end of the locks has a least clearance of 26 feet. A second dam is about 1 mile above the entrance with a single lock that’s maintained in the open position. The controlling depth between the two dams is 15 feet.
Charles River above the dams is maintained at a height of 7.2 feet above mean low water. There is a average depth of 15 feet to Arsenal Street Bridge, thence 3 feet for 2 miles to the head of navigation at Galen Street Bridge in Watertown.
The river above the dams is used by many yachts and small craft. No toll is charged for passage through the locks. There are four yacht clubs on the river, some college sailing and rowing clubs, a large marina below the dams and two public float landings above the dams.
The Charlestown Bridge crosses the river just below the lower Charles River Dam and has a fixed span with a clearance of 23 feet. Use the south span. The Interstate 93 highway bridge about 100 yards upstream of the lower dam has a fixed span with a clearance of 48 feet due to an overhead pipeline being suspended from below the bridge.
Little Mystic Channel is a slip about 0.5 mile long 0.2 mile south-southeast of the mouth of the Mystic River at Charlestown. Midchannel depths above the 35-foot dredged berth range from 29 feet just east of the highway bridge to 17 feet 600 yards westward of the bridge. The fixed highway bridge over the channel has a clearance of 9 feet. The horizontal clearance in the channel is limited to 75 feet due to the remains of the approaches of the former Chelsea Street Bridge immediately downstream.
Chelsea River, locally known as Chelsea Creek, emptying into Boston Harbor from eastward between East Boston and Chelsea, is the approach to important wharves and facilities, and to the city of Revere at the head, 2.6 miles above the entrance. The average minimum mid-channel depth is 31 feet.
Two drawbridges cross the river. The Andrew P. McArdle Bridge, just above the mouth, has a bascule span with a clearance of 20 feet, and the Chelsea Street Bridge, 0.8 mile upstream, has a bascule span with a clearance of 9 feet. In the open position, the bascule span of the Chelsea Street Bridge overhangs the channel above a height of 83 feet. The bridgetender of these bridges monitor VHF-FM channel 16 and work on channel 13.
Chelsea River has a heavy traffic of deep-draft oil tankers. The tankers berth at the oil company terminals and storage areas on both banks of the river.
Mystic River, which empties into Boston Harbor opposite Chelsea River, is the approach by water to the towns of Medford and Malden.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) railroad bridge, just upstream from the Malden River entrance, has a fixed span with a vertical clearance of 30 feet above normal pool level. The Wellington Bridge, 2.2 miles above the mouth, has a bascule span with a clearance of 16 feet at normal pool level. The Harvard Street Bridge (General Lawrence Bridge), 3.3 miles above the mouth, has a bascule span with a clearance of 13 feet at normal pool level. The Wellington and Harvard Street Bridges are maintained in the closed position. Highway 93 bridge about 0.5 mile above the General Lawrence Bridge has a fixed span with a clearance of 16 feet at normal pool level. Note: Normal pool level is 6.2 feet above mean low water.
A large marina is on the north bank of the river, just westward of the Boston and Maine Railroad bridge. Gasoline, water, ice, marine supplies, storage facilities, a small-craft launching ramp, and a 15-ton mobile hoist are available; hull, engine, and electronic repairs can be made.
There are two yacht clubs on the river above the mouth of the Malden River: the Winter Hill at Somerville and the Riverside at Medford. The Chelsea Yacht Club is on the north bank on the east side of the Mystic River-Tobin Memorial Bridge. Gasoline, diesel fuel, water, and electricity are available at the floats, which have 30 feet alongside.
NOAA charts 13272 (1:10,000), 13270 (1:25,000) and 13267 (1:80,000). CharKit Region 2, pages 49 and 50
Boston Harbor, the largest seaport in New England, includes all the tidewater lying within a line from the southern extremity of Deer Island to Point Allerton, about 4 miles to the southeastward.
Prominent Features:
Boston Lighted Whistle Buoy B (42¬∞22’42″N., 70¬∞46’58″W.) is about 7.8 miles east northeastward of Deer Island. The buoy is equipped with a fog signal and racon.
Conspicuous to a vessel approaching Boston Harbor from northeastward is the tall red, white, and blue standpipe on Winthrop Head.
From eastward, the most prominent island in the entrance is Great Brewster.
On the south side of the entrance, a turreted tower is conspicuous on Point Allerton; also prominent are the tank and standpipe on Strawberry Hill. Two miles south of Point Allerton are two radio towers that are illuminated at night.
The outstanding landmarks in the city of Boston are the John Hancock Building, the Prudential Building, the bridge over Mystic River, the control tower at Logan International Airport, the pointed tower of the customhouse, and a large gas tank in Everett. Also prominent are the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston and a spire at Squantum.
Approaches:
Although there are numerous hazards adjacent to the approaches to the harbor, the approaches are marked by a number of powerful lights, and the principal dangers are buoyed. The northeastern approach is obstructed by islands and shoals that extend 4 miles from the entrance; between them are the dredged channels which lead into the harbor. In the southeastern approach, broken ground extends as much as 3 miles from shore.
For those unfamiliar with the area it’s recommend you enter either the Boston North Channel or the South Channel to Presidents Roads, which leads to the entrance to Boston Harbor. Stick to the channels to avoid the numerous hazards outside the buoys.
At night use the North Channel, which has lighted buoys. If you’re headed for Boston Harbor proceed via Presidents Roads, be watchful for other vessels, as this is a busy area.
Boston Main Channel extends along the southern side of President Roads to the mouths of the Chelsea and Mystic Rivers, and to Charlestown Bridge on the Charles River.
There is 40-foot channel from President Roads to the mouth of the Mystic River.
The right half of the channel from President Roads to Commonwealth Pier 5, South Boston, and the left half of the channel just northwest of Commonwealth Pier 5 to the Charles River has a depth of 35 feet.
The waters adjacent to the piers and wharves extending northeastward northward from Northern Avenue Bridge to and including Pier 4 along the Boston proper waterfront westward of the Boston Main Channel are non-navigable because of the redevelopment of this section of the waterfront. Uncharted hazards or dangers may exist in these waters. Strangers are advised to seek local knowledge before entering, and all mariners are advised to exercise caution in the area.
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Excessive Heat Watch issued July 18 at 4:01AM EDT until July 20 at 9:00PM EDT by NWS
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2242 Criteria for Deciding Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302 [R-08.2017]
I. SUBSTANTIAL NEW QUESTION OF PATENTABILITY
The presence or absence of “a substantial new question of patentability” determines whether or not reexamination is ordered. The meaning and scope of the term “a substantial new question of patentability” is not defined in the statute and must be developed to some extent on a case-by-case basis, using the case law to provide guidance as will be discussed in this section.
If the prior art patents and printed publications raise a substantial question of patentability of at least one claim of the patent, then a substantial new question of patentability as to the claim is present, unless the same question of patentability has already been: (A) decided in a final holding of invalidity by a federal court in a decision on the merits involving the claim, after all appeals; (B) decided in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent by the Office; or (C) raised to or by the Office in a pending reexamination or supplemental examination of the patent. If the request for reexamination includes issues involving 35 U.S.C. 325(d), the examiner must bring such issues to the attention of the appropriate SPRS or the Director of the CRU. Inquiries from the public regarding the treatment of issues involving 35 U.S.C. 325(d) in ex parte reexaminations should be referred to OPLA.
An earlier concluded examination or review of the patent is: (A) the original examination of the application which matured into the patent; (B) the examination of the patent in a reissue application that has resulted in a reissue of the patent; (C) the examination of the patent in an earlier concluded reexamination or supplemental examination; (D) the review of the patent in an earlier concluded trial by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, such as a post-grant review, inter partes review, or covered business method review of the patent; or (E) any other contested Office proceeding which has been concluded and which involved the patent. The answer to the question of whether a “substantial new question of patentability” exists, and therefore whether reexamination may be had, is decided by the examiner, and the examiner’s determination may be reconsidered:
(a) If reexamination is denied – as set forth in MPEP § 2248.
(b) If reexamination is granted – as set forth in MPEP § 2246, subsection II.
A prior art patent or printed publication raises a substantial question of patentability where there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable examiner would consider the prior art patent or printed publication important in deciding whether or not the claim is patentable. If the prior art patents and/or publications would be considered important, then the examiner should find “a substantial new question of patentability” unless the same question of patentability has already been decided as to the claim in a final holding of invalidity by a federal court or by the Office in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent, or unless the same question of patentability has been raised to or by the Office in a pending reexamination or supplemental examination of the patent. For example, the same question of patentability may have already been decided by the Office where the examiner finds the additional (newly provided) prior art patents or printed publications are merely cumulative to similar prior art already fully considered by the Office in an earlier concluded examination or review of the claim.
For “a substantial new question of patentability” to be present, it is only necessary that: (A) the prior art patents and/or printed publications raise a substantial question of patentability regarding at least one claim, i.e., the teaching of the (prior art) patents and printed publications is such that a reasonable examiner would consider the teaching to be important in deciding whether or not the claim is patentable; and (B) the same question of patentability as to the claim has not been decided by the Office in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent, raised to or by the Office in a pending reexamination or supplemental examination of the patent, or decided in a final holding of invalidity (after all appeals) by a federal court in a decision on the merits involving the claim. If a reexamination proceeding was terminated/vacated without resolving the substantial question of patentability question, it can be re-presented in a new reexamination request. It is not necessary that a "prima facie" case of unpatentability exist as to the claim in order for “a substantial new question of patentability” to be present as to the claim. Thus, “a substantial new question of patentability” as to a patent claim could be present even if the examiner would not necessarily reject the claim as either fully anticipated by, or obvious in view of, the prior art patents or printed publications. As to the importance of the difference between “a substantial new question of patentability” and a "prima facie" case of unpatentability see generally In re Etter, 756 F.2d 852, 857 n.5, 225 USPQ 1, 4 n.5 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
Note that the clarification of the legal standard for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc.(KSR), 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007) does not alter the legal standard for determining whether a substantial new question of patentability exists. See the discussion in MPEP § 2216.
Where a second or subsequent request for reexamination of a patent is made before the conclusion of an earlier filed reexamination proceeding pending (ongoing) for that patent, the second or subsequent request for reexamination may provide information raising a substantial new question of patentability with respect to any new or amended claim which has been proposed under 37 CFR 1.530(d) in the ongoing pending reexamination proceeding. However, in order for the second or subsequent request for reexamination to be granted, the second or subsequent requester must independently provide a substantial new question of patentability which is different from that raised in the pending reexamination for the claims in effect at the time of the determination. The decision on the second or subsequent request is based on the claims in effect at the time of the determination (37 CFR 1.515(a)). Thus, the second or subsequent request must be directed to the claims of the patent, as modified by any disclaimer, or by any reexamination certificate that has issued as of the time of the determination. If a “different” substantial new question of patentability is not provided by the second or subsequent request for the claims in effect at the time of the determination, the second or subsequent request for reexamination must be denied since the Office is only authorized by statute to grant a reexamination proceeding based on a substantial new question of patentability “affecting any claim of the patent.” See 35 U.S.C. 303. Accordingly, there must be at least one substantial new question of patentability established for the existing claims in the patent in order to grant reexamination.
Once the second or subsequent request has provided a “different” substantial new question of patentability based on the claims in effect at the time of the determination, the second or subsequent request for reexamination may also provide information directed to any proposed new or amended claim in the pending reexamination, to permit examination of the entire patent package. The information directed to a proposed new or amended claim in the pending reexamination is addressed during the later filed reexamination (where a substantial new question is raised in the later reexamination for the existing claims in the patent), in order to permit examination of the entire patent package. When a proper basis for the subsequent reexamination is established, it would be a waste of resources to prevent addressing the proposed new or amended claims, by requiring parties to wait until the certificate issues for the proposed new or amended claims, and only then to file a new reexamination request challenging the claims as revised via the certificate. This also prevents a patent owner from simply amending all the claims in some nominal fashion to preclude a subsequent reexamination request during the pendency of the reexamination proceeding.
II. POLICY IN SPECIFIC SITUATIONS
In order to further clarify the meaning of “a substantial new question of patentability” certain situations are outlined below which, if present, should be considered when making a decision as to whether or not “a substantial new question of patentability” is present. Any issues involving 35 U.S.C. 325(d) raised in the request must be referred to the examiner's SPRS or the director of the CRU. Any questions from the public regarding procedures in regard to issues involving 35 U.S.C. 325(d) should be referred to the Office of Patent Legal Administration (OPLA).
A. Prior Favorable Decisions by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Office) on the Same or Substantially Identical Prior Art in Relation to the Same Patent
A “substantial new question of patentability” is not raised by prior art presented in a reexamination request if the Office has previously considered (in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent) the same question of patentability as to a patent claim favorable to the patent owner based on the same prior art patents or printed publications. In re Recreative Technologies, 83 F.3d 1394, 38 USPQ2d 1776 (Fed. Cir. 1996).
In deciding whether to grant a request for reexamination of a patent, the examiner should check the patent’s file history to ascertain whether any of the prior art now advanced by requester was previously cited/considered in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent or has been raised to or by the Office in a pending reexamination or supplemental examination of the patent. For the sake of expediency, such art is referred to as “old art” throughout, since the term “old art” was coined by the Federal Circuit in its decision of In re Hiniker, 150 F.3d 1362,1365-66, 47 USPQ2d 1523, 1526 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
In a decision to order reexamination made on or after November 2, 2002, reliance on old art does not necessarily preclude the existence of a substantial new question of patentability that is based exclusively on that old art. See Public Law 107-273, 116 Stat. 1758, 1899-1906 (2002), which expanded the scope of what qualifies for a substantial new question of patentability upon which a reexamination may be based. Determinations on whether a substantial new question of patentability exists in such an instance shall be based upon a fact-specific inquiry done on a case-by-case basis. For example, a substantial new question of patentability may be based solely on old art where the old art is being presented/viewed in a new light, or in a different way, as compared with its use in the earlier examination(s), in view of a material new argument or interpretation presented in the request. Such material new argument or interpretation may be based solely on claim scope of the patent being reexamined.
When it is determined that a substantial new question of patentability based solely on old art is raised, form paragraph 22.01.01 should be included in the order for reexamination.
¶ 22.01.01 Criteria for Applying "Old Art" as Sole Basis for Reexamination
The above [1] is based solely on patents and/or printed publications already cited/considered in an earlier concluded examination or review of the patent being reexamined, or has been raised to or by the Office in a pending reexamination or supplemental examination of the patent. On November 2, 2002, Public Law 107-273 was enacted. Title III, Subtitle A, Section 13105, part (a) of the Act revised the reexamination statute by adding the following new last sentence to 35 U.S.C. 303(a) and 312(a):
"The existence of a substantial new question of patentability is not precluded by the fact that a patent or printed publication was previously cited by or to the Office or considered by the Office."
For any reexamination ordered on or after November 2, 2002, the effective date of the statutory revision, reliance on previously cited/considered art, i.e., “old art,” does not necessarily preclude the existence of a substantial new question of patentability (SNQ) that is based exclusively on that old art. Rather, determinations on whether a SNQ exists in such an instance shall be based upon a fact-specific inquiry done on a case-by-case basis.
In the present instance, there exists a SNQ based solely on [2]. A discussion of the specifics now follows:
Examiner Note:
1. In bracket 1, insert "substantial new question of patentability" if the present form paragraph is used in an order granting reexamination (or a TC or CRU Director’s decision on petition of the denial of reexamination). If this form paragraph is used in an Office action, insert "ground of rejection."
2. In bracket 2, insert the old art that is being applied as the sole basis of the SNQ. For example, "the patent to J. Doe" or "the patent to J. Doe when taken with the Jones publication" or "the combination of the patent to J. Doe and the Smith publication" could be inserted. Where more than one SNQ is presented based solely on old art, the examiner would insert all such bases for SNQ.
3. In bracket 3, for each basis identified in bracket 2, explain how and why that fact situation applies in the proceeding being acted on. The explanation could be for example that the old art is being presented/viewed in a new light, or in a different way, as compared with its use in the earlier examination(s), in view of a material new argument or interpretation presented in the request. See Ex parte Chicago Rawhide Mfg. Co., 223 USPQ 351 (Bd. Pat. App. & Inter. 1984).
4. This form paragraph is only used the first time the "already cited/considered" art is applied, and is not repeated for the same art in subsequent Office actions.
See MPEP § 2258.01 for a discussion of the use of “old art” in the examination stage of an ordered reexamination (as a basis for rejecting the patent claims).
B. Prior Adverse Decisions by the Office on the Same or Substantially Identical Prior Art in the Same Patent
A prior decision adverse to the patentability of a claim of a patent by the Office based upon prior art patents or printed publications would usually mean that “a substantially new question of patentability” is present. Such an adverse decision by the Office could, for example, arise from a reissue application which was abandoned after rejection of the claim and without disclaiming the patent claim.
C. Prior Adverse Reissue Application Final Decision by the Director of the USPTO or the Board Based Upon Grounds Other Than Patents or Printed Publications
Any prior adverse final decision by the Director of the USPTO or the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board), on an application seeking to reissue the same patent on which reexamination is requested will be considered by the examiner when determining whether or not a “substantial new question of patentability” is present. However, to the extent that such prior adverse final decision was based upon grounds other than patents or printed publications, the prior adverse final decision will not be a basis for determining whether or not a “substantial new question of patentability” is present.
D. Prior Favorable or Adverse Decisions on the Same or Substantially Identical Prior Art Patents or Printed Publications in Other Cases not Involving the Patent
While the Office would consider decisions involving substantially identical patents or printed publications in determining whether a “substantial new question of patentability” is raised, the weight to be given such decisions will depend upon the circumstances.
III. POLICY WHERE A FEDERAL COURT DECISION HAS BEEN ISSUED ON THE PATENT
A. Final Holding of Validity by the Courts
When the initial question as to whether the prior art raises a substantial new question of patentability as to a patent claim is under consideration, the existence of a final court decision of claim validity in view of the same or different prior art does not necessarily mean that no new question is present, because of the different standards of proof employed by the federal district courts and the Office. While the Office may accord deference to factual findings made by the district court, the determination of whether a substantial new question of patentability exists will be made independently of the court’s decision on validity, because it is not controlling on the Office. See In re Swanson et al., 540 F.3d 1368, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2008), where the Federal Circuit approved of the Office’s interpretation in MPEP § 2242. See also In re Baxter International Inc., 678 F.3d 1357, 102 USPQ2d 1925 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (patent reexamination should take notice of a court decision but the Office need not come to the same conclusion as the court).
B. Nonfinal Holding of Invalidity or Unenforceability by the Courts
A nonfinal holding of claim invalidity or unenforceability will not be controlling on the question of whether a substantial new question of patentability is present.
C. Final Holding of Invalidity or Unenforceability by the Courts
A final holding of claim invalidity or unenforceability, after all appeals, is controlling on the Office. In such cases, a substantial new question of patentability would not be present as to the claims finally held invalid or unenforceable.
As to subsections A, B, and C above, see Ethicon v.Quigg, 849 F.2d 1422, 7 USPQ2d 1152 (Fed. Cir. 1988).
Any situations requiring clarification should be brought to the attention of the Office of Patent Legal Administration.
2201-Introduction
2202-Citation of Prior Art and Written Statements
2203-Persons Who May Cite Prior Art or Written Statements
2204-Time for Filing Prior Art or Section 301 Written Statements
2205-Content of Prior Art or Section 301 Written Statements
2206-Submission and Handling of Prior Art or Section 301 Written Statements
2207-Entry of Court Decision in Patent File
2208-Service of Prior Art or Section 301 Written Statements on Patent Owner
2209-Ex Parte Reexamination
2210-Request for Ex Parte Reexamination under 35 U.S.C. 302
2211-Time for Requesting Ex Parte Reexamination under 35 U.S.C. 302
2212-Persons Who May File a Request for Ex Parte Reexamination under 35 U.S.C. 302
2212.01-Inquiries from Persons Other Than the Patent Owner
2213-Representative of Requester
2214-Content of Request for Ex Parte Reexamination Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2215-Fee for Requesting Ex Parte Reexamination under 35 U.S.C. 302
2216-Substantial New Question of Patentability
2217-Statement Applying Prior Art in a Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2218-Copies of Prior Art
2219-Copy of Printed Patent
2220-Certificate of Service
2221-Amendments Included in Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302 by Patent Owner
2222-Address of Patent Owner
2223-Withdrawal of Attorney or Agent
2224-Correspondence
2225-Untimely Paper Filed Prior to Order under 35 U.S.C. 304
2226-Initial Processing of Request for Ex Parte Reexamination Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2227-Incomplete Request for Ex Parte Reexamination Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2228-[Reserved]
2229-Notice of Request under 35 U.S.C. 302 for Ex Parte Reexamination in Official Gazette
2230-Constructive Notice to Patent Owner
2231-Processing of Request Corrections
2232-Public Access to Reexaminations Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2232.01-Determining if a Reexamination Request Was Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302 for a Patent
2233-Processing in Central Reexamination Unit and Technology Center
2234-Entry of Amendments
2235-Record Systems
2236-Assignment of Reexamination
2237-Transfer Procedure
2238-Time Reporting
2239-Reexamination Ordered at the Director’s Initiative
2240-Decision on Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2241-Time for Deciding Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2242-Criteria for Deciding Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2243-Claims Considered in Deciding Request Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2244-Prior Art on Which the Determination Is Based in Requests Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2245-Processing of Decision
2246-Decision Ordering Reexamination under 35 U.S.C. 304
2247-Decision under 35 U.S.C. 303 on Request for Reexamination filed Under 35 U.S.C. 302, Request Denied
2247.01-Examples of Decisions on Request for Reexamination
2248-Petition From Denial of Request Filed Under 35 U.S.C. 302
2249-Patent Owner’s Statement in Reexaminations Filed Under 35 U.S.C. 302
2250-Amendment by Patent Owner
2250.01-Correction of Patent Drawings
2250.02-Correction of Inventorship
2250.03-Fees for Adding Claims and for Filing a Petition
2251-Reply by Third Party Requester
2252-Consideration of Statement and Reply
2253-Consideration by Examiner
2254-Conduct of Ex Parte Reexamination Proceedings
2255-Who Reexamines
2256-Prior Art Patents and Printed Publications Reviewed by Examiner in Reexamination
2257-Listing of Prior Art
2258-Scope of Ex Parte Reexamination
2258.01-Use of Previously Cited/Considered Art in Rejections
2258.02-Claiming Foreign Priority and Domestic Benefit in Reexamination
2259-Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel in Reexamination Proceedings
2260-Office Actions
2260.01-Dependent Claims
2261-Special Status for Action
2262-Form and Content of Office Action
2263-Time for Response
2264-Mailing of Office Action
2265-Extension of Time
2266-Responses
2266.01-Submission Not Fully Responsive to Non-Final Office Action
2266.02-Examiner Issues Notice of Defective Paper in Ex Parte Reexamination
2266.03-Service of Papers
2267-Handling of Inappropriate or Untimely Filed Papers
2268-Petition for Entry of Late Papers for Revival of Reexamination Proceeding
2269-Reconsideration
2270-Clerical Handling
2271-Final Action
2271.01-Panel Review
2272-After Final Practice
2273-Appeal in Ex Parte Reexamination
2274-Appeal Brief
2275-Examiner’s Answer
2276-Oral Hearing
2277-Board Decision
2278-Action Following Decision
2279-Appeal to Courts
2280-Information Material to Patentability in Reexamination Proceeding Filed under 35 U.S.C. 302
2281-Interviews in Ex Parte Reexamination Proceedings
2282-Notification of Existence of Prior or Concurrent Proceedings and Decisions Thereon
2283-Multiple Copending Ex Parte Reexamination Proceedings
2284-Copending Ex Parte Reexamination and Interference Proceedings
2285-Copending Ex Parte Reexamination and Reissue Proceedings
2286-Ex Parte Reexamination and Litigation Proceedings
2286.01-Reexamination and Inter Partes Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review, and Covered Business Method Patent Review
2287-Conclusion of Ex Parte Reexamination Proceeding
2287.01-Examiner Consideration of Submissions After a NIRC
2288-Issuance of Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate
2289-Reexamination Review
2290-Format of Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate
2291-Notice of Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate Issuance in Official Gazette
2292-Distribution of Certificate
2293-Intervening Rights
2294-Concluded Reexamination Proceedings
2295-Reexamination of a Reexamination
2296-USPTO Forms To Be Used In Ex Parte Reexamination
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Home : College News : February 2013 : Ex-Professional Players' Tips For Young Hopefuls
Students were presented with a signed QPR shirt by ex-professional footballers Kevin Gallen (red hood, right) and Tony McCool (red hood, left). Ex-professional footballers Kevin Gallen and Tony McCool shared their expertise with young footballers at Uxbridge College.Striker Kevin played for QPR in the 1990s, scoring almost 100 goals for the club, making him the sixth highest goal-scorer in the
Students were presented with a signed QPR shirt by ex-professional footballers Kevin Gallen (red hood, right) and Tony McCool (red hood, left). Ex-professional footballers Kevin Gallen and Tony McCool shared their expertise with young footballers at Uxbridge College.
Striker Kevin played for QPR in the 1990s, scoring almost 100 goals for the club, making him the sixth highest goal-scorer in the club’s history. He now works for and owns 2 Touch Football Ltd and is a scout for Crystal Palace, having previously worked in the QPR Academy.
Tony coached for Luton Town FC for over 8 years at all levels where he met Kevin. He has also owned several sports technology companies working with many of Europe’s top football clubs and managers. He currently works for Queens Park Rangers as the U14’s Academy Coach.
The pair spoke to an audience of students from Uxbridge College Football Academy, which provides specialist coaching to student players. Members of the academy also play in the English Colleges league.
They also presented a signed QPR shirt to the group, and Stephen McCarthy from QPR in the Community Trust later handed a second shirt to College Principal Laraine Smith. One featured last season’s team and the other this year’s.
The visit was set up by QPR in the Community Trust, which Uxbridge College works with to provide football training and development opportunities.
Stephen McCarthy from QPR Community Trust said: “This was a great opportunity for the players and students who are part of the College football team to gain some information from ex-professional football players, and experienced football coaches. The students got a unique insight into the dedication it takes to become a professional within the sports industry.”
Dan Lloyd, Head of Sport at Uxbridge College, said: “Having two former professional players and current coaches of this level provided a great experience for our academy players. They were able to hear first hand what it takes to progress not just in the game of football but in life as well. This was a great example of the benefits of having an academy link with QPR Football Club.”
Students got a chance to talk with the visitors on subjects including how to get a break in professional football, the psychology of the game, dealing with injury, and coping with rejection.
The advice was to play the best that they can as often as they could because there were always scouts around, to maintain a respectful attitude to colleagues, and never to think about losing.
Kevin and Tony also run 2 Touch Football, which runs and hosts a number of services to help develop players all the way from aged 6 to 18 years, and talked about their work with the company.
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Office of Will County Executive
Lawrence M. Walsh
Anastasia Tuskey,
Phone: 815-530-2372; Fax: 815-774-3671
Will County hires Facility Management Director
Addition of new county buildings and planned renovations spark need for new position
A 20-year veteran of the United States Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps has joined Will County as its new Facility Management Director. The new position is responsible for the numerous buildings that are part of the county-wide operations.
Will County Executive Larry Walsh announced the addition of Joel Van Essen, 46, to his staff. Van Essen brings more than 20 years of experience in facility maintenance and project management.
“We are proud to have Joel on our staff to oversee county buildings such as the new state of the art Public Safety Complex, which will be opening soon, and the future courthouse that will soon begin construction,” Walsh said. “This is an exciting time for Will County as we are in the midst of the largest capital campaign in our history. Having Joel on board to oversee the day to day operations of these new and our existing building is a great asset for the county.”
While serving in the U.S. Navy, Van Essen managed naval facilities at various bases around the country and completed two Seabee tours overseas. He also served two tours in Afghanistan where he advised Afghans officials such as the Mayor of Kabul and the Governor of Ghazni Province in facility management and oversaw construction of important civic/security facilities and infrastructure. He will be able to employ the skills he learned while serving in the Navy to this new position. Most recently, Van Essen served as project manager for the University of Chicago Medicine’s $200 million cancer center renovation.
“I learned how to develop a comprehensive program which gave a total picture of all assets and planning while in the Navy,” Van Essen said. “The skills of proper programming and cost management can be applied in my position with Will County as well. My goal is to create unity amongst the various county buildings and focus on efficient operations.”
Currently, Van Essen is preparing to relocate the Sheriff’s operations from several buildings into the new Public Safety Complex, which is projected to open at the end of 2017. He is working to establish contracts for the day to day operations of the building including janitorial services as well as grounds and elevator maintenance.
“Once the building is finished, there is still work to be done to prepare for staff to move in,” he said. “It is a big coordination effort to ensure when the doors open all the phones and computers are working, the lights are on, the parking lot is safe and accessible. We are fortunate in Will County to have many dedicated individuals working towards this goal.”
In addition to the new courthouse, Van Essen is working with health department officials on programming needs for its new building.
“This will be another large project for Will County,” he said. “The current building was built in the 1920s and has far outlived its purpose. We need a new, efficient health department building to deliver the important health services the residents of our county need and deserve. This is a big job, but I am up for challenge.”
Van Essen currently lives in Orland Park with his wife and two sons.
van essen joins staff 8-28-17
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The truth about the North Korean space launch
By Brian Weeden
Last week, North Korea finally managed to put an object into orbit around the Earth after 14 years of trying. The event was greeted with hysterical headlines, about how the whole thing was a likely a missile test and most certainly a failure of Western intelligence. Most of those headlines were completely wrong.
There are many questions yet to be answered about this launch and what it means. Some of them will take weeks or months to determine, others may never be answered satisfactorily. But there's enough information already in the public domain to answer basic questions about the launch. News flash: most of the initial reports about it were total misfires.
Was This a Ballistic Missile Test or a Satellite Launch?
Some of the same technologies are needed for long-range missiles and for space launches -- most notably rocket motors, high strength-to-weight fuselages, and guidance software. But they're not the same thing. All evidence points to a satellite launch, despite headlines like these.
The goal of a space launch vehicle is to insert payloads into orbit and to do so they must perform two functions. They must first lift a payload to a desired altitude above the Earth and then give that payload enough forward speed to remain in orbit at that altitude. The final speed required for this is determined by the altitude and pull of the Earth's gravity. With enough speed, the payload moves forward equal to the distance it is pulled towards the Earth by gravity. It moves in an ellipse around the Earth, continually falling towards the Earth but missing ("free fall").
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Ballistic missiles, on the other hand, have a different goal.
Their objective is to deliver a payload to another spot on the Earth. To do so, they need to accelerate the payload to a very high speed, although significantly slower than the space launch vehicle, and after separation from the rocket, the ballistic missile's payload follows an elliptical path through space similar to a satellite. However, the ballistic payload is not in orbit -- part of its elliptical path is inside the Earth's atmosphere. The payload coasts along its elliptical path and instead of "free-falling" around the planet, it re-enters the atmosphere and impacts a spot on the surface of the Earth.
From a practical perspective, these different goals result in significant differences in the flight profile of a space launch versus a ballistic missile launch. Look at the illustration of the North Korean launch compiled by Dr David Wright. The green trajectory in this illustration is for a ballistic missile trajectory while the red and yellow trajectory is for a space launch trajectory. The most striking difference is in the altitude -- a long-range ballistic missile actually goes much higher into space than a typical space launch into low-Earth orbit (LEO), sometimes as high as 1,500 kilometres.
Within these parameters, the North Korean rocket launch was most certainly a space launch and not a ballistic missile test. This can be verified by multiple sources before, during and after the launch. Prior to the launch, North Korea notified international agencies of the splashdown zones for the first two stages and the payload shroud, as is standard practice. These splashdown zones corresponded to a space launch trajectory, indicating beforehand that the North Koreans planned to try and place a satellite into orbit. During the launch, heat from the rocket was picked up by constellations of US military infrared satellites in orbit. Tracking of the burn phase of the launch by those satellites allows the US to verify that it was on a space launch trajectory. After the launch, remnants of the first stage were recovered in the pre-announced splash zone by the South Korean Navy.
Was the Test Illegal Under International Law?
The most like answer is yes, but it is not likely enforceable. Although all countries do have the right to pursue peaceful exploration and use of outer space, that right is subject to international law. The United Nations Security Council has adopted two resolutions -- 1718 and 1874 -- demanding the North Korea refrain from further launches using ballistic missile activity. And those resolutions are binding under international law on countries that are members of the UN. What's less clear is whether the international community has the tools to enforce these UNSC resolutions.
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UNSC Resolution 1718, adopted on 14 October 2006, levied sanctions on North Korea as a result of their test of a nuclear weapon earlier that month. Contained within the text of the resolution is a demand that North Korea cease testing and development of its ballistic missile programme. UNSC Resolution 1874, adopted on 12 June 2009, implemented further sanctions on North Korea after their second test of a nuclear weapon in May 2009. It repeats many of the same prohibitions as Resolution 1718, including a demand that North Korea not conduct any launch using ballistic missile technology.
North Korea's position is that it is simply exercising its rights to peaceful exploration and use of outer space in accordance with the rights given to all nations under Article I the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to which it is a Party. However, the actual text of the Article is as follows:
Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies
The important piece is the phrase "in accordance with international law." UNSC Resolutions are considered binding international law on countries that are members of the UN. That includes North Korea.
However, whether or not the launch was illegal is only part of the issue. The real crux is what can or will be done about it.
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North Korea is gambling that the punishment for violating international law is further sanctions, which it has shown it can withstand or manipulate to some degree. It is possible that the UNSC could authorise stronger measures, including direct military action by the United States or other countries, in additional UNSC resolutions. North Korea is betting that the gun it has pointed at South Korea's head, along with the existing commitments of the American military in Afghanistan and elsewhere, will deter a military response.
Did the North Koreans Catch Everyone Napping?
That's what you'd believe if you read reports like these. It's what you'd think if you learned that key Asian policy members of the Obama Administration were in the middle of a cocktail reception at the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Washington, DC, when the launch occurred. But the fact that the North Koreans were preparing to launch a rocket was of no surprise to anyone. It's only the specifics of the timing that may have caught some a little flat-footed. It's highly unlikely that people at the top levels of the US government and its key allies were surprised.
That's because the launch window was fairly long, between 7am and noon local Korean time each day from 10 December to 22 December. This launch window is driven by the orbit that the satellite needs to be placed into. A satellite orbit is fixed in space relative to the Earth and so you need to wait until the Earth rotates under the desired orbital plane before you can launch. The length of the window each day is based on the desired precision of the final orbit, the performance of the booster, the weight of the payload, and a number of other factors.
There is evidence that North Korea attempted a disinformation campaign that may have played a role in generating surprise. On 8 December, US intelligence satellites spotted a train carrying rocket components en route from a missile plant to the launch pad. On 9 December, North Korea stated that it had discovered a problem with the rocket and it was delaying the launch and extending the window by nearly a week. The next day, the South Korean government stated that there was "no sign" of an imminent launch and another report stated that the rocket had been removed from the pad. That last statement was provably false at the time -- analysis of imagery from commercial remote sensing satellites showed the rocket was still on the pad. However, the same imagery also indicated possible maintenance work on the rocket, leading to an assessment from a former US intelligence analyst that a launch was at least a week out.
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To take advantage of this disinformation campaign, it also appears that North Korea timed the launch to correspond to a significant gap in coverage of the launch site by imaging satellites. An analysis done by Marco Langbroek, a Dutch hobbyist satellite observer, shows that the launch occurred at the end of a one-hour gap with no coverage by any known American intelligence, Japanese intelligence, or commercial imaging satellites in LEO. Other portions of the launch window had at most fifteen minutes between satellite overflights. This is backed up by a quote from an unnamed US official, who said they relied too much on overhead satellite imagery for their warnings about the launch.
Despite this, it is doubtful that the disinformation campaign was effective on everyone. As anyone in the imagery analysis field can tell you, LEO imagery satellites have their limitations. They exist in limited numbers, travel in predictable orbits, can only observe what's directly underneath them, and have a revisit time measured in many hours to days. It is relatively simple to either cease activities when they come overhead, or in some cases, to actually create a false situation on the ground for them to capture.
However, these are not the only tools governments like the United States have at their disposal. While satellites in LEO only have limited viewing windows, satellites in other orbits can stare at specific locations for extended periods. Satellites in highly elliptical Earth orbits (HEO), often called Molniya after the Soviet satellites that were the first to widely use them, can hang over a specific part of the Earth for hours at a time as shown in illustration above. Three satellites spaced out in the same orbit can monitor a region continuously, with two in the upper part of the orbit on either side of apogee (red dot number 6 in gallery pic) and one in the lower part of the orbit swinging through perigee (red dot number 0 in gallery pic).
The US has at least two infrared sensors in HEO orbits as part of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Open source information indicates that they are hosted on two classified satellites, USA 184 and USA 200. The same satellites are also believed to carry a signals intelligence payload that can collect electromagnetic emissions. Observations from amateur satellite observers indicate that their orbits "hang" over Asia, indicating that they likely could have been used to monitor the launch site and observe the launch. An image seen below and right, released by the US military, is of one of the SBIRS payloads in HEO tracking a missile launch.
In addition to the SBIRS payloads in HEO, the US has a number of satellites in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), orbiting 36,00 kilometres (about 22,000 miles) above the Equator that likely provided critical data on the North Korean launch. These satellites orbit around the Earth at the same rate the Earth rotates, giving the impression that they are "fixed" relative to a particular spot on the Earth. In the case of the North Korean launch, the US satellites in GEO collection signals intelligence and electronic intelligence could have monitored the launch site for preparations and the infrared warning satellites would have detected the launch.
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The important issue in the case of North Korea is that very few people have access to the information from these satellites. They are considered critical to US national security and their very existence is highly classified, along with any intelligence products created from the data they collect. Additionally, they are often stovepiped into different sets of indicators with little integration between different sources, leading to the possibility of conflicting conclusions. These factors likely worked in the North Koreans' favour. Very few within the US government, and no one outside the US government with the possible exception of close allies, would have had access to the intelligence from these satellites. Most governments would have to rely on either declassified or sanitised intelligence or their own intelligence sources, and outside observers had to rely on the handful of commercial imaging satellites for information. It is this last group, along with lower-level government officials, that fell victim to the North Korean disinformation campaign, and the reliance on the media for quotes and information from these sources created the impression that the North Koreans had fooled everyone.
Within the US government, top national security officials likely had access to data sources that were unaffected by North Korean disinformation. However, it is possible that different intelligence sources could have been driven conflicting conclusions, leading to disagreement over what the reality was. This may have played a role in catching some within the US government off guard.
What did the North Koreans Put into Orbit?
A satellite, primarily. Plus a third-stage rocket body and two small pieces of debris.
Shortly after the launch, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) stated that it had US missile warning systems had detected a launch and that the rocket had apparently placed an "object" in orbit.
The objects from the launch were on a trajectory that took them south over the Philippines, Western Australia, and the South Pole, before coming back north again along the east coast of South America and flying over the North Pole. Along the way, it would have been spotted by several radars belonging to the US Space Surveillance Network. Likely candidates include the phased array radars at Cape Cod Air Force Station in Massachusetts, Thule Air Base in Greenland, and Royal Air Force Fylingdales in the UK, along with the mechanical tracking and imaging radars at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory.
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By 9:18pm EST, less than three hours after launch, orbital analysts working in the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) were able to use the tracking from these sensors to catalogue the objects from the launch. Shortly thereafter, two-line elements (TLEs) with the orbital parameters for these objects were published by the US military on the Space Track website and echoed elsewhere, such as the detailed charts here.
For the most part, the North Korean launch is similar to many other satellite launches. In most launches, after the first two (or sometimes three) rocket stages finish burning and fall back to Earth, the upper stage continues to burn and provide the final push to place the payload in its planned orbit. It then separates from the payload and often remains in orbit itself for significant periods of time. It is also fairly standard for there to be a few small pieces of debris in orbit as well.
What might these objects look like? Prior to the April 2012 launch attempt, North Korea showed reporters the satellite that it claimed was being launched into space at that time. Although there were some doubts as to whether what was shown was the actual satellite or a model, the size, shape, and outward appearance of the satellite corresponded to the function given by North Korea of a crude Earth-observing satellite.
A detailed analysis of the satellite based on photos taken by reporters in April 2012 can be found here. It is roughly rectangular, measuring 0.75 metres squares by 1.1 metres tall and weighing about 100 kg. On the top of the satellite as shown in the images are four low-bandwidth UHF antennas likely used for telemetry and command and control of the satellite. They could also be used to transmit music. The silver tower sticking up is likely a GPS receiver that enables the satellite to calculate its position and velocity in orbit, and the solar panels on the sides appear to be hinged, suggesting they may swing out on orbit.
The gold tube pointing up in the closeup photo is a 10 centimetre (4 inch) wide video camera covered by a black lens cap, estimated to provide imagery of around 100 meters resolution. The gold tube on its side is either a Sun or Earth sensor that enables it to determine its attitude and point sensors at the Earth. Behind the camera is the squat metal tube for the X-Band antenna that has the bandwidth needed to send any imagery taken by the satellite to the ground. None of this gear is very sophisticated and similar or more advanced components are commercially available over the Internet or being built and flown by universities around the world.
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There is no way to confirm if the satellite placed in orbit by North Korea is the same as what was shown to reporters in April.
However, the data being collected so far indicates that the satellite in orbit is at least the same general size and shape and the orbit is consistent with an Earth-observing mission. While the US military has yet to release information on the radar cross section (RCS) of any of these pieces which would provide a good estimate of their size, optical tracking done by amateur observers indicates that the satellite is much smaller than the rocket body.
Their observations of the size and shape of the object catalogued as the rocket body also correlate to the known size and dimensions of the third stage of the Unha-3.
That leaves only the mystery of the two small pieces of debris.
As mentioned earlier, it is common to have additional pieces of debris associated with the payload separation in orbit. In some cases, they can be straps or parts that were used to fasten the payload to the upper stage. In other cases they are weights on a rope that are used to de-spin the payload after separation or covers used to protect the small engines that separate the payload from the upper stage. After release of the payload, these motors are used to decelerate the rocket body slightly to separate it from the payload.
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The orbital data published by the US military supports the notion that the two pieces of debris are somehow related to separation. Their area-to-mass ratio, calculated from the drag information in the TLEs, indicates that they are small, lightweight, and very similar. They have nearly the same perigee as the rocket body, indicating that they separated at the same time as the payload. They appear to be spaced on either side of the rocket body, which analysts have noted is consistent with covers for the separation engines that were blown to the side so as not to impact the satellite.
The only apparent anomaly at this time is the relative orbits of the four objects. Usually the satellite is in the highest orbit, with the rocket body and other objects in slightly lower orbits. In the case of the North Korean launch, the rocket body and one of the pieces of debris are in slightly higher orbits than the payload.
This in and of itself does not indicate a significant problem, but there may be an aspect to the separation method used that played a role. The rocket body being in a higher orbit than the satellite did however led to some confusion by the orbital analysts at the JSpOC, who initially catalogued the satellite and rocket body backwards and had to swap element sets several hours after launch.
This mis-categorisation should not have happened. Given the relative sizes of the satellite and rocket body, it should have been easy to distinguish one from the other even if they were in an unusual configuration. As the objects were tracked by the various radars, the amount of radar energy returned over the course of the track would have varied with the size and any rotation of the objects. With minimal training, it is fairly easy to distinguish a large, rotating, oblong rocket body from a much smaller, nearly cube-shaped satellite using such information.
Is the North Korean Satellite Functional?
It doesn't look like it, no. Pyongyang promised that the satellite would start playing " The Song of General Kim Jong-Il." But so far, amateur observers haven't heard any transmissions from the satellite at all.
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The North Korean government also stated before the launch that the satellite was supposed to monitor forest resources, watch out for natural disasters, assist in food crop planting, and forecast the weather. These are all missions that a satellite like this one could pull off, theoretically. So we have to examine the spacecraft's flight path and transmissions to tell if it's really doing those jobs.
