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Intercontinental. Hotels Grp - Acquires Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®) has today announced the acquisition of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, one of the world's leading operators of luxury hotels, resorts and spas. The $300 million cash acquisition from Pegasus Capital Advisors includes all of Six Senses' brands and operating companies and does not include any real estate assets.
Six Senses currently manages 16 hotels and resorts, with 18 management contracts signed into its pipeline, and more than 50 further deals under active discussion. With properties in locations such as the Maldives, the Seychelles, Yao Noi in Thailand, Zighy Bay in Oman, and Portugal's Douro Valley, the addition of Six Senses' award-winning estate and high-quality development pipeline will further round out IHG's position in the luxury segment.
At Six Senses' core is a commitment to guest rejuvenation and reconnection, with an expert focus on wellness and sustainability. The acquisition extends IHG's reach to a community of affluent travellers and new owners and provides instant entry to some of the world's most sought-after locations.
Six Senses will sit at the top of IHG's luxury portfolio, complementing the world's largest luxury hotel brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts; the recently acquired and repositioned Regent Hotels & Resorts; and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, for which IHG has secured a presence in 14 countries, since its acquisition of the brand in 2015. Today's acquisition of Six Senses takes IHG's portfolio of open and pipeline luxury hotels to 400 hotels (108,000 rooms) globally.
By combining IHG's scale, systems and operational excellence with Six Senses' luxury, resort and spa expertise, IHG sees the potential to grow the Six Senses estate to more than 60 properties globally over the next 10 years. This includes bringing Six Senses to important urban markets, with a property already under construction in West Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City.
Keith Barr, Chief Executive Officer, IHG, commented: "Six Senses is an outstanding brand in the top-tier of luxury and one we've admired for some time. You only have to look at its iconic hotels and resorts to see how this acquisition will further round out our luxury offer. With a focus on wellness and sustainability, Six Senses has been voted the world's top hotel brand for the past two years, which is testament to its impressive management team who bring deep experience to IHG's luxury operations.
"Six Senses' attractive development pipeline provides us with a platform for high quality growth. With the power of the IHG enterprise, we believe we can expand Six Senses to more than 60 properties globally over the next decade. This acquisition continues the progress we've made against the strategic initiatives we outlined a year ago, which included a commitment to adding new brands in the fast-growing $60 billion luxury segment."
Transaction overview
· IHG has agreed to acquire Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas and its management business for $300 million in cash.
· Six Senses is an asset-light business. It manages 16 hotels and resorts (1,347 rooms), and there are a further 18 management contracts signed into its development pipeline. The open hotels include two properties for the upscale resort brand, Evason. With a further 50 deals under active discussion, IHG expects to accelerate Six Senses' growth globally to more than 60 hotels over the next 10 years.
· The acquisition includes the entirety of Six Senses' brands and operating companies and does not include any real estate assets. It includes Six Senses' spa operations, which are core to the brand's luxury and wellness positioning. Six Senses operates 37 spas in total under the Six Senses and LivNordic brand names, and also provides spa consultancy services. The Six Senses management will remain in place.
· Six Senses currently generates fee revenues of more than $13 million. The acquisition is expected to be EBITDA breakeven in year two and to generate a return approximately equal to its cost of capital by year four.
· For tax purposes, the transaction constitutes an asset sale for the purchaser, and as such IHG will be entitled to amortise the assets acquired. It is anticipated that the relief associated with this amortisation will reduce IHG's future cash taxes by approximately $75 million.
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Kansas City is a town with a colorful past and a promising future; it is big and sprawling, diverse and dynamic, sophisticated and down-home. KC is big in miles, straddling a state line and encompassing 13 counties, and with a population that numbers more than 1.776 million people in more than 100 communities.
Wichita is the largest city in the state of Kansas, with an in-city population of over 350,000 residents and more than 580,000 residents in the overall metropolitan area. Located in the south central portion of the state on the Arkansas River, the city is a major center for manufacturing, trade and culture.
The capital of Kansas is Topeka, located 60 miles west of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Once a key outpost along the Oregon Trail, the city has transformed into a political and industrial hub.
Springfield is Missouri’s third largest city, and the metropolitan center for the southwest portion of the state. The population in 2003 was estamated as Urban to be 94,317, Suburban population to be 144,592, and the rural population to be 100,851 with a total of 339,760 for Springfied. Just north of Springfield with a population of only around 40,000 residents, Jefferson City (located roughly in the center of Missouri) is a relatively quiet state capital.
The physical landscape of Kansas and Missouri epitomizes the austere natural beauty of the American Midwest. Northern Missouri and northwestern Kansas are typified by river valleys and rolling hills. Much of southern Missouri is comprised of the Ozark Plateau, an area of relatively low hills and peaks that is in sharp contrast to the surrounding plains. Large areas of the Ozarks are covered in second-growth forest, and over millennia, underground water has carved thousands of caves, springs and sinkholes out of the underlying limestone.
Central and western Kansas are covered by the Great Plains. Further west the terrain becomes dry, sandy flatland dotted with mesas and buttes of red shale. Major rivers in the region include the Missouri, the Kansas, the Arkansas and the Cimarron.
When most think of Kansas and Missouri, they picture rolling wheat fields, herds of grazing cattle and the often-strenuous life of the farmer. While agriculture remains an important part of our culture, it is no longer the focal point of our economy. Manufacturing has become a key facet of the economy in both states, especially in the major metropolitan areas. Among the chief industries in the region are the manufacture of transportation equipment, chemical production, pharmaceuticals and industrial machinery manufacture. Kansas City is a national center for meat-packing and grain milling, and is one of the country’s leading hubs for agribusiness in general.
The growth of the urban centers in our region is partially responsible for increased employment in the diverse service sector. In addition, a large portion of our residents are employed in wholesale or retail trade. The transportation industry is also a major employer, a sign of our continuing reputation as a crossroads for the nation.
Our region has always had a strong affinity for music. Kansas City played an instrumental role in the development of jazz, and one can hear great live jazz today in any of a dozen KC clubs. Annual jazz festivals are held in Overland Park and Manhattan in Kansas and Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Bluegrass is another distinctly American musical style that took hold in our region. Bluegrass festivals are held each year in Lawrence and Winfield in Kansas and at several Universities in Missouri. We also enjoy classical music: the Kansas City Symphony has been a mainstay of the community since 1933, and symphony orchestras can be found in Wichita, Topeka and Springfield.
Local community theatres in almost every major town perform the best in live drama, and the larger towns and cities receive regular visits from touring theatre companies. We also strongly support the visual arts in both states, with art galleries and museums found in every region.
In addition to being arts enthusiasts, many of us are avid sports fans. We root hard for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals and our beloved Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. College loyalties divide us, as alumni and students take pride in the strong athletic traditions at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas State University in Manhattan and the University of Missouri (Mizzou) in Columbia.
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After photography and film studies at Chiba University, Nobuyoshi Araki worked for the Dentsu advertising agency. Araki may be the most well-known portrayer of Tokyo since the early 70s, (in)famous for his controversial, voyeuristic and deeply intimate photographs. Not only does he refer in his photography to classics, as Man Ray, Brassaï or Cartier-Bresson, but also to traditional Japanese art from Edo-period. Araki was included in „The 10th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan“ (1971) and, then, in a number of solo and group exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (1979, 2007), São Paulo Biennale (1998, 2002) or „Cities on the move“ (1998) in PS1, Museum of Modern Art, New York. The tensions between mortality and vitality are the leading topics of his œuvre, presented in the most recognized series, „Sentimental Journey“ (1990), in which he depicted death of his wife Yoko. Also in „Tokyo Love“ (1994), a collaboration with American photographer, Nan Goldin.
Sie besitzen ein Werk von Nobuyoshi Araki?
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Woman claims self-defense in fatal stabbing at apartment
Updated: 6:47 AM CDT Jun 27, 2014
A 36-year-old Cedar Falls woman is waiting for a judge to decide whether she's guilty of murder.After closing arguments on Thursday, the case against Kristie Clark-Richardson went to Judge George Stigler, who is presiding over the nonjury trial in Waterloo.The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says the judge is awaiting written comments from defense and prosecution attorneys on how a video of Clark-Richardson talking to investigators pertains to the charges of first-degree murder versus second-degree murder or other, lesser charges.The comments are due to the judge on Friday.Clark-Richardson is accused of stabbing to death 38-year-old Keon Dale in March 2013 outside his Waterloo apartment. She is claiming self-defense.
WATERLOO, Iowa —
A 36-year-old Cedar Falls woman is waiting for a judge to decide whether she's guilty of murder.
After closing arguments on Thursday, the case against Kristie Clark-Richardson went to Judge George Stigler, who is presiding over the nonjury trial in Waterloo.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says the judge is awaiting written comments from defense and prosecution attorneys on how a video of Clark-Richardson talking to investigators pertains to the charges of first-degree murder versus second-degree murder or other, lesser charges.
The comments are due to the judge on Friday.
Clark-Richardson is accused of stabbing to death 38-year-old Keon Dale in March 2013 outside his Waterloo apartment. She is claiming self-defense.
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Both artists' interest in opalescent glass began in the mid-1870s, but lack of suitable glass for use in windows delayed the successful completion of an opalescent window for several more years. Opalescent glass was made only in pressed glass factories and so was not available in flat sheets.
In order to obtain glass that could be used in windows, La Farge had gone to small flintware manufacturers in Brooklyn and ordered custom made pieces. Tiffany followed suit very shortly after. La Farge filed a patent application on November 10, 1879, a week after the exhibition of his window for Dr. Richard Derby's Long Island estate (Fig. 3), which had been hailed by the newspapers as "the first application of a new material [opalescent glass] to windows."3 Patent No. 224,831 was granted on February 24, 1880 for a "Colored-Glass Window" to be composed of panes of opalescent and colored glass:
The object of my invention is to obtain opalescent and iridescent effects in glass windows, to insure the translucency of the glass used therein and to lessen complete transparency; which is a great fault in ordinary glass windows, the translucency of the class of glass employed by me softening the light, and, by reason of its unevenness of structure and formation, the direct passage of rays of light and the tendency of the said rays to focus are prevented.
The claim was, in sum:
1. As an improved article of manufacture, a window having panes of translucent opal glass, substantially as and for the purposes described.
2. In a decorative or colored-glass window, panes composed of translucent opal and colored glass, as and for the purpose described.
La Farge stated plainly that "I desire it to be understood that I lay no claim to any improvement of the art of glass-making, either in translucent, opal, or colored glass."
He noted that opal glass was at that time used for tableware and that the methods of making opal glass and forming it into sheets were well known. Nevertheless, La Farge was very specific about how the opalescent glass used in his windows differed from that used for tableware and this explanation ran to technical issues on the manufacture of the glass.4 He explained that the thickness and texture must be altered to make opalescent glass suitable for windows. He discussed the typical colorants of opalescent tableware - "peroxide of tin or stannic acid, antimonic acid, chloride of silver, phosphate of lime, or bone-ashes" - and also suggested that he would mix molten opalescent glass with ordinary colored glass. Although the patent is not strictly for the manufacture of the glass, the language describes in detail the manufacturing processes. It may have been construed by Tiffany to give La Farge exclusive rights to produce such glass.
La Farge's patent did not state specifically how opalescent glass would be assembled into a window. La Farge suggested that he might plate opalescent glass to obtain the desired effects: "In some instances I find it very advantageous to back colored glass of ordinary construction with independent pieces of opal glass, one or more layers of either being used, according to the effect desired." But the drawings illustrating the patent were not specific in construction details. They showed that glass was layered, but they did not show the lead cames that held the pieces together, and so failed to detail whether the layers were held by a single came or by individual cames per layer. The purpose of the patent was to secure the use of opalescent glass for stained glass windows, not for the assembly of such glass into windows.
Eight months after La Farge's patent was granted, on October 25, 1880, Tiffany applied for a similar "Colored-Glass Window" patent, which was granted on February 8, 1881, as number 237,417.5 Tiffany's patent specifically utilized opalescent glass:
This invention consists in the combination, in a colored-glass window, of a mosaic of opalescent glass with a mosaic of colored glass, the two mosaics or sections being separated by an intervening air-space, so as to permit of the free passage of the rays of light through one mosaic before it passes to and through the other mosaic. The effect on the opalescent glass is to greatly increase its brilliancy and iridescence.
The principal difference between his patent and La Farge's was one of construction. Tiffany's layers of glass were specifically separated by an air space. In clarification of the claim, he elaborated:
In the plating of colored glass - that is, where the colored mosaics are placed against each other, technically called "plating" - only a direct and dull color is given; but by my arrangement, and with the new feature of opalescent glass introduced into one of the mosaics, a changeable color that is, a more beautiful play of color is given to the opalescent mosaic, with a less rigid outline to the color. The effect thus produced is not obtained where plating - that is, colored glass placed back to back - is employed.
This description and the accompanying drawing illustrated the manner in which Tiffany's - and incidentally La Farge's and all other opalescent windows - were made, by assembling opalescent and other glass in independent layers.
In sum, La Farge's patent was for the use of the material, while Tiffany's was for its assembly. Both patents were important in theory: without permission to use La Farge's, Tiffany's was not possible, but without permission to use Tiffany's, La Farge could not assemble windows of opalescent glass.
According to La Farge, in a reminiscence made some twenty years after the event, sometime around 1880 Charles L. Tiffany, Louis Tiffany's father and owner of Tiffany & Co., the jewelers and silversmiths, approached La Farge suggesting a partnership between his son and the artist, apparently to produce stained glass windows under La Farge's patent. This presumably happened prior to TifFany's patent application. La Farge provided Louis Tiffany with the information he desired, and then the latter somehow reneged on the proposal. Charles Tiffany told La Farge that Louis was ill and had to go to Europe, asking La Farge to unofficially grant permission to use the patent process "until the partnership could be perfected."6 (It cannot be confirmed that Louis was ill and traveled to Europe at this time.) Apparently La Farge did grant Charles Tiffany's request, but the latter did not follow through with a business arrangement. An agreement between the two artists was reported in 1881: "Mr. La Farge has taken out patents for the manufacture of 'opal'; it is also largely used by the firm of Louis C. Tiffany & Co., associated artists [sic], under Mr. La Farge's patent."7 No such agreement has come to light, however, and Tiffany never mentioned dealing with La Farge at all.
One La Farge scholar's interpretation of this event is that Louis Tiffany procured the technical information he needed from La Farge and, having gotten what he was after, failed to carry through on his and his father's promises, no longer needing La Fargo.8 Another interpretation of the incident, written by a Tiffany biographer, posits that La Farge waived his rights to the patent or "divulge[d] the formula."9 The implication of both interpretations is that without this technical material, Tiffany could not have made opalescent windows. This cannot be strictly true, however, since there were no proprietary secrets involved in the assembly of opalescent windows, nor in the manufacture of the glass, and La Farge possessed the sole knowledge of neither, relying on glassmakers and glaziers to execute his ideas. Both interpretations do determine, however, that it was this failure to launch a business venture that may have been the source of the friction between the two that would last the rest of their lives.
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Andrey B. Filipowicz
Andrey B. Filipowicz, a graduate of Northwestern University, earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago in International Relations. He speaks fluent Spanish and Ukrainian and is conversant in German, Russian and Polish. He received his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in 1984.
Mr. Filipowicz is a distinguished member of the trial bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and is licensed to practice law in Illinois, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has represented firm clients in appeals in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oregon and in the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to joining the Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd., Andrey Filipowicz concentrated his practice in the fields of Family Law, Federal Litigation, and Appellate Practice. He has litigated highly complex federal civil cases, and prior to joining the firm secured jury verdicts in federal civil cases in excess of one million dollars.
As the father of a teenage son, Mr. Filipowicz realizes that the cases litigated by the firm have a value greater than any monetary award. Mr. Filipowicz is an assertive and tireless advocate and has been a frequent legal expert on WLEY-FM in Chicago as well as Telemundo television.
Andrey was honored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children “in recognition and appreciation for outstanding commitment to the protection of children and the knowledge of the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction.” Andrey has helped reunite many fathers with their children in this country and worldwide.
Mr. Filipowicz has been selected to serve as a member of The United States Central Authority’s Attorney Network, a group of skilled lawyers who are referred Hague Convention cases by the U.S. Department of State, Office of Children’s Issues.
Andrey was selected by his peers in the legal community as an “Illinois Super Lawyer” after an extensive nomination and polling process conducted by Law & Politics. Considered the best in their profession, Andrey was honored to be designated as a “Super Lawyer” representing the top practicing attorneys in Illinois.
Mr. Filipowicz was invited by the White House Office of Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships as an expert resource to join White House staff and others to participate in the First Annual White House Town Hall Meeting on Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families.
CASE VICTORIES:
Coordinated legal efforts in the U.S. and China to recover a kidnapped child in Shanghai.
Won Custody Case for Iraqi War Veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Successfully reversed an Indiana Trial Court’s decision as to the allocation of client’s Marine Corps pension in Indiana Court of Appeals.
Won an important Illinois Appellate Court ruling on back support; Case was reversed, remanded and settled.
Hague Victory: Reunited Polish father seeking return of his daughters to Poland.
Hague Victory: Reunited Mexican father seeking return of his son to Mexico.
On the first day of a trial, Filipowicz got an abusive mother to admit she hit the client’s child on multiple occasions and admitted that she is severely mentally ill and unable to take care of herself, let alone the child. At the close of the mother’s testimony, the Judge granted the client custody due to Filipowicz’s sharp cross-examinations.
Illinois, 1984
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, 1989
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar, 1990
U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, 1986
U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit
DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, Illinois
Juris Doctor - 1984
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Masters Degree in International Relations
Northwestern University, Illinois
Illinois Super Lawyer
United States Central Authority’s Attorney Network, Member
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- France and the Iberian Peninsula
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Trip Planning Tips
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A Week in Portugal
This was our second major "target" for our 2018 trip to Europe; neither of us had ever been here before, we have Portuguese immediate family members & relatives, and we wanted to explore everything we could!
Besides our Portugal motivations due to family heritage, here are some other incredible reasons why we wanted to visit Portugal;
Portugal has it all: historic cities, world-renowned cuisine, beautiful country areas with natural landscapes, and some of the world’s most spectacular beaches.
Once the world’s maritime leader and the longest-lived of Europe’s modern empires, Portugal has a complex history to explore alongside dramatic geographic landscapes, turquoise beaches, a rich gastronomy scene, and all the Port and bacalhau (salted cod fish) you can ask for.
Portugal won the "best travel destination" award in 2018, and after you read this article of ours, you will be able to understand why!
Nobody anywhere does custard tarts (or pastel de natas, as they’re called here) quite like Portugal. And perhaps nowhere in Portugal does them as well as Pasteis de Belém in Lisbon, which is why queues for the sweet, rich and perfectly crisp tarts often stretch along the pavement.
Perched on the western edge of Europe, Lisbon is the continent’s sunniest capital city, boasting an average of 2,799 hours of sunshine a year, beating out Athens, which has 2,771 hours of sun a year.
Thanks to the rolling swell of the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal is one of Europe’s best surfing destinations with a wave for every ability. Best of all, the surf breaks are relatively uncrowded.
Perhaps now you can understand our enthusiasm for spending a week in Portugal, exploring it from North to South?
If you have never been to Portugal & either you are planning a trip there, or you just want to know more about it, here are some good sources of information;
If you are not familiar with how web pages function, or if you need help for how this page works, click here.
Driving in Portugal
Driving in Portugal is similar to driving in the USA; the freeways ("Autoestrada") are very similar, the information signs are easily understood, and the speed limits are easy to discern. Speed limits are in kilometers per hour, multiply by 60% to derive MPH.
Driving in any European City is a lesson in patience and bravery. Traffic in Lisbon & Belém was thick, but most drivers were disciplined.
Driving in Portimão was straight forward, but getting to our VRBO rental from the highway definitely required use of a mapping system. We had retired our Tom-Tom mapping device, and only used cell phone based mapping to navigate everywhere.
We flew from Madrid to Porto, Portugal via TAP Portugal Airlines. In Porto, we picked up our rental car from Auto Europe, fired up our navigation maps, and proceeded to drive to the Delfim Douro Hotel - our first stop in Portugal. Our route from the Porto International Airport was on the A4 east to exit 24 where we turned south on the N2. Once we crossed the Douro River Bridge, we then turned back west on the N222 to the Delfim Douro Hotel on the right side of the road.
Douro River Valley, Portugal
Just as we drove into the Delfim Douro Hotel Parking lot, we noticed that there was a River Cruise ship steaming down the Douro River from Câmara Municipal de Peso da Régua (the next town just east of the hotel).
Being veterans of several Viking River Cruises tours in France, we immediately jumped out of our car and started taking photos of the ship has it continued by us on it's way to Porto.
We had originally intended to check into the hotel, and then drive and find a local vinyard to visit or tour, but the hotel was so inviting, and occupies such a beautiful location on the hill above the River Douro, that we decided to spend a few hours in the pool and do the vinyard tour before dinner.
The decision to hang out for a while was also driven by the fact that we had departed Madrid at a very early hour, flew to Porto, hopped into a rental car and then drove to the hotel (125 kilometers). So the concept of relaxing at the pool after a quick lunch, was a very easy decision to make.
The pool area was very comfortable with a stunning view of the Douro River down the slopes of the hill that the hotel was situated upon. You could not possibly come up with a better location for a hotel!
You can see that the sky was nearly cloudless that day, beautiful bright sunny day, and yet another reason why we decided to hang out at the pool!
See that left-most door in the hotel? That leads directly into the bar area if one felt the need for an adult beverage.
We made arrangements (online from the hotel) to tour a winery just down the road, and we had just parked the car in the Quinta da Pacheca parking lot. The walk from the parking lot to the winery office was so pretty, that we thought that a picture should be taken.
On the other side of their driveway, are some of their vinyards. All of which were being harvested at the time we were there.
Quinta da Pacheca has been in existence for over 300 years, and their vinyards extend all the way down the hills to the Douro River.
Grape Vats: in this picture one of the wine workers is shoveling the grapes into a barrel delivery tube.
These gray stone vats are used to hold the destemmed grapes and where the grapes are pressed ("grape stomping"). The grapes are then kept in the vats for several days.
After the grapes have been processed, the results are stored in these massive barrels, to allow the wine to mature ("primary fermentation").
After primary fermentation, the wine will be transferred from the fermentation barrels to another vessel for aging.
After our tour guide had taken us through the various stages of processing, we then were taken to a port & tawny port tasting. If the name "port wine" or "tawny port" doesn't ring a bell with you, click here to learn about Port Wines.
This was an entertaining part of the tour, as we got to sample various types of wine they produce.
This image is the property of This Insider
As we were departing the wine tour at Quinta de Pacheca, we happened to notice that there were some very large barrels next to the hotel. Turns out these 10 barrels were "hotel rooms" (270 square feet each), each barrel includes a bed, walk-in shower, skylight, Wi-Fi, and air conditioning.
Praia do Norte, Portugal
After departing the Delfim Douro Hotel, we drove to the Atlantic Ocean coast (250 kilometers from the Delfim Douro Hotel but still north of Lisbon), and stopped at the beach just north of Nazaré at the Praia do Norte, Nazaré. This is where the largest waves ever surfed took place, if you doubt this fact, please take a look at this video to see for yourself.
The waves here form due to the presence of the underwater Nazaré Canyon. As the canyon creates constructive interference between the incoming swell waves, it makes their heights much larger on this stretch of coast.
Even on a calm day, you can see how the surf here is strong. We saw a number of 8 to 10 foot waves come ashore.
The noise from each wave "set" as they crashed down onto the sand, was like a muffled explosion, yet at the same time, rather soothing! We took this video as we were watching the surf roll in and if you listen to it, you will see what we mean!
YouTube Tip
Click this video to start it playing, then click the "square" in the lower right corner of the video to make the video appear "full screen". Once the video has completed, push your computer's "escape key" to minimize the video again.
Above image is the property of 'Mister No' via Wikimedia
Nazaré Beach: on the other side of the cliff from where we were at Praia do Norte. As you can see, the village of Nazaré resides next to a pretty beach and a very nice marina.
The inlet in the distance is the entrance to the Nazaré Marina, to view this area on a Google Map click here. This map will provide you with an overhead view of the entire area, where you can more easily see where we were north of Nazaré at the Praia do Norte.
Because we had to meet our VRBO apartment agent at a specific time, we departed on the Portugal A8 freeway and drove to Belém (130 kilometers). Traffic was light until we arrived in the Lisbon area, and then it got quickly crowded.
Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge: from our apartment window in Belém, Portugal.
The suspension bridge closely resembles the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The comparison is correct as the consortium that constructed the American bridge also constructed Ponte 25 de Abril.
Once we unloaded our rental car and got settled into the apartment, we began our explorations of Lisbon!
Jerónimos Monastery: This area of Belém is very walkable & pretty. The Monastery is immediately across the street from the Jardim da Praça do Império, and the Belém Tower is approximately one kilometer west of the park. Our VRBO apartment rental was 1.1 kilometers behind the Monastery near the Palácio da Calheta museum.
The Monastery also just happens to be practically "next door" to the Pastéis de Belém bakery, which makes the most incredible Pastéis de nata!
Quick History Lesson
It is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal; it was secularised on 28 December 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to the charitable institution, Real Casa Pia de Lisboa.
The monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the Portuguese Late Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém, in 1983.
There are a variety of public transportation methods in Lisbon, here is one of their tram cars, which are very popular with everyone. The red Tram Cars will take you a "Lisbon hills tour", but it was crowded and this particular day was warm. So we decided on other transportation methods.
Note: there are red trams and there are yellow trams. The Remodelado trams are the quaint yellow trams that rattle and screech through the narrow streets of Lisbon, and the most scenic route is the E28, which crosses the Alfama district.
Quick Tram System History Lesson
The first tramway in Lisbon entered service on 17 November 1873, as a horse-drawn line. On 30 August 1901, Lisbon's first electric tramway commenced operations. Within a year, all of the city's tramways had been converted to electric traction.
Until 1959, the network of lines continued to be developed, and in that year it reached its greatest extent. At that time, there were 27 tram lines in Lisbon, of which six operated as circle lines. As the circle lines operated in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions, each with its own route number, it is more correct to speak of a total of 24 tram routes, all of them running on 900 mm (2 ft 11 7⁄16 in) narrow gauge tram lines.
An individual day pass currently costs €6.40 and allows unlimited travel over a 24-hour period on the entire bus, tram and metro network (€10.55 if you want to include Comboios de Portugal as well). If you're going to take more than five trips on the bus or metro on any given day, this is the best and easiest choice.
For a thorough description of the Lisbon public transportation systems and how to utilize them, click here for a good article at Trip Savvy.
Arco da Rua Augusta: is located in front of the Praça do Comércio, a very large plaza. It also serves as an entrance to the downtown commercial shopping area which is pedestrian-only, and contains a number of stores.
Baixa, or downtown Lisbon, is the heart of the city. It's the main shopping and banking district that stretches from the riverfront to the main avenue (Avenida da Liberdade), with streets named according to the shopkeepers and craftsmen who traded in the area. It was completely rebuilt after the Great Earthquake of 1755, with streets flanked by uniform, neoclassical buildings. This was Europe's first great example of neoclassical design and urban planning, and one of the finest European architectural achievements of the age (it's currently being considered to be listed as a World Heritage Site).
The Rua Augusta Arch is a stone, triumphal arch-like, historical building and visitor attraction in Lisbon, Portugal, on the Praça do Comércio. It was built to commemorate the city's reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake. It has six columns (some 11 meters high) and is adorned with statues of various historical figures. Significant height from the arch crown to the cornice imparts an appearance of heaviness to the structure. The associated space is filled with the coat of arms of Portugal. The allegorical group at the top, made by French sculptor Célestin Anatole Calmels, represents Glory rewarding Valor and Genius.
Originally designed as a bell tower, the building was ultimately transformed into an elaborate arch after more than a century.
Comercio Square opens onto Rua Augusta through the Arco da Rua Augusta arch (which on the Rua Augusta side has a clock with filigreed stone reliefs). This is a lively pedestrian street with mosaic pavements, outdoor cafés, international shops, and the occasional street artist and peddler.
Image #1 is the "city side" of the Rua Augusta Arch and if you click on that image, you will see that it is in the center of that picture. We had stopped during our walk to look back at the arch as we were window shopping.
Treasure Museum of the Patriarchal See of Lisbon: We were walking up the Largo da Sé on our way up to Castle Saint George. We were finding out that the hills were relentlessly increasing in steepness and we were still quite a ways from the Castle.
As we arrived here at the Treasure Museum, we noticed that it seemed to be a place where all the tuk-tuk drivers would park and wait for customers. A beautiful location with the Church of St. Anthony of Lisbon on one side of the street and the Treasure Museum on the corner. So we made the decision that it was a good location for us to switch from being "hikers" to "tuk-tuk passengers".
So we spoke to one of the Tuk-Tuk drivers to see if he spoke English, and we decided to hire this guy to take us to the places we wanted to see, with Castle St. George being the first desired stop. The driver was fluent in 4 languages and knew Lisbon very well, so we found that we had made a good choice.
These tuk-tuk vehicles (think golf cart with a big back seat) have a decided advantage getting around on narrow streets that turn into long steep uphills - they turn easily & quickly, you can park them in very narrow spots and they can go anywhere!
Looking towards the Saint George Castle, which sits on one of the highest hills in Lisbon and provides a view of the Harbor and the city below.
From this distance, you might think that the hills surrounding the castle were not steep, but I can guarantee you that they are in fact quite steep!
This is a view of the Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge from Castle Saint George.
The 25th of April Bridge ("Ponte 25 de Abril") is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tagus river. It was inaugurated on August 6, 1966, and a train platform was added in 1999. It is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco because they are both suspension bridges of similar color. It was built by the American Bridge Company which constructed the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, but not the Golden Gate. With a total length of 2,277 metres (7,470 ft), it is the 32nd largest suspension bridge in the world. The upper deck carries six car lanes, while the lower deck carries a double track railway electrified at 25 kV AC. Until 1974, the bridge was named Salazar Bridge. The name "25 de Abril" commemorates the Carnation Revolution.
The National Pantheon of Portugal, where many famous Portuguese people are immortalized, including Vasco de Gama.
The building has a centralised floorplan, in a Greek cross shape. On each corner there is a square tower (the pinnacles were never completed), and the façades are undulated like in the baroque designs of Borromini. The main façade has an entrance hall (galilee) and three niches with statues. The entrance to the church is done through a beautiful baroque portal with the coat-of-arms of Portugal held by two angels.
Originally the Church of Santa Engrácia, in the 20th century it was converted into the National Pantheon (Panteão Nacional). The church construction started in 1681 and continued until 1712 when the architect passed away. The building lay dormant off & on until the 20th century when the dome was added, and the church was reinaugurated in 1966.
Image #1 is a view of the area below the National Pantheon as seen from it's roof. Gives you a very good idea of the height.
Image #2 displays some of the burial vaults in the Pantheon. The personalities entombed here include the Presidents of the Republic Manuel de Arriaga, Teófilo Braga, Sidónio Pais and Óscar Carmona, Presidential candidate Humberto Delgado, writers João de Deus, Almeida Garrett, Guerra Junqueiro, Aquilino Ribeiro and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, fado singer Amália Rodrigues, and footballer Eusébio. There are cenotaphs to Luís de Camões, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Afonso de Albuquerque, Nuno Álvares Pereira, Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator.
The Lisbon Cruise Port from the top of the National Pantheon. You may recall that I mentioned earlier that Lisbon is a stop for many cruise lines, well here is visual proof! There are currently over 26 Cruise Lines that have ships that visit Lisbon, click here to see a list of Cruise Lines.
The cruise port of Lisbon is long and is stretched out along the Rio Tejo. Cruise ships can dock at 5 different places. The most important docking area's are Santa Apolonia at about 1,5 kilometer from the city center and da Rocha/Alcantara, close to Ponte 25 de Abril. The cruise terminals are modern and offer all necessary facilities for cruise passengers.
To reach the city center of Lisbon from the cruise port is easy but the mode of transport depends on where your ship docked. From most ship terminals, you can easily go on foot. Good alternatives are the metro or train.
The entrance to the fort area of Castle Saint George, you can see that a moat was present at some time in the past.
It is interesting to note that this castle was originally built by the Moors when they controlled the Iberian Peninsula.
In the context of the Christian Reconquista, the castle and the city of Lisbon were freed from Moorish rule in 1147 by Afonso Henriques and northern European knights in the Siege of Lisbon during the Second Crusade.
The fort area of Castle Saint George was all about defense, heavy stone walls and gates everywhere.
It is amazing that this castle is still standing, as it has endured several major earthquakes; a strong earthquake in 1531 did considerable damage and the great earthquake of 1755 also did extensive damage.
The 1755 quake has been estimated to have been in the 8.5 to 9.0 on the Moment Magnitude Scale and Lisbon was virtually completely destroyed. The death toll estimates have been described as being as high as 100,000. When you realize that the population of Lisbon at that time was perhaps 200,000 it serves to demonstrate how devastating that disaster was.
A view of Lisbon through one of the Saint George Castle apertures where cannon once sat.
A small fortress was built by the Visigoths during the fifth century. It was modified and enlarged by the Moors in the mid-eleventh century and during the reign of Afonso I of Portugal (1109 – 1185), it was altered and in later years transformed into a Royal Palace. The Castle was almost completely destroyed by the great Portugal earthquake of 1755. It was rebuilt and many additions were made until the Castle was completely restored in 1938.
The Castle is located right on top of the tallest of Lisbon´s Seven Hills of the historic centre of the capital city, above the old Moorish quarter.
Image property of Nuno Morão from Portugal - Urbano 19439, Belém, 2010.06.30, CC BY-SA 2.0
Even though we had a rental car, we rode the train from Belém to the Cascais area, which is a beach town west of Lisbon. This was a simple decision, as the train proceeds along the coast from Belém straight out to Cascais, and best of all, we would not need to search for parking once we arrived! Plus you get a very good view of the coastline, beaches & villages during the entire train trip because the train route parallels the coast all the way to Cascais.
Cascais's history as a cosmopolitan haven for the rich and famous originates in the 1870s, when King Luís I of Portugal and the Portuguese royal family made the seaside town their summer residence, thus attracting members of the Portuguese aristocracy, who established a summer community there.
The Belém Tower, or the "Tower of St Vincent", is just a few blocks west of the Jerónimos Monastery and since it sits next to a beautiful park, we decided that this would be our next walking destination.
Our VRBO rental was approximately 1.2 kilometers from the Belém Tower location, which is surrounded on one side by the Jardim da Torre de Belém ("Garden of Belém Tower") and the Tagus River on it's other side.
Belém Tower or the "Tower of St Vincent", is a fortified tower located in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (along with the nearby Jerónimos Monastery) because of the significant role it played in the Portuguese maritime discoveries of the era of the Age of Discoveries. The tower was commissioned by King John II to be part of a defence system at the mouth of the Tagus river and a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon.
The tower was built in the early 16th century and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, but it also incorporates hints of other architectural styles. The structure was built from Lioz limestone and is composed of a bastion and a 30-metre (98.4 ft), four-storey tower. It has incorrectly been stated that the tower was built in the middle of the Tagus and now sits near the shore because the river was redirected after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In fact, the tower was built on a small island in the Tagus River near the Lisbon shore.
This Belém area statue (the Padrão dos Descobrimentos or in English the "Monument of the Discoveries") celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery (or Age of Exploration) during the 15th and 16th centuries. The right-most figure on the monument, is of Henry the Navigator.
Portimão, Portugal
We departed Lisbon and drove south on the A2 to the Algarve area of Portugal, approximately 235 miles. This allowed us to cross the 25th of April Bridge and see Almada on the other side.
Getting There: The freeway from Lisbon to Portimão was easy to navigate and had very little traffic. We stayed on the A2 until it became the E2. Leaving the E2 onto Portugal A22 to Portimão, exited onto the N124 to enter the city. As the Tivoli Hotel & Marina was perhaps 10 miles away, we traversed Portimão on local streets with numerous round-a-bouts and traffic. Typical for Europe, but a little challenging for many Americans! Diligence & discipline in driving & navigation is required !
Image property of Just Passing Thru
Image property of Tivoli Marina Portimão
We had reserved an apartment at the Tivoli Hotel & Marina in Portimão. Image #1 is a view of the Hotel Pool area from the top floor of our apartment. Image #2 is a view of the restaurant and snack bar next to the Arade River.
The Tivoli is a very comfortable hotel; huge pool, nice outside cabana area for drinks & snacks and a a good restaurant. The Praia da Rocha is perhaps 100 meters away, just past the Marina and a row of restaurants.
This picture gives you a great idea of how nicely located our apartment was. The Tivoli Marina and Hotel are at the bottom right.
The Praia da Rocha beach is at the top center of the picture, and the city of of Portimão occupies the upper right area.
Thanks to Hotel-R for the picture above.
This is Praia da Rocha beach, looking down from the Avenue Tomas Cabreira.
The city of Portimão is off to the left in this picture, and the Tivoli Marina where we were staying is at the far end of this beach view.
Looking westward from a lookout point on Avenue Tomas Cabreira of Tres Castelos beach. You can see all of the beach chairs and lounges ready to be rented!
I should point out that this was still pretty early in the day, we generally get an early start on each day when we are travelling, and it was not yet 8AM when this picture was taken.
We descended to the beach to find a spot where we could play paddle ball, and were amazed at the cliff rock formations.
Rock formations & cliff on the west end of Praia da Rocha beach, you can see how small the people are in relation to the cliff.
We took this picture early in the day, and the beach crowd had not yet started to arrive. After we spread our towels out and hung out for a while, the crowds were starting to build up.
This is one way you can get from Tres Castelos beach to Praia da Rocha beach! At low tide you can just walk around through the water. Speaking from experience, that particular cave was just barely tall enough for me to squeeze through.
Looking back at Portimão from a lookout point above Tres Castelos beach. See the boardwalk in the center of this picture? There are a number of small restaurants & pubs all along this walkway. Because of their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, each establishment offers really nice views of the beach & the Ocean.
Cape St. Vincent, Portugal
We decided on a day trip to Sagres from Portimão. The motivation to go here, comes in two parts, ie; This was where Prince Henry the Navigator had his school of navigation in the 15th century. Part two is that the cliffs in this area are fantastic.
Beside the historical signficance of the Sagres area, the drive takes you through a larger part of the Algarve area - taking you into pretty villages, amazing coastline and then you arrive at the farthest southwest point in Europe!
We were standing in the Sagres Fortress area, looking over at the next peninsula which has a lighthouse on it. That lighthouse was built in 1846 and was constructed on the old ruins of a Franciscan monastery. It now belongs to the Portuguese Navy.
This lighthouse is the second most powerful in Europe (after Phare du Creach in Brittany) and the light beam can be seen 60 kilometers away.
The cliffs in this area are astounding, and the Atlantic Ocean pounds away at them constantly. Cliff heights here can reach 75 meters!
As is usual in Europe, there are no walls or signs telling you to stay away from the cliff edges, Europe expects you to be smart enough to already know that!
You can see in this picture how the Ocean has pounded out a cave in the cliff. The waves get extremely large in the winter here, for a graphic portrayal of winter storm driven waves take a look at this YouTube video.
Not sure if you can see them or not, but local surfers are out there in a large group in the right center of this picture.
That beach is Praia do Beliche, and it is a very popular surfer destination in the Cape St. Vincent area. Its popularity stems from being sheltered from the prevailing winds
This is the Sagres Fortress (Fortaleza Sagres). It is located at the southern tip of the Sagres Peninsula and was designed to protect the town from raiders from North African. It was from here that Henry the Navigator devised his 15th century expeditions to the uncharted seas around the western side of Africa, which heralded in the golden era of Portuguese exploration.
Taken from the cliffs nearest the Sagres Fortress parking lot, some people are enjoying the beach. We could see the trail that those people had to have taken down there, and it looked like a challenging descent!
By the way, that word written in the sand translates to "you know" in English.
It cannot be overstated how good seafood & pastries are in Portugal, below are pictures of a few of things we enjoyed.
Pastéis de Nata - these are from Pasteis de Belém which is considered to make the best in Lisbon
More great pastries - don't remember the name, but they were awesome!
Cataplana de Peixe - a Portuguese fish stew made in a special cookware called a cataplana.
Pastel de Nata Quick History Lesson
Pastéis de nata were created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém, in Lisbon. These monks were originally based in France where these pastries could be found in local bakeries. At the time, convents and monasteries used large quantities of egg-whites for starching clothes, such as nuns' habits. It was quite common for monasteries and convents to use the leftover egg yolks to make cakes and pastries, resulting in the proliferation of sweet pastry recipes throughout the country.
Following the extinction of the religious orders and in the face of the impending closure of many of the convents and monasteries in the aftermath of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, the monks started selling pastéis de nata at a nearby sugar refinery to bring in some revenue. In 1834, the monastery was closed and the recipe was sold to the sugar refinery, whose owners in 1837 opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém. The descendants own the business to this day.
Now as you have read on this page that we had a rental car while in Portugal, and so you can imagine that we had to stop for gasoline, or rest rooms, etc, at various locations throughout Portugal right? At every rest stop or gas station that we visited, there would be an espresso bar. So during most of these stops we would have an espresso with a pastry, and each & every time it was absolutely delicious!
Suggested links for Portugal
Wikipedia Portugal
Lisbon History Wiki
Wiki Portimão Information
Portimão in-depth article on Algarve Tourist
Sagres in Wiki
Here is a pre-built Google Search for places to eat in Lisbon
Here is a pre-built Google Search for places to eat in Portimão
Google list of places to see in Portugal
There are many other sites, try your own Google search.
Lisbon Airport Warning; It is extremely crowded with vehicles, and the Rental Car Return Center is very close to the Airport entrance. Be very careful driving in the Airport, and look for the signs to direct you to the Rental Car Return Center.
We entered the Airport area on Avenue Berlim because we had to fill our rental car gas tank, and the only gas station was a BP station (on the south side of Avenue Berlim as you enter the Airport). All of the car rental companies are located in a single building, located adjacent to the Airport Terminal One building. What we discovered was that the Car Return Building signs were not obvious as we exited the gas station, and we wound up exiting the Airport and upon returning, we found the signs to the Car Return area could be seen!
To view our entire set of images from Portugal, click here
European Travel Tips
Please click here to read our complete list of European Travel Tips. These are the tips that we utilize every time we travel, so we hope you find them as useful as we do.
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Mega Millions jackpot hits $1 billion
Posted: 7:35 AM, Oct 19, 2018
Kevork Djansezian
<p>Lottery tickets are seen on March 29, 2012 in Hawthorne, California.</p>
All week, the climbing Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots have been awakening the frivolous dreamers inside of us. Come on, who could resist entertaining some "what ifs" when the money at stake is over a billion dollars?
To recap, no one's won the big Powerball or Mega Millions payout for a long time, so now the jackpots are sinfully high. The Powerball pot is $430 million, and the top Mega Millions prize is a cool Dr. Evil-approved $1 billion.
Granted, those numbers get pared down a LOT once cash value calculations and good old Uncle Sam get a hold of the winnings. But still, it's an obscene amount of money.
For some context, Taylor Swift's net worth is reportedly around $300 million. If you win the Mega Millions "billion,", you could take home $565 million and be almost twice as rich as her with absolutely none of the work. Are you familiar with the Commonwealth of Dominica , a small island country in the West Indies? Their 2017 GDP was $562 million. You could literally be as rich as an entire country.
Even if you won the Powerball jackpot and had to settle for the $248 million cash value payout, like a peasant, you could still be worth 0.82 Taylor Swifts and finally afford a comfortable two bedroom in San Francisco.
The Mega Millions drawing is Friday at 11 p.m. ET. The next Powerball drawing is Saturday.
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For one and for all: sensory friendly performances at Wharton Center
New productions accommodate those on the autism spectrum
Posted Thursday, March 29, 2018 10:45 am
Ciara Page
In the beginning of its 2017 season, the Wharton Center announced its initiative to host sensory friendly performances — productions with stage setups that accommodate children and adults on the autism spectrum.
“It’s a huge segment of the population that has experienced live theater before and that’s what our mission is, to bring people into the theater to experience what it’s like,” said Wharton Center Public Relations Manager Bob Hoffman.
Each show is performed in a supportive environment that includes lower sound levels, the elimination of potentially startling special effects and vastly dimmer stage lights.
“This is a friendly environment where you can stand up or sit down, you can take in your water, your fidget toys, anything you want in the theater to make you feel comfortable and still able to enjoy production,” Hoffman said.
In order for Friday’s sensory friendly performance of “Clementine” to be special for guests and first timers, the Wharton Center designated quiet and calm spaces, activity areas, had trained volunteers and professionals onsite, and also had sensory support items like earplugs and headphones.
In the next room, there were arts and crafts activities and a special guest Julia, the first Muppet with autism from Sesame Street. Children were excited to see and meet an animated character who was just like them.
Not knowing much about autistic children and the sensory sensitive community, Hoffman did not know the “why” behind the shows, until he met 13-year-old Dominic Blatnik after October’s sensory friendly performance of “Cat in the Hat.” Blatnik was diagnosed with autism at the early age of two and later diagnosed with ADHD at three years old.
“I had no idea, because it didn’t enter my life. Now I know we have to shout from the rooftop and educate people on these things,” said Hoffman.
Blatnik had never been to see a live performance until seeing the sensory friendly version of “Cat in the Hat.”
“He really likes it and he was able to make it through the whole day. He sat there transfixed and mesmerized. This is something we can do together,” his mother, Cathy Blatnik said.
The elder Blatnik has the problem of getting her son to relax in elements not familiar to him. She mentioned her stress levels at regular shows and how she is always on high alert about his social skills.
“The good thing about being able to have Dominic in a supportive and friendly atmosphere is that we all ‘get’ it. No explanation is needed or required when a child is flapping their arms, shouting out, can’t sit still or are talking to themselves,” said Blatnik. “To be able to look around and see everyone having a good time without being judged was a wonderful feeling for me. I can say that if the Wharton Center hadn’t started these sensory friendly performances, I don’t think I would have ever taken Dominic there.”
The next sensory friendly performance at the Wharton Center, “Disney’s The Lion King” is Saturday, July 21.
Audrey Matusz
Arts & Culture Editor
In 2018, I received my B.A. from the Residential College of Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University. Born in Lansing, I advocate for the advancement and diversity of talent in my community. I’ve covered local culture news through print, radio and documentary films for various outlets over the past five years.
You can reach Audrey at:
Audrey@lansingcitypulse.com or (517) 999-5068
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Judge says Missouri clinic can keep providing abortions
by: JIM SALTER and DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press
Posted: May 31, 2019 / 02:16 PM HST / Updated: May 31, 2019 / 11:27 PM HST
Abortion-rights supporters march Thursday, May 30, 2019, in St. Louis. A St. Louis judge heard an hour of arguments Thursday on Planned Parenthood’s request for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the state from allowing the license for Missouri’s only abortion clinic to lapse at midnight Friday. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge issued an order Friday to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic operating over the objections of state health officials, delivering abortion-rights advocates a courtroom victory after a string of setbacks in legislatures around the U.S.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer said Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic can continue providing abortions despite the Missouri health department’s refusal to renew its license over a variety of patient safety concerns. He said the temporary restraining order was necessary to “prevent irreparable injury” to Planned Parenthood.
With the abortion license set to expire at midnight Friday, Planned Parenthood pre-emptively sued this week and argued that the state was “weaponizing” the licensing process. Planned Parenthood said that absent court intervention, Missouri would become the first state without an abortion clinic since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.
The clinic’s license will remain in effect until a ruling is issued on Planned Parenthood’s request for a permanent injunction, Stelzer’s ruling says. A hearing is set for Tuesday morning.
“Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Dr. Leana Wen said in a statement. “We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is here — and in the rest of the country.”
Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a written statement that state regulators still have “serious health and safety concerns regarding Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility in St. Louis.”
Parson’s administration drew support from Missouri Right to Life Executive Director Susan Klein, who backed a 2017 state law requiring unannounced annual inspections of abortion clinics. Klein said abortion-rights advocates are trying “to play the victim and blame others for their deficiencies.”
In refusing to renew the license, Missouri’s health department cited “failed surgical abortions in which women remained pregnant” and legal violations, while insisting that it first needed to interview several clinic physicians who had been reluctant to talk. Planned Parenthood said two staff doctors agreed to interviews, but that others who are contractors or no longer work at the clinic would not talk.
The fight over the clinic’s license comes as lawmakers in many conservative states are passing new restrictions that take aim at Roe. Abortion opponents, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, are hoping federal courts will uphold laws that prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line the high court set in Roe.
Louisiana , Georgia , Kentucky , Mississippi and Ohio have enacted bills barring abortion once there’s a detectable fetal heartbeat, as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Parson signed a Missouri bill last week approving an eight-week ban on abortion, with exceptions only for medical emergencies. Alabama has gone even further, outlawing virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. None of the bans has taken effect, and all are expected to face legal challenges.
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Sarah Felts said the St. Louis clinic continued to perform abortions Friday, including on patients who moved up appointments that had been scheduled for next week. The clinic also provides other services that were not jeopardized by the license dispute.
The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to preliminary statistics from the state health department.
Missouri women also seek abortions in other states. In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed in 2018 were for Missouri residents, according to the state’s health department. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions.
An abortion clinic is located just across the Mississippi River in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis. Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in the Kansas City area is in Overland Park, Kansas, just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line. State figures show a handful of Missouri hospitals also perform abortions, but those are relatively rare.
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
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Teen Sexual Health
Teens Who Have Not Had Sex
Years 2011-2012 2009 2007 2005 2003 2001
Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties
Colusa, Glenn, and Tehama Counties
Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, and Trinity Counties
Definition: Percentage of teens ages 14-17 reporting that they have not had sex (e.g, in 2011-2012, 81.7% of California teens reported that they had not had sex).
Data Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, California Health Interview Survey (Aug. 2013).
Footnote: These data are based on a survey of the population and are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. The denominator includes all respondents ages 14-17 whose parents gave permission to discuss sexual issues in the survey. LNE (Low Number Event) refers to data that have been suppressed because the sample size was lower than 50 or the weighted estimate was less than 500. N/A means that data are not available. For more information about the California Health Interview Survey and for detailed margins of error around specific data points, see http://www.chis.ucla.edu.
Learn More About Teen Sexual Health
Measures of Teen Sexual Health on Kidsdata.org
On kidsdata.org, indicators of teen sexual health include rates and counts of sexually transmitted infections (i.e., chlamydia and gonorrhea) among young people ages 10-19, by age group, gender, and race/ethnicity; and the percentage of teens ages 14-17 who report that they have not had sex.
Domestic Violence Calls for Assistance
Delayed or No Medical Care
Length of Time Since Last Routine Health Check-Up
Visited the Emergency Room in Last Year, by Type of Insurance
Uninsured at Any Point in Last Year
Health Insurance Coverage (Regions of 65,000 Residents or More), by Age Group
by Legislative District and Race/Ethnicity
Medi-Cal Point-in-Time Enrollment
Average Monthly Enrollment, by Age (California Only)
Average Monthly Enrollment, by Race/Ethnicity (California Only)
Receipt of Care Within a Medical Home (Regions of 65,000 Residents or More)
School Health Centers
School Provides Adequate Health Services (Staff Reported)
There is much pressure, biological and social, for young people to be sexually active, yet sexual activity can have serious negative consequences, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It is estimated that although youth ages 15-24 represent only 25% of the sexually active population in the U.S., they account for half of the 20 million new STI cases each year (1). Chlamydia and gonorrhea are the most frequently reported bacterial STIs in the U.S., with young people (ages 15-24) and some racial/ethnic minority populations experiencing the highest rates of infection (1, 2).
Once an STI is contracted, detection and treatment can be difficult because the majority of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases in women are asymptomatic (1). For this reason, education and routine screening are crucial (1, 3). If untreated, chlamydia and gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and, in the long term, to infertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes (1, 2).
STIs also have serious economic consequences. In 2013, the CDC estimated that, overall, STIs cost the U.S. health care system about $16 billion annually (3).
For more information on teen sexual health, see kidsdata.org’s Research & Links section.
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Sexually transmitted disease surveillance 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats15
2. Guttmacher Institute. (2016). American teens’ sexual and reproductive health. Retrieved from: https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/american-teens-sexual-and-reproductive-health
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Incidence, prevalence, and cost of sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Retrieved from: https://npin.cdc.gov/publication/incidence-prevalence-and-cost-sexually-transmitted-infections-united-states
According to a 2011-12 survey, about 82% of California teens ages 14-17 reported that they had not had sex; this figure is similar to estimates from previous years.
Some teens who engage in sexual activity contract infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea. In California, chlamydia rates increased steadily between 2000 and 2008, but have decreased overall since 2011, from 813 cases per 100,000 youth ages 10-19 to 709 per 100,000 in 2015. The state’s rate of gonorrhea infection among youth, which is lower than the chlamydia rate, has fluctuated between 93 and 139 per 100,000 since 2000; in 2015, there were 121 cases of gonorrhea per 100,000 youth. Statewide and in most counties, data from 2015 and previous years show that female youth are diagnosed with chlamydia and gonorrhea at higher rates than males. Similarly, African American/black and Hispanic/Latino youth have higher rates of infection than their white and Asian/Pacific Islander peers. Although teens ages 15-19 account for the vast majority of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases among youth in California, there were also 862 cases involving children ages 10-14 in 2015.
Teens need accurate information and access to health care to make safe, informed choices about sexual activity and to receive appropriate care. California law now requires integrated, comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education, and mandates that instruction and materials be appropriate for students of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds (1). Families also play an important role in teen sexual health; teens who grow up in stable families with good parent-child relationships (including communication about sex) are more likely to delay sexual intercourse and to use contraception (2).
California youth have the right to talk to their doctor confidentially about sexual health (with limitations regarding sexual assault and statutory rape), but some teens, doctors, and parents/guardians may not fully understand those rights (3). In addition, insurance coding and reimbursement is a challenge to confidentiality as it can reveal the nature of the doctor visit to parents or guardians.
Policy options to improve teen sexual health include:
Informing health care providers and youth about state confidentiality laws concerning sexual health and contraception (3)
Expanding insurance reimbursement to cover comprehensive psychosocial assessments (often known as the HEEADSSS exam) as a separate service in order to ensure that sexuality and other important components of adolescents’ histories are discussed (4)
Adapting public health and reimbursement policies to encourage broader screening of youth for chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases (5)
Exploring technologically innovative methods (such as text messages and online interactives) of communicating sexual health education as they offer confidentiality and are consistent with adolescents’ new-media communications style (6)
Supporting school-based health centers to ensure accessible preventive and ongoing services for teens (7)
For more policy ideas and research on this topic, see kidsdata.org’s Research & Links section, or visit The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, or the Guttmacher Institute. Also see Policy Implications on kidsdata.org under Teen Births, Intimate Partner Violence, and Health Care.
1. California Department of Education. (n.d.). California Healthy Youth Act: Comprehensive sexual health education & HIV prevention education. Retrieved from: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/CPSP/Documents/CA Healthy Youth Act 2016_Final Compatibility Mode.pdf
2. Markham, C. M., et al. (2010). Connectedness as a predictor of sexual and reproductive health outcomes for youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(Suppl. 3), S23-S41. Retrieved from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/51442181
3. Duplessis, V., et al. (2010). Understanding confidentiality and minor consent in California (2nd ed.). Adolescent Health Working Group & California Adolescent Health Collaborative. Retrieved from: http://www.phi.org/resources/?resource=understanding-confidentiality-and-minor-consent-in-california-an-adolescent-provider-toolkit
4. Marcell, A. V., et al. (2011). Male adolescent sexual and reproductive health care. Pediatrics, 128(6), e1658-e1676. Retrieved from: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/6/e1658
5. Adams, S. H., et al. (2009). Adolescent preventive services: Rates and disparities in preventive health topics covered during routine medical care in a California sample. Journal of Adolescent Health, 44(6), 536-545. Retrieved from: http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(08)00406-0/
6. Levine, D. (2011). Using technology, new media, and mobile for sexual and reproductive health. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 8(1), 18-26. Retrieved from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-011-0040-7
7. Ethier, K. A., et al. (2011). School-based health center access, reproductive health care, and contraceptive use among sexually experienced high school students. Journal of Adolescent Health 48(6), 562-565. Retrieved from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/51130158
American Academy of Pediatrics: Adolescent Sexual Health
California Adolescent Sexual Health Work Group
California Dept. of Public Health: The Information and Education Program
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Sexual Risk Behaviors
Child Trends: Teen Pregnancy and Reproductive Health
Essential Access Health
Guttmacher Institute: United States Teens
Power to Decide: Campaign to Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in the United States, 2017, Guttmacher Institute
American Adolescents’ Sources of Sexual Health Information, 2017, Guttmacher Institute
California Adolescent Sexual Health Needs Index 2014, 2016, California Dept. of Public Health, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program
Exploring African-American and Latino Teens' Perceptions of Contraception and Access to Reproductive Health Care Services, 2017, Journal of Adolescent Health, Galloway, C. T., et al.
How Increasing the Use of Effective Contraception Could Reduce Unintended Pregnancy and Public Health Care Costs, 2017, Child Trends, Welti, K., & Manlove, J.
Improving the Paradigm of Approaches to Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2016, Reproductive Health, Plourde, K. F., et al.
Sexual Media and Childhood Well-Being and Health, 2017, Pediatrics, Collins, R. L., et al.
Sexuality Education for Children and Adolescents, 2016, Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report, Breuner, C. C., & Mattson, G.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Adolescents and Young Adults, 2017, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Reproductive Health of Young Adults: Research-Based Policy Recommendations for Executive and Legislative Officials in 2017, Child Trends
What Works for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions, 2014, Child Trends, Wasik, H., et al.
Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan, Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health
Live Well San Diego Report Card on Children, Families, and Community, 2017, The Children's Initiative & Live Well San Diego
San Diego: Increasing Condom Use Among Sexually Active Teens, 2011, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Santa Clara County Children's Agenda: 2018 Data Book, Planned Parenthood & Kids in Common
More Data Sources For Teen Sexual Health
Adolescent Health Data and Statistics, California Dept. of Public Health, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Division
CDC WONDER: Sexually Transmitted Disease Morbidity Data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) AtlasPlus, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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The Undress uniform of the King’s Colonials Officers and Other Ranks was as per the Full Dress uniform except worn with a flat, broad khaki forage cap with three scarlet welts, khaki peak with no piping and a tan strap. This uniform was also worn as Walking Out Order with the addition of a cape, tan gloves and a whip. The King’s Colonials were one of the first regiments to be equipped with the khaki forage caps which became widespread throughout the British Army from about 1906. The forage caps were often worn with a white oilskin cover to protect the top of the cap from finger marks and foul weather.
Figure 55: Photograph of an Officer’s first pattern forage cap in khaki with three scarlet welts, khaki peak and tan strap circa 1903.
Figure 56: Photograph of Corporal Herbert Harris Shaw of ‘C’ Squadron (Australasian) of the 4th County of London (King’s Colonials) Imperial Yeomanry in Undress uniform showing the khaki forage cap with ‘C’ Squadron (Australasian) headdress badge and first pattern Regimental collar badges circa 1905. Corporal Shaw was born in 1893 in Teignmouth, Devon, England and served in ‘C’ Squadron (Australian) of the 4th County of London (King’s Colonials) Imperial Yeomanry from 1902 to 1907. Prior to this service, he served in the Bechuanaland Border Police 1894-95 and the Matabele Mounted Police in 1896. Having emigrated to Sydney, Australia he enlisted as a Private in the 35th Battalion (Newcastle’s Own), 9th Brigade of the 1st Australian Imperial Force on the 12th April 1916. He embarked for England on board the HMAT Anchises A68 on the 24th August 1916. Attaining the rank of Extra Regimental Sergeant, he was wounded in action on the 12th October 1917. He was a photographer by profession and assisted the noted Australian World War One photographer Frank Hurley after the war. His British War and Victory medals are held in the Dave Harrower Collection in New South Wales, Australia (Peter Nemaric collection).
Figure 57: Photograph of a mounted Sergeant Herbert MacIntosh of the 3rd (New Zealand) Troop of ‘D’ Squadron (British African) of the King’s Colonials Imperial Yeomanry circa 1904. He is wearing Undress uniform with the Second Pattern forage cap in khaki with a white cap cover and has a ‘C’ Squadron (Australasian) arm badge above his gold rank chevrons and is wearing first pattern Regimental collar badges. He is equipped with the standard cavalry and yeomanry .303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) Mark 1 rifle. Squadron Quarter Master Sergeant MacIntosh was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1871 and served with the King’s Colonials from 1902 until 1906 and died in March 1957. His tunic is depicted being worn in 1939 in Figure 60. His actual tunic complete with New Zealand collar badges, overalls and gaiters are those shown in Figures 61-66. Sergeant Quarter Master MacIntosh wrote proudly in the King Edward’s Horse Senior and Junior Old Comrades Association Bulletin in 1946 that he still prized owning his tunic and was disappointed not to be able to wear it and ride in the Procession as part of the Christchurch Centennial Celebrations of 1950 (The King Edward’s Horse Senior and Junior Old Comrades Association Bulletin. 18: 18, 1951).
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Stepan Kubiv: The national internship program should be continued and expanded
Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, posted 27 September 2018 13:46
On September 27, there took place a graduatuion ceremony of the first interns of the National internship program in the central executive authorities with the participation of First Vice Prime Minister/ Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv and Head of the National Agency on Civil Service (NACS) Kostyantyn Vashchenko.
It should be noted that from June 30 to September 30, 45 students and graduates of higher education institutions undertook an internship at 6 Ministries, the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the National Agency on Civil Service, the Office of the Vice Prime Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. This internship was implemented within the framework of the pilot project "National internship program in central executive authorities" initiated by First Vice Prime Minister/ Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.
"Internship program in the Government is a striking start for the career of a young specialist. We want to offer this opportunity to as many young people as possible. I consider the pilot project to be successful and will propose to the Government to continue the implementation of the National Internship Program and to scale it to the regions", Stepan Kubiv stressed.
Kostyantyn Vashchenko, Head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service emphasized that the public service is open to young people: "NACS stands ready to provide comprehensive support to both young professionals and trainees who are willing to join the formation of state policy in different state authorities".
The internship program was completed by 40 of the 45 interns. The Coordinating Committee of the National Program will summarize the results of the project implementation, and will submit proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers on improving the legislation on the training of Ukrainian citizens from among young people.
Over 6 million citizens enjoy benefits of the Available Medicines program
Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities to strengthen control over the process of licensing building contractors
By theme «Education and science»
10:41, 16 July Economy Supervision and control News of regions Education and science Reforms Finances 280 projects for the construction and reconstruction of schools and kindergartens will be financed from the SRDF in 2019
11:00, 13 July Education and science Prime Minister Reforms Volodymyr Groysman: I will always be a staunch supporter of educational reform
12:18, 10 July Government session Education and science Prime Minister Reforms Finances Prime Minister stands for increase of educational components in the development budgets of communities
11:52, 10 July Government session Supervision and control Education and science Prime Minister Reforms Government approves the bill On Vocational Education and submits it to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration, says Volodymyr Groysman
11:51, 10 July Economy Government session Education and science Prime Minister Finances Volodymyr Groysman: The Government systematically increases wages of educators along the entire education chain - from kindergarten to higher school
12:08, 09 July Supervision and control Education and science Prime Minister Finances Prime Minister commissions to speed up preparation to the new school year, notably with regards to logistical support for schools
11:58, 27 June Education and science Policy Prime Minister We have the opportunity to build up our State, and we can be truly happy only at home, says Volodymyr Groysman
15:58, 15 July Government news Stepan Kubiv: Due to the implementation of the public investment project, Novokostiantynivska mine will be able to provide with uranium about 28% of the nuclear power industry of the country
13:02, 15 July Government news Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the State Labour Service of Ukraine and Working Conditions Authority of Portugal inked
11:54, 15 July Government news Minister of Social Policy Andrii Reva to take part in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York
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Indians still hoping Ramirez can rebound
Photo: AP
By NOAH TRISTER
There were plenty of highlights for the Cleveland Indians in their weekend sweep at Detroit: Jake Bauers hit for the cycle, Leonys Martin stole home and Trevor Bauer threw his first career shutout.
Another plus for the Indians: Some signs of life from the bat of Jose Ramirez.
The Cleveland third baseman had four hits in the series, which may not sound like much but constitutes half of Ramirez's total for the month of June. One of those hits was a triple Friday. He also drove in three runs and scored three times in that three-game sweep.
"We're looking for reasons to be optimistic," manager Terry Francona said after Saturday's game. "Hopefully he can build on it."
One of the American League's top players over the previous three seasons, Ramirez has been having a miserable year at the plate in 2019. His solid series against the Tigers only brought his average to .203, and his slugging percentage is an anemic .301. The Indians are 10 games behind first-place Minnesota in the AL Central. That probably says more about the Twins than about Cleveland, but the Indians (37-33) could use a big second half from Ramirez if they're going to return to the postseason.
Ramirez is one of a handful of players with impressive track records who have floundered a bit this season. Keep an eye on this group to see who can turn it around:
— Aaron Nola, Phillies. Nola is 6-1, but with a 4.89 ERA and some ugly no-decisions. He's already had three starts of four innings or fewer. Control has been an issue: He's walked 4.0 hitters per nine innings.
— Joey Votto, Reds. The 35-year-old Votto had his offensive numbers dip last year, but nothing like this. He's hitting .255 with six home runs and a slugging percentage under .400.
— Rougned Odor, Rangers. The Texas second baseman reached 30 homers in back-to-back seasons in 2016 and 2017, but that seems like a while ago. He's currently hitting .180 with eight home runs at an age (25) when you would think he'd be establishing himself as a star.
Elsewhere around the majors:
The highest-scoring four-game series in the modern era took place, naturally, in Denver.
The Padres and Rockies combined for 92 runs, with San Diego winning the finale 14-13 on Sunday. The teams split the series, and Colorado outscored the Padres 48-44 over the course of the four games at Coors Field.
For pure dramatics, it's hard to top what a high school softball team in Michigan pulled off over the weekend, winning a state championship with a triple play. The details from mlive.com: Unionville-Sebewaing led Kalamazoo Christian 3-1 in the seventh inning. With runners on first and second and nobody out, a line drive deflected off the pitcher's elbow and right to shortstop Rylee Zimmer, who caught it, stepped on second to double off one runner and then threw to first to double off another, ending the game.
LINE OF THE WEEK
Bauers wasn't the only player hitting for the cycle this past week. On Thursday night, Shohei Ohtani became the first Japanese player to accomplish the feat in the major leagues. He homered in the first inning, doubled in the third, tripled in the fifth and singled in the seventh as the Los Angeles Angels beat Tampa Bay 5-3.
Ohtani isn't pitching this year as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, but he's hit .278 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs in 34 games.
Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Media hypes four reasons Congress shouldn’t defund Planned Parenthood. Here’s why they’re wrong.
By Rebecca Downs | July 13, 2017 , 08:20am
Planned Parenthood has been working tirelessly to ensure they retain taxpayer dollars. Congress has voted before to defund Planned Parenthood; that legislation was vetoed by President Barack Obama. Now that the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives contain a record number of pro-lifers, the opportunity to defund the abortion giant is here and now. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday even delayed the start of the August recess to ensure a vote.
It’s not just Planned Parenthood raising the alarm bells, but its allies in the media. These include Former Rep. Richard Hanna, claiming for the Hill that “Defunding Planned Parenthood would only cause harm to low-income women.” Sharmila Makhija wrote about what she called “The deadly cost of defunding Planned Parenthood” for The New York Daily News.
Focusing on contraception, the Washington Post argued that data from the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s former “special affiliate” and research arm) supports the idea that women cannot turn anywhere but Planned Parenthood. A writer for Romper piggy-backed off the reporting to make this claim as well.
Here is a sampling of what the writers focused on:
Cancer screenings
Hanna and Makhija both focused on Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services, particularly on cancer screenings.
Planned Parenthood has attempted to draw focus to this before. Last month, the organization shared a video of a woman who received a referral from Planned Parenthood for her mammogram. Nowhere in the video (or in the above articles) was it acknowledged that Planned Parenthood has only a 1.8 percent market share of breast cancer screenings (not mammograms, which Planned Parenthood does not provide) and 0.97 percent market share of Pap smears. Such services have been on a long-term decline at Planned Parenthood. Clearly, women are getting their cancer screenings elsewhere.
This information, then, makes Makija’s concluding claim sound even more absurd:
If Planned Parenthood is defunded nationally, far more women will be forced to forgo the timely care they need to detect and prevent cancer. It’s time to rethink the definition of what Planned Parenthood does and fight for its survival on behalf of women everywhere. A woman’s life might literally depend on it.
The Washington Post claims that defunding Planned Parenthood would mean Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) would be “needing to more than triple their contraception caseloads.” What isn’t mentioned is that in place of funding Planned Parenthood, these health centers would receive more taxpayer funding, which would be sure to help with handling the increased load. Additionally, this claim of tripling makes no sense when the Washington Post admits Planned Parenthood serves one-third of contraception clients.
While Planned Parenthood is portrayed as a major provider for contraception, the organization has decreased its contraception services, while abortions continue to increase.
How, then, can Planned Parenthood take credit for declining abortion rates? Alana Romain, writing for Romper, completely misses this point:
But there’s another consequence involved with defunding Planned Parenthood that isn’t always as obvious — and it’s likely to be a costly one. When you take away access to contraceptive services (and particularly when you don’t offer a sufficient replacement), then the number of actual births is likely to increase.
Oh, no, “actual births”! The only thing that’s “obvious” here is the disdain for human beings.
The information presented by the Washington Post focuses only on contraception. Women (and men) are able to access forms of contraception from numerous sources, some over the counter or online. Some states have also made it so that women do not need a prescription for birth control.
Whatever one’s position on contraception, The Washington Post and others who push an agenda would do well to remember that there is more to women’s health care than preventing pregnancies — even if that is the only kind of contraception being discussed.
When it comes to these other health care services, the writers quite literally act as if Planned Parenthood is the only health care provider — an idea which has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked by Live Action News. It also goes unmentioned that FQHCs vastly outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. Live Action News’ Carole Novielli also examined the Guttmacher data, concluding that it “shows women don’t need Planned Parenthood for contraception” because “FQHC sites outnumber Planned Parenthood in counties that provide contraception care in every state except Connecticut, Minnesota and the District of Columbia.”
Hanna truly presents a catastrophic scenario. He claims that Planned Parenthood for many, is “the only one” to provide such care and that patients “cannot get [services] anywhere else,” and that these people “quite literally have nowhere else to turn.” (Never mind the fact that Planned Parenthood, of its own accord, has been closing facilities for a number of years now, all while its half a billion taxpayer dollars annually remained intact.)
Public support
Romain claims that defunding Planned Parenthood “wouldn’t exactly be popular among the majority of Americans either.” Hanna also touches on polling more in depth, citing Planned Parenthood and undermining those who don’t support abortion:
While the issue of abortion is deeply divided – I have respect for the views of people on both sides – women’s healthcare should not be up for debate. However, there is overwhelming support for a women’s right to choice in this country. Independent polling shows that 70 percent of American voters oppose blocking patients from accessing Planned Parenthood, including 50 percent of Trump voters.
But here’s the problem with that: these poll questions are notorious for misleading poll respondents about what Planned Parenthood actually does.
Many of the polls cited by Planned Parenthood have used problematic wording in their questions about Planned Parenthood and its services, neglecting to mention that the organization performs more abortions in the country than any other abortion business. Other polls have questioned voters over whether they believe the fight over defunding Planned Parenthood is worth a government shutdown – which does not automatically mean respondents are completely against defunding the abortion giant.
Senators need not delay any longer. The time is now to defund Planned Parenthood.
Editor’s Note: All op-eds are the opinion of the writer, and not necessarily the official position of Live Action. For facts and a discussion on how some forms of birth control can act as an abortifacient, see this article by a former Planned Parenthood director.
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2017’s disaster onslaught stretched FEMA to limit
Posted on January 9, 2018 - 11:54 AM by Laura Beck - REALTOR®
NEW YORK – Jan. 8, 2018 – George Haddow hasn't worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in nearly two decades. So he was surprised to receive an email in September asking him to return to work on a 30-day assignment in one of the country's multiple disaster zones.
That marked the first time Haddow, a senior fellow with Tulane University's Disaster Relief Leadership Academy, was solicited by FEMA since leaving, a move that underscores the measures the agency has taken to deal with this year's onslaught of disasters.
"Does FEMA have the capacity as it is formed and funded right now to deal with this type of disaster year?" said Haddow, who worked at FEMA as a White House liaison from 1993 to 2001 and didn't take the short-term assignment. "This year proves that it does not."
On many fronts, 2017 has been a record-setting year for disasters, including three major hurricanes striking U.S. shores, widespread flooding and a slew of devastating wildfires. The hurricanes caused about $370 billion in damages and about 250 deaths on U.S. lands, making it by far the costliest U.S. hurricane season on record.
The three hurricanes affected nearly 26 million people, or 8 percent of the U.S. population. By mid-October, more than 4 million survivors registered for FEMA assistance – more than the number of people who registered for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Sandy combined, the agency said.
The federal disaster response and recovery agency has been stretched to its limit, delivering aid to survivors and helping rebuild storm-wrecked cities. To compensate, it recruited workers from other federal agencies, reached out to retirees and solicited state and local agencies for help. More than 22,300 members of the federal workforce have been deployed to Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
FEMA's struggles to help damaged communities have been felt from the mountains of central Puerto Rico to the fire-mauled swaths of Northern California.
"They got hammered," said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. "Between Irma, Harvey, Puerto Rico – those are all big events. They leveraged everyone they have."
In California, FEMA set up a small team early to help survivors of the wildfires that devoured sections of the state's wine country in October and exploded in Southern California this month, he said. As FEMA stretched its workers over multiple disaster zones in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the agency asked California's emergency management officials for help staff FEMA centers.
"I've been doing this for 30 years, and I can't remember that ever happening before," Ghilarducci said. "Every piece of everything we have in the toolbox has been leveraged this year."
As disasters sprouted across the USA, FEMA officials tapped into 3,800 extra workers in the Department of Homeland Security's Surge Capacity Force, as well as FEMA reservists, who are on-call for disasters. When that wasn't enough, they made the rare move of recruiting workers from other federal departments, who needed to be quickly trained and mobilized to disaster zones.
Still short-handed, FEMA sent out emails to retirees and tapped into the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, or EMAC, a mutual aid agreement with states to share resources during times of need. Over the past six years, FEMA has recruited an average of 1,700 state workers per year through the EMAC agreement. This year, it's requested 17,790 – or 10 times the recent average. Only 2005 was higher, when FEMA recruited 67,048 state workers because of Katrina and other storms.
Despite the lack of manpower, FEMA has gotten to disaster zones fast and helped millions of people in need, said Mike Sprayberry, president of the National Emergency Management Association. The true test will come when these spread-out disaster zones shift from response to long-term recovery, an area FEMA also oversees, he said.
Funding has been another challenge. FEMA had $2 billion on hand for disaster relief when Harvey barreled into South Texas on Aug. 17, according to the agency. Congress has passed two emergency disaster relief bills totaling more than $50 billion since then, but need is outpacing funds. Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossell estimated damages to his island at about $95 billion. U.S. lawmakers are considering another multibillion-dollar request for disaster funding, but it may not pass until next month.
In testimony to Congress in October, FEMA Administrator Brock Long warned that disasters in the USA are more frequent and costlier because of more destructive storms and a widening gap between insured and uninsured losses.
From 1995 through 2004, the White House approved 598 disaster declarations costing $37 billion in FEMA assistance. From 2005 to 2014, that number jumped to 808 disasters at a cost of $107 billion, he said.
Haddow said President Trump was good at quickly declaring federal disasters to unlock money and resources, but as the disasters piled up, FEMA was overwhelmed. "They just didn't have enough bodies," he said.
Copyright © 2018, USATODAY.com, USA TODAY, Rick Jervis
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Home » Club stands to lose out
Club stands to lose out
KATHLEEN GILLULY
Outlook managing editor
Members of the club who stand to lose the most in Riverside Park feel they aren’t being heard by city officials. Rod and Gun Club members have expressed their frustration in a letter signed by Club President Irv Wilke and Treasurer Curtis Lord addressed to the Laurel City Council. It is paired with a timeline showing the numerous contacts they have initiated with the park board, the council, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Heidi Jensen, and others since the flood and oil pipeline break in 2011 forced the shuttering of the building they have called home for almost a century. Lord also penned a guest commentary which appears in today’s paper.
According to the timeline, after flooding damaged their building members were told by Public Works Director Kurt Markegard to halt repairs they had begun because the buildings were insured and would be repaired by licensed contractors. The Rod and Gun Club and the other buildings affected have languished ever since.
“We’ve offered to fix the building numerous times,” said Lord. “The park board even recommended the building be given to us so we could do the repairs and start using it again.” That recommendation was made over two years ago in April 2015. In May 2015, the city council authorized Jensen and the city attorney work with the club on transferring ownership.
The club has since followed directives from the city. Members have attended park board meeting, put requests in writing and when asked about mold still present in the building provided a report.
“We’ve followed through on everything they have asked for,” Wilke said. “But they aren’t even considering us in the master plan.”
Wilke is referring to the posters created for the Riverside Park open house Monday Aug. 14. from 4-7 p.m. Despite requesting that shooting sports be among the items reviewed it was removed from the list of priorities to be considered.
“The CAO told the engineer not to include shooting sports on the posters because our lease expires next year,” he said. “But, where does it say we can’t renegotiate the lease?”
Great West Engineer Jerry Grebenc who has been contracted to create the park’s master plan sent this email response after receiving a query from an Outlook staff member, “My conversations regarding the trap range and the open house on the 14th have been with Heidi as Great West is contracted with the City to facilitate the planning process and Heidi is who we report to directly. Heidi has indicated that it is the City’s position that the trap range is no longer an option at the Park. Therefore in order not to raise the expectations of attendees regarding trap shooting, she gave me direction that a poster should not be included at the open house.” (Jensen disputes giving Grebenc any direction.)
Although there are posters regarding the buildings, none specifically indicate the clubs would be able to continue leasing them.
“We’ll end up moving the traps to Silesia,” Wilke said. “But we’d still like to use the building. We’re happy to let the city and citizens use it as well.” He said that at one time the outdoor covered range was the largest in the state and before the flood there were shooting events every Sunday and Thursday.
“We had guys who would get off shift from the refinery and come over every week,” he said.
In addition to regular turkey shoots that will have to be moved, the park facilities had been used for hunter education classes.
There are issues concerning lead in both the Rifle Club building and on the trap range.
At a council workshop May 30, Montana Municipal Insurance Authority Chief Executive Officer
Alan Hulse reported to the council about the liabilities associated with municipalities that have shooting sports facilities. As his report wasn’t requested by any of the council members, the Rod and Gun Club and the Rifle Club officers feel they were unfairly targeted. At a subsequent meeting, Mayor Mark Mace ordered all buildings in the park with the exception of Jaycee Hall be closed to all entrants. Although Hulse was on the agenda for the workshop, members of the clubs affected were not informed prior to the meeting that shooting sports would be discussed.
“It’s interesting that nobody had any interest in this park until there was money to be had,” he said.
Exxon, owner of the pipeline that broke during the flood, made a settlement of about $265,000 specifically for the park.
Laurel Rod & Gun Club
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Tim's practice focuses on the problems faced by small and medium sized enterprises in the commercial and employment fields. As a former international hockey player and qualified coach, distinctly average golfer, road cyclist and long term Liverpool fan, Tim also has a keen interest in sport and legal matters relating to sport.
In the Sports Law field, Tim has acted for various clubs, bodies and individuals in relation to a variety of commercial; and employment matters in the sports law field. He is also happy to advise and appear in disciplinary matters. Previous clients include, Gianluca Vialli, Lee Bowyer, David Lloyd and Lincoln City FC.
Examples of past work include:
Acting for player injured by a tackle in a match played in the then First Division (Darren Pitcher v Huddersfield Town FC (2001) (led by Augustus Ullstein QC)).
Represented Lee Bowyer in the civil action brought by Najeib following Bowyer's acquittal for assault.
Successfully defending discrimination and breach of contract claims brought by an aspiring junior tennis player against her management company and David Lloyd.
Defending a tennis club against unfair dismissal and discrimination claims arising from its dismissal of its pregnant club coach. Acting for a tennis coach in a claim for age discrimination against the tennis club at which he worked.
Acting for a rugby club in dispute over its ground sharing agreement with a football club.
A dispute over ownership of a non-league Football Club and its FA membership.
Tim is a member of the British Association for Sport and Law and writes and speaks regularly on his areas of legal speciality. He is happy to take cases on a direct access basis.
Author's Content
Prosecuting historic doping: Why the 2015 WADA Code’s new limitation period is an opportunity missed
Liability for spectator safety in sport from on-field incidents in the USA and England & Wales
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New Delhi: 14 Feb 2015: Finance and management experts from all over the country congregated at a summit titled The National Finance Summit, 2015: Managing Risks in the Vibrant Economy: Issues & Challenges held at Dwarka Campus of Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM) this week end to deliberate on whether the changed political scenarios in India and now in Delhi has impacted on financial risks and investment management conditions in the country.
The Summit was inaugurated by R.K Dubey, former CMD Canara Bank who was welcomed by Anil Shastri, former Union Minister and Chairman, Board of Governors, LBSIM.
Professor and convener of the summit, Dr Alok Pandey explained the reversal of BJP’s performance from 7-0 in Delhi’s Lok Sabha elections to 3-67 in Delhi’s Assembly elections within a short period of 7 months. He opined that “the reaction to the controversial quotes like ‘Ramzade to Haramzade’ of BJP leaders during election speeches and subsequent remarks of US President Barack Obama that ‘Mahatma Gandhi would have been an unhappy soul today’ indicate the prevailing market mood generated in the investment environment, thereby adversely affecting FDI investment in India.
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Lovely, lousy and little in between - The new frontier of work: Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail
Technology, globalization, recessions and restructuring have all had an impact on the industries that have survived and thrived over the past decades, but in reality those factors may have had an even bigger effect on occupations, writes Linda Nazareth.
By Linda Nazareth, March 5, 2019
When Canada first took a census back in 1871, “blacksmith” and “shoemaker” made the top-10 list of occupations. Unfortunately, if any of the guys who did those jobs then envisioned that their great-great-great grandchildren would be continuing the family business, their dreams would have been very much unfulfilled. Job opportunities for those occupations, as well as many others, have dried up over the years but thankfully have been replaced by others.
In reality, there have been some periods of time when the new occupations created have been better than others. “Better” is of course a subjective word, but in the best cases the new jobs have been fulfilling and well paid at the same time, or barring that, have at least been well paid. From the 1950s through the 80s, there was a proliferation of relatively high-paying jobs for workers at various skill levels in both the goods producing and service producing sectors in North America. Factories needed increasing numbers of people to operate and large institutions such as banks needed clerical workers as well as managers.