Earth observation satellites are usually placed in what are called sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). These are special LEO orbits that are designed to maintain the same angle between the Sun, satellite, and a spot on the ground by using the Earth's gravitational field to rotate the satellite's orbit around the Earth at the same rate the Earth rotates around the Sun. This allows for consistent lighting and overflight times for the places on the ground the satellite is observing, as well as consistent illumination of the satellite's solar panels. To accomplish this, the satellite needs to be placed into a precise inclination and matching altitude.
North Korea was successful in placing their satellite in a SSO orbit at an altitude of roughly 500 kilometres (310 miles) and an inclination of 97.4 degrees. To do so, they needed to execute a fairly complex manoeuvre of the third stage. The inclination of a satellite's initial orbit is a function of the latitude of the launch site and the direction (azimuth) of the rocket. It is possible to directly launch into an inclination equal to or higher in value than the launch site latitude. So for example, a launch site at 28 degrees North can directly launch into any orbit of 28 degrees inclination or higher, while a launch site on the Equator can launch into any inclination.
Most countries also avoid flying their rockets over populated areas and other countries if they can help it. That can lead to further constraints on which direction the rocket can take, and thus which orbits you can access. In the case of North Korea, rocket launches from their original east coast launch site overflew Japan, creating a lot of political problems. So they moved to a new launch site on the west coast of North Korea that allows them to launch south, away from Japan.
However, the new west coast launch site still doesn't allow North Korea to launch directly into SSO. Doing so would require either overflying Taiwan or the Philippines. As amateur observer Bob Christy pointed out, North Korea solved this problem by launching the rocket in a direction that kept it away from other countries during the most dangerous part of the launch, and after separation of the second stage the third stage was turned before igniting. This led to a new trajectory that placed the satellite in the correct orbital inclination as shown in the illustration.
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This is sophisticated stuff from a country that's never had a successful space launch before. But it's not the only indicator of whether the North Korean satellite is working. Pyongyang stated before the launch that the satellite would be transmitting scientific data when orbiting over the DPRK and the hymns of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the rest of the time. Scientific data transmission involving images would take place over X-Band microwave radio frequencies and other transmissions would take place in the UHF band. Although it is known that North Korea has registered for an X-Band licence with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the precise frequency is not known. Moreover, such transmissions would only take place where there are ground stations that can receive the data. This presents a problem for North Korea, as the satellite is only over their territory for a short period of time. Most other countries solve this problem by either building their own ground stations all over the globe, such as the US military's Air Force Satellite Control Network, or by contracting with an existing network. Polar-orbiting satellites often make use of the extensive ground station operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services in Svalbard, Norway near the North Pole and McMurdo Station in Antarctica near the South Pole, since their satellites overfly one of these two areas roughly every 45 minutes.
We don't know if North Korea signed contracts with Kongsberg or made a deal with someone else for additional ground stations outside of North Korea. However, amateur satellite observers around the world have been listening to the satellite for any hints of music or other signals in the UHF. So far, their results have been negative.
Lacking any evidence of transmissions from the satellite, the final indication of whether or not it is functioning comes from its stability on orbit. Although some satellites are intended to rotate freely as they orbit around the Earth, many are increasingly designed to orient themselves in a certain direction and maintain that orientation. This can be done in a number of ways, from complex systems such as gyroscopes to simpler, passive methods such as gravity gradient booms. Gravity gradient booms are appendages sticking out of a satellite that use the Earth's gravity to orient a satellite towards the Earth.
Before the launch, North Korea stated that its satellite was designed to be 3-axis stabilised, meaning it would not have significant rotation in any of the three axes of movement relative to the Earth. This is common for Earth observing satellites to keep their cameras pointed at the Earth and away from the Sun. The satellite shown by North Korea to reporters in April also indicates it was meant to be 3-axis stabilised. The camera and most of the antennas are all on a single face of the satellite, presumably the one that was meant to be pointed at the Earth.
Shortly after launch, unnamed US officials were quoted in the media stating that the North Korean satellite was tumbling out of control, while South Korean officials reported that the satellite is orbiting normally. The phrase "tumbling out of control" was a poor choice of words, as it gave the impression that the satellite might somehow crash back to Earth or off into another satellite. That is not the case. Even if a satellite is spinning wildly, it is still moving along a predictable orbit. This is similar to the teacups-style amusement park rides where each individual car can rotate while still moving on a fixed path among the others.
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Optical observations of the satellite taken by amateur observers indicate that the North Korean satellite is tumbling, but not at an alarming rate. They report a regular flashing every few seconds, consistent with a tumbling object. The regularity indicates that it is about the same size in length, width, and height and the time between flashes indicates that it is not tumbling very fast. The flashes are likely the result of reflective surfaces, such as solar panels, catching the sunlight.
The tumbling indicates that either the satellite has malfunctioned or perhaps North Korea has not yet established control. However, it should be noted that tumbling at this stage does not definitively mean that the satellite is nonfunctional or will remain so. Some of the simpler techniques for stabilising a satellite, such as passive magnetic systems, require a bit of time to slowly stabilise the satellite. It could also be that the satellite is functional, but the tumbling is preventing ground controllers from communicating with the satellite.
The final bit of evidence that could indicate whether or not the satellite is functional is if it manoeuvres. An increasing number of satellites, even university-built cubesats, are being deployed with manoeuvring capability.
However, the satellite presented to journalists by North Korea in April showed no signs of any manoeuvring capabilities. Given its current orbit and estimated area to mass ratio, it is expected that all the North Korean space objects will re-enter the atmosphere within several years.
Do the North Korean Space Objects Pose a Threat?
Not right now, and maybe not ever. All four North Korean space objects are in normal, predictable orbits and are being tracked regularly by both the US military and amateur observers around the world.
For the moment, none of the North Korean space objects pose a collision threat to any other objects on orbit. They are all orbiting nearly a hundred kilometres above the International Space Station and well below the most crowded SSO region of 700 to 900 kilometres where many of the Earth observation satellites are. They are being included in the daily collision avoidance runs conducted by the Joint Space Operations Center and other satellite operators will be warned if one of the North Korean objects does pose a threat to another satellite.
In a few years when their orbits naturally decay enough to re-enter the atmosphere, the North Korean objects are not expected to present an unusual threat. The satellite and the two pieces of debris are small enough that they are unlikely to survive atmospheric re-entry in a significant manner. Sizeable pieces of the rocket body may survive and impact the ground, but the North Korean upper stage is significantly smaller than many of the other rocket bodies in orbit. In any case, the JSpOC will be monitoring their re-entry and providing warning to governments if they should potentially re-enter over populated areas and pose a threat.
Hundreds of space objects re-enter each year, and to date none has resulted in significant damage to people or property.
Bottom line: North Korea's space launch is likely illegal and provides Pyongyang with important know-how that they'll need for long-range missile launches. But in the short term, this one little (mostly) dead satellite isn't going to hurt anyone.
Brian Weeden is a former US Air Force officer and currently Technical Advisor to Secure World Foundation, a US-based non-profit that works on space policy issues.
Source: Wired.com
Cover image: Shutterstock
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No Deal Out Of 'Contentious' Shutdown Meeting At The White House
By Scott Detrow • Jan 4, 2019
President Trump, with (from left) Vice President Pence, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, addresses reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House about the government shutdown on Friday.
Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
Democratic congressional leaders speak to the media outside the White House on Friday. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (from left), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with President Trump about the shutdown.
Alex Edelman / AFP/Getty Images
Originally published on January 4, 2019 4:03 pm
President Trump and congressional leaders met at the White House on Friday in what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called a "lengthy and sometimes contentious" session and in which the president threatened to keep the government shut down for months or years.
And at the end, the two sides seemed no closer to resolving their standoff over funding a border wall that has forced a partial government shutdown now hitting the two-week mark, with the possibility of lasting much longer.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump said he would "keep the government closed for a very long period of time — months or even years."
Addressing reporters later, Trump confirmed his threat. "Absolutely I said that," adding, "I don't think it will" last that long, "but I'm prepared."
He also maintained that the two sides had a "very, very productive meeting" and that "I think we've come a long, long way."
Vice President Pence said he, White House adviser Jared Kushner and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would meet with congressional staffers over the weekend.
"This is national security," Trump said in a sometimes-rambling news conference in the Rose Garden on Friday. "We're not playing games — we have to do it."
Trump remains dug in on his refusal to sign any funding bill that does not include $5 billion for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats remain insistent they will not provide the votes to give him that funding.
The president threatened that he could use emergency powers to bypass Congress to build the wall. "We could call a national emergency and build it very quickly," Trump said, but added that "if we can do it through a negotiated process, that's better."
Trump ruled out reopening other parts of the government while the two sides negotiate over the wall, saying he didn't want to do it piecemeal.
He was asked about the impact of the shutdown on the 800,000 federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown. "This has a higher purpose than next week's pay," he said, adding that many of those affected "are the biggest fans" of his insistence on the wall.
Several Cabinet members and the vice president are scheduled to receive pay raises of up to $10,000 annually under previous legislation. Trump said he "may consider" asking his Cabinet to forgo those raises for now.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later issued a statement calling the issue "another unnecessary byproduct of the shutdown" and saying the administration is "exploring options to prevent this from being implemented while some federal workers are furloughed."
Pelosi said Friday, "We really cannot resolve this until we open up government, and we made that very clear to the president."
Democrats took control of the House of Representatives this week and elected Pelosi to a post she first held from 2007 to 2011. In one of the first acts of the new Congress, the House passed a short-term bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for about a month and a measure providing money for every other federal department or agency currently without funding through the rest of the fiscal year, which goes through September.
The Homeland Security bill does not include Trump's border wall demands. It passed on a 239-192 vote, with five House Republicans backing it. The broader bill passed 241-190, with seven GOP members voting for it.
Pelosi has framed the measures as a "Republican" solution to the impasse, because they mirror the spending bill the GOP-controlled Senate unanimously passed and sent to the House last month, before Trump reversed course and insisted that any funding bill include wall money. Trump has issued a veto threat for the two bills. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the Senate will not consider them, because he only wants to call a vote on a funding measure Trump would sign.
Friday's White House meeting included Pelosi and the rest of the so-called "Big 8": the top two leaders from all four House and Senate caucuses. Congressional leaders met with Trump on Wednesday, but also left with little sign of progress.
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Roger Turesson
In 1983 he became a staff photographer at Expressen and was based in USA 1988-91. He covered the fall of the Soviet Union and the development in Russia 1991-1994.
In 2002 Roger moved on to a freelance-career and was one of the founders of Moment Agency. He worked as a contributing photographer and also with workshops designated to develop photojournalism and picture editing in the tabloid format.
In 2007 he was appointed head of the photo department at Dagens Nyheter, and since 2010 he has worked as staff photographer at the same newspaper.
He has covered numerous world events, including the Gulf War, the conflicts in former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Gaza, Kashmir, Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon and Syria.
Throughout his career he has also worked on extensive photographic essays in his home community, documenting people in their daily lives.
Turesson is a three-time winner of Picture of the Year in Sweden and has also been the recipient of Photographer of the Year. In 2013 he won Storyteller of the year in the Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism, and in 2014 The Documentary Prize from Arbetets Museum, Sweden.
In 1997 he published ‘Monsun – Hongkong’, with Peter Kadhammar, and in 2007, ‘Dokument Stockholm’, with Jeppe Wikström.
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Dan Chung
Dan Chung’s career spans the disciplines of photojournalism and videography. Starting over two decades ago as a news photographer at a local newspaper, he later worked as a staff photojournalist at the Reuters news agency, and then at The Guardian. In 2006, Chan started shooting video on large broadcast cameras, but in 2008 he was quick to realize the potential of DSLRs and was the first person to shoot a news package on one. His early DSLR work, from events such as China’s 60th anniversary parade, gained millions of views.
Chan left The Guardian in 2013 to concentrate on video projects. His clients have included Oxfam, The British Council, CNN, NBC and Al Jazeera English, amongst others. In 2009 he started Newsshooter.com, a website devoted to the latest gadgets and techniques for the news and documentary shooter. Chan currently lives in China, and specializes in current affairs shooting for broadcast TV.
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‘Indonesia’s most important extremist ideologue’ faces death over church bombing
May 2, 2018 By World Watch Monitor Indonesia Aceh, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, JAD, Jakarta, Kalimantan, Samarinda, Terrorism, Trauma
Aman Abdurrahman said that what happened in Samarinda “violates what I believe about how to behave towards Christians”.
A Muslim cleric alleged to have inspired an attack on a church playground in Indonesia, in which one child was killed and three injured, has denied inciting hatred.
Aman Abdurrahman, 46, is facing a possible life sentence or even the death penalty for allegedly masterminding a series of bombings, including the one at Oikumene Church in Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan province, in November 2016.
He is alleged to have told his followers to kill “heathens” from prison, where he is already serving a nine-year sentence for funding a militant training camp in Aceh and plotting other attacks.
But Abdurrahman told the South Jakarta District Court: “My view of heathenism does not authorise bloodshed. Like in Samarinda, that violates what I believe about how to behave towards Christians.”
Meanwhile, he said he only learned about a 2016 suicide attack in Jakarta, in which eight people died, from other inmates who had seen the news on TV. “I didn’t instruct them to do it,” he said.
‘Started to move on’
Four-year-old Trinity still needs treatment for the burns she sustained. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
In September, five militants received prison sentences for their part in the Samarinda church attack.
The children who were injured are still undergoing treatment for the burns they sustained, and are also being given trauma care. Their families attended the court hearing last week and told World Watch Monitor it was a difficult experience because they had “started to move on”.
“All of us, at first, refused to attend the hearing as it will bring back the sad memories, but the Special Forces said it is important for us to testify,” said Marsyana Tiur, mother of five-year-old Alvaro, who was forced to undergo 17 operations in the first four months after the explosion.
“I am not concerned about the perpetrators or who is behind the attack anymore. What is important to me now is my child,” she added. “I told the judges about the amount of money we needed for Alvaro’s treatment. They advised me to keep all the receipts as they will try to propose to the government to sponsor the cost. I hope they will do it.”
The father of two-year-old Intan Banjarnahor, who died in the attack, also expressed concern that their testimonies would ignite further hatred among the families and supporters of the bombers.
‘He influenced thousands’
Indonesia church bomb attack victim Trinity, 5, healing well, father says
Aged four and scarred for life: the children who survived Indonesian church attack
Indonesia: Vote only for Muslims in 2018/19, say hardliners
Indonesia: ‘Saudi influence behind rise in Islamic extremism’, as churches continue to be closed
Indonesian schoolchildren ‘likely’ used notebooks containing IS propaganda
Abdurrahman told the court he had “never killed anyone”, but Sidney Jones, director of Jakarta-based think-tank Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, told Bernar News there is “no question that Aman Abdurrahman is Indonesia’s most important extremist ideologue, whose writings and sermons, disseminated online and over social media, influenced thousands”.
“The defendant is considered to be the most knowledgeable of Islamic State ideology [in Indonesia]” and was a helpful source for IS affiliated groups, another expert witness told the court, as reported by the Jakarta Post.
While in prison, Abdurrahman “pledged his allegiance to ISIS online and began translating the group’s propaganda into Indonesian in 2014”, according to the Singapore-based Straits Times. “He also amassed a following and some inmates went on to engage in terror activities after their release. In 2015, more than 20 Indonesian terrorist factions united behind Abdurrahman to support ISIS, giving birth to JAD [Jamaah Anshar Daulah, a local IS-affiliated group], which he directed from his prison cell.”
As the alleged founder of JAD, the US government has put him on a list of “global terrorists”.
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New York honors victims
By - The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 11, 2002
NEW YORK America paused today to remember the unforgettable with the tolling of bells, with recitations of the names of the dead, and above all, with silence.
The stillness started in New York, with a moment of silence at ground zero, the massive hole where the World Trade Center once stood, until terrorist-guided jetliners cut through a crystal blue sky a year ago and obliterated its towers. The 2,801 names on the city's list of the dead were read, one by one. On a gusty day, their loved ones cried and dropped roses in a "circle of honor."
"They were our neighbors, our husbands, our children, our sisters, our brothers and our wives. They were our countrymen and our friends. They were us," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gov. George Pataki followed the moment of silence with a reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. And then Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor who guided the city with quiet strength in the days after last September 11, began the reading of the names.
"Gordon M. Aamoth Jr.," he intoned. "Edelmiro Abad. Maria Rose Abad. Andrew Anthony Abate …"
The time was 8:46 a.m. EDT, the instant when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the gargantuan complex.
To the mournful tones of a string quartet, family members of the dead and notables such as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Colin Powell and actor Robert De Niro picked up the list where Mr. Giuliani left off.
At 9:03 a.m., the moment the second tower was struck, the ringing of a bell interrupted the recitation of names. The city's church bells tolled to mark the moment when the second tower fell. The reading of the names ended at 11:20 a.m.; a bugler played taps.
A cascade of memorial events marked a moment whose echoes still resound from New York to Afghanistan, and everywhere in between a moment that even a year later left many transfixed by the horror, burdened by sadness, plagued by fears.
The moment of the first attack was commemorated around the globe, starting in New Zealand, with the first line of the Requiem that Mozart wrote in his dying days.
"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis," sang the Orlando Singers Chamber Choir at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Rumuera: "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them."
Choirs in 20 time zones around the world were to sing those words, each of them beginning at 8:46 a.m., local time.
In Australia, 3,000 people in red-white-and-blue clothes assembled on a beach to make a human flag. In Paris, two powerful beams of light were projected into the sky.
A special Mass for firefighters was held at a Rome basilica, and Pope John Paul II dedicated his weekly audience to the attacks. "No situation of hurt, no philosophy or religion can ever justify such a grave offense on human life and dignity," he said.
While the focus in America was on the places that suffered the most, ceremonies marking September 11 prayer, the tolling of bells, candlelight vigils, releases of doves and balloons, riderless horses, flags at half-staff were everywhere.
On the sprawling statehouse lawn in Columbus, Ohio, 2,999 American flags and one Ohio flag were arranged to depict the twin towers. In San Francisco's Washington Square, more than 3,000 flags flew, including those of 14 other countries whose citizens were among the victims.
At Boston's Logan International Airport, where the two planes that struck the trade center took off, all ground operations stopped at 8:46 a.m.
At the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno, Nev., dealers held their cards and security guards stood silent, their hands folded. Cocktail servers paused, drinks on their trays.
At Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played on a steel guitar and Connie Smith sang "Amazing Grace" after a moment of silence and a color guard presentation by police officers and firefighters.
In Phoenix, 100 people joined hands before sunrise and stood near a downtown intersection, facing east. They listened on a cell phone to New Yorkers singing "God Bless America."
In Montgomery, Ala., at E.D. Nixon Elementary School, sixth-graders and their teachers baked cookies to bring to their local firefighters. It was their idea, said principal Terese Goodson: "They just wanted to do something."
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Islamic extremists invade U.S., join sleeper cells
By - The Washington Times - Monday, February 9, 2004
Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to “sleeper cells” in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.
A high-ranking foreign intelligence chief told The Washington Times in an interview last week that this clandestine but aggressive network of training camps “represents a serious threat to the United States, one that cannot be ignored.” The official said as many as 400 terrorists have been and are being trained at camps in Pakistan and Kashmir.
U.S. intelligence officials said the camps, located in the remote regions of western Pakistan and in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, are financed in part by various terrorist networks, including al Qaeda, and by sources in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistani Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi denied in an interview that terrorist camps are operating in his country, including the remote regions of western Pakistan or in Kashmir.
“We have never accepted the allegation that there were training camps here, not now, not ever,” Mr. Qazi told The Times. “These allegations have persisted despite our repeated denials. I assure you there is absolutely no reason to believe that any terrorist camps exist in Pakistan or Kashmir.”
Al Qaeda sleeper cells are believed to be operating in 40 states, according to the FBI and other federal authorities, awaiting orders and funding for new attacks in the United States. Financed in part by millions of dollars solicited by an extensive network of bogus charities and foundations, the cells use Muslim communities as cover and places to raise cash and recruit sympathizers.
Last month, Pakistan and India announced a new round of peace talks on Kashmir, in which Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the target of two recent assassination attempts, said Pakistan had agreed “not to allow the use of Pakistan’s territory anywhere in the world” for terrorism.
In announcing the talks, Gen. Musharraf said his military-led government would act to “eradicate” religious extremists in Pakistan. “We will get to them, I am sure,” he said.
But U.S. and foreign intelligence authorities said terrorist training camps have been documented in some of western Pakistan’s remote areas and in the disputed regions of Kashmir, and that military officials and others in the Musharraf government have not fully disassociated themselves from al Qaeda or the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Some U.S. officials have privately expressed concern that members of Pakistan’s intelligence community have assisted in the concealment of al Qaeda members and associates.
In December, the government of India said terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Kashmir that had been closed after the September 11 attacks on the United States had been reactivated, mostly along the disputed border area near the so-called Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian government said its army had photographs and other evidence of ongoing terrorist training, much of which was turned over to U.S. officials. That information included satellite photos and communication intercepts, U.S. law- enforcement authorities said, that documented 60 to 70 camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well as in Pakistan.
Officials at the Indian Embassy in Washington declined comment.
Since September 11, Pakistan has publicly ordered a clampdown on terrorism and arrested hundreds of suspected al Qaeda members and associates, transferring many of them to the United States. The captured include Abu Zubaydah, the organization’s top recruiter; Ramzi Binalshibh, paymaster for the September 11 hijackers; and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, chief of operations for Osama bin Laden and mastermind of September 11.
One veteran U.S. law-enforcement official with an extensive history in counterterrorism said many of the training camps in the Pakistan-controlled regions of Kashmir are operated by the Harakat ul-Ansar, an Islamic militant group tied to bin Laden.
The group’s leaders joined with bin Laden in signing a February 1998 “fatwa” calling for attacks on U.S. and Western interests. Also known as the “Movement of Holy Warriors,” Harakat ul-Ansar has been tied by U.S. and foreign intelligence officials to the January 2002 abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Several other camps are being operated by an anti-U.S. Muslim group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to U.S. and foreign intelligence officials. Listed by the State Department in 2001 as a terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba is the armed wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad.
Eleven men, including nine U.S. citizens, were arrested last year in Virginia in what authorities called the “Virginia jihad.” The men were accused in a 41-count grand jury indictment of engaging in “holy jihad” to drive India out of the disputed Kashmir territory. Six have since pleaded guilty.
The indictment said some of the men traveled to Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist camps in Pakistan, where they were trained in the use of various weapons, including small arms, machine guns and grenade launchers. The indictment also said the trips occurred both before and after the September 11 attacks.
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WBUR News
MBTA Awards $723M Contract For Overhaul Of Fare Collection
November 20, 2017Updated Nov 20, 2017 4:55 PM
Bob Salsberg, The Associated Press
A rendering of how the fare gates would look under the MBTA's proposed new fare collection system. (Courtesy MBTA)
The board overseeing the Boston area's transit agency on Monday approved a $723 million overhaul of its fare collection system that will phase-out the existing CharlieCard and allow riders to board trains, trolleys and buses with the tap of a credit card or smartphone.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority awarded a 13-year contract to San Diego-based Cubic Corp. to design and operate the new system, which officials hope to have fully implemented by the spring of 2020.
"The whole point of a fare collection system ultimately is to get out of the customer's way," said David Block-Schachter, the MBTA's chief technology officer. "The system should not be something you notice, it should be there to allow customers ... to get where they are going."
Transit officials predicted the project would speed up the boarding process for passengers, reduce fare evasion and, if all goes to plan, cost the MBTA about $65 million less to operate over the duration of the contract than if the current system remained in place.
Riders would no longer be able to pay cash when they board buses or trolleys. But cash customers could still buy fare cards from vending machines at MBTA stations and at many participating retail stores, Block-Schachter said Monday.
Passengers could board vehicles under the revamped system by tapping their credit cards or smartphones to fare readers installed at all of the doors on buses and trolleys.
Commuter rail passengers would be required to tap both entering and exiting trains to measure distance traveled and assign fares accordingly, Block-Schachter explained.
The project includes redesigned fare gates that would be wider to more easily accommodate passengers with wheelchairs, baby strollers or luggage.
Before the vote, transit advocates urged MBTA officials to ensure that low-income and other cash-paying customers are protected during and after the transition.
A rendering of a full-functionality fare vending machine, for the MBTA's proposed new fare collection system. (Courtesy MBTA)
Louise Baxter, a member of the T Riders Union, said she does not own a smartphone and prefers not to use her credit card for everyday expenses.
"I would be afraid of dropping the credit card while using it or losing track of the payments," said Baxter, an elderly South Boston resident who expressed concern there would not be enough convenient locations near bus stops to buy fare cards before boarding.
The MBTA offered reassurances that it would provide extensive outreach to riders before the transition.
"This is not a cashless system," state Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack said. "This is a system in which cash is not used aboard vehicles."
About 7 percent of riders use cash, officials said.
Cubic has deployed similar systems in cities including London, Sydney, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco, transit officials said.
The $723 million deal is more expensive than automated fare contracts awarded by other U.S. cities, including New York, but Boston officials said a key difference is that Cubic will not only design the system but also operate and maintain it through 2031.
The contract includes two five-year options, conceivably extending it to 23 years.
While today's CharlieCard would be retired, the revamped fare system would continue to use the Charlie brand, said Luis Ramirez, chief executive of the MBTA. The name is borrowed from a 1949 song popularized by the Kingston Trio about a man doomed "to ride forever beneath the streets of Boston" because he lacked the correct change to get off the subway.
Also Monday, the board awarded a $1.1 billion contract to GLX Contractors for the long-delayed Green Line Extension into Somerville and Medford.
The company was unveiled as the winning bid on Friday.
The MBTA hopes the extended Green Line service will begin in late 2021.
With additional reporting by the WBUR Newsroom
Feds Approve Revised Cost Estimate For Green Line Extension
MBTA Green Line Extension Now Expected To Open In 2021
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Home » Research » Massive galaxy cluster discovery sheds new light on how the largest structures in our universe are formed
Massive galaxy cluster discovery sheds new light on how the largest structures in our universe are formed
ArifBabul-ResearchShowcase.jpg
Spotlight On:
Arif Babul
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in our universe. With masses comparable to a million-billion suns, they contain as many as 1,000 galaxies, vast amounts of dark matter, gargantuan black holes and X-ray-emitting gas that reaches over a million degrees Kelvin.
A dense concentration of galaxies is causing astrophysicists to question our understanding of how structures form in the universe. A study published in the journal Nature reports on a collection of galaxies observed when the universe was about one-tenth of its present age.
This particular galaxy cluster is so far away it takes 12.4 billion years for light from it to reach Earth. So while it was first observed last year, it was seen as it existed 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang—allowing astronomers a rare peek into galaxies forming in the early history of the universe.
A team of researchers from institutions including the University of Victoria (UVic), the National Research Council of Canada, Dalhousie University, the University of Illinois, and the Flatiron Institute, have discovered a cluster of galaxies assembling very differently and more quickly than current models would predict. The nascent cluster is made up of at least 14 galaxies packed into a region of space just three times the size of our Milky Way galaxy and each is forming stars up to 1,000 times faster than ours is forming them. Calculations indicate that the astronomers are witnessing the assembly of one of the most massive structures in the present-day universe.
“Having caught a massive galaxy cluster, and especially its gigantic central galaxy, in the throes of formation is spectacular in and of itself. But, the fact that this is happening so early in the history of the universe and in so dramatic a fashion poses a formidable challenge to our understanding of how and when structures in the universe form," said Arif Babul, an astrophysicist at the University of Victoria, and a co-author of the study. "Conventional wisdom suggests that the central cluster galaxy is assembled in dribs and drabs spread over 13 billion years, by cannibalizing smaller galaxies that venture too close. This discovery appears to upend this picture.”
The study was co-led by Scott Chapman, Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada and Professor at Dalhousie University, and Tim Miller, as a Master’s student at Dalhousie University. It was co-authored by a team of scientists including Babul, who is a UVic Distinguished Professor; astrophysics doctoral student, Douglas Rennehan; UVic advanced research computing specialist, Belaid Moa; University of Illinois Professor, Joaquin Vieira; and Christopher Hayward, Associate Research Scientist at the Centre for Computation Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute.
To predict how the cluster will assemble, a team led by Babul used WestGrid and Compute Canada supercomputers to develop a numerical simulation. It showed that the core of the cluster will eventually combine into one giant galaxy, over the next billion years. Scientists anticipate that eventually this will prove to be one of the most massive clusters in the current-day universe.
WATCH THE SIMULATION HERE
This cluster system, originally discovered by the South Pole Telescope, was studied in detail using the Atacama Large Millimetre-submillimetre Array (ALMA). ALMA has the world’s most advanced radio astronomy detectors, developed by the National Research Council of Canada, which provided the detail necessary for the discovery of the system.
(Profile provided by the National Research Council of Canada. To read the full media release, click here.)
Behind The Project: A Q&A with Belaid Moa
Belaid Moa, an Advanced Research Computing Specialist at UVic, is a member of the WestGrid / Compute Canada support team. He works with researchers both at UVic and across the country, connecting them with advanced research computing resources and services. Belaid constantly has projects on the go, whether it's meeting with users one-on-one, hosting training workshops to build researchers' computational skills, or helping users get the most from Compute Canada's national systems. In 2015, he received the Outstanding Achievement award through Compute Canada's Awards of Excellence prorgram, recognizing his passion and dedication for supporting advanced research computing.
Below is a short Q&A with Belaid about his work with Arif Babul and his team on their latest discovery.
Q: What was the main challenge facing Arif and his team? Why did they need to access WestGrid / Compute Canada systems?
Prof. Arif Babul and his team are in constant need of high performance resources to carry out their cosmological simulations focusing on the formation and evolution of structure — galaxies, galaxy groups and clusters of galaxies — in the Universe post-Big Bang. Because of the physical processes involved, these simulations span a huge dynamic range in space and time.
Moreover, they need to follow the evolution of both dark matter, the gravitationally dominant but otherwise invisible matter component, as well as baryons. Treating the baryons is particularly complicated. They are subject to numerous physical effects — radiative cooling, shock heating, turbulence, etc. — and can transform into stars and black holes, which themselves can impact their surroundings via radiation and powerful winds. Consequently, the simulations require intensive parallel computing.
A typical run can require more than 1,024 cores for two months or more to produce the required results, and detailed simulations can require several thousands of cores. These simulations generate large amounts of data and so the team also performs a lot of post-processing analytics that require intensive summarization and visualization. All of these require powerful clusters, which WestGrid/Compute Canada offer.
Arif's team relies heavily of these systems and, in fact, they have held large allocations on WestGrid and Compute Canada systems for the last six years. In the case of proto-cluster, we had a hard deadline challenge as we needed to generate the simulation and visualization in a very short time. We utilized 512 cores on the new national system Cedar to produce the simulation and visualization results on time.
Q: How did you help Arif and his team?
I have been assisting Arif's team through one-to-one sessions with the team members since 2012. I helped his postdocs and PhD students optimise their massively parallel cosmological simulation codes as well as implement an increasing array of physical effects so that they can run state-of-the-art simulations efficiently across multiple nodes on WestGrid / Compute Canada resources.
Sometimes their work must account for things like the characteristics of the computing platform, the available compilers, and other system features. For instance, porting from UVic's Nestor cluster to the Cedar system at Simon Fraser University posed a fair bit of challenge because scripts, etc. needed to be revised to match to the Cedar environment. Other times, we need to restructure parts of the code to make it more efficient and stable. The codes truly push the envelope. Rapid deposition of energy following the death of a star can easily trigger large-scale instabilities if not managed properly. Identifying the range of physical processes that ought to be part of any realistic simulation is definitely a challenge but implementing these in the code without compromising the high degree of parallelization is itself important.
Most recently, I have been working with Douglas Rennehan (Ph.D. Candidate) to treat the effects of turbulence in the simulations via large eddy approximation. I have also helped to develop the post-processing pipelines, which also must run in parallel mode, as well as adapt pre-existing codes for generating initial conditions to the available computing environment. The latter often involves understanding the structure of the code. The proto-cluster project dominated my one-to-one sessions with Douglas for nearly two months. During that time, I assisted with setting up the Gizmo software stack, helping to install and optimise the different post-processing and visualization tools (SUNRISE, yt-project, GALSTEP, etc.) and tutored Douglas in the use of Paraview and Visit for the visualization. We even modified the SPH filter in Paraview to work with our data. After setting up the simulations, we started with low resolution runs for quick testing and then moved to the large simulations and ran them on 512 cores.
We faced a number of challenges at the beginning. For instance, at one point, the simulations would abruptly die without rhyme or reason. It took some creative sleuthing to figure out why this was happening but I managed to fix the issue. My colleagues at Compute Canada and WestGrid, especially the Cedar admins, were invaluable in helping to tweak Cedar and its environment into a stable state so that we could run without major interruptions.
Q: Would this discovery have been possible without access to WestGrid / Compute Canada?
The simulations that Professor Babul and his team carry out would not be possible without WestGrid / Compute Canada. In all likelihood, they would have had to join a foreign team as junior partners to be able to do what they are doing. With WestGrid / Compute Canada resources, they have their own leading-edge program and when they do collaborate, they do so as equal partners.
Access to WestGrid / Compute Canada resources was especially critical for the proto-cluster project. It allowed Douglas Rennehan to take the lead in carrying out the first simulation of the system. Given the hard deadlines and the amount of processing and post-processing involved, it would have been difficult to have the simulation and visualization done on time. Within the two months of running the simulations on Cedar, we produced all the necessary results.
Q: What did you enjoy most about working on this project?
The best part of working with Arif and his team is that they treat me not as a Tier 3 support person but as a valuable member of the team. And of course, their work is fascinating. The very idea of being able to replicate how the Universe has unfolded over the past 13 billion years on a supercomputer, and have it be right in a broad brush sense, is mind blowing. In the case of the proto-cluster project, the close relationship I have with the Arif's team was critical to do the necessary work in a very short period of time on a relatively brand new, powerful cluster. And the end result — compelling simulations and visualizations — have truly helped enhance the novelty of the observations.
The discovery itself is fascinating and I enjoyed being part of it. And the fact that the discovery, as accentuated by the movie made from the simulation outputs illustrates, challenges the conventional understanding makes it all the more intriguing — a riddle that I played a part, a small part but nonetheless a part, in bringing to light.
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Computer-simulated image of the 14 galaxies packed in a region only three times the size of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations. This unique cosmic conjunction is on the verge of coalescing into a massive galaxy cluster core only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang (see the simulation movie for details). Credits: D. Rennehan, B. Moa, C Hayward / UVic, WestGrid, Compute Canada, Flatiron Institute.
Other background
Nature: “A Massive Galaxy Cluster Core at a redshift of 4.3”
Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre
UVic Astronomy Research Centre
South Pole Telescope
ALMA telescope
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Consecration of the Bishop of Sherborne
Friday, 26th June 2009
The Reverend Canon Dr Graham Kings, Vicar of St Mary's Church, Islington, was ordained to the episcopate as the new Suffragan Bishop of Sherborne by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops at a Eucharist in the Abbey on Wednesday 24th June 2009.
The Bishop-designate of Sherborne took the Oath of Allegiance to The Queen’s Majesty and the Oath of Due Obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury before the service in the Jerusalem Chamber, part of the Abbey’s Deanery.
Dr Kings was presented for ordination by the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Salisbury, in the presence of 50 supporting bishops, 80 clergy, and over 400 guests, family, and friends.
During the Eucharist the sermon was given by Professor David F Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge; the service was sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey, conducted by James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers; the organ was played by Robert Quinney, Sub-Organist.
As Bishop of Sherborne Dr Kings, 55, will serve as an Area Bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury assisting the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr David Stancliffe.
The new Bishop of Sherborne will be officially welcomed into the Diocese of Salisbury at a special celebration service in Wimborne Minster on Sunday 5th July at 3.00pm.
The Archbishop of Canterbury holds Consecration Services in St Paul’s and Southwark Cathedrals, St Albans Abbey and Westminster Abbey. Bishops have been consecrated at the Abbey since medieval times.
The diocese of Salisbury's website
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-news/consecration-of-the-bishop-of-sherborne 2018-02-22T16:04:05.000Z">Thursday, 22nd February 2018
Dean and Chapter of Westminster https://www.westminster-abbey.org/media/8161/westminster-abbey.png
The Archbishop of Canterbury gives the greeting
The sermon is given by Professor David F Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge
The Ordinand kneels before the Archbishop for the ordination prayer
The newly-ordained Bishop turns to face the congregation
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the new Bishop of Sherborne with Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Ramsbury
Bishop of Sherborne
First Lady brings Obama family for Abbey visit
Westminster Abbey’s annual Civic Service
At different times of the day, or in different seasons, the light falling in the Abbey will light up something that you have walked past a million times and never seen before.
Vanessa, Head of Conservation
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Home Home Buyers Guide Three provinces have raised minimum wage from today
Three provinces have raised minimum wage from today
Workers in three Canadian provinces are entitled to a higher minimum wage from today (Oct 1, 2018).
Albert’s $15.00 per hour is now the highest in the country, rising from $13.60. Based on a 40-hour week, someone making the increased minimum wage will earn $2,912 more per year.
“Every hard-working Albertan deserves to be paid fairly. The $15 minimum wage will make life more affordable for women, single parents, families and everyone who has been working a full-time job or more but is still struggling to put food on the table and pay their rent. I’m proud that we are delivering on our commitment to everyday Albertan families,” said Christina Gray, Minister of Labour.
Manitoba’s rate has increased to $11.35, an increase of 20 cents.
“We remain committed to indexing Manitoba’s minimum wage with the rate of inflation in a predictable and sustainable way,” said Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen.
Although Saskatchewan has the smallest rise of the three - 10 cents per hour, taking the minimum wage to $11.06 - Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan says the government has a solid history of increases and tax benefits.
“Since 2011, we have been able to provide predictable annual minimum wage increases, allowing employers and employees to prepare and plan for change,” Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said. “Saskatchewan also has a low personal income tax rate and Low Income Tax Credit, helping low income earners keep more money in their pockets.”
North American real estate beats global sustainability performance
This new program could be worth $14K for homeowners
Canadian housing affordability at 30-year-low says RBC
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Home / Public Procurement And Very Private Benefits
Public Procurement And Very Private Benefits
March 27, 2018 Benefits
Public Procurement and Very Private Benefits
in every national budget, there is a part called Public Procurement. this is the portion of the budget allocated to purchasing services and goods for the various ministries, authorities and other arms of the executive branch. it was the famous management consultant, Parkinson, who once wrote that government officials are likely to approve a multibillion dollar nuclear power plant much more speedily that they are likely to authorize a hundred dollar expenditure on a bicycle parking device. this is because everyone came across 100 dollar situations in real life but precious few had the fortune to expend with billions of USD.
This, precisely, is the problem with public procurement people are too acquainted with the purchased items. They tend to confuse their daily, householdtype, decisions with the processes and considerations which should permeate governmental decision making. They label perfectly legitimate decisions as corrupt and totally corrupt procedures as legal or merely legitimate, because this is what was decreed by the statal mechanisms, or because this is the law.
Procurement is divided to defence and nondefence spending. in both these categories but, especially in the former there are grave, well founded, concerns that things might not be all what they seem to be.
Government from Indias to Swedens to Belgiums fell because of procurement scandals which involved bribes paid by manufacturers or service providers either to individual in the service of the state or to political parties. Other, lesser cases, litter the press daily. in the last few years only, the burgeoning defence sector in Israel saw two such big scandals the developer of Israels missiles was involved in one and currently is serving a jail sentence and Israels military attache to Washington was implicated though, never convicted in yet another.
But the picture is not that grim. Most governments in the West succeeded in reigning in and fully controlling this particular budget item. in the USA, this part of the budget remained constant in the last 35! years at 20% of the GDP.
There are many problems with public procurement. it is an obscure area of state activity, agreed upon in customized tenders and in dark rooms through a series of undisclosed agreements. at least, this is the public image of these expenditures.
The truth is completely different.
True, some ministers use public money to build their private empires. it could be a private business empire, catering to the financial future of the minister, his cronies and his relatives. These two plagues cronyism and nepotism haunt public procurement. The spectre of government official using public money to benefit their political allies or their family members haunts public imagination and provokes public indignation.
Then, there are problems of plain corruption bribes or commissions paid to decision makers in return for winning tenders or awarding of economic benefits financed by the public money. Again, sometimes these moneys end in secret bank accounts in Switzerland or in Luxembourg. at other times, they finance political activities of political parties. this was rampantly abundant in Italy and has its place in France. The USA, which was considered to be immune from such behaviours has proven to be less so, lately, with the Bill Clinton alleged election financing transgressions.
But, these, with all due respect to clean hands operations and principles, are not the main problems of public procurement.
The first order problem is the allocation of scarce resources. in other words, prioritizing. The needs are enormous and ever growing. The US government purchases hundreds of thousands of separate items from outside suppliers. Just the list of these goods not to mention their technical specifications and the documentation which accompanies the transactions occupies tens of thick volumes. Supercomputers are used to manage all these and, even so, it is getting way out of hand. How to allocate ever scarcer resources amongst these items is a daunting close to impossible task. it also, of course, has a political dimension. a procurement decision reflects a political preference and priority. But the decision itself is not always motivated by rational let alone noble arguments. More often, it is the by product and end result of lobbying, political hand bending and extortionist muscle. this raises a lot of hackles among those who feel that were kept out of the pork barrel. They feel underprivileged and discriminated against. They fight back and the whole system finds itself in a quagmire, a nightmare of conflicting interests. Last year, the whole budget in the USA was stuck not approved by Congress because of these reactions and counterreactions.
The second problem is the supervision, auditing and control of actual spending. this has two dimensions
1. . How to make sure that the expenditures match and do not exceed the budgetary items. in some countries, this is a mere ritual formality and government departments are positively expected to overstep their procurement budgets. in others, this constitutes a criminal offence.
2. . How to prevent the criminally corrupt activities that we have described above or even the non criminal incompetent acts which government officials are prone to do.
The most widespread method is the public, competitive, tender for the purchases of goods and services.
But, this is not as simple as it sounds.
Some countries publish international tenders, striving to secure the best quality in the cheapest price no matter what is its geographical or political source. Other countries are much more protectionist notably Japan and France and they publish only domestic tenders, in most cases. a domestic tender is open only to domestic bidders. Yet other countries limit participation in the tenders on various backgrounds
the size of the competing company, its track record, its ownership structure, its human rights or environmental record and so on. Some countries publish the minutes of the tender committee which has to explain WHY it selected this or that supplier. Others keep it a closely guarded secret to protect commercial interests and secrets.
But all countries state in advance that they have no obligation to accept any kind of offer even if it is the cheapest. this is a needed provision the cheapest is not necessarily the best. The cheapest offer could be coming from a very unreliable supplier with a bad past performance or a criminal record or from a supplier who offers goods of shoddy quality.
The tendering policies of most of the countries in the world also incorporates a second principle that of minimum size. The cost of running a tender is prohibitive in the cases of purchases in small amounts.
Even if there is corruption in such purchases it is bound to cause less damage to the public purse than the costs of the tender which is supposed to prevent it!
So, in most countries, small purchases can be authorized by government officials larger amounts go through a tedious, multiphase tendering process. Public competitive bidding is not corruptionproof many times officials and bidders collude and conspire to award the contract against bribes and other, noncash, benefits. But we still know of no better way to minimize the effects of human greed.
Procurement policies, procedures and tenders are supervised by state auditing authorities. The most famous is, probably, the General Accounting Office, known by its acronym the GAO.
It is an unrelenting, very thorough and dangerous watchdog of the administration. it is considered to be highly effective in reducing procurement related irregularities and crimes. Another such institutions the Israeli State Reviser. What is common to both these organs of the state is that they have very broad authority. They possess by law judicial and criminal prosecution powers and they exercise it without any hesitation. They have the legal obligation to review the operations and financial transactions of all the other organs of the executive branch. Their teams select, each year, the organs to be reviewed and audited. They collect all pertinent documents and correspondence. They cross the information that they receive from elsewhere. They ask very embarrassing questions and they do it under the threat of perjury prosecutions. They summon witnesses and they publish damning reports which, in many cases, lead to criminal prosecutions.