It is well-known that technology, globalization, recessions and restructuring have all had an impact on the industries that have survived and thrived over the past decades, but in reality those factors may have had an even bigger effect on occupations. At least to judge from the measured unemployment rates in Canada and the United States, there is no shortage of work for people who want to do it, or at least enough that unemployment rates are at generational lows. But as some jobs have been blown away, what kind of jobs have replaced them?
A novel answer to the question of the kind of occupations that are thriving comes from economist David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Anna Salomons of Utretcht University in the Netherlands. They looked at decades of census job titles from the United States and found that with every new census, new job titles were springing up (shockingly, baristas were not a reality until the year 2000). From those titles, they were then able to sort the new jobs into three off-beat categories: “Frontier Work”, “Wealth Work” and “Last Mile Work.”
Frontier Work jobs are the ones usually touted by politicians and the like as the ones to grab, the cutting-edge, the way of the future. Maybe. Although it is true that this is the category that presumably includes occupations such as robotics engineers, which require specialized skills and command high paycheques, it also encompasses ones that have come and gone. “Word Processors” (referring to those who typed documents on word-processing machines), for example, were new to the 1980 census and at the time probably looked like sure-bet jobs of the future. These days, however, dedicated word processors are nowhere to be found thanks to everyone typing their own work into their laptops.
Wealth Work is basically service work, albeit service work focused on the demands of the affluent. Baristas and personal trainers presumably go into this category, as would things such as oyster preparer and sommelier. Although many of the jobs in this category do not cater to just the rich – baristas serve a broad swathe of the population, for example – there is certainly a whiff of income inequality about the whole thing, particularly since wealth-work jobs tend to be clustered in the areas where the highest-paid frontier workers reside (Silicon Valley, for example, presumably has more than an average share of sommeliers).
Still, whatever the issues are with wealth work, they are not as troubling as the ones associated with what Dr. Autor and Dr. Salomons call Last Ditch Work. Last Ditch Work is the work left when technology has taken over most of a job but there is still a smidge left for a human being. Think about the individuals who stand around and help you scan your box of cereal when the automatic checkout at the grocery store has said there is an error. They still have jobs, but you get the feeling that when either you or the automatic scanner can increase your skills, they will not.
A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development shows pretty much the same trends. By their measure, there has been increasing demand since 1980 for those in “cognitively challenging occupations” or those that require advanced levels of education. Service jobs, although they pay a lot less, have also done quite well. What haven’t done well are those jobs that involve routine processes: A clutch of occupations – including many in administrative and factory work – fall into this category.
So as automation develops further and global economic forces intensify, how will this all pan out? It is hard not to think that the last-ditch jobs will increasingly disappear and that the displaced workers will be scrambling for other kinds of employment. Some economists see it as a devolution into a world of “lovely jobs and lousy jobs” with little in between. That may be an unduly pessimistic way of looking at things, but at the very least the future will require flexibility and the recognition that the new frontier of jobs is very much a moving target.
economic policy, economy, Labour, Linda Nazareth, work
The fragmented future of work: What’s your gig?: Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail The gig economy is alive and well, and the work world is only going to...
The case for treating work e-mailing during commutes as hours worked: Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail It may be time to ask whether working during the commute should be counted as...
To bridge the sides of the tech revolution gap, we need to rethink education at all levels: Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail There is a lot of work to be done if we do not want to...
A recession could be different this time – for workers and the unemployment rate: Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail A slowdown of some kind could be a real possibility in the near future. Linda...
A new era for the workplace – shorter work weeks – is starting now: Nazareth in the Globe and Mail In much of the developed world, we are at an inflection point for workers, writes...
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Back Seven writers, including Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Law Olmsted, enter New York State Writers Hall of Fame Print
Video | News June 16, 2017
Seven writers, including Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Law Olmsted, enter New York State Writers Hall of Fame
Alexander Hamilton was one of eight writers inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame on June 5, 2017. (Leonardo Mascaro/New York State Writers Hall of Fame)
Two authors in the Library of America series added to their already considerable renown recently when Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Law Olmsted were inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in a gala event at the Princeton Club of New York on June 5. A pair of speakers at the ceremony further cemented the Library of America connection—and a surprise cameo from the world of popular culture injected some show-biz luster into the proceedings.
The Writers Hall of Fame is an initiative of the Empire State Center for the Book, New York’s affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. The Center established the Hall of Fame in 2010 in order to recognize New York–based poets, novelists, journalists, and historians who have left their mark on American culture.
Three living and four deceased authors were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. In addition to Hamilton and Olmsted, the deceased group included Christopher Morley and Walter Dean Myers; the living writers were Alexander Hamilton’s biographer Ron Chernow, William Kennedy, and Lillian Ross.
Charles Beveridge inducts Frederick Law Olmsted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame on June 5, 2017. (Leonardo Mascaro/New York State Writers Hall of Fame)
Speakers at the induction ceremony testified to the honorees’ literary stature. Handling the duties for Frederick Law Olmsted was Charles E. Beveridge, the pre-eminent Olmsted authority who edited LOA’s 2015 volume Frederick Law Olmsted: Writings on Landscape, Culture, and Society. Beveridge explained that though Olmsted is not commonly thought of as a writer, he first made a name for himself as a journalist in the 1850s, filing dispatches from the slaveholding states for the recently founded New York Times before he published “four volumes that were the most extensive description and analysis of American slavery that appeared during the period of intense controversy prior to the Civil War.” Moreover, as a young editor at the New York–based Putnam’s Monthly Magazine in the same decade, Olmsted interacted with leading literary figures like Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe and even solicited manuscripts from Melville and Thoreau.
As for the profession that eventually made Olmsted famous, Beveridge continued, “His writings comprise the most extensive and impassioned description by any person of the purpose and process of the art of landscape design.”
Joanne Freeman offers remarks at Alexander Hamilton’s induction into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame on June 5, 2017. (Leonardo Mascaro/New York State Writers Hall of Fame)
Stirring advocacy for Alexander Hamilton’s literary gifts came from Yale University historian Joanne Freeman, who edited both the Library of America series edition of Hamilton’s writings and its brand-new collection The Essential Hamilton. “He was a remarkably powerful and fluid writer at a time when powerful and fluid writers were needed—and had an impact,” Freeman told the audience. “He wrote like he politicked—boldly, aggressively, with a powerful punch. It’s no accident that the same word wonderfully characterizes Hamilton’s policies, politics, and writings: energy.”
A special guest appearance further enlivened this year’s induction ceremony. Speaking by video from London, where he is currently shooting a film, Lin-Manuel Miranda paid tribute to both Ron Chernow and the Founder whom they both took as a subject. As is well-known by now, Chernow’s 2004 biography of Hamilton provided the inspiration for Miranda’s hit musical; as he says in the video below, “It was Ron’s depiction of Alexander Hamilton’s relentlessness that made me fall in love with him as a character—and it was Alexander Hamilton’s relentlessness as a writer that made me realize this [the musical project] was worth pursuing.” Chernow, Miranda concluded, “makes history come alive for me as a reader.”
Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tribute to Ron Chernow and Alexander Hamilton:
Watch: Joanne Freeman answers your questions about Alexander Hamilton
Happy trails: Library of America co-stars in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton signoff
Related Writers: Frederick Law Olmsted Alexander Hamilton
Related Volumes: Frederick Law Olmsted: Writings on Landscape, Culture, and Society Alexander Hamilton: Writings The Essential Hamilton: Letters & Other Writings (paperback)
Watch: Why Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day isn’t “victors’ history”
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Library of Congress > Digital Collections > U.S. Reports > Search
Collection U.S. Reports
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U.S. Reports: United States v. Nachtigal, 507 U.S. 1 (1993).
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Contributor: Scalia, Antonin - Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Reports: Fex v. Michigan, 507 U.S. 43 (1993).
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U.S. Reports: United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87 (1993).
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Contributor: Rehnquist, William H. - Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Reports: Amendments to Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, 507 U.S. 1059 (1992).
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U.S. Reports: United States v. Parcel of Rumson, N. J., Land, 507 U.S. 111 (1993).
Contributor: Stevens, John Paul - Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Reports: Amendments to Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 507 U.S. 1161 (1992).
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U.S. Reports: Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence, 507 U.S. 1191 (1992).
U.S. Reports: Reporter's Note, 507 U.S. 1193 (1992).
U.S. Reports: Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 507 U.S. 1301 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Index, 507 U.S. 1305 (1992).
U.S. Reports: Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U.S. 146 (1993).
Contributor: O'Connor, Sandra Day - Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Reports: Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Reves v. Ernst & Young, 507 U.S. 170 (1993).
Contributor: Blackmun, Harry A. - Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Reports: Smith v. United States, 507 U.S. 197 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Building & Constr. Trades Council v. Associated Builders & Contractors of Mass./R. I., Inc., 507 U.S. 218 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Ortega-Rodriguez v. United States, 507 U.S. 234 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Reiter v. Cooper, 507 U.S. 258 (1993).
U.S. Reports: Delo v. Lashley, 507 U.S. 272 (1993).
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The Revival of Youth Councils in the Philippines
By Raphael Móntes, Jr., Center for Local and Regional Governance, NCPAG, University of the Philippines
Newly elected Sangguniang Kabataan officials at the mandatory training facilitated by University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance
After five years of dormancy, Filipinos 15 to 30 years old have elected new sets of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or Youth Councils in their villages (barangay). This segment makes up about 30 percent of the Philippines’ total population of 104 million. The youth council elections were synchronized with the election of the Village Councils (Sangguniang Barangay) for the 42,029 urban and rural villages nationwide. This meant that 18 to 30- year-old voters had to fill in two ballots—one for the village government and one for the youth council. Like their village counterparts, the SKs are composed of a Chairperson and seven council members. A total of 336,232 SK positions were contested in the 2018 elections.
Barangay councils are still considered general purpose authorities while SKs can be considered as special purpose entities—specifically focused on youth-related programs. While the SKs are considered part of the barangay government, the law also grants some autonomy to the SKs.
Political Origins
The Kabataang Barangay (or Village Youth) was the precursor of the SK. Established in 1975, the KB was seen as the youth arm of the authoritarian regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos. While the KB would be easily mistaken to be the Filipino version of similar youth organizations for national propaganda, the KB was meant to give the youth a chance to be involved in community affairs. They were given specific developmental responsibilities such as sports, education and culture at the village level. KB chairpersons became ex-officio members of barangay councils. The KB chairpersons elected officers to the KB federation at the municipal, city and provincial levels. These federation presidents sat as ex-officio members of municipal and city councils and provincial boards. Not long after, local politicians began fielding their children as officials in the KB possibly prompted by the “election” of Mr. Marcos’ daughter, Imee, as the first national president of the KB Federation. The KBs lasted until the end of the Marcos regime but had been criticized for being manipulated by the politicians as well as the breeding ground of local political dynasties. Towards the end of the Marcos Regime in 1986, many of the youth lost interest in the KB and began joining the student movements heavily involved in calling for the restoration of democracy.
Rebirth as Development Enabler
After the People Power Revolution and the restoration of democracy in 1986, the entire public sector underwent a “de-Marcosification” process that sought to rid the government of the vestiges of the authoritarian machinery. However, the authors of the 1991 Local Government Code would preserve the basic structure of the KB and reincarnate it as a democratizing institution. Decentralization and devolution under the Local Government Code was driven by the desire to avoid the concentration of power in just one political actor or just in the central government. Legislators saw the development potential of the refurbished Sangguniang Kabataan as a formal venue for voicing youth issues in the public sector.
The consultative and voluntary spirit of the KB carried over to the concept of the SK. Sections 423 to 439 of the Local Government Code were specifically devoted to the institutionalization of the SK in the local government system. The ex-officio positions in the formal legislative councils were retained. The Code gave the SK a portfolio of program areas and a 10-percent share of the general fund of the barangay (R.A. 7160, Section 329) as their own trust fund for youth-oriented projects. The Barangay Councils were still tasked with the general supervision over the SKs because the SKs drew their budgets from the barangay budget. This would affect the operations and quality of projects of the SKs later.
“Breeding Ground” for Corruption
In the Philippine local government system, the barangay level is legally defined as non-partisan and voluntary. Officials do not receive salaries and are only given honoraria/token allowance for services rendered during council meetings. The barangay level was purposely designed to appeal to “civic duty” more than political ambition. While barangays and the SKs are considered as “voluntary” bodies, their proximity and access to public funds have tainted their reputations.
A 2007 UNICEF and Department of the Interior and Local Government study pointed out the worsening reputation of the SK as effective venues for youth voice and delivery of youth-oriented services. The typical SK projects were village or inter-village basketball matches (pa-liga), beauty contests, house numbering, construction of village markers/welcome arches/government directories. SKs in richer urban barangays (with higher internal revenue shares and local revenues) often have big-ticket projects that may reach up to millions of pesos. Some reports indicate that the Barangay Councils would “request” SKs to contribute to barangay infrastructure projects. If these infrastructure projects are later audited for misappropriation of public funds, the SKs are also held jointly culpable. This has resulted in the widely accepted perception that the SKs are a breeding ground for corruption.
Several bills were filed in Congress to abolish the SK citing the widely held perception of the early exposure of youth to embedded corrupt practices in government. However, national and local government leaders who began their careers as KB or SK officials sought to find a middle path that would reform the SK taking into consideration the apprehensions and negative perceptions of the youth body.
Constituency Confused
Unlike the constitutionally defined terms of office of provincial, city and municipal officials, the terms of offices of barangay officials—and also of SK officials—are only defined by statutes. This has led to some postponements of village elections and extension of terms for barangay officials on a hold-over capacity. For the SK, there had been several statutes that have changed the definition of the youth constituency as well as the qualified age for SK officials. This has been prompted by complaints over overlapping electorates as well as issues of personal autonomy, age of discernment and adult manipulation. There were also criticisms that youth officials are not able to concentrate and balance their time between official duties and school/university studies.
Period of formal youth participation in government decision-making
Who are qualified to be youth officials?
Who are qualified to elect youth officials?
1975-1985 Kabataang Barangay
15 to 18-year-olds
1991 (enactment of Local Government Code)
2002 (Republic Act 9164)
15 to 17-year olds
2016 (SK Reform Law)
18 to 24 year-olds
The latest definition of the youth constituency and the qualified age for election is defined by the SK Reform Act of 2016. This law expands the youth electorate to include 15 to 30 year-olds which reflects the official definition of youth in the Philippines. However, in response to calls for electing youth officials within the age of discernment, the law qualifies 18 to 24 year-olds as electable. “Youth constituents aged 25 to 30 were consciously excluded from the qualified age for election because they are already qualified to contest positions in the barangay council or any other local government legislature.” explains National Movement of Youth Legislators (NMYL) Executive Director Fritzie Aguado. Since the new law aims to prevent political dynasties, giving access to young members of political dynasties to extended terms with the SK before running for other positions in local governments defeats the spirit of the anti-dynasty provisions of the law.
SK Reform: Not Giving up on the Youth
Republic Act 10742 or the SK Reform Act was passed in 2016 to recalibrate the Sanggunian Kabataan as a better institution for the youth participation in local governance. The SK Reform Act has five main features: (1) the expansion of age qualifications; (2) the anti-dynasty provision; (3) financial autonomy; (4) the establishment of the Youth Development Councils; and (5) mandatory and continuing training.
The age expansion enables young people who are in university, recently graduated from university or are just beginning their careers to formally participate in local governance as representatives of their sector. This “age of discernment” also aims to bolster the reaffirmation of financial autonomy of SKs. Eighteen to 24-year-olds are now legally allowed to sign contracts on their own account without adult consent or supervision. Consequently, they can be held fully accountable for their actions under the accountability and anti-corruption laws of the Philippines.
The anti-dynasty provision forbids any 18 to 24-year old from contesting a seat in the SK if he or she is related to an incumbent local official up to the second degree of affinity or consanguinity. This is the first time in Philippine history that a prohibition has been imposed on candidates vying for elected office based on family ties.
The Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) is an equivalent of multi-sectoral planning bodies called Local Development Councils that are present in all barangays, municipalities, cities and provinces. The LYDC will be established at the city, municipal and provincial levels in order to integrate the youth development plans from the barangays/villages. They are designed to be the consultative body of the SK federations. They are made up of representatives from youth and youth-serving non-government organizations.
Finally, mandatory training is another pioneering feature of this law. SK officials are the only elected local government officials required to undergo mandatory training as a prerequisite to their assumption to office. Those who refuse or fail to undergo the mandatory training are disqualified and prevented from assuming office on 30 June 2018. While similar crash courses are available to other elected local officials, these have not been made prerequisites to assumption of office.
Mandatory training session
The National Youth Commission and the Department of the Interior and Local Government designed the training modules. The UP-National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG) is part of the National Steering Committee for the SK Mandatory Training. The mandatory trainings were delivered by accredited Local Resource Institutions, mainly state colleges and universities. A package of training modules for continuing education is currently being designed.
SK officials pose with their certificates after the mandatory training
These five main features are expected to improve the effectiveness and enhance the relevance of SKs as the formal voice of the youth sector in governance.
The involvement of idealistic young adults is expected to insulate the SK from the influences of entrenched interests in government. Despite the imperfections, the SKs remain a unique institutional approach to giving voice to 30 percent of the population as opposed to proxy mechanisms or non-formal options for the youth sector.
Raphael Montes Jr. is a researcher, federalism expert and training manager with Center for Local and Regional Governance, NCPAG, University of the Philippines. He serves as a Course Manager for the mandatory training of newly elected SK officials.
TAGS: Capacity Building Citizen Engagement Civic Engagement Councils Decentralisation Deconcentration Devolution Governance Legislation Political Empowerment Reform Training Village Councils Youth Youth engagement
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Macy’s is the latest brand to dump Trump
Scott Tong Jul 1, 2015
Macy’s Wednesday says it’s phasing out its Donald Trump line of clothing and accessories. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants being drug dealers and rapists are, the company says, “inconsistent with Macy’s values.”
Still, the split comes with costs.
“There are orders being made,” says Matt Delzell of the Marketing Arm agency. “There’s current inventory in the stores. The shelf space, all of those things need to be replaced. That takes time. That takes money.”
Still, the costs are far lower than the price of staying with Trump.
And Macy’s likely built in an out long ago. Ever since O.J. Simpson’s brand went toxic for Hertz, companies have planned for these debacles.
“Companies routinely have clauses that say if there’s anything that is inconsistent with the morals or image of the organization, they have a right to remove a line or terminate a relationship,” says marketing professor Larry Chiagouris of the Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York.
How costly is this split? The Trump line is not vital to Macy’s; it’s not Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger, analysts say.
“If I may call him the Don,” says analyst Paul Swinand at Morningstar, “he’s a little bit old at this point. I would say his shelf life is getting a little limited.”
In fact, several analysts think Macy’s may have already wanted to dump Trump. He’s now running for president, and a high negative rating doesn’t sell many paisley ties.
It’s not clear how quickly the Trump line will disappear from Macy’s. The Donald J. Trump money-sign cufflinks were still available at $45 each.
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Government’s Right to Coerce and Our Duty to Obey
Posted on January 14, 2018 by Madhusudan Raj
Do the state (aka the government) has any right to coerce us and we have any duty to obey it? This is the question that philosopher Dr. Michael Huemer addresses in his important work, The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey. The answer at which Dr. Huemer arrives after logical and empirical analysis is: I shall ultimately conclude that political authority is an illusion: no one has the right to rule, and no one is obliged to obey a command merely because it comes from their government.
Dr. Huemer divides his book in two parts. Part one is devoted to logically and empirically analyze various theories of political authority and part two to the discussion of how a society without the state will function.
The method that Dr. Huemer uses to logically analyze various theories of political authority is to first juxtapose an action of the government in the private sphere and then see if a private individual is allowed by common moral instincts, that most people intuitively understand and share, to perform that action. If that action is unjust and immoral for a private individual then it is also unjust and immoral for the governmental political authority to perform e.g., will we allow an individual to rob Paul and pay that money to Peter and call it social welfare? Not at all. So if a private individual is not allowed to rob Peter to pay Paul then the government should also not be allowed to do so.
The Traditional Social Contract Theory
The first theory of political authority that Dr. Huemer examines is the famous theory of social contract. The theory of social contract says that there is an explicit contract between the state (political authority) and the society members re giving monopoly of use of violence and force to the state via an explicit so-called “social contract”. The theory holds that, at least in some countries, there is a contractual relationship between the government and its citizens. The contract requires the government to provide certain services for the population, notably protection from private criminals and hostile foreign governments.
According to this theory then the state has the right to coerce its citizens and the citizens have the duty to obey the coercion of the state according to the explicit social contract that they have signed with the state.
The first problem with this social contract theory is that it totally ignores the reality i.e., no citizen in the history has ever explicitly signed a document called “social contract” with its government. Did you, my dear reader, sign such a social contract ever in your life with your government? No citizen has ever been presented with such an explicit contract document that citizens read and after agreeing to its terms and conditions signed it. Dr. Huemer presents more such glaring problems with the theory of social contract: But even If there was an original social contract, how could this contract bind people born much later, who never participated in the original agreement and were never asked for their consent?
Because of this and other such glaring logical defects this theory only remains as an historical artifact in the political science. No one takes it to be the logical justification of political authority.
The Implicit Social Contract Theory
As the explicit social contract theory crumbled under the weight of logical scrutiny the statist theorists designed another social contract theory. This time the social contract is implicit instead of explicit. Implicit consent is consent that one indicates through one’s conduct, without actually stating one’s agreement. If citizens have not embraced social contract explicitly, perhaps they have embraced it implicitly.
There are various ways in which one can indicate agreement to government’s coercion without stating agreement explicitly:
One expresses an implicit consent by not explicitly opposing the contract (passive consent)
One commits oneself to accepting certain demands by soliciting or voluntarily accepting benefits to which those demands are known to be attached (consent through acceptance of benefits)
Consent through presence i.e., one indicates agreement to a proposal merely by remaining in some location; and finally
Sometimes one implicitly consents to the rules governing a practice voluntarily participating in the practice (consent through participation).
Any of these four kinds of implicit consent might be used as a model for citizens’ implicit acceptance of the social contract. Dr. Huemer analyzes these implicit forms of consent using conditions for valid agreements. A valid agreement is an agreement that is morally efficacious – that is, it succeeds in rendering permissible some action to which one consents or in generating an obligation to act in a way that one has agreed to act. Where these conditions are not present contract is invalid. An example of an invalid agreement is, for instance, suppose a criminal holds a gun to your head and demands that you sign over the movie rights to your latest book. If you sign, the contract would be invalid, because the threat of violence made it involuntary. A valid agreement requires that these conditions are met in an implicit contract. These conditions are:
Valid consent requires a reasonable way of opting out
Explicit dissent trumps alleged implicit consent
An action can be taken as indicating agreement to some scheme, only if one can be assumed to believe that, if one did not take that action, the scheme would not be imposed upon one; and
Contractual obligation is mutual and conditional
The implicit social contract fails to pass all these four conditions and so is not a valid agreement between citizens and their governments. Dr. Huemer concludes the analysis of the social contract theory saying that the social contract theory cannot account for political authority.
The Hypothetical Social Contract Theory
The hypothetical social contract theory proponents say that individuals would consent to the state under certain hypothetical conditions. These conditions may involve stipulations regarding he knowledge, degree of rationality, and motivations of the parties to the social contract, in addition to the stipulation that all members of a society be given a choice as to what sort of society they shall live in. Dr. Heumer defines the conditions under which a hypothetical social contract can be judged valid. These conditions are, first, the defenders of this theory must show that people would accept the social contract in their hypothetical scenario; second, they must show that this hypothetical consent is morally efficacious, in the sense that it generates obligations and ethical entitlements similar to those generated by a valid actual consent. After a lengthy analysis Dr. Huemer concludes that, the move to a merely hypothetical contract cannot save the social contract theory. There is no reason to believe that agreement could be reached even in the hypothetical scenarios envisioned by most theorists nor that such hypothetical consent would be morally relevant if it could be reached.
The Authority of Democracy
As the theory of social contract between all citizens and the state fell apart, the theorists of the state needed something else to justify its political authority to legitimize its coercion. They came up with a compromised idea of majority consent. Can the agreement of only a majority of citizens give the state a right to coerce all of us? A simple scenario can expose the fallacy of democratic majority rule argument. Suppose you have gone out for drinks with few of your friends. You are all busy talking about philosophy, when someone raises the question of who is going to pay the bill. A number of options are discussed. A friend suggests dividing the bill evenly among everyone at the table. You suggest that everyone pay for his own drinks. Another friend then suggests that you pay for everybody’s drinks. Reluctant to spend so much money, you decline. But your friend persists: “let’s take a vote”. To your consternation, they proceed to take the vote, which reveals that everyone at the table except you wants you to pay for everybody’s drinks. ‘Well, that settles it’, declares your friend. ‘Pay up’. In this scenario are you ethically obligated to pay for everyone’s drinks? Can your friends collect the bill money from you by force? I am sure your answer is no. This is the normal generally accepted ethical instincts of most people when it comes to such private scenario, but same situation exists in the case of democratic majoritarian government. Majority alone doesn’t generate any right to coerce the minority. It also doesn’t generate any duty for the minority to obey the majority.
Dr. Huemer then analyzes theories of deliberative democracy, argument from equality justifying political authority etc., and concludes, democracy does not solve the problem of political authority. The fact that a majority of persons favor some rule does not justify imposing that rule by force on those who do not agree to It nor coercively punishing those who disobey the rule.
After logically analyzing and refuting various theories of political authority Dr. Huemer discusses very important topic of the psychology of authority. Why people abide by the coercion of authority and why some people like to coercively rule over others. The motive of Dr. Huemer to review the psychological evidence re authority is to throw light on two issues. First, how much trust we should place in our institutions about authority, and second, how desirable or harmful it may be to encourage skepticism about authority. Dr. Huemer goes on to analyze famous psychological experiments like the Milgram experiment, the Boston Prison experiment, the Stockholm syndrome phenomenon, the problem of cognitive dissonance, the social proof and the status quo bias etc., to throw light on these issues. Dr. Huemer concludes that, human beings come equipped with strong and pervasive pro-authority biases that operate even when an authority is illegitimate or issues illegitimate and indefensible commands. And this is the reason why the standard intuitions about authority are not to be trusted because they are products of systematic biases of the human mind.
What if there is no Authority?
Dr. Huemer dedicates part two of his book to the discussion of a world without any kind of political authority. This world is not a typical world of chaos portrayed by the opponents of this idea of a world without political authority. This world simply replaces state coercion with voluntary agreements and contracts. In this world most of today’s laws will be unjust because they are coercive. Dr. Huemer goes on to discuss how this stateless society will provide goods like protection and security, justice etc. He concludes that a market based voluntary system is much better than coercive state system of today.
In the last chapter from democracy to anarchy Dr. Heumer discusses strategies of transition from a statist society to a stateless society. He concludes,
It is reasonable to believe that anarchy may come to the world in due time. The most plausible transitional model is one in which democratic societies move gradually toward anarcho-capitalism through progressive outsourcing of governmental functions to competing businesses. No obstacle but public opinion and inertia prevents government from turning over policing, dispute resolution, or even the conduct of criminal trials to private agents. Governmental armed forces can be drawn down and ultimately eliminated through an extended ratcheting-down process in which each country repeatedly cuts back its military forces to only those needed for defenses. …
The most important determinant of whether this process will occur is intellectual: if anarcho-capitalism is a good idea, then it will probably ultimately be recognized as such. Once it is generally recognized as desirable, it will probably eventually be implemented. Abolishing the state is more realistic than reforming it, because abolition requires people to accept only single philosophical idea – skepticism about authority – whereas reform requires people to familiarize themselves on an ongoing basis with the myriad of flaws of specific policies. (Emphasize mine)
Dr. Huemer’s book is a must read for anyone who is interested in issues of political authority. Most people in their day to day lives are ethical and moral, but when it comes to the government (political authority) they become vulnerable. As Dr. Huemer shows, we need to apply the same ethical standards to the government that we apply in our private sphere. Application of those standards tells us that the government has no right to coerce us and we have no duty to obey the government. Once we start questioning the political authority and legitimacy of the statist governmental system, its days will be numbered. Only then we will be able to build a peaceful, just, civilized and prosperous society for all of us on this planet.
This entry was posted in Analysis and tagged Anarcho-Capitalism, Anarchy, Coercion, Duty, Government, Obey, Right, State.
Indian Culture and Economic Development
India is Not an Investment Haven
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You are here: Home / Archives for U.S. Rep. Jason Smith
Missouri congressman to present medals to late veteran’s family on Fourth of July (AUDIO)
July 4, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth
The family of a deceased southern Missouri veteran will be presented with his military service medals during a Fourth of July event in Salem.
Missouri Congressman Jason Smith visits the non-profit Parkland Hope Center in Park Hills in February 2019 (file photo courtesy of Congressman Smith’s office)
U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, will be presenting the medals to Deck Hall’s family members. Smith says the family contacted his office, seeking assistance.
“Well it’s a great honor whenever we are able to track down the medals and awards for our veterans who never received them or they may have lost them,” Smith says.
Congressman Smith tells Missourinet the late Deck Hall earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Combat Infantry Badge.
Tonight’s presentation will take place at the Dent County Courthouse, just before the Fourth of July fireworks display.
The Salem event is one of several celebrations Congressman Smith will be attending today across his sprawling district, which contains 30 counties in southeast and south-central Missouri.
One of the most popular Fourth of July celebrations in southeast Missouri takes place in the small town of Oran, which is south of Cape Girardeau.
Today’s 108th Oran picnic includes music and fireworks. Congressman Smith will be attending the event, meeting with constituents about various issues. He says he frequently receives questions from constituents about Social Security issues and veterans benefits.
“You know southeast Missouri is all about God, country and family, and the Oran picnic is a prime example,” says Smith.
The event includes a buffet-style dinner at the Guardian Angel Knights of Columbus Hall. Fr. Randy, the church pastor, tells Missourinet they expect to feed about 1,000 people at today’s dinner, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Congressman Smith agrees with the late Congressman Bill Emerson: the Oran Fourth of July picnic has the best fried chicken anywhere in the world. He says the event is fun for all ages.
“This is the 108th annual Oran picnic. You can find horseshoe tournaments, cornhole, music, fireworks, wagon rides,” Smith says.
The dinner also includes roast beef and numerous desserts.
Congressman Smith will also travel to Poplar Bluff today and to the small town of Ellington, which is in Reynolds County. Smith will recognize the Ellington Whippet baseball team for that school’s first state championship in any sport.
Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, which was recorded on July 2, 2019:
https://cdn.missourinet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bh-congressmansmithJuly2019.mp3
Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet
Filed Under: Agriculture, Children, Entertainment, High School Sports, Military, News, Politics / Govt, Travel, Veterans Tagged With: Bill Emerson, Deck Hall, Ellington, Guardian Angel in Oran, Oran, Poplar Bluff, Salem, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith
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FC Dallas playing for more than a cup in USOC
April 27, 201010:48AM EDT
On April 22, 2009 at RFK Stadium, FC Dallas and D.C. United faced off in a US Open Cup play-in match. D.C. prevailed 2-0 and went on to be the runner-up last year while FCD failed to win a single game in the event for the first time since 2003.
On Wednesday, the same sides meet again in the same venue in a USOC play-in that will feature the only two winless sides in Major League Soccer. FCD comes off a 2-2 tie in league pla against Seattle at Pizza Hut Park, where they needed a 94th-minute penalty kick by Jeff Cunningham. Schellas Hyndman’s club is 0-1-3 in MLS this season.
The Red-and-Black have also struggled out of the gates and has lost all four games of its young season.
FCD midfielder Dax McCarty, who was part of the 2007 team that lost in the final to New England at Pizza Hut Park, realizes D.C. has struggled but still expects a very hard-fought game in the nation’s capital on Wednesday night.
“It’s a very important game. I think D.C. United is a good team that just hasn’t gotten the results they’ve been looking for,” McCarty said. “I think they’re sort of similar to us in that they try to play good soccer. I know they have a couple new players but they’re definitely going to be hungry. I know it’s an important game for them and also for us.”
No matter who his team faces, Hyndman knows the USOC has some added meaning for him and his club.
“The first important thing is it has Lamar Hunt’s name on the trophy,” Hyndman said on Monday. “The second important thing is it’s a great opportunity for the younger players to get games because we don’t have a reserve league. It’s very important that we get them games. And then the third thing is it continues to develop a mentality and a culture of winning.”
That’s a statement McCarty clearly agrees with.
“It’s a very important competition for us. Lamar Hunt, it’s named after him,” the FCD midfielder said. “He’s our late owner and founder and he had a big influence on soccer in this country. I think in 2007, we made it to the final and that was a very important game for us. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pull it out. We haven’t done as well in the competition the last few years and we’re looking to right that this year and go far.”
Speaking of Cunningham, the veteran striker has played in 20 Open Cup matches in his career and has scored four goals with five assists. During his time with Columbus, he played for the 2002 USOC champs and assisted on four goals during the Black-and-Gold’s run to the title.
“It’s a great opportunity to win a trophy. Every time you compete, you want to win,” the FCD forward said. “So it’s another opportunity for the club to add silverware to the clubhouse for the team and organization. It’s something that we take pride in. Our owner, that’s his tournament, so it’s even more special for the organization. We’re going to go out and compete to win.”
While Wednesday night’s affair won’t count in the league standings, McCarty knows that he and his teammates need a win regardless of who it’s against and in what environment.
“To get a win against an MLS team in an important competition is key,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve started the season poorly but results are all that matter. Unfortunately, we’re one of a few winless teams and we need to change that. Whether that comes in the Open Cup or in MLS play that doesn’t matter, we just need to get a win.”
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Kody Funderburk, Jake Suddreth Earn All-American Honors
The 2017 NJCAA All-American baseball teams have been announced and Mesa's Kody Funderburk and Jake Suddreth have earned spots among the nations best.
Sophomore Kody Funderburk earned a spot on the first team. The big first baseman tortured ACCAC pitching all season, tallying a .400 batting average with a .651 slugging percentage and a .504 on-base percentage. He hammered eight homeruns on the season while knocking in 55 RBI's and drawing 40 walks. Funderburk had 15 doubles and five triples while scoring 44 runs. Funderburk has signed on to play at Dallas Baptist next season.
Mesa's closer Jake Suddreth earned a spot on the second team. The big right hander finished the season as the nationals leader in saves with 16, which also set a T-Bird record for saves. Suddreth posted a 3-2 overall record with 61 strikeouts while only allowing 11 walks. He had a 1.63 ERA in 49.2 innings pitched. Suddreth has signed on the to play at Brigham Young University next season.
This is the 20th and 21st player in Mesa baseball's illustrious history to earn All-American honors.
Click below to see the complete list of NJCAA All-Americans.
NJCAA All-Americans
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Romney begins making closing argument to voters
By KASIE HUNT
BEDFORD, N.H. (AP) — Sharpening his message ahead of voting in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of deepening the economic crisis and backing policies that will redistribute wealth instead of creating equal opportunity for people to do well.
Romney's allies, meanwhile, continued to aggressively criticize Newt Gingrich, his chief rival for the nomination. In Iowa, Gingrich lashed out and accused Romney of a "negative smear campaign."
Romney, a former businessman, told voters in an evening speech that his policies would turn the U.S. into an "opportunity society" while Obama's vision for an "entitlement society" would make more people dependent on government welfare.
"We will not surrender our dreams to the failures of this president. We are bigger than the misguided policies and weak leadership of one man. America is bigger than President Obama's failures," Romney said. "This America of long unemployment lines and small dreams is not the America you and I love. ... These troubled years are President Obama's legacy, but they are not our future."
Romney said that Obama "believes that government should create equal outcomes. In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to take risk."
Romney's message contrasts with the argument the Democratic president has begun to articulate for his re-election, in which he calls for a society that offers "fair play, a fair shot and a fair share." Obama argues that Republicans put the interests of the wealthy above the middle class.
"Giving more handouts to millionaires, billionaires and large corporations and making the middle class foot the bill are the same flawed policies that led to the economic crisis in the first place," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told New Hampshire reporters.
Romney planned to remain focused on his effort in New Hampshire as his allies criticized Gingrich on Iowa's airwaves.
Restore Our Future, a special political action committee, or "super PAC," that backs Romney, launched a caustic ad tying Gingrich to Freddie Mac, the quasi-government mortgage company, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The spot also hits Gingrich for ethics violations and criticizes his record on abortion.
Campaigning in Iowa, Gingrich accused Romney of allowing a "negative smear campaign" fueled by a super PAC. He called on Romney to demand that ads run on his behalf by such groups be positive. Gingrich said Romney's comments aimed at distancing himself from the anti-Gingrich PAC ads were misleading and false.
Romney had refused earlier Tuesday to disavow the group's ads, saying it would be illegal for him to coordinate with the super PAC. He did say that such groups are a "disaster" and have made a "mockery" of the presidential campaign.
"Campaign finance law has made a mockery of our political campaign season," Romney said on MSNBC. "We really ought to let campaigns raise the money they need and just get rid of these super PACs."
A 2010 Supreme Court decision paved the way for such groups to accept unlimited amounts of money from donors. The political campaigns are limited to accepting $2,500 per donor.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was using Tuesday's speech to open four straight days of campaigning in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary on Jan. 10. He must win the state if he hopes to become the Republican nominee.
Two weeks remain until voting begins Jan. 3 with the leadoff caucuses in Iowa, though Romney will campaign in New Hampshire through Christmas, a sign of the state's importance to his political strategy.
— — — Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Ottumwa, Iowa, contributed to this report. (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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MSB praised in Legal 500 for work in crime and family law
Just days since it was announced she will succeed Paul Bibby as managing partner of the firm, MSB Solicitors’ Emma Carey has been listed in the elite “leading lawyers” list by The Legal 500 – Britain’s top guide to the legal profession.
The guide, which was published on Wednesday [11 October 2017], states: “Emma Carey is an excellent leader; she has superb knowledge of the law and is also very sensitive and insightful, which is of huge importance for her vulnerable clients."
Founding partner and head of crime, Sean Sexton, also makes the list and MSB has been recommended as a top tier firm for crime and fraud for the second year running.
The Legal 500, which every year highlights the work of outstanding firms and lawyers, has also recommended MSB for general crime and private client work and singles, in total, six of its solicitors out for praise.
It continues: “Clients of MSB Solicitors single out 'the personal interest the firm takes in each and every case', and the track record the firm has in complex, large-scale fraud and confiscation cases.
“Sean Sexton heads the department and is praised for his 'precise and thorough preparation and extensive knowledge of and experience in serious and complex financial crime. Sexton gives the right support and advice to his clients each time'.
“The practice is particularly known for its skill in representing individuals who are subject to major criminal investigations by HMRC; key matters included representing a professional in a case involving alleged breaches of Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regulations through the selling of high-risk investment schemes to high-net-worth individuals.
“The 'outstanding' Andrew Pearson is singled out for his specialism in representing defendants who are autistic or suffer from Asperger's syndrome.
“MSB Solicitors has an 'extremely strong family department' that handles all areas of family law 'to a high standard'. It is active in both public and private law matters, including those related to children, divorce, finance and domestic violence.
“For some 'the firm is now almost on a par with the leading London-based child abduction firms and is quickly developing into a leading firm for international family law work in the North West'.
“Emma Palmer 'pulls out all the stops for her clients and is excellent at child abduction and care proceedings'.
“Kirsty Leather has a 'great brain and has taken to international child abduction work very quickly'.
“For children law matters, Sarah Achilles is 'always friendly, approachable and very much puts clients at ease'.”
Emma Carey said: “Being recognised in The Legal 500 is an incredible achievement for a fantastically talented team. Of course I’m immensely proud of those individuals who have been highlighted, but I’m just as proud of the entire team at MSB who always go the extra mile to ensure we’re at the pinnacle of modern family law."
“It is fantastic too, to maintain our foothold in crime, an area of the law for which MSB has become much acclaimed. Sean Sexton is quite simply an exceptional lawyer and is supported by an extremely knowledgeable team - to have been ranked number one for the second year is testament to that and due recognition of their collective skills, hard work and dedication.”
In 2016, MSB was ranked in the top tier in the North West for its work on financial crime – it was the only Liverpool firm to make it into the top bracket.
And in 2015, Sean Sexton was described as a ‘powerhouse’ for his work in complex fraud cases.
The 2017 Legal 500 rankings come further to a string of accolades for MSB, who were named best family firm at the Liverpool Law Society Awards in May and were awarded Business of the Year at the City of Liverpool Business Awards in July.
The firm is also currently shortlisted for Best Family Firm for the North at the National Family Law Awards. In June, MSB also reported its strongest financial results to date, topping £5m for the first time in its history.
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Yemen: MSF hospital destroyed by airstikes
Overview of what is left of Haydan hospital after october 26th airstrike.
Photo: Yann Geay
SANAA – Airstrikes carried out late last night by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen destroyed a hospital supported by the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced today.
The small hospital, in the Haydan district in Saada Province, was hit by several airstrikes beginning at 10:30 last night. Hospital staff and two patients managed to escape before subsequent airstrikes occurred over a two hour period. One staff member was slightly injured while escaping. With the hospital destroyed, at least 200,000 people now have no access to lifesaving medical care.
“This attack is another illustration of a complete disregard for civilians in Yemen, where bombings have become a daily routine,” said Hassan Boucenine, MSF head of mission in Yemen.
MSF facility in Saada, Yemen has been hit by several airstrikes on October 26th during the night while patients and staff were inside the structure.
Photo: Kylie Gaudin
The bombing of civilians and hospitals is a violation of international humanitarian law and MSF is demanding that coalition forces explain the circumstances around the attack in Haydan. The hospital’s GPS coordinates were regularly shared with the Saudi-led coalition, and the roof of the facility was clearly identified with the MSF logo.
“Even 12 hours after the airstrike, I could see the smoke coming out of the facility,” said Miriam Czech, MSF project coordinator in Saada. “The inpatient department, the outpatient department, the maternity ward, the lab and the emergency room are all destroyed. It was the only hospital still functional in Haydan area,” she said.
It was the only remaining functional hospital in the area where patients were stabilized in the emergency room and referred, if needed, to Saada hospital.
MSF began supporting the hospital in May. Since then, roughly 3,400 patients were treated, with an average of 200 war wounded per month admitted to the emergency room.
“Yemen is in an all-out war, in which the population caught on the wrong side is considered a legitimate target,” said Boucenine. “Markets, schools, roads, bridges, trucks transporting food, displaced persons camps, and health structures have been bombed and destroyed. And the first victims are civilians.”
MSF’s priority is to reestablish a new health facility as soon as possible, in order to maintain the provision of healthcare to the population of Haydan.
MSF is an international medical organization that was founded in 1971. Today, MSF provides impartial and free of charge health services to those in need in more than 70 countries in the world including Yemen. In Yemen, MSF works in eight Yemeni governorates (Sana’a, Saada, Aden, Taiz, Amran, Al-Dhale’, Ibb, and Hajja).
Since the beginning of the crisis in Yemen in March 2015, MSF treated more than 15,500 war wounded and still providing non-emergency health services.
Find out more about MSF in Yemen.
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James David "Jim" Pawlisa
December 26, 1937 ~ October 30, 2018 (age 80)
James David “Jim” Pawlisa, age 80, of Central City, Illinois, passed away at 2:46 P.M. on Tuesday, October 30, 2018, at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. He was born on December 26, 1937, in Central City, Illinois, the son of the late August and Pauline (Amidei) Pawlisa. He married Victoria “Vicki” Burge on August 1, 1969, in Centralia, Illinois, and she preceded him in death on December 1, 2005.
Jim is survived by his daughters, Tara Pawlisa Finckbone of Centralia, Illinois and Julie Madding and husband Van of Catalina Island, California; grandchildren, Holly Wilms, Hunter Madding, Zach Madding and Madelynn Finckbone; special grandchildren, Drake Niepoetter and Seth Niepoetter; 2 great grandchildren; brothers, Tom Pawlisa and wife Pat of Central City, Illinois, Augie Pawlisa and wife Carol of Central City, Illinois and Mike Pawlisa of Central City, Illinois; sisters, Joan Hoffman of Central City, Illinois and Gayle Ziegler of Champaign, Illinois; many nephews and nieces, including special niece Lorie Hasse; great nephews and great nieces; cousins and special friend, Kay Repolge.
In addition to his wife, Jim was preceded in death by his parents; sons, Scott Pawlisa and Brian Pawlisa and brother, Richard “Dick” Pawlisa.
Jim grew up in Central City, Illinois and graduated with Centralia Township High School’s Class of 1955. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army proudly serving his country as a paratrooper in the 101st Air Borne Division. Jim retired in 1999 as a nighttime warehouse manager for Coca Cola Distributors in Centralia, Illinois, after 30 years of service. He lived most of his life in Central City, Illinois.
Jim and his brothers would visit their sister Joan’s home every morning for coffee and then the brothers would take a ride together. He was an avid collector of Coca Cola memorabilia. He loved to cook, fish and go squirrel hunting. He enjoyed sitting in the comfort of his home and watch T.V., especially The Young & The Restless and the St. Louis Cardinals games. He liked keeping active by doing word searches. He cherished the time he spent with his family
A Celebration of Life Service for Mr. James David “Jim” Pawlisa will be held at 12:00 P.M. on Saturday, November 3, 2018, at Moran Queen-Boggs Funeral Home in Centralia, Illinois, with Pastor Ashley Olinger officiating. Interment will follow at Mount Evergreen Cemetery in Central City, Illinois, with Military honors accorded by the Centralia American Legion Post 446 and Centralia V.F.W. Post 2055.
Friends are invited to meet with Mr. Pawlisa’s family from 10:00 A.M. until the time of services at 12:00 P.M. on Saturday, November 3, 2018, at the Moran Queen-Boggs Funeral Home in Centralia, Illinois.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Jim’s memory to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and will be received at the Moran Queen-Boggs Funeral Home in Centralia, Illinois. Please view the online obituary, send condolences or share memories with Mr. Pawlisa’s family at www.moranfuneralhome.net or on the funeral home’s Facebook page.
501 St. Jude Place, Memphis TN 38105
Web: http://www.stjude.org/
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The basic Military Funeral Honors (MFH) ceremony consists of the folding and presentation of the United States flag to the veterans' family and the playing of Taps. The ceremony is performed by a funeral honors detail consisting of at least two members of the Armed Forces.
The Funeral Honors rendered to you or your veteran will be determined by the status of the veteran. The type of Funeral Honors may be Full Military Honors, 7 Person Detail or a Standard Honors Team Detail.
At least one of the funeral honors detail will be from the Armed Force in which the deceased veteran served. Taps may be played by a bugler or, if a bugler is not available, by using a quality recorded version. Military Funeral Honor Teams may act as Pall Bearers if requested by the veteran/family.
Who is eligible for Military Funeral Honors?
Military members on active duty or in the Selected Reserve.
Former military members who served on active duty and departed under conditions other than dishonorable.
Former military members who completed at least one term of enlistment or period of initial obligated service in the Selected Reserve and departed under conditions other than dishonorable.
Former military members discharged from the Selected Reserve due to a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.
Who is not eligible for Military Funeral Honors?
Any person separated from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions or whose character of service results in a bar to veteran's benefits.
Any person who was ordered to report to an induction station, but was not actually inducted into military service.
Any person discharged from the Selected Reserve prior to completing one term of enlistment or period of initial obligated service for reasons other than a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.
Any person convicted of a Federal or State capital crime sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
How do I establish veteran eligibility?
The preferred method is the DD Form 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. If the DD Form 214 is not available, any discharge document showing other than dishonorable service can be used. The DD Form 214 may be obtained by filling out a Standard Form 180 and sending it to:
National Personnel Records Center(NPRC)
The Standard Form 180 may be obtained from the National Records Center or via the following web site: http://www.archives.gov/research/order/standard-form-180.pdf
Is anyone else eligible to receive funeral honors?
Yes. Members of the Commissioned Officer Corps of the Public Health Service (PHS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as members of a Uniformed Service, are also eligible to receive funeral honors.
For NOAA personnel, eligibility is established using NOAA Form 56-16, Report of Transfer or Discharge. If the family does not have a copy of the NOAA Form 56-16, it may by obtained by contacting the Chief, Officer Services Division, NOAA Commissioned Personnel Center at (301) 713-7715. or by writing:
Commissioned Personnel Center
Chief, Officer Services Division (CPC1)
1315 East-West Highway, Room 12100
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
For PHS personnel, funeral honors eligibility is established using PHS Form 1867, Statement of Service (equivalent to the DD Form 214). If the family does not have a copy of the Statement of Service, it may be obtained by contacting the Privacy Coordinator for the Commissioned Corps at (240) 453-6041 or writing:
Division of Commissioned Personnel/HRS/PSC
Attention: Privacy Act Coordinator
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Arts & Culture April 18, 2017 April 18, 2017
What this teen wants you to know about the hijab after her dad's text went viral.
By Robbie Couch for Upworthy.
Photo courtesy of Lamyaa.
Lamyaa, a 17-year-old from Pennsylvania, has gotten used to harassment from strangers online.
Much of the time, their target is her Muslim faith.
"Personally, being an Arab Muslim woman in America, these sort of hateful messages aren't uncommon," she explains.
On April 14, 2017, Lamyaa tweeted a revolting message she'd received from a stranger.
It read: "Stop defending Islam Bit*h shut up you couldn't take that scarf off or your dad would beat your as*."
By "scarf," of course, the person was alluding to Lamyaa's hijab — a head covering worn by some Muslim women as an expression of their faith.
Lamyaa decided to text her dad and ask him what he'd do if she did, in fact, decide not to wear her hijab — and his response made her tweet go viral.
Since this is a mentality a lot of you seem to have pic.twitter.com/CQn5L8zibS
— l a m y a a (@lxmyaa) April 15, 2017
She posted their conversation:
Lamyaa: Baba, I want to tell you something. Lamyaa's father: Talk to me Lamyaa: Yeah I'm okay. I was thinking. I want to take my hijab off. Lamyaa's father: Sweetheart that's not my decision to make. That's no man's decision to make. If it's what you feel like you want to do, go ahead. I'll support you no matter what. Is everything okay? Did something happen?
Since Lamyaa posted the offensive message along with her conversation with her father, her tweet has been liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times.
"I have gotten many heartwarming messages of people showing me support, but also of people wanting to learn more about Islam or wanting to be a part of it," she explains. "I felt like I could help in a way, and it was very humbling."
Lamyaa is using the attention to clear up harmful stereotypes about Islam, Muslim women — and Muslim men — and the hijab.
"People believe that Islam is misogynistic, hateful, or violent, and I think that stems from their inability to differentiate culture and religion," she explains. "Islam is a religion and, like all religions, it is what you bring to it."
Photo via iStock.
For instance, some women are forced to wear a hijab, and that's a "horrible" form of oppression, the teen later pointed out on Twitter. But many Muslim women, like Lamyaa, wear one because they choose to — for a wide variety of empowering and personal reasons.
"I wear my hijab because it is sacred to me," Lamyaa says. "It displays my connection to my faith and God. When I have the hijab on, I act kinder and I am more aware of what I say and do. This is because not only am I representing myself, but I am representing a faith much bigger than me."
"If I had one thing to say to people who have misconceptions about Islam, it would be: Speak to a Muslim," Lamyaa says.
"Have a conversation with a Muslim. Many of us are willing to answer any questions and clear up any misconceptions. Muslims are not some separate group. We are a part of America. We are people."
Share image: Lamyaa.
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Physics in a New Era: An Overview (2001)
Chapter: 12. Recommendations II: Strengthening Physics Research - Partnerships, Federal Science Agencies, and Physics Information
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Original Pages Text Pages
« Previous: 11. Recommendations I: Physics and the Wider Society - Investment, Education, and National Security
Page 168 Share Cite
Suggested Citation:"12. Recommendations II: Strengthening Physics Research - Partnerships, Federal Science Agencies, and Physics Information." National Research Council. 2001. Physics in a New Era: An Overview. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10118.
Recommendations II: Strengthening Physics Research—Partnerships, Federal Science Agencies, and Physics Information
Any human enterprise must adapt to new opportunities as well as new constraints if it is to stay effective. This is especially true of scientific research, where new opportunities emerge frequently from past accomplishment and technological change and where possibilities depend acutely on available resources. In physics, there was never a time when attention to these changes was more important than it is now. Accordingly, the committee has formulated four additional recommendations focused on the strength of the physics research enterprise. The first deals with the increasingly important role of partnerships among universities, industry, and national laboratories. The next two pertain to the stewardship of federal science agencies. The final recommendation pertains to the rapidly changing role of information technology in physics research and education.
Universities are at the core of the U.S. research system, combining the creation of scientific knowledge with its integration and dissemination. Long the envy of the world, they now face serious challenges. The cost of supporting research has grown rapidly in response to expanding scientific opportunities. To provide the faculty and the new infrastructure necessary for research, choices will have to be made and partnerships will have to be strengthened among universities and between universities and national laboratories.
National laboratories are a resource of enormous capability for the United States. They can cross disciplinary boundaries, serve scientists from universities and industry, and address problems of national importance. Realizing the full potential of this resource requires stable funding commit-
ments and effective cooperation with universities and industry. The national laboratories can play an important leadership role in this cooperation and in the formation of research partnerships.
For industry, partnerships with universities and the national laboratories provide important mutual benefits. Industry needs talented graduates to promote growth and innovation, and university faculty and students have much to gain from direct contact with the accelerating pace of technological change. For small companies that may not have R&D capabilities of their own, such partnerships can mean access to unique skills and facilities.
An urgent need is the development of workable intellectual property policies. Agreements must address inventions, patents, copyrights, and the restrictions of proprietary research. Difficulties naturally arise because of the different concerns of the participating institutions. Among large companies, cross-licensing arrangements are common to provide access to important patents. For small companies, exclusivity can make the difference between success and failure. Universities, often the sources of intellectual property but not the commercial users of it, can gain important income from its sale or licensing. National laboratories, which have concerns similar to those of universities, have benefited from legislation authorizing cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) for joint research projects with industries. In general, it has been difficult to achieve agreement on terms for research partnerships, particularly since the agreements are often negotiated by people not directly involved in the joint work.
A 1996 report of the Council on Competitiveness, Endless Frontier, Limited Resources: U.S. R&D Policy for Competitiveness, noted that “R&D partnerships hold the key to meeting the challenges that our nation now faces.” These partnerships include informal collaborations, exchange programs, facility sharing, and various formal relationships such as CRADAs. Technology is creating new modes for partnership, such as long-distance collaboration and information sharing. And partnerships are now more important than ever, since the nation's major industrial laboratories have been forced by divestiture and global economic forces to take a nearer-term, more focused approach to R&D.
Recommendation 6. The federal government, universities and their physics departments, and industry should encourage mutual interactions and partnerships, including industrial liaison programs with universities and national laboratories; visitor programs and adjunct faculty appointments in universities; and university and national laboratory internships and sabbaticals in industry. The
federal government should support these programs by helping to develop protocols for intellectual property issues in cooperative research.
FEDERAL SCIENCE AGENCIES
The base programs of the federal science agencies are structured around broad areas of research and are open to a wide range of proposals emerging from the scientific community. These proposals reflect the best ideas and ambitions of scientists throughout the country, and there is no better way for the agencies to ensure the strength and vitality of physics than to respond to the most creative of them. Some of the most exciting proposals are in emerging, interdisciplinary areas. Because the research activities supported by the base programs are diverse and because there is never a guarantee that an individual basic research effort will pay off, it has sometimes been difficult to make the case for the importance of these base programs. By contrast, special funding initiatives providing support for focused areas of research may be more easily understood and have recently been instrumental in securing new support for science agencies. Unless the balance between the base programs and special funding initiatives is monitored carefully, the diversity of high-quality physics research opportunities throughout the country will be jeopardized.
Recommendation 7. The federal government should assign a high priority to the broad support of core physics research, providing a healthy balance with special initiatives in focused research directions. Federal science agencies should continue to ensure a foundation that is diverse, evolving, and supportive of promising and creative research.
The federal government supports scientific research for the broad goal of general societal good and for specific programmatic goals. Predicting which researchers and research projects will best accomplish these goals can never be perfect. The peer review system relies on practicing scientists to advise on the feasibility of proposed research, the competence of the
researcher to carry out that work, and the potential impact of the work on science and technology. This system has served our nation well. Its success has convinced funding agencies in many other countries to use it as a model. Many have even gone so far as to make their funding decisions based on reviews of their own country's research programs by U.S. experts familiar with the peer review process in this country.
While the peer review system has worked well, federal science agencies and scientists must always be vigilant for possible abuses of the system. Care should be taken to ensure that reviews are based on scientific merit and are not influenced by other considerations, such as personal connections or prejudices. It is also the case that truly innovative work is often controversial and will naturally generate some mixed reviews. To avoid excessive conservatism, the peer review system must be flexible enough not to demand universally favorable reviews.
Recommendation 8. The peer review advisory process for the allocation of federal government support for scientific research has served our nation well over many decades and is a model worldwide for government investment in research. The peer review process should be maintained as the principal factor in determining how federal research funds are awarded.
PHYSICS INFORMATION
Enabled by greatly increased capabilities in computation and data storage, physics questions are now being addressed by mining data from large databases. For example, in the next few years astrophysical data will be obtained and stored at a rate exceeding several thousand billion bytes per day. Similar data rates are expected from experiments at the new generation of high-energy colliders for nuclear and particle physics. The development of techniques for storing and accessing these enormous repositories of information is becoming essential for basic physics research. As the technical challenges are met, new modalities for data sharing and dissemination of research results become possible.
Concomitant with the rise in importance of large databases containing experimental results has been the increasing reliance on databases for the rapid dissemination of research results. For example, submissions to the archive of physics research based at Los Alamos National Laboratory increased by a factor of nearly 10 over the past decade. The rate of access to
this archive is equally impressive, having reached several hundred thousand per day. The archive has become an indispensable tool for conducting research in physics.
At the same time, the American Physical Society has dramatically improved its use of information technology in the publication of research results, establishing important links with the Los Alamos archive. The society is to be commended for reducing the costs of publishing its journals and for supporting the needs of the physics community. It should continue to do so, promoting the use of electronic methods and asserting its preeminent role in the processes of peer review and validation of research results.
Recommendation 9. The federal government, together with the physics community, should develop a coordinated approach for the support of bibliographic and experimental databases and data-mining tools. The use of open standards to foster mutual compatibility of all databases should be stressed. Physicists should be encouraged to make use of these information technology tools for education as well as research. The bibliographic archive based at Los Alamos National Laboratory has played an important role and it should continue to be supported.
Next: Index »
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Physics in a New Era: An Overview Get This Book
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Physics at the beginning of the twenty-first century has reached new levels of accomplishment and impact in a society and nation that are changing rapidly. Accomplishments have led us into the information age and fueled broad technological and economic development. The pace of discovery is quickening and stronger links with other fields such as the biological sciences are being developed. The intellectual reach has never been greater, and the questions being asked are more ambitious than ever before.
Physics in a New Era is the final report of the NRC’s six-volume decadal physics survey. The book reviews the frontiers of physics research, examines the role of physics in our society, and makes recommendations designed to strengthen physics and its ability to serve important needs such as national security, the economy, information technology, and education.
Front Matter i–xx
Executive Summary 1–8
1. Quantum Manipulation and New Materials 17–36
2. Complex Systems 37–54
3. Structure and Evolution of the Universe 55–69
4. Fundamental Laws and Symmetries 70–88
5. Physics Education 89–106
6. Health and Biomedical Sciences 107–115
7. The Environment 116–121
8. National Security 122–130
9. The Economy and the Information Age 131–148
10. A New Era of Discovery 149–156
11. Recommendations I: Physics and the Wider Society - Investment, Education, and National Security 157–167
12. Recommendations II: Strengthening Physics Research - Partnerships, Federal Science Agencies, and Physics Information 168–172
Index 173–182
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The Latest: BET Awards kick off with Cardi B, Offset
Tyga arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, June 23, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES — The Latest on the 2019 BET Awards, which are being presented Sunday at the Microsoft Theater (all times local):
The BET Awards kicked off on Sunday with a two-song performance from hip-hop couple Cardi B and her husband Offset.
Offset of the hip-hop trio Migos stepped onstage first before being accompanied by his wife on his lap performing the song “Clout.” Cardi B took to stage on her lonesome to perform “Press” on Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
The show’s host Regina Hall followed their performance with a video skit before going onstage and dancing to the 1998 hit song “Da Butt” with a marching band from Washington, D.C., accompanying her. The “Girls Trip” actress twerked onstage before Taraji P. Henson joined her and began doing the same.
Cardi B is the leading nominee with seven.
The late Nipsey Hussle will be honoured at the 2019 BET Awards, which will be hosted by Regina Hall and feature performances by Cardi B, Migos and H.E.R.
Cardi B is the leading nominee with seven at Sunday night’s show, kicking off at 8 p.m. Eastern from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Hussle, who was a respected and beloved activist in South Los Angeles, will receive the Humanitarian Award. The rapper was shot to death on March 31 outside his clothing store in what police said was a personal dispute.
Hussle will compete with Drake, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Meek Mill and 21 Savage for best male hip-hop artist.
Grammy winner Mary J. Blige will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and media mogul Tyler Perry will earn the Ultimate Icon Award.
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Best dark matter signal yet hints at heftier particles
Space 4 April 2014
In this false-colour image of the centre of the galaxy taken by the Fermi space telescope, all known gamma-ray sources have been removed, revealing excess emissions that may arise from dark matter annihilations
(Image: T. Linden, University of Chicago)
Things are looking brighter than ever for dark matter. A brilliant haze of gamma rays coming from the centre of the Milky Way is increasingly likely to be a sign of dark matter particles annihilating each other in space. Meanwhile, hints of the same signal coming from dwarf galaxies now strengthen the case.
“This is the most compelling signal we’ve had for dark matter particles – ever,” says Dan Hooper at the Fermi National Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois.
Hooper and his colleagues have been studying this signal since 2009, steadily building the case that dark matter is the cause. In the latest work, the team say the particle must be heavier than they first thought, bringing it in line with some of the simplest theories of dark matter. But there is a twist: a heavier particle would be in conflict with whiffs of the elusive substance from experiments trying to directly detect the particles.
Gamma ray glow
Dark matter is thought to make up more than 80 per cent of the matter in the universe. So far we have not seen it interact with ordinary matter except via gravity, and no one knows what the material is made of.
One leading candidate is a hypothetical particle called a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), which would also interact with regular matter via the weak nuclear force. If so, it could show itself directly in experiments deep underground or indirectly as the glow left over when WIMPs collide and disappear in a puff of other particles.
Hooper and his colleagues first spotted the potential signal of dark matter collisions in publicly available data from NASA’s Fermi space telescope. That data showed an extra-bright gamma ray glow coming from the galactic centre, a region thought to be rich in dark matter.
In their latest paper, Hooper and his colleagues outline tests they have run to rule out gamma-ray sources that could mimic dark matter, such as fast-spinning pulsars. They also plotted the most well-characterised gamma rays on a map of the Milky Way’s disc. Subtracting known background levels, they found that extra gamma rays form a sphere around the galactic centre. The sphere’s radius extends nearly 5000 light years – further than previous measurements had been able to see and much further than you would expect from pulsars, says Hooper.
“At this point, there are no known or proposed astrophysical mechanisms or sources that can account for this emission,” he says. “That doesn’t rule out things that no one’s thought of yet, but we’ve tried pretty hard to think of something without success.”
Dark duck
Kevork Abazajian at the University of California, Irvine, thinks an unusual class of pulsars could still account for the signals. But he’s also cautiously optimistic that the dark-matter angle will pan out. “It quacks like a duck, it looks like a duck. It has all the features that you would think dark matter should have, which is remarkable,” he says. “Either we’ll find something amazing with further study, which is that it’s dark matter, or we’ll learn something new about pulsars.”
Astrophysicists have said before that seeing the same signal in dwarf galaxies would clinch the case. These smaller objects should also be full of dark matter, but they are much less dense and so the signal should be harder to spot. Now the team of scientists working directly with the NASA telescope has found tentative hints of a gamma ray excess in 25 dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. Intriguingly, their signal seems to match the one seen by Hooper’s team.
“It’s not anything that one could look at and say, ah, see, we’ve got confirmation, we have a discovery,” says Hooper. “But it’s a hint, and if you took that hint seriously, it would imply that the signal is essentially the same as you would need to explain the galactic-centre signal.”
The wrinkle is that last year the signal Hooper has been studying looked to be coming from a WIMP with a mass of about 10 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), on the lighter end of what theory predicts a WIMP should weigh. That mass fits well with hints of dark matter from underground detectors, some of which show tentative signs of similarly lightweight WIMPs.
Thermal relics
Now the signal looks like it’s coming from a 30 to 40 GeV particle, which is closer to what the simplest theories of dark matter predicted – but incompatible with the tentative findings of direct experiments. “These heavier WIMPs are the standard thermal relics of the big bang that guys like me have been looking for since we were in grad school,” says Hooper.
It is possible that LUX, the most sensitive underground detector yet, will help decide which version of a WIMP is the winner. In a separate paper, Hooper predicts that some heavier WIMPs could show up in a detector like LUX as early as next year, although some WIMPS would never show up at all.
Also, the team working with the space telescope has access to more gamma-ray data that has not been released publicly, and they are conducting their own analyses. They have yet to weigh in on whether they’re seeing the same signal as Hooper and his colleagues, but that data could be coming in the next few months.
“We’re working on an analysis of this region of the sky, and we hope to have this done very soon,” says Fermi telescope scientist Simona Murgia at UC Irvine. “Until this analysis is finished, we can’t confirm or rule out this other work. They are excellent scientists and have done very interesting work, but having different analyses producing a consistent result is a necessary step forward.”
Journal references: Physical Review D, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.89.042001, arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1402.6703 and arxiv.org/abs/1404.0022
Meet your unborn child – before it's even conceived
Dark matter hunters turn to nano-blasts and enzyme ice
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Going to court ›
What happens at a jury trial
At the start of a trial, the court clerk will ask the defendant if they're ready for trial. If they are ready, the clerk randomly selects jury panel numbers. When a panel number is called, the juror will go and sit in the jury box.
Choosing the jury
It's important you know your jury panel number. The court uses numbers not names when selecting jurors. At the start of the trial, the court clerk randomly selects jury panel numbers.
If they call your panel number, reply “yes” and go to the jury box in the courtroom, court security staff will guide you. This is the area where jurors sit during the trial.
You can be “challenged” by prosecution or defence lawyers if they think you should not serve as a juror. They must give a good reason. If the trial judge accepts their reason, you won't be allowed to serve as a juror on that particular trial. But you could be called to serve on the jury in another case.
Occasionally when your number is called, the prosecution may want you to “stand-by”. This means that you will not be required to sit on the jury unless the jury list becomes exhausted and stand-bys will be recalled. You may then be sworn as a juror.
If you recognise the defendant or anyone else involved in the trial, tell a court official at once by passing them a note.
When selected, you must either be 'sworn' or 'affirmed' before you become a juror. The court clerk will ask which method you want to use, and will invite you to repeat after them the words of the oath and affirmation, which are similar and mean the same.
The purpose of the oath or affirmation is that you publicly confirm that you will consider the issues faithfully, according to the evidence.
Once sworn onto a jury, you must always sit in the same place in the jury box.
People in the courtroom
There are different people involved in a court trial.
The judge sits at the front of the court and controls proceedings. They control the trial and decides questions of law. A High Court Judge is called 'my lord'. A county court judge, sitting in the Crown Court, is called 'your honour'.
Foreperson of the jury
The first person selected as a juror acts as the foreperson of the jury. Their role is to write the jury’s decision (guilty or not guilty) against the charges on the Issue Paper (a form that the charges against the defendants are listed on) and announce the verdict in open court.
The defendant
The defendant (or defendants) sits in the dock accompanied by a prison officer. Youths appearing in court sit next to the dock.
The court clerk/ registrar
The court clerk/ registrar sits at the front of the court, immediately below the judge. They swear the jury and co-ordinate the court proceedings.
Jury keeper
Once a jury has been chosen, two jury keepers (usually members of court security staff) are also sworn. Their job is to make sure that no one contacts jurors during the trial.
Also known as counsel, barristers wear black robes and wigs. Prosecution counsel presents the evidence against the defendant to the court. Defence counsel presents the case for the defendant and challenges the prosecution’s evidence.
Sometimes solicitor advocates will present evidence in the Crown Court in place of a barrister. The solicitor advocates will carry out the same role as a barrister but don't wear a wig or gown.
Solicitors sit either behind or in front of counsel. They will have previously instructed counsel (given them the details of the case) before the case has come to court. They do not normally speak in court except when the jury is being selected.
There are many types of witnesses that can be called during a case. Witnesses may include forensic scientists, police officers, medical experts, eyewitnesses and others. Some evidence is very detailed and specialised. Listen carefully to all the evidence and pay attention to any exhibits, as this will be the basis on which you must decide your verdict.
Court reporters/ stenographers/ shorthand writers
The Crown Court is a court of record. All proceedings are accurately recorded by a digital recording system operated by the court clerk, or by a shorthand writer or stenographer.
The stenographer or shorthand writer sits beside the court clerk and records everything that is said in court. This record may be used if the case goes to appeal.
Court crier/ tip staff
The court crier/ tip staff wears a gown and swears in the witnesses and announces that the jury is sworn.
If the defendant(s) is unable to understand English, interpreters will be arranged by the court.
The case will then follow a set pattern. The court clerk reads out the charges against the accused person.
A case before the Crown Court could involve:
several different crimes
A case before the High Court could involve an allegation of libel or slander.
The prosecution begins by outlining details of the case, calling and questioning witnesses. When the prosecution has finished questioning each witness, the defence counsel then has the opportunity to question these witnesses; this is called cross-examination.
When the prosecution case is complete, the defence follows a similar procedure by calling the witnesses who can be cross-examined by the prosecution.
In a few cases, such as cases involving child witnesses, the witness may sit in a separate room in the courthouse and give evidence to the court using video-link equipment.
There may be times when the legal professionals and the judge need time to discuss a point of law. The judge will ask the jury to leave the court for a short time. Once the matter has been resolved, the jury will be asked back to the courtroom.
When all the evidence has been given, the prosecution and then the defence will make their closing speeches when they will try to convince the jury of their respective cases.
Finally, the judge sums up. This means they will go over the facts of the case and tell you, the jury, about the relevant law. The judge will also give you advice before you retire to the jury room to discuss the case. Think about their comments carefully as judges are lawyers with years of experience.
Inside the jury room
Inside the jury room jurors discuss the case by carefully considering the evidence presented in court by:
all the witnesses
the arguments of the defence and prosecution
the summing up by the judge
No outside communication is allowed, except through the jury keepers.
It is an offence, punishable with a fine or imprisonment, for a juror to tell anyone about any statements, opinions, arguments or votes made by jury members while they are considering the case.
Problems during deliberation
If a jury encounters any problems while they are discussing the case amongst themselves, they can contact the judge through the jury keepers for guidance.
If no jury decision by the end of the day
The jury will be brought back into the courtroom and the judge will remind them that they should not talk to anyone about the case. They will then be formally released until the following morning.
The next morning the jury will be called into the courtroom and asked to go to the jury room.
Reaching a verdict
When you have reached a verdict, tell the jury keeper and you will be taken back into the courtroom. The court clerk will ask the foreperson to deliver the verdict on each charge.
The foreperson must take care to only answer the questions that the court clerk asks them. When this has been done, your task is over, but stay in the jury box until the judge tells you to leave.
If the defendant has been found guilty, the judge may pass sentence immediately. Alternatively, the judge may adjourn the case until reports are made available to the court, in which case sentence is passed at a later date. The judge will direct the jury about any further attendance or if they are no longer needed, at this stage.
Attending court as a juror
Claiming juror allowances
Exemptions from jury service
Receiving a jury notice
Summoned to jury service
Time off for jury service
Money awarded at court
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POLLY’S TELLIN’ STORIES
NME Jul 14, 2000 2:50 pm BST
nme.com has all the details on the singer/songwriter's eagerly-awaited return to the fray...
PJ Harvey has confirmed that her new studio album is called ‘STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA’, nme.com can reveal.
Although a final tracklisting is yet to be decided, the album is strongly rumoured to feature twelve tracks, all produced by Polly Harvey, Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey. It will be released in October through Universal/Island.
Among the tracks being considered for inclusion on the album is the duet between Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Polly Harvey, ‘This Mess We’re In’, as well as two other tracks Yorke sings backing vocals on – ‘Beautiful Feeling’ and ‘One Line’.
Speaking exclusively to nme.com last month, Harvey described Yorke as an “extremely wonderful musician…really inspiring”. She added that the pair were pen friends before they met, writing to each other to help provide “support”.
Other tracks cited for inclusion are ‘Big Exit’, ‘Kamikaze’ and ‘The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore’.
Speaking about the new album, she said: “It’s a wide variety of music, from quite gentle stuff to quite aggressive sounding sorts of music. There’s a wide range of different emotions going on this album, as I like to get as much light and shade into a record as I can.”
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Global Orchestra - a once-in-a-lifetime experience
In March last year, we opened auditions for the Nord Anglia Education Global Orchestra – an opportunity for talented musicians and singers from our school and other NAE schools around the world to perform in a once-in-a-lifetime concert in New York.
The Global Orchestra is one of the unique international experiences offered exclusively through Nord Anglia Education’s Global Campus. Students from the group’s 41 schools around the world, including BIS Abu Dhabi, learn together every day through online, in-school and worldwide experiences designed to nurture key transferable skills. The Global Campus encourages students to be ambitious and set their sights higher by fostering a global perspective throughout their learning.
The Global Orchestra challenged outstanding young musicians and singers from Nord Anglia schools to build on their talents and develop new skills as they performed together in concert. The experience enabled students to collaborate with peers, build friendships and exposed them to a wide range of musical experiences.
The auditions
Auditions were held in school with Ms Rochell and filmed, with the top performers submitted to a global judging panel to find three of the best musicians to form an orchestra and a choir. The judging panel was extremely impressed by the talent of our young musicians and it was difficult to choose just three students from each school. 46 instrumentalists and a choir of 34 singers were selected for the Global Orchestra, eventually forming an ensemble, soloists, choir, and rock band. This comprised of BIS Abu Dhabi's Melissa from Year 11 (violin), Isabella from Year 8 (voice) and Rolane from Year 7 (voice).
During the week long residential trip, as well as orchestra rehearsals, students participated in performing arts workshops at Juilliard, tickets to Broadway shows and sightseeing in the cultural hub that is New York City.
The final evening of the week saw the students perform as an orchestra at the DiMenna Center to a packed house of family, friends, Nord Anglia Education as well as representatives of The Juilliard School in a concert which, for most, was their first experience of working with a full orchestra and choir in a professional performance space.
Mark Orrow Whiting, Director of Curriculum and Student Services, Nord Anglia Education said: “Our students worked incredibly hard at the school audition stages to secure their place on this once in a lifetime experience. The final performance was a testament to their hard work rehearsing during the week and by themselves on the lead up to travelling.. This experience has been a memorable and inspiring one which not only celebrates their musical skills and the joy of performance, but also develops valuable skills such as creativity, collaboration and confidence”.
The orchestra was made up of 46 instrumentalist and 34 choir members. Our students performed a wide range of pieces, each impressing the audience. The concert included two movie themes, Michael Nyman’s Timelapse, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, both pieces giving each section of the orchestra the chance to showcase their skills.
The 34-strong choir performed an emotional and rousing rendition of Stephanie Mabey’s Glorious which also featured solos from a number of students, displaying the breadth and variety of voices chosen for the choir.
The concert reached its crescendo with orchestra and choir combining for the final piece, Pavane by Gabriel Faure, receiving a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience.
Congratulations to all our students on an amazing performance!
Posts From Our People
Message from the Principal: End of Term Reflections
So we reach the end of yet another busy and successful year at the British International School Abu Dhabi. It is a time for refl ...
Student Profile: Sophia, Year 10
Our student profile this week is Sophia from Year 10.
Message from the Head of Primary
Message from the Head of Primary, Mike Wolfe.
Student Profile: Arya, Year 12
Our student profile this week is Arya from Year 12.
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Eva Longoria Parker: Nicollette Sheridan's Lawsuit Could "Tarnish The Reputation" of "Desperate Housewives"
Published Apr 7, 2010 at 5:33 PM | Updated at 5:45 PM EDT on Apr 7, 2010
Actress Eva Longoria arrives at a celebration for 'A Practical Handbook for the Boyfriend,' written by Felicity Huffman and Patricia Wolff, at Iconology on February 5, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.
Eva Longoria Parker appears to be as surprised as everyone else with the news that Nicollette Sheridan has filed a lawsuit against "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry – and the actress hopes the suit doesn't hurt the show's image.
"It's a big lawsuit, it's a big deal, I love the show so much, that I would hate for anything to really tarnish the reputation of the show," she said during an interview with Ryan Seacrest on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" on Wednesday. "I really would like all of it to go away."
Eva said she was not on set when the alleged incident occurred in September 2008, but said it is hard for her to imagine Marc being violent.
(Listen to the interview, HERE!)
"He's funny and sweet… and probably could not harm a fly. He's just so sweet. I do know they had a thing on set, I guess it was a couple of years ago," Eva said, referring to Nicollette's claims that her former boss struck her "across the head and face" on the set – and once she complained, she was fired from the show.
Eva also said that her former co-star was a joy to work with, adding, "Nicolette's a sweet girl too, I'm really confused about this whole thing."
Eva explained that she's had no contact with Nicolette since the blonde bombshell left the ABC series.
"I haven't talked to her since she left the show… we used to be really friendly when she was here, but she was kind of on vacation for awhile, so I haven't seen her around in LA," Eva said. "I would love to see her to find out if everything is OK."
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
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PLAY IT NOW: Did 'Desperate Housewives' Creator Marc Cherry Assault Nicollette Sheridan?
PLAY IT NOW: Nicollette Sheridan & Marc Cherry Gush Over Working Together In Happier Times
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Nicollette Sheridan - Eva Longoria - Marc Cherry - Ryan Seacrest - Desperate Housewives
Copyright Access Hollywood
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'Hotel Mumbai' film brings old wounds to light for survivors of the terror attacks
The upcoming nationwide release of the film is disturbingly timely given the current state of the relations between India and Pakistan.
Dev Patel stars as "Arjun" in 'Hotel Mumbai'.Kerry Monteen / Bleecker Street
March 23, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC
By Ethan Sacks
As the cacophony of on-screen gunfire erupted over the speakers inside Toronto's Princess of Wales Theater for the premiere of "Hotel Mumbai" in September, audible sobs could also be heard from the audience.
But for Hemant Oberoi, the experience of watching the cinematic recreation of the November 2008 terror attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, part of a four-day rampage across the city that left 168 dead, was more visceral than for most of his fellow movie-goers at the Toronto Film Festival.
After all, the former head chef of the five-star hotel lived through the carnage the first time around.
“For the first couple of minutes it was very hard to go see the first shooting and everything, it takes you flashback to what had happened so many years back,” Oberoi, who stayed behind in the hotel with his staff to save as many guests as they could, recently told NBC News.
“You suddenly see in front of your eyes that all the things that have been recreated, and all the faces come back to you," said Oberoi, 64, who is portrayed in the film by Indian actor Anupam Kher. "And you remember that those people are no more in your life. And it's tough at times.”
Firefighters attend to a fire as it burns at Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel following an armed siege in Mumbai, India on November 29, 2008.Julian Herbert / Getty Images file
Australian photographer and documentary director Daniela Federici felt a "bit teary" watching the film at the premiere, but used breathing exercises to avoid a panic attack when she felt tense during the action scenes — skills she had to learn after enduring her own 20-hour hell in the Taj.
Director Anthony Maras "captured the feeling of the night completely," said Federici, who had just arrived at the hotel and left the lobby seconds before the gunmen stormed the same area and started shooting. "You just didn’t know what was going to happen. Was there going to be another explosion? Were you going to burn in the fire? Your adrenaline is going through your pores.
"Smoke from the fire [set by one of the gunmen] was coming from directly above us. My son was 2 at the time and there was a point in the morning that I had to text my family and I sort of said, 'I love you guys. I don’t think I am going to make it.'"
Federici ultimately escaped with members of her documentary crew and the wedding guests when a grenade thrown by a terrorist from an upper floor cracked the thick glass window enough to allow them to break the pane with a champagne bucket. They then scaled down the thirty feet to the street and safety using sheets tied together with nautical knots.
The more research Maras did into those individual tales of survival — including interviews with 40 survivors over the course of a year — the more he wanted to point a camera on the way many of the hotel staffers handled the crisis, giving up their own chance at escape to stay with trapped guests. Oberoi, a consultant on the film, took pride in the way waiters served tea in the proper cups to patrons in a barricaded lounge while gunshots could be heard just outside the doors.
Having opened in New York and Los Angeles Friday and set for a nationwide release next week, “Hotel Mumbai” is turning out to be disturbingly timely given the current state of the relations between India and Pakistan, where the 10 gunmen behind the attacks originated.
Tensions heat up between India and Pakistan. Here's why that matters.
March 1, 201902:15
Tensions between the neighboring nuclear powers flared after a Feb. 14 suicide bombing on the Indian side of the disputed Kashmir region left 40 dead, with the terrorist group Jaish e-Mohammed claiming responsibility. Twelve days later, India launched airstrikes on an alleged militant training camp — leading to a reprisal strike by Pakistan on the other side of the border.
“For India as a whole, the movie would be interesting at any time, but [is more so] at this specific point in time, coming after the suicide attack in Pulwama [Kashmir] killed over 40 security personnel, after the Balakot air strike, after the increased pressure being brought diplomatically by India upon Pakistan to give up masterminds of terror attacks on India,” said Anshul Chaturvedi, associate editor of the Times of India.
“At this point, it will probably attract greater scrutiny and interest than perhaps even the filmmaker may want.”
Indian chef Hemant Oberoi, who helped rescue dozens of people during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, poses outside the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai on Oct. 30, 2018.Indranil Mukherjee / AFP - Getty Images
Chaturvedi said that the average "Mumbaikar" is too tough to be traumatized by seeing the recreation of the events that ravaged their city between Nov. 26 to Nov. 29, 2008. After all, the management of the Taj Hotel even opened its doors to film some scenes on location. (Because the hotel is operational, however, the recreations of the attacks were filmed on a set in Australia.)
Still, Maras, who cowrote the screenplay with John Collee, was sensitive to the potential for inflicting pain in reliving the horror that claimed 31 lives in the hotel alone, and so used composites of real people for the characters played by big stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, and Jason Isaacs.
"We disguised some of their biographical information out of respect for the families — those who passed away and also for the privacy of those who lived," Maras said.
"The decision we made very early on in the piece where the people who checked in to the Taj Hotel, which is the focus of our story didn't sign up to be in a movie."
Maras said he used evidence from the trial of the lone gunman who was captured alive, Ajmal Kasab, to help choreograph the way the attacks unfold on screen, and transcripts of satellite phone conversations between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan as dialogue in the film.
Issacs said the director passed on that level of preparation to the cast, who also spoke to survivors.