Another form of review of public procurement is through powers granted to the legislative arm of the state Congress, Parliament, Bundestag, or Knesset. in almost every country in the world, the elected body has its own procurement oversight committee. it supervises the expenditures of the executive branch and makes sure that they conform to the budget. The difference between such supervisory, parliamentary, bodies and their executive branch counterparts is that they feel free to criticize public procurement not only in the context of its adherence to budget constraints or its cleanliness but also in a political context. in other words, these committees do not limit themselves to asking HOW but also engage in asking WHY. Why this specific expense in this given time and location and not that expense, somewhere else or some other time. These elected bodies feel at liberty and often do intervene in the very decision making process and in the order of priorities. They have the propensity to alter both quite often.
The most famous such committee is, arguably, the Congressional Budget Office CBO. it is famous because it is nonpartisan and technocratic in nature. it is really made of experts which staff its offices.
Its apparent and real neutrality makes its judgements and recommendations a commandment not to be avoided and, almost universally, to be obeyed. The CBO operates for and on behalf of the American Congress and is, really, the research arm of that venerable parliament. Parallelly, the executive part of the American system the Administration has its own guard against waste and worse the Office of Management and Budget OMB.
Both bodies produce learned, thickset, analyses, reports, criticism, opinions and recommendations. Despite quite a prodigious annual output of verbiage they are so highly regarded, that virtually anything that they say or write is minutely analysed and implemented to the last letter with an air of awe.
Only a few other parliaments have committees that carry such weight. The Israeli Knesset have the extremely powerful Finance Committee which is in charge of all matters financial, from appropriations to procurement. Another parliament renowned for its tight scrutiny is the French Parliament though it retains very few real powers.
But not all countries chose the option of legislative supervision. Some of them relegated parts or all of these functions to the executive arm.
in Japan, the Ministry of Finance still scrutinizes and has to authorize the smallest expense, using an army of clerks. These clerks became so powerful that they have the theoretical potential to secure and extort benefits stemming from the very position that they hold. Many of them suspiciously join companies and organizations which they supervised or to which they awarded contracts immediately after they leave their previous, government, positions. The Ministry of Finance is subject to a major reform in the reformbent government of Prime Minister Hashimoto. The Japanese establishment finally realized that too much supervision, control, auditing and prosecution powers might be a Pyrrhic victory it might encourage corruption rather than discourage it.
Britain opted to keep the discretion to use public funds and the clout that comes with it in the hands of the political level. this is a lot like the relationship between the butter and the cat left to guard it. Still, this idiosyncratic British arrangement works surprisingly well. All public procurement and expenditure items are approved by the EDX Committee of the British Cabinet =inner, influential, circle of government which is headed by the Ministry of Finance. Even this did not prove enough to restrain the appetites of Ministers, especially as quid pro quo deals quickly developed. So, now the word is that the new Labour Prime Minister will chair it enabling him to exert his personal authority on matters of public money.
Britain, under the previous, Tory, government also pioneered an interesting and controversial incentive system for its public servants as top government officials are euphemistically called there. They receive, added to their salaries, a portion of the savings that they effect in their departmental budgets. this means that they get a small fraction of the end of the fiscal year difference between their budget allowances and what they actually spent. this is very useful in certain segments of government activity but could prove very problematic in others. Imagine health officials saving on medicines, or others saving on road maintenance or educational consumables. This, naturally, will not do.
Needless to say that no country officially approves of the payment of bribes or commission to officials in charge of public spending, however remote the connection is between the payment and the actions.
Yet, law aside many countries accept the intertwining of elites business and political as a fact of life, albeit a sad one. Many judicial systems in the world even make a difference between a payment which is not connected to an identifiable or discernible benefit and those that are. The latter and only the latter are labelled bribery.
Where there is money there is wrongdoing. Humans are humans and sometimes not even that.
But these unfortunate derivatives of social activity can be minimized by the adoption of clear procurement policies, transparent and public decision making processes and the right mix of supervision, auditing and prosecution. Even then the result is bound to be dubious, at best.
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50 years on from Aith crew’s silver medal rescue
On 19 February, our most northerly lifeboat station Aith will be remembering a Silver Medal rescue that their crew took part in 50 years ago. Twelve lives were saved that day, but how did it happen…
Photo: RNLI Aith Lifeboat Station
RNLI Aith lifeboat crew of 1967
It was a stormy night
The call to Aith Lifeboat Station came in the early hours of the morning of 19 February 1967. An Aberdeen trawler, Juniper, had grounded on the island of Papa Stour, off Shetland, and was stuck among rocks at the foot of 61 metre high cliffs.
The weather was so bad that crew member Kenny Henry never heard the maroons firing to alert the crew and had to be phoned instead so he could assist the crew. They also found that the crew was a man short and crew member Bill Anderson was asked to help out – it was his first time on a lifeboat.
Reaching the trawler crew
Once at sea, Aith Coxswain, John Robert Nicolson, had to take the Barnet class lifeboat, the John and Francis MacFarlane, through a very narrow passage only a few yards wide to reach the trawler just after 5am. At one point during the night, the conditions were so violent that one wave lifted the lifeboat right over the trawler!
It took great teamwork from the engineers and deck crew, for the coxswain to succeed in reaching the trawler which was low in the water and being pounded heavily with surf that was crashing mast high.
By the time that our crew reached them, Juniper’s crew were in poor shape. They were wet and exhausted which added to the hazards of the unpredictable movement of the boats and the bad weather. In spite of this, the lifeboat crew managed to haul all 12 men of the trawler crew aboard the lifeboat without any injuries. Then Coxswain Nicolson had to steer the boat out of the enclosed area that was surrounded by high cliffs and jagged rocks.
Back to shore
When they returned to Aith, it wasn’t possible to bring the lifeboat alongside the pier where they would normally transfer casualties because of its poor condition. So the trawler’s crew had to be rowed across to the shore.
Recognition for our crew
For his bravery in the face of the challenges that night, Coxswain Nicolson was awarded the Silver Medal for Gallantry. He also received the Maud Smith Award for the bravest rescue by a lifeboat during 1967, and the P and O award for bravery.
For their efforts in the rescue, the rest of the crew each received RNLI Thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum. They were Frank Johnston, Kenny Henry, Jimmy Manson, Wilbert Clark, Jim Tait, Andy Smith and Bill Anderson.
Frank Johnston, the John and Francis MacFarlane’s Mechanic, recalled the rescue:
‘If you’d stopped to analyse tides and currents and charts you’d never have got in there. We came back up the voe with a great sense of well-being. We’d saved the men. I couldn’t believe that we’d done it, that I’d been involved.’
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The Meaning of Beware The Ides of March
Beware the Ides of March. What does it mean? It marks the date in 44 B.C. that Roman dictator Julius Ceasar was murdered by as many as 60 of his own senators, including his own protegy, Marcus Brutus.
Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to lead a military campaign in what is now Iraq...
Dale’s Daily Data: Ides of March
Beware the Ides of March – it was on this date in 44 B.C. – Roman dictator Julius Ceasar was murdered by as many as 60 of his own senators, including his own protegy, Marcus Brutus.
Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war and appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Em…
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Egypt’s Ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi Has Died
Nation’s only freely elected leader suffered a heart attack while attending a court session in an espionage trial
Jared Malsin
BiographyJared Malsin
Updated June 17, 2019 5:51 pm ET
CAIRO—Egypt’s former President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist leader freely elected in the aftermath of the country’s 2011 uprising, died on Monday after spending the past six years as a prisoner following the military coup that deposed him.
A leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Morsi was a controversial figure in Egypt whose rise symbolized a fleeting moment of political freedom following the 2011 revolution that ended the three-decade dictatorship of his predecessor, President Hosni Mubarak, and helped catalyze a wave of...
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Tag: New York Yankees
No More Yogi-isms
American writers, Americana, popular culture, quotations, Writing
Yogi Berra, as remembered by Dave Granland
The Passing of a Verbal Yogi
Yogi Berra passed away this week. He lived to the grand old age of 90 until he succumbed a thing eventually takes us all. It’s called death. Though Yogi was a great player and manager, he also wrote books (nine by my count). Nonetheless, even though Yogi played in ten World Series (most ever), made the Baseball Hall of Fame and managed teams from both the National and American League that made it to the World Series, he will still be most remembered for his one liners. Now that’s testimony to the power of the spoken word. How many contemporary writers can claim to have had as much to say (and remembered) on the American psyche as Yogi Berra……Damn few.
Some Yogi-isms To Always Cherish
If I didn’t make it baseball, I wouldn’t have made it workin’. I didn’t like to work.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
All pitchers are liars or crybabies.
Little league baseball is a good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
You can observe a lot by watching.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
You can’t hit and think at the same time.
It’s deja vu all over again.
When you come to a fork in the road take it.
I didn’t really say everything that I said.
And last but not least: “Always go to other people’s funerals. Otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
Short Tribute
And as far as Yogi Berra’s funeral went, I haven’t read any press accounts, but I can only imagine that it was very well attended. And though we haven’t heard too much from the man lately (last book, You Can Observe a Lot By Watching, published in 2009) , nobody has captured the true essence of baseball as Yogi did with his catchy one-liners….that is…..back in the heyday before we had designated hitters and World Series games that are in competition with Halloween. Baseball just ain’t what it used to be.
Yogi Berra understood the true essence of baseball.
September 27, 2015 yeyerightAmerican authors, Americana, baseball, major league, New York Yankees, one liners, writers, Yogi Berra, Yogi Berra sendoff, Yogi-isms, yogismsLeave a comment
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The Iron Spider armor also has a secret override that can be activated by Iron Man in case of emergencies or if Spider-Man ever switches sides (which he does in Civil War #5). However, unknown to Stark, Peter was already aware of the safety measure and had bypassed it with his own override, Password Surprise. Perhaps most sinister, Stark discovered a way to give his own Iron Man armor a "spider-sense" based on Peter's, and the ability to give Spider-Man's sense red herrings.
Parker's daughter May is returned to him and Mary Jane, but he continues as Spider-Man. He loses a leg fighting the Green Goblin, gives up on superheroics and joins the police. He has trouble dealing with his daughter taking up the family business as Spider-Girl, though he supports her and occasionally aids her as Spider-Man. He and Mary Jane have one other child, Benjy.
^ Jump up to: a b c Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2012). "1960s". Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. Dorling Kindersley. p. 36. ISBN 978-0756692360. Now it was time for [John Romita, Sr.] to introduce a new Spidey villain with the help of [Stan] Lee. Out of their pooled creative energies was born the Rhino, a monstrous behemoth trapped in a durable rhinoceros suit.
In 1952, Osamu Tezuka's manga Tetsuwan Atom, more popularly known in the West as Astro Boy, was published. The series focused upon a robot boy built by a scientist to replace his deceased son. Being built from an incomplete robot originally intended for military purposes Astro Boy possessed amazing powers such as flight through thrusters in his feet and the incredible mechanical strength of his limbs.
The Spider-Tracer is a typical tracker that is shaped liked a spider and is aerodynamic for flight. The tracers are very small so it will not be noticed when attached to a person. The tracers contain a special radio frequency that his Spider-Sense can detect. He usually uses the tracers to track objects or people via his Spider-Sense within a 100 mile radius. Spider-Man fires the tracers at high velocity using his web-shooters and he has them coated with webbing in order for them to be firmly attached to their target. Since Peter lost his Spider-Sense, the use of the Spider-Tracers is rendered obsolete since he can only track them using his enhanced senses.
The feast of All Hallows', on its current date in the Western Church, may be traced to Pope Gregory III's (731–741) founding of an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors".[76][77] In 835, All Hallows' Day was officially switched to 1 November, the same date as Samhain, at the behest of Pope Gregory IV.[78] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,[78] although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.[79] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature.[78][79] It is also suggested that the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health considerations regarding Roman Fever – a disease that claimed a number of lives during the sultry summers of the region.[80]
We find out in Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice just what it takes to save the day; two superheroes at odds, one bad guy to show up out of the blue, and a superheroine to come in and bail the boys out. Your group of children can become this cinematic version of the Justice League when they go in these authentic DC Comics movie costumes. You might discourage your pint-sized Batman taking on the boy in the Superman costume, but we’re sure when Wonder Woman shows up on the scene they’ll be on their best behavior. Have them pose before their adventure by having them put their hands on their hips while they are lined up in a row. With the fate of the world on the line, they’ll be prepared and ready to save the day!
Halloween costumes are costumes worn on or around Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. An early reference to wearing costumes at Halloween comes from Scotland in 1585, but they may pre-date this. There are many references to the custom during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Celtic countries of Scotland, Ireland, Mann and Wales. It has been suggested that the custom comes from the Celtic festivals of Samhain and Calan Gaeaf, or from the practise of "souling" during the Christian observance of Allhallowtide. Wearing costumes and mumming has long been associated with festivals at other times of the year, such as on Christmas.[1] Halloween costumes are traditionally based on frightening supernatural or folkloric beings. However, by the 1930s costumes based on characters in mass media such as film, literature, and radio were popular. Halloween costumes have tended to be worn mainly by young people, but since the mid-20th century they have been increasingly worn by adults also.
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Home / ANALYSIS / Infrastructure & Energy / Beyond the grid in Africa
Beyond the grid in Africa
Andrew Herscowitz and Katrina Pielli ANALYSIS Infrastructure & Energy
Andrew Herscowitz and Katrina Pielli
On June 30, 2013, in Cape Town, South Africa, US President Barack Obama announced Power Africa ‒ an initiative to bring together technical and legal experts, the private sector and governments from around the world to work in partnership to increase the number of people with access to power in sub-Saharan Africa.
Rooted in partnerships, Power Africa is working with African governments, the private sector and other partners in sub-Saharan Africa to add more than 30,000 megawatts (MW) of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity as well as increase electricity access by adding 60 million new home and business connections. To date, Power Africa has assisted with the financial closure of transactions expected to install over 4,100MW of new, cleaner power generation capacity when fully online. Power Africa has also made progress toward its connection goals. The additional 4,100MW of power has the potential to enable approximately four million new connections through increased availability of power.
While grid expansion quickly reaches urban and peri-urban areas, the deep rural areas may remain unserved for decades. For this reason, Power Africa is helping to advance off-grid and small-scale solutions (e.g., solar lanterns, solar rooftop systems, mini-hydro, mini-grids) to increase access to underserved areas through Beyond the Grid. Beyond the Grid is a Power Africa sub-initiative that drives private investment in off-grid and small-scale energy solutions to ensure that people living in remote areas also get access to power. This sub-initiative utilizes Power Africa’s innovative transaction-focused model to accelerate transactions and drive systemic reforms to facilitate future investment for off-grid and small-scale renewable energy solutions under 10MW. Beyond the Grid focuses on two strategic priorities driving toward achieving the goal of adding 60 million new home and business connections:
1. Addressing recurring market constraints in the household energy market by increasing access to financing and providing technical assistance.
2. Striving to achieve scalable, cleaner community-level solutions that offer electricity access greater than the first tier of task lighting. Ensuring enabling environments are supportive through regulatory and policy regimes is critical to facilitate private sector success.
First, sustainable, private sector-led business models for off-grid and small-scale energy solutions are beginning to succeed in the marketplace ‒ bolstered by decreasing costs of technology, innovative financing options, and a growing cohort of entrepreneurs meeting the demand of sub-Saharan Africa’s underserved populations. Building on this momentum, Beyond the Grid utilizes the full suite of tools and resources of the many US Government agencies and other donor and private sector partners, working together as part of the Power Africa team to mobilize finance to small-scale energy projects, as well as partner with our international partners to coordinate and leverage activities.
Second, growth and successful scaling of the small-scale renewable energy sector hinges on the public sector providing transparent regulatory and policy regimes that provide clear, predictable rules for project development, investment and operation. However, existing policies and regulatory frameworks are not always primed to support new and emerging business models enabled by rapidly transforming technologies like mobile money.
To catalyze the private sector’s significant resources, Beyond the Grid supports activities that create an enabling environment for development and investment in this space. For example, Power Africa, the World Bank Group, and the Government of Ghana are collaborating on sector reform issues, including tariff reform, private sector participation, and securitization for natural gas and electricity supply chains. In August 2014, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed the Ghana Power Compact, an investment of up to $498.2 million to support the transformation of Ghana’s electricity sector and stimulate private investment, which has bolstered the Electricity Company of Ghana and transparent quarterly updates for cost-reflective tariffs. Ensuring that tariffs fully reflect the cost of producing power is critical to the liquidity of the institutions in the sector and helps attract investors who can be confident that their investments will yield a return.
Through the Power Africa Toolbox, Beyond the Grid makes use of services across US-government and other donor partner agencies to fulfill its objectives. For example, the US-Africa Clean Energy Financing initiative (ACEF) and the US African Development Foundation (USADF) have funded companies and projects expected to reach one million new connections. There are many opportunities for Power Africa to work with the private and public sectors, as well as the financial sector, to reach our goals. The following are several examples of such opportunities.
USADF, in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and General Electric Africa, supports the Off-Grid Energy Challenge. The Challenge provides $100,000 grants to entrepreneurs and private organizations developing innovative off-grid technologies. The Challenge is entering its third round, having already provided support to 28 small enterprises over the past two years. In addition to providing 11 grants, the third round is also opening entries to three new countries in East Africa ‒ Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) provides grants for early-stage project development. For example, USTDA has funded feasibility studies for mini-hydro projects in Rwanda and Tanzania, project development support for grid-connected solar in Rwanda, and isolated solar diesel hybrid mini-grids in Lake Victoria in Tanzania.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has a long history of working in Africa and supports Power Africa by providing financing and political risk insurance to on-grid and off-grid power projects. In addition, OPIC also seeks to develop new partnerships and processes to support investors.
• OPIC is part of the ACEF program, which provides project preparation support to help get early-stage projects off the ground. This program has committed more than $9 million so far to early-stage solar, wind, biomass and hydropower projects in Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Senegal.
• OPIC has developed a new process called the Innovative Financial Intermediary Program (IFIP) to help us support atypical deal structures and propose pooled capital, such as an investment fund, as well as debt financing, such as OPIC’s traditional loans and guaranties.
• OPIC has also developed a new tool called Portfolio for Impact (PI), which essentially helps facilitate highly impactful early-stage projects.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) worked with Power Africa’s private sector partners and the African Development Bank to create a book on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). This book is facilitating and expediting private investment in renewable energy. CLDP brought together African government lawyers who are directly involved in drafting these documents with the lawyers who represent banks and project developers to come up with a clear guide in both English and French that will help reduce the time it takes to negotiate deals.
The USAID develops the off-grid and small-scale renewable energy sectors through its instruments:
• Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), a competitive grants program for innovative ideas that provides support to innovations that, through rigorous analysis, demonstrate real-world viability and convincing evidence that the private sector will invest in scaling up their scheme.
• The Development Credit Authority (DCA), a facility that provides risk guarantees to financial institutions to ensure that otherwise unsupported enterprises can receive financial assistance.
• Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER), a competitive grants program which supports development-centered, in-country research and capacity-building in partnership with US-government supported facilities.
• CTI-Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI-PFAN), a facility that provides guidance and financial support to projects in the renewable energy environment, from early stages to financial closure.
• Power Africa Transaction Advisors, who provide project development advisory support to project sponsors in the public and private sectors. This support can extend beyond project-specific assistance to technical advice on national renewable energy programs and regulatory refinement to promote private investment in off-grid cleaner energy solutions, encourage and support rural electrification and reduce restrictions on importation of renewable energy sector equipment.
Transaction highlights
Beyond the Grid’s current project portfolio of over 100 projects spans the full range of off-grid solutions and small-scale renewable technologies, and touches countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Several examples include:
In Kenya, a biomass project rids the environment of an invasive tree species and generates electricity for a village and local industry. The intention is to expand this program to up to 15 systems which will make use of locally available invasive species or biomass waste, such as macadamia shells, coconut shells and bagasse from other industries.
● In Tanzania, Beyond the Grid is working closely with the government and a project developer to develop a portfolio of several mini-hydropower schemes. Through the Off-Grid Challenge, USADF is supporting mini-hydro and solar mini-grids, as well as a solar lantern franchise focused on the development of women entrepreneurs.
● In Ethiopia, USAID is supporting the development of a mini-grid using a small wind turbine and solar PV; USADF is working on an innovative financing scheme for solar home systems; and USAID PEER is supporting a local university in research on the development of micro-grids.
● In Ghana, USADF is supporting the development of a portable solar charging system for mobile phones, allowing the vendor to set up the system which forms part of his storefront.
● In Liberia, USAID is supporting a run-of-river mini-hydro project and a biomass to biodiesel project using palm oil that will run a small generator.
● In Rwanda, an 8.5MW grid-connected solar PV system has been installed at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) by Gigawatt Global with support from ACEF. Apart from the supply of electricity, the ASYV is providing jobs, ongoing education in solar PV, and a steady rental income for the solar farm. The system occupies 17 Ha and is shaped like the African continent.
A look ahead for Beyond the Grid
As the cost of solar PV reduces, so too does the ease with which solar home systems can be installed and maintained in remote areas. There is a large market opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa, which makes this technology a natural focus area for Beyond the Grid to rapidly scale up and increase rural electrification. Power Africa is working with partners to develop a targeted effort to scale up household solar solutions.
Power Africa’s over 100 private sector partners have committed more than $20 billion toward specific projects, including $1 billion in commitments under Beyond the Grid to ensure that people living in remote areas have access to power. Beyond the Grid will continue to galvanize collaboration, engage in critical actions to accelerate transactions, and drive systemic reforms to facilitate future investment in off-grid and small-scale energy solutions.
Web: http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica
Email: powerafrica@usaid.gov
Written by Andrew Herscowitz and Katrina Pielli
Andrew M. Herscowitz is the coordinator for President Barack Obama’s Power Africa and Trade Africa initiatives. Katrina Pielli is a Senior Energy Advisor to Power Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), secunded from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Ms. Pielli focuses on energy access issues in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Arts&Culture
Veteran Actress Lakshmi Devi Kanakala Passes Away Aged 78, In Hyderabad
At 78, she was suffering from a number of health issues. In her Madras days along with her husband Devdas Kanakala, she used to teach acting and none other than Konidela Siva Shankar Varaprasad was her student. "She taught humility, she fed us during class and she generously taught her art to make me an artist". The Tollywood film fraternity has been registering their heartfelt condolences on their social media pages to the bereaved members of the Kanakala family. (more...)
Uma Thurman ends silence on Weinstein with disturbing claims
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FY2017 Earnings Forecast for Tenet Healthcare Corp Issued By William Blair (THC)
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has declined 8.48% since February 2, 2017 and is downtrending. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tenet Healthcare by 1.2% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs initiated it with "Hold" rating and $15.0 target in Wednesday, January 3 report. The stock of KAR Auction Services, Inc. Among 2 analysts covering Novan ( NASDAQ:NOVN ), 2 have Buy rating, 0 Sell and 0 Hold. (more...)
First Star Wars 'Solo' trailer coming February 5
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Kasganj Violence: Chandan's father receives death threats, seeks security
Among those arrested are Saleem Javed, the prime accused. An AMUSU delegation also met IG, Aligarh range, Sanjeev Gupta over Kasganj violence . "Based on his interrogation, a country-made pistol used in the murder was recovered from the Baakner area", he had added. (more...)
Are DowDuPont (DWDP) Shares a 'Buy' Now? Barclays Has Upgraded The Stock
DowDuPont met regulatory remedies required of the merger transaction, including: divesting DuPont's cereal broadleaf herbicides and chewing insecticides portfolios, as well as certain parts of its crop protection R&D pipeline and organization to FMC. (more...)
Airbus self-piloted aircraft takes first flight
Aerospace giant Airbus has announced the first successful flight of its self-piloted flying auto in the USA state of Oregon. Following the initial hover flights, additional testing will include transitions and forward flight. If you have been living under a rock, Vahana is supposed to utilise Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) system, which is the most efficient way to pick up passengers in urban jungles. (more...)
Disputed Nunes memo says Federal Bureau of Investigation abused surveillance power
It was later picked up by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign through a Washington law firm. The FBI says it has "grave concerns" about the memo's accuracy. "To me, that would be a very definite part of a pattern of obstruction of justice ". When the House Intelligence Committee finally did its dramatic reveal of the so-called Nunes memo, several things were immediately clear - and all were bad for committee chairman Devin Nunes and President Trump, the man his efforts ... (more...)
Spice Girls reuniting to explore 'new Opportunities'
Fans called out the reunited girl group in the comments section of the Instagram photo - however it's clearly it's just the way the light has hit the phone's screen as the snap was taken. Brown praise the group for helping her become "who I am". The reunion also included the band's former manager Simon Fuller . The Sun newspaper reported the quintet is considering several projects, including a TV talent show, though not a live tour. (more...)
'Race 3' team wraps up Mumbai schedule
The audience would be up for a treat to witness Superstar Salman Khan back in the action avatar post the enormous success of Tiger Zinda Hai . D'Souza also teased fans with an image of the film's lead actors - Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (more...)
Tredje AP fonden Decreases Stake in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)
About 2.10M shares traded. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) has risen 8.29% since February 1, 2017 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 8.44% the S&P500. Parsons Management Inc Ri accumulated 0.07% or 3,549 shares. Its down 5.78% from 15.13 million shares previously. Moreover, Sigma Inv Counselors has 0.37% invested in Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST). (more...)
In pain Lady Gaga cancels tour dates
In the statement, it said the "tough decision" had been made on Friday night with "strong support from her medical team". The team added the medical team are "working closely with her so she can continue to perform for her fans for years to come". (more...)
Anton du Beke escapes 'Strictly axe' as he renews contract
The row came after Shirley and Brendan disagreed over Charlotte Hawkins' Tango. "It's a television show where emotions are very much heightened". The were accused of ageism after they dropped the choreographer from the judging panel and replaced her with pop star Alesha Dixon - who is 36 years her junior. (more...)
Shah Rukh Khan takes Anushka and Katrina for a ride around town
Shah Rukh believed there can not be a radical standoff when there is dissent. He tweeted: "Hi Bhai!" To this, Shah Rukh, who has previously worked with Bhansali in "Devdas" and shares a good bond with him, replied with some awesome words. (more...)
Slender Man stabbing: Morgan Geyser wrote letter to victim ahead of sentencing
Geyser stabbed the girl while Weier encouraged it, according to investigators . Geyser and Weier, who were 12 at the time of the attempted murder of Leutner in 2014, both said they were influenced by the fictional character Slender Man and wanted to kill their friend to appease him. (more...)
#PadManChallenge: Aamir Khan invites Salman, SRK, Big B to show sanitary pads
He has never worked with Akshay Kumar . "It's natural! Period. #PadManChallenge " The actor also tagged Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to take up the challenge. The fans of the stars can not wait to see if Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan accept the challenge. Many actress took part in this challenge, Alia Bhatt , Sonam kapoor , Radhika Apte along with many Bollywood stars took part and challenged many people. (more...)
Hotly disputed Russia-probe memo released over FBI protest
Steele, they can make the whole investigation go away regardless of the Russians' interference in our election or the role of the Trump campaign in that interference". "If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin's job for him". But a Republican who speaks to the President said it remained far from certain whether he would actually purge Rosenstein, considering Trump "does more venting than firing". (more...)
Month to Pari says, Anushka Sharma
The handcuffed wrists and her long nails add to the story of horror. Bollywood's one of the most sought-after actresses, Anushka Sharma has an impressive filmography to her credit. Anushka, who recently married Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli , had produced NH 10 and Phillauri . Stars Anushka Sharma , Parambrata Chatterjee, Rajat Kapoor and Ritabhari Chakraborty.... (more...)
Cindy Crawford recreates Pepsi ad with son for Super Bowl
In 2017, Fox never said whether or not it had sold out its broadcast of Super Bowl LI. That's because Minneapolis has a relatively small department - less than 900 officers compared with the roughly 5,000 in Houston, where last year's game was held - and needed more personnel. (more...)
Courtney Act Wins "Celebrity Big Brother UK"
The Celebrity Big Brother final is set to take place tonight (Friday 2nd February) at 9pm and we'll finally know whcih of the five remaining housemates will be crowned the victor of 2018. She made a lucrative political career out of peddling destructive views: she is anti-abortion, pro-capital punishment, anti gay rights, anti-civil partnerships, against the equal age of consent and anti-gay adoption. (more...)
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West Palm Beach 'Weaponizes' Music
Chasing Cars Is The Most Played Song Of The 21st Century
Young Thug said Lil Nas X shouldn’t have publicly come out
AP Bio Not Canceled Anymore, Moving to NBCU Streaming Service
Charges dropped against Kevin Spacey in Nantucket sexual assault case
'Hustlers' Official Trailer (2019) | Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Lizzo, Cardi B
Quentin Tarantino's Final Film Might Be R-Rated 'Star Trek'
'Gossip Girl' reboot ordered at WarnerMedia's new streaming service HBO Max
Prime Day Spurs Competition For Amazon
Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin discusses what’s next for the series
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Kelly Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Child Pornography Charges
Harry Styles to Play The New 'Little Mermaid's Prince Eric
East Coast Radio Presenters bid farewell to music legend Johnny Clegg
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Christian Blog > Christian News > Ben Carson claims his tax plan came from the bible
Ben Carson claims his tax plan came from the bible
By admin in Christian News, Latest Posts, Politics · May 14, 2015 · No comments
By Michal Ortner
Ben Carson, neurosurgeon-gone-politician, is a Republican presidential candidate for 2016 who says that his tax plan comes from the Bible itself. He explained it as “tithing” when he interviewed with Chris Wallace on Sunday. He says that everyone would pay into the system in accordance with what they have financially.
“You make $10 billion a year, you pay a billion. You make $10 a year, you pay one. You get the same rates. That’s pretty darn fair if you ask me,” Carson argued.
As of now, Carson is the only African-American candidate for the 2016 election. He believes that people with smaller incomes want to contribute to the country and that they should be given that opportunity.
“Now, some people say poor people can’t afford to pay that dollar. That’s very condescending,” Carson said. “I can tell you that poor people have pride, too. And they don’t want to be just taken care of.”
Wallace objected to Carson’s argument, saying that it sounded more like a plan for the rich rather than the poor and the middle class.
“Doctor, here is the problem with the flat tax in the real world … According to the Tax Policy Center, to raise the same amount of revenue we do now, the tax rate would have to be in the low- to mid-20 percent range. Low- and middle-income families would get a big tax hike, while wealthy families would actually get a big tax cut,” Wallace explained.
“If everybody is paying, it makes it very difficult for these politicians to come along and raise taxes,” Carson responded.
According to Carson, everything would fall into place because the tax plan is part of “an overall complex program” that involves “reorienting the way we do things in government.”
He also stated that under his administration, America would run “more like a business” rather than “this great inefficient behemoth we have right now.” The bigger picture in Carson’s diagram also includes utilizing the country’s energy resources and “revamping corporate taxes and bringing in money that’s overseas by giving a tax holiday.” Carson believes that in itself would bring in $2 trillion.
“I like the idea of a proportional tax — that way, you pay according to your ability. I got that idea, quite frankly, from the Bible,” said Carson, who is basing much of his campaign around his faith.
Source 1, 2, 3
« The Satanic Temple of St. Louis is helping women to get abortions
Why does the Chinese government fear Christianity? »
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Twitch is a live streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a general-interest streaming service known as Justin.tv. Its prominence was eclipsed by that of Twitch, and Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 in order to focus exclusively on Twitch.[104] Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.[105] Through Twitch, Amazon also owns Curse, Inc., an operator of video gaming communities and a provider of VoIP services for gaming.[106] Since the acquisition, Twitch began to sell games directly through the platform,[107] and began offering special features for Amazon Prime subscribers.[108]
The difference is that Amazon has data to prove what’s popular and easy to sell, and free shipping to get people to buy it online instead of in the store. (That’s gotten the attention of the European Commission, which is looking into whether Amazon is harming competition by using data from its sellers to develop its own products.) You can now buy Amazon-produced electric kettles, toasters, office chairs, knife sets, neoprene dumbbells, comforters, suitcases — name a product you’d find in a Walmart, and it’s probably already made and sold under the AmazonBasics name. Earlier this month, the company started selling its own mattress, striking fear in the direct-to-consumer mattress startup market dominated by Casper and Tuft & Needle.
After reading a report about the future of the Internet that projected annual web commerce growth at 2,300%, Bezos created a list of 20 products that could be marketed online. He narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products, which included: compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books. Bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books online, due to the large worldwide demand for literature, the low price points for books, along with the huge number of titles available in print.[27] Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos' rented home in Bellevue, Washington.[25][28][29] Bezos' parents invested almost $250,000 in the start-up.[30]
As Seen On TV is a generic nameplate for products advertised on television in the United States for direct-response mail-order through a toll-free telephone number. As Seen On TV advertisements, known as infomercials, are usually 30-minute shows or two-minute spots during commercial breaks. These products can range from kitchen, household, automotive, cleaning, health, and beauty products, to exercise and fitness products, books, or to toys and games for children. Typically the packaging for these items includes a standardized red seal in the shape of a CRT television screen with the words "AS SEEN ON TV" in white, an intentional allusion to the logo of TV Guide magazine.[citation needed]
Many items on Amazon come from third-party sellers on the Marketplace, indicated by a "Sold by" line near the "Add to Cart" button. If both Amazon and third-party sellers offer the item, the large "Add to Cart" button buys from Amazon, and you'll see a few alternative "Add to Cart" buttons with different prices and a link to a full list of used and new versions of the product. Marketplace sellers set their own prices, so you might find a great discount on a used item, or come across a rare, discontinued product that's only for sale at a collector's price. Even when buying from another seller, Amazon itself handles your payment, so you don't need to worry about your credit card information leaking out.
In September 2017, Amazon announced plans to locate a second headquarters in a metropolitan area with at least a million people.[45] Cities needed to submit their presentations by October 19, 2017 for the project called HQ2.[46] The $5 billion second headquarters, starting with 500,000 square feet and eventually expanding to as much as 8 million square feet, may have as many as 50,000 employees.[47] In 2017, Amazon announced it would build a new downtown Seattle building with space for Mary's Place, a local charity in 2020.[48]
While Amazon has publicly opposed secret government surveillance, as revealed by Freedom of Information Act requests it has supplied facial recognition support to law enforcement in the form of the "Rekognition" technology and consulting services. Initial testing included the city of Orlando, Florida, and Washington County, Oregon. Amazon offered to connect Washington County with other Amazon government customers interested in Rekognition and a body camera manufacturer. These ventures are opposed by a coalition of civil rights groups with concern that they could lead to expansion of surveillance and be prone to abuse. Specifically, it could automate the identification and tracking of anyone, particularly in the context of potential police body camera integration.[204][205][206] Due to the backlash, the city of Orlando has publicly stated it will no longer use the technology.[207]
Not only do these sellers enjoy increased favor with customers, but they also receive better placement on product pages and may qualify for Buy Box perks. By ‘winning’ the Buy Box, you will get default sales when a client clicks the “Add to Cart” button for your product. It’s important to note that only professional sellers qualify to be featured merchants.
Raw Generation is a raw juice company that launched its ecommerce store through Shopify, only to experience little success in its first 6 months. But you know what they say, where there’s a will there’s a way, and owner, Jessica Geier, was determined to find it. Raw Generation used deal sites to take the company’s monthly revenues from $8,000 to $96,000!
In July 1995, the company began service as an online bookstore.[31] The first book sold on Amazon.com was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.[32] In the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries. Within two months, Amazon's sales were up to $20,000/week.[33] In October 1995, the company announced itself to the public.[34] In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, at $18 per share, trading under the NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN.[35]
Aim for smaller products and travel deals. Some of the best buys on Cyber Monday will surprise you, from apparel to shoes to beauty products, says consumer and money saving expert Woroch. “It’s also a great day to shop for travel deals, specifically airfare sales,” she says. “Apple products and other electronics will be a good deal on this day too.”
Thought about upgrading your tablet? Do it now and save on Amazon! Trade in your old Fire tablet today and an Amazon Gift Card equal to the appraised value of your old tablet, plus a bonus 25% off any of the current generation Fire tablets will be applied to your account. Click this coupon to select your tablet model and start the trade-in to save!
Amazon, seeing the obvious opportunity here, reportedly outbid none other than Google to become Twitch’s parent company three years later, with the AWS infrastructure a big part of why Twitch CEO Emmett Shear decided to take the deal. Now, four years later, Twitch has outlasted both YouTube and Facebook’s attempts to snatch away its market share and, given the popularity of titles like Epic Games’ Fortnite, has become an even more integral fixture of modern online life and youth culture. Amazon has more recently integrated Twitch into its Prime subscription, giving subscribers free games and complementary channel subscriptions.
Use voice commands to have Alexa search items in your order history and on Amazon's Choice list, and read you the products' names, prices and estimated delivery times. Once Alexa has found you the highest-rated and best-priced products, tell it to confirm your order and you're set. Watch for special promotional discounts that you can use to save money while voice ordering, and always ask for current Alexa Deals for exclusive savings.
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Clay County Historical Archives > The Hotel Era
When hostilities ended after the Civil War, Clay County became a major tourist destination. Northerners took advantage of the wave of steamboats that made it easy for them to come south to see relatively unexplored lands.
Many visitors were medical tourists coming to enjoy the warm winter weather and take the “water cure”.
The Magnolia Springs Hotel was, for a time, the most important resort in Florida. Other hotels in Green Cove Springs, like the Hibernia on Fleming Island and others in Orange Park, took advantage of its draw and tried to trump it. This area was a prime location — deep enough into wild Florida to get a feel for the place, but not so far that a decent dinner could still be found. The tourists then were thrilled with the golf and alligators, just as they are today.
The Hotel Era rapidly declined as railroads took tourists beyond Clay County to Flagler’s hotel jewels in St. Augustine, Miami and Tampa. The hotels, mostly wooden structures, were no longer as attractive as they deteriorated or burned. A series of cold winters, in particular that of 1895, didn’t help. Any hope of a hotel-oriented tourism revival ended when WWI put an end to future festivities.
By 1916, there were eight hotels in the whole county, including six in Green Cove Springs: Mohawk (Mrs. C. W. Tyler – 20 rooms), Riverside (Mrs. H. W. Hancock – 10 rooms), Oakland (George R. Duncan – 19 rooms), Quisisana (E. L. Caswell – 59 rooms), Seminole (Mrs. J. W. Lucas – 19 rooms), Clarendon House (Mrs. E. Y. Harvey – 9 rooms), Fleming House (F. A. Fleming at Hibernia – 29 rooms) and Martin (Mrs. M. Martin at Orange Park -47 rooms). By the Great Depression, even these struggled.
A – M
Hotels in Other Times
One of the first structures in the Keystone Heights area, this hotel was built by William King after 1900. Later, John J. Lawrence used the structure as the headquarters of his Lawrence Development Co. as he founded Keystone Heights.
Club Continental
Now a private club with bed and breakfast facilities, the grounds and buildings of the Caleb Johnson estate have a rich history, intermingled with the development of Orange Park, Florida. Located on the banks of the St. Johns River, the club is a sought-after venue for many weddings and receptions.
Colonial Inn at Penney Farms
Built in the 1930’s by the WPA out of second-hand bricks, this inn’s last known public function was during the county’s celebration of the nation’s bicentennial in 1976.
Mrs. Monroe’s
The first inn of any sort known in Clay County, it was located on the Alachua Trail. Mrs. Monroe’s Inn was destroyed by fire during the First Seminole War.
Mohawk Hotel
The Mohawk Hotel served as the Green Cove Springs bus station for many years. Personnel from the Naval base could be seen milling about with other patrons as they waited for buses to arrive (late 1940’s). It became a hotel in the 1910’s, and was torn down in 1963.
St. Johns Inn
Apparently built prior to 1927 and existed when Long Branch changed its name to Penney Farms in that year.
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Daily Shopper -Keeping Internet Shopping Simple
Daily Shopper – Internet Shopping Made Easy!
View Australia’s discounted range of Technology products ranging from cables, cameras, earphones, smartphone and tablet accessories, car mounts and many more available for fast delivery.
The Development of Technology.
Development of technology over the years has taken place at an uneven pace. When science was not very developed technological development progressed at a slow pace. As scientific knowledge increased, the rate of technological development also increased. Let us see how technological developed from 600 BC to the present.
Technology -600 BC and AD 1800
During Ad 1500-1800 technology developed at a faster pace than before. One of the prime reasons for the slow development of technology before this period was the hit or miss of to the fabrication of tools. Instead of knowing the scientific principles required, people built things by trial and error. Quite often, the scientific principles became clear to them after they tried to explain why an invention worked. The importance of systematic study of science was stressed by eminent scientists like Alhazen (11th century), Roger Bacon (13th century), Francis Bacon, Copernicus and Galileo (16th and 17th centuries). They stressed on scientific observations from which scientific laws could be deduced. They also insisted on the verification of scientific theories. When such scientific methods became established, it was easier to develop tools systematically rather than by empirical approach.
Technology -AD 1800- 1900
During the 19th century, science progressed rapidly. Consequently, technology also progressed rapidly. The major technological developments during this period. The interrelationship between science and technology became firmly established in the 19th century. New technologies emerged which incorporated a number of scientific principles. Examples of this are Davy’s safety lamp and electric generator.
When a number of scientific principles became known, several of these principles were applied to manufacture a sophisticated machine. For example, an electric generator involves the principles of electricity, mechanical engineering, heat conduction, etc.
During this period better engines and machines were developed. Alternate sources of energy were found. This led to large scale industrialization across Europe and America. Now it was possible to produce goods on a mass scale. Take the example of cloth produced on a hand operated loom. It takes a long time to weave a few meters of cloth. However, a power-operated loom can produce cloth at a higher speed and requires fewer workers. Thus, with machines it is possible to produce goods on a mass scale and the goods, thus, produced are cheaper and consistent in quality.
These factors coupled with the availability of alternate energy sources brought about a revolution in manufacturing, and the period from about 1770-1870 is known as the Period of Industrial revolution. During the industrial Revolution rapid progress was made in the field of transportation. The technology of steam-engine was used in making railway engines and steam-powered ships. These developments helped in rapid transportation of goods and people. Later, petrol engines were developed which eventually led to the development of cars and airplanes.
Technology 2000 and beyond.
One can only sit in amazement at the technological development of today; the age of the computer has placed the world in our hands. Embrace technology and improve your quality of life.
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Spend a relaxing weekend along the beautiful River Bend in the North Georgia Mountains
The Tickanetley Bend
William Theophilus Brantley
{1787 - 1845}
Dr. William Theophilus Brantley, born William Tomlinson Brantley, was a leading Protestant minister in America in the early 1800s. Dr Brantley was born in Chatham County, North Carolina on January 23, 1787. He was the son of William and Mary (Tomlinson) Brantley, and grandson of John and Hannah Brantley. He was drawn to the ministry early in life and later became a Doctor of Divinity. He entered the University of South Carolina in 1806 and graduated in 1808. In 1809, at age 22, he became Rector of the Richmond Academy at Augusta, Georgia.
In 1820, he was serving as the president of Beaufort College, and minister of the Beaufort Baptist Church. After the term in Beaufort, he would return and again serve as Rector at the Richmond Academy. He organized the first Baptist congregation in Augusta and after initiating the drive to build it, became the first pastor of, what is now The First Baptist Church of Augusta. Today, the church that was dedicated on May 6, 1821, displays a portrait of Dr Brantley in the entrance foyer. Citizens give credit to him for the church's establishments. He married in Hancock County, Georgia on September 14, 1809, a young widow, Mrs. Anna (McDonald) Martin. She was sister to governor Charles J. McDonald of Georgia. In 1818, after bearing at least four children, Anna died. He then married Margaret Joiner. They would issue at least five children. In April of 1826, Dr. Brantley and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he served as pastor of the first Baptist Church of Philadelphia, and editor of the Columbian Star which later become known as the Christian Index. In 1837 he returned south and became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina. He also served as President of the College of Charleston during this period. He appears in the census there in 1840. On the 18th day of July 1844, as he was about to hear the recitation of the Senior class of the college, he was stricken with a paralysis. Dr Brantley never recovered, and died at the home of his son, William Theophilus Jr. in Augusta, on March 25, 1845.