"On set, Anthony kept the gunmen separate from the rest of the cast and hid giant speakers everywhere that would, randomly, erupt deafeningly with gunfire or explosions," the British actor said by email. "Mostly, though, we kept ourselves in a constant state of fight-or-flight terror by taking it seriously and not allowing the normal social jokiness of film sets to emerge.
"When we were filming in India, having visited the sites of the slaughter and having met some of the quiet, unsung heroes of the Taj, the reality of the nights of terror felt achingly close," added Isaacs.
They still feel achingly close for Federici and Oberoi, but both of them have vowed to not give in to fear. Oberoi reopened the first of his restaurants in the Taj just three weeks after the attack and hosted his son's wedding banquet in the hotel the following year; footage shot by Federici of the staff and guests reuniting to celebrate the reopening of the hotel 10 years ago is featured at the end of "Hotel Mumbai."
"There was time that night, probably at about 4 o'clock in the morning, when they started running after us, me and about 17 of my colleagues, in the staircase and we thought we may or may not be dead," said Oberoi. "But probably God and destiny had a little something else planned for us."
CORRECTION (March 23, 2019, 3:45 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of one of movie's screenwriters. His name is John Collee, not John Coulee.
Ethan Sacks
Ethan Sacks writes for NBCNews.com.
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I-Team InvestigationsI-Team
MORE INVESTIGATIONS, MORE ANSWERS
I-Team Tracks Sandy Relief Money from 12-12-12 Concert
By Chris Glorioso and Tom Burke
Published Feb 26, 2013 at 11:08 PM | Updated at 7:51 AM EST on Feb 27, 2013
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//www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/I-Team-Tracks-Sandy-Relief-Money-from-12-12-12-Concert_New-York.html
The biggest names in the music industry got together to raise money after Sandy. But where did the money go? The I-Team analyzed the numbers, interviewed Robin Hood's top executive, and reached out to hundreds of nonprofit organizations that received grants after the concert. Chris Glorioso reports. (Published Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013)
Some of the biggest names in music, from the Rolling Stones and The Who to Roger Waters and Paul McCartney, came together for the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief to raise millions of dollars. The money went to its organizer, the nonprofit Robin Hood Foundation, but since then many victims of the storm have been asking where the money went.
To find out, the I-Team analyzed the numbers, interviewed Robin Hood's top executive, and reached out to hundreds of nonprofit organizations that received grants after the concert.
The Robin Hood Foundation has already disbursed $50 million to more than 320 nonprofits in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but not all of that money has gone directly to rebuilding homes or into the hands of affected homeowners.
About 54 percent of the concert donations have been designated for housing rehabilitation and relief. The other 46 percent is paying for human services, like counseling, education, health and for reimbursing smaller nonprofits that provided emergency response in the hours and days immediately following the storm.
New FEMA Flood Maps for NYC Include WTC Site
Managers of the Robin Hood Foundation say they are maximizing the effect of donations by diversifying their grants, but some flooded homeowners wish the entirety of the concert proceeds would go directly to people who lost homes.
“It should be easier for the actual victims to be able to get this kind of funding and money if it's out there,” said Jeff Greenberg, whose East Rockaway house was ruined by the storm surge.
Greenberg said he called the Robin Hood Foundation soon after the concert, looking for rebuilding help. He said he was directed to a list of nonprofit partners on the organization’s website, but none could help him rehab his ruined floors.
UpdatedChristie Delivers Budget Message
“If there is a concert that made millions of dollars it should be available," said Greenberg.
But Deborah Winshel, president and COO of the Robin Hood Foundation, points out that managing the 12-12-12 concert donations is an exercise in balancing many unmet needs, of which housing is just one. Benefits counseling, for example, can act as a funding multiplier, helping storm victims help themselves far more than a direct grant worth a few hundred dollars.
“If they were denied FEMA, if they were denied insurance, a small amount of counseling can actually provide a huge benefit if suddenly they have access to thousands of dollars in insurance money or FEMA money that can get them back in their house,” said Winshel.
MTA Fare and Toll Hikes to Go into Effect in March
In other words, if Robin Hood grants $25,000 to an organization that helps homeowners file for previously denied FEMA help, and as a result 10 homeowners receive $10,000 each in federal funds, that initial investment by Robin Hood has quadrupled in terms of aid.
That kind of philanthropic efficiency is a hallmark at the Robin Hood Foundation. The organization emphasizes its salaries and administrative costs are funded entirely by its wealthy board of directors, which allows Robin Hood to dedicate 100 percent of every donated dollar to program services.
After the storm, Robin Hood also made a priority of helping nonprofit partners restore flooded facilities and equipment damaged by the storm.
The INN on Long Island, an organization that helps the homeless, received $50,000 to help repair damaged soup kitchens and to fix the homes of families in need.
City Harvest, which collects unused restaurant food and delivers it to the hungry, lost 17 delivery trucks when floods overwhelmed a garage. A $250,000 grant from Robin Hood will pay to replace two of the trucks.
Jilly Stephens, City Harvest executive director, said basic services like food provision remain just as important for Sandy victims as mold remediation and temporary rental assistance.
“You can run the gamut between housing and putting food on the table. Everything in between is where people need help still,” said Stephens.
The Robin Hood Foundation does not typically give grants directly to individuals, but instead aggregates donations and then gives the money to smaller local nonprofits which often have a better understanding of community needs.
One of those nonprofits is the Moonachie/Little Ferry Relief Fund, which was given $100,000 in concert donations to tear out and replace waterlogged, moldy insulation in 110 mobile homes near Teterboro Airport.
Portlight Strategies is another smaller nonprofit using $25,000 in concert donations to rebuild wheelchair-accessible ramps that were lost to the storm as well as replace ruined medical equipment for the disabled.
Volunteers from St. Peter’s University Hospital are using $25,000 to help New Jersey residents rebuild homes.
As for the remaining 46 percent of the Robin Hood grants, that money has gone to food, education, legal advice for homeowners dealing with FEMA applications and insurance claims, mental health counseling and reimbursing other nonprofits.
The Robin Hood Foundation gave New Jersey’s Community Health Law Project $125,000 to help low-income disabled people in Ocean and Monmouth Counties navigate a web of social service applications.
A spokesperson said the grant money is helping battle a “second wave” of problems since Sandy, including legal help for people who took in displaced neighbors after the storm only to find themselves in trouble for illegal occupancy.
The Borough of Belmar received $150,000 from Robin Hood and was able to match that figure with outside donations. It’s using the money to help homeowners pay bills for everything from reconstruction to credit cards. Homeowners can receive up to $5,000 and renters up to $2,000.
The I-Team made efforts to reach out to every one of the more than 300 grant recipients, asking how each used its share of the foundation money.
On its website, the Robin Hood Foundation has a complete list of all nonprofits that have received grants, the stated reason for the grant and the amount. There is also a breakdown, by percentage, of how the money has been distributed.
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News: Iran human rights
Iran regime plans to blind man with acid next week
Written by Staff Writer on 04 May 2016 .
NCRI - Iran’s fundamentalist regime plans to completely blind a man with acid next week as a form of punishment under the mullahs’ brutal retribution law, according to news received from inside Iran.
Mojtaba Saheli (Sabeqi), 31, who was previously blinded in his left eye by the regime, has been informed by prison officials that he is to be blinded in the right eye with acid next week in Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.
On August 3, 2009 he allegedly blinded a driver in Qom, south of Tehran, with acid. The regime’s court in Qom sentenced Mr. Saheli to be blinded in both eyes with acid, pay blood money and serve a 10-year prison term as part of the regime’s inhumane law of retribution (qisas).
On March 3, 2015 he was blinded in one eye with acid in Gohardasht Prison in the presence of the regime’s deputy prosecutor in Tehran Mohammad Shahriari and prison officials after the draconian sentence was upheld by the regime’s Supreme Court.
Mr. Saheli is currently imprisoned in Ward 2 of Hall 4 of Gohardasht Prison. He had been told to pay blood money to avoid the new blinding sentence from being implemented on his right eye.
Dr. Sanabargh Zahedi, chairman of the Judicial Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: “The inhumane law of retribution (qisas) has been implemented against the Iranian people for the past 37 years. These punishments date back to the medieval ages and show the clerical regime’s reactionary nature. These inhuman punishments are clear violations of all principles and norms of a modern judiciary, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and all civil and political covenants. Such punishments undoubtedly constitute a savage form of torture and should be condemned by any freedom-seeking person. The Iranian Resistance and NCRI members have since 1980 condemned the regime’s qisas law as anti-human.”
“According to the logic of the Quran and modern democratic Islam the first principle which applies to the penal code is dynamism. Thus the Islamic penal provision should be interpreted within the context of social and economic conditions and scientific progress. The clerical regime is centuries away from this logic, and as such it is clear that there is no possibility of reform within this regime,” he added.
Amnesty International in a statement on March 5, 2015 condemned the Iranian regime for blinding Mr. Saheli in his left eye two days earlier.
“Punishing someone by deliberately blinding them is an unspeakably cruel and shocking act," said Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International's Iran Researcher.
"This punishment exposes the utter brutality of Iran’s justice system and underlines the Iranian authorities' shocking disregard for basic humanity. Meting out cruel and inhuman retribution punishments is not justice. Blinding, like stoning, amputation and flogging, is a form of corporal punishment prohibited by international law. Such punishments should not be carried out under any circumstances.”
The Untold Story of the 1988 Massacre in Iran
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50th Anniversary Lecture Series
acadaff@neiu.edu
Contact Academic Affairs
Connect with Academic Affairs
The College of Arts and Sciences' 50th Anniversary Lecture Series presents
Thursday, April 4, 3-4:15 P.M., SU 214
Dr. Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Professor at the University of Chicago
"The Politics of Millennials in the Age of Trump: Race, Rage and Vulnerability”
Wednesday, March 13, 1-2:30 p.m., Alumni Hall North
Jason Lazarus, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History, University of South Florida, and Co-Founder of Chicago Artist Writers
"Photographic Drift"
Friday, March 8, 2-3:30 p.m., BBH 102
Dr. Canan Dagdeviren, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, LG Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab
"Wearable and Implantable Devices ‘On the Go’"
Thursday, Feb. 14, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Golden Eagles Room
Dr. Walt Wolfram
“The Linguistic Significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Implications for Sociolinguistic Justice”
In addition, Dr. Wolfram will offer a free screening of his latest documentary, "Talking Black in America," in Alumni Hall North on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m.
Reception to follow each event.
All events are free. Parking permits are required on campus at all times.
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← Back to Moment to Moment
Moment to Moment: Teens Growing Up With FASDs, DVD
Moment to Moment: Teens Growing Up With FASDs explores the lives of four adolescents with FASDs and the effect that prenatal alcohol exposure has had and continues to have on their journeys to finding independence, fulfillment, and understanding the world around them.
Moment to Moment: Teens Growing Up With FASDs takes an intimate and eye-opening journey into the lives of those affected by FASDs, their families and friends, and captures the challenges that families must overcome as children with FASDs reach maturity and attempt to strike out on their own as young adults.
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Middle East|Sudden Improvements in Egypt Suggest a Campaign to Undermine Morsi
Sudden Improvements in Egypt Suggest a Campaign to Undermine Morsi
A supporter of former President Morsi read the Koran in Cairo. Many say sudden improvements prove that opponents conspired against Mr. Morsi.CreditCreditNarciso Contreras for The New York Times
By Ben Hubbard and David D. Kirkpatrick
CAIRO — The streets seethe with protests and government ministers are on the run or in jail, but since the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, life has somehow gotten better for many people across Egypt: Gas lines have disappeared, power cuts have stopped and the police have returned to the street.
The apparently miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role — intentionally or not — in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Mr. Morsi.
And as the interim government struggles to unite a divided nation, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mr. Morsi’s supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make Mr. Morsi fail. Not only did police officers seem to disappear, but the state agencies responsible for providing electricity and ensuring gas supplies failed so fundamentally that gas lines and rolling blackouts fed widespread anger and frustration.
“This was preparing for the coup,” said Naser el-Farash, who served as the spokesman for the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade under Mr. Morsi. “Different circles in the state, from the storage facilities to the cars that transport petrol products to the gas stations, all participated in creating the crisis.”
Working behind the scenes, members of the old establishment, some of them close to Mr. Mubarak and the country’s top generals, also helped finance, advise and organize those determined to topple the Islamist leadership, including Naguib Sawiris, a billionaire and an outspoken foe of the Brotherhood; Tahani el-Gebali, a former judge on the Supreme Constitutional Court who is close to the ruling generals; and Shawki al-Sayed, a legal adviser to Ahmed Shafik, Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, who lost the presidential race to Mr. Morsi.
But it is the police returning to the streets that offers the most blatant sign that the institutions once loyal to Mr. Mubarak held back while Mr. Morsi was in power. Throughout his one-year tenure, Mr. Morsi struggled to appease the police, even alienating his own supporters rather than trying to overhaul the Interior Ministry. But as crime increased and traffic clogged roads — undermining not only the quality of life, but the economy — the police refused to deploy fully.
White-clad officers have returned to Cairo’s streets, and security forces — widely despised before and after the revolution — intervened with tear gas and shotguns against Islamists during widespread street clashes last week, leading anti-Morsi rioters to laud them as heroes. Posters have gone up around town showing a police officer surrounded by smiling children over the words “Your security is our mission, your safety our goal.”
“You had officers and individuals who were working under a specific policy that was against Islamic extremists and Islamists in general,” said Ihab Youssef, a retired police officer who runs a professional association for the security forces. “Then all of a sudden the regime flips and there is an Islamic regime ruling. They could never psychologically accept that.”
When Mr. Mubarak was removed after nearly 30 years in office in 2011, the bureaucracy he built stayed largely in place. Many business leaders, also a pillar of the old government, retained their wealth and influence.
Despite coming to power through the freest elections in Egyptian history, Mr. Morsi was unable to extend his authority over the sprawling state apparatus, and his allies complained that what they called the “deep state” was undermining their efforts at governing.
As crime and traffic worsened under President Mohamed Morsi, the police refused to respond, hurting the quality of life and the economy. Since his ouster last week, officers have returned to patrols.CreditYusuf Sayman for The New York Times
While he failed to broaden his appeal and build any kind of national consensus, he also faced an active campaign by those hostile to his leadership, including some of the wealthiest and most powerful pillars of the Mubarak era.
Mr. Sawiris, one of Egypt’s richest men and a titan of the old establishment, said Wednesday that he had supported an upstart group called “tamarrod,” Arabic for “rebellion,” that led a petition drive seeking Mr. Morsi’s ouster. He donated use of the nationwide offices and infrastructure of the political party he built, the Free Egyptians. He provided publicity through a popular television network he founded and his major interest in Egypt’s largest private newspaper. He even commissioned the production of a popular music video that played heavily on the network.
“Tamarrod did not even know it was me!” he said. “I am not ashamed of it.”
He said he had publicly predicted that ousting Mr. Morsi would bolster Egypt’s sputtering economy because it would bring in billions of dollars in aid from oil-rich monarchies afraid that the Islamist movement might spread to their shores. By Wednesday, a total of $12 billion had flowed in from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. “That will take us for 12 months with no problem,” Mr. Sawiris said.
Ms. Gebali, the former judge, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that she and other legal experts helped tamarrod create its strategy to appeal directly to the military to oust Mr. Morsi and pass the interim presidency to the chief of the constitutional court.
“We saw that there was movement and popular creativity, so we wanted to see if it would have an effect and a constitutional basis,” Ms. Gebali said.
Mr. Farash, the trade ministry spokesman under Mr. Morsi, attributed the fuel shortages to black marketers linked to Mr. Mubarak, who diverted shipments of state-subsidized fuel to sell for a profit abroad. Corrupt officials torpedoed Mr. Morsi’s introduction of a smart card system to track fuel shipments by refusing to use the devices, he said.
But not everyone agreed with that interpretation, as supporters of the interim government said the improvements in recent days were a reflection of Mr. Morsi’s incompetence, not a conspiracy. State news media said energy shortages occurred because consumers bought extra fuel out of fear, which appeared to evaporate after Mr. Morsi’s fall. On Wednesday, Al Ahram, the flagship newspaper, said the energy grid had had a surplus in the past week for the first time in months, thanks to “energy-saving measures by the public.”
“I feel like Egypt is back,” Ayman Abdel-Hakam, a criminal court judge from a Cairo suburb, said after waiting only a few minutes to fill up his car at a downtown gas station. He accused Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to seize all state power and accused them of creating the fuel crisis by exporting gasoline to Hamas, the militant Islamic group in the Gaza Strip.
“We had a disease, and we got rid of it,” Mr. Abdel-Hakam said.
Ahmed Nabawi, a gas station manager, said he had heard several reasons for the gas crisis: technical glitches at a storage facility, a shipment of low-quality gas from abroad and unnecessary stockpiling by the public. Still, he was amazed at how quickly the crisis disappeared.
“We went to sleep one night, woke up the next day, and the crisis was gone,” he said, casually sipping tea in his office with his colleagues.
Regardless of the reasons behind the crisis, he said, Mr. Morsi’s rule had not helped.
“No one wanted to cooperate with his people because they didn’t accept him,” he said. “Now that he is gone, they are working like they’re supposed to.”
Because of editing errors, an article on Thursday about suspicions among some Egyptians that the end of gas and electricity shortages since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi was evidence of a conspiracy to undermine him rendered incorrectly a description of the military’s transition plan for Egypt given by Tahani el-Gebali, a former judge on the Supreme Constitutional Court; misidentified the interim president; and misstated his position before being appointed. Ms. Gebali discussed the plan only in broad terms and said that whoever was chief of the constitutional court would become interim president; she did not name a specific individual. The interim president is Adli Mansour, not Hazem el-Beblawi, and when he was named he was chief of the constitutional court, not the former chief. (Mr. Beblawi is the interim prime minister.)
The article also included an outdated reference to a television network that publicized the drive to oust Mr. Morsi. The network was founded by an Egyptian billionaire, Naguib Sawiris, but he no longer owns it; it is not “his” network.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Sudden Improvements in Egypt Suggest a Campaign to Undermine Morsi. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Timeline of Turmoil in Egypt From Mubarak and Morsi to Sisi
Egypt’s Government Broadens Its Accusations Against Islamists
Egypt Is Arena for Influence of Arab Rivals
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Masala Dosa to Die For
P. Rajagopal, center, at home surrounded by his staff.CreditCreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
By Rollo Romig
Saravana Bhavan doesn’t look like a house of secrets. Its dining room at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 26th Street is clean and bright and often attracts a line out front. It doesn’t advertise because it doesn’t need to; the fact that it’s one of the world’s largest chains of vegetarian restaurants — 33 in India, another 47 in a dozen other countries — is considered too obvious to its core clientele of Indian expatriates and tourists to be worth trumpeting. In a city overwhelmed with underwhelming north Indian food, Saravana Bhavan is the standard-bearer of the delicacies of the south, but it makes no effort to educate the uninitiated. If you don’t know what a dosa is or how to eat it, you’re on your own.
The man behind the chain is an elusive 66-year-old named P. Rajagopal. Among his peers in the restaurant business in Chennai, the south Indian city where Saravana Bhavan is headquartered, Rajagopal is a legend. “He brought prestige to the vegetarian business,” said a restaurateur named Manoharan, who runs a competing chain called Murugan Idli. “He made a revolution.”
Fast food at Saravana Bhavan on Lexington Avenue in New York.CreditAndrew Hetherington for The New York Times
Born into a low caste in a remote province, he came to rule a field that was once the sole domain of Brahmins, cleverly updating their traditional fare in a setting that was both respectable and unpretentious, thereby catering to India’s middle class at just the moment it emerged. Today he employs more than 8,000 people in Chennai alone. His workers enjoy benefits fantastic enough for Silicon Valley (pensions, TVs, education), inspiring among them fierce loyalty to Rajagopal. Every day thousands of pilgrims come to pray at the temples he built in the village of his birth, and a hundred thousand come to eat in his restaurants.
His business model is so seemingly foolproof that the company has acquired an air of invincibility, even as its founder became sullied with scandal. As Saravana Bhavan went global, Rajagopal was charged with murder, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Yet he served a total of only 11 months, and today he’s free to continue his expansion — next stop Hong Kong, followed by Sydney, Australia. And then, if his health holds out, building his first luxury hotel.
Saravana Bhavan specializes in the holy trinity of south Indian snacks known as tiffin: dosa, idli and vada. All are made from ground rice and lentils, with remarkably different results. Dosas are crispy golden crepes that are most deliciously served with a masala of potato and onion; vadas are deep-fried savory doughnuts; and idlis, the south’s staple food, are pure-white saucer-shaped steamed cakes. At most branches of Saravana Bhavan in Chennai, you can also find for sale a little book titled, “I Set My Heart on Victory.” First published in 1997, the book is Rajagopal’s memoir and manifesto, a curious blend of mythmaking and self-effacement.
Vadas, deep fried crispy lentil doughnuts, at Saravana Bhavan on Lexington Avenue in New York.CreditAndrew Hetherington for The New York Times
His story begins in 1947, 10 days before India’s independence from the British, when he was born in the vast brushland in the southern state Tamil Nadu. His village, Punnaiadi, was so inconsequential that it didn’t merit a bus stop; his home was a shack with mud-and-cow-dung floors. Rajagopal writes that he quit school after seventh grade, left home alone and took a job wiping tables at a cheap restaurant in a distant resort town, where he showered in a waterfall and slept on the kitchen floor. But he was proud of his work, especially after the restaurant’s tea master inducted him into the mysteries of making a perfect chai.
When he was a teenager, he moved to Chennai, then known as Madras, and in 1968 opened the first in a series of tiny groceries on the outskirts of the city. One day in 1979, at his grocery in a neighborhood called KK Nagar, a salesman made a casual remark: He’d have to go all the way to T Nagar for lunch because KK Nagar didn’t have any restaurants.
A century ago, there were virtually no restaurants in all of Chennai. “It’s a country that was very conservative about eating out,” said Krishnendu Ray, a food-studies professor at N.Y.U. When Rajagopal was born, the restaurant scene consisted of little more than Brahmin hotels: modest affairs catering to the traveling upper caste, whose dietary rules dictated that they couldn’t eat food cooked by any caste but their own. As a member of the Nadar caste, Rajagopal wouldn’t have been allowed to eat in most Brahmin hotels, let alone run one. But by the time he came of age, entrepreneurs from other castes had begun to meet Chennai’s increasing appetite for dining out.
There was little to suggest that Rajagopal was ready to join them. When he opened his debut restaurant in KK Nagar in 1981, his struggling shops had left him deep in debt, and he knew little about food service beyond selling groceries. He made the leap, he told me, only after an astrologer recommended that he try a line of work that involved fire. A business adviser insisted that he should use cheap ingredients and pay his staff as little as possible; food workers are vagabonds, he said, and they’ll take what they can get. “I did not like his argument at all,” Rajagopal writes in his memoir. He fired the adviser, started using coconut oil and top-quality vegetables and gave his workers surprisingly high wages. The business lost 10,000 rupees a month — a big deficit for a restaurant where most items on the menu sold for a rupee apiece.
But word spread that his food was tasty and cheap, and soon Rajagopal was turning a profit and opening new branches. He expanded his workers’ benefits, all of them unprecedented in Indian restaurants: free health care, housing stipends, a marriage fund for their daughters. Saravana Bhavan workers started calling him Annachi, a Tamil term of respect that means “elder brother.”
A Saravana Bhavan restaurant in Chennai, India, on a festival night.CreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
By the ‘90s, a Saravana Bhavan could be found in neighborhoods throughout Chennai. Locals sometimes refer to the brand as their version of McDonald’s: well lit, ubiquitous and uncannily consistent. Unlike McDonald’s, the restaurants make everything from scratch. One afternoon, a trio of bright-eyed assistants from the company’s R & D department gave me a tour of the branch in Mylapore, a Chennai neighborhood. I was surprised to find that there were no freezers, just a single walk-in cooler for vegetables that had been bought at market the day before. Even the rice flour for the dosas was ground on the premises.
When the tour was over, the assistants talked to me about Rajagopal. “He is the same as the father of a family,” one said. “Any problem I have, he addresses it.” The company pays for employees to visit Rajagopal’s home village for a few days each year, he told me, driving them down in a company bus. “When I go there, I can witness all the love and affection the village people have for Annachi.”
I asked if the company had cut back on its package of benefits as it has grown. “They’ve only been increasing,” a second assistant said. The company provides them with magazine subscriptions, a cellphone and a motorbike, he said, and covers the cost of fuel. (The only benefit it discontinued was a haircut allowance.)
“And we have mechanics so that we don’t have to go outside to fix our vehicles,” the third told me.
“My friend used to joke with me, ‘The only thing you can do with your salary is put it in the bank and save it,’ ” the second assistant said. “They take care of everything.”
In 2000, Saravana Bhavan branched out for the first time beyond India, opening a franchise in Dubai, where Indian expats vastly outnumber native-born Emiratis. According to Rajagopal’s elder son, Shiva Kumaar, the opening-day crowd was like “for a newly released movie.” They’d eventually expand to Paris, Frankfurt, London, Dallas and Doha, Qatar. The strategy is simple: open one restaurant in every city with a large expat Indian population. (One exception is Manhattan, which has two.) Prey on homesickness by importing skilled chefs to ensure that the food tastes just the way it does in Chennai. Don’t bother trying to pursue non-Indian customers.
In 2002, the year that he opened franchises in Singapore and Sunnyvale, Calif., Rajagopal was charged with murdering the husband of a woman he wanted to marry. In 2003, his restaurant expanded to Canada, Oman and Malaysia, and he went to jail for the first time. In 2004, a local Chennai court sentenced him to 10 years in prison. By the end of that year, the empire had opened 29 branches worldwide.
Eight months into his prison term, the Supreme Court suspended Rajagopal’s sentence on medical grounds while awaiting appeal, citing his diabetes. In 2009, the Madras High Court not only upheld the verdict but also upgraded the conviction from culpable homicide to murder and enhanced his sentence to life in prison. After another three-month stint, he was out on bail pending a Supreme Court hearing, which no one expects to happen anytime soon. The courts won’t give him back his passport, but otherwise he’s free to go about his life. All but one of Saravana Bhavan’s 47 foreign franchises have opened in the 12 years since the murder.
“It’s amazing how he managed it,” said Sriram V., a local historian. “I mean, our legal system is not that bad.”
Chennai’s tabloids published every lurid detail of the murder allegations, but the restaurant just kept growing. “Others in that position would have totally collapsed,” said Manoharan, of the competing chain Murugan Idli. “People thought he was finished. But there was no impact.”
It helped that Rajagopal has little interest in personal fame; he promotes the restaurant’s brand, not his own, which makes it easier for customers to compartmentalize. As one Saravana Bhavan loyalist told me: “Some of my friends used to say, How can you go and eat in his restaurant? You’re actually fattening the wallet of a murderer. And I used to tell them, Look, I don’t know with whom I do business in my day-to-day activity, whether he’s a drunk or beats his wife. I have no idea, but I do business. So as long as he’s giving me good-quality food, I go there.”
Saravana Bhavan employees have been especially faithful. M. Mahadevan, a consultant who has helped with the chain’s international expansion, told me a story to illustrate their devotion. “I was at the Saravana Bhavan down the road, drinking coffee with some friends,” Mahadevan said. “The old man” — that’s what Mahadevan calls Rajagopal — “was in prison at that time. These big hulky guys came in, eight of them — they were local rowdies. They wanted to eat without paying. One of them was bullying the waiter, saying: ‘Hey, mister, how’s your boss? Don’t act funny, I know he’s inside.’ There was a boy pouring water, and he told them: ‘You’re talking about my boss. You say anything against him, and I’ll put this jug of water into your mouth. Not on you — into your mouth.’ I was astonished. The boy was three-foot-nothing. And immediately all the waiters came and stood next to him.
“For him, the old man was a god. Period. He’s got that kind of loyalty. He takes boys from the street, from the villages, and he teaches them. He picks them up and molds them.”
One gloomy Wednesday evening in August, I went to meet Rajagopal at Saravana Bhavan’s headquarters, passing several of his restaurants as I inched my way through the city’s eternal gridlock. Mahadevan met me in the dining room and escorted me to the boss’s office, introducing me on the way to Rajagopal’s 39-year-old son, Saravanan, who is gradually taking over the company’s domestic operations. (His elder brother, Shiva Kumaar, runs the international business.) For a while the three of us sat and stared at the walls: Every surface was covered with blown-up images of Rajagopal’s family and favorite Hindu deities. Then suddenly Mahadevan and Saravanan rose. The office door swung open, and Rajagopal entered.
He was grayer and jowlier than he was in the photographs I’d seen. He regarded the room with mild amusement, bowed politely and walked behind his desk, where he faced a portrait of a popular guru and folded his hands for a moment of prayer. With him was Ganapathi Iyer, his oldest friend, and a personal assistant and a valet. We all sat but the valet, who stood ready with a glass of water the instant his boss coughed. Nobody relaxed.
I asked Rajagopal about his origins and business philosophy. Each question was answered with a cascade of replies: Rajagopal would answer in Tamil, then Saravanan or Mahadevan or Iyer or all three would jump in to elaborate or clarify in English, a language Rajagopal doesn’t understand. It was a dynamic that sometimes clearly frustrated the boss.
When I asked about the murder, everyone started talking at once, until Rajagopal cut impatiently through the chatter. “I’m not responsible for anyone’s death,” he said. “I used to pray to my god, why was I punished for someone else’s mistake?” There was a reason, he decided: “God wanted to give an opportunity for my son Saravanan to learn business.” Saravanan smiled faintly.
P. Rajagopal, founder of Saravana Bhavan restaurants, with his assistant, Suresh.CreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
By the time we finished talking, it was nearly 11, and Rajagopal’s workday still wasn’t over. In the foyer outside his office, eight employees were standing in line waiting to speak with him. An older man with a handlebar mustache and a proud bearing told me that he was a night watchman and was there to ask Rajagopal for a promotion. Another said he hoped to be transferred to a different branch. A third said he wanted to inform Rajagopal of his coming wedding.
I went back into Rajagopal’s office. He sat at his desk, studying a spreadsheet with the aid of a magnifying glass. He consulted his assistant and then called in the first man. Rajagopal ignored him and barked into a walkie-talkie, asking the voice on the other end what had brought in this man who stood before him.
From the walkie-talkie came a surprising answer: “They keep fighting the whole night.” That was not what he told me outside. The man hung his head. Rajagopal fired him on the spot.
The next man came in, and another voice on the walkie-talkie told Rajagopal that he’d been fiddling with his cellphone in the dining room. It turned out that nearly all the employees in line had lied to me; they were there to be disciplined.
“You’ve been with us for two and a half years — don’t you know that you’re not supposed to use your phone during work hours?” Rajagopal said.
“I did it by mistake,” the man mumbled.
“Answer my question!” Rajagopal snapped.
“I forgot,” the man said.
“How can you forget? When you’re in service, you should serve.”
He decided to give the man another chance. Next up was the watchman.
“I heard you got drunk and abused everyone and used foul words,” Rajagopal said. “And you should shave off your mustache. These are not good habits.”
“I’m sorry, Annachi,” he said. “Forgive me.”
“How can I?” Rajagopal asked. “There’s an age to forgive. At your age, it doesn’t make sense.” The watchman stared at the floor. “Are you listening?” Rajagopal asked.
Again he decided to have mercy; the man would keep his job as long as he laid off the booze. He whispered his thanks and left without ever looking up.
The night’s work was over; Rajagopal sat back in his chair. “What to do?” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes.”
At the conclusion of Rajagopal’s appeal trial in 2009, the Madras High Court issued a 30,000-word document that served as its definitive statement on the case. “By and large, a witness cannot be expected to possess a photographic memory to recall the details of the incident and the actual words uttered,” the court warns. “It is not as if a videotape is replayed on the mental screen.” But this is the version of events that the court found most credible.
Rajagopal, in the van, after surrendering in 2009.CreditOutlook Magazine
According to the document, Rajagopal — possibly on the advice of his astrologer — became determined to marry Jeevajothi, the young daughter of one of his assistant managers. That would have made her Rajagopal’s third simultaneous wife: In 1972, he married the mother of his sons, and in 1994, he married the wife of one of his employees.
Jeevajothi was not interested in Rajagopal. She was in love with her brother’s math tutor, Santhakumar. In 1999, Jeevajothi and Santhakumar eloped, but Rajagopal’s fixation persisted; he gave her jewelry, dresses and several installments of cash to help her open a travel agency. While Jeevajothi accepted the gifts, she continued to resist Rajagopal’s advances. On Sept. 28, 2001, Rajagopal came to Jeevajothi and Santhakumar’s house at midnight and warned Santhakumar that he had two days to sever their relationship. He told Jeevajothi that his second wife, too, had at first rejected him, but now she was living “a queen life.”
The young couple tried to flee to a place where they hoped Rajagopal wouldn’t find them, but five of Rajagopal’s employees, led by a restaurant manager named Daniel, intercepted them. The henchmen forced the couple into an Ambassador car and drove them to a Saravana Bhavan warehouse in KK Nagar, where Rajagopal appeared. According to the court’s narrative, Rajagopal hiked up his dhoti and gave Santhakumar a beating. Jeevajothi fell at Rajagopal’s feet and begged him to stop. Rajagopal told his men to take Santhakumar to the next room and continue beating him. Jeevajothi sat in the corner and wept.
The next day, Daniel called Jeevajothi to apologize and suggested that she go to the police.
Though Rajagopal’s men held Jeevajothi and Santhakumar under a kind of house arrest, they escaped on Oct. 12 under the pretext of going out to attend a “felicitation function” for Rajagopal. Instead, they went to the city police commissioner’s office to file a complaint. Six days later, Rajagopal’s employees kidnapped the couple again and forcibly separated them. They pushed Jeevajothi into a Mercedes with Rajagopal, who brandished a photocopy of her police complaint and asked her mockingly about its contents.
Jeevajothi didn’t know what became of Santhakumar. He reached her by phone two days later, telling her that Rajagopal had paid Daniel 500,000 rupees ($10,000) to kill him, but Daniel had instead let him escape and advised him to hide out in Mumbai. She urged Santhakumar to come home to her; together, Jeevajothi said, they’d plead with Rajagopal to leave them alone. “It is obvious,” the court wrote, “that their overwhelming love for each other persuaded them to take the risk.”
Later that night, the couple, joined by Jeevajothi’s parents and brother, went to Saravana Bhavan headquarters to meet Rajagopal. He told them to wait in a nearby room. Then he interrogated Daniel about what happened to Santhakumar. Daniel lied and said that he had tied him up on a railway track, where a train ran him over, and then he burned his clothes. With a dramatic flourish, Rajagopal then called Santhakumar into the room. Who’s this then, he asked Daniel, Santhakumar’s ghost? Daniel started beating Santhakumar there in the office, enraged that he’d revealed his betrayal of Rajagopal. Jeevajothi and her family tried to intervene. Eventually Rajagopal and his henchmen put them all into a van, which, according to the court, took them to a specialist in a faraway village “for removal of witchcraft.”
Two days later, Rajagopal’s men forced Santhakumar into a car with Daniel, and they drove north. On Oct. 31, high up in the Western Ghats mountain range near a resort town called Kodaikanal, forest officials discovered a body. An assistant surgeon at the local hospital concluded in his post-mortem that the cause of Santhakumar’s death was “asphyxia due to throttling.” The police later found the alleged murder weapon — a sarong — under the seat of Daniel’s car.
Daniel was convicted of murder along with Rajagopal and has also been released on bail, but I was never able to track him down. Jeevajothi, too, has made herself impossible to find.
Three days after I met Rajagopal in Chennai, I took a short flight to visit the village where he grew up. Rajagopal’s driver picked me up, and he beamed when I asked him what the boss was like. “He’s like a living god to us,” he said. “He understands every problem, and he resolves it.”
The village’s name has been upgraded from Punnaiadi to Punnai Nagar, because of Rajagopal’s development of the area, he told me. The bus even stops there now. In terms of population, Punnai Nagar is no bigger than it was when Rajagopal was born. Yet the village has been transformed. In the middle of the red-dirt moonscape, Rajagopal has erected a surreal monument to his success, in the form of a four-acre Saravana Bhavan campus. The centerpiece is a million-dollar Hindu temple, which is flanked by a Saravana Bhavan restaurant that employs 140 people — all for a village that has fewer than 90 homes.
A portrait of P. Rajagopal hangs in the living room of his house in Punnai Nagar.CreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
A worker took me on a tour of Rajagopal’s house, which he built in 1994 on the spot where his childhood hut once stood, and where he has increasingly been spending his time. It’s a huge beige block, nearly all of it given over to dormitory rooms for his staff. The only decorations are pictures of gods. The worker led me to a black couch on the second floor, and a few minutes later, Rajagopal emerged from a back room and sat on a chair opposite me. Ganapathi Iyer was there again, as were his assistant and his valet, who pricked Rajagopal’s finger for a blood-sugar test. But this time Rajagopal was less willing to let them control the conversation.
I asked him about a rumor that while in prison he had managed to improve the food served by the prison canteen. “You can’t change anything there,” he said. “I had to spend one lakh [100,000 rupees] every month in order to get home food delivered to me.”
“Don’t tell him about this,” Iyer said to Rajagopal. “Do we have to talk about the corruption?”
“They should know how corrupt we are,” Rajagopal said. “We can’t just keep bragging that we are good all the time. The truth has to be told.”
I asked him what he likes least about his work.
“I don’t like employees drinking and lying,” he said. “If you ask me, I don’t like that I went after Jeevajothi.”
“Sir, not that,” Iyer said, “just office work, office work.”
“There’s nothing I dislike about the work,” Rajagopal said.
Employees at Saravana Bhavan in New York take a coffee break. From left, Jhanga Durai, Paramisvam, Mallan and Subramani.CreditAndrew Hetherington for The New York Times
After a while Rajagopal said he was getting tired. As we got up to leave, he talked about how important it was for successful villagers like him to support the places they came from. “Developing villages was Gandhi’s dream,” he said. “I believe in Gandhi.”
I asked what he admired most about Gandhi, and he laughed. “I like that he had a girl on each arm.” He turned to my translator. “Tell him that having girls around keeps a guy young forever.”
“Tell him these last comments were just a joke,” his assistant said.
Shortly before I left Chennai, I met again with Rajagopal’s son Saravanan. This time it was just the two of us, and we talked for hours in the foyer outside his father’s office. Saravanan is a large but gentle man, his husky voice rarely much louder than a whisper.
He described his father as a “keep-guessing character.” “You don’t know what he will come up wanting,” he said. “A phone call comes, and you have to be dead sure what he’s asking and what you’re answering. That fear is there for everybody.” Is he an intimidating boss to work for? I asked. “When he wants things done a certain way, he’s quite intimidating,” Saravanan said. “It has to be done at any cost.”
If he’d had his choice, he said, he would have become an engineer. “My dad said, No, we come from a business community; you have to study commerce.” So he did two years of commerce, and then Rajagopal told him he had to study hotel management. From there his father assigned him to a seven-year rotation through the company’s departments: purchasing vegetables, working the graveyard shift in the kitchen, manning a Saravana sweets shop, making ice cream, working in maintenance and accounting and human resources.
It’s clear that Saravanan never gave up his dream of becoming an engineer — he just transferred his ideas to his father’s business. Rajagopal’s exacting standards were dictated by the instinct of a self-made man. Saravanan wants to translate that instinct into a science, and when he talks about the company that’s becoming his, his conversation is peppered with terms that would be foreign to his father, like “management information system” and “total dissolved solids.” In a biochemical lab Saravanan set up on the top floor of the company’s ice-cream factory, he has been trying to determine the exact chemical composition of Saravana’s dishes in their ideal form, and the lab uses this information to test daily samples from each of the company’s Chennai branches to ensure that all are supplying the same quality.
A Saravana Bhavan in Chennai, India.CreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
As the company continues to grow, manpower is a worry. Saravanan said he is committed to making everything from fresh ingredients — in fact, he wants to take it further, and he has been experimenting with replacing the artificial stabilizer in Saravana’s otherwise all-natural house-brand ice cream with flaxseed. But such cooking requires vast kitchen staffs, and as better education reaches more and more Indians, he said, fewer workers are interested in that kind of labor.
One solution Saravanan likes is automation. Another in-house lab is developing prototypes for everything from coffee machines to vada fryers, according to Saravana Bhavan’s very particular specifications. He recognizes, though, that the mass utility of such machines is still years away; in the meantime, personnel remains the company’s most treasured asset, so he has also systematized the hiring process. An in-house medical team records each applicant’s vital statistics using software Saravanan developed. A coffee man, he explained, should be small and quiet, while a dosa chef needs to be at least 5-foot-6.
But he was quick to note the limits of such algorithms. Just that morning, he said, the medical team alerted him to their concerns over a particular applicant: They noticed that he had cigarette burns on his forearm, apparently self-inflicted. Saravanan decided to call the man and ask him what happened. “He told me, ‘I had a love affair, it failed, she got married, I got agitated,’ ” Saravanan said. “He made a mistake that was a small part of his life.” The company is strict, but not unforgiving. He told the man he would hire him. And if the job worked out, Saravana Bhavan would pay to erase his scars.
A version of this article appears in print on , Page 32 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Masala Dosa to Die For. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
The Hard Life of Celebrity Elephants
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Radical forces plan to replace our constitution
By agreeing to the Maori Party’s demand for a Constitutional Review, as part of their 2008 and 2011 Confidence and Supply Agreements, the National Party is advancing the agenda of radical forces determined to change our constitutional arrangements in their favour. Their goal is to elevate the Treaty of Waitangi into ‘supreme’ law to give tribal members superior rights and privileges that would forever be outside the reach of elected Members of Parliament who might want to change it in the future.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Elizabeth Rata, Associate Professor of Education at Auckland University, shares with us a paper she wrote in 2005. Marching through the institutions describes how successive governments have played into the hands of an ambitious tribal elite that has spent decades infiltrating the public service, academia, churches, professions, and the media, planning for the moment when they can make their strike for constitutional status and power:
“For over two decades a group of neotribal leaders have controlled the shifting interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi. That control has, through complex brokerage processes, led to the group’s own emergence as a self-interested political elite. The elite’s ‘strategic march through the institutions’ is now at the final constitutional stage.”
Dr Rata explains that gaining full control of the government’s Waitangi Tribunal has been “pivotal in establishing, then naturalising, the concepts of treaty partnership and principles”, including “rewriting New Zealand’s history”. She points out the failure of politicians to protect the public interest by drawing attention to the “unprecedented way in which governments were losing control of policy formulation and execution in relation to the treaty. This is most clearly demonstrated by the way in which the treaty principles have been brokered into government legislation with enormous consequences for all sectors and levels of government activity.”
In particular she highlights how “Simon Upton’s description of the early 1990s National Government’s incorporation of treaty principles into legislation through the highly influential 1991 Resource Management Act reveals an almost cavalier approach to this most far-reaching of government activities. ‘I am quite sure that none of us knew what we meant when we signed up to that formula’. By ‘formula’, Upton referred to the requirement that local government, through the Resource Management Act, ‘take account of the “principles” of the treaty’. The Labour Government also appeared not to have grasped the significance of the brokerage of treaty principles into legislation. In 2000, Helen Clark, acknowledged that ‘there is no one in Cabinet actually co-ordinating the insertion of treaty clauses into new legislation’.” To read this prophetic article, please click here Under our present constitutional arrangements, Parliament is supreme. It has the power to change any New Zealand law. But those who want to elevate their rights and privileges into a new constitution claim that New Zealanders are feeling ‘uncomfortable’ that MPs have the power to change our constitutional arrangements. Instead, by replacing our present constitution with a new one based on the Treaty, they would be giving unelected Judges supreme power over our democratically elected Parliament. This would enable these Judges to strike down any attempts by future parliaments to change the constitution or remove racial privilege on the basis that it would be ‘unconstitutional’. Those unelected Judges would then have supreme power over our Parliament and over all New Zealander citizens.
The Maori Party’s attempt to change New Zealand’s long established constitutional arrangements has come about as a result of the political decision made by National to support their demand for a review of our constitution. Their 2008 Confidence and Supply Agreement stated, “Both parties agree to the establishment (including its composition and terms of reference)… of a group to consider constitutional issues including Maori representation. The Maori Party will be consulted on membership and the choice of Chairperson, and will be represented on the group.”
Tthe Constitutional Review was jointly launched in December 2010 by the Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and the Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples. At the launch Bill English explained that they would be considering whether any aspects of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements “require change” and he noted, Of course, we will keep in mind that enduring constitutional changes generally require a broad base of support. Significant change will not be undertaken lightly and will require either broad cross-party agreement or the majority support of voters at a referendum.
This final comment should not be brushed off lightly, but should act as a warning. When other countries have contemplated constitutional change a commitment is usually made to citizens that change will only go ahead if there is widespread support through a public referendum. Here in New Zealand it appears that our fate might be decided by political parties, which under MMP, are increasingly anxious to nurture political allegiances, at a cost to the public good. One only has to look at the Parliamentary vote on the smacking bill to remember that while the public were overwhelmingly opposed to the law change, MPs were almost united in overwhelmingly supporting it. That is a situation that must not be repeated. New Zealanders must demand from the outset that constitutional change can only go ahead if there is majority support through a public referendum process.
Cabinet papers show that the purpose of the Constitutional Review is to stimulate public debate and awareness of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, to seek the views of all New Zealanders, to understand New Zealanders’ perspectives on our constitutional arrangements, and to recommend what further consideration of the issues, if any, is desirable. In addition, Cabinet agreed that the views of Maori must be sought “in ways that reflect the partnership model and are responsive to Maori consultation preferences”.1 In other words, the review is already skewed towards a Maori viewpoint – instead of Maori being treated as equal citizens with regards to the review, special consideration has already been proposed.
The terms of reference for the Review cover three basic areas:
1. Electoral matters including the size of Parliament, the length of terms of Parliament, the size and number of electorates, and electoral integrity legislation;
2. Crown-Maori relationship matters including Maori representation – the Maori Electoral Option, Maori electoral participation, Maori seats in Parliament and local government – and the role of the Treaty of Waitangi within New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements; and
3. Other matters such as Bill of Rights issues, and whether New Zealand should have a written constitution.
A cross party reference group of MPs set up at the time to advise on the Review consists of Amy Adams from the National Party, David Parker from the Labour Party, Hilary Calvert from ACT, Metiria Turei from the Greens, Peter Dunne from United, and Rahui Katene from the Maori Party.
On August 4 last year – just before the election – the 12 member Constitutional Advisory Panel to lead the public discussion and prepare a report for Ministers was announced. The joint chairmen are:
– Emeritus Professor John Burrows, Queens Council and Law Commissioner,
– Sir Tipene O’Regan, former Chairman of Ngai Tahu.
Panel members are:
– Peter Chin, lawyer and former Mayor of Dunedin;
– Deborah Coddington, journalist and former ACT MP;
– Hon Dr Michael Cullen, former Labour Deputy Prime Minister and current principal Treaty Claims negotiator for Tuwharetoa iwi;
– Hon John Luxton, former National Cabinet Minister and co-Chair of the Waikato River Authority;
– Bernice Mene, former Silver Ferns representative and TV presenter;
– Dr Leonie Pihama, senior researcher in Maori and Indigenous education;
– Hinurewa Poutu, Kura Kaupapa teacher and Maori language media consultant;
– Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Maori)and Professor of Education and Maori Development at the University of Waikato;
– Peter Tennent, former Mayor of New Plymouth and hotelier; and
– Emeritus Professor Ranginui Walker, Maori academic and Member of the Waitangi Tribunal.
It is this ‘independent’ panel has will lead the public consultation process and report on any areas where there is a broad consensus. But having said that, it is clear that the panel is stacked towards Maori considerations as Pita Sharples reiterated: “An important part of the review process will be consultation with Maori, particularly on the place of the Treaty of Waitangi in our constitution. The members of this group are well placed to seek out and understand the perspectives of Maori on these important issues.”
National’s 2011 Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Maori Party agreed “to continue to progress the review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements and the advisory panel established to lead public discussion on relevant issues. The advisory panel is to deliver its recommendations to the Government in September 2013. The National Party agrees it will not seek to remove the Maori seats without the consent of the Maori people. Accordingly the Maori Party and the National Party will not pursue the entrenchment of the Maori seats in the current Parliamentary term.” Does this latter point not compromise the outcome of the whole Review process which has the future of the Maori seats as one of its key features?
In a Treaty Debate speech at Te Papa last month, Professor John Burrows, the co-chairman of the review panel explained that a constitution is a collection of rules that determine who exercises power in a country and how they exercise it, including the powers of Parliament, the Courts, and the Executive, as well as the safeguards to protect citizens against the abuse of power.2 Countries with a written constitution have all of their constitutional arrangements in one document, but in our case, like the UK, there is an array of major documents that constituted New Zealand. These include a collection of Statutes like the Constitution Act, the Bill of Rights Act, and the Electoral Act, some UK Statutes like the 1297 Magna Carta, a number of key court decisions, and a collection of constitutional conventions and long-standing practices – like the powers of the Prime Minister – that can be found in the Cabinet Manual. In addition there are other historical documents like the Treaty of Waitangi that played a part in constituting New Zealand.
Reform advocates say that a constitution needs to keep pace with the changing face of a county’s culture, but amidst calls by various racial groups to have their special rights enshrined, it is more important than ever to prevent New Zealan
d being saddled with a constitution that forever divides us on the basis of race.
Please do not ignore the serious and long-lasting effects this review may deliver. If you haven’t already signed up to our Constitutional Review campaign, please do so here , so we can keep you well informed.
Despite what the Maori Party and their fellow travellers are saying, there is no constitutional crisis in New Zealand. We plan to vigorously oppose any attempt to foist on an unsuspecting public a new Constitution based on race, and we will forcefully protect the one we have, which has and is serving us well.
Cabinet Papers, Consideration of Constitutional Issues ↩
Prof John Burrows, Treaty Debates: A Long Conversation – The Constitutional Review ↩
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Private Property Rights, and Wrongs
New Zealand is a property owning democracy. As Kiwis, we subscribe to the belief that our home is our castle. Property rights play an integral part in our common law tradition and are enshrined in Article II of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The right to acquire and use property is essential in a free democracy. It is critical to economic growth, with home ownership being well recognised as a common route to financial independence.
Fundamental to the protection of private property rights is an understanding that these rights cannot be confiscated by government, without compensation being paid. However, there is no such legal requirement for the payment of compensation, if the government erodes the value of a property through the imposition of regulations.
According to Wolfgang Kasper, in his book Building Prosperity: “regulations of market interactions are frequently used to redistribute incomes and wealth on the sly. Governments find it increasingly convenient to pursue political goals and fulfil undertakings to special interest groups such as environmental and social lobbies by interfering in private markets through regulation”.
These days our property rights are under constant threat, no longer from marauders who attempt to take our land by force, but from the State, which seeks to confiscate private land using the key weapon of central planners, the Resource Management Act. Designed by Labour and foolishly passed into law by a National Government, the RMA contains mechanisms that undermine private property rights by giving planners and bureaucrats the power to confiscate private land use rights without compensation.
Under the auspices of the RMA, every 10 years, councils are required to review their district plans. One council that I know of engaged consultants to carry out their review, whose principal is a director of the Environmental Defence Society (an environmental advocacy group involved in landscape protection). As a result, land assessed as being of national significance – equivalent to Mount Cook or the Franz Joseph Glacier – has leapt from less than 1 percent of the district to 17 percent! This is largely as a result of applying revised assessment criteria, which uses new and questionable planning concepts such as the “mystery”, “vividness”, “cohesion”, and “legibility” of a property.
The whole review process has been captured by environmental activists and is now nothing short of a socialist land grab. In fact, Karl Marx advocated the abolition of private property rights in his 1848 communist manifesto!
But what is so hypocritical is that many of these radical environmentalists are using the RMA process for self-interest – they want to halt progress in order to protect their own patch of paradise and to prevent anyone from altering the landscape values that they enjoy but don’t have to pay for. They are the first to claim that private property owners who live in nice homes on well maintained properties in the countryside are greedy – in case they may want to subdivide (often to be able to afford to continue paying escalating rates) – yet in reality, it is they that are the greedy ones, because they seek to prevent others from enjoying the same sort of lifestyle that they hold dear.
In New Zealand, the public ownership of land has been shown to be little short of a disaster. With 40% of the country already locked up in Department of Conservation reserves, native forests and other endangered species continue to decline. In contrast species under threat flourish if they live in land areas where private property owners are allowed to exercise proper management. As Thomas Jefferson once said: “the small landholders are the most precious part of a State”.
My prediction is that the confiscation of property rights without compensation, under the guise of conserving the environment for future generations, will continue unabated until a “no regulation without compensation clause is introduced into the Resource Management Act. Again, as Wolfgang Kasper has suggested: “full compensation for loss of market value of someone’s property as a consequence of a new regulation, also seems desirable as this will act as a counterweight against regulatory overkill”.
The tension between those who say they want to protect the environment against those they say will exploit it, has far reaching consequences. With greenies and planners alike pushing for the use of the regulatory process to shut down the supply of new land for subdivision purposes, in many areas around the country, land prices are going through the roof. This not only forces the establishment of unpopular high-density housing developments, but it artificially inflates the value of houses.
According to the Housing Affordability Survey (see www.demographia.com), co- authored by Christchurch based Hugh Pavletich, all major urban cities in New Zealand are severely unaffordable. Affordable cities should have house pricing at no more than three times household income, yet as at September of last year, Auckland scored a rating of 6.6, Wellington 5.2, and Christchurch 5.9. When a house is three times the median wage, young couples can pay off a home on one income and begin a family before they turn 30. At five and six times the median wage, they have no hope at all of doing so.
The scarcity of land supply is the root cause of the dramatic decline in housing affordability. Proponents of urban consolidation claim that restricting land use is good for the environment as it protects the loss of farmland. But the reality is that restricting land use creates a housing shortage: not only pricing young couples out of home ownership, but as rental yields decline, deterring rental property providers as well.
In the guest opinion piece this week property advisor Andrew King examines the government’s planned approach to residential property investors. He warns that if Labour introduces their planned unpopular and unwarranted initiatives, such as tenant advocates, property registration and warrant of fitness checks, then they may well drive investors out of the property market creating a critical shortage of rental housing as a result. View guest column
This weeks poll. This week’s poll asks: How satisfied are you with the Resource Management Act? And do you believe a “no regulation without compensation” clause should be introduced? To take part in our online poll
Reader’s comments will be posted on the NZCPD Forum page click to view .
To leave a comment:
[Note: the page link will appear in the email]
Enter a message (optional)
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Professor Richard Epstein
Richard A. Epstein, the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York University Law School, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. He has lectured and published frequently in New Zealand.
Trade and Immigration After Brexit
By Professor Richard Epstein
No matter what happens next, last week’s stunning “LEAVE” vote on Brexit has permanently disrupted the status quo ante.
Both the Conservative and Labour parties are facing major leadership changes; conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned, and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has been besieged by his shadow cabinet for his tepid support of the REMAIN option. Stock markets worldwide continue to tumble and the British pound has taken a beating.
The Sunday New York Times lead story took a somewhat hysterical tone when it announced that the Brexit vote “is already threatening to unravel a democratic bloc of nations that has coexisted peacefully for decades.” And the strong supporters of REMAIN are now determined, it seems, to predict the worst, perhaps in the hope that Great Britain will take the opportunity to “reconsider” its decision in light of the global economic hit that occurred the day the Brexit vote was announced.
As I recently argued, the Brexit vote was complicated, given the pros and cons on both sides. But now that the voting has occurred, the correct response is to put the fear-mongering aside and to think hard about the two major issues, so central to the Brexit debate, which will continue to vex Britain and the EU—trade and immigration. On this score, it is important to realize that those two issues are distinct. The argument for free trade is pretty clear—but with the much murkier issue of immigration, it is virtually impossible to come up with a knockdown argument in favor of either fully open or fully closed borders.
Let’s start with free trade. Here, the basic economic principle of comparative advantage works with equal force in both domestic and international markets. The most efficient form of production comes through a division of labor in which all parties provide those goods and services at which they are, relatively speaking, better at producing than anyone else. Thus, even if nation A were better than nation B at all forms of production, it hardly follows that nation B should remain idle. Instead, it should produce in that area in which it has the smallest disadvantage relative to nation A. So long as trade between the two nations remains open, both nations should on balance be better off than they would have been if each kept tariff walls high against any imports. The mutual exchange produces higher outputs across the board, and thus fuels growth in both nations. The principle is scalable, so that the more nations that come to the table, the greater the gains from trade, in both the international and domestic arenas. The substantive goal is to make the borders among sovereign nations porous.
The strength of this free trade position was evident in the recent discussions over Brexit. It was easy for the opponents of Brexit to denigrate their supporters as “little Englanders” who want to stick their heads in the sands by disengaging from Europe. But that gross mischaracterization misses a key point: being in the EU prohibits Great Britain, and its other member nations, from negotiating trade deals unilaterally with other nations, such as between Britain and India and the United States, where the potential gains are enormous. It is odd, as Paul Gregory writes, that professional economists think that Brexit is likely to lead to a systematic catastrophe, as if its only consequence is the loss of unfettered British access to the sclerotic European markets, whose systematic slow growth stems from the foolish assumption that uniform restrictions on labor and capital markets are better than no restrictions at all.
Unfortunately, just that misconception is the view of Glenn Hubbard, the Dean of the Columbia Business School, who has treated the British vote as a narrow form of populism driven by people who have a “deep distrust of the benefits of the global economy.” But it is all too clear that he has not paid any attention to the writings of the most articulate defenders of Brexit, such as Daniel Hannan, whose entire pitch runs in exactly the opposite direction. Britain is a small maritime nation with few natural resources that has to make its way by trade to the far corners of the globe. The difficulty with the EU is that Great Britain had to take the bitter with the sweet. To gain access to the stagnant EU, it had to accept the power of the EU to block the trade deals that Britain could make with Canada, India, and the United States—at least so long as President Obama refuses to back off his foolish threat to put Great Britain at the back of the queue. Indeed, if all went well, Britain could enter into a free trade agreement with the EU.
To be sure, the case for free trade is not without its drawbacks. The usual complication from free trade is the massive dislocation in domestic markets as workers lose out to cheap goods and services from foreign competition. These jarring social and political complications make it clear that even with trade we live in a second-best world. But again, it is critical to draw the right inferences. Free trade is a tonic that can unlock strong domestic competition by allowing local consumers and firms to cast a wider net for appropriate trading partners. The ability to both enter and exit local markets is a powerful prod toward internal improvement that loses its sting if outsiders are kept at bay. Even in domestic markets, the only way in which consumers can benefit is if incumbent firms are subject to displacement by newer and superior rivals.
The same rule applies in the international market. Job placement programs are often thought of as a political necessity, but that common conclusion should be tempered for two reasons. First, no such program will ever allow displaced union workers who enjoyed some element of monopoly rents to replicate their higher wages even after they get new jobs in the competitive economy. Second, scaling back this program lowers taxes and thus increases the prospects of overall domestic growth, giving all workers, including displaced workers, better opportunities. The best approach here is not to ratchet the current system of unemployment benefits to give greater protection to workers who lose out to foreign instead of domestic competition, even if these two could be kept in separate compartments. At all times, the primary effort is to keep up the flow of goods and services across the national and state lines.
That relatively clear prescription, however, does not hold with respect to immigration. The source of the contrast is all too obvious. The full range of adjustments to new people streaming into a country in the hundreds and thousands are far greater than those required with respect to goods. Goods do not have to be housed and fed. They are not capable of committing crimes. They do not have divided loyalties to their home country. They do not demand the right to vote or to participate in political affairs. They do not intermarry with local citizens or with immigrants from other lands. They do not have to receive driver’s licenses or social security or education for their children—the very issues that led a divided Supreme Court in United States v. Texas to deny President Obama the opportunity to unilaterally rewrite the U.S. immigration laws. Goods and services are not, in a word, people. Immigration was always easier in a small government state, because strong property and contract rights are scalable, but positive rights to housing, education, or health care, are not. All transfer payments must be recalibrated to take into account how new population flows.
The powerful anti-immigration forces play on these negatives, which become especially acute with mass migration borne of political oppression and economic desperation. There is no doubt whatsoever that fears of mass immigration played a critical role in the Brexit decision, and there is little wonder why, given the looming influx of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East.
Yet there is another side to the story. Immigrants have often proven to be positive sources of vigor and innovation for the countries to which they come. They should not be seen only as competitors for scarce British or American jobs and homes. They should also be regarded as potential sources of new businesses that create jobs and homes for current British and American citizens. These immigrants often display fierce loyalties to their new home countries precisely because they have suffered under the lash of tyranny, which makes them willing to go to any lengths to defend their new freedoms. As Fraser Nelson wrote in the Wall Street Journal, Brexit in part was fueled by a conscious uneasiness about the loss of British identity, coupled with a sense that the British could not open their doors to productive people from anywhere, but had to take in, no questions asked, anyone who had the requisite papers from some other EU nation.
So therein lies the rub. It is often difficult to know whether the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs. Immigration from unstable and war torn countries may well carry greater perils than immigration from more stable places. Yet, by the same token, it is just those people from war torn areas that may work hardest to preserve the set of local freedoms. So what strategy is to be used to separate the good from the bad effects? Should nations have strong checks to make sure bad immigrants do not come in, even if it means keeping desirable immigrants out? Or should the doors be opened wider to let more people in, knowing that they can be deported with relative ease? The choices come in infinite gradations that makes consensus hard to achieve. Differences in national and regional cultures may matter, but it is hard to say in which direction.
In light of these considerations, it is possible to defend free trade, but not free immigration, in relatively categorical terms. The Brexit debate on immigration resonates in the United States, where gridlock is the order of the day. To break that impasse, it is best to begin where the ripest fruit is easiest to pick, namely, by reforming the rules that keep the best and the brightest from around the world, often with graduate training in the United States, out of the country. But the President and Congress have shown little interest in removing the tight lid on the number of H-1B visas issued to skilled foreigners who seek employment in the United States. The list of stated entry qualifications is filled with anticompetitive restrictions. Potential applicants are told that “you must have an employer-employee relationship with the petitioning U.S. employer”; that you must meet educational requirements in your specialty set by the federal government; and, of course, that “you must be paid at least the actual or prevailing wage for your occupation, whichever is higher.”
It is all too clear that these regulations are not adopted to protect consumers or to promote their welfare. They are just another in the endless set of anticompetitive restrictions that cripple a nation in order to protect incumbent workers. There may be no general solution to the immigration question. But we should allow more skilled workers into the United States, with the explicit understanding that their time in the United States does not move them forward on the path toward citizenship. And it might be wise to grant temporary asylum to persons from war torn lands on the same terms. Perhaps, best of all, it makes sense to reduce trade barriers with poorer nations so that their citizens can improve their own position without having to leave home. The basic lesson applies with equal force to the Great Britain, the EU, and the U.S. The more free trade among nations, the less pressure there is on the immigration systems whose shortcomings are not likely to be resolved either here or anywhere else anytime soon.
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alerts & publications
SEBI Takes Next Steps toward Reforming the Indian Takeover Code
Exchange Board Partially Accepts Recommendation of TRAC
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has announced that it plans to partially accept recommendations of the Takeover Regulation Advisory Committee (“TRAC”), a committee it formed in 2009 to propose amendments to the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 1997 (the “Takeover Code”).
In 2010, TRAC submitted a report to SEBI (the “TRAC Report”) detailing its suggested changes to the Takeover Code. After a year of deliberation, SEBI issued a press release on July 28th, 2011, accepting some of the reforms, rejecting others, while leaving still other recommendations for future consideration. A full copy of the release is available here.
The SEBI announcement provides a first indication of the extent to which SEBI would accept the recommended reforms to the Takeover Code. Among the TRAC recommendations that SEBI rejected was a proposal to require the acquirer to make a general announcement to the public that it will purchase for cash (referred to as an “open offer”) up to 100% of a target’s voting rights for offers above a minimum offer threshold. A requirement to commence an open offer for 100% of the target’s outstanding voting rights would have dramatically impacted growth equity investors seeking a minority stake above the minimum offer threshold. SEBI’s decision to reject this proposal indicates that reforms to the Takeover Code may not be as far reaching as investors anticipated. However, some of the reforms accepted by SEBI will soon become effective, which will change well-established rules concerning the acquisition of listed companies in India.
Since the accepted reforms are expected to become codified in the near future, investors in Indian companies should evaluate these reforms in light of ongoing or proposed bids. Investors should also monitor future SEBI announcements on the TRAC recommendations to determine how the Takeover Code may be amended further and the impact on acquirers of listed Indian companies.
TRAC Recommendations Approved by SEBI
SEBI will accept TRAC recommendations concerning the initial trigger for mandatory open offers, voluntary open offers, non-competition fees and board recommendations. The threshold for triggering a mandatory open offer would increase from the existing 15% to 25% of the outstanding voting rights of the target company. The increase in this threshold aligns the Takeover Code more closely with the laws of other jurisdictions, such as the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, E.U. countries and South Africa, where mandatory open offers are triggered at thresholds of 30% to 35% of voting rights.1 The new threshold will provide investors with the ability to acquire a greater equity interest in a target company without triggering the requirement of launching an open offer. This reform should encourage larger growth equity investments in Indian listed companies.
A second reform accepted by SEBI would establish rules for voluntary open offers. A voluntary open offer is a procedure by which a significant shareholder may increase its position without triggering the requirement of an open offer. Under the current rules, acquirers may consolidate their shareholdings below 20% of a target’s outstanding voting rights without triggering the requirement for an open offer. Under the TRAC proposal, shareholders in excess of 25% of the target’s outstanding voting rights may voluntarily make an offer to consolidate their holdings, so long as the offer is for a minimum of 10%.2
A third major reform accepted by SEBI is to eliminate the express carve out for non-compete payments to selling shareholders from the determination of the offer price. Under the Takeover Code, a bona fide non-compete payment made to selling shareholders of less than 25% of the total consideration to be paid in the transaction may be treated as a separate payment and not consideration for shares.3 This rule is intended to discourage the practice of paying promoters large sums of money disguised as non-compete agreements which is actually share consideration.4 SEBI appears to have accepted TRAC’s rationale that it is difficult to assess whether a non-compete payment is reasonable, or is merely a disguise for additional consideration made to controlling shareholders without paying the same to the public shareholders. SEBI has decided to eliminate the express carve out for non-compete payments and require that all consideration in any form to selling shareholders, whether termed as “control premium,” “non-compete fees” or otherwise, must be added to the negotiated price per share for the purpose of determining the open offer pricing.5
TRAC recommendations that SEBI will accept:
Accepted TRAC Recommendations
Initial trigger threshold for open offer obligation Initial trigger threshold is 15% of outstanding voting rights. (Takeover Code, Reg 10) Initial trigger threshold would be increased to 25% of outstanding voting rights. (TRAC Report, p.25)
Voluntary open offers An acquirer who desires to maximize its shareholdings may make an open offer for the lower of 20% of outstanding voting rights and the maximum permissible acquisition without breaching the minimum public shareholding requirement. (Takeover Code, Reg 11(2A)) An acquirer holding 25% or more of the outstanding voting rights in the target company would be permitted to voluntarily make an offer for additional shares so long as the offer is for at least 10% of the outstanding voting shares. (TRAC Report, p.28)
Non-compete fees Non-compete fees paid to selling shareholders are permissible below 25% of the open offer price. (Takeover Code, Reg 20(8)) There would be no separate provision for non-compete fees and all consideration would be used to determine the price at which all shareholders have an opportunity to exit. (TRAC Report, p.38)
Recommendation on the open offer by the board of target company to the target shareholders The board of the target may provide its unbiased comments and recommendations to the shareholder of the target at its discretion. (Takeover Code, Reg 23(4)) The independent members of the board of the target would be required to make a reasoned recommendation (for or against) the offer to the shareholders of the target. (TRAC Report, p.63)
Competitive offers In general, any person other than the acquirer may make a competing offer within 21 days of the public announcement of the first offer. Any competitive offer shall be for such number of shares which, when taken together with shares held by the acquirer, is at least equal to the holding of the first bidder including the number of shares for which the present offer by the first bidder has been made. (Takeover Code, Reg 25(1)) Among other recommendations, the period for making a competing offer would be 15 business days from the date of announcement of the original offer and the successful bidder would be permitted to acquire shares of other bidder(s) within 21 business days after the offer period without being subject to further offer obligations. (TRAC Report, p.48)
TRAC Recommendations Modified or Rejected by SEBI
TRAC’s proposal to increase the mandatory open offer requirement to 100% of the target’s outstanding voting rights was among the most far reaching recommendations in the TRAC Report. Under the current Takeover Code, an offer for in excess of 15% of a target’s outstanding voting rights triggers a requirement to make an open offer for an additional 20% of the target’s outstanding voting rights. TRAC had recommended that the minimum offer size be increased to 100%, on the basis that a mandatory open offer for all outstanding shares would allow an equal exit opportunity for all shareholders, rather than only a proportionate one. TRAC further noted that many other countries had adopted the 100% mandatory open offer requirement.6
SEBI rejected the TRAC proposal, instead approving (i) an increase in the minimum initial trigger threshold from 15% of the outstanding voting rights to 25%, and (ii) an increase in the minimum offering size from the existing 20% of the remaining outstanding voting rights to 26%. In adopting only a modest increase in the minimum offer size, SEBI apparently sided with the view that a 100% mandatory open offer requirement as an overly burdensome obligation on bidders for minority stakes in Indian companies. SEBI also noted that acquirers exceeding the new minimum initial trigger threshold and completing the mandatory open offer of 26% of the outstanding voting rights would achieve a controlling stake of 51% in the target.
SEBI also announced that it is rejecting at least two other suggested recommendations of TRAC. The first rejected recommendation would have significantly simplified the process for delisting an Indian company. Under SEBI’s current Delisting Regulations, there is a separate framework for voluntarily delisting a company. These regulations require a separate open offer to be made to shareholders after a threshold of 90% ownership is reached.7 The effect is to make it exceedingly difficult to de-list an Indian company, even after achieving 90% private ownership. In addition, there is no provision in Indian law for a squeeze out of the minority.8 TRAC made its recommendation concerning delisting on the argument that permitting delisting of a company if the share holdings of the acquirer crosses the delisting threshold via a single open offer would vastly simplify the procedure, thus removing a barrier to transactions in which the acquirer desired to delist the target.
The second other rejected recommendation would have expanded the definition of “control” when used to determine whether an acquirer has gained control of the target, for the purposes of determining whether the open offer rules are triggered. Under the current rules, “control” exists when the acquirer has the legal right to appoint a majority of directors or to control the management or policy decisions (including through the exercise of shareholding or management rights or shareholder agreements or voting agreements). Under the TRAC proposal, this definition would have been significantly expanded, to include “de facto” control, such that an acquirer with the ability to control a target, for example by appointing any directors or influencing management decisions, would be considered in “control” for purposes of the open offer rules. Adopting such an approach would require control to be evaluated on a case by case basis, by reference to particular facts and circumstances.
TRAC Recommendations Not Yet Addressed by SEBI
SEBI has yet to release its position on several other recommendations of TRAC. Some of the remaining recommendations have potentially far reaching consequences for the acquisition of listed companies in India. For example, under current rules, an open offer may not be withdrawn, even in circumstances where a condition that the acquirer has imposed in a purchase and sale agreement with a major shareholder is not satisfied. Under the TRAC recommendations, an open offer could be withdrawn if a condition outside the control of the acquirer is not satisfied. Such a reform would remove a significant concern of acquirers who are forced to make open offers even when a share purchase transaction with a major holder has unsatisfied conditions. Another reform would clarify the standard of conduct required of a merchant banker, amending a current provision in the Takeover Code that requires the merchant banker to “ensure” compliance by parties of the provisions of the Takeover Code.
As SEBI has indicated in its press release that a majority of the TRAC recommendations have been accepted, it is likely to assume that some or all of these recommendations will be accepted. It is therefore likely that SEBI will issue further press releases taking positions on the remaining recommendations.
TRAC recommendations which SEBI has not yet taken a public position:
TRAC Recommendation
Creeping acquisitions An acquirer that already holds more than 15% of total voting rights9 but less than 55% of the total voting rights,10 may acquire up to an additional 5% of the total voting rights11 within a financial year without having to make a mandatory open offer. Further, where the holding is above 55% of the total voting rights but less than 75% of the total voting rights, a one-time allowance to increase such person’s shareholding by an additional 5% of the total voting shares through market purchases or pursuant to a buy back by the target company, without having to make a mandatory open offer, provided that post acquisition the aggregate holdings of such acquirer does not exceed 75% of the total voting rights. (Takeover Code, Reg 11) Creeping acquisition limit would be 5% of the total voting rights12 per financial year computed on a gross basis for all shareholders holding more than 25% of the total voting rights so long as the maximum non-public shareholding limit is not breached. (TRAC Report, p.27)
Withdrawal of open offer No open offer, once made, shall be withdrawn unless: i) the statutory approval required has been refused; ii) sole acquirer, being a natural person, has died; or iii) such circumstances as in the opinion of SEBI merits withdrawal. (Takeover Code, Reg 27(1)) In addition to the current rules, an open offer may be withdrawn where any condition stipulated in the agreement for acquisition which triggers obligation to make an open offer is not met for reasons outside the reasonable control of the acquirer, and such agreement is rescinded, subject to such conditions having been disclosed in the detailed public statement and the letter of offer. (TRAC Report, pp.45-46)
Obligations of target: material actions The target may not, during the open offer period sell, transfer, encumber or otherwise dispose of assets of the company or its subsidiaries or enter into any material contracts. (Takeover Code, Reg 23(1)) The restrictions are to be retained to the extent the target attempts to carry out material transactions outside the ordinary course of business without the consent of its shareholders, and the restrictions should be expanded to cover the subsidiaries of the target. (TRAC Report, p.49)
Obligations of acquirer: disposal of target assets If the acquirer has not stated its intention to dispose of or otherwise encumber any assets of the target, the acquirer is prohibited from doing so for a period of two years from the date of closure of the open offer (except for transactions in the ordinary course of business of the target).13 (Takeover Code, Reg 22(18)) The prohibition would be generally retained and expanded to include the assets of subsidiaries. (TRAC Report, p.65)
Obligations of the merchant banker Merchant banker shall ensure compliance of the Takeover Regulations and any other obligations, laws or rules as may be applicable in this regard. (Takeover Code, Reg 24) The role of the merchant banker would be clarified to an obligation to demonstrate the application of due skill, care and diligence in the discharge of professional duties and bona fide efforts undertaken to professionally and diligently discharging the role envisaged for the merchant banker under the regulations, rather than an insurer of another party’s compliance with the Takeover Code. (TRAC Report p.66)
In rejecting some of the more far reaching TRAC proposals, SEBI appears to have signaled an incremental approach to reforming the Takeover Code in India. Some of the accepted changes will change well established rules for the acquisition of listed companies in India. Completion of the process of reforming the Takeover Code is still several steps away, however, as several important TRAC recommendations must still be either rejected or accepted by SEBI and changes to regulations implemented to give effect to the accepted recommendations.
1. Report of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee, p.26
2. Report of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee, p.28, para 2.21
3. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 1997, reg 20(8)
4. Regulation 20(8), SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997
6. Report of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee, pp.18-19
10. Ibid
12. Whilst the Report of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee does not specifically use the term “total voting shares,” it makes no distinction from provisions in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 1997, and so on implication it is also referring to “total voting shares;” Report of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee, pp.26-27
13. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 1997, reg 22(18)
O’Melveny & Myers is not licensed to practice Indian law, and nothing in this Client Alert should be deemed to be an opinion on or advice concerning Indian law. The above is summarized from publicly available sources and is prepared as a convenience to our clients and friends outside of India.
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Home > About OMPH School > School History
Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic School was established by the request of parents and parishioners who wished to provide a quality Catholic education for the children of three parishes located in Ephrata, Lititz, and New Holland, Pennsylvania. Following a building campaign, the school was built in 1956. The school opened its doors in September of 1957 under the direction of the Bernardine Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. Traditions of the Catholic faith and educational excellence became the cornerstone, as 126 students were welcomed in grades 1-6.
OMPH Continues to Grow
By the middle of the 1960’s, enrollment had doubled attesting to the parents’ support for Catholic education and the success of the school. As additional classroom space was needed to open a seventh and eighth grade, the cafeteria area of the building was converted into two classrooms and a library. The instructional program was updated and enhanced throughout these years to provide current programs of the day.
During the 1970’s, a parish center complex was built adjacent to the school. The addition of a new library, a classroom, and a gym/cafeteria provided much-needed space and allowed the school to again expand its educational offerings. Religious programs continued to serve as the foundation of all instruction as “Gospel values” were incorporated into all areas of the curriculum.
Throughout the 1980’s, the school continued its tradition of excellence. Recognizing the impact of technology on education, the school introduced its first computer program. As in the past, the faith community flourished. Focus was placed on integrating Christian values and morals in each curriculum area.
The school saw remarkable growth throughout the 1990’s. The opening of the first Kindergarten program in 1990 established the foundation of an Early Education Program that expanded to include a preschool program for children three and four years of age. The disastrous collapse of the parish center in 1994 placed a space limitation on the school, creating additional challenges. Once again, the parents and parishioners, strong in their commitment to Catholic education, laid the foundation for expansion.
With the opening of the new parish center complex in September 1995, the school emerged even more capable of meeting the needs of its increasing student body. By this time in the life of the school, the enrollment reached 335 students, an all-time high. Additional classrooms, a fully equipped computer room, a computerized library center, and a new gym/cafeteria provided the setting for an enhanced academic program.
New programs have been introduced including the opportunity for seventh and eighth-grade students to participate in the MathCounts program. Quiz Bowl, chess, Destination Imagination,a variety of clubs and CYO sports are also offered to our students.
In 2004, Our Mother of Perpetual Help School was accredited by the Middle States Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. Under the direction of dedicated lay faculty, OMPH has continued the tradition of excellence in the Catholic school system. Religious instruction and opportunities for working hand-in-hand with parents and parishioners are the most important components that enable the school to continue to care for God’s most precious gift. . . His children.
About OMPH School
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Utility settles class-action suit for $98 million
MARIETTA, Ga. - A utility firm in suburban Atlanta must pay $98 million to its members as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
The agreement involving Cobb Electric Membership Corp. comes after four years of legal battles. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit had accused the utility of withholding millions of dollars from customers.
The Marietta Daily Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1ho5Nb3) that Cobb County Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster signed off on the $98 million settlement on Tuesday.
Cobb EMC is a nonprofit owned by its 175,000 customers -- also referred to as members -- and was accused of failing to return excess revenues to them. An estimated 900,000 customers are now owed money as part of the settlement.
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/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/labourmarketeconomiccommentary/december2018
Employment and employee types
Labour market economic commentary
Labour market economic commentary: December 2018
Additional economic analysis of the latest UK labour market headline statistics and analysis on employment, unemployment and inactivity flows for December 2018.
This is not the latest release.
View latest release
A correction has been made to the December Labour market economic commentary. This was due to a small error when comparing quarterly part-time employment data. You can see the original content in the superseded version. We apologise for any inconvenience.
View superseded version
Blessing Chiripanhura
Average weekly earnings
Labour market flows
1. Main points
The level of employment increased by 79,000 on the quarter to a record high of 32.48 million in the three months to October 2018.
The level of unemployment increased by 20,000 to 1.38 million; this was a second quarterly increase since the period November to January 2018.
Economic inactivity decreased by 95,000 to 8.66 million; this was the first quarterly decrease since the period March to May 2018.
Regular average weekly earnings increased by 3.3% on the year to reach £495 in October 2018.
The ratio of private to public sector average weekly earnings has been increasing, which indicates that the gap between private and public sector earnings is narrowing.
2. Employment
The latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that the number of employed people increased by 79,000 in the three months to October 2018 to reach a total of 32.48 million. The number of employed people increased by 396,000 in the year to October 2018.
In the three months to October 2018, the employment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 75.7%.
More men than women joined employment, and the number of employees reached a record high
Classifying people in employment by sex shows that the number of employed men increased by 70,000 to a record high of 17.24 million in the three months to October 2018. The number of employed women increased by 9,000 to 15.24 million over the same period. The employment rates for both men and women increased by 0.2 percentage points apiece to 80.3% and 71.2% respectively.
People in employment (excluding unpaid family workers and people on government-supported training and employment programmes) can be categorised as employees or self-employed. The latest estimates show that the number of employees in the UK increased by 115,000 to reach a record high of 27.54 million in the three months to October 2018. The number of self-employed people fell by 29,000 to 4.77 million over the same period.
More men than women joined full-time employment, and the number of women in part-time employment reduced
People in employment can be classified as working on a full-time or part-time basis. The number of full-time workers increased by 110,000 on the quarter to reach a record high of 23.97 million in the three months to October 2018. Disaggregating the number of full-time workers by sex shows that the number of men working on a full-time basis increased by 63,000 to 14.94 million, and that of women increased by 47,000 to 9.03 million.
The number of part-time workers declined by 31,000 to 8.51 million over the same period. The decline was driven by a 38,000 fall in the number of women in part-time employment to 6.22 million. However, the number of men in part-time employment increased by 7,000 to 2.29 million. Figure 1 shows the trends of full-time and part-time workers in the economy.
Figure 1: Full-time and part-time employment
UK, seasonally adjusted, January to March 2006 to August to October 2018
Source: Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey
Figure 1 shows that the number of people who worked on a full-time basis increased from the period February to April 2010 onwards. Although part-time employment increased throughout the downturn period, it plateaued off from the period June to August 2016 onwards.
3. Unemployment
The latest unemployment data in the UK show that the number of unemployed people aged 16 years and older increased by 20,000 to 1.38 million in the three months to October 2018.
The number of unemployed men increased and the number of unemployed women decreased
Disaggregating the unemployment data by sex shows that the number of unemployed men increased by 27,000 to 747,000 in the three months to October 2018. The number of unemployed women fell by 8,000 to 633,000 over the same period. These changes did not have a substantial impact on the overall unemployment rate, which remained unchanged at 4.1%. Figure 2 shows the levels of unemployment among men and women.
Figure 2: Unemployment level by men and women
Figure 2 shows that over the whole period, more men than women were unemployed. It also shows that men have been leaving unemployment at a faster rate than women, and that there was an uptick in the number of unemployed men from May to July 2018 onwards.
4. Inactivity
The level of economic inactivity in the UK fell by 95,000 to 8.66 million in the three months to October 2018. The decrease in the number of economically inactive people was driven by a 73,000 fall in the number of people who were in long-term sickness to 1.97 million. The decrease in the number of economically inactive people resulted in the inactivity rate falling by 0.2 percentage points to 21.0%.
The economically inactive people can be categorised by sex. The number of women classified as economically inactive fell by 28,000 to 5.35 million in the three months to October 2018. The number of economically inactive men decreased by 67,000 to 3.31 million over the same period.
5. Average weekly earnings
Earnings from employment are an important variable in labour market analysis. They constitute the main source of income for many households. There are many factors that determine employment earnings, including level of education and experience. In some cases, the government intervenes in the labour market by setting minimum wages. For instance, the UK government introduced a mandatory national living wage for workers aged 25 years and older from April 2016.