It has been said by more than one author, that Dr Brantley was the leading Protestant minister in the early 1800s. There are approximately 300 of Dr Brantley's sermons on file at Valley Forge, Penn.
J. Kenneth Brantley
Ken Brantley
Email: BrantleyAssoc@mindspring.com
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Attachments Catalog
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The final Fifa World Cup has been a remarkable accomplishment
July 11, 2019 tworules Leave a comment
If English women’s Soccer is to Capture the USA’s, Colleges Are Going to be Crucial “but we’re putting a much more ambitious goal for 2023. To attain this we’ll be working together with all the clubs in the FA Women’s Super League to make a fantasy for the women’s game that’s mutually supportive and are the envy of the planet.”This has been the Football Association’s mind of women’s soccer, Sue Campbell. She wasn’t talking after England’s defeat by the USA at Lyon but 2 decades back, in Wembley. In March 2017 that the FA established its flagship Gameplan for Development for the women’s match.
That third vision was divided up into two elements: to be”over the top few nations across all age classes” and have the”capacity to acquire the 2023 Fifa World Cup”.This was before Phil Neville; until the Barclays Women’s Super League exemptions; prior to the restructure and specialist high tier. If two decades is quite a while in football, it’s much longer in women’s soccer.So though the defeat in France remains raw, it’s crucial to reflect on the trip that began in 2017. Nobody belongs to a World Cup not needing to win however, this year’s championship wasn’t the golden target set out by the FA; it had been believed too soon. You might argue that Neville’s approaches were incorrect, he shuffled his pack a bit too much, which shifting the penalty-taker was a mistake, so which dividing the Lucy Bronze and Nikita Parris right-wing label group was an mistake, which Millie Bright isn’t equipped to pass from the trunk, which he possibly naively attempted to out-tactic the masters of game administration. But finally England were outclassed and it’s really hard to understand how some of the alternative starting XIs could have coped with all the pace and ability of the USA gamers in transition into much greater impact.You may even argue that the gap has been mindset. The USA are all winners. They have a chant for this — the awkward”we feel that we’ll acquire” rings out at each game. judi bola
On the other hand, the circumstance to this discussion is much deeper than all that. Underpinning that the US women’s national team is a national game and schooling system which provide them a gift pool and aggressive winning environment which other countries can only dream about. In the united states, however, there are 1.6 million officially registered players and it’s estimated that 9.5 million women and girls play organised football (with people from the National Collegiate Athletic Association or higher school program not necessarily officially registered with US Soccer).Instead, of teams which created the World Cup’s last eight, seven were out of the nine states listed as having over 100,000 registered players (just Canada and Australia didn’t create the quarter-finals from this record, although Italy bucked the trend). Faculties and colleges wanting to invest large in their men’s game needed to finance programmes for girls alike. The US has 21,065 licensed female trainers, 12 percent of the total. Where we’ve women forced to play boys’ teamsto travel miles to combine girls’ teams, and also a lesser competitive level since there are so few gamers, the US has women playing and training from childhood through the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Though the WSL might be grabbing up and potentially overtaking it, the profound foundations underpinning the game keep the Americans miles beforehand.They understand it.
That isn’t arrogance, it’s pride. Pride at a system which has delivered. “These girls came through their colleges with football,” she explained. “In certain colleges in America they receive football each day of this week. In a few of our schools we are lucky if they get a couple of hours weekly. You can not begin abruptly creating this three-quarters of how through their own development. You need to begin at the base stage. Until we get the foundations we are likely to be enjoying catch-up.”There’s plenty to not like about women’s soccer in the united states. It’s very much a snowy middle-class game, you need to pay to play out college, excluding those in the very exposed wallpapers, but the essentials of Title IX and the faculty system ought to be celebrated and secure.In England expansion is modest but important. The side have attained two major semi-finals because the Gameplan for Development premiered. There’s a guarantee to give every woman the opportunity to play soccer in college.”We are focusing on [grassroots] and making strides,” Neville said following the semi-final. “That takes four or five decades and we are 18 months.
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IN the flats of the featureless county of Longford stands the large and handsome but unpretentious house of Edgeworthstown. The scenery here has few natural attractions, but the loving care of several generations has gradually beautified the surroundings of the house, and few homes have been more valued or more the centre round which a large family circle has gathered in unusual sympathy and love. In his "Memoirs," Mr. Edgeworth tells us how his family, which had given a name to Edgeworth, now Edgeware, near London, came to settle in Ireland more than three hundred years ago. Roger Edgeworth, a monk, having taken advantage of the religious changes under Henry VIII., had married and left two sons, who, about 1583, established them-selves in Ireland. Of these, Edward, the elder, became Bishop of Down and Connor, and died without children; but the younger, Francis, became the founder of the family of Edgeworthstown. Always intensely Protestant, often intensely extravagant, each generation of the Edgeworth family afterwards had its own picturesque story, till Richard Edgeworth repaired the broken fortunes of his house, partly by success as a lawyer, partly by his marriage, in 1732, with Jane Lovell, daughter of a Welsh judge.
Their eldest son, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, was born in 1744, and educated in his boyhood at Drogheda School and Dublin University. Strong, handsome, clever, ingenious, and devoted to sports of every kind, he was a general favorite. But his high spirits often led him into scrapes; the most serious of these occurred during the festivities attendant on his eldest sister's marriage with Mr. Fox of Fox Hall, at which he played at being married to a young lady who was present, by one of the guests dressed up in a white cloak, with a door-key for a ring. This foolish escapade would not deserve the faintest notice, if it had not been seriously treated as an actual marriage by a writer in the "Quarterly Review."
In 1761 Richard Edgeworth was removed from Dublin to Corpus Christi College at Oxford. There he arrived, regretting the gayeties of Dublin, and anxious to make the most of any little excitements which his new life could offer. Amongst the introductions he brought with him was one to Mr. Paul Elers, who, himself of German extraction, had made a romantic marriage with Miss Hungerford, the heiress of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire. Mr. Elers honorably warned Mr. Edgeworth, who was an old friend of his, that he had four daughters who were very pretty, and that his friend had better be careful, as their small fortunes would scarcely fit one of them to be the wife of his son. But the elder Mr. Edgeworth took no notice - Richard was constantly at Black Bourton; and in 1768, being then only nineteen, he fled with Miss Anna Maria Elers to Gretna Green, where they were married. Great as was Mr. Edgeworth's displeasure, he wisely afterwards had the young couple remarried by license.
The union turned out unhappily. "I soon felt the inconveniences of an early and hasty marriage," wrote the bridegroom; "but, though I heartily repented my folly, I determined to bear with firmness and temper the evil which I had brought on myself." His eldest child, Richard, was born before he was twenty; his second, Maria, when he was twenty-four. Though he became master of Edgeworthstown by the death of his father in 1769, he lived for some years chiefly at Hare Hatch, near Maidenhead, where he already began to distract his attention from an ungenial home, by the endless plans for progress in agriculture and industry, and the disinterested schemes for the good of Ireland, which always continued to be the chief occupation of his life. It was his inventive genius which led to his paying a long visit to Lichfield to see Dr. Darwin. There he lingered long in pleasant intimacy with the doctor and his wife, with Mr. Wedgwood, Miss Anna Seward, - "the Swan of Lichfield," - and, still more, with the eccentric Thomas Day, author of "Sandford and Merton," who became his most intimate friend, and who wished to marry his favorite sister Margaret, though she could not make up her mind to accept him, and eventually became the wife of Mr. Ruxton of Black Castle. With Mrs. Seward and her daughters lived at that time - partly for educational purposes - Honora Sneyd, a beautiful and gifted girl, who had rejected the addresses of the afterwards famous Major André, and who now also refused those of Mr. Day. "In her, Honora Sneyd," wrote Mr. Edgeworth, "I saw for the first time in my life a woman that equaled the picture of perfection existing in my imagination. And then my not being happy at home exposed me to the danger of being too happy elsewhere." When he began to feel as if the sunshine of his life emanated from his friendship with Miss Sneyd, he was certain flight was the only safety. So leaving Mrs. Edgeworth and her little girls with her mother, he made his escape to France, taking with him only his boy, whom he determined to educate according to the system of Rousseau. Then, for two years, he remained at Lyons, employing his inventive and mechanical powers in building bridges.
Meantime, the early childhood of Maria Edgeworth, who was born 1st January, 1767, in the house of her grandfather, Mr. Elers, at Black Bourton, was spent almost entirely with relations in Oxfordshire, or with her maternal great-aunts, the Misses Blake, in Great Russell Street in London. It was in their house that her neglected and unloved mother - always a kind and excellent, though a very sad woman - died after her confinement of a third daughter (Anna) in 1773. On hearing of what he considered to be his release, Mr. Edgeworth hurried back at once to England, and, before four months were over, he was married to Miss Honora Sneyd, whose assent to so hasty a marriage would scarcely prepare those who were unacquainted with her for the noble, simple, and faithful way in which she ever fulfilled the duties of a wife and stepmother. The son of the first marriage, Richard Edgeworth, went, by his own choice, to sea; but the three little girls, Maria, Emmeline, and Anna, returned with their father and stepmother to Edgeworthstown, where they had a childhood of unclouded happiness.
In 1775 Maria Edgeworth, being then eight years old, was sent to a school at Derby, kept by Mrs. Lataffiere, to whom she always felt much indebted, though her stepmother, then in very failing health, continued to take part in her education by letter.
MRS. HONORA EDGEWORTH TO MARIA.
BEIGHTERTON, NEAR SHIFFNALL,
October 10, 1779.
I have received your letter, and I thank you for it, though I assure you I did not expect it. I am particularly desirous you should be convinced of this, as I told you I would write first. It is in vain to attempt to please a person who will not tell us what they do and what they do not desire; but as I tell you very fully what I think may be expected from a girl of your age, abilities, and education, I assure you, my dear Maria, you may entirely depend upon me, that as long as I have the use of my understanding, I shall not be displeased with you for omitting anything which I had before told you I did not expect. Perhaps you may not quite understand what I mean, for I have not expressed myself clearly. If you do not, I will explain myself to you when we meet; for it is very agreeable to me to think of conversing with you as my equal in every respect but age, and of my making that inequality of use to you by giving you the advantage of the experience I have had, and the observations I have been able to make, as these are parts of knowledge which nothing but time can bestow.
In the spring of 1780 Mrs. Honora Edgeworth died of consumption, leaving an only son, Lovell, and a daughter, Honora. Mr. Edgeworth announced this - which to her was a most real sorrow - to his daughter Maria in a very touching letter, in which he urges her to follow her lost stepmother's example, especially in endeavoring to be "amiable, prudent, and of use;" but within eight months he married again. Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, when dying, had been certain that he would do so, and had herself indicated her own sister Elizabeth as the person whose character was most likely to secure a happy home to him and his children. So, with his usual singularity, though he liked her less than any of her other sisters, and though he believed her utterly unsuited to himself, he followed the advice which had been given; and in spite of law and public opinion, Elizabeth Sneyd became the third Mrs. Edgeworth within eight months of her sister's death.
"Nothing," wrote Mr. Edgeworth, "is more erroneous than the common belief that a man who has lived in the greatest happiness with one wife will be the most averse to take another. On the contrary, the loss of happiness which he feels when he loses her necessarily urges him to endeavor to be again placed in the situation which constituted his former felicity.
"I felt that Honora had judged wisely and from a thorough knowledge of my character, when she advised me to marry again as soon as I could meet with a woman who would make a good mother to my children, and an agreeable companion to me. She had formed an idea that her sister Elizabeth was better suited to me than any other woman, and thought I was equally suited to her. But, of all Honora's sisters, I had seen the least of Elizabeth."
Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth proved herself worthy of her sister's confidence. She was soon adored by her stepchildren, and her conduct to them was in all respects maternal. Maria at this time was removed from Bath to the school of Mrs. Davis, in Upper Wimpole Street, London, where she had excellent masters. Here her talent as an improvisatrice was first manifested in the tales she used to tell to her companions in their bedroom at night. She also, by his desire, frequently wrote stories and sent them for her father's criticism and approval. During holidays, which she often spent with his old friend Mr. Day at Anningsly, she benefited by an admirable library and by Mr. Day's advice as to her reading.
In 1782 Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth returned to Ireland, taking the whole family with them. Maria was now fifteen, and was old enough to be interested in all the peculiarities of the Irish as contrasted with the English character, soon showing such natural aptitude for dealing with those around her, that her father intrusted her with all his accounts, and practically employed her as his agent for many years. Thus she obtained an insight into the lives and characters of her humbler neighbors, which was of inestimable value to her when afterwards writing her sketches of Irish life. She already began to Nan many stories, most of which were never finished. But Mr. Edgewonth discouraged this. In the last year of her life Miss Edgeworth wrote: "I remember a number of literary projects, if I may so call them, or aperçus of things which I might have written if I had time or capacity so to do. The word aperçu my father used to object to. 'Let us have none of your aperçus, Maria: either follow a thing out clearly to a conclusion, or do not begin it: begin nothing without finishing it.,"
Building and planning alterations and improvements of every kind at Edgeworthstown were at once begun by Mr. Edgeworth, but always within his income. He also made two rules: he employed no middlemen, and he always left a year's rent in his tenants' hands. "Go before Mr. Edgeworth, and you will surely get justice," became a saying in the neighborhood.
"Some men live with their families without letting them know their affairs," wrote Miss Edgeworth, "and, however great may be their affection and esteem for their wives and children, think that they have nothing to do with business. This was not my father's way of thinking. On the contrary, not only his wife, hut his children, knew all his affairs. Whatever business he had to do was done in the midst of his family, usually in the common sitting-room; so that we were intimately acquainted, not only with his general principles of conduct, but with the minute details of their every-day application. I further enjoyed some peculiar advantages: he kindly wished to give me habits of business, and for this purpose allowed me, during many years, to assist him in copying his letters of business, and in receiving his rents."
With the younger children Mr. Edgeworth's educational system was of the most cheerful kind; they were connected with all that was going on, made sharers in all the occupations of their elders, and not so much taught as shown how best to teach themselves. "I do not think one tear per month is shed in this house, nor the voice of reproof heard, nor the hand of restraint felt," wrote Mr. Edgeworth to Dr. Darwin. In both precept and practice he was the first to recommend what is described by Bacon as the experimental mode of education. "Surely," says Miss Edgeworth, "it would be doing good service to bring into a popular form all that metaphysicians have discovered which can be applied to practice in education. This was early and long my father's object. The art of teaching to invent - I dare not say, but of awakening and assisting the inventive power by daily exercise and excitement, and by the applieation of philosophic principles to trivial occurrences - he believed might be pursued with infinite advantage to the rising generation."
Maria Edgeworth found very congenial society in the family of her relation, Lord Longford, at Pakenham, which was twelve miles from Edgeworthstown, and in that of Lord Granard, at Castle Forbes, nine miles distant. Lady Granard's mother, Lady Moira, full of wit and wisdom, and with great nobility of character, would pour out her rich stores of reminiscence for the young girl with ceaseless kindness. But more than any other was her life influenced, helped, cheered, and animated by the love of her father's sister Margaret, Mrs. Ruxton, the intimate friend and correspondent of forty-two years, whose home, Black Castle, was within a long drive of Edgeworthstown Mrs. Ruxton's three children - Richard, Sophy, and Margaret - were Maria Edgeworth's dearest companions and friends.
CONTENTS | 1787-1793.
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Cheryll Chung
Founder and Artistic Director, Cheryll Chung is a conductor, pianist, singer and vocal coach from Toronto, Canada. Most recently, she was featured in the latest Chorus America issue of “Voices”. She holds a Masters of Music in conducting from the University of Toronto, where she studied choral conducting with her mentor Dr. Doreen Rao and Orchestral Conducting with Raffi Armenian.
Cheryll was twice recipient of the prestigious Elmer Iseler Conducting Fellowship in her Masters program, where she had the privilege of working with the Elmer Iseler Singers and Lydia Adams. She received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Scholarship from Yale University’s School of Music in 2010 when she attended the Norfolk Conducting Institute as a conductor and singer. She has also received the John O. McKellar Scholarship for her work in music education and choral studies.
She is currently conductor of the Academy Choir, part of the Taylor Performance Academy at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She was resident conductor of the Heliconian Choir and Orchestra.
As a pianist, she has won awards and performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist . Cheryll has studied with Boris Lysenko, Marina Gerginas and Lynda Metelsky.
She was a master class conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival, and Toronto Bach Festival where she worked with Helmuth Rilling, and the Norfolk Conducting Institute where she worked with Simon Carrington. She was also a master class conductor with the Canadian Chamber Choir (Julia Davids), and Sarteano Conducting Conference (Brian O’Connell, Simon Carrington). Cheryll has sung in MacMillan Singers and the Bach Festival Singers with the Toronto Symphony during her studies at the University of Toronto.
Her dedication to education and working with children led her to work with Zimfira Poloz by assistant conducting and vocal coaching the High Park Children’s Chorus (2006-2009). She was the conductor of the St. Clements orchestra (2004-2006), York Region Children’s Chorus and the University of Toronto MacMillan Chamber Singers (2004-2006), and guest conducted community and regional choirs.
She continues to give professional development workshops with community ensembles, high school and elementary school choirs and orchestras.
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Premier League Football’s Heroes
Heroes were made and dreams were broken time and again. Certainly since 1992, when Premier League Football was first established. Who could forget that Alan Shearer scored a total of 260 goals for the teams he was associated with, including Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, and Southampton respectively. What about Ryan Giggs, originally from Wales, who made a total of 632 Premier League appearances over the years, for Manchester United? Indeed, Manchester United dominates the 25 years of Premier League history, having won a whopping 12 seasons.
Cult Stat us on the Field
But what about the so-called ‘cult’ heroes of professional football? These are young men who have stood out over the years, not only for their talent in the beautiful game, but because of their tenacity too, and their ability to rise beyond sometimes terrible financial or personal circumstances.
Five of the Best, from Nigeria to Croatia, Scotland to France
Think of Ade Akinbiyi, formerly from Nigeria, who played the position of forward and was referred to as the most clinical striker of his generation.
Or Eduardo Alves da Silva, commonly known simply as Eduardo, who is a Brazilian-born Croatian footballer who is considered an asset in any forward position and has been the secret ingredient in many a victorious match.
And then, there’s the incomparable Vinnie Jones, who excelled as a midfielder in the 1980s and 1990s but may be better known these days as an actor.
Duncan Ferguson was nicknamed Duncan Disorderly. He has scored more goals than any other Scottish player in the FA Premier League.
And not to forget Eric Cantona, the top hero in sports journalist Harry Burford’s books. Also an actor these days, Cantona played for six French teams before moving to Leeds United and then Manchester United. He won no less than four Premier League titles in a period of five years, before calling it quits.
Premier League Fever At Its Hottest
Referees and Their Rule of Thumb
Props and Futures in Premier League Football
The Dodgy Side of Football Bets
How to bet on premier league football; why it’s fun
Твіти про #football lang:en
Carmarthenrfc.co.uk Copyright © 2019.
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Seattle Times news librarian Gene Balk crunches the numbers
As Seattle gets richer, the city’s black households get poorer
Posted by Gene Balk
It may feel like boom times in Seattle, but at least one group is being left out: the city’s black residents.
While Seattle’s median household income soared to an all-time high of $70,200 last year, wages for blacks nose-dived to $25,700 — a 13.5 percent drop from 2012. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, Seattle now has the ninth lowest income for black households.
Seattle, which has the largest black community in the Pacific Northwest, also lags the country as a whole. Nationally, black households have median earnings of $34,800 — 35 percent higher than Seattle.
While last year’s decline is particularly dramatic, black household wealth in Seattle has in fact been spiraling downward for years. Remarkably, the earnings were higher in 2000 than they are today, before adjusting for inflation: The 2000 household median was $32,000, equal to $44,800 in 2013 dollars.
Also, the rate of homeownership has dropped by nearly half since 2000. Today, just one out of five black households in Seattle own its home. (The census defines a black household as one in which the person identified on census forms as “householder” is black.)
However, the reasons behind the decline are complex, and the area’s shifting demographics play a key role.
For decades, the Central District was the heart of Seattle’s African-American community — a stable, working-class neighborhood where many residents owned their homes. But with gentrification beginning in the late 1980s, blacks began leaving the neighborhood — and the city. By 2010, the Central District — which was nearly 80 percent black in 1970 — had become majority white.
Despite changes in the CD, Seattle’s overall black population has held steady in number, at around 47,000. But the composition of that population changed dramatically with the arrival of a new wave of émigrés from Africa — particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea — who settled mostly in Rainier Valley. In 2000, just 13 percent of blacks in Seattle were born outside the United States. Today, it’s 30 percent.
Many of those immigrants are low-wage workers, which has contributed to the overall decline in income for black households here.
In an interesting demographic twist, as more whites are moving into the city, more blacks are relocating to the suburbs. If you’re wondering where Seattle’s African-American middle class went, check out parts of King County south of Seattle. In Renton, for example, where the black population has doubled since 2000, the median household income is $42,400 — 65 percent higher than Seattle.
But do demographic shifts alone adequately explain why the black community in affluent Seattle is among the poorest of any big city — and why Seattle’s recent good economic fortune has coincided with less, rather than more, equality?
Related story: For African-American pastor, suburbs a welcome shift
Comments | More in Demographics, Government Data | Topics: African-Americans, Census Bureau, income
Gene has been a news librarian at The Seattle Times since 2002. He is a native of New Jersey, and earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Rutgers University. Before coming to The Times, he worked for the Orange County Register and the Baltimore Sun.
Tweets by @genebalk
From Gene: Know of some interesting data related to Seattle or Washington? Contact me at gbalk@seattletimes.com or at @genebalk on Twitter.
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History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.
HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
business for himself, was a clerk for six years, in the general store of N. McRie. In 1882 he erected his present handsome and commodious quarters. The building is of frame, veneered with brick, 25x60 feet in size, containing a store room on the ground floor, and Mr. Jerman's res¬ idence above. In 1883 he erected another build¬ ing, similar to the first, and adjoining the same. These buildings form one of the finest business blocks in the city. Mr. Jerman is a successful business man, and has built up a large trade. He married Blanche Terhune, daughter of Judge Terhune, one of the best known citizens of Vernon county. They have one son-Ray¬ mond L.
James H. Layne, of Viroqua, settled in the town of Franklin, in 1854. He purchased a farm which included what was afterward the village of Brookville, which latter place he laid out and platted. He was born in Amherst Co., Va., in 1812. He removed to Kentucky, in 1828, where he resided till 1852, when he re¬ moved to Macon Co., 111. In the fall of 1853 he removed to Platteville, Wis., and came to this county, as before stated, in 1854. The farm that he owned in the town of Franklin, he pur¬ chased of Benjamin McCormick. Mr. Layne was one of the prominent early settlers of that town ; was chairman of the board of supervi¬ sors several years, and represented his district in the State Assembly, in the session of 1862-3. On his removal to Viroqua, he bought the farm of William Good, which was settled by Moses Decker, one of the well known pioneers of Vernon county, and engaged in farming, and nursery and hop business. He is at present engaged with his son, Samuel P., in the sale of farming implements. Mr. Layne has been twice married. His first wife was Minerva May, a native of Kentucky. She died in 1879. His present wafe was Mrs. Amanda Burnett. He had five children by his first marriage, one daughter and four sons ; daughter died in childhood ; sons all grew to maturity. Newton M. was born in Kentucky,
in March, 1839. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of his pro¬ fession. On the breaking out of the civil war, he raised company C, of the 18th regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Was elected captain on the organization of the com¬ pany ; was captured at Shiloh; was after¬ ward exchanged, and participated in the siege of Vicksburg. He contracted a disease in the army of which he died.
Calvin Morley is one of the honored pioneers of Vernon county and Viroqua town. He came here from New York, his native State, in September, 1854. Mr. Morley was born in 1818, at Smyrna, Chenango county, where he grew to manhood. His parents, Abner and Amanda (Allen) Morley, were of New Eng¬ land stock, and located in New York after their marriage. At the age of sixteen years, Calvin was employed in a woolen factory, and con¬ tinued in that business until 1853, when he learned the cabinet trade, and worked at it for one year. Upon coming to this county he pre¬ empted a farm in Viroqua town, on which he resided one year, and then removed to the vil¬ lage. In 1861 he enlisted in company C, 18th regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. Layne. He served about one year, and was discharged for disability. He participated in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and after the war, returned to Vernon county, and again engaged in the cabinet trade. He is the pioneer in that branch of trade, having first commenced in 1855. Mr. Morley's principal occupation is painting, which business he still follows-. His wife was Elizabeth P. O'Toole, a native of Massachusetts, who removed to Utica, N. Y., with her parents when a small child. Mr. and Mrs. Morley have six children—William B., Margaret A., Fred, Frank E., Kate and Grace.
Aaron Riley lives on section 24, where he settled in September, 1854. He came to this town in July of that year. He has 160 acres of land which he bought of the government. He was born in Ohio; was married in PtIorgan
Title History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.
Title of work History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.
Short title History of Vernon County, Wisconsin
Author Union Publishing Company
Description This 1884 history of Vernon County, Wisconsin, covers such topics as geology and topography, Indians, the Winnebago War, the Black Hawk War, early settlers and pioneer life,politics and government, courts, railroads, pioneer reminiscences, Vernon County residents in teh Civil War, agriculture, medicine, newspapers, schools, and the towns, and villages of Bergen, Christiana, Clinton, Coon, Forest, Franklin, Genoa, Greenwood, Hamburg, Harmony, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Kickapoo, Liberty, Stark, Sterling, Union, Viroqua, Webster, Wheatland, and Whitetown. Biographical sketches of residents of the counties are included.
Place of Publication (Original) Springfield, Illinois
Publisher (Original) Union Publishing Company
Identifier-Digital Vern1884000
County Vernon County;
Decade 1820-1829; 1830-1839; 1840-1849; 1850-1859; 1860-1869; 1870-1879; 1880-1889;
Full Text 704 HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY. business for himself, was a clerk for six years, in the general store of N. McRie. In 1882 he erected his present handsome and commodious quarters. The building is of frame, veneered with brick, 25x60 feet in size, containing a store room on the ground floor, and Mr. Jerman's res¬ idence above. In 1883 he erected another build¬ ing, similar to the first, and adjoining the same. These buildings form one of the finest business blocks in the city. Mr. Jerman is a successful business man, and has built up a large trade. He married Blanche Terhune, daughter of Judge Terhune, one of the best known citizens of Vernon county. They have one son-Ray¬ mond L. James H. Layne, of Viroqua, settled in the town of Franklin, in 1854. He purchased a farm which included what was afterward the village of Brookville, which latter place he laid out and platted. He was born in Amherst Co., Va., in 1812. He removed to Kentucky, in 1828, where he resided till 1852, when he re¬ moved to Macon Co., 111. In the fall of 1853 he removed to Platteville, Wis., and came to this county, as before stated, in 1854. The farm that he owned in the town of Franklin, he pur¬ chased of Benjamin McCormick. Mr. Layne was one of the prominent early settlers of that town ; was chairman of the board of supervi¬ sors several years, and represented his district in the State Assembly, in the session of 1862-3. On his removal to Viroqua, he bought the farm of William Good, which was settled by Moses Decker, one of the well known pioneers of Vernon county, and engaged in farming, and nursery and hop business. He is at present engaged with his son, Samuel P., in the sale of farming implements. Mr. Layne has been twice married. His first wife was Minerva May, a native of Kentucky. She died in 1879. His present wafe was Mrs. Amanda Burnett. He had five children by his first marriage, one daughter and four sons ; daughter died in childhood ; sons all grew to maturity. Newton M. was born in Kentucky, in March, 1839. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of his pro¬ fession. On the breaking out of the civil war, he raised company C, of the 18th regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Was elected captain on the organization of the com¬ pany ; was captured at Shiloh; was after¬ ward exchanged, and participated in the siege of Vicksburg. He contracted a disease in the army of which he died. Calvin Morley is one of the honored pioneers of Vernon county and Viroqua town. He came here from New York, his native State, in September, 1854. Mr. Morley was born in 1818, at Smyrna, Chenango county, where he grew to manhood. His parents, Abner and Amanda (Allen) Morley, were of New Eng¬ land stock, and located in New York after their marriage. At the age of sixteen years, Calvin was employed in a woolen factory, and con¬ tinued in that business until 1853, when he learned the cabinet trade, and worked at it for one year. Upon coming to this county he pre¬ empted a farm in Viroqua town, on which he resided one year, and then removed to the vil¬ lage. In 1861 he enlisted in company C, 18th regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. Layne. He served about one year, and was discharged for disability. He participated in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and after the war, returned to Vernon county, and again engaged in the cabinet trade. He is the pioneer in that branch of trade, having first commenced in 1855. Mr. Morley's principal occupation is painting, which business he still follows-. His wife was Elizabeth P. O'Toole, a native of Massachusetts, who removed to Utica, N. Y., with her parents when a small child. Mr. and Mrs. Morley have six children—William B., Margaret A., Fred, Frank E., Kate and Grace. Aaron Riley lives on section 24, where he settled in September, 1854. He came to this town in July of that year. He has 160 acres of land which he bought of the government. He was born in Ohio; was married in PtIorgan
History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with...
Certificates of Vernon County
History of Wisconsin
Chapter I. Pre-Historic and Settlement
Chapter II. Wisconsin as a Territory
Chapter III. Wisconsin as a State
History of Vernon County, Wisconsin
Chapter I. Area, Position and Physical Features
Chapter II. Topography and Geology
Chapter III. Ancient Inhabitants
Chapter IV. Early Explorations
Chapter V. The Winnebago War
Chapter VI. The Black Hawk War
Chapter VII. United States Land Surveys
Chapter VIII. First Settlement of the County
Chapter IX. Pioneer Life
Chapter X. First Things
Chapter XI. Formation and Organization of the County
Chapter XII. Territorial, State and Congressional Representation
Chapter XIII. County Government
Chapter XIV. Civil Sub-Divisions of Vernon County
Chapter XV. The Courts of Vernon County
Chapter XVI. The Bar of Vernon County
Chapter XVII. The War for the Union
Chapter XVIII. Pioneer Reminiscences
Chapter XIX. Election Returns
Chapter XX. County Representation
Chapter XXI. The Medical Profession
Chapter XXII. Agriculture and the Agricultural Society
Chapter XXIII. The Press
Chapter XXIV. The Great Tornado
Chapter XXV. Previously Published Historical Sketches
Chapter XXVI. Miscellaneous
Chapter XXVII. Poets and Poetry
Chapter XXVIII. The Schools of Vernon County
Chapter XXIX. Various Things
Chapter XXX. The Town of Bergen
Chapter XXXI. The Town of Christiana
Chapter XXXII. The Town of Clinton
Chapter XXXIII. The Town of Coon
Chapter XXXIV. The Town of Forest
Chapter XXXV. The Town of Franklin
Chapter XXXVI The Town of Genoa
Chapter XXXVII. The Town of Greenwood
Chapter XXXVIII. The Town of Hamburg
Chapter XXXIX. Town of Harmony
Chapter XL. The Town of Hillsborough
Chapter XLI. The Town of Jefferson
Chapter XLII. The Town of Kickapoo
Chapter XLIII. The Town of Liberty
Chapter XLIV. The Town of Stark
Chapter XLV. The Town of Sterling
Chapter XLVI. The Town of Union
Chapter XLVII. Village and Town of Viroqua
Chapter XLVIII. Town of Webster
Chapter XLIX. The Town of Wheatland
Chapter L. Town of Whitestown
Chapter LI. Honorable Mention
Chapter LII. Miscellaneous
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Results for Best Football Program 2014
Fort Thomas, KY
Highlands, which is celebrating its 100th football season this year, has won 22 state championships and been nationally ranked eight times. The Bluebirds have gone undefeated 13 times, more than any other school in Kentucky. At the end of O...
Louisville Male
The Male football program has won seven state championships and eight region titles (including last season). Male has plenty of history on its side, too: The Bulldogs began their football rivalry with Manual in 1893. The school is ranked No...
Mayfield, KY
Mayfield has won three of the past four Class 1A state championships under coach Joe Morris. On Oct. 12, 2012 the Cardinals notched their 800th win in program history, and their current win total ranks in the top 10 nationally.
Saint Xavier
Saint Xavier has a long history of winning football games, and with more than 725 wins, the school ranks in the top 50 nationally in all-time victories. Through the years, the school has won championships in the 3A, 4A and 6A ranks. Its riv...
You can't talk about Trinity football without talking about its rivalry with Saint Xavier (which Sporting News has called the best high school football rivalry in the nation). The two teams' annual contest has drawn more than 38,000 fans. B...
Mayfield Mayfield, KY
Louisville Male Louisville, KY
Saint Xavier Louisville, KY
Trinity Louisville, KY
Highlands Fort Thomas, KY
Derby Derby, KS
Valdosta Valdosta, GA
Ocean Lakes Dolphins Virginia Beach, VA
Washington Sioux Falls, SD
Omaha North Omaha, NE
Oscar Smith Tigers Chesapeake, VA (Virginia)
Olathe North Olathe, KS (Kansas)
Hutchinson Hutchinson, MN (Minnesota)
McCook McCook, NE (Nebraska)
Bishop Chatard Indianapolis, IN (Indiana)
USA TODAY High School Sports begins its Best Football Program competition at noon ET Nov. 10 with 255 schools – five per state and Washington D.C. - in the state round, which ends at 2 p.m. ET Nov. 19. The 51 winners and five wildcards will advance to the regional round, where they will be divided among eight regions. The regional round will begin at noon ET Nov. 20 and will end at 2 p.m. ET Dec. 1. The eight regional winners and two wildcards will advance to the national round, which will begin at noon ET Dec. 2 and end at 2 p.m. ET Dec. 10.
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Faith & Family Media Blog
Family Theater Productions
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Who Was Mary Magdalene? Fact, Fiction and Films
by Kate O'Hare
Category: Faith and Family on the Internet Family Movies & Television Inspirational Kate O'Hare News & Trends Uncategorized
Today (July 22) is the inaugural Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, upgraded from a memorial. But there long has been a confusion about who she was, with many assuming she was a reformed prostitute — even though there’s no direct evidence of that.
From a post at EWTN:
Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute and where in the Bible does it say that?
Answer by Catholic Answers on 9/27/2006:
Although it is a popular assumption, the Bible does not say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. It says only that Jesus cast out seven devils from her (Mark 16:9).
Mary was also one of the people at the foot of the Cross, with Christ’s mother Mary and John, the “beloved disciple.” And, going to the tomb to anoint the body of Christ after the Crucifixion, she is the first to encounter the Risen Christ, as shown in this painting, “Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene After the Resurrection,” by Alexander Ivanov (posted today, with a quote from today’s Mass readings, at our Facebook page):
There was a woman who led a “sinful life” who anointed Christ’s feet with oil and her tears, and dried them with her hair. She is not named, and while someone living “a sinful life” might be a prostitute, she might also be an adulteress or a woman living with a man to whom she is not married (or even a fortune teller, etc.).
While tradition in the past leaned toward this woman and Mary Magdalene being one and the same, we lack a direct connection (and there are several different Marys in the New Testament).
From the blog at CatholicFaithStore:
Fact or Fiction: Mary Magdalene washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair
Fiction: It’s often believed that Mary Magdalene repented before Jesus for her “sinful life” by washing his feet with her tears and hair (Luke 7:36-50).
In those times, it was believed that a woman who led a “sinful life” was a prostitute or adulterer. Historians argue that Mary Magdalene’s name is never mentioned as the woman who washed Jesus’ feet. All that the verses say is, “A woman in that town who lived a sinful life” learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” Since there is no mention of the woman’s name, scholars say they can’t say with certainty that the woman was Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is also believed to be the adulterous woman who was saved by Jesus from being stoned to death (John 8:3-11). Again, there’s no mention of the adulterous woman’s name.
Why did so many believe Mary Magdalene was a prostitute?
The belief that Mary Magdalene was the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet gained stronghold in the sixth century, when Pope Gregory the Great declared in one of his sermons that he believed the unnamed woman to be Mary Magdalene. Furthermore, Pope Gregory believed that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene was the same person. It was not until centuries later, in 1969, when the Catholic Church declared that Pope Gregory was mistaken and that Mary Magdalene was not the penitent woman in Luke 7:36-50. Furthermore, the Church clarified that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene were two different people.
And now, this “Apostle to the Apostles” has her own feast day. From a story today at Catholic News Agency:
The reason (for a feast), according to Archbishop Arthur Roche, is that she “has the honor to be the first witness of the Lord’s resurrection.”
“She is the witness to the risen Christ and announces the message of the Lord’s resurrection just like the rest of the Apostles,” he said, explaining that for this reason “it is right that the liturgical celebration of this woman should have the same rank of Feast as that given to the celebration of the Apostles in the General Roman Calendar.”
Nevertheless, the notion that she was a prostitute persists.
As recently as the movie “Risen,” which hit theaters in January, Mary Magdalene has been identified as a prostitute — which led to one of the biggest jokes in the film. As the Roman tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) is seeking Mary, he enters a house of ill repute and asks who knows her, and all the men’s hands go up.
Here’s a scene of her interrogation:
The notion of a repentant sinner, especially a prostitute, becoming the first witness to the Resurrection is a powerful and romantic one. It makes for a great story, but as with many things that sound good, it may not be true.
Regardless of her history, what we know for certain is that Mary Magdalene was the first to proclaim the Good News, and if nothing else, that alone accords her a place of honor in salvation history.
What do do know for sure is she was NOT Jesus’ wife, as portrayed in the silly film “The Da Vinci Code.” In 2012, Harvard historian Karen King claimed that a tiny scrap of papyrus was evidence that of the nuptial relationship — leading the Smithsonian Channel to rush out a breathless documentary — but even King now admits it’s probably a fake.
From a June 16 report in The Atlantic (whose investigation of the papyrus caused King to question her findings — meaning a popular magazine successfully refuted an Ivy League academic):
She reached this conclusion, she said, after reading The Atlantic’s investigation into the papyrus’s origins, which appears in the magazine’s July/August issue and was posted to its website Wednesday night.
“It tips the balance towards forgery,” she said.
King said she would need scientific proof—or a confession—to make a definitive finding of forgery. It’s theoretically possible that the papyrus itself is authentic, she said, even if its provenance story is bogus. But the preponderance of the evidence, she said, now “presses in the direction of forgery.
Now, the saint is going to get her own movie, “Mary Magdalene.” But as this is a Hollywood film, there’s no way to tell whether it will bear any resemblance to the Bible. Also, as in some other recent Bible films, the casting may not match the actual ethnicity of the characters. Here’s what we know so far, from CinemaBlend:
The planned film will follow the life of Mary Magdalene, one of the female followers of Jesus Christ. Rooney Mara will play the title role, while Joaquin Phoenix will portray Jesus. Now, The Wrap is reporting that Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to take the role of Peter. In Roman Catholicism, Peter is recognized as the first Pope, making him a major figure in modern western Christianity.
As a bonus, here’s a homily on Mary Magdalene from EWTN:
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Ryan Addresses International Alzheimer’s Conference
By Admin / Posted on August 30th, 2018
Photo credit: LaCour Images
Being seen goes deeper than recognizing the visible attributes of a person. When a person is truly seen their inner complexities shine and all labels associated with them (such as Alzheimer’s disease) are shed. Their preferences in everyday life are understood and their uniqueness is honored.
This was the message that Susan Ryan, The Green House Project senior director, brought to the stage at the 33rd International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), held July 26-29th in Chicago, Ill. Ryan delivered a keynote presentation and participated in a panel discussion with the goal of ‘power washing’ conventional thinking in today’s dementia care.
The Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference is the the longest running and one of the largest international conferences on dementia, attracting delegates from around the world. Ryan was among a range of international expert speakers, making up a unique program that enables participants to learn about the latest advances in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and management of dementia.
The concept of being seen (#SeeMe) applies especially to a large percentage of people living in long-term care settings, who are defined by their diagnosis of dementia. Their diagnosis assigns them a label that emphasizes what they can’t do and what’s been lost. Ryan’s message was a call to destigmatize and humanize those living with dementia, in order to see the whole person first.
To see this in action, Ryan encouraged the audience to take a deeper look at how the symptoms of dementia are presented to the outside world. She noted that the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) is a term used to describe the following “symptoms” that occur in people with dementia: agitation, aberrant motor behavior, anxiety, elation, irritability, depression, apathy, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations, and sleep or appetite changes. According to a 2012 study in the Frontiers of Neurology, about 90 percent of people with dementia have BPSD. Ryan noted that while this finding is not surprising, it is presented in a way that categorizes people with dementia even further.
Instead of following common thinking, Ryan said, what if instead the finding was that 90 percent of people living with dementia will find themselves in a situation where their well-being is not adequately supported? Attendees were encouraged to take it a step further and think through how this revolutionary way of thinking would change the way that providers and other stakeholders “#SeeMe.”
The good news is that this is already happening, Ryan noted. The Green House Project has developed Best Life, a memory care program that is built on the initiative’s core values of Meaningful Life, Empowered staff, and Real Home. Best Life is a process to transform the paradigm and defy the stigmas associated with dementia, she explained.
Ryan concluded by imploring her international audience to “lead the way, address the stigma surrounding dementia, and support caregivers with the skills to see each elder as a unique individual, and to connect them to a meaningful life.”
St. John’s Selects Vice President of Skilled Services: Nate Sweeney
By Admin / Posted on August 23rd, 2018
The Green House Project Team congratulates Nate Sweeney on his new position with St. John’s!
Rochester, NY via The Post Aug 22, 2018
St. John’s recently announced that Nate Sweeney joined its team as vice president of skilled services.
Sweeney is bringing 17 years of experience in the health care industry, with nearly a decade spent in long-term care.
Sweeney will lead St. John’s skilled nursing operations and focus on developing a nonmedical model of long-term care through advancement of organization directors, processes and culture. He will be responsible for supervising and developing the clinical and administrative businesses of skilled services including Penfield’s Green House Homes, St. John’s main campus of 400 residents and its medical-day program.
St. John’s Penfield Green House homes in Rochester.
“We’re confident Nate’s track record for strong leadership, experience, innovation and passion is a great match for our organization and team,” St. John’s President and CEO Charlie Runyon said. “Under Nate’s leadership, St. John’s will continue to advance its mission and evolve our services to provide the highest quality of care for our residents.“
Sweeney has extensive experience in the health care industry, specifically with exploring and operationalizing new models of care. Most recently, he served as executive director of the LGBT Health Resource Center of Chase Brexton Health Care in Baltimore. There he spearheaded the development of a new division in the organization that focused on resource development for the community, training and education for medical and social service providers and direct community programming.
Prior, Sweeney spent five years with the Catholic Charities of Baltimore where he drove two major changes for the organization. First, he worked with its nursing home, The Neighborhoods at St. Elizabeth, to change the culture of long-term care from pure medical to one focused on its residents. Next, he led the effort for the licensing and opening of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Green House Residence at Stadium Place, a program of Catholic Charities and a Green House Home.
Sweeney earned his master’s degree in management of aging services from the University of Maryland Baltimore Country and his Bachelor of Arts in education from University of Illinois. Outside of the office, he serves on the LGBT Aging Issues Network Council for the American Society on Aging. Sweeney resides in Rochester.
Breakthrough Skilled Nursing Facility Opening In Central Arkansas
By Admin / Posted on July 2nd, 2018
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. (PRWEB) JUNE 28, 2018
The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove (https://poplargrove.care/) announced today the planned Fall 2018 opening of the their long term and rehabilitative care facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. Poplar Grove is the first facility in Central Arkansas based on the Green House® model of care. (thegreenhouseproject.org)
“Poplar Grove is what the future of care can and should be for our elders,” said John Montgomery, Executive Director of Poplar Grove. “We’ve adopted this new model of care so that we can serve our community better than ever before, providing a higher quality of life for residents, as well as peace of mind for their families.”