The analysis of earnings helps us to understand the reasons behind the persistence of the gender pay gap. Gaps in earnings may be associated with other factors like ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and disability status.
Our employment earnings analysis is based on average weekly earnings (AWE) paid to workers in Great Britain. The average weekly earnings measure the amount of money paid to each worker per job per week, excluding benefits in kind, unearned income and arrears of pay. The estimates exclude earnings of people who are self-employed, and are calculated before tax and other deductions. Average weekly earnings can either be regular pay (which excludes bonus income) or total pay (which includes bonus income). We focus our analysis on regular pay.
Regular average weekly earnings increased in the year to October 2018
The average weekly earnings are published monthly. The percentage increase of average earnings is calculated as a three-month average figure of the increases in the average seasonally adjusted values for the three months ending with the relevant month compared with the same period a year earlier. Regular average weekly earnings increased by 3.3% on the year to reach £495 in October 2018.
We can analyse regular average weekly earnings in the private and public sectors separately. The private sector regular average weekly earnings increased from £471 in October 2017 to £488 in October 2018. The public sector regular average weekly earnings increased from £514 in October 2017 to £528 in October 2018.
Public sector regular average earnings have been higher than private sector earnings since records began. One of the reasons for this difference is that the public sector has a higher proportion of high-skilled workers than the private sector. Also, the private sector has a higher proportion of low-skilled workers than the public sector. Our analysis of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data provides a deeper examination of the differences between the private and public sectors.
Private sector average weekly earnings are catching up on public sector average weekly earnings
The difference between public and private sector earnings changed from 2010 onwards after the government introduced limits on public sector pay growth. Since July 2013, private sector earnings growth outstripped that of public sector earnings, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Average wage growth in the public and private sectors
.png .xlsx
In Figure 3, the regular average weekly earnings growth rates are measured on the left-hand axis, and the ratio of private to public sector earnings is measured on the right-hand axis. The figure shows positive trends in the growth rates of the public and private sectors’ nominal average weekly earnings since 2013. During that period, private sector earnings growth was higher than public sector earnings growth. The cumulative effect of the differences in growth rates is that the ratio of private to public sector earnings increased. For example, the ratio of private to public sector average weekly earnings was 0.87 in October 2012 and increased to 0.92 in October 2018. This indicates that the gap between private and public sector earnings is narrowing. In terms of total pay, private and public sector average weekly earnings are now near parity because bonuses are higher in the private sector.
The private to public sector average weekly earnings ratio increased from August 2012 onwards. In the starting period, the difference between public and private sector earnings was at its highest (at £64). In October 2018, the difference had reduced to £40, which was lower than the average that existed during the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn (of £42).
Wage growth has been weak even though unemployment is at a historic low level
Economic theory predicts that low unemployment puts pressure on wages to increase. This is because low unemployment increases competition between firms as they try to retain their existing workers or to attract new ones. This forces them to increase wages, thus contributing to wage growth. The labour market economic commentary for November 2017 analysed the relationship between unemployment and regular pay growth using the Phillips Curve.
It is interesting that in the UK, despite historic low unemployment rate, wage growth has not been significant, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Unemployment rate and nominal wage growth
Figure 4 shows that unemployment has been on a declining trend since 2011, but earnings have not grown significantly over the same period, except for the sharp increases between June 2014 and July 2015 and between April 2017 and October 2018.
During the recovery period after the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn, the unemployment rate declined to reach its pre-downturn rate of 5.2% in the period August to October 2015, and it has been on a declining trend since then. Wage growth has been weak, and it is still below its pre-downturn rate of 4% (achieved in the October to December 2007 period).
Between October 2015 and October 2018, average weekly earnings growth averaged 2.4%. During the same period, unemployment declined from 5.2% to 4.1%. The response of average weekly earnings growth to the fall in the rate of unemployment has been weak, implying that low unemployment has not been able to stimulate significant average weekly earnings growth. This outcome may be because the unemployment rate inadequately captures the extent of slack in the labour market, and the extra slack reduces wage growth. It may also be a result of the existence of structural factors in the economy that are weighing down on wage growth. For instance, the high level of under-employment, which represents additional slack to that shown by unemployment, may be constraining wage growth.
The under-utilisation of labour is still high but is falling gradually
We can further explore the extent to which unemployment captures the level of slack in the economy by analysing the level of labour under-utilisation in the economy. Under-utilised labour consists of unemployed and under-employed labour in the economy. The Labour Force Survey defines under-employment as a situation when workers respond positively to wanting more hours and/or a new job if they work below 48 hours a week (or below 40 hours a week for people aged under 18 years). Figure 5 plots the rates of the three variables.
Figure 5: Unemployment rate, under-employment rate and under-utilisation rate
Figure 5 shows that the unemployment rate had a declining trend from the second calendar quarter of 2013 onwards. During that period, the unemployment rate declined at a faster rate than the under-employment rate. The combined effect of the changes resulted in a gradual decline of the under-utilisation rate.
The existence of additional labour market slack as measured by under-employment partly contributes to the low wage growth in the economy. In addition, the number of part-time workers has been decreasing since the beginning of 2018. The number of part-time workers who could not find full-time jobs decreased from 996,000 in the period August to October 2017 to 902,000 in the same period in 2018. This indicates that existing extra capacity is gradually being put to use.
6. Labour market flows
Labour market flows data are usually published quarterly, in February, May, August and November. However, the publication of flows data for the third calendar quarter of 2018 was postponed to December 2018. It is important to note that the analysis in this section relates to the period July to September 2018.
In the first three quarters of 2018, the UK economy experienced a high employment rate, a low unemployment rate, and a stable economic inactivity rate. Under these conditions, we can enhance our understanding of what is happening in the labour market by examining the flows of workers between the different labour market statuses. The analysis of labour market flows is also important because, as mentioned above, the economy is experiencing declining slack, which impacts on movements in the labour market.
Labour market flows data are important because they make it possible to gain in-depth understanding of labour market dynamics. Figure 6 shows the flows that occurred in the third calendar quarter of 2018.
Figure 6: Quarterly flows between labour market statuses
UK, seasonally adjusted, thousands, age 16 to 64 years, April to June 2018 to July to September 2018
The numbers in the circles represent the stocks of people in the three labour market statuses. The figure shows that there were net flows as follows:
there was a net flow of 23,000 from employment to inactivity
there was a net flow of 98,000 from inactivity to unemployment
there was a net flow of 80,000 from unemployment to employment
The flows of people between the different labour market statuses depend on the stage of the business cycle. For instance, during a recession, workers tend to move from employment into the other two labour market statuses. A boom period is generally associated with net inflow into employment.
In a tight labour market, the volume of flows decreases. Instead, job-to-job moves increase because such a market situation makes it possible for workers to move between jobs with short or no periods of unemployment. A tighter labour market often strengthens workers’ bargaining for higher earnings within their current positions, or through moving into higher-paying jobs in other enterprises. Job-to-job moves will be discussed in detail later in this section.
There has been a net inflow of workers into employment since mid-2011
We can analyse labour market flows over time by plotting the gross flows associated with a labour market status. Figure 7 shows the trends of the flows into and out of employment.
Figure 7: Employment gross flows
UK, seasonally adjusted, January to March 2006 to July to September 2018
Figure 7 shows that from the third quarter of 2011 onwards, worker flows into employment exceeded the outflows. The difference between the two flows represents the net flow into employment.
The net flow of workers into employment reached its highest level (of 256,000) since the economic downturn in the third quarter of 2015. In the third quarter of 2017, the net flow into employment was 44,000 and in the third quarter of 2018, the net flow was 57,000.
There has been a net flow of people from unemployment since the second quarter of 2012
There were flows of people into and out of unemployment. The flow into unemployment was at its highest level during the economic downturn. During that period, the net flow into unemployment peaked in the second quarter of 2009 when 207,000 people joined unemployment.
The net flow out of unemployment peaked in the second quarter of 2014 when 159,000 exited unemployment. Figure 8 plots the net flow of people into and out of unemployment.
Figure 8: Unemployment net flows
Figure 8 shows that from the first calendar quarter of 2012 onwards, there was a net flow from unemployment in all the quarters except in the second quarter of 2015, the fourth quarter of 2017, and the third quarter of 2018. In the third calendar quarter of 2018, there was a net flow into unemployment of 18,000.
There was a net outflow of people from inactivity between 2011 and 2017
The flow of people from economic inactivity into other labour market statuses was dominant between 2011 and 2017. Figure 9 shows the flows into and out of inactivity.
Figure 9: Economic inactivity gross flows
Figure 9 shows that outflows from inactivity exceeded inflows between 2011 to 2018, except in the periods July to September 2017 and April to June 2018. In the third calendar quarter of 2018, there was a net flow out of inactivity of 76,000. The dominance of outflows over inflows resulted in economic inactivity declining over time.
Job-to-job moves continue to increase since the economic downturn
Job-to-job moves occur when workers move from one job to another. A high number of job-to-job moves indicates a significant prevalence of on-the-job search. When unemployment is high, workers are more likely to stay in their current jobs. As the labour market tightens and the number of vacancies increases, there will be more employment opportunities and workers are more likely to move jobs. Thus, a tightening labour market tends to be associated with increasing job-to-job moves. At firm level, labour turnover increases during booms and firms may be forced to pay higher wages to retain their workers.
Job-to-job moves can be measured in levels (from the left-hand side axis in Figure 10), or as a rate (from the right-hand side axis in Figure 10). The two measures give the same image of what has happened to job-to-job moves over time.
Figure 10: Job-to-job moves
Figure 10 shows that job-to-job moves reached their lowest level in the third quarter of 2009. Since then, the number of job-to-job moves has been on an upward trend, reaching the pre-downturn level (of 735,000 in the period October to December 2007) in the third quarter of 2015. Job-to-job moves increased by 38,000 to 823,000 in the three months to September 2018.
The extent to which job-to-job moves occur is linked to internal migration dynamics. Job-to-job moves may fuel regional growth and productivity disparities. The Resolution Foundation’s research on job-to-job moves and their impact on productivity and pay shows that UK workers are less likely to migrate to different regions than non-UK workers. Non-UK workers are more likely to migrate to regions that are less attractive to UK workers. UK workers’ desire not to migrate between regions feeds into the growing proportion of job-to-job moves in some areas. This has implications for employment in regions where the labour market is dominated by, for instance, EU workers. In addition, job-to-job moves may also be affected by the availability and cost of accommodation across regions.
7. Authors
Blessing Chiripanhura, Alun Evans and Paloma Ye Zhang, Office for National Statistics
Contact details for this Article
economic.advice@ons.gov.uk
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Extreme climate-linked events are virtually certain to increase, according to exhaustive government report
Nov 3, 2017 6:35 PM EDT
PBS NewsHour PBS NewsHour
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/extreme-climate-linked-events-are-virtually-certain-to-increase-according-to-exhaustive-government-report
Transcript Audio
We are now in the warmest period in modern civilization. That’s according to an extensive report -- authored by 13 federal agencies, experts and scientists -- that directly contradicts the Trump administration’s position on climate change. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Radley Horton of Columbia University about the dire assessment of the state of the climate and its impact on the U.S.
Judy Woodruff:
Every four years, the federal government releases the National Climate Assessment. It is an exhaustive report undertaken by 13 different agencies, with the help of hundreds of scientists and experts.
It is generally considered the most definitive state of climate science by the U.S. government.
The latest one contained some unusually dire warnings about what's happening to the climate, how it's already impacting parts of the U.S., and where we may be headed.
Back to Hari now, who has more from our New York studios.
Hari Sreenivasan:
The report finds that we're now in the warmest period in modern civilization.
It says — quote — "It's extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of observed warning since the mid-20th century."
That directly contradicts what President Trump, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and others in the administration have all said.
Scientists also write the frequency and intensity of extreme high-temperature events are virtually certain to increase, and extreme precipitation is very likely to increase as well.
There's much more.
Radley Horton is one of the authors and climate scientist at Columbia University.
Let's start with the phrase extremely likely. There's not much room for doubt here. How do we get to that?
Radley Horton:
That's right.
Well, you have got to think that this is really an incremental advance. We have had several such national assessments. Now, with this latest report, it's more years of data, better physical understanding and improved models.
So we pushed the science forward. We feel more confident than ever that extreme heat waves are going to be much more common, more heavy rain events, more frequent coastal flooding.
I know there's a difference between weather and climate, but what are the types of data points that you're looking at to help make this case, to help understand the type of changes that are coming?
We're really looking at extreme weather events. These are the things that impact people on the ground and impact our society, where we're so vulnerable. What we have seen, for example, is twice as many record-breaking extreme heat events as record-breaking extreme cold events so far this century, when we look across a large number of weather stations.
That's with just about one degree Fahrenheit or a little bit more of warming. So, already a small shift in average means much more frequent extremes. Some coastal cities are seeing five times as frequent coastal flooding as they did two generations ago just with something on order of less than a food of sea level rise.
So, by the end of this century, it's likely to get worse?
We're basically locked in to a lot of additional warming and sea level rise.
Fortunately, though, if we rapidly reduce our emissions, we're still going to get some more warming, but we can avoid those worst-case trajectories and we can minimize the risk of what we call surprises, which are a big focus of this report.
The possibility of changes, such as tipping points, compounding effects of extreme events that could lead to outcomes that are even worse than what the climate models have been telling us, if we reduce emissions, we reduce the risk of those kind of surprises.
So, if we're extremely likely to cause this, we can also be a part of the solution.
So, what role does government play here in this?
Well, I think the first thing to highlight is that this is largely a government report. Out of about 30 lead authors, the vast majority resided in federal agencies, from NOAA, to NASA, the Department of Energy.
So this really — this report really does represent federal science in action. Furthermore, if you think about the supporting data, the satellite products, the high-tech computing, the latest in computing advances, a lot of this science resides in government. So it really is a government report that underwent several rounds of review by government agencies, in addition to the public and other groups.
Next week, we have got another U.N. conversation on climate change. This is at a time when the United States says it is going to withdraw from the Paris accords.
We have got the head of the EPA, the head of the DOE, a number of different Cabinet agencies who really still doubt the words that you're writing in this report, that the government agencies are coming up with in this report.
So, I mean, again, sort of highlighting the role of on-the-ground folks in these agencies contributing to the report. Clearly, whether we're talking about some of the signals we're seeing from government or some of the really disturbing aspects of the climate science, there is a lot of reason to be pessimistic.
It does seem like climate change is happening faster than we thought in some ways. It seems, societally, that maybe we're more vulnerable than we thought, agriculture, for example, being affected by heat waves worse than we thought.
But I think we can hold out hope and have a little bit of optimism that maybe we have also underestimated our ability as society to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We're seeing some signs. I don't want to be too sanguine here, but we're seeing some evidence of the leveling of carbon dioxide emissions the last couple years, even as we're seeing economic growth.
We're seeing the prices of a lot of renewables dropping dramatically, potentially sending a price signal to companies and investors more and more demanding that corporations ask the climate question. How vulnerable are they to climate change, and how much are they emitting, and how much could they be held liable potentially in the future?
All right, Radley Horton of Columbia University, thanks so much.
Listen to this Segment
Watch the Full Episode
PBS NewsHour from Nov 03, 2017
Global warming is stronger than ever — and nearly all of it is man-made, new government report says
By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
EPA chief Pruitt scheduled to meet privately with chemical industry executives
By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
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NYC-ARTS
This Week at Lincoln Center: “Great Performers”
Clip: Season 2013 Episode 401 | 1m 15s
Maestro Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra for two concerts featuring works of Mozart and Shostakovich in the “Symphonic Masters” series. Pianist Emanuel Ax joins the LSO to present Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 9”, as well as his last work, “No. 27 in B-flat major.” And Haitink and the LSO perform Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 4”, as well as his final work, “Symphony No. 15.”
Season 2013 Episode 401
NYC-ARTS is made possible in part by First Republic Bank. Major funding for NYC-ARTS is also made possible by Rosalind P. Walter, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, the Jean Dubinsky Appleton Estate, Jody and John Arnhold, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Lewis “Sonny” Turner Fund for Dance, Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional funding provided by members of THIRTEEN.
NYC-ARTS Profile: Cherry Jones
Paula Zahn in conversation with Tony Award winning actress Cherry Jones.
Clip: S2013 Ep401 | 13m 36s
NYC-ARTS News: October 17 - 24
Christina Ha presents the latest arts and culture news.
Clip: S2013 Ep401 | 6m 6s
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: December 19, 2013
A profile of The School of American Ballet and a look at “Chagall: Love, War and Exile.”
S2013 Ep460 | 27m 46s
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: November 21, 2013
Tours of exhibitions from The Frick Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum, and more.
A performance by violinist Bella Hristova and a look at a new Magritte exhibition at MoMA.
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: November 7, 2013
A profile of Theatre for a New Audience, arts and culture news, and more.
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: October 31, 2013
An interview with Susan Weber at Bard Graduate Center and tips on assessing fine wines.
A profile of artist Allen Say, a look at “Audubon’s Aviary,” plus arts and culture news.
Arts and culture news and an interview with jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater.
S2013 Ep410 | 27m 2s
A tour of Bard Graduate Center, a conversation with actress Cherry Jones, and news.
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: October 3, 2013
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Monet's "Water Lilies."
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: September 19, 2013
A conversation with Christopher Plummer and a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
S2013 Ep380
Arts and culture news and a celebration of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2013-2014 season.
NYC-ARTS Full Episode: September 5, 2013
A profile of James Turrell and a visit to The International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum
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Ohio State's defensive line is the best in the country
By Cam Mellor
College & Draft Featured Tools
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Sep 8, 2018; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Nick Bosa (97) moves in against Rutgers Scarlet Knights quarterback Artur Sitkowski (8) in the first half at Ohio Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
The Ohio State defensive line was long thought as one of the better units to start the 2018 NCAA football season. After two weeks of action, it’s clearly apparent those preseason beliefs were not just pulled out of the sky. In fact, the Ohio State defensive line, led by our No. 1 player this preseason Nick Bosa, is the best defensive line in college football.
This Ohio State defensive line breakdown is brought to you by Eckrich, the Official Smoked Sausage of the College Football Playoff.
The only caveat to their success, however, is that they have been so dominant, we’ve yet to see them on the field for an entire game as the starters have been allowed to rest and the depth players have seen the field for extensive amounts of time.
No OSU defensive lineman has accumulated more than 46 pass-rushing snaps this season yet they have four defensive linemen with at least three pressures while three of those have recorded at least seven.
Sophomore edge defender Chase Young leads them all with his 11 pressures as he’s recorded two sacks, three QB hits and another six hurries on just 37 pass-rushing snaps. The aforementioned Bosa finds himself second on the team, bringing down three sacks, two hits and four additional hurries, on a team-high 46 pass-rushing snaps.
Bosa has won a whopping 34.8 percent of his pass-rushing reps, well above the national average.
And while seven pressures don’t seem like a lot, when you consider it’s come from the interior of the defensive line where double teams and chips are common practice, Jones’ numbers are that much more resounding on just 44 pass-rushing snaps.
Individual performances aside, what may be even more telling of their success this season, is their work as a unit. Together they’ve won 17.9 percent of their pass-rushes, a clear 2.2 percentage points higher than the next closest FBS team. They’re second behind Michigan State with 21 passes batted at the line of scrimmage and third in the nation with nine collective sacks.
At the end of the day, Ohio State’s 84.7 pass-rush grade as a unit is leaps and bounds above the rest of the country as the second-best team in terms of pass-rush grade is Buffalo at 78.7.
While the competition hasn’t been as strong as some others, their gaudy numbers earned to date are enough to place this defensive line in sole possession of the moniker ‘best defensive line in college football.’
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Chasing Amy: Overcooked Reality and the Decline of Western Civility
Laura Hahnefeld | May 23, 2013 | 4:00am
A tall, thin man with long, gray hair and a pair of saggy but expensive jeans shakes the handles of two doors of a restaurant. Behind him is a handful of onlookers. His wife, in shorts with hands on hips, leans in and reads the restaurant's hours posted on the window aloud: 5 to 10 p.m. They smile at each other.
"They look like they're set up for business," the man says to her, almost too loudly, his hands still gripping the door. "But they're closed. Amy's Baking Company is closed!"
The man chuckles, and he and his wife, shaking their heads, turn to leave. Some bystanders take his place, cupping their hands over their faces to peer into the restaurant. Others linger on the outdoor patio and look over the menu. Some take pictures.
"Curiosity seekers," I think to myself, nearly rolling my eyes. Yet, here I am.
Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale to Close; Owners Will Open Online Cooking School
I went to Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale last week, weaving my car through the Shea Scottsdale Shopping Center's parking lot until coming upon the suddenly infamous restaurant, the one with the scalloped red banner across from Harkins Theatres Shea 14. The standard reasons I visit restaurants as a critic — the food, the wine, the atmosphere, the pedigree — didn't register in this case. Amy's hadn't signaled the faintest of blips on the Valley's radar of must-try dining — ever. I had come because of the Internet. And I wasn't happy about it.
Sorry, dozens of more-deserving restaurants, you'd have to wait.
On the day I visited Amy's Baking Company, I wasn't a food critic. Like everyone else outside the restaurant that afternoon, I was nothing more than — depending on how you looked at it — a gawker at a freak show or a rubbernecker at the scene of a terrible accident. Probably a little of both.
Although Amy Bouzaglo and her husband, Samy, started their restaurant in 2008, it's difficult, given the events that have unfolded over the past two weeks, to imagine Amy's Baking Company as ever being just a restaurant. But of course, it was. The same year that Tuck Shop opened, Arizona Restaurant Week debuted, and brand-new Noca launched its fried chicken nights — all bringing dining-scene buzz — Amy's humdrummed along. People came in (many, most likely, for a pre- or post-movie meal), ate, and left. Employees earned paychecks. Food was served. Dishes were washed, dirtied, and washed again.
Of course, that was before the Bouzaglos and their restaurant appeared this May 10 on the jaw-dropping season finale of celebrity chef and professional malcontent Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, a reality TV show on Fox in which the F-bomb-dropping Brit attempts to the save the mismanaged restaurants of America. It was before the Internet blew up in the wake of the broadcast, before the real got surreal, before the truth became lies and the lies looked like truths, before every hater and anonymous do-gooder, crazy, pontificator, and user became a performer in an online circus — before everyone, and everything, got so fucked up.
As in most doomsday plots, the catastrophe that would be Amy's Baking Company started innocently enough, much like in the opening scene of the movie 28 Days Later, in which good-intentioned animal rights activists free a monkey from a laboratory only to find out, rather gruesomely, that it has been infected with a rage virus that nearly brings a country to its knees.
In this case, the activist was Phoenix foodnik Joel LaTondress, who posted a bluntly critical one-star review of his experience at Amy's Baking Company on Yelp on August 1, 2010, two years after the restaurant had opened.
In a portion of the 700-word critique, LaTondress commented about the pizza he ordered:
"I took a bite and was immediately underwhelmed. The crust had very little character, was slightly sweet but had that store-bought quality to it. The pesto tasted okay, but the tomatoes were completely tasteless and overall, it just fell flat. It's margherita — the ingredients need to shine to make such a simple pizza. These ingredients were subpar. After two small pieces, I decided I was wasting my calories and just gave up on it."
And, then, about owner Samy Bouzaglo:
"He got very defensive about the pizza, but I hadn't really launched a harsh criticism on the pizza, just said I didn't really enjoy it. So I sat some more, with an empty drink, and realized they wanted me gone. The owner wouldn't make eye contact with me. The server never came back out asking if I wanted something else. And they still hadn't refilled my drink."
The next day, out of nowhere, came Amy Bouzaglo, firing back at LaTondress on Yelp in a 450-word retort calling him, among other things, a moron and accusing him of working for the competition, even suggesting that he lacked a palate sophisticated enough to tell the difference between homemade and store-bought pizza. When Chow Bella, New Times' food blog, reported on the fiasco, Amy continued her angry assault in the comments section of a blog post and argued with readers.
"You will see the Messiah before you see our doors closed," she wrote.
Shortly thereafter, someone gave Amy her own Twitter account and hash tag. And just like that, Crazy Amy was born.
On November 30, 2012, I am sitting at my computer going through my e-mails. It is a morning like any other, until I see this:
"We will be filming at Amy's Baking Company from December 8th to the 11th," says the note from a producer of Kitchen Nightmares. "It may be of interest to the members of the community to know how they can participate while we are filming and Chef Ramsay is in town."
It takes me a moment to recall the restaurant mentioned in the subject line. Amy's Baking Company had quickly fizzled out as a topic of conversation, the Valley's restaurant scene moving on to other news. I return to the restaurant's Yelp page and read the reviews following the one from LaTondress. It's mostly a mixed bag, but many of the negative ones contain similar, but less lengthy, acerbic responses from both Amy and Samy.
"Why would they agree to being on a show where criticism, embarrassment, and humiliation are part of the act?" I think to myself as I start to type the post. "Don't they know what Kitchen Nightmares is about?"
The next month, when most Valley restaurants were busy decking their halls with twinkling lights and pots of poinsettias, Amy's Baking Company was getting outfitted with video cameras, tungsten lights, and microphones. The first night's taping of Kitchen Nightmares at Amy's Baking Company delivered more surprises than any wrapped gift could — and with enough drama and tension to sufficiently rival any family holiday get-together.
For those in the Valley paying attention, shit-show Santa had come early, bearing a sneak preview of the chaos that was to come. The rest of America (and, eventually, other parts of the world) would have to wait until May.
"[Amy] was yelling and screaming, 'Get the fuck out' and [telling us that] if we weren't going to pay for our drinks, she was going to call the cops," a diner at the taping told me on the phone the next day. "She called me a 'tough guy' and said, 'You better correct your acting skills if you're trying to get on TV.' The producer said he would pay for our bill and that we should leave."
Like me, that diner (who was kept anonymous for a post I wrote because of a confidentiality agreement he'd signed for the show's producers) could hardly believe that the taping was real. After all, this was "reality" television. I was skeptical that he might be guilty of embellishment, whether he knew it or not. But the police part of his story checked out. And the rest of it — from being yelled at by Samy and Amy and told to leave after inquiring about a pizza for which he already had waited over an hour to his partner being physically pushed by Samy — would prove to be true when the show aired five months later.
As far as what happened that night, getting Amy and Samy's side of the story, as well as the Fox producer's, wasn't easy. One never returned my phone call. And the other, in a thick accent (it was Samy, of course), hurriedly told me he couldn't talk because "Ramsay was there." Attempts to contact the Bouzaglos for this story were unsuccessful.
A woman I once worked with used to say, "You can't fight crazy." Aside from an underlying feeling I had that she herself was of questionable mental stability, it was a phrase I liked and borrowed, employing it quite frequently when circumstances, or people, needed explanations that no rational answer could gratify.
Gordon Ramsay could not fight crazy.
When the Amy's Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares, which Fox felt warranted (and rightly so) the season finale, finally aired on Friday, May 10, incredulous viewers watched the host of the show do something he hadn't done in the series' more than 80 episodes: He walked away.
Ramsay, known to be a bit of a shouter himself, had met his match in Samy and Amy, whose motivation for being on the show, as they told Ramsay, was exposing the public to his opinion — not those of the "online bullies" — when it came to the quality of their food.
Maddeningly controlling, unwilling to accept criticism (constructive or otherwise), and living in what seemed an impenetrable fortress of denial, the Bouzaglos were Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares nightmare, his disastrous failure.
And it was on this episode that the force a few in the Valley knew as "Crazy Amy" in 2010 was unleashed in full, not only for Gordon Ramsay to witness, but for all of America, as well. In front of a national TV audience, she berated customers and staff, argued with Ramsay, vehemently rejected criticism, and fired a young female food runner on the spot for asking a question.
"There's no point in talking to you," Amy told Ramsay at one point during show. And in a rare moment, he was speechless.
But the antics of Crazy Amy weren't the show's only highlights. Equally, if not more cringe-worthy was the revelation that Samy took tips earned by the servers, a disclosure that ultimately incited viewers more than the store-bought ravioli that Samy told Chef Ramsay was made fresh. Real One Percenter shit, for sure.
"I think you're too far gone," a defeated-looking Ramsay tells the couple before walking out the door at the episode's denouement.
And then the Internet exploded.
It's hard not to speculate where the Bouzaglos, Amy's Baking Company, and the rest of the universe would be now if the show had ended differently — if, as in the series' previous episodes, the storm clouds had parted and produced a triple rainbow of introspection, atonement, and new beginnings.
In our imaginary episode, the show ends much differently: There is a final dinner service where happy customers, their mouths full of food, shake their heads in disbelief at its deliciousness, exclaiming, "Thish is wonnerful!" Katy Cipriani, the food runner who Amy fired, is tearfully asked forgiveness and offered back her job. And Amy earnestly looks into the camera and says, "Thanks to Chef Ramsay, we're ready to make some serious changes — starting with us." She coyly smiles and adds, "Meow, meow!"
The music fades out, the credits roll, and our hearts, now successfully warmed, can go on to beat for another day.
But, once in a while, reality TV actually turns out to be real. Or does it?
In January 2012, the Valley food community cried foul when another reality show, Food Network's Mystery Diners, came to town, paying visits to restaurants such as Big Earl's Greasy Eats in Cave Creek, Haus Murphy's in Glendale, and Caffe Boa in Tempe. The show, which features "undercover operatives" conducting surveillance and investigating "problem" employees at the supposed request of restaurant owners, has come under attack by many people who claim the show is fake and uses tactics such as paid actors and enlisting the help of owners who, for whatever reason, seem to think it's a good idea to have their restaurants featured in such a light.
When Dwayne Allen, owner of The Breadfruit in Phoenix, was contacted by the Food Network to participate in Mystery Diners, he became suspicious almost immediately.
"Let's say you have a bartender who has a soft spot for pretty women," Allen says the Food Network representative explained to him in a phone call. "We'll bring in the pretty women, and we'll set up the cameras so you can bust him."
"But we don't have a bartender with a soft spot for women," Allen replied. He then declined to participate in the show.
And then there's ABC's much different portrayal on another, albeit much different reality show. In February of this year, two months after the disastrous first night of taping Kitchen Nightmares and three months before its airdate, Amy's Baking Company was featured on Check Please! Arizona, PBS' popular restaurant-review series on which Arizonans share their dining experiences with host Robert McGrath, a James Beard Award-winning chef.
At the start of the seven-minute segment, over a musical backdrop of tinkling piano, a calm Amy Bouzaglo talks about her restaurant's concept as "farm-fresh organic food made from scratch" and Samy chats with customers and shows them to their tables.
The Check Please! Arizona episode's three diners make no mention of lengthy wait times or impossibly irate owners, nor do they register a single complaint about the dishes. ("A little punch would have been nice," one diner says, referring to her mushroom crepe. That's about as negative as it gets.) They describe the restaurant as charming and comfortable and the pastries as incredible. Even the red pepper ravioli — the same dish Gordon Ramsay said smelled "weird" and declared it to be "one of the most confusing ravioli dishes I have ever seen and tasted in my entire life" — gets a winning review. One diner calls it "a wonderful combination; sweet and spicy at the same time — delicious."
Check Please! Arizona producers declined my requests for comment.
Was the Check Please! Arizona segment the Bizarro World appearance for Amy's? Or was Kitchen Nightmares the one that stretched the truth? In each case, reality had likely been altered — maybe a little, maybe a lot. But by this point, none of it mattered. The online war already had started, and the Bouzaglos' best strategy was to fire away.
"We stand strong together. We have to, because there's a lot of online bullies and haters and bloggers. We stand up to them, and I think we're the only ones who have, as restaurant owners. And they come and they try to attack us and say horrible things that are not true."
When Amy Bouzaglo rattled off those words to a gape-mouthed Gordon Ramsay, she obviously had no idea just how many of the supposed saboteurs there would be. The Bouzaglos' belief that somehow Ramsay would vindicate their food and show up the "online bullies" once and for all had backfired on national television. Thousands of viewers took to the restaurant's social media sites to register their complaints.
And when it came to the way Amy and Samy responded to them, well, old habits die hard.
On Monday, May 13, three days after the show aired, the Bouzaglos fought back on Facebook with several anger-fueled posts written in a style and tone consistent with the responses they had used to address the handful of Yelp reviewers who had dared criticize their restaurant in the past. Sadly, it was difficult to tell just who was hating on whom. They ranted, they insulted and mocked, they hurled profanities, and they used up their lifetime allotment of all-caps and exclamation points.
Most pathetic of all, they threatened their critics on Yelp and Reddit with legal action ("bring it on") and taunts ("you are just trash").
"You are all little punks," one of the posts read. "Nothing. You are all nothing. We are laughing at you. All of you, just fools. We have God on our side, you just have your sites."
Within a matter of hours, the Internet erupted (again). Thousands upon thousands of comments poured into the Amy's Baking Company's social media sites (the restaurant's Facebook page now has over 90,000 "likes"), creating a mob that lashed out with a fury far greater than that of the Bouzaglos and that, depending on which comments you read, seemed bent on shifting the evolution of civility into reverse.
In the worst of them, Amy's mental health sarcastically was called into question and her physical appearance was jeered. She became the subject of explicit descriptions involving degrading and violent sexual acts, called names like "bitch," "whore," and "cunt," and her criminal record (she pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2003 and served 14 months in jail after attempting to open a line of credit using someone else's Social Security number) was brought up time and time again.
Riding the Crazy Amy train suddenly wasn't any fun anymore. It was depressing.
On Tuesday, May 14, the day after they'd gone up, the Bouzaglos' angry Facebook rants and the deluge of reader replies vanished, and the following post took their place:
"Obviously our Facebook, YELP, Twitter and Website have been hacked. We are working with the local authorities as well as the FBI computer crimes unit to ensure this does not happen again. We did not post those horrible things. Thank You Amy & Samy"
Obviously? Was it so obvious that a woman who called a Yelp reviewer "ugly" and a "moron" and who heatedly fired on the spot a young woman (whom she later called a "poisonous little viper") on Kitchen Nightmares for asking Amy, "Are you sure?" wasn't capable of penning those earlier Facebook posts? Was it so hard to believe that her husband, a man whose temper suddenly was legendary (thanks to his willingness to reveal it on national television) and who had no issues with taking the tips of those who work for him, couldn't do the same?
Innocence is what the Bouzaglos wanted us to "obviously" believe. But given their unchanging behavior, including a line on a remaining Amy's Baking Company Facebook post from the couple that read, "We do not feel the need to make any excuses for our behavior on tonight's show" (were we ever looking for excuses in the first place?), their lack of guilt was a pill that proved too tough for many to swallow.
The mob remained angry, appalled, and dissatisfied — and the number of online comments continued to grow.
"Well, here I am at Amy's BakAAAAAAARRRGGGH SHE'S MURDERING ME SHE'S EATING MY EYES JESUS FUCK MY CHRIST AAAAAa;nfqkhb"
On May 14, that Tweet, sent by comedian/actor Patton Oswalt, joined in on the national schadenfreude, an ever-increasing onslaught of jabs, jokes, commentaries, and postulations from what seemed to be everyone else on the planet who, by now, knew of the Bouzaglos, Amy's Baking Company, and what appeared to be the most epic online meltdown in history.
For media outlets everywhere, it was the biggest (non-)news story of the year and, for marketing gurus, a real-world example of how not to manage your brand via social media. From the Washington Post, CBS News, and Forbes to food-focused web pages like Eater, The Braiser, and Epicurious to fringe websites like Buzzfeed, The Consumerist, and Videogum, everyone was (and still is) talking about Amy's. Even spiky-haired celebrity chef Guy Fieri, no stranger to Internet blow-ups himself (thanks to New York Times food critic Pete Wells' brutal, zero-star review of Fieri's Times Square restaurant) quipped on the Today show, "I'm actually in awe."
But the media aftermath following the Kitchen Nightmares episode and the Bouzaglos' public crash and burn on social media wasn't to be the last act of the show. On Wednesday, May 15, perhaps surprised by the national reaction — and realizing the futility of their attempted defense — or simply wanting to wage yet another battle in their unwinnable war — Amy and Samy enlisted a public relations firm to help them to try and clean up their self-imposed mess: Scottsdale-based Rose+Moser+Allyn Public & Online Relations. In fact, the moment the supposedly obvious "we've been hacked" post on the restaurant's Facebook page showed up, many smelled the work of a character as colorful and controversial as the Bouzaglos themselves.
More or less the Johnnie Cochran of public relations, RMA president Jason Rose specializes in high-profile clients in need of a good scrubbing and doesn't seem to mind getting a little dirt on himself in the process. He nudged an equally publicity-obsessed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio into shilling for a restaurant called Pink Taco and twisted the campaign laws for some controversial and politically fueled Stingray Sushi ads. And when former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon found himself in a compromising position with a campaign staffer, Rose was all too happy to help. Maseratis don't pay for themselves, you know.
"If they [Amy and Samy] came to us right now and said take us from six feet under to try and get us above ground again," Rose said on a radio interview with KDKB 93.3 FM hours, oddly enough, before his firm announced it had been hired by the Bouzaglos to represent their restaurant, "typically what you do is apology and contrition."
The day Rose took on Amy and Samy as his clients he announced the restaurant would be closed until a "Grand Re-Opening" of Amy's Baking Company on Tuesday, May 21. In a press release, the "sold-out event" — a kind of set-the-record-straight affair doubling as a press conference — promised that "customers will be able to decide who is correct: a celebrity chef or the marketplace that has supported the small, locally owned business for six years." The press release went on to say a portion of the grand re-opening's proceeds would be donated to an organization dedicated to combat the effects of cyber-bullying, a group who, thanks to the events of the past few weeks, had their work cut out for them.
"We are very upset by what has taken place," Samy was quoted as saying in the press release, "and apologize about the acrimony that has ensued, but now must fight back to save our business."
It was the first time we heard the word "apologize" from the Bouzaglos. Jason Rose may be a loudmouth who once was fired by Special Olympics for comparing "knucklehead" to someone with special needs, but the man knows what the people want to hear.
He also knows a juicy publicity stunt for his publicity company when he sees it. Just days after he took on Amy's Baking Company and the Bouzaglos as his clients, Rose unceremoniously dumped them at the bottom of a press release dated Monday, May 20. Amy and Samy had been "hated on" again. This time, by a slick-talking salesman who appears to have used them.
And Rose's last press release for Amy's Baking Company contained another nugget of interest: The press conference had been cancelled by the Bouzaglos due to legal threats from the producers of Kitchen Nightmares (the Bouzaglos signed contracts agreeing to not speak about the show publicly) and threats of a non-legal nature by — who else? — the "online bullies."
However, the press release went on to say, the restaurant's "Grand Re-Opening" (now referred to as a "Grand Re-Opening Week" but with the same objective) was still a go for May 21, and that more than 1,000 reservations had been made since the event was announced. (Check in at www.phxfood.com to see how that went.)
Not that most of us would bet on Rose's "grand re-opening" caper actually working. For one, it is too soon. A better idea might have kept the Bouzaglos laying low for a while, at least until memories started to fade or someone else took their place on the Internet's sensationalized throne of what-the-fuck?
More important, it may be too late. Honesty, sincerity, perhaps a little shame, and an apology or two are what we've always wanted from Amy and Samy. But from the start, they can't or won't or haven't felt the need to provide them. And we have made them pay dearly for it.
We want the truth. Maybe so that we can feel vindicated or get closure or find it in our hearts to forgive. But now, the idea of the truth feels as unreachable as the Bouzaglos themselves. What we want from people and what they are willing to give us are two different things. All we can control is ourselves. And let's face it — in the case of Amy's Baking Company and the Bouzaglos, many of us haven't done a very good job.
The other day, a fellow Michigan transplant and friend of mine sent me an e-mail when she heard I was writing about Amy's Baking Company. She told me she had eaten there a few times, so I asked her about her experiences.
"Food at ABC was unremarkable," she wrote. "They were never busy."
I posed the question to her because I had never eaten at Amy's Baking Company. I never had any reason to. In the five years since it opened, the food, not one single dish, ever got the slightest bit of must-try buzz, Chow Bella never profiled Amy Bouzaglo as a noteworthy chef, and as far as making a difference in the Valley's food scene, well, Amy's Baking Company simply didn't.
My friend's recollection about Amy's Baking Company might have been brief, but in the end, it may be the one truth we can take away in all of this. That Amy's Baking Company is, and always has been, just another in a sea of forgettable Valley restaurants.
Everything else hardly matters.
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tourism degree
Degree is tourism may be ticket to big bucks New program can be taken here By Chris Woodall A new program in tourism management could be your ticket to employment with the big bucks. Directors of marketing, of human resources, of public relations: you can bet all these positions pay a lot more than slinging coffee or holding the ski lift chair steady for someone's bum. The provincial government has made it possible for area colleges to offer a program in tourism management through Open University. The course can be used by itself as a boost to your tourism career, or it will translate to the core two years of a four-year university degree in tourism management. In either case, they are important enhancements if you're serious about the tourism industry as a career. The nice twist on recent academic activity, however, is that in the new year you will be able to take the course in Whistler, via Internet or video conferencing as well as face-to-face teaching. Capilano College will be conducting the course at Whistler Secondary beginning in late January. An information night for locals to learn more is targeted for mid-December. And you should be keen to take it. "The future of tourism is growth," says Jonathan Rouse, who co-ordinates Capilano College's tourism management co-op diploma program. "I'll tell you right now, if it's not properly managed, our tourism industry will end up like logging and mining." Years ago it might have been okay to open a holiday camp and struggle to make a go of it simply because it seemed like a good idea, Rouse says, "but that's not good enough any more." The most important market is the international market," Rouse says. The numbers of visitors may be largest from regional areas, but the big bucks come from foreigners. "They're not after the mom and pop operation, they're after places like Whistler," Rouse says. "You didn't think Whistler was developed for the local market did you?" Because of the international nature of tourism, Whistler's direct competition is Vail and Europe, not other ski resorts in British Columbia, Rouse says. Despite the need to manage tourism business professionally, programs to teach tourism management are just coming on stream, Rouse says. "You're at the very forefront of the wave toward serious thorough education," he told a senior Whistler high school class. Indeed, Rouse has to go to England to get an advanced-level education in tourism management because such a program isn't available in Canada. B.C.'s 200-plus high schools have rudimentary tourism programs, but there's an increasing interest from people in their late 20s who are making a career shift to tourism, Rouse says. Capilano College's accelerated tourism management co-op program was developed with these people in mind. Instead of doing the course in two years, which would dissuade potential students not keen to lose two working years, the fast-track program is one year and two months long. What the program is not is a hospitality program focusing on hotel or food and beverage management; nor is it a program teaching how to run a travel agency. "We focus on the business of tourism and how to manage it in terms of developing in-bound products," Rouse says of tourism aspects that bring people to B.C. "We spend a lot of time on advertising, marketing, financial planning, management, and look at a lot of speciality tourism such as eco or adventure tourism. "At the end of the course you should be able to walk into a bank with a professional business plan for a tourism project," Rouse says. The four terms begin in January with an academic foundation; then a 20-week work experience term through the summer; followed by a return to academics in terms beginning in September and then January of the next year. If you're already working in tourism, you may find that work experience can be counted for credit toward your diploma. The good news is that personal maturity is about all you need to qualify. It also helps if you have a general knowledge of computers, can write English well, and have some aptitude in business or statistics maths. The bad news is tuition is $3,000, plus another $800 for textbooks and another $250 in related course fees. When you think that management careers in tourism easily start in the mid-$30,000 range and go into the high $50,000 range, that initial investment in your future may not seem so large. And if you want to stretch your college diploma into a university-level degree, you can. Earning Capilano College's diploma will "ladder" you into the university program with the second and third year to your credit, Rouse says. The first university year is a general knowledge year and the fourth year advances what was taught in the diploma program: entrepreneurship, advanced environmental stewardship, human resources, international marketing, and so on. The pilot of the fast track diploma starts in late January, 1997, Rouse says, as long as there are enough interested Whistlerites. The best bet is to call him for more details: (604) 984-4960; or fax 984-1761.
Local girl feels music's healing power
Whistler community, and beyond, quietly manoeuveres an 11th birthday to remember for Mischa Arnott
Remembering Sylvain Travers, Whistler's 'ambassador for social justice'
The longtime local character was found dead on June 23
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An Unexpected Success
At the end of the school year, professionals working in education often recount their successes. Oh sure, we have the usual student “graduations” from Speech, a new school assignment, a hard-won new or improved employee benefit, or maybe even an expanded supplies budget. As long and as hard as I searched through my various sources, though, I just couldn’t find a report similar to one of my most prized successes, parental anger and derision for a job well-done.
My original success story unfolded in a medical setting – a TBI rehabilitation unit. A popular high school sophomore, actively courted by several prestigious universities for his athletic prowess, sustained life-threatening injuries in an accident with a Highway Department snow plow during a blizzard. Comatose for six weeks, a dedicated, organized and skilled treatment team worked diligently to create a new life for Tory and his courageous family whose entire lives were changed in an instant.
But as progress slowed and inpatient care came to an end, Tory still looked different, walked with an unsteady gait, and processed information at a kindergarten level. It was painfully clear to the family that the service team would not return Tory to his prior state of great expectations. It was at this juncture that the family’s grief manifested as anger toward those who failed to reverse the multiple and debilitating effects of his injuries. Though we did the best we knew to do, we just had not met the family’s expectations – we had not answered their most fervent prayers. The upside to the situation was sharing the experience with my colleagues, all of whom verbalized a conviction that we had served our patient and his family with the utmost professionalism.
But I faced the most recent circumstance with no such loyal and collegial support.
Brittany, a bright, creative 2nd grade student being served in an educational setting, was dubiously identified as suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorder by the age of two. Sadly, Brittany’s adoptive parents were counseled to follow a verbally confrontational and physically coercive treatment regime that has been denounced by all leading medical associations, which they did with vigor and commitment. Once enrolled in the local school, a timid and ill-informed school team cow-towed to the unusual demands of the parents for unprecedented services and accommodations for Brittany who, quite strangely, was categorized as brain-injured.
Oh, had I known the true folly of contradicting control and fear with reason and evidence!
In both described situations, the emotional discomfort yielded an unexpected sense of success and a renewed commitment to render the best evidence-based, professional service. Our work is a discipline: we do the right thing to do for the right reason. We don’t work to achieve an emotional response.
Have you ever experienced an unexpected success?
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Building Strong Relationships Between Online SLPs and Onsite Staff
Telecommuters know the value of strong communication with their colleagues who work in the office. Email, phone, chat and online meetings all contribute to keeping the team informed and helping to build relationships.
The same holds true for online speech language pathologists (SLPs), who often work hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of miles from the school sites where they provide services. Close teamwork is essential to ensure all members of a student’s IEP team are on the same page to help the student achieve his or her goals.
There is more to communicate, however, than IEP goals and status updates. For example, Amy Peters, a PresenceLearning SLP, recently told me about a student she works with who is down a lot of the time. While working with him, she found something that made him laugh and shared this with the onsite team. They told Amy, in turn, that it is their goal to make that same student laugh every day. Sharing other milestone moments, such as the first time a student is able to say “R” correctly, not only brings the team together, but also enables team members to reinforce lessons, celebrate successes and watch for issues in a cohesive and consistent way.
Flexibility is key for the online SLP, whose function is to support onsite staff and students. Email is more convenient for some people, while a phone call works better for others. The online SLP must adapt to whatever is most effective for the individuals he or she works with. Amy emails her onsite contacts daily, makes short phone calls as needed (such as for quick check-ins or if a student is late to a session) and even holds occasional meetings on the PresenceLearning platform. She also makes it a priority to respond quickly to questions she receives from the school.
Online SLPs who stay on top of communication in a flexible way can build strong professional and personal relationships, ensuring close teamwork for years to come.
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Ketchikan fishing charters explain the different life stages of all varieties of salmon inhabiting the waters of Alaska
Although there are 5 distinct species of salmon that inhabit the waters of Alaska, they each share one similarity – they each have the same life cycle that begins and ends in the many freshwater rivers that span the Yukon state.
Understanding the stages of this life cycle and when they occur is critical for charters in Ketchikan and other areas of Alaska since that determines the best times for fishing for a particular species. While it is possible to catch a King salmon out of season for example, going when they are most active provides the best opportunity for hauling in a sizable catch.
We invite you to continue reading for a brief description of the 7 life cycle stages for salmon that call the Pacific-basin home.
1. Fertilized egg stage – Every Alaskan salmon starts out as an egg in a gravel bed in a freshwater river or creek. These eggs will “incubate” for a certain amount of time depending on the type of salmon and the temperature of the water. During this process, the salmon inside the egg develops its eyes, spine and tail. Once this process is complete, the egg will hatch and the salmon begins its life.
2. Alevin stage – Once the egg hatches, the salmon enters the alevin stage. These fish are still quite small and remain in the gravel beds safe from predators. Salmon in the alevin stage have a noticeable orange yolk sac attached to their bodies that provide nutrients. As the nutrients in the yolk sac are depleted toward the end of this stage, the salmon develop their mouths and small oval-shapes on their sides. After this process, the fish start to move away from the gravel beds to look for food.
3. Fry stage – This stage begins once the salmon leaves the gravel beds where they were born. Salmon in the fry stage have noticeable “parr” marks (except Pinks) that conceal the fish from predators. Although fry stage salmon have a lot of energy, they typically stay in slower moving waters and feed on plankton and insect larvae. How long a salmon stays in the fry stage depends on the species – some are only there for a short time while others like the King will stay for up to a year.
4. Smolt stage – Once the “parr” marks start wearing away and the salmon starts moving toward saltwater, it enters the smolt stage. Fish in this stage are growing quite rapidly. They typically stay in the brackish waters at the mouth of a river. Again, how long they stay in this stage and
how big they are varies by species. Once the salmon reaches a certain size, they are ready to migrate into the open ocean and begin their adult life.
5. Adult stage – Salmon are considered “adults” when they complete the migration from freshwater to saltwater. They will feed in the open-ocean for a certain length of time depending on the species. King salmon for example will stay in the ocean for 6 years whereas Pink salmon will stay for about two before heading back to freshwater to spawn.
6. Spawner stage – At a certain point, the salmon will begin migrating back to freshwater where they enter the spawner stage. Salmon in this stage undergo tremendous physical changes, including their color. Sockeye, King and Silver salmon for example will change from a silvery greyish color to maroon or red. The jaws of male salmon will also change to a hook shape, which is known as a “kype.” Pink and Sockeye males will also develop a defined hump on their back.
Interestingly, salmon in the spawner stage will migrate back to almost the same exact spot where they were born. Species like the Chum salmon will migrate up to 2000 miles to spawn! The distance they go depends on the species and the river.
Upon reaching the gravel beds, the females will lay their eggs in the gravel while the males fertilize them with something called “milt.”
This spawning “run” occurs during the summer months and provides the best fishing opportunities. However, determining the exact time this occurs isn’t easy. In most Alaskan rivers, the King salmon arrive first, then the Sockeye, Pinks, Chums and Silver in that order.
7. Post-spawn – If a salmon makes it to the spawning grounds without getting caught or eaten by a predator, they will complete the breeding process as described in number 6. Once this process is over, the adult salmon die off and therefore complete the life cycle.
Understanding this life cycle and when the salmon are in the spawning “run” stage is critical to determining the best time for getting out to the water. If you time it right, it is really easy to load up on a good number of salmon to feast on. Literally thousands of Alaska residents and salmon enthusiasts from around the world come during these times for some of the best fishing.
Ketchikan fishing charters like us here at Oasis Alaska Charters keep a close-eye on this life cycle to determine when the spawning run will happen for a particular salmon species. To find out when the spawning run is expected to occur for a given species and to schedule your trip, contact Oasis Alaska Charters in Ketchikan as soon as you can. The spawning runs are the most popular time for people from around the world to come and visit the Yukon state, so fishing charters will book up fast.
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Auditions to open for musical, "Oklahoma!"
Wheatland Theatre Co. will hold auditions for its summer musical “Oklahoma!” on Saturday, February 3, at 1:30 p.m. at Davenport Middle School. Those auditioning will learn excerpts of music and choreography from the show. No preparation is required. Auditions are open to adults and high school students.
Rehearsals for the production will begin twice a week in May, increasing in frequency in June, in preparation for six performances, July 20-29. All rehearsals and performances will take place in Davenport. Mileage reimbursement is available for cast members commuting from other areas of Lincoln County.
“Oklahoma!” is the third production of the theatre’s guest artist program, which brings professional theater artists from around the country to Lincoln County to work alongside and mentor local volunteers. The production will be helmed by Boston-area director Lee Mikeska Gardner, artistic director of The Nora Theatre Company. Suzanne Ostersmith, director of the dance program at Gonzaga University, will choreograph. The production team also includes a diverse range of artists from Lincoln County, Spokane and New York City, to be announced soon.
Auditions are being held several months before rehearsals start to allow the company to cast local community members before determining which roles to fill with two professional actors, who will be cast from auditions in New York City.
Available roles include seven principal characters (Laurie, Curly, Jud, Ado Annie, Will Parker, Aunt Eller, and Ali Hakim), several smaller featured roles and a large ensemble, providing opportunities for all experience levels, including beginners.
“In recent years, we’ve had to hold auditions in Spokane, because we haven’t had enough local people show up—especially men,” explained artistic director Karen Brewster. “We’d like to see as many local faces at the auditions as possible. This is a great opportunity to have fun, meet new people, perform onstage and learn from our visiting guest artists.”
Those interested in auditioning can sign up at WheatlandTheatre.org or by leaving a message at 509-721-0285.
Wheatland Theatre Company is a community theater company and Lincoln County’s only nonprofit producing arts organization. The company has mounted 17 productions since 2008. Drew Kowalkowski is the managing director and Karen Brewster is the artistic director.
Mini pizzas, pizza dough & chicken chimichangas
Marriage Night May 17, one-night simulcast event
Odessa Lion's Club
Free 'At the Heart of Care' events
Valor quilts awarded at pre-4th red-white-blue quilt show
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Members (MPPs)
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Legislative Assembly of Ontario
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Parliament 40, Session 2
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Hansard Transcripts
Orders and Notices
Hansard Transcripts 2014-Apr-09 (PDF)
L126 - Wed 9 Apr 2014 / Mer 9 avr 2014
ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO
Wednesday 9 April 2014 Mercredi 9 avril 2014
ORDERS OF THE DAY
PUBLIC SECTOR AND MPP
AND TRANSPARENCY ACT, 2014 /
LOI DE 2014 SUR
LA RESPONSABILISATION
ET LA TRANSPARENCE DU SECTEUR
PUBLIC ET DES DÉPUTÉS
WEARING OF PINS
INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS
ORAL QUESTIONS
ANTI-BULLYING INITIATIVES
NUCLEAR POWER FACILITIES
AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE
NATURAL GAS RATES
RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS
VIMY RIDGE ANNIVERSARY
WINDSOR SCULPTURE PARK
EVENTS IN HALIBURTON–KAWARTHA LAKES–BROCK
HUNTER APPRENTICESHIP
MISSISSAUGA COMMUNITY THEATRE
REPORTS BY COMMITTEES
STANDING COMMITTEE ON REGULATIONS AND PRIVATE BILLS
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
BRUNO’S ALIGNMENT
LIMITED ACT, 2014
JURIES AMENDMENT ACT, 2014 /
LOI DE 2014 MODIFIANT
LA LOI SUR LES JURYS
STATEMENTS BY THE MINISTRY
AND RESPONSES
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PINK
USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
HIGHWAY TRAFFIC
AMENDMENT ACT (KEEPING ONTARIO’S ROADS SAFE), 2014 /
LOI DE 2014 MODIFIANT LE CODE
DE LA ROUTE (ASSURER LA SÉCURITÉ
DES ROUTES DE L’ONTARIO)
ROYAL ASSENT /
SANCTION ROYALE
The House met at 0900.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Good morning. Please join me in prayer.
Mr. Milloy moved second reading of the following bill:
Bill 179, An Act to promote public sector and MPP accountability and transparency by enacting the Broader Public Sector Executive Compensation Act, 2014 and amending various Acts / Projet de loi 179, Loi visant à promouvoir la responsabilisation et la transparence du secteur public et des députés par l’édiction de la Loi de 2014 sur la rémunération des cadres du secteur parapublic et la modification de diverses lois.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Mr. Milloy.
Hon. John Milloy: Mr. Speaker, it’s indeed a pleasure to be participating in the leadoff on this very important piece of legislation. I want to talk about how the bill fits into the overall context of a number of initiatives of our government. But for those members who have been here for many years—certainly I’ve spoken to those in the public service. When they take a look at the bill, this is one of the most comprehensive, far-reaching pieces of legislation that I think has been seen in this Legislature in quite a long time. It touches on so many aspects of government operations and initiatives, but it all comes back to the same theme of openness, accountability and transparency.
At the outset, acknowledging the breadth of this bill, I do want to thank a number of people who worked tirelessly on bringing this together. First, I am the sponsor of the bill, as Minister of Government Services, but those who have gone through the bill will note that it touches on a vast number of ministries. So I want to thank the team at the Ministry of Government Services who worked so hard on pulling the bill together, but also in terms of working with other ministries, with senior officials, with lawyers and with a whole group of people to make this bill a reality. I want to thank, of course, my staff in my office and the Premier’s office—everyone who worked to pull together this very, very comprehensive piece of legislation.
I also want to extend a special thank you to one of our colleagues here in the Legislature: the member from Ottawa South. The member has been a huge, huge advocate for transparency in government. We’re aware, I think, of a private member’s bill that he brought forward to this Legislature some time ago on greater transparency when it came to MPP expenses. This has been one of his themes since his election in the recent by-election, and I want to congratulate him and thank him for the work he has undertaken, and in fact, Mr. Speaker, to give you notice that I’ll be sharing my time on this leadoff with the member from Ottawa South, Mr. Fraser.
I also want to give credit to my parliamentary assistant, Mr. Qaadri, the MPP from Etobicoke North, who is tied up with an announcement this morning but will be speaking to the bill later on. He, too, has had a hand in pulling it together.
As I said at the outset, I want to provide members with a bit of context of how this fits into the entire Open Government Initiative that was announced by the Premier last fall. It’s funny—those who heard about Open Government thought that it was somehow an invention by this government. Well, the fact is that the idea of Open Government is an international movement. You can go to western Europe, to the United States, states within the United States, virtually throughout the world and find this whole idea of Open Government. What Open Government means—there’s really a number of different parts to it.
The first part that I always like to talk about is, how do we make decisions? What is the decision-making process vis-à-vis the public? For too long, I think there’s been this view that government has all the answers and the role of the public is to sit back and call on government to solve all their problems. As you and I both know, Mr. Speaker, and members of the Legislature may know, one of the great secrets we have here at Queen’s Park is that we certainly don’t have all the answers. We live in a very complex society. Government does not have all the solutions to a problem. In fact, in many ways government doesn’t have the wherewithal to solve all the problems that are happening. Often times, it has to be done in partnership with ordinary citizens, with NGOs, with the business community, with other levels of government. So we need a capacity to reach out and engage the public, to make sure that they understand that government, as I always say, is not an us-and-them proposition, that we’re all part of government, that everyone has a role and a responsibility. When it comes to so many of the challenges that are facing government, how can we work together in partnership to find those solutions and to execute those solutions? That’s really the framework for Open Government.
Within that, though, there are a number of propositions. The first proposition is, if you want to engage the citizenry so that they can help be part of the solution, that they can have a role, you have to make sure that they have an understanding of the problems and challenges that are being faced. That leads to the second part of the Open Government pillar, and that is open information: to allow the public to have more information on the problems and solutions and proposals etc. that are held within government. How can we have a whole different mindset where the public has access to that information and understands the sort of challenges that we’re facing, and, as I say, what are the proposed solutions, what are the facts of the matter?
The third part of that, one that’s related, is the whole idea of open data. As well as general information that government has, we have this whole issue of data. The government collects literally thousands and thousands and thousands of data sets. Those are everything ranging from geospatial information to, on the other end, the other extreme, the most common boys’ and girls’ names for new babies here in the province of Ontario. We collect thousands and thousands of data sets, and those data sets are of great value. They’re of great value to researchers, to public policy advocates, to anyone who is interested in being a part of the public policy process. They’re also, as an important aside, very, very important to entrepreneurs, because much of that information can be taken and it can be meshed and melded with other types of information. You can come up with products and services which experts tell us—I’m not making this up—could lead to billions and billions of dollars of economic growth. So part of having open data is not just making the data available, but making it available in a format that is machine-readable, that is user-friendly and, as I say, can be combined with other material and put together.
So there are the three principal pillars of Open Government. One of the initiatives that the Premier highlighted and began last year was appointing an Open Government panel. under the leadership of a noted expert particularly in the area of citizen engagement, Dr. Don Lenahan, who’s with the Public Policy Forum. The panel itself was composed of a number of leading experts, including our former colleague Norm Sterling, a former member of this Legislature, to look at this whole issue of Open Government. Their report was released about a week and a half ago, and certainly we’re taking their recommendations very seriously.
The reason why I began with that is, I think you can’t understand the bill before us today without understanding Open Government. The bill, I wouldn’t say, flows directly from the work that was done from the panel; instead, it complements the work that was done from the panel. As I said, the panel is looking at how to engage citizens more, how to make sure that they have access to the type of information and data that they need.
But the other thing is, if we’re going to engage citizens—if we’re going to make them more a part of the process, if we’re going to make them true partners with government—I would argue that, as well as having the information about government, they also need to be able to trust their government. They need to be able to know that there’s a level of transparency about our activities, and that there’s a level of accountability over what we do. It’s crucial, because that relationship can only be joined through a mutual trust between citizens and the government. As I said right at the outset, the government knows that we don’t have all the answers and we need to rely on citizens.
The genesis of Bill 179, as I say, complements very much what happened with Open Government. That is, we have the panel who are doing their work and we have a number of initiatives that are going on with the government, but at the same time, how can we make sure that we complement this work by ensuring that there’s a level of trust and a level of accountability between citizens and their government? Hence Bill 179, which, as I said at the outset, I think is one of the most comprehensive bills, which touches on so many areas of—I’ll put it in broad terms—accountability, transparency and openness. What I wanted to do today, Mr. Speaker, is touch a little bit upon some of those areas and fill members in on what’s in this very comprehensive bill.
I’ll begin with ourselves: elected representatives. I think everyone realizes that the old adage is very true: You have to lead by example. The fact of the matter is that people look to their elected representatives to be accountable to them, particularly when it comes to the spending of taxpayers’ dollars, so one of the provisions of Bill 179 is a legislative provision that would mandate that we have expense reporting for elected representatives.
The proposed bill, if passed, would make it mandatory for cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants, opposition leaders and their staff to post their expense information online. Currently, this expense reporting is done on a voluntary basis. I know, having been both a minister and a parliamentary assistant, that over the years my expenses have been online. Although most people think it’s legislated, it is in fact only done on a voluntary basis. The opposition leaders have been a bit more spotty as to their posting, but at the end of the day it still is voluntary. What this bill would do is it would make it mandatory that not only these expenses go to the Integrity Commissioner, who takes a look at them and makes sure that they are all aboveboard, but that in fact they are posted online so the public can see the way in which their tax dollars are being spent on the expenses of parliamentary assistants, cabinet ministers, obviously the Premier, and the leaders of the opposition and their staff.
Now, it doesn’t just stop there, with those members—we’d call it the executive on this side and the leadership across there. We are also proposing to extend this idea of reporting to all MPPs in the Legislature. The way it works right now is, every year, the Speaker of the Legislature actually publishes a broad expense reporting of all the members here in the Legislature: both their expenses tied to their duties here at Queen’s Park—perhaps they have a residence here at Queen’s Park, if they live more than 50 kilometres away—and, at the same time, the expenses that are incurred in their riding at a global level. This document is published; it is made public. I understand it’s circulated to reporters in the press gallery. Certainly as an MPP I receive one. But I think members in this Legislature may be a little shocked to know that it’s never put online anywhere. Presumably, someone could call the Speaker or another legislative office and get a copy, but we don’t put it online. So the first step we want to do in terms of transparency is to put it online. In fact, I’ve reached out to the opposition parties—I’ve had some positive feedback; we’re still working on it—to put this document online. I should add, before I go on, that we on the government side have taken the initiative of posting this information online already, as a sign of our wish to be more open and transparent.
The second point would be to broaden—and that’s what this legislation does. It broadens the information that is posted and made available. So the bill, if passed, would require the Speaker to move further than what he does right now, which is just more of a general overview of the expenses both at Queen’s Park and in the riding, and post online information on MPP expenses concerning out-of-riding travel, related hotel expenses, meals and hospitality expenses. Mr. Speaker, I should explain that the reason these categories were chosen is that they mirror very much the types of reporting you’ve seen from cabinet ministers and parliamentary assistants and now, of course, from the leaders of the opposition.
Many of the other expenses—I think members would agree; they, of course, are very familiar with them—are what you might want to call static expenses: the rent for your constituency office. As I say, there’s a global figure that you can look up. But in terms of expense item by expense item, these are key areas where there’s some genuine public interest on the ways in which members are spending taxpayers’ money. As I say, we’ve taken the first steps on this side by posting some of these general figures. We’re looking forward to the passage of this bill to have more specific iteration on a going-forward basis of some of these very specific expenses.
The third thing I’d like to talk about in this bill is the whole issue of compensation for senior executives in the broader public sector. We understand the concern on this side of the House. I think we all understand the concern. These have been tight times. The middle class has just gone through a very, very serious recession. People are struggling to make ends meet, and at the same time they are often outraged, in some cases, when they pick up the paper and learn the salaries of senior members of the broader public service.
It’s been a topic that’s been debated in this House, and there have been numerous bills that have come forward—private members’ bills and proposals that have come forward on this. As I say, I certainly have great sympathy for those who want to see something done about this. But the problem is that there’s an old saying that for every complex problem, there’s always one really, really attractive-sounding, simple solution that doesn’t work. Unfortunately, some of the solutions that have been brought forward in this Legislature really do fit that bill. They’re great for a bumper sticker, but they don’t work in reality.
The fact of the matter is that if we simply go forward and say that all salaries in the broader public service are capped at X or Y, it doesn’t work. The reason is that throughout the broader public sector we have a variety of positions and roles to which very, very specific expertise is needed. And I think we all recognize that when you want to go out and get the best people—I don’t think there’s anyone in the Legislature who doesn’t want to see the best people running various aspects of the public service. If you want to get them, you have to often pay what is—call it a good market rate in order to get someone with that technical expertise and experience going forward. I’m not saying there aren’t many, many cases when I think we could level off what’s happening in the broader public sector, but to just go forward with a ham-fisted, “We’re going cut it off at X or Y,” is simply not going to work.
At the same time, we don’t have all the information as to how people are paid in the broader public sector, not just simply their salary—obviously we have the sunshine list where we see it, or other public documents—but are there issues around severance, are there issues around housing allowance, are there issues around certain expenses that they’ve received? What this bill does—it’s very comprehensive—is it gives us the authority to go out and collect all this information.
More importantly, it also gives us the authority to take a look at other jurisdictions and at different comparators, and come up with hard caps of what would be reasonable to pay different senior executives in different parts of the broader public sector. Then, again, this bill would give us the authority to impose them. It would also give us the authority to make sure they are enforced through certain mechanisms that hold the board accountable.
I think this is very, very important, because what I’ve just said does not fit nicely on a bumper sticker, but what it’s going to do is come up with something that’s reasonable and that’s going to allow us to hire people with the technical knowledge, expertise and experience in order to undertake a role. At the same time, it’s going to stop what, quite frankly, in some instances have been the outrageous packages that all of us read about in the paper every day.
Another area that I’d like to talk about today is the proposed reforms on record-keeping, obviously a very topical issue here in the Legislature. I’m certainly not going to run away from it. We have had a lot of very disturbing happenings over the last year or so. Last June, I believe it was, we saw the Information and Privacy Commissioner come out with a series of reports. As Minister of Government Services, I was very much involved in discussions with her and talks between our staffs about how we can improve the record-keeping regime here in the government.
I want to give full, full credit to the Premier, who took this situation very, very seriously, who worked with the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
As Minister of Government Services, I was asked by the Premier to also work very closely with her to do two things.
The first was to adopt all the non-legislative recommendations that she had suggested, which include staff training and a whole framework to make sure that records are properly maintained here in government.
The second was to take a look at a number of legislative changes that the Information and Privacy Commissioner had put forward. Of these legislative changes, three of the principal ones she put forward are contained in this bill.
The legislation—I’ll just review it for members—would, if passed, act on three of the commissioner’s recommendations on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It would require all institutions subject to FIPPA and MFIPPA, as those two acts are called, to ensure that measures are in place to preserve records; to prohibit the wilful destruction of records with the intent to deny someone access to records; and to introduce a fine of up to $5,000 for the wilful destruction of records.
As I mentioned, Mr. Speaker, our government consulted with the commissioner and her office about her recommendations to assist us in the development of this legislation. We wanted to make sure that we reached a consensus between the two of us on what we would put forward.
I’m going to be very transparent here with the House: We are not proposing an amendment with respect to the commissioner’s fourth recommendation. I want to be clear, and certainly I’ve been very open in my discussions with her. That recommendation was to legislatively require the duty to document all key decisions within government.
Currently, Mr. Speaker, there is no legislative duty to document, in either freedom-of-information or record-keeping legislation, in any other jurisdiction in Canada. Although I think we all understand the spirit behind the duty to document, I think we can also ask ourselves: What exactly does that mean?
Obviously, we keep cabinet records and treasury board records, and decision notes are kept. We keep many of the steps leading up to it. But at what point does the duty step in? At what point is something merely informal? I’ve spoken with the IPC, and I think she understands that these are questions that probably need more exploration.
What we have committed to do is to work through the various federal-provincial bodies that meet to discuss this, to work with other jurisdictions across Canada to explore this—as I say, I think everyone understands and accepts the spirit of it—to move forward. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, to give you more of the technical details, my ministry will be working with the information management subcommittee of the federal, provincial and territorial CIOs to determine the best path forward.
Regardless of how we proceed on this front, our recent and ongoing training on records management for staff continues to emphasize the need to manage and create public records in order to document key government decisions, activities and operations, and I want to stress that, Mr. Speaker. The fact that this fourth recommendation is not part of the legislation does not mean that we don’t take it seriously.
All major policy decisions are always documented through meeting minutes, briefing notes, House notes, management board and treasury board notes as well as cabinet minutes.
I highlighted in some detail a number of the key parts of the bill. I do want to allow time for my colleague from Ottawa South to speak, who, as I say, has a particular passion for this area, but there’s one final area that I want to touch on—and this bill is vast, so I’ve really just given you some of the highlights—and that’s the role of the Ombudsman.
I think all of us recognize the important role played by not only the provincial Ombudsman, but other individuals who act either in that role, have that title or serve that purpose—that third party that the public can go to when they feel that the obstacles they’ve encountered really can’t be moved aside, that they need to work their way through the red tape and find answers. We all know our provincial Ombudsman has been tireless in working through a variety of issues for citizens. He gets thousands and thousands of complaints a year that he deals with. He also looks at systemic issues within certain sectors and comes forward with special reports.
The Ombudsman in the province of Ontario has very broad authority over many of the activities of the government, but when it comes to the broader public sector, the Ombudsman’s role has been limited. There have been a number of individuals in this Legislature who have certainly called for his oversight in a number of areas. I think, of course, of children’s aid societies as one that there’s been discussion on here, going on 11 years. I’ve seen private members’ bills and questions in the Legislature, and that’s just one example.
What we did is we first of all worked with the Ombudsman—I want to put that on the record—and came up with a package that would extend his powers, and then more general Ombudsman powers throughout what we affectionately call the MUSH sector. The first step is that the provincial Ombudsman will now have authority over municipalities, over universities and over school boards.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to put on the record—because I think there’s been a little bit of confusion about this oversight. In many of these cases, we already have existing ombuds, as they are called. In the university system, many universities have an ombudsman and in the municipal system, there has been some media about the city of Toronto ombudsman. This is in no way trying to undermine their authority. The fact of the matter is, as I said at the outset, there are many, many people who deal with problems and disputes within the system who do an outstanding job. When I spoke with the provincial Ombudsman, he made it clear that his philosophy—in fact, some of this reflected in the legislation—is that when you have a problem, you go through the dispute mechanism. You work your way up the line, so to speak. You go to the tribunal or the special office or, in the case of some of these other institutions, the front-line ombudsperson, you present them with your situation and you work with them to solve it.
But at the same time, having this provincial Ombudsman have an umbrella role over them does two things. First of all, in those rare cases where someone really feels that the system is working against them and wants a fresh pair of eyes, then we have the provincial Ombudsman there to help with it. The second thing, and I think this is important to note, is that in many cases, what the provincial Ombudsman is doing is taking a look across the line. Yes, there may be something that’s very specific to one municipality but, in other cases, there may be problems of a similar nature, to use the municipal sector as an example, that are popping up in a variety of municipalities. What he would want to do is to investigate and put forward a report on some of the systemic problems that are happening and, in that way, provide a different sort of look than an individual ombudsman could do.
Again, to just comment on some of the media reports, this is in no way meant as a criticism of the fine, fine work that is done by a number of people in the system who serve the role of ombudsman. I think of the universities and I also think specifically of the city of Toronto, where they have an outstanding individual who is doing a great job. She is seen as a real leader in this field. She will be allowed to do her work. This is, just as I say, providing another pair of eyes in those rare instances, and also his ability to look at some systemic issues.
So that’s expanding the provincial Ombudsman’s role, but in two other areas, Mr. Speaker—and I’ll wrap up in a second on this note—we saw a need for a more specialized Ombudsman’s role. That was the whole area of children’s services—particularly, of course, children’s aid societies.
What this legislation would do is take an officer of Parliament, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, and give him the same power and authority as an ombudsman. Again, we put together the framework in consultation with the provincial Ombudsman to make sure that the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth had a similar role to that played by Mr. Marin.
Also, in the whole area of health care, we have a patient Ombudsman who will provide a similar role. The understanding is that in both of those areas—they’re very broad, they’re very specialized. By creating or giving these new powers to these individuals, they can specialize in those areas.
Mr. Speaker, believe it or not, that is only a quick look at a very, very detailed bill. For those of you who have had a chance to go through it, you’re going to find that there are a number of other initiatives that we could highlight and I’m sure will be highlighted during the course of debate. Together, it is a very, very comprehensive package.
I’ll just end where I began: This is about open government, and open government is about engaging citizens, giving citizens a sense of ownership of their government and giving citizens a sense of responsibility towards working to solve many of the problems and challenges that we face. But in order to do that, we have to make sure that they have the information, that they have access to the data and analysis that we have, but also, there has to be a level of trust. There has to be a level of accountability, openness and transparency, and that’s what this bill is about. I cannot state enough that this is one of the most comprehensive packages that has ever been brought to this Legislature in terms of accountability. I think, in general, it’s a very, very comprehensive bill, and it outlines a lot of good work where a number of ministries came together.
I think this is a very, very important step. I look forward to the debate and discussion. Quite frankly, I look forward to support from all sides of this House, because I think it’s in all of our interests to continue to build trust and confidence with the people of Ontario. This bill goes a long way towards that.
As I said at the outset, I will be sharing my time with the member from Ottawa South. I know he, too, will want to speak upon the themes of this bill, but also its breadth. With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank you very much and yield the floor to the member from Ottawa South.
Mr. Michael Harris: Point of order.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Point of order, the member from Kitchener–Conestoga.
Mr. Michael Harris: Yes, Speaker. I believe we have unanimous consent that all members of the Legislature be permitted to wear pins in honour and remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, as today is Vimy Ridge Day.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Kitchener–Conestoga has asked for permission to wear the Vimy Ridge pin. Agreed? Agreed.
The member from Ottawa South.
Mr. John Fraser: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to speak in the leadoff to the debate on Bill 179, the Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act. I’d like to thank the Minister of Government Services for sharing his time with me.
Before I begin, I’d like to take a moment to thank my colleagues and friends here at Queen’s Park for their kind words and thoughts on the passing of my father, who died on Sunday. Over the last week and a half, I’ve had an opportunity to spend some time caring for him and being with him, and that would not have been possible without the support I’ve received from all of you. I thank you.
As a young man, the first and most important lesson my father taught me was about the keeping of a confidence. If someone shared something with you in confidence, you kept it to yourself, not to be shared with anyone else. He said it was important because keeping a confidence was all about trust, and trust is the key to working together and moving forward.
Trust is an essential ingredient needed for success in any endeavour. Transparency, openness and accountability are also all about trust. Bill 179 is about trust. It’s about building trust in this Legislature, its members and how we conduct our business. It’s about trust in government and the broader public service, and how they use the resources we are giving them. It’s about building trust in our schools and universities as they serve our young people. It’s about building trust in our hospitals, long-term-care homes and home care as they care for our loved ones. It’s about building trust in our child protection system as it strives to watch over children and youth at risk.
Building trust is essential to our work. That’s why I felt strongly when I introduced Bill 108, the Transparency in Members’ Expenses Act, and that it was the right thing to do. If we wanted to build trust, we needed to do our work, we needed to take the first step and we needed to lead by example to build trust.
I’m very pleased that the measures in Bill 108 have been included in the act; it is the first of many steps in this bill. Bill 179 is broad and far-reaching. It expands the mandate of the Ombudsman to include municipalities, school boards and publicly funded universities; it creates a new patient Ombudsman for hospitals, long-term-care homes and community care access centres; it strengthens the mandate of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth to better serve those involved in the child protection system; it broadens expense disclosure from 17 agencies to include all 197 agencies in the broader public service; it requires that leaders of the opposition parties and their staff be subject to the same rules as the Premier, cabinet ministers and their staff; it authorizes the government to establish a framework for executive compensation in the broader public sector; and it makes mandatory for broader public sector organizations to publish their business plans and other relevant financial documentation.
The Minister of Government Services has worked closely with the officers of this Legislature to put this bill together, and the Premier has committed to leading the most open and transparent government in the country. Bill 179 will do that.
I know that the member from Trinity–Spadina has been pushing for Ombudsman oversight over universities and school boards for some time. I know that the member from Timmins–James Bay has said that he is generally in favour of these measures and that he is willing to sit down and take a look at it. I also know that the member from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex was one of the first to disclose his expenses online. So I know that building trust and openness and transparency is important to all of us here in the Legislature.
I also know that our Ombudsman, André Marin, has said, “I look forward to seeing this bill come forward to the Legislature. It is a strong step toward a more democratic, accountable and open Ontario.”
Bill 179 is legislation that all members of this Legislature can support. As we debate, it is important to remember that this bill is all about building trust as we go forward. Often in debate, there is a temptation to slip into finger-pointing and maybe some recrimination, and what I would urge all members to do is to remember that this is something that’s about building trust in the future, not just for tomorrow or today as we debate but five, 10 and 20 years from now. That’s something that all Ontarians deserve, and I believe that we need to come together and make this legislation work.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Questions and comments?
Mr. Rob Leone: To the member for Ottawa South, we offer our sincere condolences on the passing of your father.
I think that, certainly, this is an important piece of legislation. We’ve been seeking accountability on this side of the House for some time, particularly in this minority government. With respect to things that happen in government, it’s our job as the opposition to raise these issues. I think this legislation does some good things; it does make us a little bit more proactive in disclosing information that the public may want from time to time.
We’ve had conversations in this House, particularly on the member from Ottawa South’s bill, with respect to the disclosure of MPP expenses. I’m certainly happy to disclose to the public what my expenses are, and I’m pretty sure that members of the Legislature will agree that some proactive measures are necessary.
What I do disagree with is that by coming in with an accountability act, I fear that the government is attempting to whitewash its sorry record on accountability, particularly with relation to what has happened and transpired with the gas plant scandal in this province, where it took the opposition—collectively, as an opposition; both the PCs and the NDP—working together to actually get some answers for the people of Ontario. It shouldn’t be that hard to get answers for the people of Ontario. It shouldn’t take a potential contempt of this Legislature to get answers for the people of the province of Ontario.
We’re very concerned, obviously, that this government thinks that by enacting this legislation, it wipes clean its sorry history on accountability and transparency. We will do our due diligence, Mr. Speaker, and debate this piece of legislation. I look forward to listening to the debate this morning.
Miss Monique Taylor: I’m happy, as always, to be able to stand in this House and speak about accountability because it’s definitely something that needs a fix. This bill is something that we as New Democrats, as you know, are happy to see: the MUSH sector getting some oversight. It’s something that we’ve been calling for, for many years. We’re definitely happy to see that in this bill.
There are a lot of half measures that are happening. We’re concerned that there’s a patient advocate, instead of the Ombudsman, having oversight of the hospitals. I’m concerned that the Ombudsman is not getting any oversight over the children’s aid societies. But I’m also confident in the work of our child advocate. I just hope that he’s given enough tools to actually do the job that needs to be done.
There’s a lot in this bill. How many schedules do we have? We have nine schedules in one bill. That’s a lot to absorb within one piece of legislation. And there are gaps throughout it. So I know that we’ll be looking forward to making some changes to this, to make sure that there is real accountability.
Schedule 1 establishes the authority to establish executive compensation frameworks. Well, that’s really great, because on this side of the House, New Democrats have been calling for the capping of CEO salaries, but under this schedule I’m not really sure. They’re talking about putting in frameworks of compensation of public sector executives, but there are no real caps attached to this. So it could be a very long process before we get to anything that would seem suitable for the people of this province.
I’m happy to have had this moment. Thank you.
Hon. Liz Sandals: I’m pleased to comment on the remarks of my colleagues the Minister of Government Services and the member for Ottawa South. Certainly, we all want to extend our condolences to the member for Ottawa South on the loss of his father.
I thought perhaps I would comment briefly on the things in the bill that will have an impact on the education sector. The first of those would be the controlling of senior executive compensation in the broader public sector, because that will apply to school boards. Our government, if this legislation is passed, would be establishing compensation frameworks, and that would include hard caps for executives in the broader public sector, including school boards. Heads of organizations would be required to submit attestations concerning compliance with the compensation frameworks, and employers would actually be required to repay any amount in excess of those caps as a debt to the crown. So there actually are not only hard caps, but penalties contemplated if those aren’t followed.
There is a requirement to publish business plans and other financial documents. Quite frankly, I think school boards, given their current accountability requirements, already publish their financial statements. The budget process is public; annual reports are public. So I think they will already be meeting the requirements in that respect.
Certainly, the one change for school boards will be the expansion of the Ombudsman’s role to have oversight over school boards. That’s something that we look forward to working with our school boards and the Ombudsman on, to figure out exactly how that would work in the future.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Questions and comment?
Mr. John O’Toole: I was pleased to be here this morning to listen to the leadoff speech by the Minister of Government Services, and more recently by the member for Ottawa South. I too extend my sympathies and pay respect for the mourning of the loss of his father, and the fact that he was here today to speak.
I will switch now to a different tone. This is comprehensive legislation, as the House leader said. It’s well overdue and needed at this time, with all the inquiries and the OPP walking around here, investigating everything that moves.
The theme that was mentioned by the member from Ottawa South really struck a note with me this morning. He used the word “trust.” Unfortunately, I’m not going to have a full hour this morning. In this House, trust is the most important sentiment that could ever be felt, expressed or shown. There’s an old axiom that says if you want to know if something is true, go and observe it. The observers in this House would say that they’ve broken trust.
I’m not trying to cast aspersions, in the positive mood that we’re in this morning. I know that your remarks were quite sincere. Your private member’s bill—I think it was Bill 108—to build in accountability is reflected in some of this bill, but I put it to you that after 10-plus years, it’s too little, too late.
It’s in that tone that I think our leader, Tim Hudak, has been pressing to bring some debate here in the House of having respect for the House itself in terms of accountability, I suspect you’d call it. They use that term “openness and transparency and accountability.” They throw it around like Frisbees around here, so I’m quite cynical, in fact, of the sentiments being expressed.
I will have more to say this afternoon or sometime later. I look forward to the former mayor of Etobicoke’s remarks today.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Ottawa South has two minutes.
Mr. John Fraser: I’d like to thank the member from Cambridge, the member from Hamilton Mountain, the Minister of Education and the member from Durham for their remarks.
I would like to address the member from Cambridge’s remarks, just to say that this is about going forward. This is about what we’re doing. What we do in this House is try to look out 10, 15, 20 years in the future. That’s what this bill is about. It’s not what’s behind us. We’ll continue to discuss what’s behind us, but let’s not lose focus on what this bill is about.
In response to the member from Hamilton Mountain, I thank her for her remarks and her general words of support. I would not describe the measures in the bill as half measures. Those measures were worked out with the current Ombudsman. He has expressed support on a number of occasions, initially describing the bill as historic and 35 years in the making. The measures that are outlined in this bill in terms of hospitals, long-term-care facilities and community care access centres will work. The measures outlined that increase the mandate for the child advocate will work, and I would encourage her to look at the legislation and support those measures.
I’d like to thank the Minister of Education for her remarks.
I agree with the member from Durham that trust is essential: trust in this House, trust in each other. We need to continue to build that trust. That was the point of my remarks. I hope he took them in that spirit. We’re all colleagues here. We’re all here because we want to make things better, because we want to take care of those things that are important to the families that we serve. To do that, we need to build trust.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Further debate?
Mr. Douglas C. Holyday: Mr. Speaker, I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Durham.
Before I commence, I would like to pass my condolences on to the member from Ottawa South, on your recent loss.
I rise in this chamber today, as the accountability critic for the PC opposition party, to speak on the merits but lack of clarity of the proposed Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act, 2014, known as Bill 179. I should point out that I have serious reservations about the creation of new bureaucratic formations overseeing existing bureaucratic formations.
The omnibus piece of legislation is a far-reaching proposal that, if enacted in full, would expand considerably the scope and impact of controlled supervision of spending by public sector agencies and elected officials. The bill, introduced on March 24 by the Minister of Government Services, expands the mandates of previously established oversight institutions—that’s the Ombudsman and the Integrity Commissioner—and creates new advocacy structures, plus it requires you, Mr. Speaker, to publish the total expenses of all provincial members. I’m not sure if this covers expenses related to the Premier’s office and those of ministers. Besides strengthening advocacy, reach and penetration, it adds broader enforcement rules for lobbying groups while adding greater investigative powers under the children and youth act, 2007, to provide greater ability for stronger advocacy of protective measures.
As Bill 179 moves forward to the day it receives royal assent, our party will discuss in detail the intent of this legislation that affects the responsibilities and powers of no fewer than 10 separate initiatives, requiring a plethora of centralized oversight operations. But while doing so, we reserve the right, as opposition members, to seek clarifications and offer such amendments as we deem necessary to foster the goals of accountability, oversight and transparency without creating a paradigm shift in how this is to be achieved.
If this bill is passed in its totality, it will create a huge power grab that could stifle and hinder and even control the broad-based work of any or all of the ministries that have regulatory powers on the drumbeat of the lives of our total provincial population.
The Ministries of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Attorney General, Community and Social Services, Health and Long-Term Care, Finance, and Children and Youth Services are those ministries that will be affected. I can even see the involvement of an upper chamber or meeting place where these unelected and quasi-government officials with extraordinary powers meet to exercise their control over the regulatory affairs of the province.
Prior to moving on with this exercise, I would like to make a number of personal observations about the form and the tone of the minister’s recent address in this House.
It appears that the government is attempting to capture the moral high ground to portray themselves as the party dedicated to rectify all social governing imperfections at all levels, and to ingratiate themselves in the eyes of the electorate as the moral saviours of the democratic system of government in Ontario. It seems to me that the speech must have been written by a crusader or witch-doctor wordsmith hell-bent on curing this government of its recidivist behaviour of the past decade.
You can’t create moral authority through legislation. The righteous bafflegab and sanctimonious tones of the recently converted from irresponsible spending to that of watchdog of the public treasuries and defender of oppressed Ontarians trapped under bondage to the irresponsible debt-producing actions of the McGuinty-Wynne years do not ring true. The only thing missing from the minister’s performance were the words of Onward, Christian Soldiers, accompanied by the Salvation Army band.
I believe that you shouldn’t strive to monitor and alter the affairs of governing at all levels by producing another layer of the machinery of government.
Our party fully understands the requirement for greater oversight of the procedures that administer delivery of services and the expenditures related to these activities. We are concerned that Bill 179 inadvertently brings on duplicative measures with ensuing costs. There really needs to be more creative investigation on the specifics of adding staff for new bureaucratic creations that will instill a Big-Brother-knows-best mentality in the art of governing.
It would be worthy of note if some background material could be provided on the administrative costs—office, legal, communications, staffing—required to research and fund the appropriate talents to be recruited to perform the duties called for by the existing and now new government bodies and public sector entities.
Later in this address, I am going to review the effects of these proposals on the 10 acts impacted by the omnibus act that creates a central authority, provided in the minister’s notes provided to the NDP and ourselves.
But we should stop at this juncture to analyze just where Bill 179 will take us. In reality, the bill calls for new bureaucratic formations to oversee existing bureaucratic formations. At what cost to the taxpayers? We don’t know.
Creation of a patient Ombudsman by amendments to the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, formulates duplication in client services. Duplication costs money. There are no costs to these changes offered on an act-to-act basis to supplement complaint regulations already in place. It is now the plan to have an Ombudsman who reviews the ombudsman’s offices of municipalities, corporations, school boards and universities. This will even include the responsibilities of the local dog catcher. All these creations act to collectively constitute entities with costs and staffing that will overlap existing agencies and drive up the cost of governing to the taxpayer. Many of these proposals speak to the rampant inability of our existing bodies to administer the basic functions of accountability under this government.
It is interesting to note that the previous NDP and PC administrations were able to provide stable and efficient oversight, only to have all that unravel under the McGuinty-Wynne administration. Overall, despite the need and value of the proposed major accountability measures, this legislation is, in a negative sense, a resounding condemnation of past Liberal ineptitudes. The solutions recommended are a recognition of the failure of the current legislative acts to come to grips with accountability in major functions of public administration by this government. The Liberal initiatives in this regard are long overdue, much like closing the farm gate after the cattle have wandered off. There can be no more obvious egregious malfunction and abrogation of responsibility than the cancellation of the two gas plants, at a cost of $1.1 billion, when it was announced that it would be some $40 million. But I will return to that later.
I do not wish to be too harsh in my assessment here, but it appears to me that these ombudspeople—my word—will constitute a mythical race of administrators capable of presiding over provincial civil servants, countless municipal management employees, public sector managers, school boards, MPPs and everyone else—except the Speaker’s office, the Premier’s office and possibly the Human Rights Commission—in judgment of their performance. In real terms, this new swathe of enlightened ombudspeople will stand alone as protectors of both the public purse and the rights of taxpayers to receive that which is theirs that is now decreed through the awkwardly named Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act, 2014.
The range of change to present policies is comprehensive, as follows:
The Broader Public Sector Executive Compensation Act, 2014, will authorize Management Board of Cabinet to order designated employers to provide compensation information. This is a major intrusion in the affairs of public corporations with a board and stakeholders to oversee them.
Amendments to the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, 2010, call for the preparation and publication of business plans by public sector organizations. Most of these organizations already operate under an annual business plan direction.
Amendments to the Cabinet Ministers’ and Opposition Leaders’ Expenses Review and Accountability Act, 2002, and related amendments: Information on expenses is to be posted online within 90 days of notification by the Integrity Commissioner. Would this change current procedures, except for exposure of same?
Amendments to the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, create the office of a patient Ombudsman to handle complaints against long-term-care and community care access corporations. It might be needed, but it will place a huge burden on the CCACs to handle frivolous complaints.
Amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act amend the act to require the preservation of records and list offences that apply if not enforced. I’m not sure what this does. We need to find this out before we proceed.
Amendments to the Legislative Assembly Act require the Speaker to post information about payments to MPPs for travel expenses other than their electoral district costs—more paperwork for the Clerk and the Speaker.
Amendments to the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998, amend the act by adding new oversight and enforced powers. Lobbyists beware.
Amendments to the Ombudsman Act and Related Amendments amend the Ombudsman Act extend jurisdictional powers over municipalities, boards and universities. This is the most dangerous expansion of oversight of all.
Amendments to the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act, 2007, provide the act with new investigative powers to oversee children’s aid societies and some residential licensees. We, of course, support this completely.
Amendments to the Public Sector Expenses Review Act, 2009, allow the Integrity Commissioner to select public entities that will have the duty to provide copies of all expense claims. This will produce a game of Russian roulette for whoever falls under this descriptive enterprise.
Now we find that the main thrust of this legislation is to give birth to a new class of overseers which are described in part of my analysis as ombudspeople, a term that describes their function as monitors of just about all the government services in Ontario. These ombudspeople will be arbitrarily designated by the government to reign over all of us, and much like the persons who act as arbitrators in society today, they might not possess any specific academic qualifications except for their labelling by this government as worthy and qualified to perform. It makes it sound like Ontario is a dystopian place, which is what the above description implies.
This list includes the Ontario Ombudsman, the patient Ombudsman, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, the provincial audit group, and the Information and Privacy Commissioner. This creation of a ruling structure of Orwellian proportions with CIA-like powers that will be subject to no audit or supervision is a frightening prospect. We must be careful that the cure is not more dangerous than the disease.
Unfortunately, the need for this omnibus bill emerges from the ashes of the public skulduggery that has been perpetrated on the unsuspecting public by those ensconced in the office of the former Premier of Ontario. This era of hard-drive recording of decisions made and their manipulative concealment and eventual destruction of this evidence by a Premier’s staff is truly cause for alarm.
But what are we to do when the real decisions of government are not reached in an open forum? No omnibus bill can overcome this kind of behaviour. I don’t wish to get too far off topic here, but these questions have to be asked. Has the role and purpose of elected government been so compromised by the ability of the digital-age technology to subvert parliamentary rules and government accountability that transparently rendered proceedings of a democratic government are now made irrelevant?
Another question arises: How can we assume that the Ontario Ombudsman, accountable to nobody in particular and given oversight powers for municipalities, corporations, commissions, school boards and universities, is competent to suitably handle these responsibilities? Where will it end? It gives power to anyone—citizen or not—that, if used exponentially, could severely impair government operations and decision-making. This reach would, in effect, make his office duties and powers greater than those of our existing ministers, who must abide by the time-tested rules of governing.
Finally, I would make one more observation. I believe that all the savings to be realized by the implementation of Bill 179 over a 10-year period won’t add up to nearly as much as the $1.1 billion spent to cancel two gas plants that didn’t even produce one kilowatt of electricity. No matter how many layers of supervision are created, it won’t stop a Premier and compliant cabinet from ignoring time-honoured rules of conduct.
With the costs and duplication of oversight in mind, it is our recommendation that the government committee receiving the bill for debate and discussions call for input from the existing bodies so affected by these measures to ascertain prescribed transparency as to procedures and at what acceptable costs to achieve the objectives outlined.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Durham.
Mr. John O’Toole: I’m a little bit disappointed that I’m up this morning, because I would have preferred to have the whole hour uninterrupted, but—
Laughter.
Mr. John O’Toole: I don’t mean that humorously; I think this is a serious bill. I think the minister started this morning by saying that it’s a comprehensive piece of legislation, and indeed it is. If you look at it, the bill itself—just for the public here to get a sense—is 75 pages in two official languages. I think there are 10 schedules in it, and there are amendments to a number of very important bills, the lobbyist register etc. I might go through those, just in the bill. It’s important for the public to understand.
First of all—I want to be on the record—we support transparency and accountability. There’s no question about that. However, at the same time, we are suspicious. It’s a feel-good piece of legislation. We agree, but we don’t believe a thing that they’re saying.
Honest to God, their motives are questionable. Why are they doing this at this time now? They should have a bill in here about jobs and the economy. Look at the young people: There’s no future for them. Kellogg’s is leaving; Heinz is leaving; Caterpillar is leaving. We’re still buying Kellogg’s cereal; it’s just not made in Ontario anymore. That’s the troubling truth of what’s going on.
We have the highest energy rates, the highest electricity rates in North America.
Hon. James J. Bradley: Wrong.
Mr. John O’Toole: Well, you have two minutes. You can refute that. But my point—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): I’d like to remind the member from Durham to stick to the issue. He’s drifting. Thank you.
Mr. John O’Toole: I can’t imagine how I could start drifting. I’ve only been up for a minute or so. However, I was trying to put things into perspective. I take deference to the Speaker, and I’ll be silenced to that extent.
This Bill 179, as I said before, is comprehensive. In fact, that’s a very good place to start. The member from Ottawa South—I had a chance, thanks to the terrific staff here, to have a look at his bill, Bill 108. In this bill—this is a good part to start—I think it’s got merit. If we could have a discussion on this, that would be something that we could digest in a sitting here.
But this bill here—I don’t think it’s ever been debated, but the explanatory note says that this report of members’ expenses “must set out every payment made to a member in respect of a travel, accommodation or other expense. The reports must include the amount of each payment and an explanation of each expense. The Board of Internal Economy is required to post the report on the website”—it’s already available; it’s already done. It’s called the member’s expense. We file it every year. What that has in it is every trip, every cup of coffee, everything that you’ve done. It’s posted and it’s distributed to all of the media here once a year. It’s an annual report.
I think we just recently got our report for last year, did we not?
Mr. Rob Leone: It’s almost done.
Mr. John O’Toole: Yes, it was just done.
I’m going to put this on the table. I think the House leader—I wish he was here, because this is the way I would handle that. It has passed all the sniff tests by the bureaucrats, or the civil servants, to be fair. They’ve signed off on it and issued you a cheque. If they have questions, they will call you or return it with the expenses questionable and make you explain it or sign off on it, and that’s posted.
If I have a website—there’s no tinkering with it—then that should be posted. You just press on “member’s expenses”: Boom, it shows up. It would be reporting, whether it’s me or Ms. MacCharles, the Minister of Consumer Services—she’s from Durham region.
Now, here’s the issue: Ms. MacCharles is a minister. Well, I don’t get to see all of hers.
Hon. James J. Bradley: Oh, yes, you do, because they have to post them.
Mr. John O’Toole: Well, they do, but here’s the deal: Half the time they’re travelling with the deputy or other staff, and they pick it up. There’s where the beguiling begins, the twisting of the—
Interjections.
Mr. John O’Toole: Now, I should put it this way: This is all within the context of Bill 179. Let’s keep it in small, little digestible bites. I know for a fact that we cannot, should not and, I agree, will never charge alcohol. We are representing the public. We shouldn’t even be consuming it, actually. Moderation, I suppose, in all things. I’m not a teetotaller or anything like that—close to it, perhaps.
But here’s the issue: That stuff often shows up because we can’t get a hold of the staff’s, the civil servants’, side of it. Even travelling, in fairness—I’ve had the privilege in my 19 years here of travelling on a committee. Well, wait a minute. That is luxury. I’m not trying to cut off our own entitlements here—
Hon. James J. Bradley: You’re thinking of the federal government.
Mr. John O’Toole: No, I’m not thinking of the—
Hon. James J. Bradley: The MPs.
Mr. John O’Toole: No, no, no. I don’t want to be distracted by the Minister of Environment.
When they travel at committee, quite often it’s picked up by the Clerk of the committee—bingo. How about the Speaker of the Legislature? I’ve been to soirees there that are worth questioning. Let’s not tear ourselves down. As long as we keep it in perspective: We’re representing the people of Ontario. If we could keep the partisan stuff out of it, most of the time we could move along here, but everybody wants to get the winning shot, which brings me back to Bill 179.
It’s like the old much-said-about-nothing, or nothing-said-about-something. In this case here, there’s a lot in this bill. There really is. It’s comprehensive. It’s 75 pages or so. As I said before, the member from Ottawa South as well as the minister used these very powerful, suggestive, visualized words; these words were “openness,” “accountability,” “transparency”—empathetic language, body style, all this stuff. To me, it’s smoke and mirrors. The truth will always be found out. I think everything we do here should be printed and published. It is.
Here’s the issue, Mr. Speaker—you know this as well; you raised an issue yesterday at a committee. You were trying to have more openness and accountability. You asked for some access to security reports on the Pan Am Games, I believe it was. What happened? The government side voted him down. What’s wrong with it?
Now, if you look at some of the investigations going on—I don’t want to get into the legal matters. In all fairness, the Premier flips the question to the House leader. “Oh, it’s before the courts,” or, “It’s being investigated. I don’t want to interfere.” But it makes you harder. When we asked for more information on the Ornge thing, what they did is they opened up Niagara Falls and flooded the paper out—thousands, millions of documents, all redacted. You can’t find the answers. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Openness and transparency is in question period when you’re asked, “Did you or did you not agree with the closing of the gas plants?”
Hon. James J. Bradley: And Tim did. He campaigned for it.
Mr. John O’Toole: See, the Minister of the Environment keeps trying to get me off message, which often happens.
Here’s the issue, though—the whole issue there is exactly that. They do not ever answer the question. It’s tragic. There are FOIs; they’re delayed; they’re denied. It’s proprietary information. All of those rules have to be looked at and reviewed.
At the same time, if you’re government, you have reasons to be working in confidence when you’re building relationships and trust with stakeholder groups or with, for instance, investors in things like the Presto card. There was a bid on that. That’s the card they use—I don’t have mine with me, but I have one—for transit. They had a bid on it, and I think it was quite expensive—maybe $100 million. I think it cost $500 million. Now why do we have to go looking into that? Why aren’t they warning us? Why isn’t the auditor stepping in on an ongoing basis, saying, “These are things that should be watched”?
I would expect that pretty soon, the way the Speaker’s looking at me, I’m going to be terminated here—well, not terminated, but asked to yield the floor. But I won’t. I want to speak to the people of Ontario and certainly the people of my riding of Durham.
I’ve been to pretty well every province and every Legislature—the territories as well. I’ve been to Westminster a few times. I’d say that there’s this idea of the government having secrets or the government having it hard to get to the bottom of things.
This bill, I think, has a lot in it that—I don’t think we need the Ombudsman snooping around at every single thing. But when he or she is asked to look at it, they certainly should have every access without any barriers or conditional blockades, and trust the person in that position. We use the word “trust” here. The officers at the Legislature, whether it’s the commissioner of the environment, the Integrity Commissioner, or in this case, the Ombudsman—Mr. Marin is wont to have his picture in the paper the odd time. I would say that he’s—
Hon. James J. Bradley: Nineteen times in his report.
Mr. John O’Toole: There you go, the Minister of the Environment. I wish he’d call my mayor in Clarington and have a discussion with him, because he’s concerned about things that I’m trying to be heard on. It turns out that—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): I thank the member from Durham, but it being 10:15, he will continue where he left off at a future date.
Second reading debate deemed adjourned.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): This House stands recessed until 10:30 this morning.
The House recessed from 1015 to 1030.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Introduction of guests: the member from Kitchener–Conestoga.
Mr. Michael Harris: Actually, on a point of order, Speaker, I believe we have unanimous consent that all members of the Legislature be permitted to wear pins in honour and remembrance of the battle of Vimy Ridge, as today is Vimy Ridge Day. They’re laid upon each member’s desk.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Kitchener–Conestoga is seeking unanimous consent to wear the ribbons for Vimy Ridge Day. Do we agree? Agreed.
The Minister of Consumer Services.
Hon. Tracy MacCharles: Thank you, Speaker. Also on a point of order, I believe you will find we have unanimous consent that all members be permitted to wear the daffodil pins today in recognition of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Month.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of Consumer Services is seeking unanimous consent to wear the ribbons. Do we agree? Agreed.
Mrs. Julia Munro: I want to welcome the Holy Trinity Catholic High School from Bradford, who will soon be joining us. I’d ask all members to help welcome them.
Mr. John Vanthof: I’d like to introduce my neighbour from the great township of Coleman, Ken Laffrenier, who just happens to be the father of our great page, Callista.
Hon. John Gerretsen: I’d like to introduce Christina Thomson, the senior executive assistant of the mayor of Kingston; my long-suffering chief of staff, Sabrina Grando; and the employee I’ve had the longest in my office, Mary Yoannidis. They’re both here to observe this.
Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I’d like to introduce Henry Koskamp, from my riding of Perth–Wellington, who helps to operate Koskamp Family Farms, and a friend of his from Stayner, Andy Van Niekerk. Welcome.
Hon. Bill Mauro: I’d like to introduce to the House my newest staff member, sitting in the east lobby for his very first time in question period, Mr. Peter Rankin.
Hon. Tracy MacCharles: We’re joined today by individuals from the Canadian Cancer Society. I’d like to specifically welcome Ray Ong, Saajid Motala and Andrew Noble, and thank them for all the wonderful work they do.
Mr. Monte McNaughton: These guests haven’t arrived yet, but I’d like to welcome to Queen’s Park today Bryan and Heather Smith, from my riding of Lambton–Kent–Middlesex. They live in Lucan, Ontario.
Mrs. Amrit Mangat: I would like to welcome Ronnie Gavsie, president and CEO of the Trillium Gift of Life Network, and Carrie Dyson, communications adviser at the Trillium Gift of Life Network. They are in the east members’ gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park.
Hon. Yasir Naqvi: The guests are not in the House, but I’m sure they’ll be in soon. I want to welcome Anne Leonard, from Arrive Alive Drive Sober; Gwyn Chapman, from Parents 4 Safe Communities; Carol Fagan, from Fight Against Impaired Driving; and Matt Evans, of Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving. Welcome to Queen’s Park.
Mr. Monte McNaughton: I have another guest coming to Queen’s Park today from Lucan, in my riding of Lambton–Kent–Middlesex. I’d like to welcome Bill Smith to Queen’s Park today.
Ms. Helena Jaczek: We are joined today in the public galleries by members of the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, includeing Peggy Allen, president, and Mary Cook, executive director. Welcome to Queen’s Park.
Hon. Ted McMeekin: I don’t think they’re here yet, but we are being visited today by Chris May and some of his colleagues from the Chartered Professional Accountants association. We want to welcome them to Queen’s Park.
Mr. Rick Bartolucci: She’s not here yet, but I want to inform the House that one of our legislative security officers, Maria Mangoni, has just returned from successfully running the marathon in Rome. She is one of 19,000 who ran it and one of very few who finished it. Congratulations, Maria.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): That just proves that you cannot outrun security, so don’t try.
We have with us today, in the Speaker’s gallery, a parliamentary delegation from the Scottish Parliament: the Right Honourable Tricia Marwick, the Speaker of the Scottish Parliament; Ms. Linda Fabiani, member of Scottish Parliament; and Ms. Rhoda Grant, member of Scottish Parliament. Welcome to Ontario. Thank you for being here.
I’m told that the Speaker is going to grade me today, so I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to pass.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member for Simcoe–Grey.
Mr. Jim Wilson: I seek consent to stand down the PC lead questions until the fifth PC rotation.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): We will stand down the rotation. I do not believe it is unanimous consent. It’s basically just information for us.
Interjection.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): We do need consent? Sorry. All right. I’ve been schooled again. We do need consent. Do we agree? Agreed.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m sorry. The reality was that I heard some heckling, and I wasn’t sure if it was a yes.
Do we have agreement? Agreed.
The leader of the third party, on questions.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Premier. Yesterday, David Nicholl, the bureaucrat responsible for government record-keeping, said that he knew the government’s own security branch was investigating the possibility that Liberal staff had been illegally wiping computers.
When did the Premier learn that her own government was investigating deleted hard drives?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: As I have said many times in this House, I learned of the allegations against the former Premier’s chief of staff on March 27 when those became public.
There is an investigation ongoing. I do not have the details of that investigation. I will not interfere with that investigation. I really believe that we need to let that investigation roll out.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?
Ms. Andrea Horwath: The Premier has now repeated again that she was as shocked as anyone when the allegation of breach of trust broke out on March 27. The Premier knew, however, that there were multiple investigations happening and knew they were affecting her offices. The Premier said she was as surprised as anyone, but what exactly did the Premier think the police were looking for?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Again, I did; I learned of the allegations on March 27—that is absolutely true—like everyone else. The investigation is ongoing. I am not going to interfere with that investigation, nor do I have the details of that investigation, and that’s as it should be.
What I did when I came into this office, as I have said to the member opposite: As I opened up the process, I made it clear that there were questions that had been asked that needed answers, and that there were documents that needed to be provided to committee. The scope of the committee was expanded. We have provided those hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. I have appeared before the committee twice, and there have been dozens of people who have appeared before that committee and have answered the questions the committee has asked.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: I’m asking specifically about when the Premier knew that there were investigations going on in her offices. Of 22 staff who had their computers wiped, nine of those people are still Liberal staffers. Three of them are in the Premier’s office. One works for her in agriculture and food. Two of them have been promoted to chief-of-staff roles.
The government has been seized with this scandal for over a year, but the Premier seems to be saying she was as surprised as anyone when the news broke on the 27th of March. Is the Premier saying that none of her staff ever told her about this?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: You know, it was common knowledge that there was an investigation into questions about record-keeping. We had conversations with the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The rules were changed as a result of conversations with the Information and Privacy Commissioner. We knew that the privacy commissioner was looking into this last spring.
The OPP investigation was known about, last June. That was common knowledge. The allegations, the recent allegations, I first knew about on March 27, because I am not interfering in the investigation. It is ongoing; it was known that it was in place; and it will continue to roll out. I will continue not to interfere in that investigation.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: My next question is also for the Premier. Yesterday, media reports indicated that the OPP are still hoping to talk to a number of individuals, including Dalton McGuinty, the man whose legacy the Premier is sworn to uphold. Does the Premier think that Dalton McGuinty should agree to be interviewed by the OPP anti-rackets group?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Again, the investigation is ongoing. The investigation will include people as the individuals leading it choose. I have no control over that.
As the leader of the third party knows, the former Premier, Dalton McGuinty, has appeared twice before the committee. I have appeared twice before the committee. I have done everything in my power to make sure that, as questions have been asked, they have been answered, and I will continue to do that.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: I was asking about the OPP investigation. You know, it’s not just Dalton McGuinty; the report indicates that the OPP is hoping to talk to several key Liberals, including the former chief of staff and his deputies. At committee, the OPP indicated that some of those folks have declined to do so. Does the Premier think they should talk to police?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I think that the leader of the third party knows full well that I do not have control over every person who might be asked to come before a committee.
I know that there have been people who have been asked to come before the committee who were former PC candidates, for example, and they have not shown up. I think individuals make their decisions.
My decision was to appear before the committee twice. We have done everything in our power to co-operate with the people who are asking questions and make sure that they get those answers. We have done that repeatedly; we will continue to do that.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about the OPP anti-rackets squad request to speak to people. The Premier says this is an open and accountable government that respects the value of taxpayers’ dollars, but all that people see are Liberals avoiding accountability and a Premier scrambling to distance herself from the legacy of Dalton McGuinty.
Can the Premier answer a very simple question? As leader of the Liberal Party, will she urge all fellow Liberals to co-operate fully with the OPP investigation?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Mr. Speaker, I have been clear: This is an investigation over which I have no control. I am not interfering with the investigation. It is up to the OPP, who are directing the investigation, to continue to do that. I will continue to not interfere in that. As we are asked questions, as the committee does its business, we will continue to co-operate in every way.
Mr. Victor Fedeli: Good morning, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. When the people of Ontario heard about these wiped computers in your office, they were furious. They knew it all along; they felt it in their bones. Now the OPP are hot on the trail.
If somebody dropped this in my lap without warning, I’d be apoplectic. I’d come out swinging. Your reaction? You’re concerned. If you really didn’t know anything, why weren’t you furious with these people and demanding answers from them?
The only people you seem to be mad at are the PCs, the very people who are exposing your scandal. So instead of fighting to get to the truth, you’re fighting to keep the truth from coming out. That’s not what people expect from a Premier. They want someone who will fight for them, not someone who is fighting against them.
Premier, why are you fighting against the truth coming out?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Be seated.
Premier?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I know that the government House leader is going to want to comment on the latest details around the committee, but I just want to say this: I really believe that it is my responsibility as the Premier and the leader of this party, it is my responsibility as the leader of this government, to make sure that over-the-top rhetoric is not part of my modus operandi. What I have a responsibility to do is to make sure that as questions are asked, we answer them; if there is a process that needs to be changed, we change that process; if there are rules that need to be changed, then we change those rules. That’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
My responsibility is to take action to make sure that, as we go forward, mistakes that were made are not made again, and we ensure that we have all of the information that is asked for made available. That’s my responsibility.
Mr. Victor Fedeli: Premier, many in our caucus have spent a lot of time getting to the bottom of your gas plant scandal. We’ve all seen the systematic attempts to keep us from getting the truth out. You say you brought in the Auditor General, but that’s only after the Liberals blocked us from doing it. You say you weren’t involved in the Oakville scandal, yet we found your signature on the documents that kick-started this whole scheme. You say you weren’t involved in Mississauga, but you co-chaired the campaign when it was cancelled.
Premier, those steady hands of yours have left a lot of fingerprints on the gas plant scandal. Does the committee have to call you in a third time to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Government House leader.
Hon. John Milloy: Mr. Speaker, I listened very, very carefully to the member from Nipissing’s question, and he seemed to leave out the fact that his party made the exact same promise in the last election. He forgot to mention that his leader posted a video on YouTube saying that if he was elected Premier, the gas plant would be done, done, done. He forgot to mention the fact that when we asked Progressive Conservative candidates to come forward in the committee to talk about the policy analysis they had done, the costing they had done, to ask the same questions they’re asking, they miraculously couldn’t appear. Despite the fact that one even said she would appear, she surprisingly, at the last minute, said, “Oh, no, I can’t.”
Please, it’s a little rich for them to be standing up to talk about getting to the bottom when the fact of the matter is that there are all these inconvenient facts that they leave—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: My question is to the Premier. Premier, long before your date of March 27, when you say you first found out about this, government services had a forensic investigation of the deleted emails and deleted hard drives in the Premier’s office. On September 5, they had identified that 24 hard drives in the Premier’s office had been deleted.
Did the Premier ever discuss with your Minister of Government Services that investigation?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Government Services.
Hon. John Milloy: Again, I would direct the honourable member, I would direct all honourable members, to the document that was made public through the court proceedings about two weeks ago. That clearly references the reporter investigation that he’s talking about as part of the OPP investigation.
I can inform the honourable member that, as Minister of Government Services, I had a discussion with my deputy early on where I indicated to him that any interaction between my ministry and the OPP—I did not wish to know anything about it, to be briefed on it or to be in any way connected, because I wanted to make sure that it was fully independent.
I am pleased to say that the deputy and members of my ministry respected that. I was given no information about any work being undertaken by the Ministry of Government Services.
Again, let’s let the OPP continue their work.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: That is an unbelievable answer to the question. Nine of the 22 staff, Premier, whose computers were wiped are still Liberal staffers. Three of them still work in your office, and one who used to work in the Premier’s office works daily with the government House leader.
My question to the government services minister: Did you raise—yes or no—this issue, before the date the Premier said, directly with her?
Hon. John Milloy: Again, Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure where the New Democrats have been for the last year or so. I have an article here from June 7, 2013, which outlines the news that the OPP is conducting an investigation into this matter. That was a matter of public record, now going on close to a year.
As I just indicated, I felt the prudent course, as minister, was that I in no way be involved or have knowledge of the OPP investigation because, unlike members of the opposition, I respect the independence of the NDP—
Hon. James J. Bradley: OPP.
Hon. John Milloy: OPP. I correct my record, Mr. Speaker.
I also respect the independence of the NDP, Mr. Speaker.
As the OPP indicated, interference by politicians could, in fact, jeopardize the investigation.
Ms. Soo Wong: My question is for the Minister of Education. Minister, as you know, today is the International Day of Pink. The Day of Pink is an anti-bullying initiative which began in Nova Scotia after a grade 9 student was bullied in school for wearing pink. Two students who witnessed the incident bought pink shirts to fight against bullying and stand with the student.
Young people across Canada, including schools in my riding of Scarborough–Agincourt, are wearing pink today to draw attention to the harmful effects of bullying.
This demonstrates the importance of speaking up against all forms of discrimination and homophobia. It also demonstrates that, together, we can stop bullying and end discrimination, particularly in our schools.
Speaker, through you to the minister: Can she please inform the House why it is so important that our schools are welcoming and safe places for Ontario students?
Hon. Liz Sandals: Thank you to the member for Scarborough–Agincourt for her question.
It is so important that we all take a stand and say we will not accept bullying in our schools.
As chair of the Safe Schools Action Team and Minister of Education, I visited schools all across the province that are taking a stand against bullying. I think of one school in Guelph where I visited with the students in the gay-straight alliance, the GSA, at this school. They told me that one of the things they had done that had the greatest impact was that they arranged to meet with the staff in the staff cafeteria and had a very open conversation with the staff about things the staff could do differently in the school to create a better atmosphere for gay and lesbian students.
Another student told me that she wasn’t gay, she wasn’t a lesbian, but that the GSA had supported her in her bullying situation—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Supplementary?
Ms. Soo Wong: Initiatives like the International Day of Pink show that our young people want to stand up to bullying. But we know that bullying doesn’t just happen in our classrooms. It occurs on the Internet, on websites like Facebook and Twitter. We also know there have been tragic incidents of young people taking their lives because of the bullying they have received in the classroom and online.
Speaker, through you to the minister: Can she inform the House what our government is doing to combat bullying outside the classroom?
Hon. Liz Sandals: The member is absolutely correct: Bullying often does occur outside the school, which is why, for the first time in Ontario, we have recognized cyberbullying in legislation and included cyberbullying as part of the definition of bullying.
We’ve also given principals the authority to take action when there is bullying that takes place online that has a negative impact on the school.
I think of one school that I visited here in Toronto that took action beyond just looking at student cyberbullying. They actually set up an email line where kids could report bullying online. The vice-principal monitored that, and the school was able to set up workshops for the kids about homophobia, racism and ethnic discrimination and deal with all sorts of facets as a whole school community and reduce bullying.
Mr. John Yakabuski: My question is for the Premier.
Premier, since you were appointed by the Liberal Party a year ago, you’ve talked a lot about running an open government and wanting to engage in a lot of conversations. This makes your recent behaviour hard to explain. A few weeks ago, your House leader accused my colleague the member from Nipissing of divulging confidential documents to the public. That was quickly exposed as nothing but a ploy to cover up your own incompetence and distract attention from your scandals.
Premier, you’re at it again. Your attempts at intimidation against our leader, Tim Hudak, and the member from Nepean–Carleton are unwarranted and undemocratic. It is our job as the official opposition to question and hold your scandal-plagued government to account. Will you drop this charade today and get on with the task of providing Ontarians some hope? If you won’t, we’ll be glad to do it.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please. Be seated, please. Before I go to the Premier, I’m going to offer advice to all members that we should not be tiptoeing around unparliamentary language to the best of our ability. If it gets there, I’ll let you know.
Hon. John Milloy: We all recognize the fact that this is a time for debate, this is a time for discussion, but at the same time, all of us inside the House and outside the House have to stick to the facts. I’ve shared quotes before. I have a new one from the Ottawa Citizen. I believe it’s today, April 9: “The Tories seem to have no real theory of what happened. The idea may be to fling as much muck as possible and hope Ontarians blame Kathleen Wynne for something.”
The fact is, we need to be dealing with facts, and I am pleased and I am proud that the Premier has consulted her lawyers in this. As I’ve noted a number of times, the member from Nepean–Carleton is familiar with this situation. It was not that long ago that she, as a result of a lawsuit, had to retract something that she had written. That’s all we ask: Deal with the facts and apologize and withdraw those things that are not—
Mr. John Yakabuski: Back to the Premier: Premier, through the information to obtain and the justice committee, we’ve learned a lot about how your party made the decision to cancel the gas plants and the efforts made by Liberal operatives to systematically destroy the evidence. We have reason to believe that the wrongdoing occurred at the highest level of your McGuinty-Wynne government. There’s much to be uncovered, and despite your efforts, we’re going to keep asking the questions that you don’t want answers to.
Premier, is it not true that the reason you initiated this frivolous action is because you know the OPP’s investigation could still take some time, and you’re afraid of other embarrassing revelations coming out prior to a potential spring election? I’ll ask you again: Will you drop this today and let us get on with the jobs we’ve all been sent here to do?
Hon. John Milloy: Again, we’re asking people to deal with the facts. I know everyone in the House likes when I do this. Let’s tell you that the reviews are in. Let’s share some of them. Toronto Star, April 1: The Leader of the Opposition “went far beyond what the facts show.” Toronto Star, again, April 1: The Leader of the Opposition is “inventing fanciful scenarios about the first days of Wynne’s premiership.” Ottawa Citizen, April 1: The PCs “asked repeatedly whether Wynne’s computer was among those wiped, which makes little sense: the police are crystal clear that they’re interested in computers in McGuinty’s office, where Wynne did not work.” Globe and Mail editorial, April 1: “Ontario Progressive Conservative leader ... is on thin legal ice.” The Globe and Mail editorial goes on to say that the Leader of the Opposition’s “claim that Premier Wynne was personally behind any wiping of government computers, when there is no evidence to support such an allegation, goes too far.”
Let’s deal with the facts, and if they’re not, they’re going to hear from the Premier’s—
Mr. Peter Tabuns: My question is to the Minister of Energy. The CEO of Bruce Power is front and centre in today’s newspapers, calling on the government to sell off more of our electricity system to private operators—specifically him. Is that the government’s plan?
Hon. Bob Chiarelli: Many of us here in this chamber know Duncan Hawthorne quite well. He has a very distinctive way of communicating. However, he also is an entrepreneur, and he’s going to do whatever he can to generate benefits for his shareholders.
The government is not currently looking at the disposing of any of our energy companies. Our updated long-term energy plan sets out the refurbishment schedule for Bruce’s units and for OPG’s units. Mr. Speaker, there’s an unbelievable level of co-operation now between OPG and Bruce Power on how they can generate efficiencies in moving forward with that significant project.
Mr. Peter Tabuns: Families who are stuck paying the highest hydro bills in Canada get a little anxious when they hear “Liberal” and “private power deal” in the same sentence.
It has been clear for some time that the folks at Bruce Power and TransCanada—TransCanada, who did very well out of the gas plant scandal, by the way—are hoping to create a private monopoly in nuclear power. Will the minister take that idea off the table?
Hon. Bob Chiarelli: Mr. Speaker, we’re going to continue to work to generate efficiencies in the electricity system, whether we’re partnering with the private sector or other public entities.
He raises the question of electricity prices. As I said on other days in this Legislature, when you look at the comparative numbers from a third party independent—Quebec Hydro—the price in Ottawa is 12.39 cents per kilowatt hour; Toronto, 12.48 cents; Edmonton, 13.9 cents; Calgary, 14.8 cents; Halifax, 15.45 cents. If you want to look at the US comparison, which the other party looks at frequently, Detroit is 15.54 cents, Boston, 16.50 cents, New York, 21.75 cents. We are competitive, and we’re not going to listen to your BS.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Excuse me.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): There’s no point of order. Just stop.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order.
New question.
Mr. Grant Crack: Thank you, and good morning, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines. As our government transforms Ontario’s transportation network, it is crucial that we ensure that we bring new economic opportunities to each and every part of this province. This is important to me, as I represent a rural community, Glengarry–Prescott–Russell.
On Friday, the minister made an announcement in North Bay on the future of the ONTC. Yesterday, the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane asked the minister to clarify our plan forward on the ONTC. However, Speaker, I believe the member appeared to need some clarification on some of the major facts regarding the ONTC.
Speaker, through you to the minister: How is our government delivering transit solutions and providing certainty for communities in northeastern Ontario?
Hon. Michael Gravelle: I want to thank the member for Glengarry–Prescott–Russell for the question and an opportunity to clarify some important facts that were maybe set out incorrectly yesterday.
I do think it’s fair to say that all members recognize that there have been tremendous changes in the telecommunications industry. From our perspective, and I think it would probably be shared by many, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense for a government to continue to run a telecommunications company that’s in direct competition with the private sector. So indeed we have reached a purchase agreement with Bell Aliant to purchase Ontera. To inform the member opposite on an important point: Ontera has been losing money over the past decade, in terms of their costs exceeding their revenues. This particular purchase agreement with Bell Aliant will give the province value within three years. Bell is better positioned to attract industry partners and invest in capital. We’re going to continue to make sure services are provided to communities in Iroquois Falls, Temagami, Marten River, Tilden Lake, Moosonee and Moose Factory and all—
Mr. Grant Crack: Thank you, Minister, for that clarification. It’s obvious that the minister has taken the needed action to find a sustainable solution for the ONTC while providing certainty for northeastern Ontario residents.
The minister mentioned funding to the ONTC for core transportation services for northeastern Ontario. We all know that providing investments in transportation services and infrastructure assists economic growth and benefits many sectors.
Speaker, can the minister tell us of the new strategic investments that are being made to improve the ONTC’s transportation service and infrastructure and the economic benefits that we can expect?
Hon. Michael Gravelle: There’s no question about it: There were some very necessary improvements to continue transformation of the ONTC. A sustainable and a bright future is very much possible for the ONTC.
The decisions that were made and the recommendations that came from the ministerial advisory committee in particular determined that focusing on core transportation services was absolutely crucial. We will continue to operate motor coaches—the bus service—the Polar Bear Express, freight rail and refurbishment services. They will be staying in public hands.
With a $23.2-million investment added on to that over three years to improve service and the accessibility of motor coach services—we’re purchasing 11 new buses—and to refurbish passenger coaches for the Polar Bear Express, we’re making real improvements and providing a bright future. By reaching this decision, we are also providing much-needed certainty to the future of the ONTC. Transforming the ONTC is part of our plan to ensure a prosperous regional economy that attracts more people and more investment in northern Ontario.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I want to bring some clarity to an issue. The member from Toronto–Danforth stood on a point of order. We do not traditionally and conventionally entertain points of order during question period, but we will entertain them after. There was a purpose and a reason for his point of order and it goes back to what I have been exercising, and that is to try to listen carefully to what people say in the House, and regrettably—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I would ask the member from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex not to intervene.
I do not always hear things that are said in the House because of the heckling and because of the volume of noise. If any member wishes to stand and withdraw or correct their record, I would ask all honourable members to do so, if anyone said anything that they should not have.
Minister of Energy?
Hon. Bob Chiarelli: I withdraw the comment that I made, Mr. Speaker.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.
New question? This is, for clarity’s sake, the lead question.
Mr. Frank Klees: That’s right.
My question is to the Minister of Health. The criminal investigations that are reaching into the offices of the Premier and ministers in this government will ultimately expose the pervasive corruption of this government. While the focus, to date, has been on the Premier’s office and on ministers and on political staff, it appears now that civil servants have been co-opted into highly unethical conduct as well. That’s precisely what’s taking place in the Ministry of Health.
Can the minister tell us why Assistant Deputy Minister Patricia Li and the new head of the air ambulance oversight, Richard Jackson, would direct ministry staff to alter a letter to say that the Ministry of Health did not have a copy of the forensic investigation team’s audit report on Ornge when they both knew that there were copies in the ministry at that time?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please.
As I did listen carefully, I’m going to ask the member to withdraw.
Mr. Frank Klees: Withdraw.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Minister of Health and Long-Term Care?
Hon. Deborah Matthews: What I can say to the member opposite is that Ornge has been under a lot of scrutiny and, as the member knows, the committee has been meeting for a long time. We have legislation before the House, Bill 11, that would complete the work that needs to be done to bring the appropriate oversight to Ornge.
In terms of the specific question that the member has asked, I will undertake to look into that allegation. It is certainly not behaviour that I am aware of, nor would I condone.
Mr. Frank Klees: Apparently some emails survived this government’s cleansing. Here is an email trail that was gleaned from a dump of emails to the public accounts committee just last week. In the first email, Charles Meehan of the Ministry of Health wrote the following: “The only edit is a sentence”—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of the Environment, second time.
Mr. Frank Klees: —“added after discussions with Patricia Li.” This is an email sent to the solicitor at the Attorney General responsible for the Ministry of Health. The edit, he says, “is intended to clarify that the Ministry of Health does not have a copy of the report and that no staff in the ministry have read or accessed the ... report.”
Here was the response from Paul Kaufman, in the Ministry of the Attorney General. He said, “I don’t know how we can say this—my understanding is that the ministry does have possession ... so the statement is not true.”
Can the minister tell us: Why is her—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Stop the clock.
I will remind the member that when I say “Thank you,” that’s the end of your time for questioning, and when I stand up, you sit down. Stop, please.
The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care?
Hon. Deborah Matthews: It appears to me that the emails make it clear that they corrected when they found an error.
As I said, I will look into this issue. What I can tell you is that progress at Ornge is significant under the new leadership of Ian Delaney and the CEO, Dr. Andrew McCallum. We have seen a remarkable improvement in the quality of care. I think the member opposite would agree that, under the new leadership and the volunteer board at Ornge, we have seen significant improvements.
Ornge is into a new chapter. The right changes are being and have been made. I look forward to discussing that more.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): New question? The member from Newmarket–Aurora.
Mr. Frank Klees: I’m not talking about Ornge; I’m talking about the Ministry of Health. I’m talking about the assistant deputy minister who has oversight responsibility for Ornge. She is the one who directed staff in her own ministry to falsify a statement regarding a matter taking place in the Ministry of Health. That is what happened.
I’d like to know this, because 11 months after that record was changed at the direction of the assistant deputy minister, the minister herself testified that there were no copies of that record because they had forwarded it directly to the OPP. I want to know from this minister: What can we rely on to be the truth that we’ve heard from her or any of her civil servants on this file?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please. Be seated, please.
I correct my record. It was the final supplementary.
Minister?
Hon. Deborah Matthews: I think those of us who are paying attention to what the member from Newmarket–Aurora has done in the past would have confidence in knowing that he might not have the whole story. He has a remarkably consistent track record in bringing forward just part of the story.
What I can tell you is that Paul Kaufman is our ministry lawyer. He noticed that an error had been made and corrected that error. Thank you, Speaker.
Mr. Frank Klees: Again, I’m going to direct this to the Premier. I’d like to know from the Premier if she sees a contradiction here, because we certainly do. On the one hand, the Premier professes a new era of open and accountable government, and yet she has just observed her own Minister of Health sidestepping a very direct question about the conduct of her assistant deputy minister.
She now stands up in her place and tells me that I have the facts wrong. I have emails that say very clearly what happened. Even after Mr. Kaufman alerted the fact that this is not true, guess what? Her own civil service under Mr. Richard Jackson came back and said, “Well, let’s word it this way.” Mr. Kaufman came back and said, “No, it’s still not true.”
I’m asking the Premier this: Who can we believe in your government? You have civil servants now who are not telling the truth. Your minister stands up for them. Where is your transparency? Where is your accountability? What is your definition of truth?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, as I said in the original question, I will certainly look into the allegations raised by the member from Newmarket–Aurora. I can also say that he has raised many questions in this House, has made other allegations in this House, and every time I follow up on them, as I undertake to do, almost without exception he gets his facts wrong.
I will happily look into this allegation as well.
Mr. Frank Klees: Well, that’s very interesting, because the first time I raised concerns about Ornge, the minister deflected it, and guess what? There is now a criminal investigation into that organization.
Back to the Premier: On the one hand, the Premier is asking us to support anti-SLAPP legislation in this place. That’s before this House now. Yet the Premier is carrying on in the tradition of Dalton McGuinty to sue the very people who are bringing forward facts that should be examined by this Legislature.
Can the Premier tell me this: How does she square bringing anti-SLAPP legislation before this Legislature and herself laying lawsuits against the leader of the official opposition and the member from Nepean–Carleton to in fact ensure that the real issues are not dealt with? How does she square that?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock. Be seated, please.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Durham, come to order. The member from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex, second—actually, maybe even third time.
Minister of Health.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: Well, thank you, Speaker. I believe that that was supposed to have been a supplementary. I’m not sure that it had anything to do with the first question.
What I can repeat is that I will look into these allegations, as I have always looked into the allegations raised in this House by the member from Newmarket–Aurora and by others, and I will happily report back on what I find.
Mr. Frank Klees: The fact of the matter is that my question was not to the Minister of Health. It was a very direct question to the Premier about how she can square sitting there listening to her Minister of Health avoid the truth when, in fact, she is committed to transparency.
I’m going to ask the Premier one more time—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I have been listening very carefully. Please withdraw. Let’s not weave in and out of this. Just withdraw, and then ask your question.
Mr. Frank Klees: I’ll withdraw, and I’ll ask the Premier a very straightforward question. I asked her to define how she considers truth. What is her definition of truth? I asked her that question, and she refused to answer that.
The people in this province are very confused about that as well. What she has chosen to do is to refer the matter to the courts. I’m going to suggest that I believe that, in the end, it will be a court that makes the decision about this government—it will be the court of public opinion. The court of public opinion—
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Premier.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I’m happy to answer the question of the member opposite. I had referred the first question because it was a health question, and then the question changed.
Let me just say this, Mr. Speaker: What I believe is in the best interests of the politics of this province, the political discourse and serving the people of the province is that we deal with facts. The only reason that I have challenged the allegations and accusations of the Leader of the Opposition is that they are not based in fact. Otherwise, I would be happy to continue to discuss the issues around the placement of energy infrastructure and the rules we have changed around the retention of documents, but I will not debate allegations that are completely false.
Mr. Douglas C. Holyday: My question is to the Premier—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Excuse me. Stop the clock, please. How this place works is to come to order when the Speaker asks. I’m going to ask the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke to come to order.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The minister responsible for seniors can hide his face all he wants. I’m not impressed. Think about this.
The member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore.
Mr. Douglas C. Holyday: My question is for the Premier. Just about every day there are questions on the gas plant. Just about every day, you deflect some of the questions off to your House leader. Just about every day, the House leader tries to implicate the rest of the House in the decision made by your Liberal government by saying that everyone was a party to wanting to get the gas plants taken down.
Now, this might even be true, but the mistake was putting them there in the first place, and I think it’s high time that you quit sidestepping responsibility for blowing 1.1 billion tax dollars and get the House leader to admit the fact that it was putting them up in the first place that caused the problem. When are you going to do that?
Premier.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I just want to remark that it’s great that the member for Etobicoke–Lakeshore has paid very close attention to the answers that we’ve been giving, because it’s very clear that this was a decision that all of the parties had taken, that all of the parties had decided, and we implemented the promise that they had made.
Mr. Douglas C. Holyday: Mr. Speaker, the fact is that it was the Liberal government that built those plants in the wrong place in the first instance and wasted $1.1 billion. They also could have rectified the problem without spending all that money if they had just taken some time and done it in the proper way, but they were so concerned about getting on with an election, they didn’t care about tax dollars. I want to know: When are we going to get some accountability from your government, and when are you going to quit sidestepping responsibility?
Hon. John Milloy: I have a whole binder of quotes here, Mr. Speaker, and once we go through Hansard, I think I’ll be able to add some more.
But don’t believe me; this is the document that the OPP filed with the courts. You’ll want to hear it.
“In September 2011, a provincial election campaign began and the Liberal Party”—this is the OPP—“of Ontario promised to cancel the construction of the plant in Mississauga if they were elected. The Ontario Progressive Conservatives and the New Democratic Party also made similar promises if elected.
“On the 6th of October 2011, the Liberal Party won the provincial election and formed a minority government. Even though they made the same promise during the election, the opposing parties”—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): New question.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is to the Premier. This week, we learned of yet another tragic death in an Ontario mine; 36-year-old Paul Rochette, a millwright with two young children, was killed on Sunday in Vale’s Copper Cliff smelter.
It has been 30 years since a provincial commission investigated mine safety. Since then, scores of miners in Ontario have been killed, and thousands of others have been injured. Last year, the Premier rejected a public inquiry into mine safety and instead chose a review, but at the very first of public hearings in Timmins and Kirkland Lake, the government didn’t advertise or even put out so much as a press release or media advisory to invite participants. Does the Premier think this is acceptable?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The Minister of Labour.
Hon. Kevin Daniel Flynn: Thank you to the honourable member for this question. I think all of us in the House were saddened to hear of this incident, and I know that our thoughts are with the worker, his family and his colleagues.
As this investigation specifically is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the specifics of this issue, but what I will tell you is that this government is committed to protecting the health and safety of miners and all workers in the province of Ontario. We know, and we agree, that it’s time to thoroughly take a long look at mine safety in this province.
The Chief Prevention Officer for the province of Ontario has undertaken a comprehensive mining safety review. We have an advisory group with industry, labour, and health and safety representatives. We are going to continue this review, because what we know is that we need to improve mine safety, and we need to make it even safer in the province of Ontario.
Ms. Andrea Horwath: Saying the right words is simply not good enough. On April 28, the day of mourning for injured workers, MPPs across this province attend ceremonies to remember those who are killed or injured on the job. As elected representatives, we need to do everything in our power to end workplace deaths and injuries.
The Premier refuses to conduct an inquiry. Will she commit today that the government review panel into mining safety will have the resources necessary to conduct numerous site visits to mining operations both below ground and above ground and advertise them with vigour?
Ms. Andrea Horwath: And it would be nice if the Liberal caucus over there paid attention to this question, because people are dying on the job in Ontario and they should be doing something about it.
Minister of Labour?
Hon. Kevin Daniel Flynn: I would like the House to know that the review has been under way for some time. It was under way before this incident took place and it’s going to continue.
Ontario’s Chief Prevention Officer has undertaken that review with an advisory group that is comprised of industry reps, labour reps, and health and safety reps. Public consultations are being held right now. They’ve already been to Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Sudbury; they are going on to Marathon and London in the future.
I am encouraging all Ontarians who are interested in this very important issue to register, attend these sessions and provide their comments as to how we can make mine safety an important issue in this province, which obviously needs to have some more attention—that we need to improve safety. We can make it even safer, I believe, if we all work together and we get all viewpoints on this.
Mrs. Amrit Mangat: My question is for the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. We were to have a very special visitor with us in the House today. Unfortunately, he has not been able to join us, but I would like to tell all of you a little bit about him.
Eleven years ago, at the age of 65, Merv Sheppard became the oldest lung transplant recipient in the history of Toronto General Hospital’s program. Since then, he has been working tirelessly with wait-listed patients, recipients and families to help them understand the transplant process.
Merv’s selfless work is an inspiration to me and others across this province. It also reminds us of the importance of organ donation. April is Be a Donor Month. The Trillium Gift of Life Network is working with its partners to encourage Ontarians to register to be an organ and tissue donor.
My question for the minister is: How can we best follow Merv’s example and each do our part to encourage more Ontarians to help save lives?
Hon. Deborah Matthews: Thank you to the very fine member from Mississauga–Brampton South for that question. I want to join the member in thanking Merv Sheppard for all the work that he has done. I know that he has recently been recognized by the Trillium Gift of Life Network’s board of directors for his tireless dedication to raising awareness about organ and tissue donation and transplantation. I know all members in the House join me in congratulating him.
Social media can be a very effective tool, particularly when it comes to reaching out to younger people. That’s why TGLN has been very active on Facebook, on YouTube and on Twitter to encourage more people to register their intent to donate their organs.
Today is Trillium Gift of Life Network’s MPP Twitter day. I want everyone in the House today to join me in tweeting their support of organ and tissue donation. Here’s my tweet: “It takes two minutes to save eight lives. Register to be an organ donor now @ beadonor.ca #beadonor #beahero #howcanyounot.”
Mrs. Amrit Mangat: I know we can all do more as individuals to encourage more Ontarians to register online at beadonor.ca. Make a power of attorney so that someone they trust will ensure their wishes are followed.
But government has a responsibility too, and I am convinced that our government can play a positive role in getting more Ontarians to register as donors.
I would like to ask the minister, through you, Speaker, what our government is doing to increase organ and tissue donation rates and decrease wait-list times for patients awaiting life-saving transplants.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, organ and tissue donation is one of the greatest gifts any person can give. One person’s donation can save up to eight lives and help another 75 through tissue grafts.
I’m proud to say that 2012-13 was a record year, with 1,009 organ transplants in Ontario, 63% more than in 2003, and we’ve more than doubled the number of registered donors. Some 2.8 million of us are now registered, but that’s still less than one in four Ontarians. It’s good progress, but it’s not enough.
The launch of beadonor.ca has made it easier than ever for Ontarians to become donors. TGLN’s Gift of 8 campaign increased registered donors in communities right across Ontario, and we now ask people in all ServiceOntario centres if they’d like to sign up for organ and tissue donation when they renew their driver’s licence or Ontario photo cards.
Together, we’ll continue to register more Ontarians to be organ and tissue donors.
Mr. Todd Smith: My question this morning is for the Premier.
Premier, yesterday I asked you how much of your taxpayer-funded salary was spent on your personal legal drama that’s playing out here at Queen’s Park, and you responded by telling me that you like to run.
Well, we know that you like to run from scandals. We know you like to run from accountability. We know you like to run from the legacy of that Premier you idolized and sat next to for 10 years. Heck, this morning—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Finish, please.
Mr. Todd Smith: Mr. Speaker, this morning she even ran from very pointed questions directed at her from the member from Newmarket–Aurora—but I digress.
Since you wouldn’t answer my question yesterday, I’ll give you another shot: How many hours were taxpayers paying your salary so you could deal with legal—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Be seated, please.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The point I was making yesterday was that I work full-time every day for the people of this province. I start early in the morning and I end late at night, and I will continue to do that.
I will continue to push for debate that is rooted in fact. That is what I will continue to push for.
So I’ll continue my schedule, and I reiterate my offer—I didn’t see you this morning at a quarter to 6, but I’d be happy to see you tomorrow morning.
Mr. Todd Smith: Back to the Premier. I was busy on my elliptical machine, myself.
We all know that the Premier likes treating taxpayers like her own personal piggy bank, and that’s what got us into the mess in the first place. You think that taxpayers are your own ATM machine. But using taxpayer resources to deal with your personal legal problems—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I don’t need the member from Etobicoke North to help me.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I want the Minister of Rural Affairs to come to order, I want the member from Eglinton–Lawrence to come to order, and I want the Minister of Energy to come to order.
Mr. Todd Smith: Thank you, Speaker. They’re getting quite a workout there this morning, aren’t they?
They shouldn’t be using taxpayer resources to deal with a very personal legal scandal. This is all about the gas plant scandal. They can’t spin it anymore. Government resources are used to communicate it, publicize it, plan it—how many taxpayer dollars are you using on your own little legal drama?
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock. Be seated, please. Thank you.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Mr. Speaker, I just want to be very, very clear with the member opposite and the people of the province: There are no tax dollars being used in order to advance the legal case. Those bills are being paid by the Ontario Liberal Party. I would not use tax dollars for that purpose.
Let’s just understand what is at stake here. The political discourse in this province must be rooted in fact. I do not take legal action lightly. It is not something that is in my nature; it is not something that I am inclined to do. But it is very important to me, as we discuss the issues in this province, that we talk about facts and that we make—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop, please. Stop the clock. The Minister of Rural Affairs is warned.
Ms. Cindy Forster: My question is to the Premier. Recently, we’ve learned that the Ontario Energy Board approved an application from Enbridge for a 40% increase to natural gas rates. Then we heard that the OEB refused a request from the Consumers Council of Canada and from the Vulnerable Energy Consumers Coalition for a special session to review the impact of Enbridge’s planned rate hike. Even the OEB staff said the request was entirely in order.
Why is the OEB refusing to hear from the consumers, and why were they so quick to grant this drastic increase in gas rate hikes?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The Minister of Energy.
Hon. Bob Chiarelli: The consumer groups that intervened in the process, Vulnerable Energy Consumers Coalition and Consumers Council of Canada, submitted that the board should consider approving the rates on an interim basis and allow more consideration for smoothing out over time, which is exactly what the OEB has done.
Ms. Cindy Forster: Well, Speaker, my question is not about the smoothing. It’s about the initial increase.
My office has heard from many constituents, and they’re worried about their future. With hydro rates set to increase by 45% and unemployment rates in my riding the highest in the province, constituents are feeling squeezed.
Jim Lamontagne from Welland wrote to my office on March 30 to describe the impact of rising costs on families: “The elderly couple that live beside me that are on a tight budget did not want to turn up their heat this winter due to the fact that they couldn’t afford it. They were bundled up with their jackets inside their home all winter.”
Did the OEB consider these families when they decided to approve a 40% rate hike without asking Enbridge the hard questions to determine whether or not the rate was even justified?
Hon. Bob Chiarelli: I’ve heard the members from the third party on occasion raise the question of Enbridge’s gas increases and other issues with respect to energy pricing, but I have not heard them offer any solutions. I would like to know what solution you’re offering. The implication is that we should interfere with the proceedings at the Ontario Energy Board, which would be totally, absolutely illegal and irregular, in order to do that.
The Ontario Energy Board’s mandate is to look after the interests of the consumer. That is one of its main mandates. It examines the issues, it rules on them and it gives rational reasons for the decisions. One of the rational reasons is that, year over year, energy consumption has gone up by between 15% and 20% because of the nature of the winter. They choose to totally ignore that.
Ms. Helena Jaczek: My question is for the Minister of Rural Affairs. Minister, Ontario’s economic landscape is changing. Ontario’s small and rural communities are becoming more complex and diverse and face unique challenges when it comes to economic development and job growth.
There are currently a number of programs designed to assist rural municipalities with these challenges, including the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund and the Eastern Ontario Development Fund. While these programs address many important priorities, such as business development and innovation, there is always room to do more.
Mr. Speaker, through you to the Minister of Rural Affairs, could the minister please update the House on what our government is doing to strengthen rural economies?
Hon. Jeff Leal: I do appreciate the fine question from the member from Oak Ridges–Markham. As always, creating jobs and growing the province’s rural economy are key priorities for this government. This is where initiatives like the Rural Economic Development program come into play.
RED supports high-value, low-cost projects that build a foundation for economic growth. These projects show off the innovation and community partnerships which are so important and emblematic of rural Ontario.
Since 2003, through the RED program, our government has invested $171 million in 418 projects, which has generated over $1.2 billion in local economic activity and, more important, 35,000 jobs. I know that by working together we can strengthen rural communities every day in Ontario.
Ms. Helena Jaczek: Thank you to the minister for that answer. I’m glad to hear that the Ontario government takes the economic needs of small and rural municipalities seriously.
I have many small, rural communities in my great riding of Oak Ridges–Markham, and many have benefited from business retention and expansion projects in the past through the Rural Economic Development program. However, my constituents would like to know even more about this program: what the parameters are, how they apply and all the details related to this particular program.
Speaker, through you: Could the minister please elaborate on what kinds of individual projects the Rural Economic Development program does support?
Hon. Jeff Leal: On Monday, I was in the wonderful community of Stratford, Ontario, and I was in the company of a very distinguished former member, Hugh Edighoffer, who served so ably from 1967 to 1990, and as Speaker from 1985 to 1990. He was there to celebrate with us, along with municipal leaders, $170,000 that we’re investing in local projects, each geared to enhancing the local economy and creating jobs.
First of all, I want to talk about a great one in the little community of Shakespeare. A company there has developed, Quality Fertilizers Inc., which is using the funds to promote its new product line of fertilizers made from recycled natural materials—an enormous breakthrough in the province of Ontario. It’s a perfect example of a unique project in rural Ontario, and it’s worth investing in.
Local projects like these, funded through RED, are all about key partnerships. By working with our rural partners, working with municipal leaders and working with the private sector, we can do great things—
Mr. Frank Klees: My question is to the Premier. Earlier today in this question period, I tabled our concern about an assistant deputy minister, Patricia Li, counselling staff to make a statement in a letter to Ornge that was untrue, and found to be so by their own counsel.
Once the Premier has had an opportunity to consider the facts, and it is in fact proven that the assistant deputy minister conducted herself in that way, I want to ask the Premier: What will the consequences be for that assistant deputy minister?
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care said that she would look into this issue. She would determine what the facts are. She will do that.
The member is asking me a hypothetical question about what might happen in the future. I do not have an answer to that question, nor do I choose to answer hypothetical questions. The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care will look into the matter, and we will get the facts.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): There are no deferred votes. This House stands recessed until 3 p.m.
Mr. Michael Harris: Today marks an important day to honour and remember the sacrifice our Canadian soldiers made during the battle of Vimy Ridge in France on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917. It was 97 years ago that the four divisions of the Canadian forces came together for the first time to occupy the French hill of Vimy Ridge from the German army. This allied victory was a significant milestone for our country as we joined together as one nation to defend our freedom during the First World War.
We cannot forget that this success came with great sacrifice. Throughout the three-day battle, more than 15,000 brave Canadians overtook the Germans under heavy fire. At the highest peak of the ridge where the memorial now stands, soldiers battled machine guns with their bayonets in a long, costly fight to victory. Some 3,600 Canadians were killed during these three days, and another 7,000 were wounded.
I am proud to stand here today on behalf of all members of the Ontario Legislature to pay our respects to those who gave their lives. Now, a radiant Vimy sculpture stands as a tribute to these fine men and women from the First World War. The memorial has a statue of a woman representing Canada, a young nation mourning her dead. Below is a tomb to remind us of the soldiers killed in France who have no graves. Today, we wear these pins to honour all the heroes from the battle of Vimy Ridge. I hereby encourage all Ontarians to take some time to reflect today on Vimy day, and I would like to thank the Vimy Foundation for teaching young Canadians about this important part of our history.
Mr. Percy Hatfield: It wasn’t exactly a rumble in the jungle, but let me tell you about the ultimate showdown that happened recently along the sculpture garden on Windsor’s waterfront—quite the battle, I must say, between 32 large-scale, internationally recognized works of contemporary sculpture by world-renowned artists. I want to say kudos to the Windsor Star for launching an online contest to see which sculpture the folks in our area liked the most. They attracted thousands of votes. The ultimate winner was revealed this past Friday.
Can I get a drumroll, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Percy Hatfield: Thank you. The winner is: Tembo the elephant. That’s right. Tembo beat out Tiger, Penguins on a Waterfall, Eve’s Apple and, finally, Morning Flight. Tembo, by artist Derrick Stephan Hudson, is a bronze elephant—a kind one, not the ones you have to be careful of, roaming around on other parts of the planet. She’s more than nine feet tall, 16 feet long and weighs in at about the same weight as eight new cars. Congratulations, Tembo, on your newly minted success.
To all the MPPs, I invite you to Windsor to enjoy these fine pieces of art on Windsor’s waterfront. They were donated years ago by the Odette family of Eastern Construction fame. You can’t go wrong. The sculpture garden is open year-round. Admission is free. Parking is available. Speaker, I’ll even throw myself in as your free tour guide and make a personal introduction to Tembo.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I can’t rule drumrolls out of order. The invitation is an open invitation. I appreciate that.
Mr. Steven Del Duca: I’m pleased to rise today in support of a truly wonderful cause. Today is recognized as the international day against bullying, a day dedicated to promoting respect and understanding for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
We have all been touched by bullying, I’m sure, at some point in our lives, directly or indirectly. That’s why I’m pleased to see that schools in my community of Vaughan will be participating in this important day of awareness, wearing pink in celebration of diversity and difference. This is a great initiative that works hand in hand with the work being done by our government.
Almost two years ago, we made a commitment to help eliminate bullying in Ontario schools by introducing the Accepting Schools Act. This act requires that school boards take preventive measures against bullying and also helps to support students by promoting respect for diversity.
We are never too old to take meaningful steps against bullying, and I want to thank everyone in Vaughan who has taken the time today to help contribute to this tremendous cause. Thanks very much.
Ms. Laurie Scott: I’m pleased to rise today to provide congratulations to two exceptional achievements in my riding.
The Bantam A Highland Storm beat the Mount Brydges Cougars 7-2 in the third game of their playoff series to win the OMHA all-Ontario title for the A.A. Ash Morrison trophy. Storm coach Drew Bishop said that he was happy with how his team came together and the character that they demonstrated as they battled back from a one-game deficit to start the series. The community, friends and families came out in large numbers to pack the A.J. LaRue Arena in Haliburton to capacity. I’m proud to say that this win marks the first Bantam B division win in Highland Storm history.
Another first is a young golfer who was invited to Augusta, Georgia, to compete in the inaugural Drive, Chip and Putt Championship where the Masters are being played this week. Nyah Kelly, who is only nine years old, travelled from her hometown of Bobcaygeon to Augusta National Golf Club to compete in the championship on Sunday, April 6. Nyah is only one of 88 young athletes, and just two Canadians, who had the opportunity to compete in this event. To get into the event, Nyah’s name had to be selected from more than 17,600 lottery entrants, and she had to come in first or second in two qualifying tournaments in New York state. In her TV interview, Nyah claimed that she wants to play on the LPGA tour one day, and I look forward to seeing her achieve this goal.
I would like to congratulate both the Highland Storm and Nyah Kelly on their outstanding accomplishments.
Mr. Michael Mantha: Forty years ago this April, members of the United Steelworkers of America, Local 5762, took the rare step of striking for better working conditions. These strikers were concerned about exposure to radiation, silica dust and other toxic substances.
The wildcat strike against Denison Mines lasted three weeks, but its impact resonated far beyond Elliot Lake. The message sent by striking miners and their union and the unrelenting pressure by the Ontario New Democratic Party helped push forward the appointment of a royal commission to examine the health and safety of workers in mines. This royal commission, known as the Ham commission, made many recommendations, including the need for mandatory worker participation and representation in workplace health and safety matters. These recommendations and the growing recognition that hazardous working conditions in all sectors of the economy were robbing workers of their health led to the passage of Bill 70, which established the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1978.
Next week, the United Steelworkers will be hosting a forum to remind and educate participants about the important role the strike in Elliot Lake played in bringing about the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Ontario, as well as to commemorate the miners who had the courage to take action for their health and safety. We thank these USW workers for standing up to improve working conditions in our places of work. However, much still needs to be done to ensure that everyone who goes to work returns home safely to their family.
Mr. Shafiq Qaadri: I have a statement here in which I’d like to first of all salute, recognize, endorse, and publicize the concept of organ donation. I would like to recognize not only the Ministry of Health but also the Minister of Health for various programs; for example, beadonor.ca, which makes it somewhat easier, more efficient and streamlined to register as a potential organ donor.
To this day, we still have excess cardiometabolic disease, whether it’s heart disease, diabetes, stroke, lung disease and so on. Individuals who are unfortunately forced to wait for too long on transplant waiting lists may not actually acquire the organ that they need. That’s why programs such as the Trillium Gift of Life, as was mentioned earlier today in question period—a single organ donor may in fact be able to affect eight lives, and that’s an exponential curve that we’d like to support.
We’re pleased to say that organ and tissue donation had a record year in 2012 to 2013. More than 1,000 organ transplants, perhaps the ultimate gift of paying it forward, happened in the province of Ontario, an increase of 63%. Yet there is, of course, an extraordinary need, any organ that you could name: kidneys, heart, lungs and so on, even things to do with the eye. So I encourage everyone: Become an organ donor. Register at beadonor.ca.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: I want to recognize an issue that was brought to my attention in my riding. Youth hunting is a viable activity that introduces our young people to the principles of safe hunting and an appreciation for nature and conservation.
The Ontario Hunter Apprenticeship Safety Program is a program that endeavours to introduce young people to hunting at a responsible young age. The program pairs youth hunters with mentors who teach them about hunting and the importance of safety. Youth are not eligible for hunting tags; therefore, they must use their mentor’s tag if they are successful in their hunt. The problem is that most hunters only have a single tag for the week during the hunting season, so while hunters want to mentor youth, they face the trade-off of not being able to engage in the hunt themselves if they give up their tag.
I’m calling on the Minister of Natural Resources to enhance the Hunter Apprenticeship Safety Program by reviewing the tag allocation system with the aim of accommodating our youth hunters. If we can get more apprentices, we’ll have more safe and more responsible hunters in the future.
Ms. Dipika Damerla: Ye Chowk Hamara Hai translates into “this is our town square,” and this was the name of a play that I attended over the weekend. What made the play special was that it was community theatre at its best. Writer and director local Mississauga resident Zafar Shah also played one of the central characters in this bilingual Punjabi and Urdu language play.
Sitting there in the audience, it was hard not to be impressed by the professionalism and superb production values of the play. Equally inspiring was the message of this entertaining play: the idea that the people of Pakistan and India have much in common and that here in Canada we must reach out and build on our shared history, culture and language to live as one—to live as Canadians. This was community theatre at its best: engaging, relevant and promoting local talent.
I would like to pay tribute to all of the performers: writer, director and actor Syed Zafar Hussain Shah; Rana Sarfraz; Shahid Awan; Gurbir Bal Gogo; Muazam Khan; Karmjit Gill; Paramjeet Deol; Rashda bano, producer; Azfar jameel; Khadija; Ahmed Jafri; Bilal Cheema; Sajjid Ali Khan; Malik Zafar; Asadullah; Dr. Ali Naqvi, actor and producer; Raja Ashraf; Riaz Cheema; and Jamil Zafar.
I would also like to thank Haji Mohammed Jameel, a constituent of mine who invited me to this performance and was one of the sponsors.
I wish this young community theatre group much success in the years to come.
Mrs. Jane McKenna: As we all know, last Wednesday was World Autism Awareness Day. This special day asks us to appreciate autism spectrum individuals for their unique gifts and potential. It also asks us all to dedicate ourselves to making things better for those living with autism.
One of my constituents is doing just that. On May 12, Chris Elgar will set out from Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport in a Piper PA-24 Comanche, aiming to fly this light aircraft around the world in 80 days. He will be joined by long-time friend and fellow pilot Dave McElroy. The two men are retired but are by no means cooling their heels.
The duo’s amazing feat aims to raise $250,000 for Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, a world-renowned leader in autism research.
Their first stop will be Scotland, McElroy’s adopted home for the past 12 years. There they will announce a second fundraising goal of $250,000 for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, which delivers front-line care in time-critical medical emergencies.
From there, they will touch 60 other airports in 25 countries over six continents, logging roughly 78,000 kilometres by July 31. You can follow their daily progress and make donations online at flyrtw80.com.
Mr. Peter Tabuns: Speaker, I beg leave to present a report from the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills and move its adoption.
The Clerk-at-the-Table (Ms. Anne Stokes): Your committee begs to report the following bills without amendment:
Bill Pr22, An Act to revive 434753 Ontario Ltd..
Bill Pr23, An Act to revive 1360906 Ontario Limited.
Bill Pr27, An Act respecting Toronto International Film Festival Inc.
Bill Pr29, An Act to revive 394557 Ontario Limited.
Your committee begs to report the following bill as amended:
Bill Pr28, An Act respecting YMCA of Hamilton/Burlington/Brantford.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Shall the report be received and adopted? Agreed? Agreed.
Report adopted.
Mr. Bartolucci moved first reading of the following bill:
Bill Pr30, An Act to revive Bruno’s Alignment Limited.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.
First reading agreed to.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Pursuant to standing order 86, this bill stands referred to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills.
Mr. O’Toole moved first reading of the following bill:
Bill 187, An Act to amend the Juries Act / Projet de loi 187, Loi modifiant la Loi sur les jurys.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member for a short statement.
Mr. John O’Toole: Over time, I have had inquiries from constituents who are over age 65 and perhaps caring for a spouse being required to fulfill jury duties. The act amends the Juries Act to permit persons 65 years of age or older to elect not to receive a jury service notice and to be re-entered into the jury roll, and also to opt back in in the event that they wish to participate. I’d ask all members to give this consideration for seniors today who are aging at home.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: April is Daffodil Month in Canada, an opportunity for all of us to show our support for people fighting cancer. I would like to welcome members of the Canadian Cancer Society who are with us today.
This year, the Canadian Cancer Society celebrates its 76th anniversary. Since 1938, the Canadian Cancer Society has been funding research and cancer prevention programs. It has been supporting people living with cancer, along with their families and caregivers, and it has been advocating for public policies to improve the health of Canadians. My heartfelt thanks go to all the dedicated staff and compassionate volunteers of the Canadian Cancer Society for their steadfast commitment to the fight against cancer.
I think today is a good opportunity to note just how far we’ve come in improving cancer care in Ontario. I’m proud to say that over the past 10 years, our cancer system has seen significant improvement. Today Ontario is a leader in cancer care in Canada and around the world. We measure more, we know more, we report on more, and we’re committed to enhancing the quality of the cancer system while ensuring accountability and continual improvement.
This past year, after a groundbreaking study led by Cancer Care Ontario, we acted to transition all mammography with digital computed radiography to digital direct radiography to ensure that we’re using the most effective technology to detect breast cancer.
Working with our health partners, Health Quality Ontario is now leading the implementation of a province-wide physician peer review program in all facilities where diagnostic imaging services are provided, including mammograms and CT scans.
This commitment to quality is why, according to the Cancer System Quality Index, an Ontarian who gets cancer has one of the best chances of survival anywhere in the world. But we know we must do even better. Too many Ontarians are diagnosed with cancer every year. Too many sons and daughters, parents and loved ones wake up every day to fight this terrible disease. Our government is committed to giving them the supports they need in their struggle against cancer.
Early detection is key. Cancer screening is easy, and it saves lives. It is imperative that Ontarians get screened for cancer, and we’ve worked hard to expand screening services and availability across the province.
Our integrated cancer screening program includes breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening under a single, coordinated provincial umbrella.
We broadened the scope of the Ontario Breast Screening Program in 2011 so high-risk women are screened earlier, starting at age 30. This means 90,000 more screens and adding 67 new breast screening sites for a total of 167 screening sites across the province.
We launched Canada’s first province-wide colorectal cancer screening program to combat the second-deadliest form of cancer in the country.
And beginning in fall 2013, women eligible to be screened for cervical cancer within the Ontario Cervical Screening Program now receive regular notifications to invite them to screen, advise them of their test results and remind them when it is time to return for screening.
And now we offer free vaccine to protect girls against the human pap—
Mr. Shafiq Qaadri: Papilloma.
Hon. Deborah Matthews: —papillomavirus—thank you, Doctor—which can cause cervical cancer.
In 2009, we further expanded cancer detection by funding the PSA test to help fight prostate cancer, the most common cancer among Canadian men.
We’ve more than tripled funding for cancer-fighting drugs and, since 2006, we’ve added 57 new cancer drugs to our formulary. We’ve also invested $29.5 million in capital funding for Cancer Care Ontario to support cancer radiation equipment upgrades and replacement. These investments have helped to modernize the provincial radiation treatment capacity for cancer and have contributed to improved access to care in more communities around Ontario. And we have the results to show for it: As of November 2013, 98% of cancer patients in Ontario started radiation treatment within the four-week national target.
Of course, Speaker, the best way to fight cancer is to prevent it in the first place, and that was why I was so pleased when all three parties in the House came together on October 9 to pass our government’s Skin Cancer Prevention Act. This vital legislation comes into effect on May 1. It will help protect young people against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation by restricting them from using tanning beds. We could not have passed this legislation without the advocacy of the Canadian Cancer Society and so many others who have been affected by this terrible disease.
I’m also proud of our continued efforts towards our goal of having the lowest smoking rates in the country. Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable cancer, and while we’ve accomplished a great deal with Smoke-Free Ontario, I know there’s more we can and must do.
That’s why last November, I introduced new legislation and proposed new regulations to strengthen the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. The Youth Smoking Prevention Act would, if passed, prohibit smoking on playgrounds, sports fields, and restaurant and bar patios. It would increase fines for those who sell tobacco to youth, making Ontario’s penalties the highest in Canada. It would ban the sale of flavoured tobacco products to make smoking less appealing to young people. And it would prohibit tobacco sales on university and college campuses.
I believe that when it comes to the health of our kids, we’re all in agreement, so I call on all members of this House to work together to quickly pass this important piece of legislation.
It’s also important to recognize the sacrifices made by those caring for loved ones who have cancer. Our government has introduced legislation, the Leaves to Help Families Act, which, if passed, would allow caregivers to focus their attention on what matters most—providing care and support to their loved ones—without the fear of losing their jobs. This legislation was introduced more than a year ago. It was debated in this chamber for dozens of hours at second and third reading. It’s time for members of all three parties to pass this proposed legislation.
I want to again thank the Canadian Cancer Society for its hard work and for its advocacy. My deep appreciation also goes to Cancer Care Ontario for its partnership and hard work in managing our cancer system. And to all of our dedicated doctors, nurses, technologists and all the other providers who treat patients and help the people of Ontario stay healthy, thank you.
My thoughts are with so many Ontarians—too many Ontarians—who battle this disease every day, as well as their families and loved ones. I’m committed to doing everything I can to ensure they get the care they need, so let’s wear our daffodils with pride to let people with cancer know that we stand with them in their fight.
Hon. Liz Sandals: Today I’m proud to stand in recognition of International Day of Pink.
As members of this Legislature know, the International Day of Pink started a few years ago when a young man in ninth grade was bullied for wearing a pink shirt in a Nova Scotia high school. Two other students took action, buying pink shirts and handing them out to friends to wear to school. This ballooned into hundreds of students wearing pink to show support for the bullied student. They stood up against bullying and showed that it would not be tolerated in their school.
I want to recognize all of our young people who are wearing pink today in schools across Ontario, recognizing that positive actions can make a difference. In particular, I want to thank Jer’s Vision for providing such leadership on bullying prevention issues across Ontario—and across Canada, in fact. I would also like to thank all the members who are wearing pink today to raise awareness of the importance of bullying prevention and to help put a stop to it.
Speaker, while we have taken important steps to prevent bullying in our schools, we know that there are still far too many students who feel unsafe or unwelcome. Students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or questioning are too often targeted. Sadly, we all know the tragic impact that bullying and homophobia can have.
When I was the chair of our government’s safe school action team, I heard first-hand accounts of how devastating bullying can be on a student’s success. That’s why we have taken measures to make our schools safe, inclusive and accepting, so our students can thrive.
Since our government’s Accepting Schools Act passed in 2012, Ontario school boards must take preventive measures against bullying and support students who want to promote understanding and respect for everyone.
Putting an end to bullying cannot be done by one person alone. We need students, parents, school staff and community groups working together to prevent and address bullying in our schools.
While it is important for the entire school community to play a role in bullying prevention, sometimes it’s difficult for students to know who to turn to when they are victimized. That’s why we continue to partner with Kids Help Phone so that our young people have access to 24/7 telephone and Web-based professional counselling services.
Speaker, it’s incumbent upon all of us to speak out about bullying, not just today but every day.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): It’s now time for responses.
Mrs. Christine Elliott: I would also like to welcome the members of the Canadian Cancer Society who have joined us in the gallery this afternoon.