The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove is creating over one hundred and forty new jobs in Central Arkansas. Commenting on the healthcare jobs being created Montgomery said: “We are looking for people who are passionate about the care and service they provide to others. You don’t necessarily need a background in healthcare to join our team. Do you love to cook for others? Do you love to plan and coordinate activities? Are you a registered nurse who has been anxiously waiting to transition into the new model of healthcare? We are looking for people who recognize the autonomy and dignity of care recipients and are passionate about creating a fantastic long term and rehabilitative care environment.”
Poplar Grove is built on the Green House® model of care, a revolutionary movement transforming skilled rehabilitation and nursing home care nationwide. The Green House® model has been highly acclaimed by many national experts and leading publications because it has been shown to deliver better health and satisfaction outcomes than traditional nursing homes (for more, see: (Green House Model Articles).
Here are five ways the Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove is different from a traditional nursing home:
A 1:4 direct care staff ratio, substantially more than the State/Federal average
A small cottage environment with a maximum of 12 residents, living life to its fullest in their own home with private rooms, private bathroom and showers, made to order, “family-style” meals based on elder’s choice… and so much more
A philosophy of care rooted in meaningful relationships, holistic care and a deep knowledge of each elder and their specific needs, produces a better quality of life and care
Superior equipment and technology
Each staff member undergoes a minimum of 120 hours of additional education and training in areas such as nutritional services; senior care techniques and dementia to become geriatric care specialists.
The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove in Little Rock will join the Green House® Cottages of Belle Meade in Paragould, AR, The Green House® of Southern Hills in Rison, AR and the Green House Cottages of Wentworth Place in Magnolia, AR as the fourth Green House® model facility developed by Southern Administrative Services, LLC in Arkansas.
“We are proud to bring this transformative new model of long term care to Central Arkansas,” said John Ponthie, Founding Member and Managing Director of Southern Administrative Services LLC. “By delivering outstanding care and creating a real home environment and providing elders with dignity, autonomy and choice, Poplar Grove will provide our Elders with the best quality of life possible.”
About The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove
The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove (https://poplargrove.care/) create loving homes where Elders are supported by quality care, choice, and positive relationships. In our homes, the Elder, not a calendar on the wall, decides the schedule of each Elder. Our caregivers are dedicated to the homes, helping to create meaningful relationships with our Elders. While Poplar Grove is licensed and skilled nursing community, the cottages are designed to look like the homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Homes feature high ceilings in the hearth rooms of each cottage, large windows throughout for natural light, and private bedrooms, each with a private en-suite full bathroom.
Executive Director – The Green House® Cottages of Poplar Grove
johnm@poplargrove.care
501- 454 – 5604
Rick Rogala
CEO- Bespoke Health Media
rrogala@bespokehealthmedia.com
Jewish Senior Life Celebrates the Opening of Nine Green House Cottages in Rochester, New York
By Admin / Posted on September 29th, 2017
ROCHESTER, N.Y.—September 25, 2017—Jewish Senior Life today announced the opening of nine new long-term care homes on its campus, a key milestone in its ongoing $83 million campus transformation project. The organization has invited residents, their families, community leaders and the media to attend the opening celebration of these new homes, which represent a model of care unmatched by any other senior care provider in the area.
“We’re setting an example of what the future of care can and should look like for our elders,” said Mike King, President and CEO of Jewish Senior Life. “We’ve adopted this new model of care so that we can serve the community better than ever before, providing high satisfaction for our staff and an even higher quality of life for residents, as well as peace of mind for their families. Our values of honoring our mothers and fathers are woven into the fabric of our culture of Jewish Senior Life.”
Susan Ryan, Senior Director, The Green House Project
The opening celebration commemorates the completion of nine new long-term care homes, housed in three modern three-story buildings. These buildings, called Green House Cottages, were built in conjunction with The Green House Project, a nationally- accredited organization representing a new standard in long-term care. There are over 200 Green House communities open in the country right now, with another 100 being built. The Jewish Home will be the 3rd largest Green House community in the country.
Home environment: Each floor in the three new Green House Cottages is its own home, complete with a kitchen, common areas, and private suite rooms with There are three homes in each of the three Cottages, for a total of nine new homes that house 12 residents in each home.
Access to secure outdoor spaces: All three Green House Cottages have courtyards and walkways that contribute to a real sense of home and
Self-managed care teams: Specially-trained certified nursing assistants (CNAs), each one called an “Adir,” staff each home and provide a wide range of assistance, including personal care, activities, and meal preparation, as well as light housekeeping and laundry. Each home also has a nurse on duty as well as a clinical support team.
In the new Green House Cottage homes, caregivers are able to personalize their approach to best meet the unique individual needs of each resident, resulting in more meaningful lives and relationships. By enhancing their living environment and delivering a more personalized care experience, residents will now have even more choice, autonomy and control.
The opening of the Green House Cottages represents a major milestone in the total campus transformation project timeline.
Several additional updates are slated to be complete by Spring 2019:
Renovation of the existing Jewish Home tower to incorporate the home model, featuring private rooms and bathrooms for all long-term care residents;
Expansion of The Jewish Home of Rochester’s Transitional Care program (short-term rehabilitation) to better serve its hospital All transitional care rooms will be private rooms inside The Jewish Home. Transitional Care at The Jewish Home will be one of the largest post-acute care providers in Monroe County.
“Each part of the transformation you see here on our campus is made possible by our generous donors,” said Joel Weiss, Senior Vice President of Advancement, Jewish Senior Life Foundation. “Their support and vision ensures that we’re able to remain at the forefront of innovative person-centered care, making meaningful life a priority for years to come.”
About Jewish Senior Life:
Serving people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds, Jewish Senior Life is guided by the values of honoring family and emphasizing aging in place—allowing people to remain in the place of their choice longer. Jewish Senior Life is a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), offering all levels of care from independent living to skilled nursing care on a single campus:
The Summit at Brighton for independent living;
Wolk Manor for assisted living;
The Lodge at Wolk Manor for assisted living memory care;
The Jewish Home of Rochester for long-term, transitional, and memory care;
Transitional Care at the Jewish Home for short-term rehabilitation;
Atkin Center for Outpatient Rehabilitation;
Marian’s House daytime retreat for those with memory loss;
A variety of community programs and services such as Living Well Companion Care and Physician House Calls that enable people to age and live safely, either on campus or another place that they call
Jewish Senior Life is the only senior care provider in the Rochester area to offer Life Care, a program which eliminates worries about unforeseen care needs and medical expenses throughout the full continuum of care.
Jewish Senior Life is accredited for its high quality and customer satisfaction by CARF, and earned five out of five stars in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Five-Star Quality Rating. This designation is reserved for only the top ten percent of nursing home providers nationwide.
Jewish Senior Life has been named a 2017 Top Workplace by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Jewish Senior Life is a member of the Alliance for Senior Care of Greater Rochester, Leading Age, Leading Age New York, and the Association of Jewish Agency Services.
For more information, please visit www.jewishseniorlife.org.
Nursing home tragedy demands a revolution in care | Opinion
by, Michael Anderson and Kennedy McGowan
Reposted from Sun Sentinal, 9/22/17
BOLD Justice, an interfaith group of 20 congregations, has been hearing tragic stories of abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities for years. We write representing those congregations and the work we are doing to actively fight for a new type of skilled nursing care in Broward County.
The eight tragic deaths at the Hollywood Hills skilled nursing facility, followed by three subsequent deaths, must serve as an urgent wake-up call.
If it hasn’t been obvious to anyone who ever visited a “traditional” nursing care home, we need change. We know there is a criminal investigation into the causes of this tragedy. No matter what that investigation shows, let’s be clear — this was a system-wide failure. It would be naive to believe that this problem and the solution to it are isolated to one nursing home.
BOLD Justice has researched and found a philosophy of person-centered care being practiced around the country. One example is the Green House Model, which features pleasant home-style environments and resident-directed care. Most impressive to us were the scientific studies showing improved health and wellbeing of elders in Green Houses, as well as higher rates of satisfaction among staff and families.
At John Knox Village retirement community in Pompano Beach a few years ago, residents did their own research and chose The Green House Model for their future skilled nursing needs. John Knox Village opened a Green House in May 2016. Now, infection and hospitalization rates are significantly lower than traditional nursing homes while satisfaction numbers are much higher. The results are truly remarkable at all Green House homes.At our 2017 Nehemiah Action event, we got a commitment from Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar to lead a group of community leaders to identify ways to develop more Green House skilled nursing facilities in Broward County accessible to people of all income levels. Because other communities have successfully done this, we believe we can, too.
The tragedy at Hollywood Hills demands that Green Houses become a reality in Broward. As we at BOLD Justice say, “Seniors count, and they can count on us!” But this crisis demands a community-wide response and a revolution in care. Can seniors count on our community and its leaders?
The Rev. Michael Anderson serves as pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist in Hollywood, and the Rev. Kennedy McGowan is pastor of First Presbyterian of Hollywood, which had three members in the Hollywood Hills nursing home.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-viewpoint-bold-justice-nursing-home-deaths-20170922-story.html
John Knox Village Weathered Hurricane Irma with Strength and Grace
Spirits remained high before, during and after Hurricane Irma struck the city of Pompano Beach, FL in general and The Woodlands at John Knox Village in particular.
Located in the city of Pompano Beach, Florida’s first GREEN HOUSE® Project served a total of 246 guests (residents/elders) with residents transferring from Assisted Living, along with several Independent Living residents.
Additionally, 31 spouses of residents joined their loved ones along with 24 family members and children who were also together for the storm.
Scott Pfeifer, of RDG Architects comments, “As architects, we are trained in designing environments that focus on the health, safety and welfare of the building occupants as well as the community at large. It is fulfilling for us at RDG Planning & Design to know that we have created a building for the elders and staff at John Knox Village that support The Green House philosophy while keeping everyone safe during Hurricane Irma. The building became a safe haven for the community, and is a testament to the collaborative efforts in planning which involved owners, architects, interior designers, engineers, construction managers,The Green House Project and Florida AHCA“.
Elders in the Woodlands were served by 97 staff/team members which included CNA’s, Shahbazim, Nurses, Housekeepers, Managers, Dining Service Staff and Floor Technicians. The total number of people in the building through the storm was 343. Nobody was turned away.
The JKV team was united in its focus on elders’ safety, so in advance of the storm staff meetings took place based on the JKV Hurricane Manual (2017) following the Emergency Management Plan Manual.
Staff Hurricane Meetings were held twice a day as the storm was approaching. The plan was executed based on:
72 Hour – Hurricane Alert
48 Hour – Hurricane Watch
36 Hour Hurricane Watch
24 Hour – Hurricane Warning
Best Practices Steps Taken Included:
• Double checking hurricane food, water supplies and medications
• Deploying Hurricane Nursing Medical Supplies
• Topping off diesel generators
• Setting up rented cots for Villa Residents and Staff
• Assigning Director or Leadership Team Members as Building Supervisors
• Deploying Two-Way Radios
• Continuing Communications during and post-storm with regular meetings
• Once Power was lost, generators automatically turned on for emergency power
• Once Power was lost in Health Care Settings, temperatures were monitored and hydration rounds were consistently done.
GREEN HOUSE® PROJECT CONTINUES TO LEAD LONG-TERM CARE TRANSFORMATION WITH NEW $650,000 ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION GRANT
By Admin / Posted on June 6th, 2017
For more information, contact: Susan Ryan
sryan@thegreenhouseproject.org or 703.615.2359
BALTIMORE, MD – The Green House® Project has received a two-year, $650,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to fulfill its mission of redefining—and humanizing—long-term care in the United States.
The Green House Project aims to end the institutionalization of older adults in America. Under this vision, all elders will have the opportunity to live in small, welcoming homes with dignity, autonomy, choice, and the best quality of life possible, while receiving the care they need.
The new RWJF grant will enable Green House Project leaders at the nonprofit Center for Innovation, which recently acquired the Green House trademark and intellectual property, to continue spearheading this movement. They will work with the leading Green House adopters to further refine the model while spreading it across the country.
Additionally, the national initiative plans to expand the impact of the Green House model through a specialized focus on people living with dementia, people in need of short-term rehabilitation services, and other areas of innovation. The Green House Project, the pioneer of the small house model, offers proven clinical and financial outcomes through a comprehensive cultural transformation across the entire organizational system.
“The Green House Project is a dynamic model that continues to evolve as an agile leader in the field,” said Scott Townsley, president of the Center for Innovation. “The success of the Green House Project has catalyzed a community of thought leaders who are discovering new ways to improve the lives of elders. We’re excited to work in partnership with them to change the way people age.”
The Center for Innovation, where the Green House Project is based, was founded by three members of the faculty at The Erickson School, University of Maryland Baltimore County. The Erickson School is the only program in the country offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees in the management of aging services.
The Green House Project launched more than a dozen years ago with the shared vision of its founder, William Thomas, M.D., and RWJF, for transforming long-term care. Today, 231 Green House homes are open and operating, serving elders in 32 states across the country, and another 150 are in the works.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Thomas for his role in helping to get the Green House Project to where it is today,” said Susan Ryan, senior director of The Green House Project. “We wish him well in his future endeavors to move the field forward.”
The Green House Project has a solid evidence base. Supported by RWJF, the THRIVE Research Collaborative conducted a comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the Green House model. A team of leading health care and long-term researchers conducted a half-dozen studies that addressed workforce issues, quality of care, cost savings, and culture change. These studies, all published in the journal Health Services Research, found that:
Elders in Green House homes were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital, to be bedridden, to need catheters, or to have pressure sores than those in non-Green House homes.
Annual inpatient and skilled nursing facility Medicare costs were significantly lower for elders in Green House homes.
Caregiving staff in Green House homes spent more time per day with elders than caregiving staff in non-Green House homes.
“The Green House Project is what people want—for themselves and for their loved ones,” said Nancy Barrand, senior adviser for program development at RWJF. “We want to ensure that every community has a Green House home and that the Green House Project becomes the standard of quality for all nursing care.”
To learn more about The Green House Project, visit: thegreenhouseproject.org
Green House Model Fidelity Tool Ensures Sustainability
By Admin / Posted on June 2nd, 2017
The Green House (GH) model is a valuable investment of time and resources, and can yield incredible results. As the only evidence based culture change initiative, it has been proven, and together with Green House adopters around the country, there is a responsibility to protect it. The Model Enrichment Resource & Integrity Tool (MERIT) was developed in response to insights gained through research. It is used as a tool to assess model integrity across all Green House homes.
MERIT Assessments
The term MERIT (Model Enrichment Resource and Integrity Tool) is used to describe the GH model integrity process. However, MERIT is an umbrella term for several GH evaluation and assessment tools.
MERIT Staff Assessment
The MERIT Staff Assessment is designed to evaluate the application of the core values of Real Home, Meaningful Life, and Empowered Staff in Green House homes. The MERIT Staff Assessment launched in 2015 and has been administered to open Green House homes in 2015 and 2016. It is used to measure how model fidelity manifests in practice.
MERIT Organizational Outcomes Assessment (new for 2017)
This tool gathers quality outcomes from Green House organizations including key clinical and financial indicators. These clinical and financial benchmarks will provide a valuable comparison to the MERIT Staff Assessment data, and parallels an organization’s data collection through its QI and QM processes.
MERIT Staff Assessment for Legacy Homes (new for 2017)
This online tool assesses the application of The Green House core values in a legacy environment. Green House organizations interested in assessing the level of alignment to the core values in their legacy environment and understanding the level of cultural transformation across the organization may contract with GHP for the delivery of the assessment tool. Participation is voluntary. The administration of this assessment tool follows the same process as the GH MERIT Staff Assessment.
The Green House model is based on three fundamental core values: Meaningful Life, Empowered Staff, and Real Home. These values play an important role in successfully implementing and sustaining the integrity of the Green House model, as evidenced by:
Consistent care delivery and shared goals among Green House adopters
The most comprehensive approach to holistic culture change grounded in elder-centered values and essential practices
Standards that protect the integrity of The Green House brand and investment of organizations who have committed to the model
On-going opportunities for Green House peer support and accountability
Impact on a national scale with emphasis on research and growth of the model
The design and administration of the MERIT online assessment and database management process is managed by the Center for Social Research (CSR) at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. CSR conducts social-scientific research on behalf of Calvin faculty and a wide array of local, national, and international organizations. Each year, the tool evolves and is refined.
The First Green House Homes in Rhode Island Are Open
By Admin / Posted on May 22nd, 2017
THE GREEN HOUSE Homes at Saint Elizabeth Home in East Greenwich are open! These are the first new nursing homes to open in RI in over 25 years.
Cedar Sinai Park Makes Oregon the 30th State to Open Green House homes
By Admin / Posted on July 22nd, 2016
Sandra Simon, CEO, Cedar Sinai Park
Oregon became the 30th state to open Green House homes as Cedar Sinai Park celebrated the grand opening of their first long term care homes. “The Green House project creates an environment that doesn’t just feel like home – it IS
their home,” says Cedar Sinai Park, CEO, Sandra Simon. “It is built on the premise that each resident should be able to make the decisions that shape how they live each precious day. The Green House model is a natural progression of our philosophy at Cedar Sinai Park to treat everybody with love, honor and respect. This is the future of aging services, and we are proud to create the first Green House home in Oregon.”
The Green House Project has spent over a decade creating its new vision for the future of elder care and research shows, they have potential to deliver better outcomes than
Kitchen in Green House home
traditional nursing homes.
Simon continues, “Green House homes combine the best of a real home setting with skilled care, giving elders the freedom to live life on their terms rather than conform to the rhythms of the institution.” The model is built on core values that include:
Meaningful life focused on personal choices,
Consistent, compassionate, highly trained and empowered staff
Advanced, research driven medical services in a real
Senior Director, Susan Ryan commended the organization, “It says something when a community can be a part of a radical transformation like The Green House model. It says, that we are progressive, and we are creating an age friendly society.”
To learn more about Cedar Sinai Park, visit their website: http://cedarsinaipark.org/dignity-by-design/
Maggie Calkins, Long Time Friend of The Green House Project, Named Executive Director of Mayer-Rothchild Foundation
By Admin / Posted on July 18th, 2016
The Green House Project would like to congratulate long time friend and collaborator, Maggie Calkins, on her recent appointment as Executive Director of the Mayer-Rothchild Foundation. Calkins has contributed greatly to the field of culture change in long term care, and brings more than 25 years of experience as a researcher, consultant, and educator to the foundation.
Originally established under the will of Hulda B. Rothschild as The Hulda B. & Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation, it was led by Dr. Rob Mayer for 35 years. The name was changed to honor Rob after his death last year, “We will continue to follow Rob’s inspiring approach and work to build networks of communities and organizations to collaborate in both creating incentives and identifying pragmatic solutions to the challenging issues that face our elders today, so that the elders of tomorrow will be able to live deep and meaningful lives” Calkins says.
For the past five years, the foundation has focused on codes, guidelines, regulations, and funding research that needed to be done in order to create better lives for elders and those working closest to them. The Green House Project’s pursuit of real home was furthered by their advocacy with CMS to update fire safety codes and allow for a more residential environment. We are grateful to the work of this foundation, and Maggie’s leadership to further person-centered practices.
Groundbreaking is Celebrated for Cottages of Lake St. Louis in Missouri
By Admin / Posted on July 7th, 2016
A groundbreaking ceremony was held today in Lake St. Louis, Mo for Cottages of Lake St. Louis! State Rep. Justin Hill, Karen Vennard, Lake St. Louis Board of Alderman President, several Lake St. Louis Aldermen, and values business partners joined the festivities and ceremonial shoveling of dirt.
The ownership team of locally owned and operated Cottages of Lake St. Louis includes Focused Senior Communities, led by Al Beamer, IronRock Real Estate, led by Tom Hillman, Dr. Joseph Gira, and Barth Holohan. Cottages of Lake St. Louis is financed through St. Louis Bank, built by GS & S General Contractors, designed by The Lawrence Group, engineered by Horner & Shifrin, with interior design by Invacare Interior Design.
Cottages of Lake St. Louis will be the first Green House homes in Missouri. It is a whole new approach to Short Term Rehabilitation and innovative Skilled Nursing. We are Skilled Nursing, differently. Cottages of Lake St Louis will be built to resemble a traditional residential neighborhood. A home away from home.
THE GREEN HOUSE® PROJECT in in 30 states and has spent over a decade creating a new vision for the future of elder care. The Green House model delivers better health and satisfaction outcomes than traditional nursing homes. And by creating a real home environment and providing elders with dignity, autonomy and choice, Green House homes provide people with the best quality of life possible. The Green House model delivers high quality care. Close relationships with elders means that health issues are identified and treated earlier. And the calm, familiar, real home atmosphere in Green House homes improves the well-being and functioning of elders with dementia.
Our Values include:
Advanced, research driven medical services in a real home.
Construction has begun on a 5.2-acre site at 2885 Technology Drive, the southeast corner of Technology Drive and Feise Commercial Drive in Lake St Louis (near the Hwy. 364/I-64 interchange). The Cottages are 6 comfortable homes, each with a dining room, cozy family room with fireplace, den, spa and an open kitchen surrounded by 10 private bedrooms with private bathrooms. Each Cottage has a large landscaped patio with lush gardens and walking paths around the community. State of the art therapy, nursing and activities services are an integral part of our total wellness plan.
This Green House Model for those needing skilled nursing for rehabilitation or skilled long-term care is new to the area, but has an amazing positive and proven reputation based on a decade of research. You can learn more at http://www.TheGreenHouseProject.org In our homes the schedule of each Elder is decided by the Elder, not a calendar on the wall, beginning with natural awakening each morning. Our goal is to facilitate the Elders’ independence and ability to pursue their interests. Elders in each home share meals at their common table where family members are also encouraged to join. Staffing ratios are among the best in the area, allowing for greater interaction and deeper relationships between Elders and caregivers. This model gives Elders the ability to be a part of life in the home, planning, suggesting and/or engaging in activities and meals, or, sitting and chatting with the staff while they prepare the meal in the home. It’s natural. It’s common sense, and it works. Our goal is to see every Elder live each day to the fullest.
Join us in the excitement by visiting our website www.CottagesLSL.com or following us on Facebook! Grand Opening is expected to be mid-January 2017.
Media inquiries can contact Christie Tutschulte, VP Care Management at (314) 960-1285 or email Christie@CottagesLSL.com.
About Focused Senior Communities: The leadership team at FSC believes Skilled Care needs to change. Old “nursing home” standards don’t meet our needs anymore. FSC owns, operates and consults in the Senior Housing Industry. Our experienced team has a wealth of knowledge in Senior housing and development. We are excited and honored to bring the Green House Model of Skilled Nursing to Lake St. Louis in January 2017.
About THE GREEN HOUSE® Project: The Green House Project is a radically new national model for skilled nursing care that returns control, dignity and a sense of well-being to elders, their families and direct care staff. In the Green House model, residents receive care in small, self- contained homes organized to deliver individualized care and meaningful relationships between residents and care staff.
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Home Comment Tony Benn: The strange death of socialist England
Tony Benn: The strange death of socialist England
Nick Mutch
A great piece of political irony is that Lenin, perhaps the most aggressive of Left Wing figures, wrote a pamphlet in 1920 condemning socialist parties on the Ultra Left who refused to compromise with any parties further to the right, even if they had shared goals. Indeed, in his writing on 1920s Britain, he argues against the suggestions of radical trade unions and communist movements to break up the Labour party, but rather emphasised the need for cooperation against Conservative reaction. And although Tony Benn has enjoyed a great deal of public popularity (a 2003 BBC poll ranked him as the most trusted politician), to me he has always been the extreme left wing leader Lenin had in mind; he has never been one to compromise. Benn will rightly long be remembered as a bastion of the working classes and a fiercely dedicated proponent of British socialism, but for the Left, it is unfortunate that this doggedness has prevented any major political success and that no figure has emerged to take over on the mantel.
I had the good fortune to meet Tony Benn as an old man. Despite his 86 years, he still had a fading aura of grandeur about him. Aided by the beauty of the surroundings of Christ Church meadow, the quirks and anecdotes that made his public image so charming were resplendent, not least his iconic pipe, which he refilled twice. He spoke eloquently, wrote voraciously and was a constant champion of the poor and dispossessed. His diaries are some of the most important personal records of left wing struggles in the 20th century; perhaps only Orwell, Serge and Trotsky are above him.
Yet to me, despite his apparent enthusiasm for the causes he propounded, when I spoke to him there was always something slightly strange, even robotic about his answers. The closer we came to talking about contemporary events, the more his answers turned into mere generalizations and platitudes such as “global opposition to the status quo” and “now is the time for a change in society”. When pressed for specific examples, he retreated into a narrative of the Labour party’s record of socialism, such as the building of the welfare state and the NHS. To me, he seemed to be more concerned with grand changes and he was less interested in the details and tactics, telling me, “some change will be created by ordinary people, while some will of course be created by institutional and legislative changes… the ordinary people have always played a key role in achieving social justice.” Perhaps it was this obsession with the concept of change rather than the details of change itself that denied him any political success.
After all, although Benn fought so hard to lead a life of true public service, the question remains – what did he actually do? The unfortunate answer is that Tony Benn’s parliamentary career lacks any significant legislative achievement, and what he did outside Westminster to help left wing causes in his speeches, writings and activism, he negated with his divisiveness and apparent determination to drag the Labour party away from ever being electable. It’s not for nothing that he claimed he left Parliament to leave “more time for politics.” He was a theorist rather than a tactician.
Perhaps one of the reasons he was so loved and respected is that, maybe because of the political firebrand and iconoclast figure he presented and because of this preoccupation with theory rather than practice, he never got his hands on the levers of real power. On all political causes he fought for (with the curious exception or his fight to renounce his hereditary peerage) he eventually lost. He bitterly opposed European integration; which he lost. He stood for Deputy Leader of the dysfunctional labour party in 1981; and lost. He played a major role in Michael Foots 1983 campaign; which lost, and lost him his seat. He turned his attentions to supporting the miner’s strikes against Thatcher; which lost. He was most famous recently as the Leader of the Stop The War campaign, and admirable movement that was a leading force against Western folly and imperialism in Iraq; which also lost.
He has oft been contrasted with Tony Blair, and in many ways they are polar opposites. Whilst Blair was responsible for Labour abandoning its commitment to industry nationalisation, Benn condemned it. Whilst Blair courted the right wing press and flattered Rupert Murdoch, Benn denounced it, earning him the title of “the most dangerous man in Britain” from the Daily Mail. In essence, Benn was about the radical transformation of the British society, Blair was about getting elected.
Yet Blair was in many ways a reaction to Benn. Traumatised and heavily disillusioned by 17 years of successive defeats and Conservative power, he appeared as a fresh, modernizing alternative to what many considered the “looney left,” with Benn as its chief representative. Had Labour been elected in the 1980’s, as it may have been without Benn, Blair’s initiatives would have been unthinkable for the party. The implicit riposte from Blair to Benn was that Labour could never change society without being in power.
And this is what brings about a sad coda to Tony Benn’s death. With him gone, and no heir apparent, there is no longer a great socialist figure to argue for a lasting, fundamental change in British society. Socialism had in Tony Benn its most eloquent advocate with a large national and public esteem; now it has the odd Politics Professor or Trade Union leader. In the 20th century, Parliament was a place where great theories of history – liberalism, conservatism and socialism – battled for hearts and minds. Politics since then has become the politics of how best to continue the legacy of Thatcherism. Sure, there will be quibbles over the small details; Chancellor and Shadow will argue over whether the rich should have a 50p or 45p tax rate, but no one will ever again argue for the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy. The great confrontation of 20th century British politics dies with Tony Benn.
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Moscow Court Extends U.S. Investor Calvey’s House Arrest
Update: Moscow’s Basmanny district court has ruled to extend Calvey’s house arrest through July 14, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Friday.
A Moscow court has ruled to move detained U.S. investor Michael Calvey from pre-trial detention to house arrest, Russian media reported Thursday.
In February, Russia detained Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group, on suspicion of fraud along with three other partners in the fund. Calvey denies the allegations, saying the case is being used against him in a business dispute over the Russian bank Vostochny in which he is a shareholder.
The Basmanny district court in Moscow granted a request from Russia’s Investigative Committee to release Calvey on Thursday. He was released directly from the courtroom and will remain on house arrest until Saturday.
The Investigative Committee has asked the district court to extend his house arrest until July 14, the court said in a statement.
“Over the past two months, circumstances have changed,” a prosecutor was quoted as saying in court by the RBC business outlet.
“The investigation has determined that Calvey has stable social ties in Moscow,” he added.
The judge extended the investigation into Baring Vostok until August 13, RBC reported.
Speaking in court, Calvey said he would remain in Russia until the end of the trial.
“For me, escaping from Russia in connection with a criminal case is equivalent to admitting my guilt,” RBC quoted him as saying.
Calvey’s detention has rattled some foreign investors in Russia who are worried about the business climate, and has stoked talk of a possible U.S. boycott of Russia’s International Economic Forum in June which is attended by President Vladimir Putin.
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show commentary, tribute bands, Uncategorized
Rio: The Duran Duran drought is over?
January 5, 2015 Daily Duranie 5 Comments
I’ve almost certainly lost my DD mojo at this point.
These are words I actually texted to a friend of mine on Saturday afternoon as we discussed going to see the greatest Duran Duran tribute band on this side of the Atlantic – Rio. They were playing at the Totally 80’s Bar in Fullerton California, which wasn’t far from my house. I needed a night out, as did my husband. There has been a serious Duran Duran drought going on, and judging from responses I’ve seen over the past several months to whatever the band says, or even what I happen to say on Twitter, it sounds like this is a full-fledged emergency.
Before I get into whom to blame for this tragedy (I think we all know exactly who is to blame here), let’s just talk about that evening. The truth of the matter, it’s been so long that I’ve been out, I feared I’d forgotten how to dress. I spend my luxurious, fun-filled days in jeans, a t-shirt and athletic trainers, running after a now five-month old puppy before he decides to use our house as his personal toilet among many other equally amazing “hobbies” I’ve acquired in the past four years. Dare I say I’ve become frumpy?!? I certainly feel that way every morning when I crawl out of bed, grabbing the first clothing items I can throw on, not even bothering with makeup or hair product. Instead of just being a Duranie-on-a (short) hiatus, I felt like I was becoming my mother, feeling every single second of my forty-four years on this planet. For a while, I even started to give in, waving my dishtowel as a white flag in defeat, sensing that it might be a while, perhaps even forever, before I went to another concert and screamed for the men onstage.
Yes, I had lost my DD mojo. Most definitely. There is an intense Duran Duran drought going on here.
So that brings me to Saturday night. Immediately upon texting that I’d go to see Rio, I realized I had no idea of what to wear. Did I even still fit into my typical concert clothing? It had been months since I actually did a full make-up job or worried about my hair – could I still pull it off? Probably not. I pulled on my jeans, noting that I could still breathe (definitely an unexpected bonus), and then tried on a shirt. I shrugged it on, and then went to the mirror to see how bad it looked. I took a peek, and to my surprise – I started to recognize the reflection in the mirror. Yes, the girl was still in there, but what about the band…the real band? I hear we’ve got at least another six months of this Duran Duran drought ahead. Seriously, they expect us to hang on this long with virtually nothing?? No one needs remind me that they’ve done a few shows over the past year – but unless you were lucky to be able to attend one – which I was not, the rest of us are still living a California-sized Duran Duran drought.
We get to the club that night and sit down to grab a little pre-show dinner. If you haven’t been, the menu is filled with delights like the Breakfast Club burger (which has everything including an egg and hash browns on it) to Tater-Tots with toppings like poutine or nacho cheese sauce. They also have drinks that run the gamot of 80’s names. Yes, they even have a Duran Duran shot bomb. From memory it is black cherry vodka with some grenadine dropped into Red Bull. I am certain this could kill me, so I go for the Richard Blade Rum Runner instead (still Duran themed, damn it!). I don’t even remember what is in this drink, but it was good. I want to say there was something raspberry in there with rum and maybe even some pineapple. Not sure. I just know I drank it and lived, even if my memory did not.
My friends arrive, we chat for a while at our table and then make our way to the front of the club to see the show. I’ve been to see Rio before – in fact I’ve done an interview with them here on the blog as well as reviewed a show, so being near the front wasn’t a requirement, but we made our way as close as possible – which ended up being directly to the side of some speakers. Yay for more early onset hearing loss! The show starts and the band is terrific as always. Honestly, as Tiger Tiger began, I could feel the Duran Duran drought ending for me in very much the same way I felt when California finally got some rain in December. Nourishment!! Relief!! I felt at home because let’s face it – Rio’s set list is vaguely familiar, with tunes like Planet Earth, Hungry Like the Wolf (oh you betcha!), Come Undone, Ordinary World…but they also played Is There Something I Should Know, New Moon on Monday (which sounded just a little off to me, but in fairness I was only getting part of the sound through the one set of speakers deafening me), and New Religion. A full-set of Duran Duran drought ending greatness. I can’t complain about their show (and I wouldn’t anyway because as I’ve already said – this is the greatest DD Tribute band on this side of the pond, hands-down). For this Duranie, their set gave me a hint of DD mojo back.
However, just as I was starting to remember why it is I love the band, and yes, lately it has been difficult to remember why…I started remembering what I’d forgotten about concerts in general.
People are freaking NUTS.
We’d made our way up to nearly the front of the stage before the show started, not by pretending we knew someone or faking a leg injury, by just walking up to the front. After all, this wasn’t the band. I mean, it was Rio…but it wasn’t Duran Duran. Apparently though, management forgot to mention that small detail to many of the women (and a whole lot of the men!) in attendance. I witnessed behavior that night that I haven’t seen (well some of it I’ve never seen, but I’ll get to that in a bit) in a looonnnnngg time. From the woman who refused to give up on getting to the front no matter how many times the gentleman who stopped her from barging up there continued to put her off, to the presumable grandmother that elbowed me several times, leaving me with a nasty bruise on the backside of my arm to shove me out-of-the-way so that she could lock eyes with “Simon” Jake Jacobs, and the very, very drunk woman who used the stage as a way to prop her arms so that she could twerk for her man (I really wish I were joking about that one)…I was shocked. Pushing and shoving to get up front to see a tribute band? Climbing on to the stage to dance with the band members? Staking out front row spots to have a chance for Jake to grab your hand and sing to you? Where in the hell was I??? I continued to utter the same words throughout the show: “You know this isn’t like, THE BAND…right?!?” I can only imagine that the Duran Duran drought has caused this kind of madness.
Don’t get me wrong. Rio is fabulous. They are an outstanding band, and they have a great time doing what they do. They’re true musicians and I dare say rock stars in their own right. But they’re not Duran Duran. Unless of course you haven’t seen Duran Duran in what, three or four years. Then suddenly, this tribute band takes on a whole new meaning – they’re helping end the Duran Duran drought!! They’re the band that is standing incredibly well for the other band that can’t seem to be bothered at the moment. From what I saw that night, the crowd is more than happy to take what they’re eager to give. And then some.
The show had everything from a guy jumping up on stage to take a photo with the band – which was harmless enough, to a woman who helped herself to a free frontal feel on “Simon”. (Don’t even ask…although I wonder if the real Simon has been molested the way Jake was that night. I’m going to guess in the affirmative, even though Jake himself told me that in the twenty-something years he’s spent performing, it’s never happened before that night. Nice.) By all intents and purposes, this very-packed crowd genuinely believed it was the real deal on the stage that night, obviously to the credit of Rio. The tribute band really is that charismatic, and while I stood by mostly mortified on Saturday night, Rio tells me that I shouldn’t go around reminding people they’re not really Duran Duran. They love being the enablers for the fantasy, and the last thing they really need is someone like me screaming “Get off my lawn!” Fair enough.
However, facts are facts, and it has been just about three-and-a-half years since the band toured. It has been just over four years since All You Need is Now has been released. As of spring this year, this will be the very longest it’s EVER GONE between album releases – you want to talk about a Duran Duran drought?? Here we are, people! This is insane. Fans are restless. They need shows. They want new music. The tribute band Rio helps to pass the time, and I’m grateful that they play, but they aren’t Duran Duran in the same way that Simon, John, Nick, Roger AND Dom are Duran Duran (and also to their credit, Rio knows this). We’re not a bunch of teenagers anymore that can still be counted on to be there in five or ten years. Fans probably won’t still be there if the band continues to wait to tour or put out a single or do much of anything. At our age – time is a commodity we’re losing, like it or not. I very much respect John, Simon, Roger and Nick – but I very much disagree with the attitude they continue to expel at every opportunity that they don’t need to hurry or get themselves out there to continue the momentum that they have almost assuredly lost after all of this time. To that I must emphatically respond, “You don’t get it at all. You really and truly just do not get it, boys.”
I question what is really going on “behind the curtain” at times such as these. It is difficult to be a Duranie in this Duran Duran drought at the moment. On one hand, of course I want to be supportive. At the end of it all, I’m still a fan. Disgruntled? Perhaps. Bored? Certainly. But I still care. I want to say, “Take the time you need. We’ll wait!” On the other hand, I’m wondering if they really want to get out there at all. It’s been a long-ass time since All You Need is Now. You can’t even argue that it hasn’t. Why did they need so many big names on one album? Why haven’t they put out a single at this point if for no other reason than to put voices like mine with questions like the ones I’ve brought up here to rest? Why don’t they seem to care at all? Have they lost their minds??? Or, is their collective heart not really in the game anymore, and they don’t know how to SAY they’re done? I think most fans, including myself, feel like this album might be the last for a least a very long while – and every single time I hear Nick say “Well, we’ll certainly play some shows”… my heart hears, “Well, we might play SOME shows…but probably not nearly as many as we did before” and it sinks. Each time John does a Katy Kafe and sounds like he’d much rather be plucking his nose-hairs, I feel it sink even farther. How does a fan stay optimistic during this Duran Duran drought?!?
Mostly, I’ve lost my DD mojo, and this Duran Duran drought feels never-ending. We all tell ourselves that we don’t mind waiting and that it’ll be worth it in the end because otherwise, we wouldn’t be fans. I’ve been doing that as much as anyone. It is the name of the fandom game – we’ll wait because the other choice is to walk away and not care. I also know that for as many people who will tell me they’ll wait forever for Simon and Co…there are still others who are nodding their heads as they read this, proud of my “bravery” in publicly saying what we’re all thinking. This blog isn’t managed or supported by the band. I am not required to adhere to party line talking points provided by a PR company. I write whatever I’m thinking or feeling on any given day and it’s 100% truthful, even if the concerns are unfounded when all said and done – and with that comes great freedom, if not also a little sadness.
The Duran Duran drought continues…
DD tribute band RioDuran DuranDuran Duran musicDuran Duran new albumDuraniesJohn TaylorKaty KafeNick RhodesTotally 80s Bar and Grille
Guest Blogs, Music, Uncategorized
Duran Duran Mix Tape Vol 1 Side B
December 31, 2014 C.K. Shortell 3 Comments
Back for the Duran Duran mix tape B-Side today, just in time for your New Year’s extravaganzas tonight!
11. One of Those Days
This is the other sneaky good song on the “B” side of Astronaut. According to the liner notes, they wrote it last (only a few months before the album’s release). I wonder if this song gives us a glimpse into the sound of Reportage. Much of Astronaut feels forced to me, like the band felt pressured to make Duran-sounding dance music for the 2000s. Where it works, it works well (Sunrise, Nice) but in other cases…it just doesn’t (for me). Yet “One of Those Days” has more of an indie rock 90s feel to it…not sure if Simon had the lyric first (probably not), or Andy first came up with the riff, but whatever they did, it worked. It feels out of place on the album but too good to exclude, which is why I’m guessing they buried it on the second side. On a side note, the band was supposed to play this during the rehearsals for “Red Carpet Massacre” (in fact it’s even listed on the set list for those shows if you look it up), but alas, it actually got cut. I was there…those shows were played five minutes from my house…my one chance to hear this song live and they cut it.
12. Midnight Sun
I wanted to list two tracks on this Duran Duran mix tape that were both 10th on their respective albums…what’s wrong with that? Okay, not true, in actuality…wait for it…I LOVE THIS SONG. Like most of Medazzaland. Again. I’ll stop.
13. Land
This is probably the only mistake I made on this Duran Duran mix tape. I decided to get back to moody songs. Here’s the deal: on Big Thing, Land is a grand, sweeping ballad that is the perfect centerpiece to the second side. But it’s a clunker on any playlist like this. For the last 25 years I have tried to shoehorn it in and to no avail. Will delete it after I finish writing this.
14. Big Bang Generation
I think I’m done with moody songs. Aside from loving the song musically, lyrically it gets me too (more so as I get older). “Now all our heroes gone…” certainly resonates.
15. I Don’t Want Your Love (Shep Pettibone 7” Mix)
The late 80s hit single that NOBODY outside of Duran fandom remembers, until you play it for them. It was all over MTV and the radio in the fall/winter of 1988 but people have collective amnesia about it. Baffling.
I know, I know—the only thing worse than creating a playlist with most of Medazzaland included is overloading on RCM tracks. Buckle up, people, because I’m not done. And as tough as that album and its impact on the fandom was, this is a phenomenal song that deserved a better fate.
17. The Valley (2009 Songbook Live version)
An amazing live Duran song; especially the guitar. If you haven’t seen Songbook, go to YouTube and watch it…or buy the DVD, it isn’t hard to find. John’s description of this song and Simon’s lyric is fascinating. The short version is that Simon hated this song and everyone else (including Yasmin) thought it was the best song on the album. The album mix criminally turns down Dom’s guitars (a shot at Andy and the “new sound” the band was going for, which is unfortunate), thus you really need to get this live version.
18. Sunrise ( VH1 Live Special)
The hybrid Nevins remix/album version that they play. I’m glad that something the original lineup did in the early 2000s will at least remain a staple in the set list and resonates with the fans. This song has come light years from the early 2003 version (which Rhonda likes much more than me. It’s all good. We are a “big tent” fandom.) For all of the criticism Duran gets for being “over produced” (and in many cases it’s true), here is an example where production not only salvaged a song but turned it into something special. (Ironically, the complete opposite is true on “What Happens Tomorrow,” with the early 2003 live version being far superior to what ended up on Astronaut.).
19. Nice (2005 Hammersmith Palais)
Another one I wish would get played in the set going forward, although it probably won’t. One of the best songs from Astronaut. My wife and five-year old son heard it at the store recently, so at least it’s getting some satellite radio airplay.
20. Do You Believe in Shame? (Live 2009 Songbook)
I warned you that this Duran Duran mix tape would veer into something different…I wanted some live cuts…but decided to at least go back to the “slow and moody” theme. I may have screwed up by including “Land” but you can’t go wrong with DYBIS.
20. Leave a Light On (Unstaged)
Another favorite from AYNIN. When I first heard this song, I thought it was just a cheap “Save a Prayer” rip-off that Ronson made them do. But the lyrics and music grew on me and the song took on a much more personal meaning. I actually couldn’t listen to it without tearing up. To me, “Leave a Light On” is about hope and written from the perspective of someone who has made it back to the “Ordinary World” that he had to so desperately find. The promise of the “half-dreamed shade of yesterday/in bloom tomorrow” spoken of in “So Long Suicide” is delivered. This person who was grieving is healed now; the void in his life, and heart, is filled: “You ease the lost cause out of me/With your sweet hand to bring me home/I’m not alone.” Am I massively projecting? Yes. But as Simon says in the “Songbook” interview, these songs, once released, belong to us.
And on that note, you have…a December Duran Duran mix tape!
What say you? Should I have put more Medazzaland songs on? Should I be less moody during the holiday season? And more importantly—what is on YOUR current Duran Duran mix tape?
2009 SongbookAstronautBig ThingDuran DuranDuran Duran mix tapeDuran Duran musicHammersmith PalaisRed Carpet Massacre
Duran Duran Mix Tape Vol 1 Side A
December 30, 2014 C.K. Shortell 1 Comment
This is the first in a series of ongoing articles about Duran Duran mix tapes created by fans. Or maybe it’s a standalone thing like Arcadia—it’s really unknowable at this point.