I’m pleased to rise today to recognize Daffodil Day, part of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Month, which of course is their national fundraising campaign. This month is an opportunity for us to reflect upon the thousands of people living with cancer in Ontario and to remember our own loved ones lost to cancer.
During this fundraising campaign, volunteers are involved in numerous activities to raise funds for the fight against cancer. The funds raised through this campaign help the Canadian Cancer Society in all the invaluable work they do to prevent and fight cancer.
Daffodil Month is also an opportunity for us to think about how we provide cancer care and supports in Ontario. We are very fortunate to have Cancer Care Ontario, which is the government’s cancer care adviser. They are committed to continuous and systematic improvement in prevention, screening and the delivery of care for the patient. But we also know that there are things that we can still do better.
Currently, treatment for cancer is only covered if it is administered intravenously in hospital. Oral treatments, on the other hand, are not covered by the province unless you are over 65 or on social assistance.
Cancer treatments taken orally have been a game-changer, allowing patients to live longer, and we know that 60% of all new cancer treatments being developed are oral medications. By not funding oral cancer treatments, we are creating significant barriers to fair and equal access to cancer treatment. We are discriminating based on cancer type and a patient’s age, income and geography. I hope that this is something that we can address in the very near future.
Mr. Speaker, in honour of Daffodil Day, I hope the members of this House will take this opportunity to not only reflect on the way that cancer has touched their lives, but also the way that we, as legislators, can improve health care for Ontarians living with cancer.
Finally, thank you to all of the members and volunteers of the Canadian Cancer Society for the vital work that you do across all of our communities each and every day.
Mr. Rob Leone: I’m pleased to rise on behalf of the Ontario PC caucus to discuss the Pink Shirt Day that has raised awareness about bullying in our schools. I want to take note about the definition of bullying that the ministry has provided, and I’m going to discuss it.
Bullying is typically a form of repeated, persistent and aggressive behaviour directed at an individual or individuals that is intended to cause, or should be known to cause, fear and distress and/or harm to another person’s body, feelings, self-esteem or reputation.
Bullying occurs in a context where there is a real or perceived power imbalance.
Bullying can take many forms. It can be physical: hitting, shoving, stealing, or damaging property. It can be verbal: name-calling, mocking, or making sexist, racist or homophobic comments. It can be social: excluding others from a group, or spreading gossip or rumours about them. It can be electronic, which is commonly known as cyberbullying, which is the spreading of rumours and hurtful comments through the use of email, cellphones, social media, websites and text messaging.
I’m very pleased that governments right across the country are raising this issue. I recently went to the movies, and I saw a federal government advertisement that showed and raised awareness about cyberbullying and what cyberbullying means in our communities.
My children enjoy watching TVOKids on the weekend, and I notice that there are segments raising awareness with stories of kids being brave and showing this is an important issue and that they, too, can stand up against the bullies.
D.J. Shepherd and Travis Price of Nova Scotia have started an international movement, and we’re very pleased to have them. I know Travis Price actually ran for the Progressive Conservatives in Nova Scotia recently, and we’re very proud that he has chosen to take the step in trying to get elected.
But he has two main messages for kids. This is a quote: “You can survive this, and as dark as times may seem, (remember) that someone such as myself, that has been bullied, has been on the edge and has been able to get through this, and here I still stand.”
The second point he wants us to remember is that we can stand up for one another. “When you see bullying happen, when you see this in your school, you can stand up, make a difference and make that bullying stop.... It is up to youth to really make a difference in this movement.
“Politicians help with legislation and RCMP officers help protect us, but really it is up to the kids to say enough is enough within our schools and change the culture within the school (so) bullying is no longer tolerated there.”
Mr. Speaker, I want to echo Mr. Price’s words. He says it right on point.
Mr. Peter Tabuns: Speaker, it’s a privilege to rise on behalf of the NDP caucus to recognize the International Day of Pink and to say thank you to every student, every teacher and every Ontarian who stands up to bullying in our province day in and day out. We’re standing with them in solidarity to say that Ontario is no place for discrimination.
I also want to thank the activists who devoted their efforts to raising awareness across Ontario. Their work to combat bullying in all its forms is vital to building welcoming communities where intolerance is not accepted.
And I want to say thank you to everyone who has organized an event today in honour of the International Day of Pink.
In particular, Jer’s Vision is doing extraordinary work. They are the youth organization that delivers programming to over 75,000 people every year across North America, and which has been instrumental in establishing the International Day of Pink. Jer’s Vision continues to lead the fight against homophobia, sexism, racism and discrimination in all its forms, and I commend their work.
Speaker, when bullying occurs in our province, in the hallways, on the playground and online, it’s our entire province that suffers. In the most apparent cases, physical violence occurs, but the taunts and slurs of invisible violence do just as much damage. It is that kind of violence that hurts people’s minds and breaks their souls. It replaces dreams with shadows that weigh on a person’s entire life and the lives of the people they love. Bullying diminishes all of us.
Two years ago, we passed the Accepting Schools Act. New Democrats worked hard to ensure that gay-straight alliances could be formed in our schools and be recognized by that name. I hope that it has made a difference in at least a few lives.
Speaker, there is much work that remains to be done. In particular, when students do not receive the supports they need in school, there are greater opportunities for bullying to occur. When there are too few adults in our classrooms because of inadequate funding from the provincial government, those students are put at risk. There is much more to be done, and together we must do that work to make our province safe and inclusive for all Ontarians.
Mme France Gélinas: It is a pleasure for me to add a few words for the great people at the Canadian Cancer Society, in honour of April being Daffodil Month.
The need for the government to do more is ever-pressing, and we know this. I dream of a day when the four big determinants of health when it comes to chronic diseases, such as most cancers, have been worked on, and those, of course, are stop smoking, healthy weight, healthy diet and exercise.
Mme France Gélinas: For sure.
If people in Ontario had access to a robust health promotion campaign that would target those four areas—healthy weight, healthy food, stop smoking and exercise—up to 80% of our chronic diseases would disappear and up to 20% of our cancers would be gone, right here, right now. It would make a huge difference.
We have in front of the House right now my Healthy Decisions Made Easy bill that deals with two of those. It deals with flavoured cigarillos—something that I know is close to your heart, Speaker—as well as calorie labelling. In and by themselves, they’re not going to change the world, but they’re going to be one small step on a road that has tremendous opportunity to change things for the better.
When you see a volunteer from the Canadian Cancer Society selling some of those beautiful little daffodils that most of us are wearing today, please donate generously.
I can tell you that I was really proud that this House finally passed the tanning beds bill. That was something that all of us can be very proud of. I can tell you of the blood, sweat and tears that the volunteers from the Canadian Cancer Society had put behind that bill. This is a bill that took a long time. It was introduced on many occasions by me, and we had hoped that it would go through, and finally it did, in the fall of 2013. Why? Because of the hard work on the ground of people who support the Canadian Cancer Society, who give their time, their effort and their energy to make things better for themselves, for their loved ones and for all of us.
So to the Canadian Cancer Society, thank you. Merci. Meegwetch.
Mr. John O’Toole: It’s a real privilege for me today to stand in the House and raise a petition that is important to my constituents in the riding of Durham. It reads as follows:
“Whereas MPAC”—the Municipal Property Assessment Corp.—“failed to comply with legislation, international standards and methods recognized by the courts;
“Whereas amendments to the legislation since 2004 have resulted in the weakening of public interests due to ambiguities and interpretations;
“Whereas the public has identified many problems with over-assessments by MPAC, but these over-assessments have not been”—and are not being—“appropriately investigated;
“Whereas the escalation process and appeals process is costly, unfair and ineffective;
“Whereas key facts and evidence are being withheld or ignored that have resulted in costly delays and undermined the public’s confidence in MPAC assessments;
“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to establish a committee to make inquiries into: (a) the applications of the respective home statutes by MPAC, IPC/ON and the ARB”—the Assessment Review Board; “(b) a complete performance review and financial audit of MPAC and ARB; (c) make recommendations to improve the escalation and appeal process; (d) estimate the financial impacts on individual homeowners and fiscal circumstances of taxing jurisdictions, and; (e) make findings of misconduct or wrongdoings” public.
I’m pleased to sign it and support it generally, on behalf of Leonard Subotich, who is from Toronto and who has been arguing with MPAC for years.
Ms. Catherine Fife: “To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
“Whereas Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease that causes thinking and memory impairment. Alzheimer’s disease is progressive, worsens over time and will eventually lead to death;
“Whereas there is an estimated 208,000 Ontarians diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and related dementia today, and that number is set to increase by 40% in the next 10 years;...
“Whereas Ontario’s strategy for Alzheimer’s disease and the related dementia has not been revised since the implementation of a five-year strategy in 1999;
“We, the undersigned, call upon the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to immediately review, revise and implement an updated, research-informed, comprehensive strategy to respond to and prepare for the rapidly growing needs of those living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.”
I’m pleased to affix my signature and give this petition to the page. Thank you.
Mr. Joe Dickson: I have a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
“Whereas the town of Oakville is studying further land use in the vicinity of Third Line and Bronte Road in Oakville known as the Merton lands; and
“Whereas the province of Ontario is the majority landowner in the study area; and
“Whereas despite the objections of the previous Harris-Hudak Conservative government, the Glenorchy Conservation Area was preserved as 400 hectares of natural area for generations to come; and
“Whereas despite the initial objection of the town of Oakville and region of Halton planning department Glenorchy Conservation Area became the first addition to Ontario’s greenbelt; and
“Whereas Ontario’s greenbelt is the largest permanent greenbelt in the world, protecting nearly two million acres from development; and
“Whereas residents of Oakville want the natural heritage area of the Merton lands added to Ontario’s greenbelt; and
“Whereas the Tim Hudak Progressive Conservative Party voted against the formation of Ontario’s greenbelt;
“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:
“That the Legislative Assembly of Ontario support the request from MPP Kevin Flynn and the mayor and council of the town of Oakville to include the addition of these lands in Ontario’s greenbelt.”
I attach my name to it and I will pass it to page Isabella. Thank you very much.
Mr. John O’Toole: Yes. It’s a surprise today. I get to speak. Anyway, I have a petition here from my constituents as well. It reads as follows:
“Whereas General Motors has contributed significantly to the Ontario and local economies and was a significant contributor to the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund (PBGF); and
“Whereas the General Motors of Canada salaried pension plan fund (plan 0340950) is severely underfunded due to the” Bob Rae “government’s lack of responsibility in allowing policies (regulation 5.1 ‘too-big-to-fail’ legislation) which permitted” General Motors and other companies “to underfund the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund; and
“Whereas GM is experiencing severe financial problems and there is a potential for” complete “bankruptcy;
“Therefore we, the undersigned, support the GenMo Salaried Pension Organization in petitioning the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to honour its commitment to totally fund the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund; and
“That in any approved restructuring plan of General Motors of Canada, provision be made to ensure GM fully funds pension plan 0340950; and continues to provide lifetime benefits to retirees” as promised “and surviving spouses in accordance with its retirement commitments” and promise; “and
“That the Legislative Assembly of Ontario take immediate action to protect the pensions of” General Motors and other retirees in Ontario, and more importantly, Sears at the current time.
I provide this to Mira, one of the pages.
Mme France Gélinas: I have this petition that was collected by a lady in Markham, and it reads as follows:
“Whereas inflation has risen almost 37% in the 21 years since 1993, and with the cost of ostomy supplies rising, on average, 2% yearly;
“Whereas there has been no increase in the ADP base amount;
“Whereas according to the 2009 survey, the data indicates that the average ostomy pouching system wear-time (flange and pouch) is five days;
“Whereas with an average suggested retail price of $15 for each change, many persons with an ostomy are spending a minimum of $1,500 and an average of $2,400 per year, far exceeding the ADP grant and the intent of the 75% coverage;
“Whereas additionally, people with temporary ostomy receive no government support, adding an additional burden to their health care needs;
“Whereas they may have their temporary ostomy for a number of years, they receive no assistance through the ADP grant as the ostomy may one day be reversed;
“Whereas the association frequently receives phone calls from people who are unable to find the money to buy ostomy supplies;”
“To act now and to raise the ADP grant amount to increase the coverage for ostomy supplies back to the 75% level that was set in 1993, and to increase coverage to include people who have a temporary ostomy.”
I’ll ask my good page Callista to bring it to the Clerk.
Mr. Bas Balkissoon: I have a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Mr. Speaker, I support this petition, I sign it, and I will send it to the table with Calvin.
Mr. Ernie Hardeman: I have a petition signed by a great many of the constituents in Oxford.
“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
“Whereas the purpose of Ontario’s Environmental Protection Act (EPA) is to ‘provide for the protection and conservation of the natural environment.’ RSO 1990...; and
“Whereas ‘all landfills will eventually release leachate to the surrounding environment and therefore all landfills will have some impact on the water quality of the local ecosystem.’—Threats to Sources of Drinking Water and Aquatic Health in Canada;
“That section 27 of the EPA should be reviewed and amended immediately to prohibit the establishment of new or expanded landfills at fractured bedrock sites and other hydrogeologically unsuitable locations within the province of Ontario.”
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to make this presentation. I will sign the petition.
Mr. Michael Mantha: This petition is on behalf of people from Algoma–Manitoulin and across northern Ontario.
“Whereas a motion was introduced at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario which reads ‘that in the opinion of the House, the operation of off-road vehicles on highways under regulation 316/03 be changed to include side-by-side off-road vehicles, four-seat side-by-side vehicles, and two-up vehicles in order for them to be driven on highways under the same conditions as other off-road/all-terrain vehicles’;
“Whereas this motion was passed on November 7, 2013, to amend the Highway Traffic Act 316/03;
“Whereas the economic benefits will have positive impacts on ATV clubs, ATV manufacturers, dealers and rental shops, and will boost revenues to communities promoting this outdoor activity;
“We call on the Ministry of Transportation to implement this regulation immediately.”
I support this petition and present it to page Eli to bring down to the Clerk.
Mr. Shafiq Qaadri: Speaker, it’s a particular pleasure to present this petition in front of you, addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
“Whereas virtually all Legislatures in Canada have fully embraced digital technologies;
“Whereas digital communications are now essential for members of Parliament to conduct their business, correspond with constituents, respond to stakeholders, stay in touch with staff, store data and information securely, keep ahead of the news cycle, and to remain current;
“Whereas progressive record-keeping relies on cloud technology, remote access, real-time updates, multiple-point data entry and broadband, wireless and satellite technologies;
“Whereas as there is more to full exploitation of technology than having an email address;
“Whereas the Legislative Assembly of Ontario has been considering the value, utility and usage of digital devices within the legislative precinct and within the chamber of Parliament itself for several months;
“Whereas this consideration of digital empowerment of members continues to be unresolved, on hold, under consideration and the subject of repeated temporizing correspondence between decision-makers and interested parties;
“We, the undersigned, respectfully request all various decision-makers of the assembly and government to fully embrace digital technologies, empower members, acquire the optimal Android and Apple devices, maximize the many technology offerings, and orchestrate a much-needed modernization of the conduct of parliamentary business for the eventual benefit of the people of Ontario.”
I agree, sign it and send it to you via page Milana.
Mme France Gélinas: I have this petition that comes mainly from the people of Brantford, and it reads as follows:
“Whereas Health Canada, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the World Health Organization recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life with continued breastfeeding along with other food sources for up to two years and beyond for optimal health;
“Whereas breastfeeding is normal and natural but like childbirth it can be complicated requiring specialized support for a family’s success;
“Whereas lactation consultants are trained, internationally certified breastfeeding specialists who can assist women having breastfeeding problems, and be resources of breastfeeding expertise in the community;
“Whereas Brantford, until 2005 when the service was cut, had a breastfeeding clinic run by lactation consultants at Brantford General Hospital which was highly utilized;”
They petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario “to facilitate the reinstatement of a lactation consultant-led breastfeeding clinic in Brantford General Hospital.”
I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask Caroline to bring it to the Clerk.
Mr. John O’Toole: It’s a pleasure to have this many opportunities to represent my constituents’ needs. This is another one that is scary; it’s going to be debated today with Bill 173.
“Whereas Ontario’s Drive Clean Program was implemented as a revenue-neutral, temporary measure to reduce high levels of vehicle emissions and smog; and
“Whereas emissions and vehicle failure rates have dropped dramatically between 1999 and 2010, the Drive Clean program has clearly outlived its usefulness; and
“Whereas Ontario’s new Drive Clean tests are”—
Mr. John O’Toole: —just a moment; the Minister of the Environment is talking—“recording higher-than-normal failure rates, even in cases where there is nothing wrong with a vehicle’s emission systems” at all—
Mr. John O’Toole: The Minister of the Environment is here, too. I hope he’s listening.
“Whereas this causes added inconvenience and higher costs for Ontario drivers; and
“Whereas in the case of pre-1998 vehicles, it is becoming increasingly difficult for owners to find an establishment that will provide the ‘tailpipe’ test for vehicles without the required on-board computer; and
“Whereas the Drive Clean program has generated a” significant “profit to the government of $19 million over the past two years”—
Mr. John O’Toole: You’ll get your time later—“despite a Supreme Court ruling that revenue-neutral government programs cannot generate a profit, the government is refusing to return this surplus to Ontario taxpayers;
“Therefore we, the undersigned, ask the Ontario government to take immediate action to end the Drive Clean program and return accumulated profits to Ontario taxpayers.”
I’ve been badgered the entire time. I’m standing up for my constituents, and I’m signing this petition and giving it to Jonah—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Thank you. The time for petitions is over.
Mr. Murray moved second reading of the following bill:
Bill 173, An Act to amend the Highway Traffic Act in respect of various matters / Projet de loi 173, Loi modifiant le Code de la route en ce qui concerne diverses questions.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Mr. Murray?
Hon. Glen R. Murray: It’s a great pleasure to lead off debate, I won’t just say for my party, but I think this is one of those rather remarkable pieces of legislation that—
Mr. Mike Colle: You’re going to share time with me and the member from Scarborough—
Hon. Glen R. Murray: I’m getting to that, don’t worry. I’m getting to that. My mentor, obviously, and dear friend, and parliamentary assistant, and long-time city councillor, and former TTC member and my big brother, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence, will be sharing time with me, as will the father of the distracted driving initiative, my friend from Scarborough–Rouge River. I’m very honoured to share time with them today.
Mr. Mike Colle: Very good.
Hon. Glen R. Murray: Thank you very much. I want to assure you that the member for Eglinton–Lawrence will keep me on track and on time for the rest of this.
It’s a great pleasure. For the past 12 years, Ontario’s roads have placed among the highest in safety in North America, consistently ranking either first or second. Our government is very proud to have continued that tradition—I think members in both parties opposite who served in government, and their records, have shared that. This is a shared legacy of the people of Ontario and the actions of all parties.
When you think about that for a moment—Mr. Speaker, you’re from Stoney Creek, a very fine area. It’s a little warmer. It’s not quite the Windsor banana belt, but it’s a little more temperate than Ignace or Dryden or those vast areas of northern Ontario which have very challenging weather conditions. That we can beat California, Texas, Iowa and Kansas to maintain safe roads is a real tribute to the people of Ontario: our police, everyday Ontarians who drive, and I think it’s something all of us as MPPs and all of our parties share. It’s a shared legacy which we want to leave to our children as their inheritance as well.
We could not have achieved this without the OPP, our municipal police services, MTO staff, our private contractors—the entire community of people who keep our roads safe. We also acknowledge the work of hundreds of individuals and organizations who work tirelessly to promote and improve road safety in Ontario. These partners work in areas like cycling, impaired driving, distracted driving, injury prevention, pedestrian safety, trucking and countless others to help raise awareness and advocate for change and save lives. The Canadian Automobile Association, the cyclists unions, Ontario Trucking Association—I could go on and probably name about 50 organizations from Cornwall to Kenora. We are blessed with the civil society base of volunteers who care about safety on our streets and on our highways.
Despite Ontario’s excellent road safety record, there are still more things the province can do to improve its road safety programs and outcomes. On average, one person is killed every 15 hours and one person is injured every eight minutes in Ontario. Even though with a safe record, that is a threshold we can improve. That is why we continue to look for new and effective ways to save lives by keeping all Ontarians safe on our roads.
Keeping people safe, Mr. Speaker, is the single largest priority of this legislation, and I think as it contains legislation from members in all parties, you’ll see that commitment throughout the bill and throughout this House.
We introduced the legislation last month. If this is passed, it will help reduce collisions, injuries, fatalities on our roads and highways. This bill is the result of the collaboration of members of this Legislature. It also builds on different private members’ bills and has laid the groundwork for several of the road safety issues we need to address.
I want to thank several of them: the MPPs for Eglinton–Lawrence, Parry Sound–Muskoka and Kitchener–Waterloo, who have formed the cycling caucus. They’ve been advancing that. This is something I wish we’d see more of in this House, where we claim our right as MPPs to represent our people and put the people’s business ahead of politics. I want to acknowledge those three MPPs, particularly, for their leadership.
I also want to acknowledge one of my mentors, a friend, and someone who has inspired a large part of this bill, whose private member’s bill dealt with the important issue of distracted driving after a tragedy in his community and a terrible loss of life. That is the member for Scarborough–Rouge River, MPP Bas Balkissoon, who has been passionate about this. I am glad that this bill reflects and respects the work of that member and the constituents he represents.
Also, the member from Parkdale–High Park, MPP DiNovo, who is supporting bicycle safety and proper passing distances between motorists and cyclists—I’ve had the pleasure to spend quite a bit of time with her. She shared her concern and, quite frankly, she has raised this matter before and has seen some criticism for it. I am glad to see her work reflected in this bill. I want to thank my friends in the third party, the New Democrats, for their leadership on this issue as well.
The legislation includes the efforts of our friend and very distinguished member of this Legislature, as I said earlier, the MPP for Parry Sound–Muskoka, Norm Miller. He has advocated for allowing cycling on paved shoulders of provincial highways, and other measures, including paved highways as a matter of course in all highway construction. If you’ve been up to the beautiful part of the province he represents, cycling tourism as well as regular tourism is a big part of life.
Mr. Miller and I have had some very positive conversations, and we discussed—people often think of cycling, for example, as an urban issue. Well, one third of all trips in Ontario are less than five kilometres, which means that one in three of us could probably do our commute by walking, by—
Interjection: Cycling.
Hon. Glen R. Murray: —cycling.
There was a study that just came out that showed that the parts of Peel region where people can walk had the lowest levels of diabetes, and the areas in which people can’t walk and need to use a car, where there aren’t walkable neighbourhoods, had the highest levels of obesity and diabetes.
It’s interesting: They say that 70% of trips in many smaller and mid-sized communities can actually be done by cycling. There’s actually a higher level of cycling in many parts of rural Ontario than there is in urban Ontario.
To my friend from Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington: Your community is one that has some brilliant initiatives on cycling, which I know you are supportive of.
I would be remiss, Mr. Speaker, if I didn’t also mention my friend from Simcoe North, MPP Garfield Dunlop, who has advocated for the move-over legislation. This is an initiative that will really reduce the number of fatalities of tow truck drivers and other emergency vehicles that show up on the scene, where those workers are particularly vulnerable.
It has been a while since we’ve had a bill that I think so many parties can lay claim to. I’ve often said in this House that my favourite time is private members’ public business, on Thursday afternoon, because it’s the one time we get to treat each other with a little more respect. It’s the least partisan time of the week.
I made this commitment to my colleagues, and the Premier asked us to take this kind of approach as ministers: to be a lot less partisan, to actually remember that we’re MPPs and Ontarians before we’re Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, labour, business or wherever we came from. This bill reflects that, and I don’t say this in an arrogant way, that somehow the government has a monopoly on this. This reflects a higher level of non-partisanship, I think, from all members of this House; otherwise, this bill would not have been possible without their co-operation. The Keeping Ontario Roads Safe act addresses many of the issues of safety and well-being of all those who use our roads.
If passed, this legislation would strengthen our existing impaired-driving laws. The legislation would also address the growing problem of distracted driving, increasing fines to as high as $1,000 and applying three demerit points. That would be set by justices; what we’re doing today, because we don’t set that, is creating the range, which I think is consistent with the will of the courts, evidenced by recent decisions of some of our justices in court.
In 2012, Ontario had the lowest impaired-driving offence rate in Canada. This is a rather remarkable achievement, but there is more we can do to address drinking and driving in our province, so we are proposing to require more drivers who are repeatedly caught drinking and driving to complete an intensive alcohol education program. This would be followed by a treatment and ignition-interlock monitoring program if they continue to repeat this dangerous behaviour.
This reduced suspension with ignition-interlock conduct review program would also be expanded to repeat offenders. Research indicates—and it is quite extensive research in many places—that installed ignition-interlock devices are effective at preventing drinking and driving. That is why we would extend the program, to reduce the risks posed by repeat drinking and driving by monitoring their driving behaviour. What we want to make sure of is that we are using the techniques that have worked most effectively around the world.
The Keeping Ontario Roads Safe act would also be the first step in strengthening identification of medically unfit drivers, and this is a challenging issue. Ontario’s mandatory reporting program for physicians is a key method of identifying individuals with a medical condition that makes it unsafe for them to drive. This bill would ensure that in the future the Ministry of Transportation can accept reports from a broader range of health care practitioners.
As that science and the medical review/nursing review bodies are establishing those standards, we will make sure that these are not political or bureaucratic decisions, but that they are in fact based on proper medicals and proper science. This will help keep our medical review program among the most stringent in North America, and serve to help quickly remove unsafe drivers from our roads. I want to thank the Ontario Medical Association, the CAA and also seniors’ groups for helping us with this piece of the legislation.
We are also proposing to improve the safety of tow truck drivers. As I mentioned earlier, tow truck drivers can face significant risk when they help motorists on roadsides of busy highways. If this bill is passed, motorists will be required to slow down and, if safe to do so, move over when they approach stopped tow trucks with flashing yellow lights on the side of the road, as is the case with police officers and other emergency responders. This measure would help ensure that drivers exercise greater caution with stopped tow trucks providing help to motorists, preventing needless collisions.
This legislation would also be one step in giving Ontarians healthier, more convenient and safer choices in how they get around. These proposals would introduce measures to improve the safety of cyclists, such as requiring all drivers to maintain a minimum distance of one metre when passing cyclists and vice versa, and increased fines and demerit points for dooring of cyclists, which all of our police authorities tell us is a problem.
This is a law that now exists in 29 of the 50 states and in Nova Scotia, and was heavily advocated for by the Ontario Provincial Police, the CAA and others who wanted something better than simply “reasonable distance,” which is almost unenforceable. As many pointed out—both motorist organizations and cyclist organizations—it’s very hard to educate people to a standard that isn’t specific.
The Keeping Ontario Roads Safe act would also help keep pedestrians safe in our communities. Overall, the number of pedestrians killed in Ontario has declined significantly over the last 25 years, but pedestrians still represent approximately one in six motor-vehicle-related fatalities, and ironically, this often happens in pedestrian corridors. That is why the bill would require drivers to yield the whole roadway to pedestrians at school crossings and pedestrian crossovers, and would support municipal requests for new pedestrian crossing devices.
As you may know from recent reports, Mr. Speaker, we do still have some challenges, in spite of many enhancements, with motor vehicle inspection stations. The Keeping Ontario Roads Safe act would modernize Ontario’s Motor Vehicle Inspection Station—MVIS—program to protect consumers and improve the standards of this important program.
The system we now have was established in the 1970s and is no longer working the way it should be. We need to improve the way vehicles are checked and branded, to make sure that unsafe vehicles are not being fraudulently inspected, rebuilt and finding their way onto Ontario roads.
If you’ve been watching some of the consumer programs of late, you can see some of the horrible vehicles that seem on the outside—because they’ve had bodywork done—to be in reasonably good condition, but, in fact, are literally a car wreck waiting to happen.
Currently, ministry-licensed stations and mechanics that fail to follow our standards can often continue their business for a lengthy period of time after they have been identified as a problem. These are often businesses and individuals who are knowingly endangering lives by illegally repairing damaged vehicles.
If passed, this legislation would replace the current licences and performance contracts between inspection stations and the Ministry of Transportation and secure a third party contract administrator to oversee the program, consistent with initiatives in other jurisdictions that have been much more effective than the program we currently have in place.
We anticipate that these new contracts would include many remedies to allow quick and effective action against inspection stations that do not meet our standard. There is a strong commitment from the government to work with members on both sides of the House to achieve those standards and a methodology that would be satisfactory.
In the event that a station’s actions warrant termination of its contract, we expect such action could be taken more quickly than under the current system. These measures would create more rigorous oversight to make sure inspection standards are being followed and can be enforced quite quickly. They would also protect consumers from stations and mechanics operating without a ministry licence or without adhering to ministry standards.
The program will continue to include offence provisions that will allow enforcement officers to lay charges in serious situations, and we are proposing to standardize fines and allow courts to impose short-term imprisonment upon conviction for certain offences.
This legislation would also extend the current six-month limitation period for offences so the ministry would be better able to lay charges when it learns of misconduct after the fact. Evaluating these stations more rigorously from action taken more quickly will prevent unsafe vehicles being fraudulently inspected, rebuilt, sold to consumers and driven on our roads.
The legislation would also transfer regulation-making authority for the program to the Minister of Transportation and the ministry and would be authorized to set standards by ministry directive. Again, we look forward to those discussions with members on both sides of the House. This would help change inspection standards more quickly to keep them up-to-date with modern advances in technology: things like telematics and many other new advances that have come out in the last decade.
This legislation would improve mandatory vehicle branding programs to prevent vehicle fraud and protect consumers who buy used vehicles. I want to thank the Minister of Consumer Services for her work on this with us as well. Under this program, vehicles that have been written off because of collision or flood are branded by the minister as either salvage or irreparable, and vehicle owners can make written appeals to challenge the accuracy of the vehicle’s brand.
Currently, many requests are submitted by individuals who have knowingly purchased an irreparable or salvage vehicle and appeal the brand based on fraudulent motives. If passed, only the person who owned the vehicle at the time it was damaged and reported it to the ministry would be allowed to appeal its brand. This would prevent appeals by those looking to make a profit by illegally rebuilding vehicles or selling damaged vehicles to unsuspecting consumers.
The ministry would also be permitted to appoint a third party administrator to review and decide branding appeals. The vital changes to motor vehicle inspection and mandatory vehicle branding programs proposed in this bill would protect consumers from unscrupulous parties and keep unsafe vehicles off the roads.
There are components in this bill, as many people know, on cycling, walking and active transportation, which are the healthiest and least expensive solutions to congestion. A growing number of Ontarians are choosing cycling as a way to get around, and that’s why last year we released CycleON, Ontario’s 20-year strategy to become the most cycling-friendly jurisdiction in North America. If passed, the legislation would build on the strategy to give cyclists more ways to travel and improve their safety on our roads and highways.
The Keeping Ontario’s Roads Safe act would introduce several measures to further help motorists and cyclists to share the road safely: increasing fines for drivers dooring cyclists from a range of $60 to $500 to be more consistent with similar offences in the range of $300 to $1,000, and raising the demerit points from two to three. Where practical, motorists would be required to keep a minimum distance of one metre between their vehicles and cyclists when passing. These measures would help cyclists stay safe when they travel near vehicles on our roads and on highways.
I particularly want to thank the Ontario Trucking Association, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Automobile Association, who really advocated for these standards. Not only have they advocated for the standards, but they’re also already, even in advance of this proposed legislation, undertaking greater education measures with their members, hopefully being optimistic that this House, given the appearance of all-party support, would do that. I want to thank them, because the education and enforcement are critical parts of this.
These measures would help all of us stay safe when we travel near vehicles on roads and highways. The legislation would also help ensure that cyclists are visible by allowing the use of flashing lights on bicycles and increasing the fines for cyclists who do not use the required bicycle lights and reflectors.
We propose to promote safer opportunities for cycling by allowing cycling on paved shoulders of unrestricted provincial highways, reflecting one of the private member’s bills. This would improve cycling for both cyclists and motorists, allowing cyclists to keep out of the flow of high-speed traffic.
The legislation would also support cycling in urban areas by allowing municipalities to create contraflow bike lines, which we don’t do now. If you’ve been to Manhattan recently, one of the densest areas, the contraflow bike lane program there is extraordinarily effective and has reduced fatalities and eased motorists. These measures would provide more direct routes and connectivity for cyclists, giving cyclists more choices and creating less congestion on our roads. That’s why we’re proposing measures to support cycling and active transportation with our municipal partners. I want to thank the Association of Municipalities of Ontario as well for their work.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I have one last issue before I conclude, and that is the issue I started with, which is distracted driving. It is currently illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cellphones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices. When I was walking home from work yesterday, I just by happenstance kept account of what percentage of drivers, when I looked into the cars, were actually texting. It averaged one in four people I walked by, walking from Queen’s Park all the way to Parliament and Mill Street the other day. One in four drivers had a cellphone in their hand while they were driving during rush hour—one in four. This gives you a scale of how serious and how ridiculous it is. One of them I noticed because I nearly ended up on her fender. It is currently illegal.
As I said, the evidence speaks for itself: A driver who uses a cellphone is four times more likely to be in a crash than drivers who are focused on the road. This is why safe driving requires undivided attention. Drivers need to focus on the task at hand. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. All road users need to feel safe on our roads and highways, no matter how they choose to travel.
We have great success in keeping our roads safe. Thanks to all of us—current and past governments—Ontario is the North American leader in road safety. I encourage all members to support this legislation.
One last thing on collision trends: In Ontario, fatalities from distracted driving are exceeding those of drinking and driving already. More people are being killed as a result of that, and the fines and the changes in the licensing system would go a long way.
I just want to conclude by saying that this is a historic piece of legislation. I want to thank the official opposition and the third party for their leadership as well. We often say we all support these things—and every party is guilty of it—and then we rag the puck and don’t get it through the House. I’m hoping this is something that we can get to committee very quickly.
I want to commit to you, as I had when we started this process, to maintain this as a nonpartisan discussion. I don’t think road safety is a Liberal, Conservative or NDP idea, or a Green Party idea; it’s just a good idea we all share. I look forward to working with members on all sides of the House for the speedy passage of this bill so we can save lives.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Eglinton–Lawrence.
Mr. Mike Colle: It was very thought-provoking to hear the minister speak, because all these issues he raised about safety on the roads really touch all of us in all of our communities. I know he mentioned that there are four private members’ bills that are incorporated in this bill: the member from Scarborough–Rouge River’s bill on distracted driving, the member from Parkdale–High Park’s bill about cycling safety and passing distance, MPP Dunlop’s bill about tow truck operator safety, and MPP Miller’s bill. So there are ideas from individual MPPs.
Just as they put forward the bills, I remember that over 10 years ago we had a situation where a car ran a red light in my riding and killed a person and injured nine other people who were waiting at the streetcar stop. Out of that people said, “What can we do? These people are running red lights.” Then I found out that this red-light running was an epidemic, really, that people are always trying to beat the red light and T-boning people. So I put forward a private member’s bill at that time to introduce red-light cameras at high-collision intersections. I know the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London was talking about how frustrated he was yesterday with his Ryan’s Law, waiting a year to get a bill in. I think it took me about five years until we finally got a bill that allowed red-light cameras to be installed in high-collision intersections, because the technology helped save lives. The police could not babysit every intersection, so we needed improved technology. But that was an initiative that came out of something that happened in my riding, for people’s safety, and I’m sure the other MPPs have had similar initiatives come forward on traffic safety. That’s why these things need attention when they’re brought forward by MPPs.
Just to reiterate, this bill is about safety and better roads and better conditions on the roads. We sometimes take for granted that these roads have to be built in the first place. They have to be maintained, and they have to be maintained at a high standard, because if the road isn’t maintained at a high standard, you can see what can happen in terms of lack of proper snow clearing or proper level of repair—the proper shoulder repair. If you’ve driven through the GTA in the last couple of months, you can see the horrendous conditions our roads are in. In all my life, I’ve never seen so many potholes. Those potholes are a reflection of the fact that not only has it been a severe winter with a lot of extra salt being used but the fact that, over the years, municipalities and the provincial government think, “We’ll just resurface the road and it will be okay.” So the roads look okay, but basically, many of those roads haven’t been rebuilt properly and made to withstand the ice conditions, the salt conditions.
Everybody says, “Oh, yeah, we’ll just drive,” but we need to invest in our roads. We need to invest in transit. We need to invest in road safety. And it’s not a one-time investment of capital dollars. You have to pay people to work on keeping our roads safe, whether it’s the police, whether it’s road maintenance crews—an investment of dollars. It’s a constant work in progress.
In the GTA, we’re up to about six million people, with how many cars? We’ve gone from probably about 500,000 cars in the GTA to over, probably, a couple of million cars. It’s amazing the number of added cars. And have we really built new roads? We’ve widened the 401 continually. We’ve widened sections of it. It’s never stopped. But somehow we expect that our roads are still going to be safe, are going to handle all these extra millions of cars. In Toronto, we’ve built one new piece of road in 20 years—one piece of road. We’re saying, “The cars are everywhere. We can’t do anything about it.” Well, everybody’s driving more. We’re not building any new road infrastructure. We have to continue to invest in road infrastructure, in making them safe and making them, again, up to standards. That kind of investment is critical to make our roads safe.
Plus there have to be laws which remind people about the serious responsibility we have in our roads. I looked at the stats. The number one killer in BC now is distracted driving. It’s no different than other provinces now. It used to be drunk driving. We used to be worried about speed. Those are not the killers now. The killer is—I see the Minister of Transportation on his cellphone there.
Hon. Glen R. Murray: I’m taking notes, Mike.
Mr. Mike Colle: Anyways, distracted driving is something we’re all plagued with because of the fact that our cars are no longer four wheels with a motor. Our cars are entertainment centres. I mean, if you go into some of these fancy new cars and you look at the dashboard, you’ll say, “Holy God, where am I, in a movie theatre?” There are so many gadgets. How can you keep your mind on the road? You’ve got all these things flashing and you can email, text, see movies. You can talk to your mother-in-law in Shanghai. You can do anything in your car. It’s taking away from paying attention to the road. It’s tempting, because all these things are at our fingertips. Therefore, something has to be done about distracted driving.
I know that the member from Rouge River has put forward a private member’s bill to try and deal with this, and it’s incorporated in this bill that there has got to be a heavier penalty, because people are doing it continually. They’re being induced to do it by the way our cars are now filled with all these incredible gadgets, which are supposedly to enhance safety, yet they augment your distraction at the same time. That’s the contradiction. We need to have this stiffer penalty and demerit points, which they’re doing in other provinces.
I just want to mention that there’s also increasing conflict at times, especially in cities, sometimes between pedestrians, motorists, cyclists. I think one of the reasons for that is because our roads are so congested that people are getting totally stressed out by the constant waiting in traffic, the constant lost time. Therefore, you’ve got motorists that are uptight; you’ve got cyclists that are trying to get by, and they’re getting uptight.
You’ve got pedestrians who are trying to cross the street, and—Mr. Speaker, you’ve seen it too—sometimes pedestrians are on their cellphones as they’re walking across. That’s one thing that really bothers me. I mean, we have all the things about motorists and cyclists that bother me, but I see pedestrians with this very arrogant attitude. They’re walking across the street; they don’t even look left or right. They think it’s their God-given right to go across the street, texting, without even looking to see if there’s a cyclist or a motorist coming, making a right-hand turn. They just walk ahead as if that light is green and, basically, they don’t have to pay attention.
We all have to pay attention, whether we’re motorists, whether we’re cyclists or whether we’re pedestrians. That’s critical for road safety. But it’s really hard to pay attention when you’ve got two things in your ear and you’re texting. There are even cases of cyclists that are texting and so forth. We need to put some kind of protocol in place which cools the temperatures down and gets people to be more cognizant of the shared responsibility we have on roads.
It’s just like when we make right-hand turns. I always try to look in my mirror to make sure there isn’t a cyclist coming in the right-hand line. In the past that wasn’t the case, but now, the cyclists are on the right. So you have to look at the cars, the pedestrians and a possible cyclist coming in on your inside lane. It is a very daunting task to drive these days, despite all the gadgets and all the safety devices, which are good, but, again, they’re not the answer.
In this bill, there’s also a number of initiatives which make our roads safer and promote safe cycling. The reality is that the cycling community, and the number of people cycling, is exploding all over the province, whether you go to the Niagara Peninsula, whether you go to Hamilton Mountain, whether you go to Kitchener, whether you go to Prince Edward Island or Windsor or the banana belt by Pelee Island, or by Erieau and those wonderful places down there where you go smelt fishing—not smelt fishing, perch fishing. The smelt have disappeared, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of the Environment is here; he’ll tell us why.
Anyway, the thing about it is that cycling is happening. It is an incredible industry. There are so many people opening up cycle repair shops, bike repair shops. They’re opening up all kinds of sales of bicycles. Cycling tourism is huge. It’s a great generator of jobs. They’re connected with the wine industry, with the restaurants, with sightseeing, with healthy living. Cycling is a reality.
I know that, myself, in the last couple of years, I was always a casual weekend cyclist with my Raleigh bike. But in recent years, I had a young man approach me, and his name is Michael Ovens. He is a blind cyclist. He cycles on the back of a tandem. He does this charity ride that goes from Toronto to Collingwood, and they have these tandem bikes. He said, “Oh, you can do it.” I said, “Well, I haven’t been on a bicycle”—and he wanted me to do 70 kilometres, half. I said, “I don’t know if I can do it.” But I did train, and I did go to some spinning classes. Anyway, I learned a lot about what’s happening, in terms of where cycling is going, through Michael Ovens and his Cycle for Sight initiative, which raises money for people with blindness.
The fact is that cycling is there. We have to make it safer, and that’s why, in this bill, we look at the dangers of dooring, which happens to cyclists and also motorcyclists. Certainly there is the whole issue about paved shoulders—Norm Miller has talked about this for a number of years—where it was prohibited. This is the crazy thing: You could not go on the shoulder with your bicycle. A big transport truck is coming at you, and you couldn’t ride on the shoulder. It was prohibited by law on the 400-series and the major highways. This bill says you will be able to cycle on the shoulder and, hopefully, this will mean enhanced, safer shoulders for our cycling community.
But this is the reality all across the province of Ontario: We have to have good rules that apply to the motorist, the pedestrian and the cyclist. In this legislation here, we’re trying to put forward a pretty practical framework of safety rules—that’s really what it comes down to—that people of all ages have got to adhere to, again motorists, cyclists, pedestrians.
It’s a reminder that we have to constantly improve safety because of the increased speed, the increased number of cars, the increased number of cyclists. It only makes sense that we go ahead and put these protective rules in place that are necessary because, whether it’s our children, our grandchildren, our loved ones, our neighbours that are in cars, innocently going to work, taking a bike to work or walking to work, whatever it is, they deserve to have their safety protected. That’s what the intent of this bill is, to try and bring in some safety standards that can be applied in a reasonable way across the province of Ontario so we will have safer roads.
Again, the thing is, roads are part of our economic reality. If we don’t have good roads, basically our economy comes to a standstill. We have to keep our roads moving with cars. We have to keep our roads safe. It’s an economic reality that we have to invest in our roads. We have a great infrastructure across Ontario, but we have to invest even more to make them sustainable, so we don’t end up with pothole hell, as we have here in Toronto this year. We have to invest in safety by road maintenance and good rules.
We cannot assume a person is going to always be doing the right thing, because as human beings, we’re constantly distracted, we’re constantly in a rush. Every time we get in a car, it seems we’re late for something. We never get in a car and say, “Oh well, I can take my time.” We always say, “Well, I have to get there. I’m late.” That kind of mindset, because of this rush-rush society we’re into, adds to the added danger on the roads. We have to try and slow things down, get rid of all those gadgets. Maybe we should sell those gadget-free cars, just the old dashboard—remember when all you had on the dashboard was a radio? That’s all you had. Maybe we should go back to the old—my 1957 Ford just had a little radio. Anyway, it was a lot safer in those days.
We need to invest in safety, and that’s what this bill is all about, Mr. Speaker. It’s about investing in the safety of the people of Ontario. Whether, again, you’re in a big city or a small town, we’ve had horrific accidents, sometimes on our back concession roads, so everybody has got to be supportive of this investment in safety. That’s the bottom line about this bill.
I hope that members on all sides look at a way of bringing forward this agenda of this bill, the Keeping Ontario’s Roads Safe act, so that we can do our job as MPPs.
I thank you all for listening and I pass the torch on to my esteemed member from the far east in Toronto, Scarborough–Rouge River member Bas Balkissoon.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Scarborough–Rouge River.
Mr. Bas Balkissoon: I’m pleased to rise today and join the Minister of Transportation and my colleague from Eglinton–Lawrence in providing full support to Bill 173, Keeping Ontario’s Roads Safe, as it was introduced by the minister earlier.
The bill aims to amend sections of the Highway Traffic Act dealing with impaired driving, pedestrian safety, tow truck safety, medical reports, vehicle inspection systems and a number of miscellaneous amendments, including one that is very important to me: distracted driving. I just want to say that I offer my thanks to the minister for his support on distracted driving concerns and having my suggestion included in this act.
Mr. Speaker, I’m going to focus my comments on distracted driving. As you know, last fall I introduced my private member’s bill, the Manoranjana Kanagasabapathy Act, Bill 116, which aimed to amend the Highway Traffic Act to increase the penalty for the use of hand-held devices while operating a motor vehicle.
If you will recall, the bill was named after Manoranjana, a 52-year-old woman who was tragically killed in an accident involving a truck that crashed into a TTC bus on Steeles Avenue at Middlefield Road in my riding, on Tuesday, August 13, in the year 2013. Twelve other individuals were injured in the accident, including three people who were taken to Sunnybrook Hospital’s trauma centre. I just want to say to you, Mr. Speaker, that, as you can see, one person’s error has created several other people’s hardship, including one person who died. That person’s entire family was affected.
There were two specific components to my bill. It proposed to increase the penalty for using hand-held devices while driving to a fine of not less than $300 and not more than $700. More importantly, the bigger piece of my bill proposed to add three demerit points to each offence.
I am pleased that, in the interim, the Chief Justice recently increased the set fine to $280, which is within the current range of $60 to $500. I hope that, when Bill 173 is approved, the set fine will increase further. I will have to continue to work with the minister and hopefully somehow get to the Chief Justice to make sure that that fine is set at something that is very significant.
Bill 173 proposes a number of other important changes to make our roads safer. I’m happy that my private member’s bill has been adopted and included as part of the larger bill, along with my colleagues from the other side of the House who have also had their private members’ bills included, but most important to me is that Bill 173 proposes a fine of not less than $300 and not more than $1,000. The minister has gone a little bit deeper than I had proposed, and I’m happy to know that he has a higher concern than I do. So I’m pleased to be here to support this bill.
I agree with the minister that it is more appropriate to deal with demerit points in regulations, as he has proposed to me. The reason I do that is because, in the current Highway Traffic Act, demerit points have always been dealt with in regulations. I recognize that.
Unfortunately, as a member, when I propose a bill I don’t have access to regulations, so I did what was available to me, which was to propose demerit points in Bill 116. I’m going to say that I’m pleased that the minister is quite happy to entertain my request to change the demerit points; he’s going to do it through regulations, and I’m going to be waiting patiently till he gets that done.
Hon. Kevin Daniel Flynn: I heard him.
Mr. Bas Balkissoon: My colleague here says that he heard it, so I’ve got a witness.
Distracted driving continues to be a growing concern. Since introducing my private member’s bill, my staff and I are more aware of this. We continue to see people using cellphones while driving.
The minister described his own incident, but I want to describe another one. I was on the highway, and the car that was in front of me was travelling well below the speed limit and somewhat erratically. You could see it shifting along the highway. Being a little frustrated, I took my time and waited, and at the first opportunity, I passed the vehicle. Sure enough, the person was on the phone, not realizing that they put themselves at risk and they also put everybody else around them at risk. I was at risk having to pass the vehicle. So it’s a little frustrating, and I knew that something had to be done. I’m glad the minister has brought this bill so quickly, since introducing my private member’s bill.
I’m hoping that since included in this bill are other members’ bills on all sides—all three parties—we will all join together and make sure we let this bill go through second reading very quickly and let it go to committee, and that it will come back here and we’ll adopt it. Hopefully we’ll have this legislation in place very, very quickly.
Mr. Speaker, CAA recently conducted a survey of their members, and the result of that survey stated that 85% or more of respondents feel that sending text messages or emails, reading text messages or e-mails and/or using an app on a smartphone is unsafe while driving a vehicle. That tells you that a lot of the driving public out there sees this as an issue, and therefore they’re depending on us, as government, to do something about it.
Based on recent CAA time trials, replying to a text message takes an average of 33 seconds. I say to all of us, think about 33 seconds. If you’re driving at 60 clicks an hour, it’s a long distance you’re going to travel without seeing where you’re going and without seeing what the traffic in front of you is doing. A whole lot of things can happen in that short period of time. It really does not take a lot to create an accident and put a lot of people in jeopardy. So I just say to all of us that we need to take this bill very seriously. Let us put it into legislation very, very quickly.
Distracted driving is a preventable offence, and as legislators we must take proactive measures to improve safety on our roads, but not only that; we should improve the safety of our constituents and our communities. The driver will always take chances, but it’s the other innocent people that I think we, as legislators, have to be concerned about.
It is proven that if you text and drive, most likely you’re going to get into an accident. I would say that because of that, I want to thank the minister once again for doing what he’s doing here today. Hopefully all of us will support this bill going through very quickly.
I just want to compare this bill to the seat belt law that came in many, many years ago. When the seat belt law came in, it took 13 years for legislators to realize that just a law saying you must wear your seat belt did not bring compliance. It was when demerit points were added that the police reported that compliance was achieved, to the point today where we have more than 95% compliance with that particular change.
The law was changed for hand-held devices in 2009; we’re about five and a half years away. We recognize we have a problem. I think we need to do it now and do it quickly, and hopefully we’ll achieve compliance a lot faster than the drinking and driving and seat belt legislation, as it occurred in the past.
I would say to all of us that this is an important law. I want to congratulate the minister for including all the issues of my colleagues and creating an act that is non-partisan. It’s really about our community, our residents and the people we represent here in the Legislature on a daily basis.
I also want to thank Mr. Ken Kandiah and his family for their commitment in asking me to push this government to change the law. They wanted to make sure that their sister and the mother of two children—that her life was not given up without something being done about it. I’m really pleased to be able to work with that family, and to be able to be here in front of all of us and see that the minister has brought a very comprehensive bill that would allow something to be done and done very quickly.
So I appeal to all my colleagues across the House: Let us do the right thing. Let second reading go as quickly as it can to committee, because everything in this bill is something that is needed for our society. Hopefully, it will come back from committee very quickly, we’ll adopt it after third reading and we’ll get it into law quite quickly—I’m hoping before we break for the summer recess.
Thank you for the opportunity to add a few points.
Mr. John O’Toole: I certainly listened with pleasure and with interest this afternoon to the minister speaking for a few moments and sharing his time with the members from Eglinton–Lawrence and Scarborough–Rouge River.
The general thrust here is, the minister was putting across that we’re going to come together on this and do something in a non-partisan way. I think that would be a really lovely idea.
I would say, too, that in the acquiescent remarks that were made, the minister did mention the four private members’ bills—from Scarborough–Rouge River, Parkdale–High Park, from Garfield Dunlop, as well as Norm Miller—on the bicycle bill and the tow truck operators, all of which are included in here to some extent.
I have a desire to have an hour’s leadoff on the bill.
I want to put in perspective too, though, that I do agree on the principle of safety, and we all have a collective responsibility to do the right thing.
I initiated some action, because of a tragedy in my riding, on driver distraction and carried the ball on driver distraction for quite a while. It served a useful purpose—the debate on driver distraction.
I agree today that the fine increase is something that is going to be really important—that the enforcement people don’t use the big clout to get the big cheque. They’ve got to look at people’s driving records and the file when they pull up behind a person. If it’s a first offence, perhaps a $200 or $300 fine would be fine; or maybe even taking a course on driver distraction, one of those simulator courses, would be a good idea. But if it’s a second or third infraction, whack them with $1,000 and the three points, and their insurance will go up and pretty soon they’ll be out of a job.
My sense is that driver distraction is the leading cause.
I commend the member from Scarborough–Rouge River for his work and the attention he has brought to the issue as well.
I am looking forward to our critic, who has done a lot of work on this file: the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London. He will make remarks. Hopefully, he’ll have the courtesy to share a bit of his time with me, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.
Anyway, I think it’s a productive afternoon.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): The member from Kitchener–Waterloo.
Ms. Catherine Fife: It is a pleasure to stand up in support of Bill 173. I would like to commend the member from Eglinton–Lawrence and the member from Scarborough–Rouge River for making very salient and passionate points, particularly on the distracted driving issue.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve served with the member from Eglinton–Lawrence and the PC caucus member on the all-party bike caucus. There have been ongoing issues, in conjunction with the Minister of Transportation, on how we can actually make things better. This should be, ideally, a non-partisan issue.
The member from Eglinton–Lawrence talked about getting the bike ready. I do have a Giant bike. That’s the name of it. We do ride on the shoulders of Giants—but they do need to be repaired on a regular basis, as mine does.
Certainly, the culture shift around distracted driving and around incorporating and sharing the road—I know that Share the Road has done an amazing job in this Legislature of moving that agenda forward and approaching all parties on an equal basis to ensure that legislation truly is reflective of the real needs of cyclists, of drivers, and that that infrastructure piece is also incorporated into the conversation. The one-metre rule is a really good step in the right direction.
The culture shift is happening because we’re talking about it, and if we’re talking about it, I really do hope that somebody is listening to it. But through legislation, we can move that agenda forward.
Mr. Joe Dickson: It’s a pleasure to stand and speak on this bill today. I can tell you that there are a lot of great points in here—just increasing the maximum fine from $20 to a set fine that falls in the range of $60 to $500 for not using required bicycle lights and other reflectors, reflective material and permitting the use of flashing red lights as a safety feature on bicycles. I know that they are more than an annoyance on many occasions.
I can tell you that cyclists are busy on streets, and they are, many, many times, just not conscious of traffic about them. I could take one street as an example. On Wellesley Street when we are coming over to Queen’s Park, there are a lot of young people going to any number of schools. Many of the young people are going to the University of Toronto here. Many never look, and many never signal.
On Wellesley Street, just east of Queen’s Park, I recently had a courier virtually run into the front of my truck from the opposite way, coming across the road. Fortunately, I had the Viper truck, so the front nose automatically goes down on it. The courier just bounced off the truck a little bit. He was most courteous and professional and apologized. I said, “Never mind that; I just want to make sure you’re okay,” but in fact he had run into me.
It’s an ongoing scenario. I know that if Minister Murray had brought forward more information on safe driving, if he ever had a spare moment—and I know he doesn’t—that would be something that we’d all love to see when we are in vehicles anywhere in downtown Toronto.
I congratulate the minister on bringing this forth. It’s a great job, great legislation, and I’ll certainly support it.
Mrs. Gila Martow: I’m happy to speak on Bill 173. I thought it was interesting to listen to all the comments. I live in Thornhill, which is definitely still a bedroom community. People are mostly living in Thornhill and travelling to jobs in outlying areas, often downtown.
It’s interesting that the Minister of Transportation specifically spoke about the commute and that people should use bicycles for commuting. I don’t think there are too many people from Thornhill who commute to downtown Toronto by bicycle. We do need to focus on creating more jobs up in the riding so maybe people could commute to work by bicycle.
I’m disappointed that the Minister of Transportation, after offering to come and tour Thornhill and the transportation issues with me, after contacting his office numerous times, still has not found the time to set a date. What I would like to show him is that people do ride bikes, especially now in the nice weather. They want to take their bikes out, they want to walk. By building bus lanes and widening the roads, we’re actually making it less safe. We’re building bus lanes, not bike lanes. People would prefer to see bike lanes rather than bus lanes.
I would like to make my offer to the Minister of Transportation. Since he offered to me so generously, I’d like to make the offer now to come up as soon as possible and—
Mrs. Gila Martow: Yes, we’re very famous. We’ve got the famous Centre Street Deli just where they want to build the bus lane, so I’m giving her a shout-out.
We are looking forward to speaking tomorrow on making June bike month, and I’m happy to speak more then about it. We’re going to have two events in the riding: May 31 in Woodbridge, which is actually just outside the riding; and in the riding of Thornhill, in Concord, on June 15, we’re organizing a ride with a brunch. So I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of residents there, and I invite all the members from all three parties to join us.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): One of the three members, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, has two minutes.
Hon. Glen R. Murray: Thank you very much.
I want to not only thank the member for Durham for his comments, but I also want to acknowledge his very good work on distracted driving. I apologize for not mentioning it earlier.
The member from Kitchener–Waterloo: Again, thank you for your leadership and that of your party and your colleagues and, again, for your commitment on the cycling group in the non-partisan caucus. Excellent work, and thank you for your leadership. I hope we can work together to achieve this.
My friend, my mentor, whom I refer to as Father Joe, the member for Ajax–Pickering, who is a spiritual leader for many of us and helped me learn this place when I sat over where the member from Kitchener–Waterloo is sitting: I want to thank him for his thoughtful comments and his friendship.
To the member for Thornhill: I would love to come to you. My schedule is a little bit busy. So I just want to say to my mother, who’s watching: Mom, you see. You’re not the only person I forget about. I forgot about my friend from Thornhill, who I owe an apology to.
But I also wanted to show you both the transit and the rapid transit subway investments, because we had a conversation about what was being spent in Thornhill, and I enjoyed that conversation. I miss Schwartz’s in Montreal, so maybe we can find some good smoked meat together.
Mr. Mike Colle: Katz’s Deli is the best.
Hon. Glen R. Murray: Katz’s Deli, the member from Eglinton–Lawrence says. We’ll have a battle at Caplansky’s—which one is better.
Mr. Speaker, this is a very good bill, and the kind of bill that I wish we saw more of. As I’ve said many times, those of us who have served on municipal governments or school boards are all used to a much less partisan nature. I have to tell you that in my four brief years in this House, I don’t think I’ve met a member who doesn’t bring something substantive to this House. I actually hate question period, not because it isn’t fun, but because I think we look our most ridiculous. We look so darned stupid. Maybe we can make this a shining example of collaboration and co-operation and just doing a good thing for our community.
I look forward to the continuing conversation, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for your patience.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Before I move to the next speaker, I beg to inform the House that in the name of Her Majesty the Queen, His Honour the Lieutenant Governor has been pleased to assent to a certain bill in his office.
The Clerk-at-the-Table (Ms. Anne Stokes): In Her Majesty’s name, His Honour the Lieutenant Governor doth assent to the following bill:
An Act respecting collective bargaining in Ontario’s school system / Loi concernant la négociation collective dans le système scolaire de l’Ontario.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: I’m proud to stand up and add my two cents to Bill 173.
Interjection: You might.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Yes, and I might, if the Legislature is wanting of it, split my time a little bit with the member for Durham, just so you know.
The short title of this bill is Keeping Ontario’s Roads Safe, and I believe this is a laudable goal and one that we all can agree on. I support many aspects of this bill, but I also have some reservations about some of the others, and I’ll outline those concerns as we carry on.
The issue of road safety is vital, as there are over nine million licensed drivers in this province and 11 million registered vehicles, to answer Eglinton–Lawrence’s question about how many vehicles there are in the province. It’s not just Ontarians who use our vast transportation network. Ontario is home to 14 of Canada’s 26 border crossings, with 60% of all Canada-US trade passing through crossings at Windsor, Sarnia and Niagara. Over 32 million cars and 6.7 million trucks use these border crossings on an annual basis. To say that safe roads and reliable infrastructure are an economic imperative is an understatement.
I do have to say that over the past few decades, various measures have been taken to improve the safety of roads. Building on best practices in driver training, road engineering, penalties that serve to deter unsafe driving and enforcement all help to ensure that our roads remain safe. The metric often used to determine road safety is fatalities per 10,000 licensed drivers. It’s good to see that since 1995, fatalities per 10,000 licensed drivers have fallen from around 1.4 to 0.63 in 2010.
While these statistics are encouraging, I find there’s an interesting disconnect between ministry statistics and what the public sees. A survey conducted by the CAA asked its membership to give their impression of Ontario’s roads today compared with five years ago. Only 12% of respondents said the roads were safer than they were five years ago. About 35% said the roads were the same, and nearly 50% of people said that Ontario’s roads were actually less safe than five years ago.
So the question we need to ask ourselves is: Why is there such a disconnect between the two? I really think the answer is quite simple. Certainly, improvements have been made in road safety in the past two decades to this point, and Bill 173 does address some issues. But Ontario drivers are looking at the lack of a plan this government has when it comes to breaking up gridlock and investing in our road infrastructure, which is crumbling. I think that most people look at our roads today and have concluded that if we continue with the status quo of de-prioritizing key infrastructure upgrades, we can very well expect to see our road safety statistics get worse in the future.
So when we see the results of the CAA questionnaire, I think the message is clear. While fatalities may be down in the last couple of years, the current state of our roads is actually more dangerous than they were five years ago. People understand that the government’s misplaced spending priorities are putting the safety of our entire road network at risk. The PC Party does have a credible plan to prioritize key infrastructure investments by establishing a dedicated fund to ensure infrastructure investment does not get pre-empted.
Speaker, I’d like to go through Bill 173 and highlight some of the good parts and where we have concerns that we’d like to see addressed. I’ll start off with the cycling and pedestrian part, and the parts of the bill that I’ll start off with do have quite a bit of common sense to them. When it comes to pedestrian safety, I think this bill seeks to strike a good balance. While most of what it legislates, like stopping at crosswalks and having drivers wait until a pedestrian clears the crosswalk before driving forward, are already observed by most drivers, legislating it adds a degree of certainty and legal responsibility.
What I also like about this bill is that it puts the responsibility for pedestrian safety equally on the driver and the pedestrian. For instance, the pedestrian must not enter a crosswalk if a car does not have enough time, or is travelling too fast a speed, to stop. I think it’s important that we recognize that all road users are responsible for safety, and I believe this aspect of the bill helps achieve that.
This bill also addresses issues that pertain to the safety of cyclists. There are roughly 1.2 million Ontarians that ride daily through the spring, summer and fall seasons; 36% of Ontarians or 4.5 million people ride monthly; and, in 2010, roughly two million visitors cycled while travelling in Ontario. It’s important that we have a road network and a legislative framework that protects the safety of cyclists.
I was glad to see that the Liberal government has included a clause that incorporates the private member’s bill introduced by my colleague from the riding of Parry Sound–Muskoka that permits cyclists to ride on the paved shoulders of our highways. I know that the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka brought his bill forward to ensure that cyclists everywhere in this province have the ability to ride their bike safely, so I’m pleased to see that in this bill.
Most other aspects of the bill that pertain to cyclists are fairly common practice. However, there is one aspect I’d like to address, and that’s the issue of dooring. Dooring, as many of us know, is when a driver accidentally opens their door into the path of an oncoming bicycle. Certainly, this problem is most severe in Toronto and the GTA. This bill proposes increasing the fines from $50 to a range of $300 to $1,000 for drivers found guilty of dooring. The government says this will deter instances of dooring.
While I’m in support of drivers being responsible and aware of their surroundings when getting out of their car, I’m not sure that the deterrence argument holds much weight in this instance. Most instances of dooring, in which a driver is negligent, do end up in court. We all have a legal obligation to reasonably avoid negligent behaviour that could cause injury to others, even with Bill 173. Because of this, the damages awarded in the negligence suit, I think, far outweigh an increase of fines in terms of deterrence. I think if you’re talking about this in terms of deterring dooring, the legal process already provides a fairly significant deterrent.
I also think we need to consider the responsibility of both parties, much like Bill 173 does, when it comes to pedestrians. Cyclists must be aware of vehicle blind spots and do what they can to make themselves visible to drivers, particularly at night. As I said before, road safety is the responsibility of all road users.
I’d like to move on to emergency vehicles and tow trucks, and what this bill comes forward with. When I do drive down Highway 401, oftentimes I see a motorist receiving roadside assistance from a tow truck. Getting a vehicle hooked up to a tow truck can be a hazardous proposition, particularly when dozens of cars are speeding by, usually at 120 kilometres an hour.
This danger was unfortunately brought home in an all-too-real way when a tow truck driver from Windsor was killed two years ago while helping to change a tire. According to police reports, the tow truck driver was where he should have been. In addition to this incident, there have been many near-death occurrences and injuries of workers and motorists who are stopped due to mechanical failure, damage or accidents on Ontario’s highways and roads.
The aptly named “slow down, move over” aspect of the bill is important. In fact, I’m proud to say that my colleague the member from Simcoe North was ahead of this issue and introduced a bill in March 2012 to address it. The MPP from Simcoe North recognized a danger and put forth a “slow down, move over” bill. It required, by legislation, that drivers slow down and provide distance between their vehicle and any tow truck or other vehicle stopped at the side of the road. This protection already exists for emergency vehicles and my colleague’s private member’s bill would have extended the protection to roadside assistance vehicles. The bill received broad-based support with a petition submitted to the Legislature on October 15, 2012, that had nearly 7,500 signatures.
But, Speaker, I imagine you do remember what happened in October 2012—you’re not answering, but that’s okay: Dalton McGuinty prorogued Parliament, Mr. Speaker, and all the legislation before the House was wiped clean, including the “slow down, move over” legislation.
Finally, two years from when the member from Simcoe North first introduced it, we see the “slow down, move over” legislation reappear in this government’s bill, and I commend the government for doing so. With a government bill, there’s more of a chance it will become law, and the sooner we can start preventing needless deaths and injuries, the better, because the overarching concern is making sure there’s good legislation in place to protect Ontarians.
I’m pleased to see that the Liberal government is borrowing ideas from members like the member from Simcoe North. It’s too bad, though, they haven’t more seriously considered stealing some of our other ideas. For instance, the member from Simcoe North does a tremendous job in raising awareness of the job-killing College of Trades and the associated trades tax. Considering there are 600 million people without a job in this province, this Liberal government should listen to this man, who actually spent the bulk of his career—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): I would suggest the member stick to the script. He’s drifting.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Fair enough. Stay on the road; stay straight. Right. I’m sorry, Speaker. It’s nice to see the Liberal government take Simcoe North’s piece of legislation and incorporate it into Bill 173. It’s too bad they didn’t pick up on the others. But I’ll move on. Thank you very much.
I’d like to talk a bit about distracted driving, because there has been quite a bit of commentary over the last few months. There has been great discussion about it through what the government should be doing to deter the practice, and there’s good reason for this. It has only been in the last decade that mobile devices have become a fixture in our lives. Back when I started managing the family pharmacy in the mid-1990s, nobody really had an idea of what a cellphone was. There were many computers in the office, but cellphones were pretty much unheard of. But in that short period of time, the computing power of those old PCs has been condensed down into a hand-held device.
For something that didn’t really exist 15 years ago, pretty much everyone has one now. I’m sure I can speak for everyone in this room when I say that not only do I carry my cellphone with me at all times, I feel lost when I don’t have it with me. Meetings, schedules, emails, text messages: Every way that I communicate and stay productive can be found on my phone. The temptation to check my phone when I’m behind the wheel, of course, is immense. However, doing so is one of the most dangerous things you can do when you’re behind the wheel.
Quite frankly, the statistics are overwhelming. If I may, I’d like to go through some of these statistics to better illustrate distracted driving and its dangers.
The Ontario Provincial Police cite distracted driving as a causal factor in 30% to 50% of traffic collisions in Ontario. And this is just what is reported; many say that the figure is probably much, much higher. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 80% of collisions and 65% of near-crashes have some form of driver inattention as a contributing factor. I think it’s clear to everyone that cellphones certainly lead to inattention when it comes to the task of driving.
Cellphones are one of the most common distractions for drivers. Drivers who engage in text messaging on cellular phones are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near-crash event compared to non-distracted drivers. This statistic comes to us from a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and it’s not hard to understand why. The CAA has noted that the average time it takes to respond to a text messages is 33.6 seconds. If we assume you’re travelling on the highway at 100 kilometres an hour, this equates to travelling a distance of 933 metres without your attention on the road. That’s almost 10 football fields. Even if you’re just answering a phone call, that takes about 10.6 seconds. Again, assuming you’re travelling on the highway at 100 kilometres an hour, which I’m sure we all do on the 400 series, it equates to travelling a distance of 294 metres, or approximately three football fields, without attention on the road.
As much as this is a road safety issue, there are economic consequences to distracted driving. The government of Canada has estimated that the economic losses caused by a traffic collision related to health care costs and lost productivity are at least $10 billion annually, which is about 1% of Canada’s GDP. With distracted driving increasing the probability of experiencing a traffic collision by 230%, it’s very apparent that unchecked distracted driving has a negative economic impact. I find these statistics quite incredible.
These statistics and the anecdotal evidence that we get when we hear numerous news stories about car accidents caused by mobile device usage have shifted the public’s focus in terms of road safety issues.
It used to be that drinking while driving was the number one road safety issue, but thanks to the efforts of organizations like MADD and our law enforcement agencies, we’ve been able to curb the number of fatalities due to drunk driving. Now, in two national public opinion polls, Canadians consider texting and driving to be the number one road safety issue. Yet despite the horrifying statistics and broad public awareness, we still find it difficult to just put our phones away when we’re behind the wheel.
The percentage of Canadians who admit to using a cellphone while driving has remained between 36% and 37% in the past two years. Considering the fact that this figure was only at 25% in 2002, it’s not difficult to see that we’re heading in the wrong direction. But as illustrative as these statistics are, it’s not enough to throw statistics at people and hope it sinks in. We need to have a conversation among our communities and make efforts to change the collective cultural attitude towards distracted driving.
I mentioned drinking and driving a minute ago. I think the evolution of that road safety issue highlights some interesting and relevant points. After all, just a couple of generations ago, drinking and driving was commonplace. There was cultural acceptance surrounding the practice. However, we know that alcohol impairs judgment and increases the risk of accidents.
At the time that legislation to deter the practice was enacted, a number of groups like MADD sprang up to educate people on the dangers of drinking and driving. Today when I ask my local police officers how many young drivers get pulled over for drinking and driving, they tell me it’s very low. The people getting charged with drinking and driving tend to be older, over 50: those who learned to drink and drive when drinking and driving was acceptable. Yet our young people, as a general group, are aware of the dangers and make smart decisions when it comes to drinking and driving.
This is what we must do: We must change the cultural attitude towards texting and driving. I’m sure that was the aim of Chief Justice Bonkalo—I hope I got her name right—when she ruled to increase the fine for using a hand-held device behind the wheel from $155 to $280 on March 18. The Chief Justice understood that $155 was not a sufficient deterrent for a practice that had become so deeply embedded in many drivers’ behaviour, so she did what she could do to help deter a habit that claimed 78 lives in Ontario last year. I commend her move. I think she made the decision despite promises from the minister, which the MTO and the minister both have been slow to act on.
All of last year, we heard how the minister was going to tackle the issue of distracted driving. However, nothing was brought forward. The good news is that his colleague the member from Scarborough–Rouge River did. Bill 116 was brought forward in response to the tragic death of a constituent in the member opposite’s riding. So he did what any good member in this House would do: He tabled a bill that would help prevent more senseless deaths.
Not only would Bill 116 have increased the fines for distracted driving offences substantially; it also proposes implementing demerit points. I have to commend the member for this inclusion because, when we talk about distracted driving, demerit points need to be part of the conversation. When demerit points are issued, they appear in a driver’s record. If you get more than nine demerit points, you can lose your licence. It’s that basic. When we talk about where to start in order to change the attitude towards distracted driving and take steps to deter it, I can’t think of a better deterrent than the prospect of losing one’s licence.
Another deterring factor when it comes to demerit points is the potential effect they have on someone’s insurance rates. Demerit points show up on driver abstracts that get sent to insurance companies. If you have accumulated a number of points, you could very well see your insurance rate spike. When we think about it, when somebody realizes that they could be paying hundreds of dollars more a year on insurance if they get caught texting and driving, they’ll think twice about checking their phone while behind the wheel. The previous fine of $155 has, until now, been considered a cost of driving. Demerit points, on the other hand, carry real weight.
So I was proud to reach across to my colleague across the chamber to help him support his efforts to pass his bill. In fact, we co-hosted a press conference in the media studio to talk about the merits of his bill. When the bill came up for second reading, I gladly stood up in support and voted for it. It’s a great moment when MPPs can come together regardless of their party affiliation to try to do the right thing for the people of Ontario. I know that the member from Scarborough–Rouge River agrees with me. As he’s a member of the committee reviewing my private member’s bill to protect children with asthma while they’re at school, I know that he will work hard to press his caucus to support my bill.
We passed Bill 116 through second reading last November. However, when we returned from our winter break, it seemed that the powers that be on the government side had forgotten a great deal about their own caucus member’s bill that he put forward. The Minister of Transportation never talked about it, and it never did come up in committee. It wasn’t really until the Chief Justice raised the fines for using a mobile device while behind the wheel that the conversation around distracted driving restarted. Everyone started to remember that the Minister of Transportation had made promises to tackle the issue of distracted driving and that, so far, he had failed to deliver.
It was last November that the minister had told the Toronto Star, “We are going to be moving in the very near future.” He said this in reference to distracted driving, a problem he said could be solved by a combination of an intense education campaign and the addition of demerit points. Remember, this was November of last year. But only after the Chief Justice raised the fines and reignited the conversation on distracted driving did we get the introduction of Bill 173.
When the bill was introduced, it received widespread media coverage. I want to read you a bit from the Toronto Star again, an article that discussed the introduction of Bill 173. This is dated March 17, 2014, and it reads as follows: “Distracted drivers on their cellphones and careless motorists who knock down cyclists with their open doors will face maximum fines of $1,000 and three demerit points under sweeping new road safety rules introduced Monday.”
CTV News in Ottawa reported as follows: “And texting while driving or ‘dooring’ a cyclist could cost you demerit points.”
The Globe and Mail reported, “Ontario is proposing a potentially costly hike in penalties for distracted drivers by imposing three demerit points in addition to a maximum fine of up to $1,000.
“Drivers who receive demerit points after being convicted of using their cellphones behind the wheel could face higher insurance premiums.”
The media, by and large, focused on the introduction of demerit points as an important aspect of Bill 173. There’s no reason they shouldn’t have, given that MTO’s own backgrounder on the bill reads as follows:
“To reduce collisions, injuries and fatalities as a result of distracted driving, proposed amendments include:
—increasing the fine from $60 to $500 to $300 to $1,000;
—assigning three demerit points upon conviction of a distracted driving offence;
—making a distracted driving conviction a contravention of one of the licence conditions placed on novice drivers within the graduated licensing system.”
The reason I bring this up is that I have read Bill 173, and there’s absolutely no mention of demerit points in it. I’ve spoken to a number of stakeholders to see if they picked up on something that I had missed. However, none of them could find the phrase “demerit points” in there either.
This brings to mind two questions: First, will demerit points be implemented with the passage of Bill 173? Second, when will drivers start receiving demerit points for distracted driving offences? The answer to the first is, “No,” and the answer to the second is, “Whenever the minister wants.” That’s because demerit points for offences related to the use of mobile devices when behind the wheel can be instituted through an order in council. It’s not a matter of legislation; it’s a matter of regulation.
After I had stood in support of the member from Scarborough–Rouge River’s private member’s bill, people started to ask me when this important change would be made. When it became clear the minister was dragging his heels, I asked the legislative library to provide me with a report that outlined whether demerit points could be instituted without legislative amendments to the Highway Traffic Act. I’d like to read a bit from the report so that everyone can fully understand the issue.
“The Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act, 2009”—and I’m quoting here—“made amendments to the Highway Traffic Act which were proclaimed in force on October 26, 2009. The 2009 act amended the Highway Traffic Act to generally prohibit driving:
“—if the display screen of a television, computer or other device in the motor vehicle is visible to the driver, and
“—while holding or using a hand-held wireless device or hand-held electronic entertainment device or other prescribed devices.”
In other words, distracted driving is considered an offence under sections 78 and 78.1 of the Highway Traffic Act.
In talking about the role of demerit points in the system, the report goes on to say, “The Highway Traffic Act authorizes the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations providing for a demerit points system for drivers of motor vehicles or street cars.
“The demerit point system may provide for the cancellation and suspension of licences and may require that a driver show cause why his or her licence should not be suspended.
“Ontario regulation 339/94 made under the Highway Traffic Act provides that if a person is convicted of an offence under the provision set out in column 1 of the table to the regulation (and the penalty imposed by the court for the conviction does not include a period of licence suspension) the registrar shall record in respect of the person the number of demerit points set out opposite thereto in column 2.
“The table at the end of the regulation lists various offences under the Highway Traffic Act and sets out the number of demerit points for each one.”
So here we begin to see that regulation 339/94 sets out offences in the Highway Traffic Act on which demerit points can be applied, as well as the corresponding number of points.
When I read this, it would appear that so long as something is an offence as defined by the Highway Traffic Act, it could be included in the regulation that outlines demerit points. So, to me, given that using a mobile device is a Highway Traffic Act offence, all the minister needs to do is simply amend the regulation to allow the inclusion of distracted driving offences.
The report confirms this notion, as it reads: “Under the existing legislative framework, in order for demerit points to apply upon conviction for an offence for violation of the distracted driving provision, Ontario regulation 339/94 (Demerit Point System) would have to be amended.
“Under the Legislation Act, 2006, the power to make regulations includes the power to amend, revoke or replace them from time to time.
“Since the Highway Traffic Act requires that regulations providing for demerit point systems must be made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, an amendment to Ontario regulation 339/94 would also be made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.”
There you have it. The reason that demerit points are not included in Bill 173 is that legislation isn’t even required to implement them.
I’m not saying that the minister intentionally misled the press and therefore misled the people of Ontario—
Mr. Shafiq Qaadri: You can’t say that.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: —however, he certainly wasn’t eager to correct the press when—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rob Leone): I’m going to have to ask you to withdraw that comment.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: I’ll withdraw.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: We’ll accept you, Speaker. Thank you.
Speaker, the minister wasn’t eager to correct the press when they asserted that Bill 173 would implement demerit points on distracted drivers. So we have to ask ourselves: Why wouldn’t he make the clarification? Perhaps one explanation has to do with a statistic I cited earlier. I previously mentioned that 78 people were killed in distracted-driving-related incidents last year. If we take a monthly average, that equates to 6.5 people a month. Therefore, from the time the minister made mention of demerit points last November, it has been six months that we’ve not seen any action. Through those six months, too many people possibly may have been killed since the minister failed to extend the demerit point system last November.
Maybe the minister didn’t want to correct the press because knowing that the minister could have implemented demerit points for distracted driving offences at any time since he became minister, yet chose not to, would make it look like he doesn’t care, and the optics and the politics behind it would not do well at keeping his job and position or at making Ontario safe.
It’s really a shame, but we’ve seen this so often from this Liberal government. Their own member, the member from Scarborough–Rouge River, wanted to do the right thing, and both parties sitting on this side of the House wanted to do the right thing. The issue of distracted driving is truly a non-partisan issue, and we’ve all been prepared, on this side of the House, to make sure the necessary changes are made to protect all drivers on our roads.
Despite our commitment to this issue and our passion to see it become a reality, we, as opposition MPPs, only have so many options at our disposal to achieve that. Yet the one person in this chamber who actually has the authority to go forward with this initiative has stalled, in order to allow the implementation of demerit points to coincide with Bill 173. All I have to say is that the timing of Bill 173 is interesting.
We have the budget-leaking team’s rollout playbook, and I can say that we expect a budget quite possibly on May 1. The government so far has been able to keep their sinking ship because of being propped up by the NDP. This year, the tone between the two has been more acrimonious, so this is what I have to say to my NDP friends—
Ms. Catherine Fife: A point of order.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rob Leone): Point of order, the member for Kitchener–Waterloo.
Ms. Catherine Fife: I think that the member should speak to the bill that’s before us. I think that the Speaker ruled in the right way the last time.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rob Leone): I ask the member for Elgin–Middlesex–London to direct his comments to the bill.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: I was just getting to that, Speaker, if you would allow me to finish my last sentence here.
To the NDP, I’m just saying: Don’t let the government hold this bill over your head to ensure passage of this bill to increase our savings. I know you’re concerned that if you come to your senses and refuse to support this unaccountable government anymore, you may be perceived as the reason that some of these road safety measures will no longer become law.
But I’ll tell you, as I’ve been telling everybody watching at home, that this minister does not need the legislation to institute demerit points. While I can’t speak to his motives, I consider it a disgrace to his office if he was erroneously saying that Bill 173 is needed to implement demerit points and he uses this important road safety issue as leverage to gain support of what I can only assume is another tax-and-spend budget.
Whether the budget passes or fails, there’s absolutely no reason why demerit points shouldn’t be instituted for distracted driving offences. It’s time we implement demerit points, deter the habit and begin to change the cultural attitude towards cellphone usage while driving.
I’d like to move into vehicle inspection centres now. Another aspect of Bill 173 that I want to address is the vehicle inspection centres. If you will allow me, I want to read a section of the bill overview that discusses vehicle inspection centres, and it reads as follows:
“Current sections 88 to 100 of the act, which deal with motor vehicle inspection stations and related matters, are repealed. They are replaced with sections 100.2 to 100.8, which create a new vehicle inspection centre system. Section 100.1 allows the Minister of Transportation to make transition regulations to facilitate the implementation of the vehicle inspection centre system.
“Under new section 100.2, the minister may establish a program for the inspection of vehicles and the issuance of certificates and stickers and other types of proof of inspection and may appoint a director of vehicle inspection standards to administer the program. The minister may enter into agreements with service providers to assist in operating the program. The minister may also enter into agreements to authorize persons to operate vehicle inspection centres and to authorize service providers to enter into such agreements.
“The director of vehicle inspection standards is given broad authority to issue directives governing certificates, inspection procedures and requirements and equipment and performance standards under section 100.7. It is a deemed term and condition of every agreement to operate a vehicle inspection centre to comply with all applicable directives.”
That’s quite a vision in Bill 173, I must say, Mr. Speaker. The issue of vehicle inspection is important. I take my own truck in regularly to ensure that it’s in good working order, to ensure that I’m safe on the road and I’m getting the best performance out of my vehicle. However, not everyone is able to get their vehicle to the mechanic as often as they should. Everyone leads a busy life, and even though I try my best to get to my mechanic all the time, I know there have been a couple of times when I’ve driven more miles than I should have without an oil change.
It’s estimated that 40% of recommended light vehicle maintenance and repair is postponed or abandoned altogether in Canada each year. Some estimates put the nationwide value of unperformed maintenance work at about $14 billion. This does pose a certain road safety concern, because none of us wants to be driving down the 401 and see the car in front of us lose a tire or malfunction in another way that could endanger other drivers.
But, like many things, this government just doesn’t seem to have much of an imagination. Every time there is a problem, they take it upon themselves to build another bureaucracy. Instead of encouraging and incentivizing people to get their vehicles inspected, this government wants to make them do so. The paternalistic ways of Dalton McGuinty certainly did not leave with him.
When I see the term “director of vehicle inspection,” I read “inspection czar”; when I see “program for the inspection of vehicles,” I read “mandatory compliance”; and when I see “the issuance of certificates and stickers and other types of proof of inspection,” I read “more cost to the Ontario taxpayers.”