To those of us old enough to remember, making a Duran Duran mix tape was an all-night affair that involved shuffling through cassettes, pressing pause at just the right time, and nervously trying to figure out how much space was left just by eyeballing the amount of tape remaining on the spool (because adding up the song times and subtracting them from 45:00 would be too hard).
This month, I was in a reflective mood…okay, I’ll admit, a Medazzaland mood. Be warned. However, one of the miracles of dragging and dropping songs is that what you start out with is often not what you end up with…
This Duran Duran mix tape is, of course…two sided… an A-side and a B-side. Today we’ll start with side-A, and follow-up with the B-side tomorrow, just in time for your New Year’s Eve party plans.
1. Still Breathing
I was in the mood for something slow and moody (my wife would reply, “Just look in the mirror after you first wake up”), and I especially like the haunting synths and drums on this track. I will admit that I don’t rank this in the upper tier of Duran ballads/slow songs, but maybe after ten years it’s growing on me.
2. She’s Too Much
Is it me or does this track get lost in the train wreck that is the B side of Red Carpet Massacre? I find that I completely forget this song exists, then stumble upon it and realize how much I like it. It flows very nicely after Still Breathing. Exactly the mood I was going for.
3. So Long Suicide
Now we’re talking. My favorite song from the second side of Medazzaland. I’ve always viewed this song as the sequel to “Ordinary World.” Despite the ominous “suicide” in the title, this remains hopeful —“I need you I don’t want to bleed for you” and “hello I’m alive!”—but there is also that line, “I’m scared of being ordinary” which I’ve viewed as a reference to “Ordinary World” and the fact that this person’s struggle goes on. The conflict also comes through in the song’s structure, as the calm verses are interrupted by the raucous guitars in the up-tempo chorus, mirroring the ebb and flow that you go through when you’re grieving. I’ve probably thought way too much about this song in the 17 years it’s been out…but it’s a favorite of mine.
4. Chains
Astronaut has two sneaky good songs buried on its “B” side and this is one of them, the original line-up’s answer to “Out of my mind” in a weird way. I especially like the classic Duran “na na na” during the bridge. Makes things a tad more upbeat…
5. Who Do You Think You Are?
I told you I was in a “Medazzaland” mood. This is a more straightforward power ballad than So Long Suicide, although it still has that slow/fast/slow thing going on.
6. Winter Marches On
You knew this would be on this Duran Duran mix tape somewhere, right? It’s generally regarded as the closest thing Duran has to a Christmas song (this is according to Nick himself in an Ask Katy many years ago). It stands out as the slowest track on the otherwise heavily funk influenced Notorious. And, for the purposes of this list…it’s as far back in time as I go (what can I say? Classic Duran reminds me of the summer. It’s winter. Not in the mood for that…and this is all about mood!).
7. The Edge of America
Duran at their most U2-ish. Perfect place to go after “Winter.”
8. Lake Shore Driving
I suppose I could have separated these two but that doesn’t feel right. And I’m sick of adding all these slow songs. We need to pick things up.
9. Runway Runaway
After four years, I think we can now objectively review AYNIN and place it in context. And at this time…I believe this is my favorite song off that album and one of my favorites ever by the band. I would include this in any mix I make…
10. Red Carpet Massacre
The heresy! Look, this song is great…I was done with slow songs…stop judging.
11. Be My Icon
Wickedly clever lyrics and awesome guitar. I warned you that I was in a Medazzaland mood…
And in perfect Duran-style, I’m leaving you all hanging, wanting more…until tomorrow when I unveil the rest of this Duran Duran mix tape!
Be thinking of your own Duran Duran mix tape choices and let me know what your A-side would sound like in the comments!
-C.K.
All You Need Is NowAstronautDuran Duran mix tapesDuran Duran musicMedazzalandRed Carpet Massacre
Katy Kafe, Katy Krassner, Simon LeBon, Uncategorized
Simon LeBon – Year End Katy Kafe
December 29, 2014 Daily Duranie 1 Comment
I am way, way late with the Katy Kafe highlights for Simon and Nick, and I apologize. To begin with, for some reason I couldn’t get the audio to play on my laptop (I have a MacBook), which has never happened before, and then well, Christmas happened. So I’m a little late, but never fear, I have the highlights!!
Simon LeBon and Katy settled in, Katy with Lemonade and Simon with whiskey for a pretend “fireside” chat about 2014.
Simon LeBon on Band Aid
Simon did a Rolling Stone interview on Band Aid, so if you’ve missed out on that, check it out. However, he did share his pride with being on the original. He was one of the first to agree to doing the record, along with Sting – and even after showing up that fateful morning to realize that it wasn’t just he and Sting on it, he feels as though the song has stood the test of time.
Simon LeBon on favorite album of 2014
This year, Simon really has enjoyed London Grammar‘s album “If You Wait”. Simon describes the album as ambient and soft without a set rhythm. He also has enjoyed another Estonian artist that I can’t even spell…nor find phonetically online…but you can find it on his twitter if you care to search!
Simon LeBon on favorite concert of 2014
Simon said that he didn’t see too many concerts this year…something about being locked up in the dark of the studio for the past year I suppose… He did go see Leonard Cohen though, and also saw Fleetwood Mac, which he really enjoyed.
Simon LeBon on favorite film of 2014
Simon said that the only films he saw this year were on airplanes, and then mentioned Cold In July.
Simon LeBon on favorite TV of 2014
Hands down, it seems that Simon’s favorite TV show was Happy Valley – a UK show starring Sarah Lancashire. He says the show was very dark, which seemed to be an ongoing theme for Simon in 2014.
Simon LeBon on favorite book of 2014
Simon began his year with Donna Tartt and The Goldfinch, and ended it with Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels, beginning with Never Mind. These novels are considered autobiographical, even though the main character has a fictional name. We also learn that Simon reads more than one book at a time. (Don’t we all? I have several going at one time, depending on what mood I’m in and whether I’m doing research or reading for fun.)
Simon LeBon on favorite event of 2014
You get one guess and it starts with “Fashion”. You guessed it – for Simon, Fashion Rocks topped off 2014. As a personal favorite, Simon looks to celebrating his father’s 80th birthday as the event of the year.
Simon LeBon on DD14
OK, admit it – this is what you’ve been waiting for. Simon says the album will be out in June or July (which really means Autumn at the earliest if you speak Duran Duran. We haven’t even made it through New Years Eve yet and we’ve already preempted half of next year.) He says the album is brilliant, (I am thrilled but I want to make that judgment for myself. Next year, thankyouverymuch.) but they need to cut down the songs to about 10 (right now they are at 13, according to Simon – and you’ll soon find that it depends on what band member you’re talking to as to how many songs they’ve got.) Best question of the Kafe? Katy asked Simon what they’ll do with the songs they have leftover after deciding upon the album. Simon’s answer, which is likely the best answer of 2014 no matter how you slice it – “We’ll sell them to One Direction.”
wild applause
Katy also asked if they had an album title. Simon said yes. Then he spoke “LeBon gibberish” and said that he gave the album title backwards. Then he did it again, and again…each time sounding just a little different. So, yeah. It’s still #DD14 to me. Yay.
And we’re off to 2015…
Band-AidDD14Donna TarttDuran DuranEdward St. AubynHappy ValleyKaty KafeLondon GrammarOne DirectionPatrick Melrose novelsSimon LeBonThe Goldfinch
Careless Memories, Denis O'Regan, Fandom, Uncategorized
Careless Memories – Is It Worth the Price?
December 15, 2014 Daily Duranie 7 Comments
Over the weekend, I found myself in a healthy discussion regarding the Denis O’Regan photo book – Careless Memories. I haven’t personally ordered a copy of the book, but I know a few other fans that ordered a copy of Careless Memories and seem very pleased. The discussion centered around whether or not we’d buy the book even if money were not an option. All who participated in the conversation felt the book to be incredibly expensive and certainly out of reach of many fans. There are always those that will buy whatever is being offered at whatever price point; but for many, price dictates.
Last week, someone sent a question in to Ask Katy about Careless Memories, inquiring whether it was truly worth the price (we’re talking anywhere from £250 on up to £2500). Katy’s reply gave details about the special nature of the book and it’s construction. She closed stating that while it is certainly an investment, isn’t all art (an investment)?
Not only do I appreciate art, I am a certified Decorative Arts Appraiser. That means I’ve been trained to learn how to use market data to assign value to decorative art (paintings and drawings, photographs, sculptures, pop culture memorabilia or yes…gems and jewelry). I know what art is, and to be completely fair, the very question of what is considered “art” is pretty subjective, although there is a vague framework to help define. Art must be unique if not also rare, it must have beauty, and by some definitions it must be a human expression or application of emotion. The door is left VERY wide open as to what may or may not be considered art, and of course what might be art to one person might not be to someone else. Does Careless Memories fit that bill?
We traded ideas over whether or not the very fact that the book (or photos within) is mass-marketed should make a difference. After all, many works of art have millions of prints made – but are those prints still considered art, or mass-media representations?There’s definitely room for discussion over whether Careless Memories in it’s mass-marketed form (not the original photos themselves, but the book as a whole) really is a good example of art. Are they priced as such and do they hold that value well? In that case, are prints of artwork still an investment? The fact is, being willing to spend £1000 or more on a larger format photo book doesn’t necessarily make that book an investment…although I’d probably argue that to a willing fan, it absolutely is, regardless of whether it is a good investment, or otherwise. However, that is an emotional definition, not wholly factual.
While I hold no resentment about Careless Memories or my decision not purchase a copy, it is clearly being marketed AT fans with the pricing being out of the reach of most. Then again, isn’t most art that way? Warhol isn’t necessarily “cheap” pop art. Even Thomas Kincaid, one of the most mass-marketed kitsch artists ever – isn’t “cheap” by any means if you’re talking about Artist-handled prints. Let’s face it, the band knows exactly what they are doing here, and we really cannot fault them – because ultimately it is in the hands of each of us to decide whether or not to play the game and make these purchases. It puts fans in the position of having to decide how much the band means to them personally, and it ends up being an emotionally charged purchase, one the band “banks” on, so to speak.
As is typical, there are always fans willing to pay. I checked the website for Careless Memories late last week, and the most expensive editions of the book (“Unique” and “Special” editions), ones that include things such as (not each book contains all things mentioned – these are simply examples) “golden tickets”, meet and greets with the band, special prints direct from 1984 negatives, and personally signed copies of photos and books, were sold out or “unavailable”. These ranged in price from £1000-£2500. Even the least expensive edition – “Collector”, has a very hefty price tag of £250 – not a price most fans can even consider, especially at this time of year. Yet when I look at how many books are available in that edition – very few are sold, perhaps an indication that the price is just out of reach. Fandom continues, in many respects, to be an excellent real-life example of the “haves” and “have-nots”.
While I’ve had the good fortune to do many things consistent with the “haves” column, in the case of Careless Memories I am definitely in the “have-not” column. Not spiteful, not resentful (there’s no point), but I do find myself questioning the tag of “investment”. I suppose though, that makes the difference between a buyer and a bystander.
Ask KatyCareless Memories bookDenis O'ReganDuran Duran
A Matter of Feeling, Daily Duranie Reviews, Uncategorized
Daily Duranie Review – A Matter of Feeling
It is time for another Daily Duranie review, a review of the song, A Matter of Feeling. This song is the fourth song off of the album, Notorious. This was an album track and one with a slower tempo to it. What do we think of this song? Was it a good addition to the album? Should it have been more than an album track?
Rhonda on A Matter of Feeling
A Matter of Feeling starts off with this smooth woodwind type sampling, almost like a flute, that provides the opening melody. Overall it’s a very easy, smooth song – but it’s not overly simple. There are many layers to the song and subtle sounds in the background. Where this type of recording seems to differ from Seven and the Ragged Tiger is that “the background” really does mean the background. The sounds are there, but they’re really put behind the main melody, so the listener doesn’t have that feeling of frenetic noise being thrown at them. This is one example of the maturity gained on this album. This is definitely a ballad by Duran standards, and as I listen – I can hear the maturity that eventually grew into music like Ordinary World (Yes I am aware Warren wrote the melody for that song. My point is merely that there was a journey the band had to take in order to get to the point where that song could have ever been recorded, and A Matter of Feeling is one mile marker on that journey.) ‘t 5:57 in length, A Matter of Feeling seems very long, especially since the very end consists of the same melody, some improvisational vocals and the same melody. I really feel they could have cut about a minute off of the song and still had a quality piece of music.
I think Simon is at his best when the vocals feel unforced and easy. This song definitely gives him room to move without forcing him into octaves or keys where he’s not comfortable, and I respect that. I recently heard an interview from this same period of time where Simon mentions how uncomfortable he is singing in specific keys that were apparently “required” of him due to some inflexibility on behalf of a specific band member. Unfortunately, it is incredibly obvious when those songs come up, and it’s really nice to listen to a song like A Matter of Feeling when you can hear Simon’s voice relaxed, open and full rather than choked off and strained. Even in the background improv vocals at the very end, which are admittedly higher in his range, he doesn’t have that same strain that I hear in other work. Well done.
I’ve got to ask – is this song about John? It sure reads like it. It’s been pretty well documented as to how “alone” John really felt – and the lines “Steal away in the morning, love’s already history to you. It’s a habit you’re forming. This body’s desperate for something new.” I don’t know, I just sort of hear this as a call to John. (sorry if that’s not the case!) In any case, there are specific lines of this song that really hit me. I love the lines at the beginning about feeling alone in a crowd or that acquaintances smile but it’s not understanding. Sounds like comments about fame. As someone who isn’t famous, it’s true – it is incredibly difficult to have that understanding. I can’t imagine, but Simon writes about it often if you listen to the words. My favorite line in the song: “Whenever you slow down to see life is passing by”. Sometimes I need reminding that life really is passing! When I really listen to songs like these, I sometimes wonder if the band hasn’t been trying to explain themselves to us for years, and nearly none of us really take the time to listen. Confession time – I don’t think I ever really took the time to LISTEN to A Matter of Feeling and what it’s saying until today.
I’m a little ashamed to say that this is a song I always tended to skip over. For me, it initially came off a little boring I suppose, I’m not really a ballad person, and especially not as a teenager when this album was released. I find that once I’ve decided that a song is in that realm, I don’t tend to listen to it often, even today. It’s a shame and I’ve missed out, because in doing this review, I realize just how much of a message this song and the band wanted to share. It’s one of those underrated gems (and there are plenty) within the band’s catalog. The writing, the music, the vocals – they’re all top notch, and what’s more – I can identify with what is being conveyed to a certain extent. I may not be famous, but I know how I feel in a crowd, and after reading John’s autobiography – I’d be shocked if this song wasn’t about him, at least in part. It’s a special song, and if you haven’t listened to A Matter of Feeling lately – take the time.
Cocktail Rating:
4 cocktails!
Amanda on Matter of Feeling
The instrumentation of A Matter of Feeling has a smooth feel to it. Some instrumentation changes throughout the song but there are many parts that remain constant that works to give it that smooth sense. For example, in the beginning of the song, one can definitely hear the bass and drums but there is a higher-pitch, almost flute sounding layer that doesn’t last once Simon is singing, but the bass and drums are continuous. Nick’s keyboards are soft sounding even during the chorus. In fact, all of the instrumentation is soft and never get faster than a mid-tempo. It is a classic Duran pseudo ballad in that way. Of course, there are some additional sounds added, at times, but none of those additives take away from the general feeling of the song or distract the listener.
Much like the instrumentation, when I think of Simon’s vocal, I think of smooth. While a lot of A Matter of Feeling is in a lower range, there moments when he hits some higher notes. Unlike previous songs on this album, his voice sounds less strained and sounds more natural. In fact, because of this, I think you can tell of the subtle vocal ability Simon has. The vocals work well with the instrumentation, too. One of the things I do like about A Matter of Feeling is that neither the vocals nor the instrumentation are dominant as both garner my attention, at different moments in the song.
A Matter of Feeling reminds me of the lyrics of Seven and the Ragged Tiger in that it truly seems to be about their lives, including and especially, about being famous and the loneliness of fame. Certainly, the first four lines indicate this: “How does it feel when everyone surrounds you? How do you deal? Do crowds just make you feel lonely?” Then, I have to wonder if the chorus isn’t a reference to one night stands with lines like, “Love’s already history to you. It’s a habit you’re forming. This body’s desperate for something new.” Out of all of the lines, though, the one that sticks out to me the most is, “Who knows, you might find something to last.” Is that what they would looking for then? Stability? Commitment? If these lyrics are autobiographical, then, they really do make fame less than desirable. One thing I will note is that, unlike Seven and the Ragged Tiger, these lyrics seem more obvious, more straight forward. The lyrics aren’t wrapped in metaphor and poetry. While many missed these qualities, I think these lyrics are still emotion filled.
A Matter of Feeling has a lot going for it. It clearly falls into that not-quite a ballad but a slower tempo song. Musically and vocally, it is pleasant and enjoyable to listen to. While the lyrics might be about fame and Duran’s personal experiences, I think that many can relate to some of those lyrics of loneliness. The production seems smooth. Yet, it isn’t one that I’m immediately drawn to. Is that because I tend to go for more upbeat songs? Possibly. That said, when I do go for something of this tempo, I don’t go for this one. I think it is a good song but seems to lack something to make it a great song. The only thing I can figure out is that it lacks that special, unique type of quality that I need to make it a favorite.
5 cocktail glasses
A Matter of FeelingDuran DuranNotorious
Daily Duranie Reviews, Uncategorized
Kingdom – The Daily Duranie Review
Today we’re reviewing Kingdom, off of the soundtrack to the latest Hunger Games movie, called Mockingjay Pt. 1. The soundtrack was released on November 17th. “Kingdom” by Charli XCX, features Simon Le Bon. Yes, Duran’s Simon. While we are both super excited just to hear any new music from anyone in the Duran camp, we thought it would be good to take the time to really listen to the song and write about our overall thoughts. Read our review and let us know what you think!
Rhonda’s Thoughts on Kingdom:
First of all, I must apologize for my tardiness in getting Kingdom reviewed. I had asked Amanda to give her thoughts, but then completely forgot to add my own, and it has sat in our “drafts” box for quite a while now. Sorry!
I was somewhat familiar with Charli XCX prior to hearing that Simon would be featured on Kingdom – I have a teenage girl in the house, and so this artist has been mentioned by her before. I was curious how the collaboration might sound, and I was very hopeful after hearing Simon’s own feelings about Kingdom in this interview on Yahoo! Music with Lori Majewski. He describes Kingdom as being a Nursery Rhyme musically, but lyrically being very, very dark. After reading that, I was properly intrigued. Knowing the Hunger Games franchise, I felt that Kingdom would work really well in with the soundtrack, as well. Anyone who has read the books or seen the movies should understand the nuances between light (triumph) and darkness (loss) that occur throughout the series.
Although I am familiar with Charli XCX – it is by name only for the most part. I probably couldn’t pick her out of a lineup, and I doubt that I’d be able to recognize her music from others, so that is my disclaimer for this review. As I listen to the beginning of Kingdom, the song reminds me of a child’s music box. As promised, there is definitely a fairy-tale quality. The vocals are very well suited to the song – she has a child-like sweetness and innocence to her voice, which is such a fantastic texture to add to the darkness of the lyrics, which is also very reminiscent of a fairy-tale. (Have you really listened to a fairy tale or even Ring-Around-The-Rosey lately?? The plots and lyrics are freaking SCARY. I don’t think I realized until I became a parent. Talk about twisted..and we wonder why kids can’t sleep. Gee, I don’t know…maybe they’re afraid some witch is going to throw them into an oven, or feed them a poisoned apple…or they’re going to catch the plague and die!) There are some other little effects that go on here and there throughout Kingdom that, in my opinion, do little to benefit. In some ways the sound effects almost add humor to the song, and I don’t know that it’s needed. I just know that I love what was done with the song and the lyrics. Now, about that Simon…. because I know that’s what you’re all wondering. Simon’s voice is incredibly well-suited to this song, and it’s been SO long since I’ve heard and felt that timbre from his voice, there’s just this tasty depth that I don’t think he’s really used since the first Duran Duran album, but yet there’s still the light. Even here, his vocals have light, and the texture is unbelievably good. My only small complaint is that they didn’t use him enough. I love the way Charli XCX slowed the ending down, just as a music box runs out of steam, and the fairy tale of Kingdom ends. Well done Simon, well done Charli XCX.
I haven’t caught the movie yet – and I enjoyed the books even though I bit my nails off from stress while reading, so I’m looking forward to hearing how this song might have been used. I bought the soundtrack off of iTunes just so that I could have Kingdom and it’s going to keep me going until Duran’s new album FINALLY COMES OUT…hopefully sometime this decade…. 🙂
Amanda’s Thoughts on Kingdom:
I will be the very first one to admit that I have no idea who Charli XCX is. Is this someone I should know? Will this artist blend well with Simon? Will I care after not having any new music for so long? Besides, I figured that Kingdom would just showcase Simon’s vocal skills. I was definitely excited for that. As much as I might give Simon a hard time about various things, I totally admit that he has some mad skills when it comes to that voice of his! Of course, I also knew that Kingdom would be on a soundtrack. Would it enhance the movie? Will it match the mood of the movie or the scene that it will be featured in? For me to answer those questions, I might need some additional time to actually see the movie. All of that said, what did I think of the song without knowing how it is in the movie or without knowing anything about Charli XCX?
This is a strange song for me to review as it isn’t really Simon’s song. He is just a guest, a featured artist. Can I judge Charli XCX? Do I know enough? My guess is probably not but I will say what I think, anyway. It wouldn’t be the first time that I offered an opinion here (ha!) and it won’t be the last (you can say that again!). All that said, I love the opening notes to the song with the piano sound. It reminds me of a Tori Amos. The voice sort of reminds of Tori, too. Clearly, Charli XCX does not have a common voice–it is more ethereal, more mystical. This definitely fits with the description that Simon said about it being like a dark fairytale. Normally, her voice isn’t a type I would choose to listen to, but, in this case, it really fits with the music and works to create a mood (much like Simon does at his best!). Of course, about a minute in, the song shifts to include more instrumentation with an electronic feel along with the piano. I love the music there–the militaristic drum sound really stands out to me. Then, Simon comes. He is so smooth here and really does add something special to the song. Yes, I’m a Duranie. Does that mean I’m biased? Maybe but I don’t think so. He adds to the drama, to the emotion of the song.
Truly, Kingdom makes me WANT to see the movie and see how it is used, which never happens. I only have two complaints. First, the song could be longer and Simon’s part definitely could be longer. I didn’t get enough from his very brief appearance. Second, I wish the song was available on its own off of iTunes. I don’t know that I want the entire soundtrack but I would love to have a copy of this song.
What do the rest of you think?
Charli XCXDuran DuranHunger GamesMockingjaySimon LeBon
Fandom, fans, internet, John Taylor, Uncategorized
Is John Taylor Really Sick of the Internet?
This is one of those days where I lay my head to rest on my kitchen table, enjoying the coolness of the wood, and hope that from somewhere – presumably out of thin air – a blog topic will pop into my head.
I’m desperately trying to get back into the habit of writing a real blog on a daily basis here. The band isn’t helping much (Thank you Simon for posting about the system being down while mixing your new album, your new motorcycle – nice Triumph, by the way – and whatever else, but nothing is spurring me yet.), although John Taylor did post something about being sick of the internet earlier today. I am going to assume this has absolutely nothing to do with my previous blogs this week, or the “spirited dialogue” on our Facebook page regarding Lindsay and Ali Lohan, and just figure this has everything to do with their “system” being down. Mainly because I’d hate to have pissed off John Taylor over a rumor. I’ll gladly take John Taylor or the band to task over music I’ve actually heard and accept that I’ve made them angry as a result of my opinion…but a rumor?
Sure, I commented. I lamented their possible choices. I complained and was downright snarky when I felt like. I even sat here and began drafting my resignation letter from Duraniehood. But as the day wore on, and into the next day, and that afternoon…I realized a few things:
Talking about Duran Duran’s career all day is a little tiring.
Talking about Lindsay Lohan all day is REALLY exhausting.
I lived through Timbaland. I can do just about anything, even if I really don’t want.
Truth be told, John Taylor hit a nerve when he said he was sick of the internet. Now, it’s not because I think John Taylor is being ridiculous because he’s never online (that we can see) these days, and it’s not because the internet is here to stay and I think he needs to just get over and get on with it – although both of those things are true. He hit a nerve because for a long time now, I’ve felt that way myself.
Back when we first started blogging and doing Facebook and Twitter, everything was sparkly new. It was fun communicating with people, and I especially enjoyed watching people communicate with the band. Over the past four years or so though, the internet is showing some wear. It’s a lot less sparkly and a lot more dingy and rusty. I’ve seen some of the things fans and others have said, posted and tweeted to John Taylor over the past few years. It’s not always nice, kind or even respectful. Fandom has a similar feel as well. It’s difficult to be “up” when everything is down or quiet. It’s hard to be excited for the next tour when the album is taking what feels like an incredibly long time to finish. I know the band is in the studio a lot right now, and I appreciate that – I’m talking about the past four years as a whole. It’s disheartening to talk about how much we want new music and especially live shows again only to get the smack down from fans who tell us they’re happy to wait for as long as it takes, or to hear from yes…John Taylor…that he doesn’t feel the need to do shows or tour “just yet”, and to read from many others that Amanda and I are somehow horrible for missing the band and wishing they were around and accessible once again. So yes, Amanda and I have been VERY sick of the internet, and even the fandom to an extent, for quite a while. The trouble is, I don’t think we’re alone. I get the sense that the fan community at large could really use a spiritual “recharge” of sorts – one that only comes with exciting news from the band. Yet, we all know that mixing and getting the album finished takes time. I saw the stink-eye John Taylor gave on his Instagram post this morning as proof. I suspect that when/if the band were to announce that the mixing is completely finished – we’d want to have a party. Shout it from the rooftops, celebrate however we can…because this means the drought may actually be coming to an end. Soon. For what I really think might be the very first time – we all lived the writing and recording of this album on Facebook and Twitter.
Each time John Taylor, Simon or Roger (or even Nick…by video or some other way!) would come online and give a short, vague update, I’d get excited. When they wouldn’t say anything on Katy Kafe or when we wouldn’t hear anything for months at a time, I’d grow weary and concerned. When I kept hearing name after name, I was confused and sometimes fearful of what was really going on in that studio. We fans feed directly off of the tone set by the band, and that can’t be said strongly enough. That doesn’t mean the band should pretend to always be positive, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s all gone belly up due to negativity. It just means that fans are tuned in. They’ve got our attention. We take what they say, do, and create, to heart and soul. Double-edged sword at times? Yes. (Just see my blogs over the past few days for evidence!)
Amanda and I tend to pay a lot of attention to what is or is not being said, primarily because of the blog, and for me – the past four years has felt like I’ve been chasing a carrot to no avail. In many ways I’m weary and tired…but I feel like I might be catching a second wind some days. Others, I’m back to square one. So yes, John Taylor, I’m sick of the internet. Sometimes. Other times, the internet really is looking up.
I don’t need to wait for comments to tell me that much of this is because Amanda and I write this blog, or because we need other hobbies, or because we over think things. All of those things might be true on any given day. Those things though, are what make up The Daily Duranie, and if I changed any one thing – our blog would be incredibly different and not what we’ve worked very hard to create over the past four years.
Today, the internet is looking up.
DD14Duran DuranDuran Duran new albumJohn TaylorSimon LeBon
DD14, Duran Duran, rumors, Uncategorized
Lindsay Lohan Rumors, Day Two
December 9, 2014 Daily Duranie 7 Comments
Some rumors refuse to die, and so when I got up this morning, I suppose I wasn’t all that surprised to see that yes – Lindsay Lohan was still in my Facebook newsfeed. Turns out, a “source” told The Mirror that Lindsay was doing more of a spoken word part on the album while her sister Ali was doing the singing. They are to be featured on the same song.
Truth be told, until the album is in our hot little hands or DDHQ cares to respond to the rumors, we won’t really know who or what is on the album…and it’s not our job here at Daily Duranie to investigate the truthfulness of such rumors. We do, however, respond as a sort of voice for the fans. So, after reading the rumor of the day, I threw it out to our Facebook and Twitter followers to gnash their teeth on.
Many fans are ever-supportive, saying that they trust the band’s choices, including that of Lindsay Lohan. I’m not exactly sure what that means, given that none of us have any control over what the band does. We can only control our purchasing power, and they’ve seen evidence, however limited that may be, of that power in the past. When I read that someone “trusts the band’s choices”, I don’t get the feeling that they’re reserving judgment until they hear the song – they just know they’re going to love whatever the band does because well, it’s Duran Duran. I am not that kind of fan, but there’s room for everyone in this fandom. Others though question not only the validity of the rumor (don’t we all?) but the fact that out of the billions on the planet – Lindsay Lohan has the right voice for the job. I throw up my own hands on that one because like any other fan – I have no idea what they’re going for. That would be my statement on the entire album at this particular point though, and not just from the rumor/announcement of the Lohan sisters. There has been quite a cacophony of names being paraded about over the last four years – and to those of us whom have never heard even a single note or snippet, connecting the dots from Mr. Hudson to John Frusciante and Nile Rodgers and now Lindsay Lohan may seem a little far-fetched. That doesn’t mean it can’t make sense and be completely cohesive, it just means we’re all going to have to wait until next spring or beyond before we really know what it all means. Still others feel that, if true, that it’s a stunt executed for marketing purposes. Once again I say that we can’t argue with the ten million followers Lindsay Lohan has between Twitter and Instagram. If you were in a band and wanted your music to get out to a wide audience of people, this might be one way to do it. After all, this is the same band who held up a sign at the end of Girls on Film saying that some people will do anything to sell records, which brings me to the question of selling out. The devils advocate in me posed the question if one is outraged by the idea of the band licensing their music to sell perfume or clothing or yogurt, or cars for that matter… is this any different? As one fan put it, “That ship sailed to Antigua a long, long time ago.”, I chuckled as I acknowledged the truth of the statement and wholeheartedly agreed.
It is difficult to maintain an open mind – I’m the first to say that here, and I recognize in some sense why the band has kept a lot of details beyond the names working on the album pretty mum. Once upon a time, I had all but made up my mind about Red Carpet Massacre, for instance, before the album ever hit the shelves. I never appreciated Timbaland before Duran Duran, and I still do not. My disdain for Justin Timberlake is well-documented in many places, although I’ve come around to some point on Justin these days. Truthfully I hated Red Carpet Massacre before I even held it in my hand. Thankfully for all of you, I didn’t blog back then. When I first read the article this morning that Duranasty shared, my immediate reaction was not filled with hearts and rainbows of positivity. In fact, I was considering how best to word this blog for the better part of the morning. As I told a few people this morning, I waiver between wanting to remain positive and formulating my fan resignation letter. I’m not perfect.
It all comes down to not knowing, doesn’t it? None of us really know where this album is headed. As someone pointed out earlier on Facebook, we have been given plenty of details as far as names go, but there is still enough mystery and time on our hands to overthink. Who doesn’t enjoy a great discussion on the finer points of Duran Duran? In time, we’ll have the answers and have spirited discussions over our conclusions.
Ali LohanDD14Duran DuranDuran Duran recordingDuranastyFacebookLindsay LohanThe MirrorTwitter
Duran Duran, social networking, Uncategorized
Duran Duran on Twitter
Do you still wait to see Duran Duran on Twitter? How many still hang out on Twitter wondering when/if the band will show up? I remember the good old days when John or Simon used to occasionally check Twitter. I remember when social engagement, interaction…or whatever you want to call it seemed to matter (even if it really didn’t).
I still use Twitter. I still read my timeline and I still comment whenever I feel like it. I think I got into the Twitter habit just before John came along, before I really noticed Duran Duran on Twitter, and I’m still there. I like the idea of it feeling sort of like a chat room that is occupied 24/7. I can go in there, post whatever I’m thinking at the time and leave. Sometimes I’ll get into short conversations with friends, and sometimes not. I also check out what other people are saying, and yes, I will even check on what fans are tweeting to the band. Call me masochistic, or even just curious. Sometimes I get the best blog ideas that way. Other times, and this seems to be happening far more often these days, I come away feeling melancholy…or even just sad.
The other day I was reading Twitter and saw so many posts congratulating Dom on his tenth anniversary and asking John where he was…so many leaving heartfelt notes of how much he means to them, or how they can’t wait for the next album. Weirdly, it struck me that at this point, I’m not even sure those tweets get read. It wasn’t that long ago when it was obvious that yes, they were getting read. There would be responses to things when Duran Duran was on Twitter that seemed to come out of nowhere. A question would be asked, sometimes even in jest, and suddenly without warning, an answer would appear. They might not even mention names or do a RT, but you knew that the intended band member had seen your tweet, and dammit – they were answering you. Duran Duran On Twitter. Incredulous! There was this magical moment when All You Need is Now came out – maybe it was because it was clear the title song was about our relationship with the band as fans, maybe it was because the band was active on Twitter and Facebook, and maybe it was because of all of those things – but it felt like there was some sort of really cool synergy taking place. It wasn’t “The Band” and then “The Fans”… it was “Us”. How amazing was that?? Yes, it got crazy at times. I was on Twitter and Facebook and saw it firsthand. Fans would lose their shit when John Taylor would show up. Many of us would sit back, pop some corn and watch with interest. Others would join in. The thing about all of that though was that it generated interest, energy and joy, whether you were watching or participating. Frankly, I was curious about the change in tide…the change in relationship between the fans and the band at a critical time after Red Carpet Massacre. Utterly fascinating stuff if you’re me. It felt good to be a Duranie because Duran Duran was on Twitter…talking to fans!
The other day I made comment after reading some of these recent tweets to band members. I mentioned I thought it was so sad, because it is obvious that fans still care enough to try and engage without really much encouragement to do so from the band. I had some responses back that ran the gamut from “the band will be back when they’ve got something to promote” (which in turn felt very disingenuous to the person who responded) to the fact that despite the drawbacks (for the band) in being open and accessible with fans, that they should have realized what they got into with fame. All in all, I have to say there were very few responses that indicated (to me) much empathy towards the band. I can’t imagine this makes it an easy place for the band to start from when it comes to promoting this new album, so I have to ask – is it really that much trouble to say hi once in a while? Is it really so horrible?? Is it really that unnatural? If so, why is it so natural for the rest of us? Maybe that’s the real question.
Dom BrownDuran DuranDuran Duran social networkingDuran Duran TwitterJohn TaylorSimon LeBon
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Tag Archives: Fan communities
reposted blogs
Blog Pick from 2011-2012: More on Friendships
September 7, 2017 Daily Duranie 1 Comment
One thing I’ve found as I’ve looked back over our blogs for the past seven years is that there were some years that Amanda and I just WROTE. We did crazy amounts of writing each day. Nothing “dialed-in”, nothing that was just fluff. 2011-2012 was that way for us, and it was very difficult to choose something that summed up the year. We traveled to the UK in December, we hosted a meet-up In Chicago, and we had big ideas (and wide eyes) for what we wanted to do with Daily Duranie.
The theme for this post was friendship. At the time, we had hosted a couple of meet-ups that went over very well, and I was feeling more and more confident about our “place” in the Duran fan community. At the time, I felt like we were accepted and loved. Our goal quickly became one of inclusion – we wanted EVERYONE to feel included and have a good fan experience. This post is indicative of that.
The real reason Amanda and I began Daily Duranie is simple: We wanted to be liked and accepted. Writing was our way “in”. I don’t think it ever really worked in the way we’d hoped – our circle of friends is incredibly small – but that’s fine. We’ve learned to rely on one another, and we do. Anything else is a bonus. Back then, I think we felt like we could somehow share that vision of being liked and accepted with other people who never felt like they fit in, and that’s why we had hoped to be something in the fan community that would be known for bringing people together. That initial glimmer of vision is what is written in the words below. I smile a little bit by how naive I was at the time.
I don’t know if our overall vision has changed that much since 2011, but I think the way in which we conduct ourselves certainly has. We still agree that our “place” in the fan community is not necessarily to report on the news, but to focus on the fan experience. I would say that writing has become less about other people and more about myself – I can’t speak for Amanda on that, though. Time and experience has changed me. Where at one time I wrote hoping to make other people happy – wanting validation and acceptance, now I write with the goal of making myself happy. It isn’t that I don’t worry about what other people think, it is that I can’t. Even so, it’s nice to take a look back and “hear” my innocent, wide-eyed point of view.
Originally posted October 26, 2011:
While I didn’t get comments here, I did see quite a few comments regarding yesterday’s blog topic on Facebook. The overwhelming response is that the friendships we make have all the difference in our experience, and I would agree. (obviously?!?)
The most interesting part of this fan community, and I would venture to guess it’s the same with every fan community – is the overall intensity of the bonding. Whether we’re talking about the bonding between fans, or the bond between fan and band (although I have to point out that I’m specifically referring to the FAN…not the band…I have little doubt that for most of us, they have zero recognition, much less feel that same bonding), I’ve always felt that the fan community in general intensifies the experience as a whole.
When I first found dd.com, I was shocked as to just how black and white everything was on the message board. You were either included or you were not. You were either well liked, or you were not. The same holds true today on virtually every message board I’ve visited. Where I was completely embraced on some boards, there were others where I went completely unnoticed, or in some cases, I was even disliked. We’ve discussed the anonymity of being online before and how for a lot of people, it somehow gives license to be as rude and cruel as they wish. Conversely it somehow works to accentuate or emphasize friendships when they form. Friendships are formed swiftly and strongly, and I suppose enemies are formed in virtually the same way. The real question, and one I’m not going to try to answer in the blog today – is why that really happens. I’ve never formed friends or enemies in real life nearly as quickly as I have online on a message board, have you?
The Daily Duranie blog has tried very hard to focus on the fan experience. Amanda and I have always held that if you’re looking for Duran news – there are plenty of places to find it online, and we never wanted to reinvent the wheel or steal anyone’s thunder. Our “niche”, so to speak, is the fan. When we first began to blog, I don’t think Amanda or I really knew where the blog would head – we just wanted to find our special space in the world, for better or worse. Over time though, we’ve seen one common thread amongst Duran fans – and that is by and large – everyone wants to feel included, find friends, and enjoy talking about this little band we’ve heard some things about. What has amazed me over the past year is that for all the 30 some odd years the band has been together, there are still tons of people out there amongst us that just haven’t gotten that involved in the community. I just read a post today from someone who said they never go with friends to a show and that they haven’t met anyone. I’m here to tell you that going to a show is fantastic in and of itself, but having friends to share that with makes all the difference. If you loved Duran before, being able to gush over the show with a friend or more is huge. Enormous!
Of course, there are always going to be people who prefer the solo experience. I can’t find fault with that, and I think it’s probably beyond the scope of the blog to delve too deeply into why that may be. (my major was American Studies, not Psychology – and I sort of suspect that may have a little something more to do with this than pop culture or sociology!) I did have one comment from someone who didn’t mind sitting alone at all, primarily because they were in the first row. I smiled at that – because let me tell you – had I been in the front row on Friday, I think I would have been just fine with that too. Who here would not have been?!? Sure, I’d rather be with my friends…in the front row….but solo would work in that case. I’d have braved it out just fine! I suppose we all have our limits or standards. Mine is in the front row!
What about that false sense of friendship? Let me explain myself a bit – what about those friends who you may be at a show with that disappear after the show without a trace, and you only hear much later that they were at a large gathering where the band happened to show? What about those friends that are friends online but when it comes to push and shove are nowhere to be seen? They exist in real life just as well as online or in the fan community…so I don’t think it’s unique to Duran Duran…but how do they play in? For me, I think it’s been doubly hurtful to see that I’ve been deceived. I’ve gone from the high of a show, to the low of seeing that I’ve been completely left out, and there’s not much that annoys me more than that. I know I’m not alone.
I think that at the end of the day, everyone wants to be included and they want that fan experience, and that’s where Daily Duranie is headed. If we can bring fans together to be friends, then that’s what we’ll do.
Daily Duranie BirthdayDuran DuranFan communitiesfandom
Caught Up In Our Own Barbed Wire
August 30, 2017 Daily Duranie 1 Comment
I get my best ideas from Twitter, and my best thinking is done in the car. (I don’t know what that says about my driving…let’s just not go there.)
This morning I was hemming and hawing over what I was going to write about, when lo and behold our friend Heather alerted Daily Duranie to a new word, “stan”. At first, I was pretty sure I’d never heard of the word before, but after thinking it over – in my car – I actually think it’s a case where I’ve seen the word many times without really thinking much of it. I did tell Heather that it wasn’t a word I’ve found in academic books on fan studies yet (yes, there are such things – many of them, I might add!), and that’s true, although to be fair, I have a backlog of such books going that I need to read.
So…what does it mean?
To begin with, “stan” is both a noun AND a verb. (I’m already confused, how about you?) One can “stan” someone, and one can in fact be a “stan”.
Bet you’re still wondering about the definition. Never fear, I’ve got you covered: “stan” is a mashup of two words: stalker and fan. Get it?
So if you’re someone who has spent time reading negative articles or reviews about Duran Duran, for instance, and you go out of your way to defend and even maybe publicly demoralize or lash out at the writer of such articles – to the extreme – maybe you’re “stanning” someone.
Or, if you’re someone who shows up at every last appearance of the band, even private events, or whatever someone else might consider to be over the line, perhaps you’ve been called a “stan”.
It isn’t a word I’ve seen used much in Duraniverse, but judging purely from the searches I did today, it would seem that other communities out there fully embrace the term. The Swifties amongst us, for example, use it heavily.
As you might imagine, I have several thoughts on this. The first being that I hate the derogatory labels. Yeah, I know sometimes we all think someone has crossed the gates into Crazyville. It happens. I’ve done stupid things myself, and probably will again, assuming there’s another tour. (Right Amanda??) I just feel like there’s already enough in this world bringing us down without another label added the pile. But then my friend Heather tells me that fans are calling other fans this name – and yet another friend of mine mentions that for some fans, they wear it as a badge of honor.
Ok, so how screwed up is that??
First of all, there are a number of studies and research out there about communities that take titles and labels such as this and turn it back on themselves, calling one another these terms, so that way they are controlling the narrative rather than someone else doing it. It’s similar to when we see women or young girls calling one another “bitch” or “ho”. (or “ho-bag”, as the case may be….) On one hand, some might (and have) said it’s a term of endearment in the same way my mom has always called my sister and I, “brat”. On the other, if we call one another these names, it doesn’t hurt so bad if someone else does it. If we turn it into something “positive”, then when someone does use it negatively, the sting isn’t quite so sharp. We all do it. I have in fact done this. If I call myself a nerd, or crazy, when someone else says it – I’ve already taken the sting out of it, right? There’s also the issue of internalizing the negativity, but I won’t even take a stab at that for this blog post.
Second, the self-policing we do as fans can get very out of hand. There isn’t a tour that goes by, including this last show in Zagreb, where I don’t see one fan calling out other fans for going over the line. The trouble is – where IS that line? What does that mean? What do the boundaries look like? It would seem we all have a different impression of what it means to behave. While I might not be willing to run down a city block in order to catch up with Simon (or John, or Roger, or Nick…or even Dom or Simon W….or MY HUSBAND for that matter….), someone else sees no issue. While I know for sure I wouldn’t stare into a restaurant to catch a glimpse of a band member at dinner, someone else thinks it’s fine. What about waiting in a hotel lobby? At a studio? In the airport? In a parking garage after a show? We are all (including myself) very good at judging, and we’re pretty harsh about the self-policing within our community. Why do we do that? Because if we are able to call out one another for being crazy, then maybe no one else on the outside will do it.