Why don’t we ask the thousands of tradespeople across the province who now have to abide by the College of Trades that’s charging crippling membership fees so that they can—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): It appears the member didn’t listen to me last time. He’s drifting to the College of Trades. I’m not sure what that’s got to do with this bill, so we’ll get back to it, won’t we?
Mr. Jeff Yurek: I’m getting back to it, Speaker, that basically, the people of Ontario are hard-working and overtaxed in this province, and the government is asking for more. That’s my fear when it comes to the inspection program and the czar who will run it. For the most part, the structure and framework of this new vehicle inspection is left to the regulations.
What this legislation does is allow for the establishment of such a program but provide no checks or balances on what it will look like. Will this be a yearly mandatory inspection? What will drivers be forced to pay for this regular inspection? How extensive will the inspections be? Will the system apply to transport trucks, personal vehicles or both? Will fly-by-night auto shops use the system to charge me for labour and parts that I don’t need?
The problem here is that the minister or, rather, his chosen inspection czar has carte blanche. The irony is I think a system whereby we acknowledge vehicle inspections is not a bad thing; however, I envision something that would not force people to spend money on a yearly basis. I envision something that would, instead, encourage people without the “mommy” government stepping in to tell people to do it, because if we think outside the box for a minute, it occurs to me that there is an opportunity to engage another stakeholder group that this government has also felt the need to oversee and manage, and that’s the auto insurers.
Insurers want to lower risk in the their books because it means there is a lower likelihood they will have to pay out claims. People getting regular inspections and maintenance on their vehicles lower the risk that those people will get into an accident. For the same reason that I mentioned insurance premiums when talking about the deterrent effects of demerit points, I now mention insurance premiums to demonstrate the possible incentives of getting a regular vehicle inspection.
Some Ontario insurers do offer discounts for regular upkeep on one’s vehicles. However, the discount offered in Ontario is far below, say, that of Illinois, where the regulatory burden is significantly smaller. I think this has something to do with the requirements imposed to offer discounts.
Insurers have to submit massive rate filings that include their intentions with respect to discounts. In order to change discount amounts on policies, they again have to file with the regulatory agency. I’m going to read the regulatory requirement that deals with insurance discounts. It’s outlined under section 5 of the rate filing application and reads as follows:
“If the insurer is requesting changes in the amount or value of a discount (except a group discount which is to be disclosed in section 4.n) or surcharge, or is introducing a new discount (except a group discount which is to be disclosed in section 4.n) or surcharge, the approach used in costing and a general narrative of the process must be outlined in detail.
“The derivation of the discount or surcharge should make use of the insurer’s own data. The justification for the discount may be due to lower expenses due to lower acquisition costs or lower administrative costs or lower loss costs. The filing should clearly indicate the basis for the discount or surcharge. The insurer must have appropriate information to support the discount or surcharge. Should the insurer find it necessary to rely on outside data or a different source of company data, the filing must identify the source of the data and provide an explanation of its applicability in the instant circumstance. All data used in the process of developing the discount or surcharge must be exhibited and labelled.
“A comparison of current, indicated and proposed discounts or surcharges must be provided for each coverage for which discounts or surcharges are changing. Included in this should be the written premium distribution and the exposure distribution for the discounts or surcharges.
“A current and a proposed distribution of the insurer’s book of business that is affected by the discount or surcharge change must be provided to determine the average premium change (shift). All assumptions and detailed calculations must be provided to support the rate level change.”
So, Speaker, as clear as mud, this outlines all the data that needs to be collected, justifications that need to be made and formatting requirements for the application submission in order to offer a driver a discount on their auto insurance. As an outsider looking in, I’m left asking the question, why can’t a business simply offer a discount to its customers that get their vehicles regularly maintained?
The solution for me would be to allow insurers more easily to offer discounts to their customers wanting to keep their risk low. Knowing that regular maintenance helps increase road safety, it’s only natural to offer discounts to clients that keep their vehicles well maintained. Drivers in turn have an incentive to go to see their mechanic on a regular basis because they will see the return on that investment through a reduction in their premiums. That’s the system we should be striving toward.
The other issue I do have here is the lack of clarity around the continuation of the Drive Clean program. Drivers are already forced to come in and get their vehicles inspected as part of that program. Throughout the life of the Drive Clean program, the government has reaped over $30 million in revenues but has only spent $19 million on it; it’s basically just another tax grab. So I have to ask the minister, will drivers be expected to pay for an inspection administered under the existing Drive Clean program as well as an inspection administered under this new inspection czar? How much money will this government then plan to collect? Does government have any intention of scrapping Drive Clean to make way for this new inspection system, or does it intend to collect revenues from both indefinitely?
That might be just the sticking—
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): There are a couple of ministers who are really having a great talk, but they might want to take it outside. The one minister is not even in his seat. Thank you.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: The Minister of Natural Resources is here. I’d love for him to review my statement on youth hunting I did today. Hopefully, we can solve that problem there of getting the youth hunters their tags.
Anyhow, back to my talk, Mr. Speaker. The sticking point: The government has absolutely no hope of balancing its budget by 2016, particularly not with the $5 billion in additional spending they plan to announce in the weeks leading up to this next budget. While I can’t speak to the motive, perhaps bringing in another program that makes money off the backs of hard-working Ontarians is the goal.
You know what? I have a better idea the Liberals can use to help balance this budget, and that is, stop spending. Every year, government spending goes up from time to time, and we can’t afford it. The Wynne government has continued with the McGuinty legacy of buying votes with taxpayer money. As a result, the government has become bloated. Now the government wants to go back to the people of Ontario and force them to fork over more of their hard-earned dollars on another vehicle inspection program. If we get this bill to committee, we’re going to seriously have to look at the structure of this section.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to move on to medical reports. Along the lines of poorly defined aspects of this bill, I want to briefly touch on the issue of medical reporting. In the bill explanation, it reads:
“Sections 203 and 204 of the act currently require doctors and optometrists to report to the registrar of motor vehicles the name, address and clinical condition of every person 16 years old or older who, in the opinion of the doctor or optometrist, suffers from a condition that may make it dangerous for the person to drive.
“Sections 203 and 204 are re-enacted. Rather than imposing obligations on doctors and optometrists, the re-enacted provisions apply to persons to be prescribed by regulation. The prescribed persons will be required to make a mandatory report if a person has or appears to have a medical condition, functional impairment or visual impairment identified in a prescribed publication. In addition, a prescribed person may make a discretionary report if a person has a medical condition, functional impairment or visual impairment that the prescribed person believes may make it dangerous for the person to drive.”
Now, we’ve had medical reporting for a long time. It’s necessary that people, due to certain medical conditions, are ensured that they’re fit to drive and that they’re evaluated. It’s necessary for keeping our roads safe. These new changes may be good. They may enhance the system of medical reporting, but again, the devil is in the details. The legislation basically gives the minister broad-sweeping powers to determine what medical professionals will be able to report to the registrar of motor vehicles patients they feel pose a risk to road safety. I think we all agree that physicians and optometrists having this ability makes sense.
But how will the minister determine what other medical professionals will be granted this ability? Guidelines for outlining which professions get to make this call and on what basis they can make that call do not exist here. The minister is basically saying, “Just give me the authority to do this, and I’ll get it right.” Well, I have to say to the minister, this government has been dead wrong on so many things that I quite frankly don’t think he has the ability to get this right.
I have constituents who come into my office regularly who have had their licences suspended for medical reasons. Some of them have had their licences rightfully revoked while others have not. Either way, the process of dealing with a doctor and then the MTO can be burdensome, and those who have their licence reinstated spend at least a couple of weeks, even months, without the ability to drive.
Again, I hope that when we’re able to get this bill to committee for deliberations, we’ll be able to examine this in more detail, because I think, if done properly, there is potential to increase the safety of our roads here. However, if done improperly, there will be a lot of drivers being denied their independence based on the whim of a medical professional who has no business making such an assessment.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve gone over this bill. I’ve given you point-by-point discussions on where we’re going. There are a lot of good points in this bill. As I’ve said before, he has taken a lot of private members’ bills and incorporated them into his omnibus bill. However, there are certain areas which they didn’t borrow from other members, and it’s quite vague. The vagueness of this bill is something that we really need to hear more from this government on as they deliberate over the next week or so on this bill before it goes to committee, and during committee we need to fill in the holes, the questions I’ve raised here, particularly with the vehicle inspection centres. How can we expect Ontarians to afford another bureaucracy, let alone having to get their vehicle inspected year by year if it’s not spelled out—we don’t know if it’s even for cars; it could be just for transport trucks, which is a whole different ball of wax and conversation to have. How will those inspections be carried out with visiting traffic?
Mr. Speaker, I do think we need to carry forward with more debate on this bill. We’d love to hear what the NDP have to say on this bill, and we have to wait and see what the government, more so than the rest of our members, has to say. But getting this bill to committee is very, very important.
I do have to commend the member from Scarborough–Rouge River and the member from Eglinton–Lawrence, who spoke earlier, talking about working together to get this bill—good bills—passed so we have safety for the people of this province. They were both in committee yesterday talking about Ryan’s Law and how, coming together, they have an excellent bill to save the lives of people with asthma throughout our school system. However, with some of the questions that were asked yesterday, I’m kind of cautiously thinking that maybe the government wants to postpone this bill. So I’m reaching out to them to rethink what the bureaucracy has told them about stalling this bill. Let’s get this bill passed. Let’s bring it back for third reading.
The member from Eglinton–Lawrence talked about his bill that took five years. I don’t want to wait five years. I like waiting one year. Maybe we can work together and achieve a milestone to get this bill passed in one year instead of five. We all know it’s coming. Bill 135, Ryan’s Law, will eventually become law. Let’s do it sooner rather than later. We’re all on the same page.
Back to Bill 173, if you’ll let me have a little leeway with that: I kind of think—can I have a little leeway with the College of Trades? There are a few more things I’ve got to talk about on that. No.
Mr. Taras Natyshak: Talk about the 1-to-1 ratio.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: The 1-to-1 ratio of car drivers in the HOV lanes, maybe? No.
Anyway, we’ve done quite a bit on this.
I do have to say that there is a reception here tonight with MADD Canada, and I think we should all have time to go and visit that.
Taking care of impaired driving, I would like to have a conversation with the minister. He does make mention of the ignition-interlock device program, which I think is a great idea. However, there is a concern with getting the device installed and keeping it maintained. A lot of the service stations or the corporations or businesses that offer this service are few and far between in rural Ontario. We want these people to have operating devices in their cars, because they did a bad thing; they drank and they drove. They need to earn the right to drive again, and they need to have proper operating interlock devices. I call out to all members of this party, particularly in rural Ontario: Take a look at which service stations are administrating the interlock program and see if you can talk to people about it, because there are a lot of people on the interlock system device who are trying to get their lives back together and go to work, but because of the way the system is set up, they’re failing in getting this device operating properly and getting it maintained. I think that the government needs to look at that program to ensure that there are enough people providing this service for people, with the interlock program.
I commend the government for expanding our laws on impaired driving. It’s a tough topic. It affects quite a few people in this province. You could talk to five people in this room and I’m sure they all know somebody who has been affected by a drunk driver. So putting a stop to drinking and driving, making it as stringent as possible, is a great step.
We need to do that with distracted driving. Just as you can talk to someone today, that family member or loved one of someone who was hurt or killed in a drunk driving accident, give it time and you’ll have the same statistics here for distracted driving.
I talk to the pages here: You’re not legally driving yet, but you probably all have cellphones and iPods and such, and you’re probably getting used to always having them in your hand and playing with them. Now is the time to break away from that habit so you don’t always have that need, so when you start driving you’re not really tempted to start pulling out that iPhone and talking. Your friends can wait to hear from you. Your parents can wait till you pull over and call them. Try to think about that now. You’re in grade 7 or 8. What are you, 12, 13, 14? You’re only a few years away from driving, and I want you to be safe. This bill is going to help ensure that you don’t do it. The last thing you want to do is get a demerit point and then have your parents call you up and ask, “What’s this fine doing here, and why did your insurance rates just triple?” Then you’d be in a lot of trouble.
So I think this is a great idea, demerit points. However, as I noted before, we don’t need this bill to get demerit points. As I said before, the minister can do an order in council and create the demerit points. It could have been done last November. It’s not even in the bill. I’d love for someone else to read the bill, because I’ve read it numerous times, I’ve had my staff read it numerous times, and it doesn’t say “demerit points”—only in the public relations campaign by the ministry that says they’re going to add it. So we can only hope, we can only trust, that when they develop the regulations to this bill, there will be demerit points added in. Again, I’d love to have that discussion at committee time because I can only speak for an hour today.
I know the member from Durham wanted to have a little speaking time. I don’t think there’s justification, Mr. Speaker, to only give him 10 minutes to talk in this House. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do for the Legislature to have the minister—he should be a minister—the member for Durham come out and have that 10-minute discussion. He needs more time. I’m going to try to wrap up and take my full hour just so the member for Durham, in fact, does get his full 20 minutes when it comes to debate, because he has a lot to offer and contribute to this Legislature. We have to mention that he is retiring in another month or so, so we do want to give him his extra time when we go to election.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: No, he needs his time; he still has lots to say. We’re going to look forward to the member for Durham talking about this bill later on, because he has been writing notes the whole time.
On cycling safety, I think we need to ensure that we continue to have our people on their bikes safe throughout the streets. I go back to my own city. I live in rural Ontario: St. Thomas, Ontario; population 37,000 people. It’s pretty tough to ride your bike in that city. It wasn’t designed for bike riding. There are no bike lanes. There’s parking all over the place, and it’s quite fearful.
I let my daughter ride her bike uptown with my wife and I to go get an ice cream or a milkshake at McDonald’s or Tim Hortons, and you’re fearful because it’s not conducive to riding bikes. Hopefully, with the cycling groups throughout the province that are promoting safer bike routes, this bill will help ensure that everyone is safe.
Taking on Norm Miller’s bill—Parry Sound–Muskoka—to pave the shoulders certainly will enhance safety when you get outside of the cities and are riding between—well, in my city, from St. Thomas to Port Stanley. Have you ever gone to Mackie’s? Has anybody heard of Mackie’s? Steve Peters probably talked about Mackie’s, with their french fries and their orangeade—really, really great. Or in fact, if you bike-ride from St. Thomas to Port Burwell—Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we have a great submarine there that I’ve invited every member of this House to come to visit, and I hope they do so.
Mr. Rob Leone: Great fishing there.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Great fishing there.
Again, we could ride our bikes there. Once these shoulders are paved, it would be a lot safer for us. But at this point, I would recommend we take a car.
Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the intention of this bill. We need to debate it, because as I said, there are quite a few empty spaces that need to be filled in. I think the people of Ontario deserve to know where they’re going with these vehicle inspection stations; where these new vehicles are; how much power this person is going to have. Is he going to affect everyday cars or is he going to have to go after the trucking industry? What exactly is going on?
We all want better road safety. We want to ensure our vehicles are safe. We don’t want parts of trucks coming off and we don’t want parts of cars falling off, but we sure don’t want to be over-regulated in this place. We don’t want it to be overpriced and have to do too many inspections. We don’t want to see what happened to the Drive Clean program, where now it’s just a bank machine for the government to continue bringing in money to their coffers. We know they’re stretched on their dollar. They can’t balance a budget, and they’re looking for other ways to bring in the money.
We want to ensure that this new drug czar—drug czar; we already have a drug czar—this transportation czar—
Mr. Jeff Yurek: My other job—this vehicle inspection czar is there for a purpose and not really to generate more funds for this government.
Just as a quick wrap-up, I’m glad this bill has come forward. I hope we get to debate it for the next week or so before we vote on it for second reading and get it into committee. I look forward to talking more about this bill. I would like to hear each one respond—I guess we each have two minutes—and we’ll go from there.
I do have to mention, though, two things that weren’t mentioned. Mike Harris, Kitchener–Conestoga—no talk of roundabouts. He’s very concerned about roundabouts and he thought something would have been brought forward in a big, omnibus transportation bill. There’s no talk about roundabouts and I think we need to have that discussion. And I think maybe we need to have a discussion about electric bikes on the road, how we’re going to deal with those going forward. I’ve talked to many police officers in my riding and there’s quite a bit of concern with the legalities of safety and such on the road. I’ll bring that forward for your two-minute hits and I’ll be back in 10.
Ms. Catherine Fife: Actually, it’s a pleasure to comment on some of these statements that have been made by the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London. It’s not easy to cover a very large bill, even within the confines of one hour, and there’s a lot going on in this piece of legislation.
Just on the last piece, though, the roundabout issue: I do share the concern that the member from Kitchener–Conestoga has brought forward. If roundabouts are this new infrastructure model that we are moving forward with in the province of Ontario, it does actually make sense that people are trained—and it’s part of the driver education piece, that people learn how to drive in a roundabout.
They are definitely very much present in the landscape of Kitchener–Waterloo, the entire region. I actually saw somebody go into one of those roundabouts, and they just kept going around and around and around—
Mr. Gilles Bisson: That was me.
Ms. Catherine Fife: That’s not surprising. So education is a piece of that.
I do want to say, the distracted driving piece, though, for us right now is quite prevalent. The fact of the matter is, the people who are driving in the province of Ontario need to acknowledge that sometimes we think we are more important than we really are. When you are driving a car, that is essentially, potentially, a weapon, it makes sense to put aside the BlackBerrys, the smartphones, what have you, because you can—and the research is quite predominant—cause a lot of damage.
This is a huge bill. We’re going to be debating this for quite some time. I just want to say that I do want to acknowledge the work that the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka has done as well. This truly could be nonpartisan. There’s a lot in this bill. We’re going to have to pull back the layers, and we look forward to the debate on that.
Mr. Mike Colle: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with great interest to the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London. He mentioned the beautiful part of the province he represents. One of my favourite parts in this province is Port Stanley. It’s a cute little town that people should visit.
I just want to say to him that I know he expressed some frustration about demerit points and the minister not doing this quickly enough. When the seat belt legislation was brought in, I think it took about 17 years before demerit points were brought in, after the legislation.
These are very complicated issues in some cases when you change some of these motor vehicle laws. Every lawyer in the province is looking for a way to challenge any new law. Look at the challenges they’ve made to the breathalyzer act, on every constitutional aspect.
These are complicated things. I think the minister is trying his best to get it right. There are a lot of complexities and a lot of serious issues being dealt with, and I look forward to his continued input. I think he wants to make this a good bill. We have to look at the underlying theme here, and that is that there are certain serious threats to our friends, families and constituents on our roads, whether it be city roads or highways. There are a number of very good recommendations here to make these roads safer.
I just hope that we get to a point where we look at the best way of achieving this goal, through dialogue back and forth, through amendments, so that we do get this right, because we know we’re going to be challenged by all these hungry, starving lawyers. It’s guaranteed, so we’d better get it right.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: They may be hungry, but they’re not starving.
Mr. Mike Colle: Exactly. I was going to use another word. But anyway, we’ve got to get it right for that reason, because they’re waiting in the woods. There are no lawyers here; I can say that—oh, no, here’s one. Attorney General, I apologize after the fact.
Mr. John O’Toole: I want to commend the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London for consuming the entire hour almost. I would say, the only real interruption was by his good friend from Cambridge, who almost ruled him out of order on a couple of occasions on straying off into talking about the College of Trades.
I was also glad he recognized that I have an opportunity later on to talk on this bill, because I do want to put on the record my concern over the years. I just want to put this on the record. My constituent Dan Boudreau from Newcastle writes just recently on Bill 73—on April 9, actually:
“It’s been a while since we spoke on the old car emission fiasco, but I heard that there’s a Bill 173 that is being proposed by the government. I’m sure this is being done as another tax grab for us taxpayers when the Drive Clean program gets finally squashed in the near future. I’m sure you are aware that Bill 173 will require us to get our vehicles certified yearly, which would put another financial” tax strain “on us taxpayers. The inconvenience this will impose is another sore spot for me.”
This is one more example of the enforcement component that I mentioned, really, in two parts. They have increased the fine for driver distraction from about $250 to $1,000. They have increased the fine for dooring up to $1,000, and for some other infractions they’ve doubled or tripled the fine. There are arguments about the deterrent factor in that, especially in the vehicle inspection provision, which the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London mentioned.
Those are a couple of points that I think are important. I am suspicious, and I spoke to Minister Murray earlier today about my suspicions about vehicle inspection stations. I think this is another example of Drive Clean gone wild. I think the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London has done enough research on this bill that it has added value to the debate on Bill 173.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): Questions and comments? The very exuberant member from Timmins–James Bay.
Mr. Gilles Bisson: Thank you, Speaker. “Exuberance” is my middle name.
I just want to commend the member. I thought he gave a very good presentation, fairly detailed, where he went through the various parts of the act in order to explain what are some of the good ideas in it but also some of the problems with some of the stuff that has been laid out.
I just want to take these two minutes to go through the medical review part, because I think all of us in this House have had constituents come to our office who have had their licences revoked. Why? Because they happened to go to their doctor’s office or some other medical professional, and they had some sort of an incident that, by law, forced the medical practitioner to send a letter to the Ministry of Transportation that resulted in the withdrawal of the licence.
We understand why that’s done. There’s some logic behind it. But, man, the problem in trying to get a licence back at times is quite difficult. I have to say—I can’t remember her name; I think her name is Elaine—you have a person who works in your ministry who has been really, really good. Elaine: Is that her name? Yes, Elaine—who has been really, really good at least at getting back to our constituency office and others to try to resolve some of these issues, but it shouldn’t be up to an MTO staffer to work the magic in trying to get people’s licences back. We need to have a quicker period of review in order to figure out: Is there a problem? If not, how do we get that person’s licence back?
I have another one where I have a constituent who lost her licence—the same kind of story, but she has to go and do a special vision test which is only available in Sudbury. She lives in Kapuskasing. So what is she to do? She’s a senior and doesn’t want to drive all the way down to Sudbury. It’s essentially about a seven-hour drive. She is without a driver’s licence because she doesn’t have the means to drive down there on her own, given her particular situation.
The other part of this is, if you’re going to require those kinds of tests, we need to bring those tests as close to the person’s residence as possible. I’ll have a chance later—with exuberance, Speaker—to speak to this at more full length.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): I can’t wait.
The member from Elgin–Middlesex–London has two minutes.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Thank you very much, Speaker. I’d like to thank the members from Kitchener–Waterloo, Timmins–James Bay, Durham, and Eglinton–Lawrence for their comments on this legislation.
I’d also like to add to the roundabout issue. I met with the Ontario farmers’ association recently, and their concern with roundabouts is that the ones being constructed aren’t large enough for their large equipment in rural Ontario. To make the turn properly, you have to go up on the side of the road. They’d like to add to that discussion when we bring out some regulations on roundabouts—that they’re always considered, because roundabouts aren’t just in urban Ontario; they are on the outskirts and in rural Ontario, so we need to ensure that the farmers are looked after when we’re designing that.
The member for Eglinton–Lawrence: I do have to say that Port Stanley is a beautiful village. They’re starting their fishing season. The ice is starting to finally melt on Lake Erie.
The theatre there has really grown over the last few years. It has great productions in it. Last year, I won the 50-50 draw. It was quite surprising. I donated it back, just so everybody who’s watching—I didn’t keep the money. I gave it back. They have some great productions; great local talent.
Of course, I mentioned Mackie’s, with the orangeade and their special secret sauce on their french fries. Anybody who does get to Port Stanley: Make sure you go to Mackie’s.
Mr. Mike Colle: Bring us the sauce.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: You’ve got to come and get it—and the orangeade. I digress a bit.
Again, I’d like to see this debate carry on going forward. Speaker, in 26 seconds, can I just talk about the College of Trades a little bit more?
Mr. Jeff Yurek: No? Okay; I won’t try it. Anyway, I do want to bring this forward. As I said, there are some areas where we need to fill in the gaps that we talked about, and hopefully—
Mr. Gilles Bisson: We need a better ratio of Tory members.
Mr. Jeff Yurek: Ratios of Tory members: yes, but we won’t get into that either.
Anyway, we need to continue this debate, fill in the gaps that are in this bill and carry it forward. Thank you very much, and I look forward to others’ debate tonight.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Paul Miller): It being 6 o’clock, this House stands adjourned until 9 o’clock tomorrow morning.
The House adjourned at 1759.
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Early Legislative Buildings
Historic images gallery
Early postcards of the Legislative Building
Then and now: 1867 to 2017
A Remarkable Assembly
Art in the Legislature
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Online exhibit gallery
Then and Now Queen's Park
2016-2020 plan (2019 update)
2016-2020 plan
Privacy statement for job applicants
Presiding officers and Clerks
Role of the Speaker
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New genetic non-discrimination law will promote privacy and human rights in Canada
May 5, 2017 – Ottawa, Ontario – Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC)
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission are welcoming the coming into force of the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, as an important step for privacy and human rights in Canada.
The Act, which received Royal Assent on May 4th, now prohibits genetic discrimination across Canada. It bars any person from requiring individuals to undergo a genetic test or disclose the results of a genetic test as a condition of providing goods or services, or entering into a contract.
“Taking a test that could help save your life shouldn’t have to be a calculated risk,” said Marie-Claude Landry, Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. “Every Canadian deserves these important protections so that we can all live without fear of our genetic information one day being used against us.”
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said the issue illustrates the increasingly important connection between human rights and privacy.
“Unfortunately, the collection of personal information, including sensitive genetic information, can result in discrimination down the road. In a time of unprecedented demand for personal data, this new law adopted by Parliament is a critically important development for privacy protection,” he said.
Both Commissioners acknowledge that the Government has stated it may refer the law to the Supreme Court of Canada for its opinion on the law’s constitutionality. In the meantime, the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act remains in place and represents the current law on this important public policy issue.
Commissioner Therrien says he expects organizations subject to Canada’s federal private sector privacy law to re-examine their practices related to genetic tests and bring them in line with the new law. In light of Parliament’s passage of S-201, organizations that require genetic test results as a condition of providing a good or service will also generally be considered in contravention of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
As Canada’s human rights watchdog, the Canadian Human Rights Commission operates independently from government and is responsible for holding the Government of Canada to account on matters related to human rights. The Commission administers the Canadian Human Rights Act, which protects people in Canada from discrimination based on grounds such as race, sex and disability. The last time Parliament added a new ground to the Canadian Human Rights Act was in 1996 when it added “sexual orientation” to the list of grounds.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is mandated by Parliament to act as an ombudsman and guardian of privacy in Canada. The Commissioner enforces two laws for the protection of personal information: the Privacy Act, which applies to the federal public sector; and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s federal private sector privacy law.
Over the past several years, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has been examining the privacy implications arising from the collection and use of genetic information as one of its strategic privacy priorities.
“Taking a test that could help save your life shouldn’t have to be a calculated risk. Every Canadian deserves these important protections so that we can all live without fear of our genetic information one day being used against us.”
- Marie-Claude Landry, Chief Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission
“Unfortunately, the collection of personal information, including sensitive genetic information, can result in discrimination down the road. In a time of unprecedented demand for personal data, this new law adopted by Parliament is a critically important development for privacy protection.”
- Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Canadian Human Rights Commission:
Follow us on Twitter @CdnHumanRights and Facebook.
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:
Follow us on Twitter @privacyprivee and Facebook.
Tobi.Cohen@priv.gc.ca
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Biographical Article (103)
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1-20 of 104 results for:
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Abadie, Paul
Claude Laroche
(b Paris, Nov 9, 1812; d Chatou, Aug 2, 1884).
French architect and restorer. He was the son of a Neo-classical architect of the same name (1783–1868), who was a pupil of Charles Percier and architect to the département of Charente. The younger Paul Abadie began studying architecture in 1832 by joining the atelier of Achille Leclère and then entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1835. While he was following this classical training, he participated in the rediscovery of the Middle Ages by going on archaeological trips and then, from 1844, in his capacity as attaché to the Commission des Monuments Historiques. He undertook his first restoration work at Notre-Dame de Paris, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc. Abadie was appointed deputy inspector at Notre-Dame in 1845, and in 1848, when the department responsible for diocesan buildings was created, he was appointed architect to the dioceses of Périgueux, Angoulême and Cahors. He subsequently completed about 40 restoration projects, mainly on Romanesque churches in Charente, in the Dordogne and the Gironde, and as a diocesan architect he was put in charge of two large cathedrals in his district: St Pierre d’Angoulême and St Front de Périgueux. In the former he undertook a huge programme of ‘completion’, returning to a stylistic unity that was in line with current episcopal policy (...
Adam, Nicolas-Sébastien
French, 18th century, male.
Born 22 March 1705, in Nancy; died 27 March 1778, in Paris.
Sculptor, art restorer, decorative designer.
The second son of Jacob-Sigisbert Adam, Nicolas-Sébastien Adam left Nancy at the age of 16 and went to continue his studies in Paris. He made rapid progress and became widely known. The treasurer general of Languedoc summoned him to the Château de La Mosson, near Montpellier, and commissioned him to embellish his château with sculptures. He remained there for four years and in ...
Albacini, Carlo
Italian, 18th – 19th century, male.
Active in Rome.
Sculptor. Monuments.
Taught at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and was responsible chiefly for the restoration of ancient monuments and sculptures. He was known still to be alive in 1807. In 1780 he was commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia to sculpt the tomb of Raffael Mengs in St Peter's, Rome....
Active in Paris.
Sculptor.
Albert played an important part in the work carried out for the Prince de Condé between 1768 and 1774 on the Hôtel de Lassay and the Palais-Bourbon, especially the restoration of the ten groups of children placed along the balustrade of the palace roof....
Anders, Friedrich
Italian, 18th century, male.
Painter, art restorer.
In a letter addressed to the Duke of Hamilton, the landscape painter P. Hackert sings the praises of Friedrich Anders as a painting restorer. Anders is known to have been retained by the King of Naples around 1797...
Antonaroli, Filippo
Born in Rome.
Worked under Valadier in 1800 on the restoration of the baptismal fonts in Orvieto Cathedral.
Atticiati, Stefano
Active in Naples.
Records of the Bourbon court for 1791 list him as a 'marbler'. He is known to have worked from 1799 to 1805 on the restoration of sculptures uncovered during archaeological excavations.
Beauvallet, Pierre-Nicolas
Philippe Durey
(b Le Havre, June 21, 1750; d Paris, April 15, 1818).
French sculptor, draughtsman and engraver. He arrived in Paris in 1765 to become a pupil of Augustin Pajou. Although he never won the Prix de Rome, he appears to have travelled to Rome in the early 1770s. About 1780 or 1781 he was involved in the decoration of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s Hôtel Thélusson, Paris. From 1784 to 1785 he carried out work at the château of Compiègne, including the decoration of the Salle des Gardes, where his bas-reliefs illustrating the Battles of Alexander (in situ) pleasantly combine a Neo-classical clarity of composition with a virtuosity and animation that are still Rococo in spirit.
Beauvallet was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale in 1789. During the French Revolution he was a passionate republican and presented plaster busts of Marat and of Chalier (1793–4; both destr.) to the Convention. He was briefly imprisoned after the fall of Robespierre in ...
Becker, Benedikt
Swiss, 18th century, male.
Active in Basel.
Painter.
In 1710, Benedikt Becker worked with his brother, Hans Georg Becker, on the restoration of Jean Bock's frescoes at Basel Town Hall.
Becker, Hans Georg
Active in Baselc.1710-1711.
Painter, decorative designer.
Hans Georg Becker worked with his brother, Benedikt, on the restoration of the frescoes in Basel Town Hall.
Bellotti, Michelangelo
Active in Milan.
Died 1744.
Painter, art restorer. Religious subjects.
He painted various church altarpieces and restored older works, including Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. However, the restoration of Leonardo's celebrated painting is of such poor quality that the contribution of Michelangelo Bellotti and others is probably to be deplored rather than applauded. One of Bellotti's own paintings, ...
Bernhard (Frater)
German, 18th century, male.
Active in Augsburg during the first half of the 18th century.
This artist, who taught Leonhard Riedlinger, produced numerous sculptures for the restoration of the Dominican convent in Augsburg.
Bertolotto, Michelangelo, the Younger
Born in Genoa; died 1766, in Genoa.
Michelangelo Bertolotto the Younger was the son of Giovanni Lorenzo Bertolotto. Although less talented than his father, he was - according to Soprani - a skilful restorer.
Bonnemaison, Féréol (Chevalier)
French, 18th – 19th century, male.
Died 1827, in Paris.
Painter, lithographer.
He trained at the art school in Montpellier and gained a second-class medal in 1824. He was appointed director of the restoration of paintings at the Louvre in 1816. At the 1799 Salon he exhibited ...
Bonnemaison, Ferréol de, Chevalier
Linda Whiteley
(b Toulouse, 1766; d Paris, 1826).
French dealer, restorer and painter. He may have begun his career as a protégé of Henri-Auguste de Chalvet, a collector and Associate Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. His first teachers were Pierre Rivalz and Lambert-François-Thérèse Cammas. He moved to Paris shortly before the French Revolution but went almost immediately to London, where he established himself as a portrait painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1794 and 1795. He returned to Paris in 1796 and that year sent three portraits to the Salon. In 1799, he exhibited the curiously Romantic Girl Surprised by a Storm (New York, Brooklyn Mus.). The following year he achieved popular success with Woman of Property Begging (England, priv. col.). His talents as a portrait painter were particularly admired: surviving examples are Adrien Segond (1812; Paris, Louvre) and Dieudonné Jeanroy (1812; U. Paris V, Fac. Médec.). His style of painting reflected contemporary admiration for highly finished works in the manner of 17th-century Dutch artists....
Brenet, Nicolas Guy Antoine or Nicolas Louis Antoine
Born 1770, in Paris; died 1846.
Engraver.
He engraved medals of the major personalities and events of the Empire, the Restoration, and the July Monarchy.
Brun, Jacques Félix
Born 11 February 1763, in Toulon; died 28 February 1831, in Toulon.
Sculptor, draughtsman, art restorer. Religious subjects, seascapes. Decorative schemes.
Brun first studied sculpture at the workshop of the Port of Toulon, before moving to Rome in 1782, where he spent six months perfecting his art with the Roman masters of the day. With no means to support himself, he eventually returned to France. Two years later, influential patrons secured him a grant from the King, enabling him to study in Italy for a further four years. Upon his return to Toulon in ...
Carlier, Pierre
Pierre Carlier was also a picture-restorer in Paris.
Carré, Hendrik
Dutch, 18th century, male.
Born 1732, in The Hague.
Painter, art restorer. Portraits.
Hendrik Carré studied with his father Johannes Carré. He painted a portrait of the Princess of Orange, and restored paintings.
Cavaceppi, Bartolomeo
Born c. 1716, in Rome; died 1799, in Rome.
Pupil of Monnot. He was an antique dealer and devoted most of his time to restoration work. He was friendly with Winckelmann and worked a great deal for Cardinal Albani. His (relatively few) works are mostly Baroque in style. Best known for his ...
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Mehmed Ağa [Sedefkâr: ‘mother-of-pearl worker’]
(b Kalkandelen, western Macedonia or Ilbasan, Albania, c. 1550; d Istanbul, 1622).
Howard Crane
[Sedefkâr: ‘mother-of-pearl worker’]
Ottoman architect and worker in mother-of-pearl. He followed the typical career path of architects at the Ottoman court: recruited as a janissary (c. 1562), from 1569 to 1588 he studied architecture in the imperial palace under Sinan (see Sinan) and mother-of-pearl inlay under Usta Muhammed. He was appointed superintendent of the water supply, the second ranking official in the corps of imperial architects, in 1597 or 1598, and finally replaced Ahmed Dalgiç as chief court architect on 11 October 1606. Mehmed Ağa travelled extensively: appointed court gate-keeper in 1589–90, he went to Egypt on official business and returned via Syria and Anatolia, visiting the holy shrines along his route, and as inspector of fortresses and garrisons he was sent to the Balkans, Hungary and the Crimea. From 1593 to 1597 he also worked in the provincial administration of Diyarbakır, Damascus and Hawran.
According to his biographer Ca‛fer Efendi in the ...
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Home / About / PSC aims
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is a community of people working together for peace, equality, and justice and against racism, occupation, and colonisation.
Together we are the biggest organisation in the UK dedicated to securing Palestinian human rights.
We are united in our belief that Israel’s flouting of international law, continued military occupation of Palestine, and systematic discrimination against Palestinians is unacceptable; so together we are taking action.
Together we are campaigning for justice and equality for Palestinians; all of our work is guided by our aims.
PSC is established to campaign*:
for the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people
for the right of return of the Palestinian people
for the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli state from the occupied territories
against the oppression and dispossession suffered by the Palestinian people
in support of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle to achieve these rights
to promote Palestinian civil society in the interests of democratic rights and social justice
to oppose Israel’s occupation and its aggression against neighbouring states
in opposition to racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice and Islamophobia, and the apartheid and Zionist nature of the Israeli state
To join PSC click here
* from the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd
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Church of Scientology Forum Highlights Environmental Danger
NASA scientists from JPL raise awareness of environmental threats at World Environment Day event hosted by the Church of Scientology Los Angeles
Visitors to the Church of Scientology Los Angeles World Environment Day forum and open house watch video presentations in the Church’s Public Information Center.
I have quite recently been introduced to The Way to Happiness and have been using the precepts to mentor young adults. I find it very effective
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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 12, 2015
Individuals must be aware and take action to resolve urgent environmental issues. That was the message from two prominent NASA scientific experts, Dr. Joshua Fisher and Laura Faye Tenenbaum of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), at the Church of Scientology forum and open house on June 3 in advance of World Environment Day, established by the United Nation in 1972, and celebrated each year on June 5 to enlist cooperation from all countries and peoples “to work together for the preservation and enhancement of the human environment.”
Dr. Fisher, climate scientist at JPL and associate project scientist for UCLA’s Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE), presented an in-depth scientific briefing on the climate in simple, easy-to-understand terms for the layman. Riveting the audience with his PowerPoint presentation, Dr. Fisher gave a comprehensive report on the causes and dangers affecting our planet.
Ms. Tenenbaum, member of the Earth Science Communications Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and faculty of the Physical Science Department of Glendale Community College, briefed attendees on various satellites built at JPL, their functions and how they give us vital information to analyze the climate and propose programs to preserve the environment. She concluded her talk with actions individuals can take to make a positive change in the environment.
The final element was a presentation by Joani Ginsberg, Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Foundation, on the urgency with which all of us must address environmental issues today and the danger of failing to do so. Ms. Ginsberg noted that we all have to take more responsibility to contribute to the solutions and involve others as well. She played the public service announcement “Safeguard and Improve Your Environment,” The Way to Happiness Precept 12, which brings home the point with a clever depiction of how current environmental issues impact the individual personally, and how this can be used to raise awareness and activate the community to confront and handle these problems.
The Way to Happiness is a nonreligious moral code based entirely on common sense, written in 1981 by L. Ron Hubbard, who makes the point in the chapter entitled “Happiness” that “Trying to survive in a chaotic, dishonest and generally immoral society is difficult,” and points out, “You are important to other people. You are listened to. You can influence others.”
Forum guests learned of an entire array of tools, including The Way to Happiness booklets, public service announcements and the feature-length The Way to Happiness book-on-film, and a virtual The Way to Happiness classroom available online and through an iPad or iPhone App that anyone can use to make an impact on those around him, and “to point the way to a less dangerous and happier life.”
“It was such an interesting presentation on climate change and from such knowledgeable people,” said one of the forum guests. “There is more of a situation with our environment than I thought,” said another who also expressed interest in volunteering to address this issue.
Another was happy to see The Way to Happiness presented as a tool to address the problem, saying “I have quite recently been introduced to The Way to Happiness and have been using the precepts to mentor young adults. I find it very effective,” and he plans to introduce many more to its precepts through educational work with youth.
The Church of Scientology Los Angeles holds frequent forums, conferences and open house events as part of its commitment to serve the needs of the community, including an upcoming forum to observe the June 26 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Learn more about The Way To Happiness, here: http://www.scientology.org/how-we-help/way-to-happiness.html
Church of Scientology Media Relations
Church Of Scientology International
@Scientology
Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Foundation speaks of the work the Foundation has done to promote environmental awareness and responsibility. Visitors to the Church of Scientology Los Angeles World Environment Day forum and open house watch video presentations in the Church’s Public Information Center.
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Auction Physiologist Near Me
Posted 3 months ago / Theories
In 1975, at 31, Jay was the first dealer in history to buy and sell a coveted Nobel Prize, the 23k gold medal awarded in 1956 to Sir Cyril Hinshelwood for Chemistry, for pioneering cell research that led to the miracle of antibiotics. The Prize had been rejected by the oldest and largest auction houses (Sotheby’s, Spink, Christie’s), as it had no price history prior to Jay’s historic purchase.
Jay Gulick, managing broker and partner for Kentucky Select Properties, rattled off a series of recent transactions that almost had an auction atmosphere, including one near the University.
Way of the Short Staff Self-Defense Arts and Fitness Exercises Using a Short Wooden Staff Cane, Walking Stick, Jo, Zhang, Guai Gun, Four Foot Staff, Hiking Staff Whip.
EAST COVENTRY >> A proposal to build an auction facility for used vehicles and heavy equipment near the intersection of Route 724 and Fricks Lock Road in East Coventry has drawn some concerns from.
Krist Novoselic walks into the once-abandoned creamery near a small town in rural Washington and locks. “I bought [the creamery] at a tax auction from the county and I just opened it up because it.
The Shiwiar, Kichwa and Sapara nations came together because their territories overlap with what the government has labeled Blocks 86 and 87, which are part of an international oil auction known.
Martial Arts Techniques for the Cane and Short Staff. By Michael P. Garofalo. Martial Cane Concepts. By Michael Janich. A Realistic System of Walking Stick Self Defense.
Jobs near me: National security firm seeks Green Bay job applicants Allied Universal seeking security personnel at Dec. 19 hiring event. Check out this story on greenbaypressgazette.com:.
The fellows talked together in little groups. One fellow said: —They were caught near the Hill of Lyons. —Who caught them? —Mr Gleeson and the minister.
Use Entrance #3, on the lower level near Center Court. DFW Rescue Me’s Kibble and Cocktails is at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Empire Room, 1225 N Riverfront Blvd. The lineup includes an auction, a.
Given the price opacity at traditional dealers, I can’t imagine them having simple online transactions in the near future. Now, let me let me talk about the next steps.
he got me good. The Pike Township supervisors’ meeting Tuesday got off to a dim start. Just minutes before the scheduled meeting, the lights in the old schoolhouse that serves as municipal.
Heroes and Villains – A little light reading. Here you will find a brief history of technology. Initially inspired by the development of batteries, it covers technology in general and includes some interesting little known, or long forgotten, facts as well as a few myths about the development of technology, the science behind it, the context in which it occurred and the deeds of the many.
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9. This web page lists famous peacemakers in birth order, thus enabling the visualization of contemporary groups & ever changing patterns of "peace work" over the years. Names in black are linked to biographies outside this website, usually Wikipedia.
In 2008, near the end of his five terms, Hayes was the eighth-wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth estimated at $82 million. Following the death of his mother, an auction that year of family.
2 January: Barack Obama signs the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 to prevent the US from falling off a “fiscal cliff”. 2 January: rail fares in the UK rise by an average of 4.3 per cent.
This year we will have a silent auction as well with items dealing. growth of an orchid and their bloom. Like me and others at our club you can also grow plants indoors under florescent lights and.
Aharonov was born in Haifa, in the British Mandate of Palestine (now the State of Israel). He received his PhD. in 1960 from Bristol University in the U.K., where he worked with David Bohm.
Organisms Macro To Micro Micro-organisms are the most numerous organisms in any ecosystem. However, certain micro-organisms can be beneficial or harmful depending on what we. Both macro- and micro-plastics are found in the ocean. present the first evidence that microplastics are already becoming integrated into deep-water organisms. By examining organisms that live on. Macro-and Microhabitat Use of Telfair’s Skink
Hats are available for pickup before the game at the redemption table by the elevator near Gate 5. Tickets are on sale at a discounted price of $25. For more information or to buy tickets, visit.
20 March 20 19 HerCanberra Gin goes international. It was all fun and games—until the Canberra Distillery’s HerCanberra French Earl Grey Gin was a completely delicious best-seller.
DRUGS SEIZED IN TRAFFIC STOP – A traffic stop Tuesday afternoon led to the discovery of more than 170 pounds of marijuana. Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said a vehicle was stopped around 3 p.m. southbound on U.S. 81/287 near Alvord. The sheriff’s deputy and his K-9 partner searched the vehicle after the dog alerted to the scent of drugs.
Left reeling after a man was injured in a fire near Pleasant Hope last week. recently set up a Go Fund Me page, Hero Daddy — Kevin Guthrie, to help raise funds for the family, which includes three.
QUALM April 2005 Stephen Knight A WRITER’S RETREAT. 20 girls, 4 teachers & a Theatre Company keep me in my room (Room 5) all day where I am ironing & writing – writing/ironing –
Jobs near me: Youth apprenticeship programs provide pathway to skilled careers Apprenticeships geared to high school students are one of the tools educators and businesses are using to find the next.
Biggest Contributor To Ecological Footprint Production and Manufacturing of Alcohol: A Sustainability Description By: Matthew Sargent Michael Hess Konnor Kenneweg Jonathan Bingaman Feng Yu Term Paper ECO406/506 Environmental Economics at Miami University December 2014 Introduction The production and manufacturing of alcohol is a massive industry responsible for billions of dollars in sales annually across the country. This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/238/effects-of-consumerism. To
Jobs near me: Need for physical therapists expected to grow 13% in next 5 years A pair of physical therapists are key players in a nationwide study of an evolving technology to help paralyzed veterans.
LA Fitness History. LA Fitness was founded in 1984 by Chin Yol Yi and Louis Welsh. The first location was in Los Angeles, CA. Over the next 10 years, the company expanded by acquiring other gyms in the Southern California area.
The property was sold at a foreclosure auction in mid-December by Alex Cooper Real Estate. The property has an indoor dining area and an outdoor patio dining space near a large garden and gazebo.
Retrouvez toutes les discothèque Marseille et se retrouver dans les plus grandes soirées en discothèque à Marseille.
gouwsii: for Professor Joseph (Jozef) Benjamin Gouws (1909-?), South African botanist and plant collector in Southern Africa.He graduated from the Department of Botany at the University of Pretoria and his dissertation was entitled "An ecological study of the flora in and around Loskop at Waterval Boven." He is commemorated with the former taxon Crinum gouwsii, now synonymized to C. macowanii.
While the spin-off of Insurance Auto Auction. near-term to support the launch in the U.S. This has caused us to use more incentives, especially in areas of transportation subsidies to grow this.
It’s also near the auto design firm he worked for. "Not static objects. They never attracted me." His interest in automobiles was, at the start, mechanical rather than aesthetic. When he was five.
2012 () was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium, the 12th year of the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2010s decade. 2012 was designated as: International Year of Cooperatives; International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
This is a list of atheists in science and technology.A mere statement by a person that he or she does not believe in God does not meet the criteria for inclusion on this list.Persons in this list are people (living or not) who both have publicly identified themselves as atheists, or have been historically known to be atheists, and whose atheism is relevant to their notable activities or public.
Geographer S Approach To Environmental Studies She spent her time parsing out the science and reading as many scientific studies. environmental education program called “Walking on Water” for students in Gainesville schools. In 2016, Adler was. These twins were enrolled in the Environmental Risk. like schizophrenia. With studies like this one, we’re slowly figuring out what it is about cities that
Starting bids for these auctions are just $79, allowing almost anyone the opportunity to buy valuable domains at low cost. Some of you have already helped test this new feature and for that we are.
Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason And Science Richard Dawkins, founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, talks about his work at an event in Sydney, Australia, in 2014. Credit: Don Arnold/Getty Images Despite his criticism. No one debates quite as well as an Oxford professor. And so today we feature two Oxford profs – atheist biologist Richard Dawkins and
and a new terrestrial following to add to his digital empire after his near-win on Strictly last year. “Yeah, my demographic’s shifted a little bit,” Sugg told me. “Both ways actually.” The pair still.
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RTI Names Vergely as Dealer Experience Manager
Long-time CI industry member will provide training, technical support and project design help to Europe and Middle East dealers.
RTI has announced that Cyrille Vergely has joined the company as its dealer experience manager, Europe and Middle East. In his new role, he will ensure an exceptional experience for the company’s dealers in the region by providing training, technical support and project design assistance.
Cyrille has 24 years of experience in the CE and custom installation industry. He began his career with Ciné Laser, where he served as an installer for five years before opening his own business — Home Cinema Services. After 14 successful years, Cyrille sold his company and joined VIVATEQ, a pan-European AV distributor, as a sales representative.
“In my time in the custom installation industry, I’ve had the opportunity to become very familiar with RTI’s products, programming software, and the benefits provided by both,” says Cyrille. “As a part of the company, I look forward to working closely with our dealers and leveraging my knowledge to help them deliver the best experience possible for their customers.”
“Cyrille makes a key addition to the RTI team as we strive to deliver unmatched service and support to our dealers,” says Ed McConaghay, CEO, RTI. “With the depth of his market knowledge and extensive experience with our product line, he will be an invaluable resource for our European partners.”
For more information, visit www.rticorp.com.
Tags ⋅ personnel ⋅ RTI
Research Show Vast Majority of Consumers Concerned about Cybersecurity
5 Reasons You Need to Get More Online Reviews
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August 12, 2018 / 1:59 AM / in a year
Marathon man Butter third of way through epic worldwide challenge
Jack Tarrant
TOKYO (Reuters) - British ultra-runner Nick Butter is almost a third of the way through a journey that will see him attempt to run a marathon in 196 countries to raise money in the battle against prostate cancer.
Dorset man Butter is currently in Mauritius ahead of marathon number 64 and has 132 to go to finish his 5,130 mile challenge.
His epic started in London in January and has so far seen him from cross the globe from Canada to Swaziland, staying with locals and training with running clubs he meets along the way.
The inspiration came from a chance encounter with fellow runner Kevin Webber, who has been running marathons himself since being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in 2014.
“I didn’t know Kevin but I was staying in the same tent as him and we got on really well,” Butter told Reuters by email.
“He was not only one of the most positive and happy people I’ve ever met but he made a huge impact on me and how I live my life.
“Then I found out that Kevin has terminal prostate cancer and was given as little as just two years to live. So I wanted to do something to help.”
Despite the obvious challenges associated with endurance running and being away from home for so long, Butter said the biggest test had been the logistical battle.
“The hardest part by far is the logistics of having to travel between countries and sort out visas and paperwork,” he said.
“Emotionally it can be very draining but I am loving every second of it and am meeting some incredible people along the way.”
Butter’s aim is to raise 250,000 pounds ($322,000) for the Prostate Cancer UK charity by the end of his journey in the summer of 2019.
Reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by Ian Ransom
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Two Extremely High Grade 1975 Topps Mini Complete Sets (1,320 cards)
Collection of two complete sets comprised of 1975 Topps Mini baseball (660 cards per set). All 1,320 Topps cards comprising these sets were assembled directly from cases in the year of issue. Our consignor, a longtime hobbyist (who as a professional photographer was responsible for hundreds of photos that appeared on baseball cards in the 1970s and 1980s) purchased these cards in 1975 and has had them safely stored away for over thirty years! These are virtually untouched sets. The sets grade 98% Nr/Mt or better, 2% Ex-Mt ( with a few slightly lesser), with the normal number of off-center cards that are to be expected. The rookie cards of Hall of Famers George Brett, Robin Yount, Jim Rice, and Gary Carter highlight the 1975 Topps Mini issue, one of the most popular and unusual sets of the 1970s. All the other stars of the day are also included. The 1975 Mini cards are 20% smaller than the standard Topps cards and were test marketed only in the Michigan and the West Coast. Aside from their smaller size, they are otherwise identical to the standard 1975 Topps cards. The colored flush-to-the-border design of the 1975 Topps Mini set makes this issue particularly challenging to collect in extremely high grade. These extraordinarily high-grade "vending" sets look exactly as they did when they were put together and stored in the closet in 1975. Total 1,320 cards (two complete sets of 660). Reserve $300. Estimate $500/$1,000.
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Feminism in Four Dimensions
“Let this book happen to you.”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” told by Neil deGrasse Tyson, while Amy Poehler eats popcorn—enjoy yourself.
W.W. Norton & Company, 1982 & 1994
Buy the Book at Amazon
“Truly a book of great interest, The Anatomy of Freedom sheds genuine new light on the ‘woman question.’ Bravo!” —SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
“In this book, readers will find yet another manifestation of those imaginative and analytical powers that have characterized Robin Morgan as one of our most significant thinkers, whose work never fails to challenge us toward greater precision, scope, and daring.” —MARY DALY
“This is one of the most wonderful reading experiences I have had in a long time. I have been in such good company—a courageous woman who has educated me and shown me how important my choices in life are, not only for my own freedom, but also for those who still don’t have the privilege of choice.” —LIV ULLMAN
First published in 1982 by Doubleday (and in paper by Anchor) with the sonorous subtitle “Feminism, Physics, and Global Politics,” this book remained in print for almost 15 years—inspiring two academic conferences and numerous women’s studies courses—then was snapped up for a second edition, a paperback original, by Norton. The second edition bears the subtitle “Feminism in Four Dimensions,” and also boasts a new foreword and afterword by the author.
From Morgan’s introduction: “Feminism has been perceived as a politics and movement relating specifically to the rights of women. If this were the totality of feminism’s concern, that would be sufficient cause for its validity and vitality. But feminism is a vision as important and transformative to men as to women—and one crucial to the continuation of sentient life on this planet. It’s time we comprehended feminism in its full, holographic nature. . . .”
Characteristically, Morgan weaves her own string theories together—themes of technological balance, sub-realities of dreams and the subconscious, sexual passion, gender, race, global politics, family structure, economics, environment, children’s rights, aging—all connected via the examination and demystification of theoretical physics (which she makes amazingly coherent and accessible). The entirety is indeed more than its parts: relativity and interrelationship become the central analogy for feminism, and for dynamic, never static, freedom.
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More moviegoers see films on video in some form than ever before -- whether streaming on demand, cable or satellite, instant download services, DVD or Blu-ray. Even high-profile pictures become available to home viewers before or at the same time as their theatrical release. Reviewing them is a job for... The Demanders!
Brad Anderson’s “Session 9”: The Little Leap From Comedy to Killing
by Matthew Monagle
Since its limited theatrical release in 2001, Brad Anderson’s “Session 9” has slowly gained prominence among film fans as one of the great American horror films of the 21st century. With an impressive ensemble cast, unnerving soundtrack and unforgettable use of location, the film not only set the stage for the modern renaissance in independent horror films, it also established Anderson as one of the better genre directors of our time. Subsequent films like “The Machinist” (2004) and “Transsiberian” (2008) have only cemented Anderson’s reputation as the heir apparent to Alfred Hitchcock in all on-screen matters related to guilt and paranoia. Now, thanks to a brand new Blu-ray release by the folks at Shout! Factory, people who slept on “Session 9” the first time around can finally experience it in a premium format.
Of course, as much as Anderson’s name may now be synonymous with psychological thrillers and atmospheric horror films, there was a time early in his career when he seemed more likely to become the next Steven Soderbergh than the next great genre director. Anderson’s first film, a micro-budgeted drama about turning thirty called “The Darien Gap,” played at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. But it wasn’t until two years later that Anderson burst onto the scene with the romantic comedy “Next Stop Wonderland.” Despite a budget of only about a million dollars, audience enthusiasm for the film sparked a furious bidding war at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, leading Miramax Films to pay more than six million dollars for the rights to distribute the film. According to The Boston Globe, then-Miramax president Harvey Weinstein and five of his staff locked themselves in a hotel room with producer Mitchell Robbins and refused to let him leave until a deal was done. In addition to the money, Miramax also agreed to distribute Anderson’s next two films, an arrangement that would fall through after “Next Stop Wonderland” failed to win Miramax back its initial investment at the box office.
Had Anderson continued to focus on the type of films that played big at the Sundance Film Festival, it’s possible that he could have supplanted David O. Russell as one of the more notable studio auteurs of the decade. Instead, Anderson’s next film set the stage for a very different focus as a director. A surface reading of “Happy Accidents” (which premiered at Sundance in 2000) places it a lot closer to “Next Stop Wonderland” than “Session 9” (released August 2001) in Anderson’s oeuvre. In "Happy Accidents," Marisa Tomei plays Ruby Weaver, a New Yorker struggling to overcome a painful dating history and her own tendency toward emotional co-dependence. Ruby’s most recent unhealthy relationship is with Sam Deed (Vincent D’Onofrio), a hospice worker who claims his increasingly erratic behavior is a result of his recent travel backward in time. Despite her better judgment, Ruby begins to treat Sam’s delusions as a kind of private game between the two of them, causing their relationship to blossom despite the warnings of Ruby’s therapist not to enable Sam’s potentially destructive behavior. Before long, Ruby realizes that her own happy accident was falling in love with an honest and caring man.
The plot of “Happy Accidents” promises its fair share of independent film whimsy, and Anderson and his cast provide plenty of thirtysomething soul-searching along the way. But whereas “Next Stop Wonderland” is focused on the challenge of finding love in modern society, “Happy Accidents” has its finger on something decidedly darker. Anderson, in his twin roles as both writer and director, does not try to sweep both Ruby and Sam’s unhealthy behavior under the rug. Ruby speaks openly with her friends about the possibility that Sam may be suffering from a mental illness. Meanwhile, despite her ongoing therapy, Ruby is unable to come to terms with the self-destructive nature of her own behavior. Each character hits their nadir in a moment of violence. For Sam, it is an unprovoked assault on a random taxi driver that he thinks may accidentally hurt Ruby at some point in the future; Ruby is shocked to find that she has given Sam a black eye during a particularly bad fight.
And just as we become certain that “Happy Accidents” is headed toward tragedy—where Sam’s spiraling psychosis and Ruby’s manic-depressive behavior put one or both of their lives at risk—Anderson gently steers the movie back to safe ground. “Happy Accidents” favors science-fiction over domestic abuse in its final act. Sam really has traveled back in time from the future to save Ruby from a horrible accident. Ruby, for her part, is saved only because her co-dependent behavior allowed her to stick with Sam long after the point where most people would have walked away. Anderson’s script veers dangerously close to territory normally reserved for psychological thrillers, but Ruby and Sam get their happily ever after, and video clerks around the world shelved “Happy Accidents” in the drama or comedy section, blissfully unaware of how close the film came to being Anderson’s first true horror movie.
And then came “Session 9.” Anderson has always emphasized the importance of having multiple projects on the back burner in case one of them fell through; for years, this included various permutations of horror movie remakes and original psychological thrillers. Anderson described “Session 9” to Back Stage magazine as his response to the “vagaries of the industry,” a movie that he could shoot quickly and for a relatively low cost. With his eye on the abandoned Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts, Anderson and his writing partner Stephen Gevedon set out to make their character-driven take on the classic haunted house movie. Anderson had become obsessed with the facility during his time in Massachusetts and wanted to make a movie that would make the most of its rotting interiors. In telling the story of a hazmat crew rushing to remove deadly toxins from a national landmark, Anderson and Gevedon stumbled on the perfect parallel between story and location.
The title refers to nine recordings, a series of interviews between a Danvers psychiatrist and a woman named Mary Hobbes, discovered by a staff member of a crew run by new father and small business owner Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan). In her youth, Mary had murdered her family in their sleep and retreated between a series of alternate personalities who prevent her from facing the truth. The more the Danvers team picks at Mary’s buried memories, the closer Gordon gets to remembering his own tragedy. Gordon is not going crazy so much as he has already gone crazy, hurting his family in a moment of blind fear and rage. In a special feature on the new Blu-ray, Anderson and Gevedon describe the real-life inspiration for Fleming as a Boston insurance agent who murdered his family in a fit of rage and then continued going to work as if nothing had happened.
This places the protagonists of “Happy Accidents” and “Session 9” on opposite sides of the same coin. Paradoxically, both leading men are doing their best to prevent a future that already exists in their past. Sam says things that frighten those around him but is in his heart a well-meaning person; Gordon is the face of calm despite the fact that he is rotting from the inside out. Both men are driven to extremes by the woman he loves, and both men are left to carry the guilt of their actions—or inactions—throughout the course of the film. With “Happy Accidents” and “Next Stop Wonderland,” Anderson had spent his previous films exploring the power of love as a motivating force. That power is turned inward in “Session 9,” giving us a twisted, dark lead who, as Truman Capote might say, stepped out the back door just as Sam stepped out the front.
In hindsight, perhaps the screenplay for “Happy Accidents” even tipped Anderson’s hand as to how close he was to making the leap into horror. In one scene, Sam demonstrates the paradox of time travel by running his hand from Ruby’s waist to her foot. Since time flows in only one direction, Sam explains, it breaks all the fundamental laws of physics to reverse the flow of time and head back up to the top of the leg. “But what if time isn’t a rigid line?” Sam asks, bending her leg and placing her heel up against her inner thigh. “What if you could bend space and time so that the present lays side by side with the past? Then you really wouldn’t have to go back at all. You’d just have to make a little leap.” Screenwriting may not be the same as time travel, but the logic seems mostly the same: by bending his male characters so that love, guilt and obsession all swirl together, Anderson did not need to make a huge splash to move nimbly between comedy and horror. He only needed to make a little leap.
So there you have it: a career written in reverse. While many filmmakers choose to establish themselves within the relatively low stakes of the horror genre, Anderson instead built his reputation on one of Hollywood’s biggest stages before shifting his focus ever-so-slightly to the side of madness. “Session 9” was given a limited release by IFC Films on August 10, 2001; as luck would have it, “Happy Accidents” was finally picked up for distribution around the same time, hitting theaters a mere two weeks after “Session 9”’s theatrical release. “If people see both,” Anderson told The New York Times in August 2001, “they’ll think I’m schizophrenic.” As it turns out, history has been far kinder to the filmmaker than he originally anticipated.
"Session 9" is now out on Blu-ray via Shout! Factory. Click here to get your copy.
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The place for everything that doesn't have a home elsewhere on RogerEbert.com, this is a collection of thoughts, ideas, snippets, and other fun things that Roger and others posted over the years.
Our Far-Flung Correspondents are cinephiles from all over the world, hand-picked by Roger Ebert to write about movies from their unique international perspectives. They include contributors from (alphabetically) Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and the U.S. They converge every year at Ebertfest.
Since he started as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967, and began covering movies locally and at international film festivals, Roger Ebert has met and interviewed countless movie idols, artists and unknowns -- some of them even before they became famous. There's hardly a major figure in the history of movies, from the last part of the 20th century into the 21st, that he hasn't encountered.
Roger Ebert has attended international film festivals and events for almost half a century, from the Kolkata International Film Festival to the Academy Awards. In addition to his coverage, our contributors report the latest from Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, Sundance and other movie showcases world-wide.
"Life Itself," based on Roger Ebert's memoir and directed by Steve James, will open in theaters and be available On Demand on July 4, 2014.
The Cannes International Film Festival is the most talked-about film festival of the year, where directors from around the world showcase their newest work, from the most challenging art cinema to the big blockbusters. For many years, Roger Ebert and a team of contributors have covered Cannes, and we are continuing that tradition with start-to-finish coverage from around the festival.
A collection of tributes to Roger from various sources.
The opening shot of a movie can tell us a lot about how to view and interpret what follows. It can even represent the whole movie in miniature. The Opening Shots Project collects illustrated analyses of some of Jim Emerson's favorites, and contributions from Scanners readers.
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Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
Sandra Bullock as Gracie Hart
Regina King as Sam Fuller
Enrique Murciano as Jeff Foreman
William Shatner as Stan Fields
Ernie Hudson as McDonald
Heather Burns as Cheryl Frasier
Treat Williams as Collins
John Pasquin
Katie Ford
Caryn Lucas
Action, Comedy
Rated PG-13 for sex-related humor
Having made the unnecessary "Miss Congeniality" (2000), Sandra Bullock now returns with the doubly unnecessary "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous." Perhaps it is not entirely unnecessary in the eyes of the producers, since the first film had a worldwide gross of $212 million, not counting home video, but it's unnecessary in the sense that there is no good reason to go and actually see it.
That despite the presence of Sandra Bullock, who remains a most agreeable actress and brings what charm she can to a character who never seems plausible enough to be funny. Does a character in a comedy need to be plausible? I think it helps. It is not enough for a character to "act funny." A lot of humor comes from tension between who the character is and what the character does or is made to do. Since Miss Congeniality is never other than a ditz, that she acts like one is not hilarious.
You will recall that Gracie Hart (Bullock) is an FBI agent who in the first film impersonated a beauty pageant contestant in order to infiltrate -- but enough about that plot, since all you need to know is that the publicity from the pageant has made her so famous that "MC2" opens with a bank robber recognizing her and aborting an FBI sting. Gracie is obviously too famous to function as an ordinary agent, so the FBI director makes her a public relations creature -- the new "face of the bureau."
Since the Michael Caine character in the first film successfully groomed her into a beauty pageant finalist, you'd think Gracie had learned something about seemly behavior, but no, she's still a klutz. The bureau supplies her with Joel (Diedrich Bader), a Queer Guy for the Straight Agent, who gives her tips on deportment (no snorting as a form of laughter), manners (chew with your mouth closed) and fashion (dress like a Barbie doll). She is also assigned a new partner: Sam Fuller (Regina King), a tough agent with anger management issues, who likes to throw people around and is allegedly Gracie's bodyguard, assuming she doesn't kill her.
As Gracie is rolled out as the FBI's new face, there's a funny TV chat scene with Regis Philbin (Regis: "You don't look like J. Edgar Hoover." Gracie: "Really? Because this is his dress."). Then comes an emergency: Miss United States (Heather Burns), Gracie's buddy from the beauty pageant, is kidnapped in Las Vegas, along with the pageant host (William Shatner).
Gracie and Sam fly to Vegas and humiliate the bureau by tackling the real Dolly Parton under the impression she is an imposter. Then they have to dress up like female impersonators in a drag club. They also re-enact the usual cliches of two partners who hate each other until they learn to love each other. And they impersonate Nancy Drew in their investigation, which leads to the thrilling rescue of Miss United States from the least likely place in the world where any kidnapper would think of hiding her.
Now a word about the name of Regina King's character, Sam Fuller. This is, of course, the same name as the famous movie director Sam Fuller ("The Big Red One," "Shock Corridor," "The Naked Kiss"). Fuller (1912-97) was an icon among other directors, who gave him countless cameo roles in their movies just because his presence was like a blessing; he appeared in films by Amos Gitai, Aki Kaurismaki, his brother Mika Kaurismaki, Larry Cohen, Claude Chabrol, Steven Spielberg, Alexandre Rockwell (twice), Wim Wenders (three times) and Jean-Luc Godard, the first to use him, in "Pierrot le Fou," where he stood against a wall, puffed a cigar, and told the camera, "Film is like a battleground."
It may seem that I have strayed from the topic, but be honest: You are happier to learn these factoids about Sam Fuller than to find out which Las Vegas landmark the kidnappers use to imprison Miss United States and William Shatner. The only hint I will provide is that they almost drown, and Sandra Bullock almost drowns, too, as she did most famously in "Speed 2: Cruise Control," a movie about a runaway ocean liner.
I traditionally end my reviews of the "Miss Congeniality" movies by noting that I was the only critic in the world who liked "Speed 2," and I see no reason to abandon that tradition, especially since if there is a "Miss Congeniality 3" and it doesn't have Sam Fuller in it, I may be at a loss for words.
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Time Code (2000)
Stellan Skarsgard as Alex Green
Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lauren
Salma Hayek as Rose
Saffron Burrows as Emma
Holly Hunter as Executive
Rated R For Drug Use, Sexuality, Language and A Scene Of Violence
I remember the gleam in Mike Figgis' eyes when he talked of filming "Leaving Las Vegas" in cheaper, faster 16mm instead of the standard 35mm. "We didn't have to get a permit from the city or rope off the streets," he said. "We just jumped out of the car, set up the camera and started shooting." Yes, the result was the best film of 1995. Now he has directed a production where they didn't even have to set up the camera.
"Time Code" was shot entirely with digital cameras, hand-held, in real time. The screen is split into four segments, and each one is a single take about 93 minutes long. The stories are interrelated, and sometimes the characters in separate quadrants cross paths and are seen by more than one camera. This is not as confusing as it sounds, because Figgis increases the volume of the dialogue for the picture he wants us to focus on and dials down on the other three.
What is the purpose of the experiment? Above all, to show it can be done. With "Leaving Las Vegas," the camera strategy came second to the story and was simply the best way to get it on the screen. In "Time Code," the story is upstaged by the method, sometimes more, sometimes less, and a viewer not interested in the method is likely to be underwhelmed.
What Figgis demonstrates is that a theatrical film can be made with inexpensive, lightweight digital cameras and that the picture quality is easily strong enough to transfer to 35mm. He also experiments with the notion of filming in real time, which has long fascinated directors. Alfred Hitchcock orchestrated "Rope" (1948) so that it appeared to be all one shot, and Jean-Luc Godard famously said that the truth came at 24 frames per second, and every cut was a lie.
Apart from proving it can be done, what is the purpose of Figgis' experiment? The first films ever made were shot in one take. Just about everybody agrees that the introduction of editing was an improvement. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell: To make a film in one unbroken shot may be regarded as a misfortune; to make it in four looks like carelessness. Figgis has put style and technique in the foreground, and it upstages the performances in what is, after all, a perfunctory story.
When I go to an experimental film, I am in one mind-set. When I go to a mainstream feature, I am in another. If the film works, it carries me along with it. I lose track of the extraneous and am absorbed by the story. Anything that breaks this concentration is risky, and Figgis, with a four-way screen, breaks it deliberately. The film never happens to us. We are always conscious of watching it. The style isn't as annoying as it might sound, but it does no favors to the story.
Cinema semiologists speak of the "disjoined signifier," and by that they refer to the separation of the viewer from the signified--in this case, from the story. So there I've done it. Used the words semiologists and disjoined signifier in a review. My students will be proud of me. Most readers will have bailed out. My defense is that "Time Code" is not likely to attract anyone who doesn't know what semiology is--or, if it attracts them, will not satisfy them.
The story involves interlocking adulteries told in four parallel stories that begin at 3 p.m. on Nov. 19, 1999, on Sunset Boulevard in or near Book Soup and the office building on the corner. We meet a limousine lesbian, Lauren (Jeanne Tripplehorn), a cokehead who is in love with Rose (Salma Hayek). Lauren eavesdrops on Rose with a paging device as she has quick and meaningless sex with an alcoholic ad man (Stellan Skarsgard). Other characters include the ad man's wife (Saffron Burrows), an ad executive (Holly Hunter), a shrink (Glenne Headly) and others in and around the entertainment industry. There is pointed satire during a "creative meeting" (an oxymoron), and at the end passion bursts out. The action is interrupted by no less than three earthquakes, which must have required fancy timing in coordinating the cameras and actors.
There may be a story buried here somewhere, and even splendid performances. We could try to extract them on a second or third viewing, but why use a style that obscures them? If "Time Code" demonstrates that four unbroken stories can be told at the same time, it also demonstrates that the experiment need not be repeated.
Still, I recommend the film. Mike Figgis is a man who lives and breathes the cinema (see his 1999 film "The Loss of Sexual Innocence" for an altogether more breathtaking and, yes, daring experiment in storytelling). While most filmmakers are content to plod their dreary way from one foregone conclusion to another, Figgis is out there on the edge, joyously pulling off cockamamie stunts like this one. I'm glad I saw the film. It challenged me. The actors were the co-producers and joined in the spirit of the enterprise, testing their own limits. "Time Code" has a place in the history of the movies. But now I want to see Figgis cut back to one camera (digital if he must), resume editing and conduct experiments that are more likely to arouse my sense of awe than my sense of timing.
Movie Answer Man (02/09/2003)
by Roger Ebert
The Best 10 Movies of 2000
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Read Next Why Are Gruesome Photos of a Murdered 17-Year-Old Girl Still All Over Instagram? Send Us a Tip Subscribe
December 7, 2017 5:07PM ET
Watch Al Franken Announce Resignation After Misconduct Allegations
“In the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate,” Franken says
Minnesota Senator Al Franken announced Thursday that he would step down following accusations of sexual misconduct.
“I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate,” Franken said in a heartfelt speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate. He also stated that some of the allegations against him were untrue and acknowledged the irony of stepping down while President Trump remains in office.
“Over the last few weeks a number of women have come forward to talk about how my actions had affected them,” said Franken. “I was shocked. I was upset. But in responding to their claims I also wanted to be respectful of the broader conversation, because all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously. I think that was the right thing to do. I also think it gave some people the false impression that I was admitting to doing things that in fact I haven’t done. Some of the allegations against me simply are not true. Others I remember very differently.”
Louis C.K., Roy Moore, and How America Is Reacting to #MeToo
At least eight women, including model and TV host Leeann Tweeden, came forward in recent weeks to accuse Franken of inappropriate behavior, with the allegations ranging from groping and kissing without consent to unwanted sexual advances.
Franken’s resignation comes a day after many of his fellow Democratic senators – including New York’s Kristen Gillibrand, California’s Kamala Harris, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill – called upon Franken to step down from his role on Wednesday.
“I have been shocked and disappointed to learn over the last few weeks that a colleague I am fond of personally has engaged in behavior towards women that is unacceptable. I consider Senator Franken to be a friend and have enjoyed working with him in the Senate in our shared fight to help American families,” Gillibrand wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“But this moment of reckoning about our friends and colleagues who have been accused of sexual misconduct is necessary, and it is painful. We must not lose sight that this watershed moment is bigger than any one industry, any one party, or any one person.”
Gillibrand continued, “As elected officials, we should be held to the highest standards—not the lowest. The allegations against Sen. Franken describe behavior that cannot be tolerated. While he’s entitled to an Ethics Committee hearing, I believe he should step aside to let someone else serve.”
Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez echoed the calls for Franken’s resignation. “Sen. Al Franken should step down,” Perez tweeted. “Everyone must share the responsibility of building a culture of trust and respect for women in every industry and workplace, and that includes our party.”
Bernie Sanders added, “Sen. Franken has said that he will be making an announcement about his political future tomorrow. The right thing is for him to resign. We are now at a crossroads in American culture. And it is an important one. The way we treat women in our country has been abysmal in almost every way. We are finally addressing the issue of sexual harassment, and we need to get it right. But the conversation we are having now is only the tip of the iceberg. It needs to be an ongoing movement of women and men that includes a national discussion about sexism, sexual harassment, objectification, inequality and abuse of power.”
Alabama senatorial candidate Doug Jones also called for Franken to step down Tuesday. Roy Moore, Jones’ Republican opponent in next week’s special election, is being backed by the Republican National Committee and many GOP lawmakers, despite the multiple child molestation and other sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Franken initially stated he would cooperate with an ethics investigation but ultimately resigned before that occurred.
Franken’s resignation comes two weeks after the senator issued a second apology amid additional accusations against him. “I’ve thought a lot in recent days about how that could happen, and recognize that I need to be much more careful and sensitive in these situations. I feel terribly that I’ve made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again. And let me say again to Minnesotans that I’m sorry for putting them through this and I’m committed to regaining their trust.”
Franken’s former Saturday Night Live female cast mates previously penned a letter defending him as “a devoted and dedicated family man, a wonderful comedic performer and an honorable public servant.”
Franken is the second Democratic member of Congress to step down amid sexual misconduct allegations. On Tuesday, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the longest serving active congressman in Washington, resigned after sexual harassment claims against him were reported.
In This Article: Al Franken, sexual misconduct
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Feds Don't Regulate Election Equipment, So States Are On Their Own
A Philadelphia investigator demonstrates new voting machines. Pennsylvania is one of several states replacing election equipment before the 2020 presidential election. Matt Rourke/AP Photo
By Matt Vasilogambros
Election technology companies design voting machines. But are they secure?
This article originally appeared on Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Behind nearly every voter registration database, voting machine and county website that posts results on Election Day, there’s an election technology company that has developed those systems and equipment.
By targeting one of those private vendors, Russia, China or some other U.S. adversary could tamper with voter registration rolls, the ballot count or the publicly released results, potentially casting doubt on the legitimacy of the final tally.
Nevertheless, there are no federal rules requiring vendors to meet security standards, test equipment for vulnerabilities or publicly disclose hacking attempts. With the 2020 presidential election approaching, security experts, lawmakers and even election vendors themselves are calling for more rigorous testing of election equipment and stricter security standards for the private companies that provide election-related services.
“The lack of vendor regulation in the election technology space is a big gap that needs to be addressed,” said Edgardo Cortés, an election security expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
One of the many revelations from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election was that Russian military intelligence officers targeted employees of an election vendor that develops software that U.S. counties use to manage voter registration rolls.
Russians, according to the report, successfully installed malware on that company’s network. The name of the company was redacted, though according to reporting from The Intercept, the company was VR Systems, which maintains voter registration systems in eight states. The company has denied that Russians infiltrated its systems.
The threat did not stop after 2016, according to Maurice Turner, a senior technologist at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.
“The Mueller report is proof that targeting vendors is no longer a theoretical route,” said Turner, who worries that election technology companies are not rising to the challenge.
For example, election security experts have criticized Elections Systems & Software (ES&S), one of the largest election technology companies in the country, for installing software on 300 jurisdictions’ systems between 2000 and 2006 that was vulnerable to hackers. (The company will not disclose which jurisdictions were impacted.)
But the company notes that the vulnerable software hasn’t been used in more than a decade. It now submits its equipment to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — a federal agency that serves as a resource for election administrators and vendors — for testing and certification. It also contracts with the Idaho National Lab, to assess whether its equipment can be penetrated, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to scan its public-facing website.
ES&S is in a “very strong position going into 2020,” said Kathy Rogers, its senior vice president of government relations. But there should be even more testing, she said.
“People say there isn’t enough testing,” she told Stateline. “We agree.”
Hart InterCivic, another top election vendor, denied an interview to Stateline, but it pointed to an April letter it sent to Congress emphasizing that “protecting the integrity of elections is at the core of everything we do” and calling for more federal funding for election security.
But Richard DeMillo, a professor of computing at Georgia Tech University, says vendors that boast about taking new steps to secure their systems “are being disingenuous.”
“What they’re doing is giving the appearance of a company that is concerned about security,” he said, “but it doesn’t take much digging to see that they’re not.”
As an example, DeMillo pointed to last September’s Def Con hackers conference in Las Vegas, when ES&S lambasted researchers for publicly testing the company’s voting machines and publishing their vulnerabilities. The company at the time said foreign spies may have infiltrated the event. Researchers found several bugs in the software that left machines hackable.
Computing experts like DeMillo say independent public testing is essential to preventing foreign hacking in future elections.
Rogers of ES&S said her company is open to further testing, but that industry leaders, government officials and security experts should collaborate on hackathons.
Voluntary Security Requirements
Since 2017, the federal government has considered election systems to be critical infrastructure, just like nuclear facilities and public utilities.
While there are no federal mandates for election vendors, many states require vendors to follow voluntary guidelines from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
States can set security requirements during contract talks for new equipment. According to a 2018 analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states require some element of federal testing and certification of election systems before installing them in their state. In eight states, officials do not require that sort of testing or certification.
At the federal level, Republicans have resisted tougher regulations.
In June, the Democratic-led U.S. House passed an election security bill that would, among other measures, require backup paper ballots for all federal elections and add cybersecurity safeguards for election equipment and systems. The bill also would authorize $600 million in additional funding to states to boost security.
It garnered only one Republican vote, from U.S. Rep. Brian Mast of Florida. And GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has signaled his unwillingness to take up election security measures, long believing elections should remain a states’ issue.
Brennan’s Cortés, who served as Virginia’s commissioner of elections for four years until 2018, said that if the federal government won’t act, states and counties should push for security requirements in their contracts with private vendors.
A few days before the November midterms, Wayne County, which encompasses Detroit, said it would no longer use a vendor that failed to fix delays and accuracy issues that occurred in the primary.
And in February, Maryland announced it was cutting ties with an election vendor connected to a Russian oligarch. After investigating the company and its ties to Russia last year, the Department of Homeland Security found no evidence of foreign interference in the state’s election systems.
But Cortés acknowledged that many smaller counties lack the leverage to demand tougher security requirements for election vendors, in part because the industry is dominated by three companies: ES&S, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic get 90% of the business.
Some critics have noted the close ties between these companies and election officials. The companies have covered travel expenses for industry meetings and formed customer advisory boards comprised of state and local election officials.
Rogers, at ES&S, said the procurement process is governed by “strict laws” at the federal and state levels, and the company makes sure they are “100 percent within those boundaries.”
Georgia Controversy
Similar criticisms have arisen in Georgia this year as the state decides which voting machines to use for future elections and which vendor will provide them.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in April to begin a search for a new statewide voting system. Georgia soon will be the only state in the country to conduct all its voting on touch-screen ballot-marking devices, which print a paper record.
But this has drawn the ire of a large contingent of election security experts, who say those machines are vulnerable to hacking and bugs that can alter votes. It is “impossible to make them perfectly secure,” DeMillo wrote in a recent paper.
Democratic state Sen. Elena Parent has been an outspoken critic not only of the “insecure” voting machines Georgia is preparing to purchase, but also of the contract process, which she said has been driven by “cronyism” and well-placed lobbyists. It leaves her with “a lot outstanding questions.”
“There’s a strong concern when it comes to something as fundamental as election security,” Parent told Stateline. “And anyone poo-pooing that is doing a disservice to the people that they represent.”
Until the $150 million contract for 27,000 new voting machines is awarded, Georgia officials have been tight-lipped on any special security measures they’ll negotiate with a vendor.
Tess Hammock, press secretary for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, would not comment on questions related to the contract process nor on the importance of security standards in election administration. She referred questions to the office’s Request for Proposals document, which requires that any new hardware “must ensure security.”
The document mandates that suppliers provide a detailed overview of the company’s security protocols, software and cyber defenses of the products. The state also would have the power to conduct post-election audits using the new equipment, the document stipulates.
Beyond this, DeMillo said, there are no security requirements for software testing and notification of malicious breaches.
Georgia likely will announce its new election vendor in the next month, Hammock said. Four companies — Dominion Voting, ES&S, Hart InterCivic and Smartmatic — have submitted bids.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit seeking to change Georgia’s voting system to hand-marked paper ballots is moving forward in federal court. The plaintiffs in the suit, individual voters and a group called the Coalition for Good Governance allege the touch-screen voting machines are hackable.
Matt Vasilogambros is a staff writer for Stateline.
NEXT STORY: Planning Transportation Projects Using 'Ultrasound for Roads'
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Q&A with blues great Robert Cray
Dan Kane
Jun 25, 2007 at 12:01 AM Jun 25, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Interview with Robert Cray.
Soulful vocals, dexterous guitar playing and inspired songwriting make bluesman Robert Cray a triple threat.
The five-time Grammy winner, fresh off a world tour opening for Eric Clapton, has been playing guitar since 1965, but it was his 1986 album, “Strong Persuader,” containing the hit “Smoking Gun,” that launched him into stardom. His latest release, “Live From Across the Pond,” was recorded during his weeklong engagement with Clapton at London’s Royal Albert Hall last May.