If I had a dime for the things I’m judged for doing on a daily basis…. I’d be writing full-time. 😀
The real deal is this: because of the fact that we’re fans, and have been so for a majority of our lives, it is very difficult to get away from that fact. I could delve a bit farther into the truths that many of us are women, and that we continue to look for validation from men. We internalize much of the negativity that surrounds the label of “fan”, and we work far too hard to “police” our own community . We apply scathing judgement to other people for doing things that we regard as being “over the line”. Those traits do little to help the situation. But the simple truth is that we’re all fans, and to many in this world, that immediately marks us. Permanently.
I’ve learned that once someone knows I’m a Duranie, there is precious little I can do to make them see beyond that, particularly if that person is at all connected with Duran Duran, and god help me if they discover I write Daily Duranie. That paints me with indelible “crazy fan” ink in a way that not even having it tattooed down my arm would accomplish. Never mind that 95% of my life is spent outside of fandom, or that I’ve successfully raised children or any of the other things I know and am capable. I am a FAN, which in turn (at least for some people) makes me a “stan”, even if only by association.
Don’t get me wrong, here. Writing Daily Duranie is a joy for me. I wouldn’t do it otherwise. I do not, and will never, regret writing this blog. I have deep regret, however, for the people who marginalize me and other friends I know (many of whom are far more talented or intelligent than I could ever hope to be myself), simply because it comes out that we’re Duranies, or that we have favorite band members – or favorite people altogether. That sucks, to be blunt.
What’s worse than that, in my opinion, is that we’ve somehow trained a younger generation to wear such labels as “stan” with pride. Own your fandom, but let’s stop internalizing the marginalization that goes along with it.
Duran DuranDuran Duran fansDuraniesFan communitiesfan studiesfandomstan
Duran Duran, friendship
We’re the Ripples: Friendship in Duranland
Sometimes, without any warning whatsoever, this community will make me have a good case of the “feels”. Those of you who have teenagers will probably know what I mean. The rest of you, well…just keep reading and you’ll catch on.
A couple of days ago, I was catching up on Facebook by reading my news feed. I noticed that I’d gotten some sort of video thing posted by Facebook notifying me that Amanda and I have been friends for 9 years. In actuality, it’s been a bit longer than that – I’ve known her since September of 2003 when I met her in person at the Friends of Mine convention in New Orleans – but the sentiment was nice, all the same. It looked like quite a few of my friends had gotten similar notifications with other people on that same day. One of them caught my eye because the other person (not my friend, but the person she was friends with) had passed away quite a few years ago.
It’s become sort of common for family members to decide to leave Facebook accounts up for people who have passed on. My friend Laurie’s family has done that, and while I make it a point NOT to visit her page (Though I’ve tried over the years, I just can’t yet. The pain is far too great.), many of my sorority sisters still visit and I know the page provides comfort to Laurie’s mom, in particular. This person’s family must have decided to do something similar. Out of curiosity, I clicked on her page because my friend had noted she met her because of Duran Duran. I found something remarkable and wonderful as a result.
This person was a Duranie and she was apparently well-known and loved, even though I myself have no recollection of her (I’m a west coast Duranie who had mostly kept to herself until this blog came about!) Over the years since her passing, many of her friends continue to visit her page, leaving photos commemorating their memories of her. It turns out that my friend had known this person for 30 years, as a result of being Duranies. The notes were sometimes poignant, sad, and yet there was definitely a silver lining to all of it.
This one band brought these people together, and to this day, this one person had given all of her friends and the people she had touched with her life a remarkable gift of something to remember her by. Everywhere on the page there were pictures of hearts posted by her friends. Naturally occurring hearts, made from the shapes of leaves, clouds, shadows, light, and love. I had never seen friendship look quite so beautiful. Friendship that began (in many cases) over the bonding that happens when you’re fans of the same band.
I hear about that sort of thing every once in a while, but it still makes me take pause every single time. There are people, very VERY lucky people I might add, who have met people in this fandom and have been friends with them since childhood. Here we are, now in the throes of whatever “middle-age” might be, and some can still say they have childhood friends that continue to love this band and go to shows with them. It blows my mind. I mean that. Days later and I’m still thinking about how lucky this woman was to have these kinds of friends. It’s funny because in some ways these friendships go against everything I tend to see in this community: the in-fighting, the envy, and the insipid bickering and arguing.
I don’t really know if Duran Duran really understands their impact, and I’m not just talking about musically. They brought so many of us together. I have a difficult time wrapping my head around that, much less writing words about it. These friendships go beyond what the critics said, or whether or not as kids we knew anything about music. One band brought an entire community of kids together from all across the planet, many of us are still here, and a lot of us know one another and count each other as friends and family. That’s the real gift for fans. Sure, the music is great and will last forever, but nothing will last longer than my memories of the friendships I’ve made along the way. Not everybody gets that. Some people only have the music – and while that’s a huge, enormous thing on its own, those of us who are really entrenched in the fan community have so much more. We have friendship. For me, those relationships are kind of the bonus silver lining in all of this, and I hope those of you reading can say the same.
I don’t really think about my own mortality much – it’s a pretty depressing thought. I will say this though: I will consider mine a life well-lived if one day I have the kinds of friends that this Duranie had, who continue to have her memory so readily available in their minds – and their love for her so palatable that they continue to spread that love well after her passing.
It would have been easy for me to have scrolled right past that little note in my news feed that day. After all, it was none of my business – even though my friend had shared it (which is why I saw it) and in some ways I did feel like I was eavesdropping when I looked at this person’s page. That said, it touched me, and I’m glad I did. I’m still thinking about the love I saw that day. Duranies aren’t an easy bunch. We can be petty, jealous, vindictive and WAY competitive. But sometimes, the friendships and love speak louder than anything else, and take my breath away.
Duran DuranDuraniesFan communitiesfandomfriendship
It’s a Different Storyline–Types of Fans
March 11, 2016 Daily Duranie 1 Comment
I have studied fandom and fans for a very long time now. Yet, there are still some ideas that I run across that really hit me. The other day I found a power point that was shared with me by someone who teaches an Introduction to Popular Culture class. The idea behind the power point was that there are different types of fans. For example, everyone is a fan to some extent as we all buy things or read things or watch things or listen to things. We all consume and our choices of what to read, watch, listen or buy indicates that we are fans of those things. Yet, for some, they go beyond that and become casual fans. Still fewer become what is labeled as interested fans. Even less become committed fans and a very small minority become hardcore fans. How are these different types of fans defined? They are defined through examples. The basic fan goes to a movie and likes it. The casual fan watches a show each week. An interested fan looks for some information about it and buys some products. A committed fan spends a lot of time on it, becomes part of a community of fans. The hardcore fan’s fandom becomes part of his/her identity and s/he begins to produce new material connected to the fandom. There is obviously a bit more to this but this is the general idea.
This, of course, gets me thinking. I feel like I am part of or have been part of a few fandoms. I’ll start with my oldest fandom, Chicago White Sox baseball. I have been a fan since I was born. It is inherited. I would say that I go beyond basic fan in that fandom as I do watch many games. Just casual fan then? I do buy some products and go to games, if I can. Then, I would go with interested fan. About 10 years ago, I fell for the show, Roswell. I began to hang out on message boards, read fanfic, and even attended fan gatherings. Yet, while I felt like a hardcore fan, I definitely didn’t tie my identity to it or produce anything new. I was pretty passive in the community. I was one of many so I would probably say I was a committed fan. Lately, I have been more into Star Trek and X-Files. Like my White Sox fandom, I buy some products and watch new episodes/movies. I don’t do much in terms of a fan community. Thus, I would say I’m an interested fan with those, too. So, what about my Duran Duran fandom? Oh boy…I hesitate to even think about it.
Am I just an interested fan? Well, I do buy products, but I buy a lot more than a few. I also spend time looking for and at information. I bet this description fits a lot of people reading this blog post. Let me check the next type. Am I a committed fan?! Committed fans spend a lot of time on their fandom and are part of a fan community. I think that description works for me. I do talk to other fans on social media and in real life. I also spend a lot of time on Duran Duran. Again, I bet there are a lot of you who are reading this who are nodding as they can relate. Okay, what about that hardcore fan thing? Could I say that I fit that?! Is my Duran Duran fandom part of my identity? Am I productive with it?
Being a Duranie is definitely part of my identity and I might even say that it has been for a long time. Yet, this identity part became more significant in September of 2010 when this blog started. At that moment, I became more than just “Amanda”. I became half of “The Daily Duranie”. People recognized my writing by my standard “-A”. We not only started this blog but also opened social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I blog EACH AND EVERYDAY. Beyond the blog and social networking, I also helped to organize fan meet-ups and a full-blown fan convention with my partner-in-crime! If those weren’t enough, my research and writing went beyond this blog as we focused our efforts to writing a book on fandom and planning a new book. Therefore, I expanded beyond the Duranie label to writer, researcher, and event planner all surrounding my fandom. Therefore, I would say I have been productive with it. I am a VERY active member of the community in that I write about current events within the fandom AND I try to bring the community together by giving places in which discussion and face-to-face meetings can happen. Yeah, I would say that I’m VERY productive with my fandom.
Of course, before I totally declare myself a “hardcore fan”, which sounds a little scary, I want to refer back to the original powerpoint. I remind myself that there are not very many committed fans and there are EVEN LESS hardcore fans in any given fandom, according to the theory. Am I really comfortable calling myself a hardcore fan? That term doesn’t sound particularly…friendly. It sounds like a nicer term for crazy. Yet, it really is the only description that fits my Duran Duran fandom. Now, in looking back through this powerpoint, I take note that there is no judgement or value placed on any of these levels. Being a committed fan, for example, does not mean you are better than a casual fan. It just means that you are a fan in a DIFFERENT way. I’m okay with being just an interested fan when it comes to the White Sox or the X-Files so I guess I should be okay with being a hardcore fan for Duran Duran. This leads to my next thought. Assuming that I buy into the premise that there are different types of fans like this, do I also buy into the idea that there really are very few hardcore fans? I think I do. I think that what Rhonda and I do is rare, which is probably good for the world. I can’t imagine the world could sustain many fans like us.
Daily DuranieDuran DuranFan communitiesFans Fandom
We Could Change the World
For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by what can be accomplished by a group of like-minded people. As a kid, my two big likes were Duran Duran and the Chicago White Sox. While I liked individual musical artists as a kid, there was something special with bands. I know that I could not really analyze that as a kid beyond the fact that different band members appealed to different fans. I now know and understand that it is WAY more than that. As for the White Sox, I watched how the team came together to win. I liked the camaraderie. When there was a lot of it on the field, the games were more fun and there was a greater chance of a win. This fascination with the power of groups did not stay behind in my childhood. No, in fact, during my undergraduate years, the focus became social movements. This interest combined my study of history, political science, sociology and women’s studies to give me a focus, an academic area of interest. Now, as an adult, this strong interest remains and found a new example. Fandom.
Fandom is all about a group of people with a shared interest who come together. It is about a lot of people who are passionate about the same thing, whether that is a band, a sports team, an actor, a TV show, a movie, a book series, etc. This passion creates a desire for people to want to share their thoughts and feelings with each other. That in and of itself is pretty super cool to me. I think about the Duranies I know. There are countless Duranies who live all over the world who all love the same band so much that they talk about them and participate in activities and events connected to this love. It is amazing, really. Yet, at times, fandom goes beyond that. It is when members of a fandom accomplish more than just creating, maintaining or growing a community surrounding their mutual interest. Then, fandom is able to garner attention beyond fellow fans. The members do more. Just recently, I have seen two very good examples of this.
First, I saw such an outpouring of grief and love about David Bowie from bands, artists, celebrities and individuals. Yet, I also saw people who came together to not only grieve but also to celebrate him as well as seen by this video posted on Facebook. If you read through the comments below the video, you can see how the people there felt that this was an awesome way to deal with the loss of David Bowie. Others who weren’t there felt the same. I know that I would have a similar desire to be with Duranies if something were to happen to one of the guys in the band. I could not deal with the loss alone. I would NEED to be with Rhonda, at the very least. I would want to be around others who understand. I would also want the rest of the world to see how much the band member was loved. This is what fans of David Bowie did. In case the world didn’t really get the love for Bowie by his fans, after seeing that video, it would have been crystal clear.
Sometimes, fandoms are so strong that fans are able to affect the object of the fandom’s future. Probably, the most well-known and significant example of this is Star Trek. The fans of Star Trek were not satisfied with the few short years that the original series was on television. They kept the show “alive” by having conventions, writing fan fiction, and more. Eventually, Hollywood took note and resurrected the show with movies beginning in the 1980s and more Star Trek TV shows following that. A TV show that I am a big fan is going through something similar, which is the X-Files. The show ran for 9 seasons and even had 2 movies get made from the show. Yet, the franchise saw the end after the second movie in 2008, or so it was assumed. Now, the show is coming back! In fact, new episodes begin in a week! Many say that this would not have happened if there weren’t fans still interested! In fact, I would say that there are many fans still around who are VERY excited. Some lucky ones were able to see the first episode already as seen by the video below:
These fans remind me of how many of us felt after seeing Duran Duran reunited after so long. Would Duran Duran have reunited if there weren’t fans who were still interested in seeing the Fab Five back together? I suspect not.
These recent examples prove to me, once again, that united groups of people can be truly amazing. They can express emotion in a much bigger, much more significant way. They can accomplish so much more than any one individual can. This is the power of fandom. It should also be the pride of fandom.
David BowieDuran DuranFan communitiesfandomStar TrekX-Files
Duran Duran, Fandom, fanfic
“After” Fan Fiction: Once a Fan, Now Celebrity
July 20, 2015 Daily Duranie 5 Comments
I love reading. In fact, my other “hobby”, positioned right next to writing blog posts for this very blog, is running a street team for my friend Karen Booth, who is an author. I enjoy running the street team, although I am definitely in the learning curve of finding what works and what does not, but it’s a good challenge, and I’m also learning a lot about the world of publication. What does it really take to sell a book? How do books end up on the New York Times Bestseller List? Like anything in life, it’s complicated…but this blog isn’t about me, so keep reading.
Time and time again here on the blog I’ve attempted to skip lightly across the waters of fan fiction. It is not an area that I’ve spent a ton of time examining, particularly because just as in other fandoms, our fan fiction seems to have gone underground. Just as some see writing a blog about a particular band to be something that I should have grown out of by now; others see fan fiction as something that psycho people do. There’s the whole “You’re writing about an actual person!” thing, coupled with the whole “You’re writing about your own fantasies, aren’t you?” question. The funny thing is that fan fiction is huge business in fandom these days. Pick a subject, TV show, band, video game, book series, etc…and there are entire websites devoted to such delights. To many people in the academic world, fan fiction IS fandom. Any literary agent with half a brain would likely be staking out such places to find the “next best thing”. My point? Many will scoff at fan fiction, point and call names; but you can’t really deny the marketability if you’ve spent any time at all looking into the subject.
A friend of mine tagged an article for me that ran on Billboard.com about Anna Todd. She is a One Direction fan who has written fan fiction in a series called After. It’s gotten a staggering amount views and follows (something like a billion reads??), and earned Todd both book and screenplay deals. The fiction is based on Harry Styles (whose name has obviously now been changed in the books. Legalities, you know.) and a few of his buddies. They are marketed as New Adult fiction, with plenty of sex scenes (in fact Simon and Schuster asked Todd to include more for publication), and are large books at about 550 pages. Todd went from fan to published author in the blink of an eye, so it may seem.
To hear Anna’s story, it might sound remarkably familiar, if we erase the part about being offered a $500,000 book deal and screenplay, of course. She liked reading, found that she enjoyed One Direction, stumbled onto a fan fiction website (iPhone app Wattpad) where she spent her time reading (amongst sending out resumes and looking for a job). One day nothing was being updated and she decided to write her own story. Something about that story resonated with someone, who told her friends, and so on and so on. A billion reads later and she’s got her OWN fandom. She spends her time writing, responding to her own fans, creating her own community. Her participation in 1D fandom has really become participating in her own fandom at this point. And result? A very vocal (and not quite so small “minority) of fans hate her.
Here’s the thing, not all fans want to see great things happen to other fans. It’s a fact of life. Jealousy easily flows and divides. 1D fans who originally liked her story now swear they hated it from day one. As Anna Todd has evolved from fan to celebrity, a certain faction within the One Direction community that once supported has turned against her. They don’t believe she was ever truly a fan and argue that she’s simply using the band’s success in order to cash in.
Todd herself claims that she was never, “psychotic obsessed with One Direction”. As someone who studies fandom, I find this particular characterization and description interesting. There’s always this need to equate the sort of passion that fans exhibit with crazy behavior; as though since 1D fans question the validity of her fandom, they are crazy. It is a mechanism designed to dismiss their concerns, whether valid or otherwise, one we see used in fandom debates over and over again.
Fans particularly do not appreciate the “bad boy” characterization Todd has given to Styles, even though at this point Harry was simply the beginning “muse”. The character in the book is now named “Hardin”, and all other band member names and/or likenesses have been changed. This is something that I’ve seen mentioned across all fandoms with regard to fan fiction. Fellow writers and readers forget that this is fan fiction. The band, the subject of interest, etc, are used purely as muses. They are starting “platforms” and those characters are typically expanded to be something quite different than how they began. Besides, who is to really know what Styles or any other band member is really like? This type of argument, over what is or is not “canon”, is common. I can only imagine what Twilight fans must have said regarding 50 Shades…
Jealousy flows readily within even our own fan community when stories of success are told. Rumors fly. Some may be valid, others couldn’t be farther from the truth. The bottom line is that it’s all fine and good until somebody gets an extra hug from LeBon and Co…and we’re in our forties at this point. The demographic of One Direction fans is decidedly younger, in more of the teen-range. Oh, the drama!
I have no way of determining whether Anna Todd is in fact a real fan or someone with enough marketing genius to see that if she could get her stories read, followed and supported by the legion of 1D fans out there, she’d have half a shot of getting a book deal. In the end, I really doubt it matters much. Someone commented to me earlier on Facebook, “Too bad the subject of our fanfic probably wouldn’t garner quite that many readers!“, and that’s really the truth, as much as I dislike admitting it. That’s really more than half of the equation here. It might not even be that her writing or the story is that compelling – it’s that she got it read by a billion people before it ever became a printed publication. In the short time that I’ve dabbled amongst street teams and have witnessed the victories and defeats of fiction authors, talent rarely has anything to do with getting published. It’s who you know, who saw your work, and in the case of Anna Todd…building a community of people willing to support you. Billboard characterizes Todd as a lifelong fan. Perhaps a fan of many things, although we all know that One Direction has not been around quite that long. Anna Todd has gotten a billion people to read her work. How many of us can say that?
Fan or marketing genius….we may never really know.
AfterAnna ToddBillboardDuran DuranFan communitiesFan FictionfandomHarry StylesOne Direction
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Mullinalaghta’s success is one built on belief
Comments Off on Mullinalaghta’s success is one built on belief
The question is the central one: how did Mullinalaghta develop the confidence to defy an overwhelming consensus when they took on Kilmacud Crokes in Sunday’s Leinster club football final?
As the first club from Longford even to reach a provincial final, the odds were stacked against them. No club from a county that hadn’t previously won the title had managed to win a first final in nearly 40 years.
Rian Brady has been consistently impressive for the new Leinster champions, busy, accurate and with a relentless work ethic. He traced the evolution of the self-confidence from 2016 and the first county title won since 1950.
“It started with the first championship we won. Before that we wouldn’t have had much – I think we were lacking a bit of belief in ourselves. Then we had a decent run in Leinster, put it up to Vincent’s. I suppose we kind of believed it then.
“We managed to win the third county title, three-in-a-row, this year and just took it one game at a time. Beat a good Éire Óg side, a good Rhode side and we knew if we played to the best of our ability and really put our shoulder to the wheel, that we could get a result.”
Manager Mickey Graham is the latest Cavan football man to oversee memorable achievements in Longford – All-Ireland winner Mick Higgins coached the county to national league and Leinster success over 50 years ago. Due to take over his own county for the new season, Graham will be double jobbing for the next couple of months.
Fitted perfectly
“Before he came we were building and getting closer,” says Brady, “but he was definitely the man to get us over the line. He gave us that belief. He fitted absolutely perfectly into the club and we’ve had fantastic results.”
The manager put the context well when speaking after the final.
“If you look back at the form book the last three years we’ve been very competitive. Loman’s beat us last year by a point and went on and probably should have won the Leinster. The form book was there. It wasn’t that we were coming in as an unknowns – just people didn’t give us the credit.”
There were also straws in the wind at underage level. When Longford won the Leinster minor title in 2002, current club captain Shane Mulligan played on team and scored a point in the defeat of then champions Dublin in the semi-final.
In 2010 Longford were again champions and Mullinalaghta centre forward James McGivney started for the county.
Dublin were All-Ireland under-21 champions in 2012 and 2014. In between they were beaten by Longford, again featuring McGivney, despite fielding two of this year’s three Footballer of the Year nominees, Ciarán Kilkenny and Jack McCaffrey. That encounter came as déjà vu for two of Kilmacud’s players at the weekend, current All Star Paul Mannion and Ross McGowan lined out for Dublin in that match in March 2013.
McGowan was marking Brady in the final and his free-range instincts from full back influenced the Mullinalaghta full forward’s own game.
“Yeah, well I suppose their backs actually attack a lot and we looked at a few videos and we actually knew that. So I spent a lot of time chasing men down the field but you have to; you can’t be waiting on other players to pick up your man for you.
“That’s the way the game has gone now. A corner forward or full forward has to work back, has to track back. I’ve done that the last few years and I’ve no problem. Wherever your man goes you have to follow him.”
Next up in the All-Ireland semi-final are the Crokes from Killarney, champions in 2017.
“Anything’s possible,” says Brady. “It’s club football at the end of the day and there’s always big upsets in club football.”
News Source from the Irish Times
Macron surrender to yellow vest protesters to cost €10bn
Virgin Galactic aims to reach space with tourism rocket
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← Back to Characters and Worlds
The following are the main human characters in the Hell Holes series of modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, horror, and action & adventure novels:
Members of the Original Research Team:
Scientists:
Dr. Jack Oswald (geologist)
Dr. Angela Menendez (climatologist)
Mark Starr (geology grad student)
Jill Starr (geology grad student)
Other Members:
Kevin Kowalski (oil company manager)
Bill Henderson (guide and wildlife biologist)
Members of the Tutores Contra Infernum (The Order):
High Council:
Consula Alessandra Romano (Head of the High Council)
Consul Bertrand Bedeau (Demonologist)
Consul Liam Blakeslee (North American Curiae)
Consul Dimitri Gregorovich (Intelligence Curiae)
Consul Maximillian Hofmeister (Military Curiae)
Curatoria (demon hunters):
Curatrix Maxima Faustina Giordano
Curatrix Maxima Aileen O’Shannon
Curator Maxima Jason Thanos
Curator Maxima Wang Cheng
Curatrix Anala Archer
Curator Arthur Davies
Curatrix Tabitha Freeman
Curatrix Ceana MacClelland
Members of the Military:
Officers:
Lieutenant General Jason Robertson (US Air Force)
Colonel Yoshie Nakamoto (US Air Force)
Colonel Enrique Rodriguez (US Air Force)
Colonel Michael Landsman (US Army)
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Conrad (Alaska Army National Guard)
Special Forces A Team:
Captain Aaron Greenwald (US Army)
Chief Warrant Officer Anthony (Tony) Thompson (US Army)
Staff Sergeant Isaac Addison (US Army Special Forces)
Master Sergeant Jefferson Black (US Army Special Forces)
Staff Sergeant Zachary Charles (US Army Special Forces)
Staff Sergeant Kenneth (Ken) Crowley (US Army Special Forces)
Sergeant First Class William (Bill) Masterson (US Army Special Forces)
Sergeant First Class Dane Michaels (US Army Special Forces)
Sergeant First Class Adam Nicholson (US Army Special Forces)
Sergeant First Class Joseph O’Conner (US Army Special Forces)
Staff Sergeant Robert (Rob) Schneider (US Army Special Forces)
Staff Sergeant Kodiak (Cody) Wolfe (US Army Special Forces)
Foreign Military:
Wing Commander Nigel Blackbourne (United Kingdom)
Group Captain Brandon Sellers (Australia)
Sergeant Sam Novoigak (Canada)
Other Humans:
Adam Anderson (orphan)
Amy Anderson (orphan)
Dr. Janice Browne (National Security Council)
Dr. LeLand (Lee) Curtis (exobiologist)
Dr. Lawrence Shaw (nuclear bomb engineer)
Dr. Jessica Stevenson (UAV engineer)
Paul Chapman (slave)
Members of the Original Research Team
The following are the members of the research team sent to investigate the mysterious holes:
Dr. Jack Oswald is a petroleum geologist who teaches at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). During the short Alaskan summer, he conducts field research and consults for the oil companies. ExxonMobile hired him to lead an expedition to the North Slope to study on of the hundreds of huge holes that mysteriously opened up between the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Sea. Dr. Oswald bears witness to Armageddon in Hell Holes, What Lurks Below, the first book in the Hell Holes series.
Dr. Angela (Angie) Menendez
Dr. Angela Menendez is a noted climatologist who teaches at the UAF. Her research concentrates on the climatological impact of methane produced by melting permafrost and marine deposits of methane hydrate. In addition to being a highly respected teacher and oft-cited research scientist, Angie is a fierce environmentalist. Dr. Oswald’s wife, she bears witness to Armageddon in Hell Holes: Demons on the Dalton, the second book in the Hell Holes series.
Mr. Mark Starr
Mr. Mark Starr is a UAF geology graduate student working on his doctorate by studying climate-related changes in Alaskan glaciers. He helps Dr. Oswald, his doctoral advisor, perform research and maintains the team’s equipment. Tall, athletic, and ruggedly handsome, he would not look out of place on a movie set with his tousled brown hair and beard trimmed so short it always looked like he’d only started growing it the week before. Instead, he is turning out to be a fine glaciologist and geologist, a man who was as at home crossing a crevasse as he was working in the laboratory.
Mrs. Jill Starr
Mrs. Jill Starr is also one of Dr. Oswald’s geology graduate students working on her master’s degree. Mark Starr’s wife, Jill often joins Mark and Dr. Oswald during summer fieldwork. Tall, slender, and two years younger than her husband, Jill is intrigued by all things permafrost, the subsurface layer of ground that has remained frozen since the last ice age. More specifically, she is fascinated by changes in the permafrost caused by the rapid warming of the Arctic due to climate change.
Mr. Kevin Kowalski
Mr. Kevin Kowalski is a mid-level manager for ExxonMobil, who has occasionally hired Dr. Oswald as a consultant in petroleum geology. He hires Dr. Oswald to put together a team to study the mysterious holes that have suddenly appeared in Alaska’s North Slope and thereby determine the degree to which they threaten oil company operations and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Mr. Bill Henderson
Mr. Bill Henderson is a wildlife biologist, who works part time for ExxonMobil, typically as a consultant developing environmental impact statements. Kowalski hires Henderson, an avid hunter and outdoors-man, to protect the team from dangerous wild animals such as polar bears, grizzlies, and wolves.
Members of the Tutores Contra Infernum
The following are members of the Tutores Contra Infernum (informally known as The Order), an ancient secret society of sorcerers and sorceresses dedicated to defending humanity from demon incursions.
The members of the High Council (Consula/female and Consul/male) form the governing body of The Order. It consists of a prime minister (i.e., the head of the council) and various ministers responsible for locations (e.g., North America) or subject matters (e.g., military, science, and intelligence).
Consula Alessandra Romano
Consula Alessandra Romano is the head of the High Council of the Tutores Contra Infernum.
Consula Romano was born into a noble family in Florence in 1504, during the height of the Italian Renaissance. As both her father and mother were powerful members of the Order, she was inducted as a child and rapidly rose through the ranks, eventually attaining the position of Consula of the High Council, The Order’s governing body in 1897. A master of politics and intrigue, she has ruled the High Council with an iron fist inside a velvet glove ever since. She surrounds herself with highly capable councilors, wisely listening to their advice before making her own decisions. She does not suffer fools lightly. She is based in Rome, the location of The Order’s headquarters.
When dealing with mundane high society, Consula Romano plays the role of the reclusive and wealthy Contessa Romano. Secure in her self-image, she has purposely permitted her body to gracefully age so that she appears to be a healthy vibrant woman in her late 60s. With gray hair and clear blue eyes, she is regal in bearing and always impeccably dressed in designer clothes from the most exclusive fashion houses of Milan and Paris.
Consul Bertrand Bedeau
Consul Bertrand Bedeau was born in 1515 in Paris and was appointed to the High Council in 1897. Flawlessly attired in the finest hand-tailored suits, he appears with the help of the youth potion and glamour spell to be a handsome man in his early-fifties with intelligent brown eyes, straight black hair, and a neatly-trimmed mustache and beard.
A renowned demonologist, Consul Bedeau has deep expertise in all things demonic including their language (both spoken and written), their culture, and the history of their incursions. He is also one of The Order’s leading experts in devilstones including their use in casting spells.
Consul Bedeau owns a chateau and vineyard in the Rhone River valley just outside of the city of Avignon in the South of France.
Liam Blakeslee
Consul Liam Blakeslee was born in 1782 into a prominent whaling family in Boston, Massachusetts. Of Irish ancestry, he appears to be in his mid-forties with hazel eyes and auburn hair, mustache, and beard. He became a member of The Order in 1801 when he was observed killing a devil he happened upon while carting harpoons from the town smithy to his ship. He joined the High Council in 1902 and is now the head of the North American Curiae, responsible for all North American activities of The Order.
Consul Dimitri Gregorovich
Consul Dimitri Gregorovich is a member of the High Council and the head of its Intelligence Curiae. He is well known for his ability to interrogate captured high demons. He was born during the Russo-Swedish War in 1657 to noble parents in Moscow, Russia. Tall and thin, he has long gray hair and beard. He is very conservative and risk adverse. Gregorovich became an extreme proponent of keeping The Order secret, when in 1574 a mob captured his pregnant wife and burned her at the stake as a witch, while he was away fighting demons in Sweden.
Consul Maximilian Hofmeister
Consul Maximilian Hofmeister is a member of the High Council and head of its Military Curiae. He was born in 1304 in Vienna, Austria to a Teutonic knight. Attacks by demons have scarred his face and neck, cost him his left forearm, and given him a painful limp, forcing him to walk with the aid of a cane. Extremely proud of his warriors, he believes the order is perfectly able to beat the demons without need of the world’s militaries. Hofmeister had a relatively brief affair with Aileen O’Shannon during the Late Middle Ages, when they fought together putting down numerous demon incursions.
Curatoria
The Curatoria (Curatrix/female and Curator/male) are the rank and file members of The Order.
Curatrix Maxima Faustina Giordano was born in the Italian-speaking part of southern Switzerland in 1821. Being relatively young, she needs no glamour spell; The Order’s youth potion by itself is sufficient to give her the body of someone in their mid-twenties. She is slender with long brown hair.
Giordano joined The Order after being rescued when a band of imps attacked the coach her family was traveling in while on the road to Geneva. An ambitious sorceress, she is the loyal personal assistant to Consula Alessandra Romano and therefore lives in Rome where the High Council is based.
Curatrix Maxima Aileen O’Shannon was born in Ireland 1703 years ago during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Her great age requires her to use both the youth potion and a glamour spell to give her the appearance of someone in their early twenties. Tall and thin, she appears to be strikingly beautiful with long, straight, ginger-red hair, green eyes, and a smattering of freckles. Her actual appearance is that of a very old woman with thin, silver-gray hair.
Aileen joined The Order as a young girl after a pack of hell hounds attacked her village and killed her parents. Her continuing desire to avenge their deaths is the reason why she has remained a warrior in The Order’s Military Curiae despite being sufficiently old to retire or take a position on the High Council. Based in Fairbanks, she is ordinarily responsible for stopping demon incursions in Alaska.
A survivor of Jack Oswald’s ill-fated expedition to study the mysterious holes that opened up along Alaska’s North Slope, Aileen bears witness to Armageddon in the book Hell Holes, To Hell and Back, the third book in the Hell Holes series.
Curator Maxima Jason Thanos was born around 410 BCE in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War between that city state and its rival, Athens. The oldest member of The Order’s Military Curiae, he requires a glamour spell to give him the appearance of a man his late-fifties. He is of average height with brown eyes and dark brown hair, mustache, and neatly-trimmed beard that is mottled with gray.
Thanos is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and responsible for killing demons that attack the US East Coast.
Curator Maxima Wang Cheng was born in 1569 during the reign of the Longqing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. As a young man, he survived a demon attack on his small village on the banks of the Yellow River just south of the Great Wall. His bravery during the attack resulted in him being inducted into The Order. He emigrated to the United States in 1851 during the California gold rush.
A member of The Order’s Military Curiae, he is based in San Francisco and is responsible for hunting down demons in the Pacific Northwest.
Curatrix Anala Archer was born in Calcutta in 1796, the illegitimate daughter of Jeffrey Archer, an English merchant working for the British East India Company and his Indian housekeeper. As a relatively young member of The Order, she relies on its youth potion and a heavy regimen of calisthenics and martial arts to give her the strong body of an athlete in their mid-twenties. She has inherited the brown eyes and straight brown hair of her mother, which she often wears in a pony tail.
When Anala’s father returned to England, he brought his daughter along as one of his servants. She was recruited into The Order after a band of demons killed her father during an attack on the Archer estate.
A member of The Order’s Military Curiae, she is based in San Francisco and is responsible for hunting down demons in the American southwest.
Curator Arthur Davies was born in 1690 in a small village just outside of London. Having reached the age at which the effects of The Order’s youth potion weakens, he appears to be in his mid-fifties. He has dark brown hair and mustache while his short beard has turned mostly gray.
Davies is a member of the Curia Physicum, the research arm of the Tutores Contra Infernum. Based in London, Dr. Davies is a highly respected demonologist, has spent the last 250 years specializing in the interrogation of captured high demons and in the discovery of ways of countering their magic. Over the last century, he has also taken several sabbaticals from his work at The Order to earn six doctorates in biology, physics, and engineering at various universities including Stanford, MIT, and Oxford. Working with his colleagues in the Curia Physicum, he has developed a highly infectious, magically-enhanced virus that will be used to hopefully cause a catastrophic plague on the demon home world.
Curatrix Tabitha Freeman was born a slave in 1798 on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. The result of plantation owner’s rape of one of his maids, she has warm brown skin, intelligent brown eyes, and curly black hair that she often wears in a bushy ponytail.
When a devil masquerading as a southern gentleman attacked the plantation when Tabitha was a young woman working as a cook in the big house, she helped Aileen O’Shannon kill the demon by attacking it from behind with a meat cleaver. In gratitude, the sorceress rescued her, sponsored her induction into The Order, and accepted the young woman as her apprentice and sister in arms.
A member of The Order’s Military Curiae, she is based in Seattle and is responsible for killing demons in the Upper Midwest.
Curatrix Ceana MacClelland was born in 1939 in Topeka, Kansas. The youngest member of the Order present, she is a muscular with brown hair and eyes. She joined The Order when a band of imps murdered her husband and kidnapped her three-year-old child. She has been seeking revenge ever since.
She is member of The Order’s Military Curiae. She is based in Chicago and is responsible for killing demons in the Midwest. A rising star who has an inordinate number of kills to her credit for such a young curatrix, she hopes to be so successful during the Demon War that she will become the youngest Curatrix Maxima in 350 years.
Members of the Military
The following military officers are responsible for the US military defense of Alaska:
Lieutenant General Jason Robertson
Lieutenant General Jason Robertson is commander of the 11th Air Force and responsible for the planning and execution of all Homeland Defense operations within theater, including security and civil support actions. Placed me in command of the human military response to the demon invasion in Alaska by the Joint Chiefs. He is based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which is a combined Air Force and Army base located just outside of Anchorage.
Colonel Yoshie Nakamoto
Colonel Yoshie Nakamoto is the Eielson base commander as well as commander of the 354th Fighter Wing.
Colonel Enrique Rodriguez
Colonel Enrique Rodriguez is the commander of the 3rd Wing and is responsible for air dominance, command and control of combat operations, and air mobility.
Colonel Michael Landsman
Colonel Michael Landsman represents the US Army and is the commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Wainwright.
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Conrad
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Conrad represents the Alaska Army National Guard and is responsible for coordinating all Guard activities involved with defending Alaska and evacuating civilians.
Special Forces A Team
The following are the twelve green berets who are members of the US Army Special Forces Operational Detachment A (also known as an ODA or “A Team”) that takes part in the assault on the hell hole. A part of the 1st Special Forces Group headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, they all have significant combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are also cross-trained in each other’s specialties, roles, and responsibilities.
Captain Aaron Greenwald
Captain Aaron Greenwald is the detachment commander. He has overall command authority and responsibility for the A Team and the entire assault on the hell hole. Originally from a small town in Wyoming, he is a natural leader, extremely competent, and highly qualified for his position.
Chief Warrant Officer Anthony (Tony) Thompson
Chief Warrant Officer Anthony (Tony) Thompson is the assistant detachment commander and Captain Greenwald’s second in command. From upstate New Yorker, he comes from a long line of soldiers going back to the Civil War.
Staff Sergeant Isaac Addison
Staff Sergeant Isaac Addison is one of the team’s two engineer sergeants and is assigned primary responsibility for the two demon plague drones. He is the only member of the team who grew up in Alaska as the son of an oil roughneck. For him, the invasion is especially personal.
Master Sergeant Jefferson Black
Master Sergeant Jefferson Black is the team’s operations sergeant (better known as the “team sergeant”). The most experienced member of the attachment, he is the team’s senior non-commissioned officer and responsible for all operations of the team.
Staff Sergeant Zachary Charles
Staff Sergeant Zachary Charles is the team’s other medical sergeant. Before joining the Army, he work briefly as an emergency medical technician and ambulance driver.
Staff Sergeant Kenneth (Kenny) Crowley
Staff Sergeant Kenneth (Kenny) Crowley is the other weapons sergeant assigned responsibility for the bomb and will take over in the event that Sergeant Masterson is killed, disabled, or captured.
Sergeant First Class William (Bill) Masterson
Sergeant First Class William (Bill) Masterson is one of the team’s two weapons sergeant. An expert in all manner of weapons, he has primary responsibility for the thermonuclear bomb including arming, emplacement, and detonation.
Sergeant First Class Dane Michaels
Sergeant First Class Dane Michaels is one of the team’s two medical sergeants. Specialized in emergency medicine and trauma management, he has overall responsibility for care of any wounded.
Sergeant First Class Adam Nicholson
Sergeant First Class Adam Nicholson is one of the team’s two communications sergeants. He is responsible for the care and operation of the communications equipment, especially communications back through the portal.
Sergeant First Class Joseph O’Conner
Sergeant First Class Joseph O’Conner is the team’s assistant operations and intelligence sergeant. He is responsible for collecting intelligence on the demons.
Staff Sergeant Robert (Rob) Schneider
Staff Sergeant Robert (Rob) Schneider is the team’s other communications sergeant. One of his secondary tasks is to bring back any communications devices used by the demons.
Staff Sergeant Kodiak (Cody) Wolfe
Staff Sergeant Kodiak (Cody) Wolfe is the team’s other engineer sergeant. He is responsible for the second drone as well as any non-nuclear demolitions that might be needed. Growing up in a family that owns and operates a fireworks business, blowing things up is in his blood.
Foreign Military
The following are members of foreign military who act as liaisons to their military organizations.
Wing Commander Nigel Blackbourne
Wing Commander Nigel Blackbourne represents Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force out of Base Mildenhall. He commands the UK airmen who are at the Eielson AFB to take part of the training exercise Operation Red Flag.
Group Captain Brandon Sellers
Group Captain Brandon Sellers represents the Royal Australian Air Force out of Base Glenbrook. He commands the Australian airmen who are at the Eielson AFB to take part of the training exercise Operation Red Flag.
Sergeant Sam Novoigak
Sergeant Sam Novoigak is a member of the 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. Based at CFNA HQ, he acts as the Canadian Army’s liaison to the US defense of Alaska.
Other Humans
Adam Anderson
One of only two survivors of a refugee convoy that was overrun by demons south of Coldfoot, Adam Anderson is a slender nine-year-old boy with brown hair, hazel eyes, and a smattering of freckles. Adam and his little sister, Amy, were rescued by Dr. Jack Oswald, Dr. Angela Menendez, and Aileen O’Shannon as they fled south toward Fairbanks.
The six-year-old sister of Adam Anderson, Amy Anderson is the second orphan survivor of the convoy attacked south of Coodfoot.
Dr. Janice Browne
Dr. Janice Browne is the Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security. Reporting directly to the President Warren’s National Security Advisor, Dr. Browne provides daily reports to the National Security Council and conveys orders from the President.
Dr. Leland (Lee) Curtis
Dr. Leland (Lee) Curtis is a noted exobiologist from the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB). In his early fifties with a goatee and long black hair pulled back into a pony tail, he stands well over six-foot tall. He has the athletic build of a man who spends a great deal of time doing field work in remote and often inhospitable places. He is the scientist assigned to the assault team that will attack the second hell hole. Like Dr. Jack Oswald, he will be responsible for taking scientific measurements and making observations of the demon’s homeworld.
Dr. Lawrence Shaw
Dr. Lawrence Shaw is a principal engineer, who works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of a team performing research and development of potential upgrades to the US nuclear arsenal. He trains the attack team on the use of the modified B-61 variable-yield thermonuclear bomb they will use to destroy the demon’s portal system.
Dr. Jessica Stevenson
Dr. Jessica Stevenson is a principal engineer, who works at TBD and is a senior systems engineer on program that creates the UAV.
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman is a human slave that is rescued during the attack on the demon portal system. Now in his mid forties, he was captured by demons and taken to Hell when he was only five-years-old. Over the years, he has been a field slave, a gladiator, and finally a bodyguard owned by one of top engineers maintaining the portal complex.
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Croatia presidential candidates head to a runoff with no outright winner
With both major candidates failing to get 50 percent of the vote, Croatia will have a runoff election in January. Incumbent President Ivo Josipovic faces tough criticism over the country's lagging economy, reports GHN based on DW.
Exit polls indicate that Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic (pictured above) will face a runoff election against his conservative rival on January 11, after neither achieved a majority in Sunday's presidential ballot.
Estimates put the center-left incumbent at 38.9 percent, neck-and-neck with his main challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, at 38.1 percent.
Although the president has limited powers, the contest is a key hurdle for Croatia's political parties before parliamentary elections next year. The newest nation to enter the European Union is also one of its economically weakest. After six years of recession, unemployment is close to 20 percent and public debt is 80 percent of GDP.
Josipovic is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the leading member of the ruling coalition which has received much flak for the sagging economy. The party is accused of failing to carry out the necessary reforms on the country's bloated public sector and failing to encourage investment. Josipovic himself has been criticized for not taking a strong enough stance on important issues.
Josipovic ‘shares the blame'
Grabar-Kitarovic, a member of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, is the former foreign affairs minister and was once assistant to NATO's secretary general.
She had no trouble reminding voters of Josipovic's connection to the unpopular government, saying: "He shares the blame with the government for the bad situation since he remained silent and did nothing."
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Deep history boosts Xi'an city's economy
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Xi’an is the capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province and one of the oldest cities in China. In recent years, Xi’an has been using its abundant cultural resources to its advantage. The city’s rich heritage has become an important driving force for the city’s development.
Xi’an is the oldest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history. Xi’an is the starting point of the Silk Road and home to the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
More and more Chinese and foreign tourists come to visit. The number of tourists this year is expected to exceed 3.2 million—a new record.
New literary and artistic works have popped up with the rising interest. These include stage shows such as “Daqin Empire” and “Zhang Qian”; TV dramas “White Deer Plain” and “Textile Girl”; and the documentary “Ritual China.” Some works have been exported to the United States, the Middle East and other areas. This helps promote Xi’an’s place in history and shows the charm of the ancient city.
“We are digging deep into our local resources, highlighting the historical and cultural legacy that we take pride in. And it’s transforming into substantial development of the cultural industry. This has given us more cultural pride and self-confidence,” said investor Guan Zhaoyi.
Xi’an also hosts a series of national and international events, including CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala, Mid-Autumn Festival Gala and the China Arts Festival.
Xi’an’s cultural industry has maintained growth of more than 20 percent for many years, adding more than 45 billion yuan in value, and accounting for more than 7.5 percent of the city’s GDP. That is higher than the cultural industry’s average of 3.7 percent in other major Chinese cities.
Peking Opera stages historic event in Xi'an2016-12-13 17:59:21
Xi'an hosts Silk Road Industrial Parks Development Forum2016-12-10 21:55:20
Finding a ‘Dancing Shadow’ in Xi’an2016-12-09 14:03:19
Olympic shooting champ Guo Wenjun joins Xi'an Jiaotong University mini marathon2016-11-15 15:57:34
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Expertise in Herpes Zoster: HELP
Peter G. E. Kennedy
Based on 7 articles published since 2008
The expertise of Peter G. E. Kennedy ranks in the
... of 11,387 published authors worldwide on Herpes Zoster
... based on contributions to 7 articles on the topic.
Most likely: University College London
Glasgow University Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurological Sciences, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, G51 4TF, UK. · Pubmed 27032406
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 630 West 168th Street, New York, New York 10032, USA. · Department of Infection and Immunity, University College London, UK. · Medical Virology Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Massachusetts, USA. · Departments of Neurology and Microbiology and Immunology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA. · Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA. · Division of Infectious Diseases/Virology, Children's Hospital, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA. · Primary Immunodeficiency Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University Medical School, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. · Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. · Infectious Diseases Section, Medicine Service, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California, USA. · Division of Viral Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA. · Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan. · Pubmed 27188665
Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow University, Glasgow, G51 4TF, Scotland, UK, · Pubmed 25604493
Department of Neurology, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. · Pubmed 20652732
Probable: University of Glasgow
Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom. · Pubmed 23382806
Department of Neurology, Glasgow University, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. · Pubmed 20874010
Here are the titles of all articles written by Peter G. E. Kennedy in 2008-2019 about Herpes Zoster:
Issues in the Treatment of Neurological Conditions Caused by Reactivation of Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV). 2016
Varicella zoster virus infection. 2015
Viruses, apoptosis, and neuroinflammation--a double-edged sword. 2015
Varicella-zoster viruses associated with post-herpetic neuralgia induce sodium current density increases in the ND7-23 Nav-1.8 neuroblastoma cell line. 2013
Zoster sine herpete: it would be rash to ignore it. 2011
Varicella-zoster virus human ganglionic latency: a current summary. 2010
Assessment of transcriptomal analysis of Varicella-Zoster-virus gene expression in patients with and without post-herpetic neuralgia. 2010
Learn more about Peter G. E. Kennedy using the ready-made Google searches below.
Peter G. E. Kennedy, Herpes Zoster
Kennedy, University College London
Kennedy, Herpes Zoster, University College London
Kennedy site:ucl.ac.uk
Kennedy, University of Glasgow
Kennedy, Herpes Zoster, University of Glasgow
Kennedy site:gla.ac.uk
Yearly article counts 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 1 2 0 0
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Fair Trade Ottawa Equitable endorses uOttawa Fair Trade Campus campaign
Lia Walsh–Media, Press Releases– December 15, 2011
OTTAWA, December 15, 2011 – A group of volunteers in Ottawa that is seeking Fair Trade Town status for the nation’s capital is encouraged by a student-led campaign at the University of Ottawa to work toward the equivalent designation for the campus.
“Universities and colleges are an important part of the city’s fabric and community,” says Michael Creighton, Chair of Fair Trade Ottawa Équitable (FTOÉ). “The University of Ottawa’s achievement of Fair Trade status would be a significant step toward getting Fair Trade status for the city.”
FTOÉ has been collaborating with a number of organizations, businesses and community groups to get Fair Trade Town designation for the City of Ottawa by Fairtrade Canada. This would mean greater availability of Fair Trade products city-wide, as well as an official declaration of support from the university administration and municipal leaders.
Ryan Ward, in collaboration with uOttawa’s Engineers Without Borders chapter, is leading the campaign on campus. It has received support from the University administration, including President Allan Rock and the Office of Campus Sustainability.
“Our administration has already been convinced. Now it teeters on the point of student acceptance. I want them to be aware of it and buy into it,” says Ward.
At just under 40,000 students, the University of Ottawa is the largest campus in Ottawa and welcomes students from all corners of the globe. As such, the university is one of Ottawa’s leading ambassadors to the world and is often looked to for leadership on important issues.
Achieving Fair Trade Status would make uOttawa only the second in Canada to do so, after the University of British Columbia.
“Fair Trade is a standard that says that the producer who has made this product has received a minimum wage for their work,” says Ward. “Students are transitioning into independent consumers and should know that Fair Trade is an available ethical option.”
“The campaign has grown exponentially since we realized this spring that Ottawa is ready to become a Fair Trade Town,” adds Creighton. “The support for a Fair Trade Campus at uOttawa is encouraging.”
About Fair Trade: Fair Trade is an alternative and ethical way of doing business with the developing world. Unlike conventional trade which seeks to obtain the lowest possible prices for imported products – no matter what this means for the quality of life of farmers and producers – Fair Trade seeks to ensure that farmers are able to live a life of dignity.
About Fair Trade Ottawa Équitable: Fair Trade Ottawa Équitable is a group of community members focused on promoting the availability of fair trade products while at the same time raising awareness about fair trade issues. Our goal is to collaborate with all members of the community from the municipality, students, government leaders, local business, and the general public. http://www.fairtradeottawa.ca
About EWB uOttawa: EWB uOttawa is the official chapter of EWB at the University of Ottawa. It brings together students who are passionate about international development to focus on challenges to human development and connecting Canadians to Africa, including via Fair Trade. EWB uOttawa also works with the chapters at Carleton University and the Ottawa City Network. http://www.uottawa.ewb.ca/
About Fairtrade Canada: Fairtrade Canada is a national, non-profit Fair Trade certification organization, and the only Canadian member of Fairtrade International (formerly the Fairtrade Labelling Organization). The Fair Trade Towns campaign is an exciting initiative that encourages communities to support Fair Trade at the local level and seeks to increase availability and awareness of Fair Trade Certified products. http://fairtrade.ca/en/getinvolved/fair-trade-towns
Download the full press release (PDF)
Fair Trade holiday shopping list!
The Ottawa Citizen – Team works hard to turn Ottawa into a Fair Trade Town
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Written by Bryant Dillon, Fanbase Press President
Fanboy Comics Interviews Brandon Alinger of Prop Store
The following is an interview with Brandon Alinger, who is the Chief Operations Officer at the Los Angeles branch of Prop Store, which trades in the ultimate collectables: original props and costumes. In this interview, Fanboy Comics President Bryant Dillon talks with Alinger about how the Prop Store began, the process of acquiring authentic items, and how fans can make their favorite movie collectables a part of their very own collection.
This interview was conducted on August 8, 2012.
Bryant Dillon, Fanboy Comics President: Why don’t we start at the beginning - how did Prop Store get started and how did it evolve into what it is today?
Brandon Alinger: Prop Store was started in 1998 by CEO Stephen Lane. A long-time collector of all sorts of memorabilia, Stephen had been trading in film props and costumes as a hobby for several years before making the decision to go full time with Prop Store. What began in Stephen’s garage has transformed into an operation on two continents. Prop Store’s LA office opened in 2007 and has been growing steadily ever since. Today, Prop Store employees a full-time staff of 14, and has a combined 20,000 square feet of warehouse space filled with items from your favorite films.
BD: How do you acquire props for Prop Store, and what goes into the process of authenticating the items?
BA: Prop Store acquires material from a wide variety of production sources, including studios, production companies, rental facilities, and other parties directly involved with the production of the film.
Authenticating material is something that we take very seriously, and is a major part of our business. Due to our vast network of technicians within the filmmaking community, we are typically able to speak directly with people involved with certain props or costumes to verify their authenticity. Authenticity begins with chain of ownership, or provenance, which is something we are constantly considering when evaluating material. Today, we are able to utilize Blu-Ray video technology to scrutinize the details of pieces on screen in a way that simply wasn’t possible before, which allows us to attempt to match up a unique trait on an item such as a stitch pattern, or wear pattern, to positively identify something as the exact unit used on screen.
Every piece we sell includes our Prop Store COA, which is a lifetime guarantee of authenticity.
BD: How are the props archived? Do they need to be stored in a certain way to preserve their value?
BA: Preservation of our unique items is also something that we take very seriously. The general rules of thumb on this matter are to keep items out of harsh light, such as UV light, and to keep them away from extreme temperature changes. We have UV filters installed on all of the lighting in our facilities, and wherever possible use modern UV-free LED lighting in our display cases and exhibitions. Certain materials, such as latexes, foams, and silicones, are especially sensitive to breaking down over time, and must be treated with extra special care.
BD: What is the approximate price range of the items sold through your company? Do you accept Galactic credits or Wookie pelts?
BA: Sorry to say no credit or pelts, although, we can accept any major credit cards! If you look on our website, at the moment you’ll see over 5,000 items for sale, at prices ranging from under ten dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. We like to think that we have something for the collector at every budget level.
BD: Does Prop Store’s founder, Stephen Lane, have any favorite props or favorite films from which to acquire props?
BA: You would have to ask him! I can tell you that Stephen is partial to movie space suits and has an extensive space suit collection in the London office. The crown jewel of this set is John Hurt’s space suit from Alien, which we displayed at San Diego Comic Con last month.
BD: When films are being announced or trailers are being released, do you start making plans to acquire props from films that you feel fans will have a special interest in or does the process begin after the film is a success?
BA: Rarely are any two deals the same in this industry, so it’s hard to generalize something to that extreme. At any given time we may be working with assets from a film that has yet to be released, alongside of material from a production that was released twenty years ago, and has been in storage ever since. We have a good understanding of what collectors are looking for and find that custom made material from major genre films always gathers the most attention.
BD: Is there a Holy Grail of props out there, or an amazing trinket that everyone searches for, but has yet to find?
BA: I think that for many collectors, their “Holy Grail” piece would be something that may not even be known to exist today. One of the most exciting things about collecting is the discovery of new material, and this is especially true for vintage productions, where the whereabouts of many of the production assets are unknown. The general assumption is that if something from a major film isn’t with a known collection today, it no longer exists and was likely destroyed after production. But, you never know – we regularly see material surface that we were previously completely unaware was still in existence, and it’s incredibly exciting! So, I would say the “Holy Grail” is always the next piece . . .
BD: Prop Store has been a regular exhibitor at San Diego Comic-Con for every year that Fanboy Comics has been in attendance. What makes SDCC a must-attend event?
BA: Comic-Con International has become such a mecca for pop culture and the fandom community that it’s an essential show for us to have a presence at. We love Comic-Con and the opportunity it gives us to meet and talk with like-minded fans and collectors who can truly appreciate the material that we put on display. We also find that it’s a great place for networking, as it’s such an industry hub at this point. Wouldn’t miss it!
BD: Where should our readers go to find out more about Prop Store? Are you on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media sites?
BA: Absolutely. Please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@propstore_com). You can also register an account on our website to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter for the latest Prop Store updates, or to register your favorite films with us, so that you can receive an instant notification when we have new material from your favorites come in.
Bryant Dillon, Fanbase Press President
Favorite Comic Book: Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Favorite TV Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Favorite Book: The Beach by Alex Garland
Fanboy Comics Interviews Emmett Furey, Creator of 'Fury of Solace'
Fanboy Comics Interviews Maria Olsen and Angel Corbin, Producers of Way Down in Chinatown
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Current Search: 1830-1837 (x) » pamphlet (x)
"...At the ear of Eve": hearing, gender, and the physiology of the fall in John Milton's Paradise lost.
Pollari, Niina., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
The organ of hearing, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, is inextricably connected with both the physical and the spiritual; it is the point of entry through which Satan's words enter Eve's brain, subsequently process, and lead eventually to the fall of mankind. Its symbolic importance is also indisputable, as it is a metaphor for the feminine passivity and penetrability that make Milton's Eve a particularly vulnerable target. There is, however, already a pre-existing connection between the ear...
Show moreThe organ of hearing, in John Milton's Paradise Lost, is inextricably connected with both the physical and the spiritual; it is the point of entry through which Satan's words enter Eve's brain, subsequently process, and lead eventually to the fall of mankind. Its symbolic importance is also indisputable, as it is a metaphor for the feminine passivity and penetrability that make Milton's Eve a particularly vulnerable target. There is, however, already a pre-existing connection between the ear and its role in Paradise Lost. The seventeenth-century medical texts of Milton's contemporaries gender the physiology of the ear and the process of hearing and therefore contribute to its importance in the pivotal temptation scene; that is, the rhetoric surrounding the physiology of the ear is the down fall of humankind in the epic poem. As a result of the dangerous connection between science and language, Milton's characters are already predestined to sin.
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT11583, http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11583
Symbolism in communication, Fall of man, Body, Human, in literature, Literature and science, History
"72", "Seascapes", and "Solo Violin": Three chamber works.
Okubo, Masakuni., Florida Atlantic University, Glazer, Stuart
Three unaccompanied chamber pieces of Masakuni Okubo are discussed from several different aspects. They were composed for solo clarinet ( 72), two flutes (Seascapes), and solo violin. Each piece is analyzed in terms of its historical background, compositional techniques, and formal and stylistic characteristics.
Composition (Music), Okubo, Masakuni--Criticism and interpretation, Musical analysis
“A box of wires” a grounded theory approach to synthpop.
Suarez, Michael S., Graduate College
Synthpop (Music), Musical analysis
"A Craving To Reform": Legitimizing Revolution in Mid-Tudor England.
Breeden, Douglas A., Lowe, Ben, Florida Atlantic University
The mid-Tudor period for a long time has been portrayed as a period of trouble and turbulence that was of little historical significance. The rulers and intellectuals of the period were cast as fanatical, intolerant religious bigots whose actions at best delayed the progress of English government. Actually the opposite is true. After the death of Edward VI, a group of evangelicals fled the restoration of Roman jurisdiction by Mary I. These English Protestants are known as the Marian exiles...
Show moreThe mid-Tudor period for a long time has been portrayed as a period of trouble and turbulence that was of little historical significance. The rulers and intellectuals of the period were cast as fanatical, intolerant religious bigots whose actions at best delayed the progress of English government. Actually the opposite is true. After the death of Edward VI, a group of evangelicals fled the restoration of Roman jurisdiction by Mary I. These English Protestants are known as the Marian exiles and they fashioned some radical political ideas to support a traditional, albeit evangelical political culture. They did this by trying to find a Biblical justification to oppose the Catholic restoration of Mary and return England to the godly church and state of Edward VI. Looking to restore the reformed church, they inadvertently legitimized what had before been seen as sedition into the modern idea of revolution.
"A Nation's Vibrant and Triumphant Incarnation in a Man": Personality Cults and Isolation in North Korea and Cuba.
Trifoi, Bianca, Steigenga, Timothy J., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
This paper argues that Kim Il-Sung of North Korea and Fidel Castro of Cuba established personality cults of differing degrees of intensity due to the relative degrees of historical and political isolation present in each state. Although both states followed a similar pattern of dominance, resentment, nationalism, and socialism in their recent histories, their differing overall histories dictated the intensity of their leaders' personality cults. Korea's long history of self-imposed...
Show moreThis paper argues that Kim Il-Sung of North Korea and Fidel Castro of Cuba established personality cults of differing degrees of intensity due to the relative degrees of historical and political isolation present in each state. Although both states followed a similar pattern of dominance, resentment, nationalism, and socialism in their recent histories, their differing overall histories dictated the intensity of their leaders' personality cults. Korea's long history of self-imposed isolationism in combination with xenophobia was continued in Kim's self-reliance ideology and allowed for a fanatical personality cult to develop. Cuba's only experience with isolation was that imposed by the United States through its embargoes, and the resulting hostility between Cuba and the United States actually helped legitimize Castro's regime and personality cult.
"A spirit of benevolence": Manchester and the origins of modern public health, 1790-1834.
Boxen, Jennifer L., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
This thesis argues that the British Public Health movement did not begin in 1842 with Edwin Chadwick's publication, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), or in 1848, with the subsequent passage of the Public Health Act. The beginning of the public health movement was instead the product of local initiatives such as the Manchester Board of Health, administered not by central government, but by members of the local community supported by...
Show moreThis thesis argues that the British Public Health movement did not begin in 1842 with Edwin Chadwick's publication, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), or in 1848, with the subsequent passage of the Public Health Act. The beginning of the public health movement was instead the product of local initiatives such as the Manchester Board of Health, administered not by central government, but by members of the local community supported by predominantly philanthropic funding. The Manchester movement predated Chadwick's efforts by at least half a century and bore a greater resemblance to the modern idea of an organized public health system than that advanced by Chadwick and his contemporaries. This is because the Manchester movement emphasized not only those sanitary ideas ascribed to Chadwick but also included a broader spectrum of public health measures, including but not limited to ; preventative medicine, occupational health, and the reduction of contagious diseases.
Public health, History, History, Social conditions
“Americans all!” re-imaging ethnicity in America, 1939-1945.
May, Jacqueline S., Graduate College
"And yet God has not said a word!": Robert Browning and the romantic killer in literature.
Burns-Davies, Erin., Florida Atlantic University, Faraci, Mary
Robert Browning's dramatic monologues often characterize the darker aspect of romantic love through speakers who demonstrate their devotion to violence. Exploring the innovations in discourse, Browning gives his narrators voices that allow them to speak from an ancient literary tradition. For Browning's speakers, words make the silencing of the lover either the act of ultimate devotion or the result of disappointed expectations. The narrator speaks of the absence of God, as when Porphyria's...
Show moreRobert Browning's dramatic monologues often characterize the darker aspect of romantic love through speakers who demonstrate their devotion to violence. Exploring the innovations in discourse, Browning gives his narrators voices that allow them to speak from an ancient literary tradition. For Browning's speakers, words make the silencing of the lover either the act of ultimate devotion or the result of disappointed expectations. The narrator speaks of the absence of God, as when Porphyria's lover holds her body to him: "and yet God has not said a word!" With the poet's strong speech---in all his attractiveness, his destructive display of love and his dismissal of God---Browning has helped to create a discourse that has sculpted the literary force of the romantic killer. Three novelists in particular employ the literary force of Browning's experiments: Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels. Intertextual comparisons among these narratives delineate how Robert Browning's innovation of the seductive antihero has persisted in literature.
Browning, Robert,--1812-1889--Influence, Browning, Robert--1812-1889--Criticism and interpretation, Violence in literature, Narration (Rhetoric), Rice, Anne,--1941---Vampire Lestat, Ellis, Brett Easton--American Psycho, Harris, Thomas,--1940---Criticism and interpretation
The "anomaly" in Henry James's "The Portrait of a Lady".
Liotta, Leonard Thomas., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
The word "anomaly" in The Portrait of a Lady forms a nexus of meanings derived from its denotative and connotative meanings. This complex of meaning bring in focus phenomenological aspects of character, action, and style translating into larger thematic concepts to create a level of understanding deepening the experience of the novel. Isabel Archer is examined for her anomalous portrayal of a modern character whose complexity emerges as a dynamic of the anomalous and the vulgar that are...
Show moreThe word "anomaly" in The Portrait of a Lady forms a nexus of meanings derived from its denotative and connotative meanings. This complex of meaning bring in focus phenomenological aspects of character, action, and style translating into larger thematic concepts to create a level of understanding deepening the experience of the novel. Isabel Archer is examined for her anomalous portrayal of a modern character whose complexity emerges as a dynamic of the anomalous and the vulgar that are distinguishable but ultimately inseparable. Using a phenomenological approach, the word "anomaly," as recurring descriptive term, can be studied in its juxtaposition to other words, such as vulgarity, providing additional insight into characterization and action in Portrait of a Lady.
James, Henry,--1843-1916--Portrait of a lady, James, Henry,--1843-1916--Criticism and interpretation, James, Henry,--1843-1916--Characters--Isabel Archer, Archer, Isabel (Fictitious character)
"Antipodes": Ten orchestral compositions. (Original compositions).
Ferguson, Reuben David., Florida Atlantic University, Glazer, Stuart
Antipodes consists of ten separate orchestral musical compositions, or movements, which explore the dichotomies of life. A variety of compositional styles were employed: memories of Rabbit Ridge, Crusader, Infinite Dreamer, and Centenarian are tonal; Incunabulum, Ridin', Love, and Eschatologic are twelve-tone; and Inception and Termination are aleatoric. Instrumentation varies considerably; e.g., Ridin' is orchestrated for a jazz/rock combo; Love for piano and small orchestra; Crusader and...
Show moreAntipodes consists of ten separate orchestral musical compositions, or movements, which explore the dichotomies of life. A variety of compositional styles were employed: memories of Rabbit Ridge, Crusader, Infinite Dreamer, and Centenarian are tonal; Incunabulum, Ridin', Love, and Eschatologic are twelve-tone; and Inception and Termination are aleatoric. Instrumentation varies considerably; e.g., Ridin' is orchestrated for a jazz/rock combo; Love for piano and small orchestra; Crusader and other are for full orchestra. A complete discussion of each piece dealing with compositional method, programmatic intentions, and technical considerations as well as complete computer-generated conductor's scores are included. In addition, a complete performance on cassette tape was also submitted, using the author's computer-based Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) studio and a battery of synthesizers.
Instrumental music--Scores., Electronic music--Scores., Orchestral music--Scores.
“As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve” Green consciousness in the Hunger Games trilogy.
Jenkins, Sarah Tucker, Graduate College
Collins, Suzanne. Hunger Games, Ecofeminism
“Between my life that is over and my life to come”: Embodying Authorial Ambivalence in Fred D'Aguiar's Feeding the Ghosts (1997).
Gifford, Sheryl C., Machado, Elena, Graduate College
Authorship --Sex differences, Caribbean literature (English) --History and criticism, Caribbean Area --Fiction
“Carole Lombard as silent spectacle”.
Kiriakou, Olympia, Sim, Gerald
Silent films, Motion picture actors and actresses, Film criticism, Epic films --History and criticism, Motion pictures --United States --Plots, themes, etc., Lombard, Carole, 1908-1942, Silent films --History and criticism, Comedy films --History and criticism
"Cash Money" and other stories.
Miller, Sheryl., Florida Atlantic University, Schwartz, Jason
The short story cycle unifies autonomous stories to create a larger narrative. In a similar manner, a type of money group called Sous Sous, also known as a Hand, Box, Meeting, or Partner, unifies individuals in a communal endeavor that gives a larger purpose to the venture of saving. The stories in this collection comprise a short story cycle that is unified, in part, by its explication of Sous Sous, which is common in black communities in America and the Caribbean and believed to have...
Show moreThe short story cycle unifies autonomous stories to create a larger narrative. In a similar manner, a type of money group called Sous Sous, also known as a Hand, Box, Meeting, or Partner, unifies individuals in a communal endeavor that gives a larger purpose to the venture of saving. The stories in this collection comprise a short story cycle that is unified, in part, by its explication of Sous Sous, which is common in black communities in America and the Caribbean and believed to have origins in African culture. They share common characters and are also linked by a focus on money, materialism, or spirituality. Sequentially placed, most of the stories build on each other, creating a composite narrative.
African Americans--Economic conditions--Fiction., African Americans--Money--Fiction.
"Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce": An affirmation of human values.
St. Clair, Beatrice Savarese., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Robert Penn Warren's Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce dramatizes essential human values in individuals, in their relationships to nature, and in the structural elements of the poem, affirming their necessity for living a fulfilled life. By representing Chief Joseph as exemplar of mankind, Warren creates a symbolic example for all to recognize and copy. The presentation of nature parallels the fortunes and misfortunes of human beings. As man's relationship with nature deteriorates, universal...
Show moreRobert Penn Warren's Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce dramatizes essential human values in individuals, in their relationships to nature, and in the structural elements of the poem, affirming their necessity for living a fulfilled life. By representing Chief Joseph as exemplar of mankind, Warren creates a symbolic example for all to recognize and copy. The presentation of nature parallels the fortunes and misfortunes of human beings. As man's relationship with nature deteriorates, universal principles of truth, justice, and personal integrity decline. The structure of the poem mirrors life, creating tension. By encouraging reader participation and introspection, an idea of order emerges, and this order can be maintained in the individual who possesses essential human values.
Warren, Robert Penn,--1905-1989--Criticism and interpretation, Joseph,--Nez Percé Chief,--1840-1904,--in fiction, drama, poetry, etc
"Chill" Cool Shirt.
Jocic, Alek, Corbin, Adam, Benda, Patrick, Saqib, Rafia, Varvaro, Ian, Ungvichian, Vichate
FAU's Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry hosts an annual symposium where students engaged in undergraduate research may present their findings either through a poster presentation or an oral presentation.
"Con respeto": Factors related to the academic performance of Mexican-American fourth graders in selected Florida elementary schools.
Mosley, Mary Lindquist., Florida Atlantic University, Gray, Mary B., Morris, John D.
The purpose of this study was to identify how various student, school, and staff predictors related to the academic performance of Mexican American fourth graders in selected schools as evidenced by their scores on the Florida Writes Assessment as well as on norm referenced achievement tests in reading comprehension and math applications. Three null hypotheses were tested to show if there was a correlation between predictors and these criterion variables: writing skills, reading comprehension...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to identify how various student, school, and staff predictors related to the academic performance of Mexican American fourth graders in selected schools as evidenced by their scores on the Florida Writes Assessment as well as on norm referenced achievement tests in reading comprehension and math applications. Three null hypotheses were tested to show if there was a correlation between predictors and these criterion variables: writing skills, reading comprehension, and math applications. A sample of 64 students from two Florida districts and twelve elementary schools was obtained. Data were collected from archival sources within each school district as well as from surveys distributed to English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers. These were then analyzed to determine correlations with Florida Writes and with Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) as well as California Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) subtests in reading comprehension and math applications. The researcher was most interested in determining the relationship between a language arts pull-out program and achievement of ESOL students at a focal school which was in danger of being identified by the Florida Department of Education as "critically low" in academic performance because of low test scores. Correlations of predictor variables including the pull-out program were analyzed to determine statistical significance. Only the third hypothesis--that relating to math applications--was rejected at a probability level of.05. In this case, three predictors were considered significant: number of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, number of Mexican American students, and the pull-out program. Because of small sample size and limited applications, no far reaching conclusions were drawn although further study was suggested because the Mexican American population in Florida is growing, and these students have historically not performed well in school. It was also recommended that the Florida Department of Education reconsider the timeline for ESOL student participation in norm referenced testing in writing and reading because most research shows that it takes at least five to seven years for most students to acquire comprehensible second language skills.
Mexican American students--Florida, Academic achievement, Educational tests and measurements--United States, Education, Elementary--Florida
“COUNTDOWN”: AN INTERACTIVE FICTION.
Kammerer, Jessica, Luria, Rachel, Florida Atlantic University, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Today’s readers are not, in fact, readers, but rather configurative authors, accustomed in this digital age to controlling the media presented to them in such a way that their configuration is as important to the content’s overall structure and interpretation as author intent. Interactive fiction, which is any text-based media that the reader can alter through their actions (Montfort, “Twisty Little Passages”, vii), addresses this configurative authorship. “Countdown” is my own work of...
Show moreToday’s readers are not, in fact, readers, but rather configurative authors, accustomed in this digital age to controlling the media presented to them in such a way that their configuration is as important to the content’s overall structure and interpretation as author intent. Interactive fiction, which is any text-based media that the reader can alter through their actions (Montfort, “Twisty Little Passages”, vii), addresses this configurative authorship. “Countdown” is my own work of interactive fiction. It is an interpersonal drama that meditates on inevitability and the effects of our choices. It employs randomization at a high level that impacts which scenes of the story are seen and when, and this complicates the relationship between the configurative author and the creator. This approach can be applied to other projects to place the reader in productive tension with the story itself, the author, and/or the narrator.
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FAUHT00025
"Dear Mother".
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT3319391p
Genealogy, Family History, Clarke Family
Set of related objects
"DEATH AND THE CHILD": A KEY TO THE CRANE CANON. (STEPHEN CRANE).
OTT, PAUL D., Florida Atlantic University, Collins, Robert A.
The close association between Crane's journalistic and fictional account of the Greco-Turkish war makes "Death and the Child" one of the most forthright works in the Crane canon. From both a philosophical and technical standpoint, this short fiction work reveals Crane's maturity and sophistication at the end of 1897. A tension-release-shift structure directs the major flow of action, while at the same time suggesting the process of psychological change which the protagonist undergoes. The...
Show moreThe close association between Crane's journalistic and fictional account of the Greco-Turkish war makes "Death and the Child" one of the most forthright works in the Crane canon. From both a philosophical and technical standpoint, this short fiction work reveals Crane's maturity and sophistication at the end of 1897. A tension-release-shift structure directs the major flow of action, while at the same time suggesting the process of psychological change which the protagonist undergoes. The interpretation of the final scenes of the work, a subject of some controversy, is aided by an examination of the corresponding and contrasting elements found in The Red Badge of Courage.
Crane, Stephen,--1871-1900--Criticism and interpretation
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Open Season on Gray Wolves
We really should question the way in which this country manages it's endangered species. I guess, once you have reached x number of individuals, there's no reason to protect them.
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will be declaring open season on the soon-not-to-be endangered Gray Wolf. Great Lakes states Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are considering a similar option specifically for trophy hunting. I don't quite understand why we pick and choose endangered species like some sort of laundry list of animals that could very well disappear. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground in this idea of how to live with animals. Its like as soon as a species is on its last breath, we remove our hands from their throat and allow it to keep breathing again until some other incident or lobbyist (this time the ranchers and farmers lobbies) chooses to start choking the speicies out again.
Where is the middle ground? How can this be an effective, efficient policy? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife, IMHO, is a joke...what they really do is manage land and animals for our use.
Posted by Japhet at 7:42 AM No comments:
Labels: gray wolf, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Private Solar Funding
Billionaires and other uber-rich can have a huge impact on where our country, and world, is headed. Ted Turner is partnering with New Jersey solar company, Dome-Tech Solar, to bring solar energy to the California markets. Since Gov. Schwarzenegger committed the state to creating over 3,000 megawatts of new solar energy, this market could be substantial.
The question is, how come the gov't can't give substantial sums of money to promote the R&D of solar and wind energy? Well, if we're giving anywhere between $8.6 and $11.3 billion every year in subsidies to big oil, imagine what half of those figures could do for solar power.
How much solar power are we wasting? Alot...
Posted by Japhet at 11:30 PM No comments:
Bush, quietly lifts Alaska drilling ban
Lots of little manuevers going on during this whole Iraq war ordeal. Bush single-handedly laid a below the belt blow to our environment and also helped to continue our dependence on oil as an energy resource.
Nope, he didn't open up ANWR (but you know its on his hit-list) but he did open up the similarly-sized Bristol Bay in Alaska. The fish-rich waters off the coast of our northernmost state was approved by Congress last month as one of its last acts. However, how quickly we forgot that those very waters of Bristol Bay were set aside and protected by the Congress in 1990 and re-opened in 2000 thanks to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R) "who argued that the area's oil and natural gas could be developed while still protecting the fisheries."
What are the effects of off-shore oil and gas drilling on fisheries, oceanlife and the water? For the purely academic version go here. For a more layman's explanation, go here. Regardless, should we be worried?
Forest Consciousness
I sat in wonderment for over 2 hours on this website today. Granted its Saturday, so I had some time to waste, but it also speaks to the powerful images and music Forests Forever was able to pull together for an amazing experience into the consciousness of forests. You can visit over 10 different forest systems throughout the world. I highly recommend Waipoua, the Ural's Boreal Forest and the Amazon as your first visits.
Not only is the experience pleasing to the senses but it pleases the brain as well. At the end of each slide show, which is controlled by you the viewer, you can read about why each of these forests are so important to our global ecosystem and learn about their history.
Always a good reminder coming from such an urban setting of how necessary nature is in our lives.
Posted by Japhet at 1:47 PM No comments:
Labels: forests, rainforests, slide show
Put the pie down and step back from the dessert table!
Apparently our law enforcement staffs have run out of dangerous people to arrest and apprehend and have turned their focus on to the frightening pie terrorist groups. AMERICAblog caught this story this morning....
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) -- A Canadian lawyer has been awarded more than C$10,000 ($8,550) in damages by a British Columbia court after he was falsely arrested and strip-searched over rumors he planned to throw a pie at the prime minister.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that police had no objective basis to believe that Cameron Ward planned a pie attack when he was arrested in a crowd that was watching then-Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien during a visit to Vancouver in August 2002.
"He was too far away and was not in possession of a pie," British Columbia Supreme Court Judge David Tysoe wrote in his ruling, which said that Ward's constitutional rights had been violated.
Nicely done, fellas. I hear cherry is the pie of the month so keep your eyes peeled.
Posted by Japhet at 10:49 AM No comments:
Top 10 Eco-Neighborhoods
Just when you think you're community is the greenest of the green, some magazine has to come and ruin it for you by putting out "America's Best Eco-Neighborhoods" a list of towns and cities that have been chosen as having a particularly vibrant eco-neighborhod -- none of which include your humble, but eco-riffic, abode. I was distraught not to see my home city up on the list, but I guess there is always room for improvement.
Topping the list are Austin, TX and Asheville, NC, both of which have a bit of southern charm mixed in with a tint of green. An oddity about this list is that the cities are displayed in alphabetical order, which makes me wonder if the 1 through 10 listing is completely arbitrary and really what we are looking at are 10 cities that have some eco-strengths in certain pockets but aren't necessarily all that dedicated to sustainable development per se.
I noticed that Andersonville, IL, a suburb of Chicago, is also at a key decision point in their city's development. While many of these cities are presently on the green track or were founded by communities dedicated to improving the environment, the future contains some key questions and answers around where they will go and how they'll get there.
However some cities are also committing to more intensive strageties to deal with water pollution, air pollution, global warming and environmental degradation. The city of Denver has quite a plan to limit its greenhouse gas emissions and a mayor that appears ready to tackle the issue head-on. While Denver has other environmental issues it needs to worry about (like water availability in drought season), dealing with global warming on a local scale is key to solving the issue in a larger context.
If you're city didn't make the top ten, feel free to get involved in your community and see if it appears next year. Needless to say its a good start and highlighting who's doing what helps the rest of us.
ExxonMobil Fumbles Integrity
In a not-so-shocking release today, the Union of Concerned Scientists stated that big-oil company ExxonMobil spent over $16 million in a coordinated effort to mislead the American public on the science behind global warming and climate change. UCS isn't the first group to make that claim. Back in September, Britain's Royal Society demanded that the oil company halt financial support of groups that purposely misrepresent the science of climate change. ExxonMobil didn't feel that this deserved a response until this:
"the company said in response to the Royal Society that it funded groups which research "significant policy issues and promote informed discussion on issues of direct relevance to the company." It said the groups do not speak for the company.
Notice how ExxonMobil immediately takes the conversation to a selfish perspective; doesn't global warming, a "significant policy issue," effect everyone who lives on the planet earth, and not just "the company?" I'm glad that they believe they're funding a "discussion" around the issue but what they forget is that there is no discussion to be had. The majority of the world's leading individual climatologists and scientists, organizations and government agencies support and defend the fact that human induced levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are causing climage change. What ExxonMobil wishes to do is to bring the issue out of certainty and into uncertainty cloaked in the idea that a community "discussion" (backed by corporate contributions) will give us a better or more honest answer.
Someday, these corporations will have the gaul to take responsibility for their impacts on our world and instead of shying away from leadership, embrace it, and tackle the problem.
Put the pie down and step back from the dessert ta...
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Dental clinic to assist low-income Lynn families:
Lynn, Massachusetts is fluoridated
"The Lynnway [dental clinic] location was selected for its easy accessibility, the overwhelming need in the community, and its proximity to public transportation routes, he said. "
Times Argus: Vermont News & Information:
"In addition to problems with Medicare and Medicaid, the hospitals are bearing the costs of treating people who have no coverage at all — working people who do not qualify for Medicaid but who have no private insurance. Lack of insurance, a growing problem in the state and nation, creates a cascade of destructive effects. It is a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. It leaves hospitals and other providers with a mounting pile of unpaid bills. And it contributes to the poor health of people who are unable to access ordinary services, such as a trip to the dentist or a regular check-up."
GM rice 'could reduce reliance on phosphate fertiliser' - SciDev.Net:
Fluoride chemicals, silicofluorides, used by over 91% of US fluoridating communities are waste products of phosphate fertilizer manufacture:
"Phosphate fertilisers, which often contain the toxins fluoride and arsenic, are among the most environmentally damaging of all fertilisers. Their manufacture can cause atmospheric pollution, and the fertilisers themselves can pollute soil and rivers."
Report predicts falling SA dentist numbers. 03/08/2005. ABC News Online:
"The report also shows half of South Australia's children aged four to five have tooth decay, with more than 60 per cent of their cases untreated."
maitland.yourguide:
About 2/3 of Australia is fluoridated:
"Dental decay was the second most costly diet-related disease in Australia, with an economic impact comparable with heart disease and diabetes, according to the Australian Dental Association."
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Brain Function »
New Fast-Advancing Dementia Discovered in US
Author Topic: New Fast-Advancing Dementia Discovered in US (Read 6615 times)
A new fast-advancing dementia has just been discovered with additional symptoms such as the loss of the ability to speak and move. Misfolded proteins wreak havoc with the brain. Neurodegenerative diseases are caused by these misshaped proteins. Healthy glycoproteins make possible the communication for all cells. Glycomics is the OS (operating system) for the genome. Vital sugars are the building blocks for glycoproteins. Unhealthy cells are vulnerable to fast decay.
Now, the report
A new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) may have been uncovered in a handful of patients in the US. The patients' brains had the familiar spongy tissue make-up.
Ten people have so far died from a fast-advancing form of fatal dementia called PSPr, New Scientist reports.
Patients develop the trademark brain damage associated with CJD - the type not linked to BSE - but scientists believe there may be a genetic cause.
Experts in the UK are now checking records to see if any cases have happened across the Atlantic.
There are between 50 and 100 new cases of so-called sporadic CJD diagnosed in the UK every year.
Unlike "variant CJD", the human form of BSE in cows contracted by eating contaminated brain tissue in the 1980s and 1990s, the cause of most cases of sporadic CJD is unknown.
The new cases were referred to CJD surveillance units in the US because they were a suspiciously fast-advancing form of dementia with additional symptoms such as the loss of the ability to speak and move, even though traditional tests that normally help diagnose CJD proved negative.
Post-mortems on those who died revealed the familiar "spongy" brain tissue, covered with tiny holes.
These are thought to be caused by the accumulation of "prions", a misshapen version of a normal brain protein.
'Unnoticed'
Dr Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the US National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, in Ohio, said that he believed the newly discovered type had probably "been around for years, unnoticed".
He suggested one interesting common factor was that the patients came from families with a history of dementia, suggesting a genetic cause, but did not carry the gene traditionally associated with a small number of sporadic CJD cases.
Dr Mark Head, from the UK's National CJD Surveillance Unit, in Edinburgh, said the finding had prompted scientists to start reviewing cases of sporadic CJD in this country to see if there were any of the newly discovered version.
He said: "What is interesting about this is that it may mean there are other genes out there waiting to be found which are associated with prion disease, and looking at these patients in the US could help find them."
Thursday, 10 July 2008 01:07 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7497867.stm
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The Hollies Forum Index » Searchin' » What's the most rare released Hollies performance?
Post subject: What's the most rare released Hollies performance?
Excluding minor remixes from consideration, one strong candidate would have to be the Italian-only single "We're Alive" as originally released on Parlophone.
I've got a bad taped-to-cassette off of the 45 rpm single version of this song, and it doesn't have much at all in the way of backing vocals. So, it's pretty much all Allan on vocals.
However, when the song saw release on CD in the 1990's, they somehow uncovered the Nash-Hicks backing vocals, which were mixed into the song for CD release.
So I submit that this song, sans backing vocals, has to be one of the most rare releases, and absolutely unavailable on CD.
What other songs rank up there in rarity and availability?
Posted:Sat Jun 28, 2008 22:58 pm
Post subject: Re: What's the most rare released Hollies performance?
SpartyScott wrote:
There is the other Italian single "Devi Avere Fiducia In Me" b/w "Non Prego Per Me". Not being terribly fond of foreign language recordings, my interest is minimal. I did hear an alternate version of the former tune at a fellow Hollies fan's house. He wouldn't tell me where he got it nor would he give me a copy, after I had given him some rare stuff. That was the end of that relationship. Yes, even Hollies fans can be %$#@%!
Posted:Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:16 am
I don't know if those are rarities but to me they are because they were very hard to find.
I mean some single B-sides from the 1980s, 1990s. Some of those like "You Gave Me Strength", "You're All Woman", "Your Eyes" or the beautiful "For What It's Worth I'm Sorry" still wait for a release on CD as far as I know. When I held the singles of those records in my hands I had the feeling of having something which is quite hard to find. That's why they are rarities for me. And, by the way, I can't understand why no single collection with all the 1980s, 1990s stuff hasn't been released yet on CD. "You Gave Me Strength" and "For What It's Worth.." are very beautiful ballads and should be put on a CD collection.
benny-b-goode wrote:
I think it's because, aside from "Stop In The Name of Love" making the US Top 30 in 1983, the band's 1980s and '90s output has been rather obscure. Many of the tracks were only released in a few countries with little to no chart action, and on various labels.
Posted:Sun Jun 29, 2008 13:09 pm
But why did The Hollies accept that ? Some of those songs are very good and sound like fashionable 1980s material. Why did they accept that their songs were treated like that, being published by different labels and without any real promotion ?
And still it would be great to see those songs released on CD.
Just look at Cliff Richard. On September 15th an 8 CD Pack will be released with archive material, a rare live concert and two CDs full of RARE JUST B-SIDE SINGLES and rare EP tracks.
The Hollies 1980s B-side singles are rare material, as well. Why can't The Hollies do it the way Cliff does it ? A CD box with archive material, a rare live concert and rare single B-sides. That's what every Hollies fan is dreaming of. Maybe we'll have to wait for the band's 50th anniversary (because the reason for this release is Cliff's 50th anniversary in showbusiness; and I can't wait for its realease ).
Posted:Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:12 am
Maybe we'll have to wait for the band's 50th anniversary (because the reason for this release is Cliff's 50th anniversary in showbusiness; and I can't wait for its realease ).
When is the true 50th anniversary for the Holies?
Posted:Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:20 am
holliesfan wrote:
First release was, I think, May of 1963, although they of course had been working in pubs polishing their act before they got studio time.
So, that would mean we can expect a great release in May of 2113, only a little less than five years from now!
Posted:Mon Jun 30, 2008 13:10 pm
Thanks Sparty - One can only hope that they are looking ahead to 2113. If they pss up on this key date, shame on them.
You mean 2013, I hope. I'm not sure where I'll be 105 years from now in 2113 (and, I'm sure, neither The Hollies will know wink: )
Grrrrrrrrrrr
Yep, 2013.
Life goes by fast enough as it is; let's not push it just for the sake of an anniversary date. As The Grass Roots sang, "Let's Live For Today".
Posted:Tue Jul 01, 2008 15:09 pm
Last edited by Dennis on Tue Jul 01, 2008 15:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
To the general public, The Hollies are not viewed as an '80s and beyond act, despite the '83 reunion with Nash. Even Graham omits that event in his bio. Diehard fans may want '80s and '90s material, but average Joe Public is not aware of, let alone interested in, the stuff beyond their main hit years 1963-74. Like an earlier discussion regarding solo Allan Clarke material, interest beyond hardcore fans is, realistically, non-existent. A major record label has to feel they can sell a certain number of copies of any release to make it worth their effort.
2113? I hope they don't pss up on it either.
Yes, 105 years is a mighty LOOOOOOOOOONG time to wait for an Anniversary date. I, for one, will not be holding my breath.
Hope2005
Location: Rugby
A CD containing 80's & 90's material would be good in my view. As I haven't heard most of their material from that period except for the tracks on 'The Long Road Home' boxset.
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