Cray, 53, was at home in Los Angeles when he phoned this week for some easygoing chat about his beginnings in music and life on the road.
What’s it like playing outdoor shows in the hot summer?
Once you get past the sweat-breaking point, you’re OK. It’s just uncomfortable until then. You’ve got to drink plenty of water beforehand and try to keep yourself quenched pretty good while you’re up there. Once you’re sweating, you really don’t care anymore.
How long have you been with the guys in your band?
It’s been almost 18 years. Kevin (Hayes), our drummer, and Jim (Pugh), our keyboard player, came into the band in 1989. Then Karl (Severeid, the bassist) came into the band about ’91, I think.
Nice to have that continuity, I imagine.
It’s fantastic working with the same people over the long haul, and taking the songs you know so well and just trying to mess them up, you know (chuckles). And have fun with them.
Is it challenging to play this kind of charged-up music night after night after night?
No. The thing is to just put yourself in the moment and see where it takes you. That should be your rule for life anyway.
What’s it like being on the road? Lots of wear and tear?
It’s not bad. I get along with the road fairly well. I’ve been doing it for a bit. The main purpose in life on the road is trying to eat decently. That’s the main quest: Eat healthy. So you do your research and remember places you’ve gone to the last time. Sometimes it’s regional food. And you get out and get a good walk, sometimes go to the gym.
Did playing guitar and singing always go together for you?
Yes, they did. I started playing guitar first, but at the same time, I was singing like any other kid would do.
Can you remember the first blues song you ever heard?
We had a lot of music growing up at home, so I wouldn’t know what that was. We had Bobby Bland and John Lee Hooker and B.B. King, those records, I remember. Some of the first records I took from my mom and dad’s house were Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. We grew up with Ray Charles and Sarah Vaughan and a lot of gospel music as well, Sam Cooke and all that.
Did you sneak some rock ’n’ roll records into the house, too?
I did. That’s what got me going. I started playing guitar in ’65, so I played everything that was on the radio, the Beatles and Motown and everything. And then Jimi Hendrix was in my life, too.
I cannot imagine what “Purple Haze” must’ve sounded like in 1967.
I was completely stunned. We had a mid-morning assembly at school -- I was living in Newport News, Va., at the time -- and this guy who was in the same grade as me, it was like seventh grade, played guitar and he was able to borrow his big brother’s amplifiers, which were Marshalls back in ’67. And he his band played this assembly, and the first thing they opened with was “Purple Haze.” It was so cool it was disturbing, and I just went nuts. Then I went home and joined one of those record clubs from TV Guide like Columbia House, and I ordered everything that had a weird cover. (Chuckles)
How did you progress to playing blues?
At first, I wanted to play everything that was on the radio. We all did. We were just open. Music was music and we didn’t separate by genre. But then when I was a senior in high school, I ran into a couple of my buddies who were getting into the blues. They were listening to Buddy Guy and Elmore James and B.B. King and I got completely hooked. There were all these cats with these great names. And then we started hearing about Robert Johnson and his so-called association with the devil. I started playing all these records and reading books and listening for the double-entendres in a lot of the songs. At 16 years old, it was really cool. It was pretty incredible. That’s when I started stealing my parents’ records.
Do you enjoy making records in the studio?
I enjoy it. But it’s a controlled situation and there’s nothing better than playing those songs live. With time, you get the opportunity to know the songs a lot more and experiment with them. When you’re in the studio, they’re all brand new and you’re just trying to get a good sound.
I know you just finished a long tour with Eric Clapton. I imagine you guys are pals.
He’s just a great guy. To me, Eric is shy, kind of an introvert, and he’s been around for a long time. Some of the first things I learned from my guitar teacher was stuff from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. (Eric) just loves to play. He’s got a lot of respect from myself and tons of other people.
Do you and him ever sit around and play guitar?
We haven’t in awhile, but we have.
Show each other a lick or two?
That kind of thing never happens. You talk about what you did that day and how the family is.
You’ve met all of the living blues legends. Have any of them given you advice on career longevity?
Nobody really talks music. I watch somebody like B.B. King, and what I get from him is he’s having a really good time. He’d rather be doing nothing else than playing music and being on the road. It’s just something that’s totally natural to him -- get back on the bus, go to the next town. He’s the kind of guy who will play in Chicago one night, then do a show in Frankfurt (Germany) the next, if he can get there on time. I don’t think B.B. plans to retire. Plus he’s in his 80s. He just loves it. It was the same thing with John Lee Hooker. He just loved playing. (Laughs) John had a harem around him all the time.
Do you think your fingers will still work so well when you’re in your 80s?
I look at those guys and theirs do. You’ve got to keep them in shape, keep moving them around.
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Lanxess to invest almost $14 million to add EVM capacity
LEVERKUSEN, Germany (Sept. 18) — Lanxess A.G. plans to expand its ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer production to meet the continually growing demand for the material.
Nearly $14 million will be invested to expand the Dormagen, Germany, factory. The permit allows for a maximum volume of 15,000 metric tons per year, an amount that could be reached by 2009.
The synthetic elastomer supplied under the product names Levapren and Levamelt is suitable for oil and heat-resistant applications in the automotive sector — in particular for seals and hoses.
In addition, the halogen-free polymer compatible with flame retardants has properties for the manufacture of cable sheathing and also is used for products used in construction or for weather-resistant transparent film.
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39 LISTS Greatest and Favorite MoviesLook: There are hundred of thousands of movies out there for you to watch. All we're saying is that these are the ones you should put at the top of your list.
The Best Movies of All Time What to Watch Again and Again Psychological Thrillers Feel-Good Films Guilty Pleasures Funniest Movies Adventures Films Best Biopics About Real People Directed by Women Black and White Films Superhero Movies Rainy Day Movies Top Film Franchises Four Stars from Roger Ebert 100% Approval on Rotten Tomatoes Animated Movies Ensemble Movies Movies for Guys Great Very Long Movies Chick Flicks
Photo: Gramercy Pictures
Entertainment 'Old' Movies Every Young Person Needs To Watch In Their Lifetime
Ranker Film
771.8k votes 21.4k voters 210.4k views 329 items
List Rules Vote up the best "old" movies that came out in the '80s and '90s - the ones you think all the kids these days MUST watch.
If you're a younger millennial, you've probably heard your older friends and coworkers say things like "Hey, you guys!" or "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" or "He can't see without his glasses!" and knew that they were quoting some old movie that you've never seen (something like The Goonies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or My Girl). These films may have been released before you were born, but to be culturally literate, you should probably go back and watch them. This classics list is not about old old black and white movies, it's about '80s and '90s beloved masterpieces. They're the cinematic treasures that made the careers of your favorite current day actors.
You can see some of your favorite actors when they were just starting in these old movies that young people should watch. Love Christian Bale, but you've never seen Newsies? Go watch it! (fun Christian Bale fact: he hates this movie). Admire Meryl Streep? Make sure you check out Death Becomes Her. She looks so youthful!
If you ever find yourself asking, "What old movies should I watch?" just work your way down this list and knock them out, one at a time.
rerankers: 8
Back To The Future Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
Back to the Future is a 1985 American comic science fiction film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and stars Michael J. Fox, ...more
4:3Land added Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American sci-fi-fantasy comedy film, directed and produced by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as ...more
Lucy Speed added Jurassic Park Samuel L. Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the first installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the ...more
againsthetide17 added Forrest Gump Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell, Sally Field
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic-comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin ...more
Phil Bulfamante added Home Alone Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, John Candy
Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a boy who is ...more
Sybrand Brink added Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison Ford, Alfred Molina, Karen Allen
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan was from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It was produced by ...more
Preston Rohrick added Star Wars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill
Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. The first release in the Star Wars franchise, it stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter ...more
4:3Land added Beetlejuice Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy fantasy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently deceased young ...more
The Goonies Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Sean Astin
The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. The film's ...more
roxdsgn added The Wizard of Oz Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful ...more
Ferris Bueller's Day Off Charlie Sheen, Matthew Broderick, Jeffrey Jones
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American comedy film written, produced and directed by John Hughes. The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller, who skips school and spends the day in ...more
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Drew Barrymore, Erika Eleniak, Debra Winger
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction-family film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison, featuring special effects by Carlo ...more
Tito Monge Sol added Aladdin Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried, Frank Welker
Aladdin is a 1992 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Aladdin is the 31st animated feature in the Walt Disney ...more
The Breakfast Club Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Hughes and starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John ...more
The Shawshank Redemption Morgan Freeman, Rita Hayworth, Tim Robbins
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and ...more
Lo Olsen added Jaws Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a ...more
Greg Kootstra added Beauty and the Beast Angela Lansbury, Frank Welker, Jerry Orbach
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 30th film in the Walt Disney ...more
Tiffany Meek added Mrs Doubtfire Robin Williams, Pierce Brosnan, Sally Field
Mrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 American comedy film, starring Robin Williams and Sally Field and based on the novel Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and ...more
Ben Murray added Die Hard Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart. It is based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, by Roderick Thorp. Die ...more
Tito Monge Sol added The Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Paxton, Linda Hamilton
The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction/horror action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and the film's producer Gale Anne Hurd. Schwarzenegger plays the Terminator, a ...more
4:3Land added Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill
The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplay, with George Lucas writing the film's story ...more
4:3Land added Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand, and the third and final film in the original Star Wars trilogy. After a daring ...more
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Keri Russell, Allison Mack, Rick Moranis
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 soft science fiction-family film. The directorial debut of Joe Johnston and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, it tells the story of an inventor who ...more
Lovi420 added The Silence of the Lambs Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Chris Isaak
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott ...more
Who Framed Roger Rabbit Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Bob Hoskins
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American live-action/animated fantasy-comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis. The screenplay by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman is based on Gary K. Wolf's ...more
not on the list? add item #330
List Rules: Vote up the best "old" movies that came out in the '80s and '90s - the ones you think all the kids these days MUST watch.
Filed Under: Films FilmEntertainmenttop 50top 100Best MoviesTotal Nerd On Instagram
The Best Coen Brothers Films The Best Movie Theater Snacks The Best Actors in Film History The Best Scottish Actors Working Today The Best Animated Films Ever The Greatest British Actors of All Time
in Films:
johnny cash tv movie gay coming out movies short heart sayings is yucca keto hood rap songs country rap artists french lager brands top movies 1980 black sabbath and the occult good tasting low calorie beer
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40 LISTS The Best Actors and ActressesLists that rank the greatest performers to hit the large and small screens.
Best Actresses Under 25 The Best Actors Working Today Greatest Female Actresses History's Greatest Male Actors Actresses Working Today The Top Actors of All Time Just the Coolest Overrated! Actors Having the Best 2019 Child Stars Who Actually Made It African American Actors in Film The Best Living American Actors Actors Who Deserve to Win Oscars Greatest British Actors Known for Their Voices Greatest Actor Performances Totally Annoying A-Listers Please Just Read the Phone Book Consistent Great Work The Greatest Actors in TV History
Photo: Barcroft Media / Contributor / Barcroft Media
Actors The 50+ Best Actors Under 25
1.2k votes 130 voters 1.2k views 52 items
List Rules Vote up the most successful actors who are 24 years old or younger.
These days, it seems like all the young actors you used to watch on the Disney channel have grown up and launched into full fledged adulthood. So which hot actors under 25 will be replacing old favorites like Zac Efron and Cole Sprouse? Here you'll find out as you peruse a list of the best up and coming actors under 25. From the star of Young Sheldon to part of the cast of Shameless, we've rounded up the best actors under 25.
If you can think of any other actors in their 20s or even male actors under 25 who have already made an impression, feel free to add them to the list. Then, be sure to vote for your favorite young actors under 25 and watch as they rise up the ranks to compete for the title of the best up and coming young male actors under 25. And then go check out the best actresses under 25.
Tom Holland Age 22
Thomas Stanley Holland (born June 1, 1996) is an English actor and dancer. A graduate of the BRIT School in London, he is known for playing Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), so ...more
Timothée Chalamet Age 23
Timothée Hal Chalamet (born December 27, 1995) is an American actor. Chalamet started his acting career in short films before appearing in the acclaimed television series Homeland. He ...more
KJ Apa Age 21
Keneti James Fitzgerald "KJ" Apa (born 17 June 1997) is a New Zealand actor best known for his portrayal of Archie Andrews in Riverdale (The CW, 2017) and of Kane Jenkins in the New ...more
Finn Wolfhard Age 16
Finn Wolfhard (born December 23, 2002) is a Canadian actor and voice actor. He is best known for his starring roles as Mike Wheeler in the Netflix series Stranger Things, and Richie Tozier in ...more
Dylan Minnette Age 22
Dylan Christopher Minnette (born December 29, 1996) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his role as Clay Jensen in the Netflix drama series 13 Reasons Why. He has also appeared in ...more
Asa Butterfield Age 22
Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield (born April 1, 1997) is an English actor. He is known for playing the main character, Bruno in the Holocaust film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the young ...more
Iain Armitage Age 10
Iain Armitage (born July 15, 2008) is an American actor known for his role as Sheldon Cooper on Young Sheldon (2017-2019). He also plays Ziggy Chapman on Big Little Lies (2017-2019) and Youngest ...more
Gaten Matarazzo Age 16
Gaten John Matarazzo III (born September 8, 2002) is an American actor. He began his career on the Broadway stage as Benjamin in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and as Gavroche in Les ...more
Noah Schnapp Age 14
Noah Schnapp (born October 3, 2004) is an American actor best known for his role as Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction series Stranger Things. He voiced Charlie Brown in The Peanuts Movie ...more
Caleb McLaughlin Age 17
Caleb Reginald McLaughlin (born October 13, 2001) is an American actor. He began his career on the Broadway stage as Young Simba in the musical The Lion King. He is best known for his role as ...more
Asher Angel Age 16
Asher Angel (born September 6, 2002) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor in the 2008 film Jolene, starring Jessica Chastain. He is known for his role as Jonah Beck in the ...more
Nat Wolff Age 24
Nathaniel Marvin "Nat" Wolff (born December 17, 1994) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, composer, keyboardist, and guitarist. Wolff gained recognition for starring in and ...more
Lucas Hedges Age 22
Lucas Hedges (born December 12, 1996) is an American actor. Born to the writer-director Peter Hedges, he studied theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Hedges began his ...more
Jack Dylan Grazer Age 15
Jack Dylan Grazer (born September 3, 2003) is an American actor. Grazer rose to prominence in 2017 with his portrayal of Eddie Kasprak in the feature film adaptation of Stephen King's It; he ...more
Noah Centineo Age 23
Noah Gregory Centineo (born May 9, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the final three seasons of the television series The Fosters, the Disney Channel film How to Build a ...more
Jacob Tremblay Age 12
Jacob Tremblay (born October 5, 2006) is a Canadian child actor. His breakout performance was his starring role as Jack Newsome in Room (2015), for which he won the Critics' Choice Movie Award ...more
Ty Simpkins Age 17
Ty Simpkins (born August 6, 2001) is an American actor. His major film roles include Insidious (2011) and its sequel Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), Iron Man 3 (2013), Jurassic World (2015), and ...more
David Mazouz Age 18
David Mazouz (born February 19, 2001) is an actor. His name is pronounced "Dahveed." He had several guest roles before joining Fox's TV series Touch (2012–13), for which he was ...more
Forrest Wheeler Age 15
Forrest Wheeler (born March 21, 2004) is an American actor. In 2014, he was cast as a series regular on the ABC comedy series Fresh Off the Boat.
Rohan Chand Age 15
Rohan Chand (July 24, 2003) is an American child actor. He has appeared in films such as Jack and Jill, Lone Survivor, and Bad Words. He also appeared in the "Crossfire" episode of ...more
Jaeden Martell Age 16
Jaeden Martell (born January 4, 2003), formerly known as Jaeden Lieberher, is an American actor. He is best known for starring as young Bill Denbrough in the horror film It (2017) and the ...more
Tristan Lake Leabu Age 19
Tristan Lake Leabu (born August 19, 1999) is an American child actor who made his debut playing the part of Jason White, Lois Lane's son, in the 2006 film Superman Returns. For this performance ...more
Shameik Moore Age 24
Shameik Moore (born May 4, 1995) is an American singer, actor, rapper, dancer, model, best known for starring as Shaolin Fantastic on Netflix series The Get Down (2016-2017) and for appearing in ...more
Ellar Coltrane Age 24
Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon (born August 27, 1994), known professionally as Ellar Coltrane, is an American actor and model. He is best known for his role as Mason Evans Jr. in Richard ...more
Jake T. Austin Age 24
Jake Austin Szymanski (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Jake T. Austin, is an American actor. Best known for his role as Max Russo on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly ...more
not on the list? add item #53
List Rules: Vote up the most successful actors who are 24 years old or younger.
Filed Under: People PeopleActorstop 50
The Best New Female Artists The Hottest Men Over 40 The Most Trustworthy Celebrities in the World Celebrities Hollywood Forced on Us Who Is the Coolest Actor in the World Right Now? The Best (Male) Actors Working Today The Best New Male Artists The Best Actors in Film History The Best Singers of All Time The Best Rock Vocalists The Best Scottish Actors Working Today The Greatest New Female Vocalists of the Past 10 Years The Funniest People of All Time Things That Were A Thing: July 2019 Edition The Most Popular Female YouTubers Right Now The Most Beautiful Women of All Time The Greatest British Actors of All Time Current Singers You Most Wish You Could Sound Like The Most Beautiful Women In Hollywood The Hottest Men Of 2019, Ranked The Hottest Silver Foxes The Best Marvel Movie Actors Ever The Best Hallmark Channel Actors The Best Hallmark Channel Actors & Actresses Under 40
family guy jokes no mercy quotes kevin james bald obese celebrities list actors who have played hamlet world famous twins piano jazz artists san diego state university notable alumni how to become an actor with no experience rapunzel original story
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27 LISTS I Want My MTVMusic. Television. Well.... Television.
What Are the Guys from Jackass Up to Today? Most Outrageous Outfits in MTV VMA History Checking in with The Real World Cast Members True Life: Where Are They Now? Behind the Scenes of Pimp My Ride Truly Bizarre MTV Animated Shows The Real World Villains: Where Are They Now? Behind the Scenes of Parental Control What Happened to Jesse Camp? Dating Shows of the Early 2000s Who You Want to See on Celebrity Deathmatch Great Moments in TRL History Behind the Scenes of Room Raiders The Best MTV Original Series The Greatest Shows in MTV History Ranking the OG MTV VJs Breaking News: Punk'd Was Fake Pimp My Ride's Pimpest Upgrades Insane Episodes of True Life The Saddest Victims Ever on Catfish
Photo: MTV UK
Then And Now What Celebrities Looked Like On TRL Vs. What They Look Like Today
Mariel Loveland
MTV's TRL is time capsule filled with overly straightened hair, low-rise jeans and Carson Daly's black painted nails (may they rest in peace). Though the original TRL is just a distant memory, the celebrities who appeared on MTV's hit countdown show have gone on to have incredible careers – from Beyoncé rising from the ashes of Destiny's Child to Shakira quietly becoming one of the most successful Latin-American artists in history.
But in all honesty, fans have forgotten about what celebrities looked like on TRL, and boy are they some of the most memorable moments from Total Request Live. Will anything ever be as good as Justin Timberlake's ramen noodle hair? What about that time Britney Spears scandalously showed off her belly button ring? Kim Kardashian used to wear Uggs! With all the hair-crimping, platform shoes, and terrible '90s and '00s fashion, stars who were on Total Request Live were icons of an era where guy-liner reigned supreme and Von Dutch trucker hats were an acceptable choice for a night out.
Here are some TRL celebrities then and now. Don't say you weren't warned!
Photo: MTV/Vevo
Then: In 1998, Justin Timberlake was the scrappy, ramen noodle-haired member of *NSYNC performing the single "Tearin' Up My Heart" on TRL.
Now: Timberlake went on to have a massive solo career after *NSYNC disbanded. Since his debut on TRL, he's won multiple Grammys and Emmys, among other awards for his solo work. Timberlake branched out a bit, and owns a record label called Tennman Records, the fashion label William Rast, and restaurant Southern Hospitality.
As far as romance goes, Timberlake famously split from Britney Spears (after their intense denim-on-denim matching red carpet looks in the early '00s) and eventually married actress Jessica Biel.
Going To A Taping Of MTV's New TRL Will Only Make You Sad
Photo: MTV/Wikimedia Commons
Then: In the early '00s, P!nk had just burst onto the scene with her debut album Can't Take Me Home. The album produced two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits and was certified double-platinum in the US. She also received a Grammy Award and her first number one single from her star-studded cover of "Lady Marmalade." A year later she released Missundaztood, which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and had three top-ten singles. But seriously, that hair?
Now: P!nk has gone on to have a gigantic career, and has always stuck with zany hairstyles. She's received numerous Grammy nominations for her work, including a nod for her 2013 single "Just Give Me A Reason," a duet featuring Nate Ruess of Fun. She also married Carey Hart, a former motocross star, and had children.
Birthplace: Abington Township, Pennsylvania, United States of America
see more on P!nk
17 People Who Have Been Banned from SNL
Then: Lance Bass was, coincidentally enough, the bass singer in the timeless boy band *NSYNC. In 1998, the band first hit the TRL stage to promote their single "Tearin' Up My Heart" from their self-titled debut album.
Now: Bass has done a lot since those early days on TRL. *NSYNC went on hiatus in 2003, and the singer decided to become an astronaut. He never ended up making it into space, but he has been successful in film and TV. Bass appeared in numerous films, including Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Bass came out as gay in 2006, and released a memoir, Out of Sync.
Birthplace: Laurel, Mississippi, United States of America
see more on Lance Bass
12 Celebrities Who Turned Down The Simpsons
Photo: MTV/Instagram
Then: Britney Spears was one of the first guests to ever appear on TRL when it launched in 1998. She was pretty much a TRL regular throughout the early '00s, doing everything from her first live performance in 2003 to showing off her brand new belly button ring. In this photo, from a 2002 interview, the singer chatted about falling flat on her face in front of her crush while promoting her third studio album Britney, and her silver screen debut in Crossroads.
Now: In mid-to-late '00s, Spears went through trying times. She shaved her head, had a 55-hour marriage, and staged a disastrous MTV VMAs performance. She eventually filed for divorce from her then-husband, backup dancer Kevin Federline, in 2007 and reached a custody agreement for their two children. After that, though, Spears went back to killing it. The singer nabbed a Las Vegas residency in 2016, won the Billboard Millennium Award, and finally took the MTV VMAs stage again to perform her single "Make Me…"
Birthplace: McComb, Mississippi, United States of America
see more on Britney Spears
Filed Under: People PeopleTVTRLEntertainmentCelebritiesThen And Now
band of brothers directors brett dalton married reese witherspoon tattoo meaning interracial relationships in comics norfolk state football movies like hush greg neely sysco martha maccallum age Hilary Swank dating funny possum pictures
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1MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/612F469A6EA84F6BAE882D2B94A4B421/img/C8BDAAA27E50446BA653CE93EA245B72/20071030-bpo-call-center-afp.jpg
DICT chief: BPO contracts will be respected
Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo Salalima assures the BPO industry that it has full government support amid concerns over President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-US rhetoric
Published 10:15 PM, October 30, 2016
Updated 10:25 PM, October 30, 2016
ON TARGET. Coming off a successful 2015, the BPO industry is expected to achieve its target of 1.3 million jobs and $25 billion in revenue by the end of 2016. File photo by Romeo Gacad/AFP
MANILA, Philippines – The head of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) sought to ease the concern of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry that political uncertainty may hurt new investments in the next 6 years.
"The Philippine government through the Department of Information and Communications Technology shall continue what has been started with regard to the BPO industry. Contracts that have been enforced and still existing shall be respected and will continue until their full implementation," DICT Secretary Rodolfo Salalima told the BPO community on Thursday, October 27, during the release of the 6-year roadmap of the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).
There has been growing concern from the BPO sector that President Rodrigo Duterte's rhetoric against the United States would affect the industry. Duterte's anti-US tirades have prompted the IBPAP to seek an audience with the President to clarify his stance.
American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) senior adviser John Forbes also said earlier this month that the chamber was aware of certain BPO investment plans that have been put on hold due to the political uncertainty.
Salalima, however, assured businessmen that Duterte is committed to the growth of the BPO sector.
"The DICT shall continue to fulfill its duties and maintain our strong collaboration with our BPOs. The Philippine government envisions a developed nation that will be dubbed a 'world-class ICT services provider.' Together, we will work on this," he added.
'Merely being exuberant'
The effect of potential US investors staying away is particularly worrying for the BPO industry as the US is the sector's dominant source of export revenue, accounting for 72.6% based on data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Beyond the natural advantage that Filipinos' English proficiency provides, US firms have also taken the lead in investing in BPOs beyond voice or call centers, such as in animation or processing legal work.
Duterte had initially announced his "separation" from the US, but later clarified that he only meant charting another way in terms of foreign policy.
Salalima echoed other Cabinet members' explanations, reiterating that the President was only referring to the country's independence.
"Freedom from external control means external sovereignty or independence, meaning the Philippines, as an independent state, is independent of or separate from all other states like the USA," the DICT chief said.
"Thus, when the President therefore also said of the troika of the Philippines, Russia and China 'against the world,' he was merely being metaphorical and exuberant of our country's status as a sovereign state as borne out by his subsequent clarificatory statements."
New roadmap, higher goals
Recent developments notwithstanding, the BPO industry has high expectations for the next 6 years as spelled out in the new IBPAP roadmap.
As the Philippines' star industry, the BPO industry exceeded its targets in 2015, generating $22 billion in revenues and 1.1 million direct jobs.
By the end of 2022, the local IT-BPM industry could produce 1.8 million jobs, 73% of which are mid- to high-value. More than 500,000 jobs are also expected to come from outside Metro Manila, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, which IBPAP partnered with to create the roadmap.
The industry, it added, also has the potential to generate $40 billion in revenue and increase its global market share to 15%.
"IBPAP's past two roadmaps – Roadmap 2010 and Roadmap 2016 – have been instrumental in successfully growing the IT-BPM industry. With global trends focusing on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, big data, and new delivery models, it is important that the sector future-proofs itself," said Danilo Sebastian Reyes, IBPAP board chairman and Genpact Philippines country manager.
"The successful implementation of Roadmap 2022 can only be achieved with the help of all the sub-sectors and stakeholders from both private and public sectors, within and outside the industry. With this roadmap being our bible for growth and innovation, we are hopeful that the Philippines will continuously enjoy strong economic growth through the IT-BPM industry," he added. – Rappler.com
Filed under:BPO•BPOs•DICT•Department of Information and Communications Technology•IBPAP•Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines•Philippine businesses•President Duterte•Rodolfo Salalima•Rodrigo Duterte•business process outsourcing
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2MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/DCFD6674087D4C0F9D5A2D7600A2D4DD/img/53C2DC62796842A5AAC3B355BDF51DE5/samsung-iphone.jpg
Samsung is currently the sole supplier of the iPhone X's OLED screen
'Apple is in urgent need of finding a second source of OLED,' a KGI Securities analyst says
Gelo Gonzales
Published 3:42 PM, September 14, 2017
Updated 3:42 PM, September 14, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – For years, Apple has been sticking to tried-and-tested but rather old LCD display technology.
With its iPhone X, the tech giant finally jumps onto the OLED bandwagon, currently the display technology favored by smartphone brands today.
Apple calls theirs "Super Retina," an OLED display that Apple says finally meet their standards – and one that allowed them to do an edge-to-edge screen. OLEDs are known for being slimmer, thinner, and more power-efficient, but most of all, can be curved or bezel-free. Apple is known to have perfected LCD screens with the iPhone 7, so they had to turn a new leaf with OLEDs, which allowed for the X's edge-to-edge display.
Supply monopoly
You know who else does edge-to-edge? Samsung. In fact, the South Korean company is currently Apple's only source for the OLEDs, as reported by investment consultancy firm KGI Securities.
Its analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, in a note to investors prior to the September 12 unveiling of the X, predicated that Samsung is the only company able to supply Apple with the screens.
With a huge dependence on Samsung screens, Kuo said that "Apple is in urgent need of finding a second source of OLED." He estimated that Apple pays around $130 to $140 per screen, a huge rise from the $45 to $55 that the screens for the iPhone 7 cost.
According to dedicated Apple news site, Apple Insider, no other OLED supplier has the volume and the quality that the iPhone X demands. There are several other OLED suppliers out there, but none are yet able to produce the quantity and quality that Apple needs – and that for some time, this will be the case, said the site.
In April, it was reported that Apple had ordered 70 million OLEDs from Samsung. And in June, reports said that Apple had begun developing its own OLED tech to lessen its dependence on Samsung.
OLEDs, the newer technology, are known to be more complicated to manufacture than traditional LCDs, and thus, have fewer reliable suppliers. Samsung is said to own a huge chunk of the OLED patents, and as a result, produces a huge majority of the world's OLEDs – up to 97.7% of global production in April 2016, in fact.
The big jump in screen cost is clearly a reason why the iPhone X has become the most expensive iPhone ever, with the 64GB version at $999 while the 256GB version is $1,149.
Without a second supplier, Kuo also said that due to component supply constraints, production of the iPhone X will be at less than 10,000 per day or less than 1 million in a quarter. As Business Insider reports, that production volume will not be able to match the huge consumer demand that some analysts expect: 5 million units on the phone's first week of sales.
The impact: consumers will have to either wait a considerable amount of time or opt for another flagship. – Rappler.com
Filed under:Apple•OLED•iPhone X•smartphones•Samsung•
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2MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/612F469A6EA84F6BAE882D2B94A4B421/img/405CD2246533403A95AC6F9AEF35F2EA/china-lgbtq.jpg
Fewer rainbows, less social media for China's LGBT community
It's been tough for China's LGBT community: Censors have shut down social media forums, news media have curbed coverage of gay issues, and online shops have removed rainbow-themed products
Published 8:33 PM, May 18, 2019
Updated 8:53 PM, May 18, 2019
CRACKDOWN. In this photo taken on May 10, 2019, a gay student poses with a rainbow flag in Beijing. Photo by Greg Baker/AFP
BEIJING, China – China's LGBT community has had a tough year: Censors have shut down social media forums, news media have curbed coverage of gay issues, and online shops have removed rainbow-themed products.
The tighter restrictions have led the LGBT community in China – fearing a crackdown – to prepare for muted celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on Friday, May 17.
"We don't really know what to do. The LGBT community in many ways is being bullied and the sense of powerlessness becomes stronger," said Rush, a university student who only gave her pen name for fear of repercussions.
For last year's International Day, diversity events sprung up across the country's universities where many students voluntarily distributed rainbow badges and flyers to show their support for LGBT groups.
But the unprecedented scale of the celebrations caught the attention of the authorities.
This year, only a few small-scale screenings of LGBT movies will be held in private across campuses, according to activists. European Union embassies are also hosting diversity events while others are flying the rainbow flag.
"The government sees communities capable of mobilizing a large crowd in a short period of time as potential threats to social stability," said Doriane Lau, China Researcher at Amnesty International.
"The control over LGBT communities (is) likely to continue."
Queen film censored
A year ago, China's Twitter-like Weibo platform banned gay content, triggering a huge backlash that prompted the company to reverse its decision.
But a new social media crackdown emerged in April amid a clean-up campaign by authorities to erase content that betrayed "correct marriage views and ethics".
In April a flurry of online content was censored – including several popular LGBTQ discussion groups that had millions of followers – and various gay search results on popular video streaming site Bilibili.
Rush was heartbroken when she discovered that groups were shut down. One of the now-banned lesbian pages helped her come to terms with her identity and opened a whole new world for her.
"It was torturous trying to accept myself," Rush told AFP.
"(It) gave me a will to continue to live," she said. "For a lot of children, it's the only way for them to find people like themselves or information."
Independent online media have removed LGBT sections in recent months and local reporters have told AFP that self-censorship is common, with journalists treading a fine line when covering such issues.
In the past year, the Taobao e-commerce platform shut down shops selling rainbow flags and clothing with queer phrases – while gay scenes in "Bohemian Rhapsody", a biopic on Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, were censored.
"It's a warning signal... an unfriendly shrinking space or a way to control the voice of LGBTQ," said Duan, a member of Beijing LGBT Centre, who declined to give his full name.
"We feel that in this environment we should speak out more, and create more dialogue. If no one speaks out for the LGBTQ, then everyone will feel that discussing homosexual topics is a very sensitive issue."
The government's tightening grip on the queer community is also going offline.
For the first time in China, two LGBT groups in Guangzhou were shut down earlier this year for being "illegal organizations", according to a government notice.
Many LGBT non-profits have struggled to legally register with the government, while those already registered can rarely publicly promote gay rights, according to NGOs.
Many groups persist but have had to brand themselves as social groups advocating for public health.
'Still suppressed'
While same-sex marriage remains illegal in China, the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, and officially removed it from its list of mental illnesses in 2001. (READ: Taiwan's parliament approves same-sex marriages in first for Asia)
In March this year, the government accepted recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people.
But after the LGBT community made huge strides in the last 20 years, the state has become increasingly oppressive, said activist Feng Yuan, who co-founded Equality, a Beijing-based non-profit focusing on women and gender.
"In recent years, it appears to be more and more difficult (for the community)" said Feng.
"Mainly because there is a lack of friendly and supportive laws and framework, a greater emphasis on control and management."
The LGBT community has had mixed success in court, losing in their push for marriage rights but winning cases against job discrimination and a hospital that offered gay "conversion" therapy.
In April, a Beijing court dismissed an appeal against recently-enforced rules by the national media watchdog which ban gay content on film and television and describe homosexuality as "abnormal".
"If the media can't talk about homosexuality, it deprives the public of the opportunity to understand the LGBTQ community," said Yanzi, an activist involved in LGBTQ-related court cases.
"It will only increase discrimination and injustice for the gay community." – Rappler.com
Filed under:International Day Against Homophobia•Transphobia and Biphobia•China's lgbt community
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Santa Clara Women's Basketball Team Awarded the Comcast Community All-Star Award
Santa Clara, Calif. - The Santa Clara women's basketball team was named Comcast Community All-Star award winner for the month of November. Jodie Garner and Mat Jachim of Comcast presented the award to the women at halftime of the men's basketball game against Colgate on December 28, 2006.
The women were recognized for their work with the non-profit organization Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative, BAWSI. BAWSI is a comprehensive program working with girls in the local community to promote participation in athletics, as well as working with legislation to offer females of all ages equal opportunity in sports.
The team worked an eight-week session with young girls to teach them about the positives of being active and enjoying physical activity. They have a strong connection to the organization through co-founder and former professional soccer player Brandi Chastain, who is a Santa Clara alumna.
Currently the women's basketball team is attempting to move up the pack in the West Coast Conference. The team takes on Saint Mary's on Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Leavey Center at 7:00 p.m. PT. Junior guard Chandice Cronk leads the nation in three-pointers made, hitting 3.5 per game.
Michelle Bento-Jackson with Mat Jachim and Jodie Garner of Comcast.
The Comcast Community All-Star Award is presented to Santa Clara student-athletes, who are active in benefiting their local community. The award was developed two years ago and is presented monthly to a different student-athlete who is positively contributing their time and energy to help others.
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SCCM > Professional Development > American College of Critical Care Medicine > Master of Critical Care Medicine
Fellows of the American College of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM) are invited to nominate other Fellows for the honor of Master of Critical Care Medicine (MCCM).
Deadlines and Submission
Fellows in good standing may nominate other Fellows for Masters. Nominations submitted each year by April 30 will be considered by the American College of Critical Care Medicine (ACCM) Awards Committee to be conferred at the following year’s Convocation.
Submit a nomination.
Questions related to the nomination process may be directed to Organizational Affairs.
All nominees for Master must have been Fellows for at least 10 years and must have distinguished themselves by achieving national and international professional prominence by virtue of personal character, leadership, eminence in clinical practice, outstanding contributions to research and education in critical care medicine, or years of exemplary service to the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), ACCM, and the field of critical care medicine in its broadest sense.
Posthumous nominations will be accepted. Posthumous nominees must have been Fellows in good standing for at least 10 years at the time of their death.
Contributions to SCCM and ACCM with an emphasis of furthering the goals and missions of both organizations, including active involvement in at least one task force or committee
National and international leadership in critical care medicine as evidenced by current and past academic and organizational positions
Contributions to critical care medicine through other medical societies, agencies or organizations that impact the delivery of critical care medicine
Research grants and projects (investigator-initiated grants that are funded through a peer-reviewed process) on which the nominee was the principle investigator
Teaching accomplishments, especially those that impact the training of healthcare professionals in critical care medicine (The nominator should highlight the impact of the accomplishments at the national and international level.)
Contributions to the community and volunteer work (eg, assistance during disasters)
Publications (especially those with significant scientific impact)
Nomination Requirements
The nominator must submit a letter of recommendation highlighting the nominee's contributions.
The nominator must solicit two additional letters of support attesting to the nominee’s significant contributions. Both of these letters should be from outside the nominee’s current institution (ie, not a current professional colleague or research collaborator) but do not need to be from other Fellows.
The nominator must include the candidate’s most recent curriculum vitae with the application.
Nominations not accepted in a given year will be carried over for up to two successive years, for a total of three years. If this happens, the ACCM staff partner will contact the nominator and co-nominators to determine whether they continue to support the candidate’s nomination. If a candidate’s nomination is carried over for one year, the nominator has the option of revising the original letter of nomination. If a nomination is carried over for a second year, the nominator has the option of soliciting one additional letter of support. If a nomination is carried over for two consecutive years and the nominee is not accepted, a new nomination must be submitted for the nominee to be considered again. The criteria and requirements described above apply to this and any subsequent nominations.
Members of the ACCM Board of Regents and SCCM Council will not be eligible for nomination for MCCM until they have been out of office for two years.
The election of nominees for MCCM will be by a majority vote of the ACCM Board of Regents at its fall board meeting, with approval by SCCM Council at its fall meeting.
During the first five years that the honor has been conferred (2012–2016), there has been no limit to the number of Masters selected. Thereafter, beginning in 2017, there will be a limit of five Masters selected in any given year. There is no requirement that the Board or Council select any Masters in any given year. If an MCCM is awarded posthumously, the posthumous award will not be included in the number of MCCMs that can be awarded annually.
The ACCM Awards Committee will review the nominations and decide which nominees should be presented to the ACCM Board of Regents.
The Awards Committee will evaluate the nominees based on the criteria. Although nominees are not required to excel in all areas, they must achieve prominence in more than half of the criteria. In addition, all nominees are expected to have demonstrated significant involvement and leadership within SCCM or ACCM, including committee work and other activities. The committee will judge the nominee’s relevant areas of excellence based on the evidence provided in the letters and documented in the nominee’s curriculum vitae.
The Master designation will be conferred at the ACCM Convocation at the next SCCM Congress. The candidate’s participation in the Convocation is required, except under extenuating circumstances in which the candidate is unable to travel. The decision as to whether a candidate is required to attend the Convocation shall be at the discretion of the Board.
Masters are authorized to use the designation MCCM in connection with their professional activities, as long as their SCCM membership remains current and they remain an SCCM member in good standing. The Master will receive a certificate from the College. Masters will enjoy the same privileges as Fellows, assuming they remain in good standing with the College.
MCCM
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The political press has a powerful bias toward normalcy — and it advantages Donald Trump
Remarkable as it was to see ostensibly cynical reporters swallow the regime’s “total exoneration” line, that’s just one example of how the press’s normalcy bias influences their coverage.
- Commentary
Behavioral economists have long understood that people tend to hold a strong bias toward maintaining the status quo. We prefer the familiar and resist change, even when doing so leads to poorer outcomes. For political journalists and editors in the Trump era who have spent their entire careers reporting on and analyzing American politics in a certain way—as a dramatic conflict between more or less competent partisans who may differ on every issue but nonetheless accept that we live in a pluralistic society and generally adhere to the rule of law—it manifests itself in a powerful bias toward normalcy. They want to believe that while the president may be a childish narcissist who spends much of his time trolling people on Twitter, happily steamrolls over democratic norms, regularly assaults our institutions and has repeatedly obstructed justice in plain sight, the political world is otherwise as they always knew it to be, and will ultimately weather the storm. It’s a subtle bias that leads to a lot of credulous coverage of Trump’s spin and a hesitation to use clear descriptive language when reporting on this White House.
For example, how else might one explain the traditional media’s eagerness to accept Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report at face value. On April 3, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that members of Mueller’s team had leaked to the press, via associates, that Barr’s summary didn’t accurately represent what the investigators had found. The following day, NBC’s Ken Dilanian reported that “some on the Mueller team say his findings paint a picture of a campaign whose members were manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation.” That was ten days after Barr’s Cliff Note version of the Mueller report became public, which the New York Times greeted with a headline reading, “A Cloud Over Trump’s Presidency Is Lifted.” The Washington Post had gone with, “Mueller did not find the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, attorney general says” and Ken Dilanian had tweeted, “Folks, this is a total legal exoneration of the president. Congress will want to know more, of course. But the topline: No conspiracy, no obstruction.” Dozens of stories picked apart what Mueller had found as if we had any idea at the time.
One could argue that they were going with the facts available to them, but keep the backstory in mind. Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey to end the agency’s investigations into his campaign. He later told two Russian officials, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” Firing Comey was plan A.
On at least two separate occasions, Trump’s advisors reportedly had to talk him out of firing Robert Mueller. In one instance, he only backed down when White House Counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign. It’s likely that behind the scenes, Congressional Republicans were also signalling to the White House that firing Mueller would result in an intense public backlash. They had to go a different route.
So they came up with Plan C — firing then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia probe, and appointing Matthew Whitaker to serve as Acting AG. Trump had no doubt seen Whitaker on TV echoing his claims that the whole investigation was nothing more than a “witch hunt,” but the move ended badly when reporters unearthed a number of shady business ventures Whitaker had been involved in. (One that hawked “masculine” toilet bowls specially designed for “well endowed men” was probably the comedians’ favorite.)
William Barr, or Plan D, was a more credible version of Whitaker, having served as AG under George HW Bush in the early 1990s. Barr was known for his expansive view of executive power. In 1992, the conservative columnist William Safire called him the “Coverup General” for his role in successfully burying a big at the time, but now largely forgotten, scandal called “IraqGate.” He did so by deflecting calls to appoint an Independent Counsel to probe allegations that Bush’s CIA had covertly funneled support to Saddam Hussein through an Italian bank by instead naming a “special investigator” with a small budget and limited powers who then found no evidence of wrongdoing. And on another occasion, in 1989, when he was serving as the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and news leaked of a controversial memo, he refused to hand it over but “said he would provide an account that ‘summarizes the principal conclusions,” according to Ryan Goodman.
Barr, who last year authored a 19-page memo arguing that Trump could not be guilty of obstructing justice for using his powers to derail an investigation into himself and his associates, then came to the same conclusion after reviewing Mueller’s report. According to the polls, the public didn’t buy that coming from a regime with so little credibility, but most media outlets ran with the story of Trump’s supposed victory it for several crucial days. There was probably more hand wringing introspection about how the media had screwed than there was skepticism of Barr’s summary.
And at least in part, that’s because none of Russiagate was in any way normal. A presidential campaign being “manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation,” then winning, and then the new president admitting on live television that he fired his FBI director to obstruct an investigation into possible conspiracy with a hostile foreign power isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. Aaron Sorkin would never write that plotline into an episode of The West Wing. It must have been comforting, on a subconscious level, to believe that the cloud had been lifted from Trump’s presidency and we could all go back to tracking the next horse race.
It leads to excessive use of the passive voice and all sorts of contortions to avoid saying explicitly that the man holding the Nuclear codes is either totally out of his depth or possibly even delusional. This week, in a piece about CIA Director Gina Haspel’s difficulty getting Trump to focus on her intelligence briefings, The New York Times reported that “Mr. Trump’s word choices on a range of issues — Russian interference in elections, Iran’s nuclear program, North Korea’s leadership and, most importantly, the culpability and reliability of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince — remain at odds with the C.I.A.’s assessment of the facts.” Word choices… C.I.A.’s assessment of the facts
Similarly, if you’re a reporter who’s watched the right use coded dog-whistles for years, it’s easy to fall back on the familiar and use euphemisms like “racially charged” for Trump’s over-the-top bigotry or describe his comments as “racially tinged.” And of course, the media’s reticence to say that a president who has made over 9,000 “false or misleading statements” in two years, according to The Washington Post, is a liar has been the topic of quite a bit of discussion.
Obviously, a lot of this is can be attributed to journalistic conventions that have been hammered into reporters over their entire careers. But prioritizing those norms over clear reporting on a regime that explicitly aims to shift the country’s demographic makeup and permanently disable the regulatory state is itself a form of normalization. It’s a big reason this regime has been able to weather a dozen blockbuster stories that probably would have brought down any other presidency. The New York Times spent a year reporting the story of how Trump was earning $200,000 per year as a toddler and became a millionaire by age 8 thanks to his father’s tax fraud scheme, and it barely made a ripple.
Trump’s supporters may be convinced that the media invent stories out of whole cloth to damage their president, but the press’s bias toward normalcy has favored Trump from the very beginning—from the moment he descended that golden escalator to rail about Mexico sending us their rapists. A study of 2016 campaign coverage by researchers at Harvard University found that while both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton received overwhelmingly negative press, there was a crucial difference in the reporting: The media consistently focused on Trump’s policy ideas, extreme as they were, and did not devote much ink to his myriad scandals, whereas the opposite was true with Clinton—reporters obsessed over her scandals, real or fabricated, and ignored her policy proposals. That may have been due in part to their expectations that she would inevitably win and had to be “vetted,” but it was also about not reckoning with the fact that a major party’s nominee had a long history of mob ties, haad repeatedly been accused of sexual harassment and assault and faced allegations of money laundering, among other things. That’s not normal stuff.
Now, as we head into another presidential election, this pervasive bias toward normalcy will no doubt be a significant advantage for a decidedly aberrant incumbent.
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Star Trek Beyond Trailer #2 Is Better Than The First Trailer
Media | By Bryan Kremkau on May 21st, 2016
The first trailer for Star Trek Beyond showed us nothing but action but it didn’t show a lot of plot. The second one is a lot better in that gives us a mixture of both some action, plot and drama. After not wanting to see the movie based on the first trailer, I now wouldn’t mind seeing the new Star Trek movie.
Star Trek Beyond stars Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Karl Urban. Star Trek Beyond is coming to theaters July 22, 2016.
“Star Trek Beyond,” the highly anticipated next installment in the globally popular Star Trek franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry and reintroduced by J.J. Abrams in 2009, returns with director Justin Lin (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) at the helm of this epic voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise and her intrepid crew. In “Beyond,” the Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.
Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, Idris Elba, John Cho, Justin Lin, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Star Trek, star trek beyond, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana
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DVD Reviews | By Bryan Kremkau on Sep 29th, 2010
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jon Favreau
Written By: Justin Theroux
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Studio: Paramount
Buy On Amazon.com
Iron Man was a smash hit and something I didn’t really have any expectations. Iron Man 2 on the other hand, I had a lot of expectations for. The problem with most sequels is they try to do too much and make it bigger than the first one. Iron Man 2 is a good & entertaining flick, it’s just not as good as the first one.
Iron Man 2 picks up about 6 months after the last movie. There are TV clips of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr) announcing to the world that he’s Iron Man to refresh people’s memories. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) watches the news as his elderly father Anton Vanko dies. Ivan begins building a similar reactor to Tony’s, in getting revenge on the Stark family. Their fathers worked together on the original arc reactor and Anton was deported because he was trying to profit from it and went poor for the rest of his life soon after. Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the new CEO of Stark Industries, and Tony has a new assistant Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson). Which turns out to be that Natalie is an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D agent Natasha Romanoff keeping a watchful eye on Tony. Vanko locates Tony Stark and attacks him at a celebrity Circuit de Monaco event. Tony escapes the attack, thanks to Pepper and Happy Hogan coming to rescue and providing him with his portable suit in a briefcase. Vanko gets arrested but ends up soon escaping with the help of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).
Ivan begins working with Justin Hammer, a sleazy rival and competitor to Tony and Stark Industries. Hammer wants to upstage Tony but Ivan wants something more than that. Meanwhile, Tony is having a tough time being Iron Man and his life begins to spiral out of control fast. The core in his chest that was keeping him alive is actually killing him and he doesn’t know what the cure is. With the help of James Rhodes, Natasha Romanoff, Pepper and Hogan, they try to stop Vanko and Hammer.
The movie has it’s moments, and definitely contains a lot of that charm from Robert Downey, Jr. that everyone loved the last time. But I think the middle gets bonged down from the plot, and other devices. The movie tries to introduce new characters and other characters from other Marvel franchises and I think the movie loses its focus. The beginning started out good with the introduction to Ivan, the Senate hearings with Tony and Justin Hammer, and the cool scene at the Grand Prix thing. The ending I liked a lot, especially the action scenes involving Iron Man, War Machine and Vanko. The ending also showcased Sam Rockwell’s acting and improv skills. Only if he was like that the entire movie. The addition of Scarlet Johansson was nice, but you don’t really get to see her shine until the ending. I’m sure there will be some spin-off movie with her involved. The middle didn’t have as much action, and was just a bit sluggish. I know they had to show Tony’s downward spiral and brief glance at alcoholism. From what I heard, they kept close to the comic books.
If you got loads of time, the Blu-Ray extras are something to watch! This is actually my first blu-ray that I’m reviewing and I’m just blown away at the quality. The video is sharp, audio is great, just everything about Blu-Ray is awesome! The 4 part documentary is feature-length and LONG. That’s what I meant when I said if you got loads of time because you’ll need it. The behind the scenes stuff goes into everything in depth and I was very happy with it. You find out that Mickey Rourke really went to Russia and went to a prison there to research. You see them shooting on locating, building sets, etc. and if that wasn’t enough, there’s also 6 behind the scenes featurettes as well. The deleted scenes include that scene we saw from the trailers/commercials where Tony tells Pepper that he completes him and kisses her, as well as a few others. The deleted scenes weren’t bad actually, and something worth checking out along with the documentary and the other featurettes.
Iron Man 2 may not be as good as the first film, but it’s still an entertaining summer flick! I’d like to see a little bit more action in the next movie, but not so much that the story suffers. This one had an okay balance but was more on the story side. Check it out, maybe you think differently than me.
S.H.I.E.L.D Data Vault
Commentary By Director Jon Favreau
4-Part Making Of Documentary
6 Behind The Scenes Featurettes
8 Deleted Scenes
Includes DVD Copy Of Iron Man 2
Includes Digital Copy Of Iron Man 2 For Portable Media Players
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color
ENGLISH: DTS-HD MA 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
PORTUGUESE: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, Spanish, French
Bottom Line: Entertaining but not as good as Iron Man 1
Extras Rating:
Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 2 (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy), Jon Favreau, Justin Theroux, Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson
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Captain Marvel (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Glass (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
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Home > Cancer Research > News Articles
HPV Vaccine Against Virus Responsible For Cervical Cancer
A new vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer is nearly 100 percent effective against the two types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. Results of a nationwide study of the vaccine will be published in the May 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide, resulting in nearly half a million diagnoses and 240,000 deaths each year. Every day in the United States ten women die from cervical cancer, according to Kevin Ault MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University School of Medicine, and one of the study authors.
But for the next generation of young women, a series of three shots of a new HPV vaccine marketed by Merck under the name Gardasil could make the difference in preventing cervical cancer. The vaccine targets HPV types 16 and 18, which cause about 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer. It also targets HPV types 6 and 11, which together cause about 90 percent of all cases of genital warts.
Researchers at more than a dozen international medical centers evaluated the efficacy of quadrivalent vaccine targeting HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18 in more than 12,000 women ages 15 to 26 in 13 countries for nearly three years. They found a near 100 percent efficacy rate in prevention of HPV types 16 and 18.
"It's the first vaccine designed specifically to prevent cancer," says Dr. Ault, one of the authors of the study and a key researcher in the development of the vaccine. "The two main things to emphasize are the vaccine efficacy and the safety. These clinical trials have consistent efficacy around 98 percent. And severe reactions to the vaccine appear to be rare.
According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 20 million men and women in the US are infected with HPV, and more than six million new infections are reported each year, making it the most common sexually transmitted disease in the nation.
"Nearly all sexually active people are going to get exposed to the virus sometime during their lives," says Dr. Ault. "For most people, HPV causes no complications and goes away on its own. However, in some cases, if left untreated, certain high-risk types of HPV can lead to cervical cancer.
"The goal of the study was to see if we could prevent precancerous cases and we were 98 percent effective. Everyone who gets cancer goes through a pre-cancerous stage," says Ault. "There are about 50 to 60 million pap smears performed each year in the US, and about seven percent are abnormal. We spend about 3 billion dollars each year to find and treat these pre-cancerous stages caused by some type of HPV."
To date there is no vaccine specifically designed to treat disease that is already established. Dr. Ault explains the current HPV vaccine is meant to be a preventive or prophylactic vaccine Ð that's why it is given to adolescents.
Gardasil was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year for use in females 9 to 26 years of age. While controversy has been raised about giving pre-adolescent girls a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease, Dr. Ault argues, "young women, young girls make very good immune responses to this vaccine, so that will enhance their protection."
Researchers believe the vaccine will be effective in lowering a girl's lifetime risk of cervical cancer. To that end Merck launched the national "One Less" campaign last year, which encourages females eligible for the vaccine to begin their vaccination series of three shots over six months and to continue seeing their doctor for regular checkups and screenings.
Source: Emory University.
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Mass. Market: Nonprofit provides hope and help in a bad economy
Jon Chesto
It hasn't been easy for Susan Butters since she lost her job at a financial company in June. The 60-year-old Plymouth resident has been busy sending resumes and attending job interviews, competing with a crowd of applicants. But the search for a new job in this weak economy can be a seemingly never-ending source of frustration.
Fortunately for Butters, she found a key ally early in her job search: One Life at a Time.
At the unassuming office park in Rockland where the nonprofit organization is based, Butters received advice and tips about job openings for free. Butters also found a critical support network to keep her motivated when it seems like the odds are against her.
“The job market is really tight out there,” Butters says. “It's easy to lose hope sometimes, (but) this keeps me wanting to keep looking.”
When Marshfield resident Chris Driscoll O'Neill launched One Life at a Time one year ago, the state's economy was still relatively stable even as the national economy was starting to fall apart. But O'Neill, the organization's executive director, says the local job market was already beginning to look bleak.
“I had a feeling the economy wasn't going to go too well,” says O'Neill, who says she once went nearly 18 months between jobs after the medical practice where she worked abruptly closed in the early 1990s. “I had a feeling there would be all types of people looking for jobs.”
Her vision seems prescient now. The latest labor market figures for Massachusetts were released on Thursday, and they weren't pretty: The state's employers cut an estimated 7,000 jobs in October, the largest monthly decline in more than three years and the second-largest decline since the last downturn. As if that wasn't bad enough news on one day, the New England Economic Partnership released a forecast predicting that the state would shed some 135,000 jobs over a two-year period.
One Life at a Time couldn't have come at a better time. So far, the organization has been able to offer all of its job-hunting services for free. O'Neill used money from a multimillion-dollar whistle-blower settlement with EMD Serono, a former employer, to help get One Life at a Time started - and she's seeking donations to keep it going for the long term.
O'Neill and her husband, Jim Driscoll, also used some of the settlement money to launch the Driscoll O'Neill Charitable Foundation, which supports charities ranging from Tufts Medical Center in Boston to homeless shelters on the South Shore.
One Life at a Time has already helped an extensive number of people in its first year. O'Neill estimates that nearly 120 people have found jobs with some aid from her organization.
Rick Martin, a former Dunkin' Donuts executive from Weymouth, was looking to get out of the food industry when he approached One Life at a Time for help. He says the staff helped him rewrite his resume and refresh his knowledge of computer programs like Excel and PowerPoint. Eventually, he was hired by O'Neill to work for a separate, for-profit recruiting service that she runs.
Daurice Cox, the director of clinical services at Bay State Community Services in Quincy, says One Life at a Time has been a godsend for her organization, which helps people who are struggling with mental illness and substance abuse. She has referred so many clients to One Life at a Time, it eventually opened a satellite branch at the BSCS office.
Lisa DeLosa says One Life at a Time provided invaluable assistance with introducing her to potential employers in the area. The Rockland resident, who lost her job at a property management firm earlier this year, says she visited other staffing agencies that would make her feel like she's just “on the back burner.” But not One Life at a Time.
Check out One Life at a Time's Web site, 1lifeatatime.org, and you'll see a long list of services that it offers to clients - such as mock interviews, budgeting advice, computer training and job placement assistance.
However, the most important thing that One Life at a Time provides doesn't show up on that list. But you'll hear about it if you talk to any of its clients: a reliable source of hope in an incredibly uncertain time.
Jon Chesto is the business editor of The Patriot Ledger. He may be reached at jchesto@ledger.com.
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Ten Classic Hard Science Fiction Novels featuring Physics and Astronomy
by Mike Brotherton
As a professor of astronomy, which is considered a “hard science,” I worry that the classification “Hard SF” is off-putting to many readers. It makes it sound like any story labeled as such will be hard to understand, which is not necessarily true. “Hard” is really just a term to refer to the fact that we can be quantitative about some scientific topics.
Hard SF entices me with the dramatization of alien worlds, exotic environments, and the strange-but-true things that exist in the universe. Worlds collide, stars explode, and black holes consume anything in their path. Scientists can write down the equations governing these extreme events, but it’s the SF writers who breathe life into such equations. Science reveals how cool the universe really is, but writers communicate it.
Here, then, are ten “Hard SF” novels that have stood the test of time. They showcase the wonder in what is possible in our own reality, they involve physics or astronomy in some way, and they represent excellent entry points for readers new to Hard SF. Some aspects of these stories may not have aged well, as science continues to make new discoveries that sometimes make older knowledge obsolete, but they all have fascinating core concepts and try to treat the universe and science realistically. In no particular order…
1. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. Hal Clement wrote many wonderful books investigating the extremes of alien worlds, and this one is arguably his most enduring. The rapidly spinning planet Mesklin has a high surface gravity mitigated near its equator by centrifugal force. Humans enlist the aid of centipede-like aliens for an expedition to the pole to recover lost equipment. I love the mutual exploration of a world simultaneously with the exploration of physics.
2. The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. Inventor of the geosynchronous satellite, Clarke wrote a number of novels that could appear on this list. I love this one, which puts on display the idea of the space elevator (AKA “Beanstalk”). Rockets are inefficient, noisy, and expensive. Why not climb a bit more leisurely into space? There are myriad challenges to the idea, however, ranging from the technical to the political, and the very concept deserves the exploration that only fiction can provide.
3. Ringworld by Larry Niven. Instead of living on a planets orbiting a star, how about on the interior of a spinning ring? For the same mass you can have a lot more living space, as well as other benefits. The ringworld is one of the classic “big dumb objects” of SF and inspires outside-the-box thinking, which I admire greatly. When readers pointed out that the ring wasn’t stable, Niven had the excuse to write a sequel.
4. Dragon’s Egg by Robert Forward. Forward was a physicist and his books show it. This classic of hard SF takes Clement’s Mesklin orders of magnitude further and explores what life might be like on the surface of a neutron star.
5. Timescape by Gregory Benford, another physicist, puts the life of scientists in the spotlight. It is one of the first SF novels I read that seemed to get the reality of being a scientist. One point I really enjoyed was the realization that if you want to use tachyons to communicate with the past, you have to understand that everything is in motion and you have to aim your beam to where the Earth was in space.
6. The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle. Hoyle was an astronomer and his tale of an interstellar molecular cloud enveloping the sun is a classic, steeped in the science of the time and clever speculation.
7. Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. Grand in vision, this story explores the limits of speed, space, and time. Relativity is often neglected in SF in favor of faster-than-light travel, but relativity still permits travel to anywhere in the universe in a human lifetime thanks to time dilation.
8. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein taught me the importance of not being at the bottom of a deep gravity well in an interplanetary war. He pounded in that lesson very effectively, and when I recently read about private industry mobilizing to bring asteroids into Earth orbit to mine them, I shivered (see also Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Footfall, among others).
9. Contact by the astronomer Carl Sagan will always be a special book in my mind, enhanced by the 1997 movie. I grew up watching Cosmos on PBS, and it probably shaped my interest in becoming a scientist as much as Star Trek. The notion of finding circles in the digits of pi still haunts me.
10. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is another special book. It takes the relativistic issues of Tau Zero, and melds them with the reality of war informed by the Vietnam experience, and was published at a time when SF was probably the best way to approach exploring a fresh wound. The novel has science, action, aliens, and a profound social commentary. It blew my mind in the most wonderful and challenging ways.
Yes, the list is composed of a lot of dead or graying male writers, but these days, when you include biological sciences, we have a lot more women (e.g. Nancy Kress, Catherine Asaro, Linda Nagata, Chris Moriarty, Brenda Cooper, Kay Kenyon, etc.) along with newer male writers (Alastair Reynolds, Greg Egan, Rob Sawyer, Kim Stanley Robinson, Paul McAuley, Peter Watts, Hannu Rajaniemi, Charles Stross, etc.). I’ve probably let a few folks slip through the cracks (Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, David Brin, C.J. Cherryh, James P. Hogan, Charles Sheffield, Stephen Baxter, etc.), which is fine: a field this rich can’t be captured in a top ten list.
So check these out and make suggestions of your own. What are your favorites?
Originally from the St. Louis area, Mike Brotherton got his PhD in astronomy from the University of Texas in 1996, and held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory before coming to Laramie. His specialty is studying the supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies and how they shine when in the active phase. He is also interested in the relationship between such active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies, and their mutual evolution. His work is primarily observational, and he uses a wide assortment of telescopes/observatories operating across the electromagnetic spectrum including WIRO, McDonald, IRTF, KPNO, Lick, Keck, Gemini, the VLT, Hubble, Chandra, and the VLA. He also makes use of data archives such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In addition to being a scientist, he is a science fiction writer, author of the well-received science fiction novels Star Dragon (2003) and Spider Star (2008) from Tor Books. He is also the founder of the NASA-funded Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers, which brings a dozen award-winning professional writers to Wyoming every summer. He blogs at www.mikebrotherton.com.
Tags: Mike Brotherton
GiniKoch November 12, 2012 at 6:35 pm
RT @sfwa: Ten Classic Hard Science Fiction Novels featuring Physics and Astronomy: by Mike Brotherton: http://t.co/ZkA8hQVL
lisaSmason November 12, 2012 at 6:40 pm
kdarms November 12, 2012 at 7:28 pm
courtney_writer November 12, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Steve November 13, 2012 at 1:49 am
Hi, great list, thank you. It brings back some good memories of the ones I have read, and good suggestions for ones I haven’t. If I were making a similar list, I would include Steven Baxter – Raft in particular, and Greg Egan for real hard core science/science fiction.
Charlie Stross November 13, 2012 at 6:43 am
Would it have hurt to have included one novel from the twenty-first century?
The youngest of these books (“Contact”) was written over 16 years ago!
Pingback: The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: November 12, 2012
sj martin November 13, 2012 at 8:56 am
I’ve been reading Jame Blish’s “Cities in Flight” stories. I’m fascinated by the science in them as well as the stories themselves.
Morgan Alreth November 13, 2012 at 11:07 am
Mr. Stross, that comment points out something interesting, but I’ll refrain from adding anything else.
Instead, I’ll go back another century. For its day, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was hard science fiction. It was also a trail blazing work.
William McCabe November 13, 2012 at 11:32 am
It’s funny how all of these have to do with aliens or space travel. Maybe it’s just that the writer is an astronomer.
ChuckBakerNT November 13, 2012 at 11:36 am
John November 13, 2012 at 12:30 pm
The Heechee Saga by Frederick Pohl is my only addition.
Pingback: Hard Science Fiction Novels - Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums
EmmonsAso November 13, 2012 at 3:40 pm
steve davidson November 13, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Wonderful piece! (You couldn’t have waited a few more weeks?)
I’ll add an even older piece by J W Campbell: The Moon Is Hell. A midst all the rocketry and atomics, Campbell gives chemistry its due.
I also wanted to mention that there is a sequel to Mission of Gravity entitled Star Light (and a collection of stories) for those who discover that Clement/Stubbs was a wonderful person and his stories even more so.
Karen Anderson November 13, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Good to see Poul cited here! Go read these, everybody. And I agree on the commenters’ additions to the list, especially the rarely-mentioned Campbell title THE MOON IS HELL. Some of these stories will look crude; they were written in the days when authors displayed ideas, rather than showing off with literary fancywork. –Karen Anderson, reader since the 1940’s.
Fly Away November 13, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Nice list. I’ll only add a suggestion: Clarke’s “A Fall of Moondust”. Some wonderful applied physics there.
Morgan Alreth November 14, 2012 at 1:01 am
2001 A Space Odyssey (Or was that a movie that became a book?)
I Am Legend (the first novel I know of to attempt a scientifically plausible, biological explanation for vampires)
(These are dated, but in their day they did not violate known scientific law)
Of course, anything by Asimov.
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Chris November 30, 2012 at 10:21 pm
The article’s title begins “Ten Classic Hard Science Fiction Novels…”, yet Stross asks, “Would it have hurt to have included one novel from the twenty-first century?” Maybe I’m just old fashioned here, but I think it’s too early for anything published this century–I would even include the 1990’s, for that matter–to truly be considered a “classic” novel.
Hi, Rob Dircks here. I’m the Audible bestselling author of Where the Hell is Tesla?, and I’ve been writing and narrating these stories since 2016 on my podcast, Listen To The Signal. But now I’ve made them available ONLY here in this book.
J.D. Lakey
J.D. Lakey is the author the Black Bead Chronicles (winner of Winner of IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin digital award), and Taurok’s Vengeance (2018 B.R.A.G. medallion winner). Readers love her lyrical writing style and expertly-crafted worlds.
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Welcome to Shoosmiths > Client resources > Legal updates > What an independent Scotland could mean for your business
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What an independent Scotland could mean for your business
Author: Karen Harvie
The 24 March 2016 is the proposed date for independence from the parliamentary union of 1707 if Scotland votes 'Yes' in the referendum in two months' time.
We look at what it could mean for UK businesses if Scotland decides to become an independent country.
What will the future hold?
The future of an independent Scotland would be determined by how Scotland votes in elections, following a positive referendum result and on the outcome of legal debates and negotiations in the transitionary period in various contexts, such as EU membership and currency. It is difficult to know what will happen and how it will affect UK businesses but the current Scottish government has declared its priorities for action should it be re-elected which give us some indication of what might come to pass.
1. Groats, Merks or Unicorns*: what will you pay your employees in?
One of the key issues in the current debate is what the currency would be in an independent Scotland. The current Scottish government's position is that the pound is Scotland's currency just as much as it is the rest of the UK's (rUK) and proposes simply to retain the pound. Pro union spokespersons in all three major UK parties have said that would not be in the interests of rUK and they wouldn't recommend entering into a currency union. Other options include an independent currency pegged to the pound.
One further complication is Scotland's future membership of the EU and the process whereby Scotland might transition from a region of a member state to a member state in its own right. The Scottish government has made clear its intention not to join the European single currency. However, member states who have come into the EU since the Euro was created have been required as part of their accession negotiations to accept a binding obligation to adopt the Euro once they meet the qualifying criteria. Would Scotland lose the UK's opt-out from joining the Euro or might it be able to negotiate a similar opt out arrangement?
In a worst case scenario, businesses with employees in Scotland could face problems adapting payroll systems to accommodate a different currency and could end up with dual systems in place.
*Scottish denominations pre 1707
2. How will your employees in Scotland pay tax?
An independent Scotland would be able to make changes to the tax system and might well introduce different tax regimes and laws. There are already indications that minimum wage rates would rise alongside the cost of living and different rates of income tax, personal tax allowances, national insurance contributions and corporation tax are likely to apply, again requiring an overhaul of payroll systems.
Furthermore, in order to avoid the potential of double taxation, a tax treaty would have to be agreed with the UK prior to any independence day.
3. What pension provisions would you need to put in place?
Pension legislation is a matter currently reserved to Westminster. On independence, this would pass to the Scottish government. The current Scottish government proposes amending the existing law so that over time the two regimes may well diverge.
Employers currently operating UK final salary schemes may find themselves operating cross-border schemes, namely schemes which are located in one member state (i.e rUK) but which have members working in another member state (assuming Scotland becomes one). There is an EU requirement for such schemes to be fully funded at all times and employers will be faced with having to meet funding gaps. Transitional arrangements such as grace periods are currently proposed. Alternatively employers might look at splitting their schemes instead although this would be no mean task.
Auto-enrolment will continue with some small adjustments such as setting up a Scottish Employment Savings Trust.
Different interest rates, currency (potentially) and tax regimes are also likely to complicate pension provision for cross-border employers.
4. What employment rights and obligations would apply to your Scottish employees?
Employment, industrial relations and health and safety are currently reserved to Westminster. On independence, these would pass to the Scottish government. The new Scottish parliament would amend the legislation currently applying to Scottish employees so whilst these are currently similar in Scotland to the rest of the UK, post independence there is likely to be a rapid divergence. The current Scottish government if re-elected would increase the national minimum wage 'at the very least' in line with inflation, encourage greater trade union participation, consult on employee representation on boards, consult on a target for female representation on boards and legislate as appropriate and, in general, strengthen employment protection (examples include restoring the 90 day consultation period and abolition of the recently introduced employee shareholder provisions). Key issues for review are zero-hour contracts and access to employment tribunals.
The current Scottish government also proposes establishing a written constitution setting out the rights of its citizens which is also likely to impact on Scottish employment rights. Businesses and trade unions would have a role in shaping the constitution.
The employment legislation derived from the EU would, assuming Scotland becomes a member state, require to be implemented by a Scottish government just as in rUK although there may be a divergence in terms of opt-outs. There is nothing however to prevent variations in how the directives are implemented or the extent to which Scotland might go further than strictly required. There is also the matter of whether rUK will remain a member of the EU.
5. How would your staff cross the border?
For companies operating across England and Scotland, maintaining fluid movement of goods and labour is likely to be a key issue. The Common Travel Area currently allows people to travel freely between the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The UK has opted out of the Schengen Agreement which abolishes all internal borders within the EU and imposes a common border policy on EU members. The UK and Ireland are the only countries in the EU which are not signatories to the Schengen Agreement. Membership of both the Common Travel Area and the Schengen Agreement is incompatible. Therefore unless Scotland negotiates to opt-out of the Schengen Agreement, certain border controls may become necessary between Scotland and rUK. This could restrict the movement of goods and people between England and Scotland causing logistical problems for businesses.
The current Scottish government's position is that an independent Scotland will become part of the Common Travel Area and therefore labour and goods will be able to move between Scotland and rUK without being subjected to passport control or border checks.
However others have expressed concern that an independent Scotland would be unable to negotiate EU membership unless they apply the Schengen rules as this is required of every new entrant to the EU. In this case, certain border controls may become necessary, unless a novel solution can be found or rUK also submits to the Schengen Agreement.
The referendum is due to take place on 18 September. Are you ready for such a fundamental change?
Karen Harvie
Karen is head of the Edinburgh employment team. She has wide experience acting for employers, particularly in the social housing and charity sectors. She has substantial project management expertise, supporting employers through mergers, redundancy & reorganisation. Karen also has considerable experience representing clients at tribunal, employment appeal tribunal and in court.
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Kyler Murray's Heisman Win Further Proves His Transcendent Talent
If this is his final season playing football, Kyler Murray has made it a historic one. There’s always a chance he finds a way to play both professional football and baseball, but for now Murray can say he went out on top.
By Laken Litman
NEW YORK — Baseball might still be Kyler Murray’s future, but Saturday night the Oklahoma quarterback took home college football’s most famous award. Murray led the Sooners to their fourth consecutive Big 12 championship, a third College Football Playoff in five years, and is now the program’s seventh Heisman Trophy winner.
“It’s very surreal, it hasn’t hit me yet,” Murray said after receiving his trophy. He gave a heartfelt acceptance speech and grew particularly emotional when he thanked coach Lincoln Riley. “I put so much time and effort into this game. This is a great accomplishment, but I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for so many people in my life.”
Murray collected 517 first-place votes and 2,167 points in the voting totals in the 84th annual Heisman ceremony. It was one of the closest races in history, with Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa making a strong push with 1,871 points (299 first-place votes) and Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins coming in third place with 783 points (46 first-place votes). This was the first time since 2008 that all three finalists were quarterbacks (Sam Bradford won 10 years ago, with Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow as runners up). It’s also the first time there has ever been consecutive quarterbacks selected from the same school (Baker Mayfield won in 2017).
The closest vote in Heisman history took place in 2009 when Alabama running back Mark Ingram (1,304 votes) beat out Stanford running back Toby Gerhart (1,276).
Earlier in the week, Murray won the Davey O’Brien Award, which honors the nation’s best quarterback, and Tagovailoa received the Maxwell Award for player of the year.
Awarding Murray the Heisman is only further proof of his superhuman talent. After taking Oklahoma as far as it can in the College Football Playoff, Murray plans to embark on an exciting professional baseball career and join the Oakland Athletics organization, which selected him ninth overall in last spring’s Major League Baseball draft (and included a $4.66 million signing bonus). It will be interesting to see how his freakish speed and athleticism translate to the baseball diamond.
However, Murray has recently hinted that he’d like to explore a potential NFL career as well. There’s always a chance he becomes this generation’s version of Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders and finds a way to play both professional football and baseball.
If this is his final season playing football, Murray has made it a historic one. He’s completed more than 70% of his passes and has the nation’s highest passing efficiency rating. And he’s also the first player in FBS history to average 300 yards passing and 60 yards rushing, while leading Oklahoma to its fourth Big 12 title and its second consecutive playoff berth. The Sooners face Alabama in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 29.
Murray transferred to Oklahoma from Texas A&M before the 2016 season. He sat out his first year and learned under Mayfield, former Heisman winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick, in 2017. It’s silly to think about it now, but there was some apprehension and doubt about how good Oklahoma would be when Murray replaced Mayfield. But he proved he could fulfill his football potential before switching sports.
"I’d be lying if I said (it was easy),” Murray said. “As hard as it may seem, and it was definitely difficult at times, when I wasn’t playing and always wanted to be out there. I trust the process and I knew once my time came. And it was easy sitting behind Bake because he was a total expert in what he was doing. Wasn’t like he wasn’t doing his job. He did everything and more for us. For me, it was easy to learn behind him and witness what he did at Oklahoma was big for me and part of the reason why I’m sitting up here today."
Though Murray’s situation is unique, he isn’t the first Heisman winner with a future in another sport. Former Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward (1993) was selected 26th overall by the New York Knicks in the 1994 NBA draft and played in the league for 11 years.
Tagovailoa had been the Heisman frontrunner all season, but his candidacy took a hit when he was injured during the SEC championship while Murray lit up Texas for 379 yards and three touchdowns in the Big 12 championship. Tagovailoa wore a walking boot to protect his recently surgically repaired left ankle during his weekend in New York City, but Alabama trainer Jeff Allen taped him up for the ceremony so that he didn’t have to Saturday night. Had Tagovailoa won, he probably would have been the first Heisman winner to get his ankle taped before the ceremony.
With seven Heisman winners now, Oklahoma moves into a tie with Notre Dame and Ohio State for the most all time. Former OU recipients include Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White, Bradford and Mayfield. “For me to put my name in the history books at Oklahoma is pretty special,” Murray said.
Earlier Saturday evening before the ceremony, Murray was asked, if he had to choose, whether he’d rather win the Heisman or a World Series.
“Heisman,” he said. “No disrespect to the World Series.”
Murray still has a playoff ahead of him, but has reached one of his greatest individual goals. If he never plays football again after this season, at least he can say he went out on top.
kyler murray heisman
who won the heisman
Kyler Murray baseball
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Royal College gives top award to Spalding's Anita Cooper
By Lynne Harrison
lynne.harrison@iliffepublishing.co.uk
Published: 18:00, 09 February 2019
A health professional who lives in Spalding is being recognised for her "outstanding contribution" to occupational therapy.
Anita Cooper (48) is the clinical lead for Therapies and Rehabilitation Medicine with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Anita, who helped devise a completely new degree/apprenticeship for occupational therapy and physiotherapy, will receive a Merit Award from The Royal College of Occupational Therapists.
Outstanding contribution: Anita Cooper.
She said: "I am absolutely thrilled.
"I am over the moon. It's one of the biggest achievements you can have in the profession and to be awarded this by the professional body is an absolute honour."
Anita has chaired a national group to devise the degree/apprenticeships that will benefit students, hospitals and health trusts.
The degree/apprenticeship will see participants engaged in combined practice-based learning and university study.
Pay rewards should prove attractive to students who might otherwise fear running up college debts and, it is hoped, the system will address national shortages of occupational therapists and physiotherapists.
For a county like Lincolnshire - which tends to suffer when there are shortages of qualified professionals - Anita explains there is a hope that we can "grow our own professionals".
Anita says people with family ties and existing links to the county are more likely to stay in Lincolnshire.
Born in Gosberton Risegate, Anita lives in Spalding with husband Ian.
She was educated at Spalding High School and St Andrew's School of Occupational Therapy, Northampton, later gaining a master's degree with the University of Derby.
Anita qualified in 1991 and worked at Peterborough District Hospital before switching to Boston's Pilgrim Hospital in 1993.
She still has an office at Pilgrim but works at hospitals around the county.
Anita will receive her award at an autumn ceremony in London.
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Ras Al Khaimah and the DIFC Courts: New Agreements to Forge an Ever-Closer Partnership
by Ammar Haykal - Partner, Head of Office - Ras Al Khaimah - Litigation - a.haykal@tamimi.com - Sharjah
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah have recently announced a set of agreements and memoranda of understanding with the aim of enhancing the reputation and usefulness of both places as developed jurisdictions and preferred business destinations.
The courts of the DIFC (DIFC Courts) began operating in 2006, having been established by Dubai Law No. 12 of 2004 (the Judicial Authority Law). They operate a common law system which draws extensively on the laws of England and Wales. This gives international commercial parties operating in the region the option of choosing a legal system with which they are generally more familiar, and whose working language is English, rather than submitting to the Arabic-speaking civil law system prevailing across the GCC states. Businesses operating within the jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts also benefit from the availability of experienced judges from a number of established common law jurisdictions, as well as several resident Emirati judges with civil law backgrounds.
An increasingly attractive destination for foreign investors, the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has now formally agreed to work with the DIFC Courts to ensure that the option of using the DIFC’s legal system is available to a wide range of parties wishing to do business in the Emirate.
One of the new components of this relationship is the Agreement on Judicial Cooperation with the DIFC Courts entered into by the Executive Council of the Government of Ras Al Khaimah, the Judicial Council of Ras Al Khaimah and the Ras Al Khaimah Courts. In this agreement, the Executive Council has confirmed that the government agencies of Ras Al Khaimah, as well as any local or foreign investors operating in the Emirate, may enter into contracts which are expressed to be subject to the exclusive or non-exclusive jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts.
The Agreement on Judicial Cooperation provides furthermore for the mutual enforcement of judgments between the Ras Al Khaimah Courts and the DIFC Courts. Judgments issued in Ras Al Khaimah may be enforced in the DIFC Courts in accordance with the Judicial Authority Law. In return, the Ras Al Khaimah Courts have agreed to enforce directly DIFC Court judgments of any kind, notably including both interim orders and judgments relating to wills and probate matters, provided that the following conditions are satisfied:
The subject of enforcement is within the Emirate (whether property located in the Emirate or a person legally residing there);
The judgment is final, in the sense of being capable of execution, and accompanied by an execution writ issued by the DIFC Courts;
The execution writ, along with a translation into Arabic, is submitted to the execution judge of the Ras Al Khaimah Courts;
The conditions set out in the Federal Civil Procedures Law are complied with; and
A letter is received by the Ras Al Khaimah Courts from the DIFC Courts’ Registry asking for the judgment to be enforced.
The effect of these provisions is to remove the need for claimants to take a DIFC Courts’ judgment to the Dubai Courts for conversion into a Dubai Courts judgment and subsequent referral on to the Ras Al Khaimah Courts under the so-called ‘deputisation’ process.
The DIFC Courts and Ras Al Khaimah Courts have agreed to set up a panel of judges drawn from both legal systems to resolve cases where their respective laws disagree. However, unlike the judicial committee created by Decree 19/2016 in Dubai, which decides alleged conflicts of jurisdiction and/or judgments involving the Dubai Courts and DIFC Courts, the decisions of the Ras Al Khaimah/DIFC ‘collaborative committee’ will not be binding.
In parallel with the Agreement on Judicial Cooperation, the Executive Council of the Government of Ras Al Khaimah has concluded an Agreement on Arbitration Cooperation with the DIFC Arbitration Institute. Under this Agreement, the Emirate’s government agencies, along with investors, may enter into arbitration agreements subject to the rules of the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre and with a seat in the DIFC.
The intended and anticipated effect of these two agreements is to increase confidence on the part of investors doing business with Ras Al Khaimah governmental institutions that they can validly submit any dispute they may encounter to a relatively familiar, internationally-recognised and English-language forum.
The aims of the agreements are furthered by several memoranda of understanding issued at the same time, which seek to strengthen the ties between the DIFC and Ras Al Khaimah authorities.
One MoU covers the registration of wills with the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry (WPR). Eligible users of the WPR service are able to nominate to whom property located in the Emirate of Dubai will be given after their death, subject to certain provisions. The Ras Al Khaimah Courts and Municipal Department have agreed to enforce decisions of the DIFC Courts relating to WPR-registered wills. It is anticipated that the DIFC Courts’ WPR Rules will be amended in early 2017 to extend their protection to property located within the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah as well, giving more freedom and rights to people drafting WPR wills.
In other memoranda, the DIFC and Ras Al Khaimah authorities have agreed to implement a number of measures to improve communication and cooperation. The staff of the DIFC Courts will provide the Emirate’s authorities with onsite training on DIFC Courts judgments and probate orders. There will also be a single point of contact to whom queries and requests for information can be addressed. The Executive Council of Ras Al Khaimah, together with the Sheikh Saqr Programme for Government Excellence and the DIFC Academy of Law, have agreed to establish a system to educate Emirati students and professionals on the common law with the aim of producing lawyers familiar with both the civil law system, generally applicable in the UAE, and the common law system prevailing in the DIFC and several other international business centres.
As with many strategic projects, the real impact of these agreements and memoranda can only be measured several years from now. The overarching agreement is for a provisional three-year period, and there is likely to be much learning for all sides over that period. None of the agreements or memoranda are legally enforceable as such, but they are supported by existing federal law and the law of individual Emirates. There are some noteworthy provisions of real significance, such as the confirmation by the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah of the reciprocal enforceability of judgments, and that its authorities can enter into DIFC jurisdiction and arbitration agreements.
Whether such agreements materialise remains to be seen and both lawyers and investors will watch with interest to see whether the DIFC’s dispute resolution options become more widely used by parties with interests in Ras Al Khaimah. For now, parties with interests in both Ras Al Khaimah and the DIFC are likely to be reassured by the newly enhanced relationship between the two jurisdictions.
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